Are you letting your shoestring budget show?

I was sitting in a meeting recently with a committee of volunteers for a local nonprofit. The materials for the project we were working on just didn’t cut it. They didn’t have the polish you would expect from someone trying to raise money.

Now, I know that a brochure or a poster is never going to be the only reason someone gives money to a cause, but it will speak volumes about your professionalism. Everyone who works in the industry knows resources can be hard to come by – money and good people – but your organization is never going to get to the next level with an attitude of “good enough.”

Take the time to find someone who can create great pieces for your cause within your budget. Whether that’s sending your administrative assistant  to a Microsoft Office class to sharpen skills or working with a designer looking build a portfolio, finding a way to make your cause stand out from the crowd of shoestsring flyers is a must.

The same goes for your press releases, social media pieces, letters and e-mails. If it doesn’t look polished (words and design), you aren’t putting your best foot forward. It’s the same as going to a first job interview. If you don’t look the part (sharp, pressed professional attire), you probably won’t get the job. The same goes for meetings with big donors.

It’s time to grow up and put on our adult clothes. Take the time to get your “look” together.

Photo Credit: Zsuzsanna Kilián http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1108413

Post from: EveryJoe

Don’t Let Your Nonprofit Communications Look Like You Have a Shoestring Budget

Great news for the sector, right?

Well, that depends on how well the sector’s doing here.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday, the Philadelphia Foundation “is commissioning a study to benchmark the state of nonprofits in Philadelphia and its four neighboring Pennsylvania counties.”

It has tapped the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia to catalog and group the members of our nonprofit world, examine their finances and funding sources, and compare them with their peers. The foundation will spend $100,000 on the first phase of the study.

An Economy League official pointed out that determining the health of the sector will help the government determine whether nonprofits will be able to pick up the slack in the wake of slashed budgets, and that donors will be able to get a big-picture look at the sector. It’s an ambitious undertaking, to be sure, but, I think, a necessary one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other metropolitan areas take up similar projects as accountability and efficiency continue to be watched. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

Philadelphia Nonprofits Have the Numbers, But Are They Healthy?

… [T]hey pool their charitable dollars, debate their passions and award grants. Like a book club, they meet monthly — at their homes, in offices and even during yoga classes held in parks. …

Some members are lawyers, consultants and business owners. One recently lost her job as a real estate loan counselor, yet she still gives. Most contribute $2,500 a year; some give as much as $10,000, and others as little as $1,000. Together, they share a voice in championing their causes.

The story positions the women’s group as part of a trend that has seen hundreds of such giving circles form across the country over the last few years. The big question for fundraisers, of course, is how to reach such newfangled philanthropists. Many of these groups are about something more than donating money; they bring together people with common interests and passions, people who want to be part of a collective effort that is more impactful than they are as individuals. So outreach to them cannot focus simply on the power of giving; it must emphasize that their support somehow fosters the togetherness they seek as a group. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

Fitting a Giving Circle Into a Fundraising Square

Yesterday New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote breathlessly about the coming trend of retiring Boomers who are shelving their golf clubs in favor of “encore careers” that involve “giving back”:

Some 78 million American baby boomers are now beginning to retire, and one survey this year by a research institute found that half of boomers are interested in starting such new careers with a positive social impact. If we boomers decide to use our retirement to change the world, rather than our golf game, our dodderdom will have consequences for society every bit as profound as our youth did.

And, later, after swooning over a British management consultant who launched an anti-malaria charity:

Some 78 million American baby boomers are now beginning to retire, and one survey this year by a research institute found that half of boomers are interested in starting such new careers with a positive social impact. If we boomers decide to use our retirement to change the world, rather than our golf game, our dodderdom will have consequences for society every bit as profound as our youth did.

It’s terrific that Bill Gates is making such a visible jump from corporate America to foundation work. It’s terrific that, if the trend spotters are right, a lot of his contemporaries will be joining him. But let’s not forget that there were plenty of retirees who were riding that train before Gates et al got on board, and there were plenty of younger folks getting their hands dirty setting up the organizations that the Boomers plan on helping while they were spending their newfound wealth on Botox milkshakes. Over-extolling the ambitions of those who rediscovered their ideals when it was convenient does a disservice to those who live the mission daily. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

Here Come the Boomers to Save the Nonprofit Sector

It’s quite something else to give them leadership responsibilities at family arts foundations.

In a fascinating piece in last Sunday’s Arts section, the New York Times profiled a couple of twentysomethings who have been handed the reins and “are being groomed … to take over the family business, so to speak — that business being arts patronage.”

Their position is a rare one. Not many people have a foundation in the family. But the journey ahead of them poses some interesting questions. It is one thing to pass on a casual appreciation of the arts, but can one also pass on a lifetime commitment? How does one learn the ropes? And how do foundations integrate the sometimes different priorities of younger and older members?

As someone who writes not only about nonprofits but also about family businesses, I find this … well, trend is too strong a word, so let’s call it a situation … awfully intriguing. For the foundations in question, these moves are smart ones, provided the young leaders have the chops. For family businesses, succession is often a huge issue — who takes over when Mom’s ready to step aside? Similarly, nonprofits are facing the conundrum of how to entice fresher blood into the sector, not only as foot soldiers but also as leaders. Additionally, by bumping younger, committed patrons into senior leadership roles, the foundations position themselves to begin cultivating donors who may lack the resources now to give substantially but will be able to pony up, in time and money, much more in future years. After all, it will be their peers who have been soliciting them for all those previous years. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

For a Select Few Twentysomethings, It’s White Wine and Cheese, Not Red Bull and Vodka

With an endowment approaching $40 billion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the world’s largest. Here’s how it describes its mission:

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.

An ambitious agenda, to be sure, but would you bet against a Harvard drop-out who became a worldwide technology mogul? Complain all you want about Microsoft, and there’s plenty to complain about, but Gates built an awfully big something out of nothing. Would the PC revolution have happened without him and his colleagues with the bad haircuts in that late-’70s photo?

And now, 30 years after launching Microsoft, Gates has his eyes on something even grander. He could have stayed at his company for another 20 or 30 years, tinkering around until he retired. Or, with the vast wealth he’s earned, he could have invested in any number of socially irrelevant personal interests, could have bought art or a baseball team, could have gone on the worldwide lecture circuit. Instead, he’s trying not merely to change the world, again, but to save it.

Go ahead and make fun of Bill Gates; he does it himself. Just be sure to offer a nod of admiration at the same time. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

How to … Change the World Twice

That means it’s also a great day to remember that too much daylight — well, too much sunlight — can be harmful without the proper protection. As the Skin Cancer Foundation notes,

• Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than one million skin cancers are diagnosed annually.
• One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.
• In 2004, the total direct cost associated with the treatment for non-melanoma skin cancers was more than $1 billion.
• About 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.
• Up to 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by the sun.

The foundation’s mission is “to decrease the incidence of the disease by means of public and professional education, medical training, and research.” It says it is “the only international organization devoted solely to combating the world’s most common cancer, now occurring at epidemic levels.” The fact that the foundation has been around since only 1979 shows how recently medical science came to realize the dangers of excessive sunlight, but we’ve caught up a lot since then. (See here, for example.)

So do enjoy today. Get outside and be active. But by all means, bump up that SPF, okay? | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

Nonprofit Profile | A Reminder to Enjoy the Sunshine … Moderately

The subject of Georgia Levenson Keohane’s ardor is Single Stop USA, a new anti-poverty nonprofit that raised $35 million in under months from some very discerning foundations. The organization says its Turbo Tax-like software needs just 15 minutes to help families in need identify all of the benefits and tax credits they’re eligible for — things they often aren’t even aware of. Counselors then take over from the computer, holding families’ hands and walking them through the application process. The results of pilot programs have been impressive and help to explain why results-oriented funders are so high on the initiative, says Keohane:

According to a McKinsey & Co. study of the New York pilot, the average family in a SingleStop program recouped $1,800 in tax credits and $5,000 in benefits that they weren’t previously receiving. For the typical SingleStop beneficiary—a single mother with two or more children, earning less than $10,000 a year and receiving no public assistance—this money can mean the difference of raising children above, rather than below, the poverty line. And for SingleStop’s underwriters, these outcomes mean substantial returns: For every $1 invested, the program gives clients $3 in benefits, $4 to $13 in legal counseling, $2 in financial counseling, and $11 in tax credits.

Sounds as if SingleStop is on to something. Innovation, results, return on investment — three essentials to attract foundations’ attention (and dollars) during lean economic times. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

In Tough Times, a New Nonprofit Shows How to Raise Money

What would be a tabloid story about petty egos, with little for real people to be concerned about, has a very unfortunate side, though:

With Mendte off the air, coanchor Susan Barnett was to anchor yesterday’s newscasts solo. CBS3 has appointed other staffers to make Mendte’s public appearances, including tomorrow’s UBS Motor Cars Under the Stars to benefit United Cerebral Palsy and Thursday’s all-day station telethon to benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a cause that Mendte long championed. Mendte resigned from the chapter’s board last week.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a charity founded by 4-year-old Alex Scott to raise money for pediatric cancer, with which she was diagnosed when she was 1. Alex literally began selling lemonade and sending the funds to researchers, and her idea took off across the country. After such an extraordinary show of courage, she died at age 8. As of this time last year, Alex’s Lemonade Stand had raised more than $19 million. None of Mendte’s transgressions, alleged or otherwise, reflect badly on the foundation, of course, but it appears that it has lost a staunch supporter, one that has helped its fundraising efforts. And that’s the true sadness of the nonsense happening at Channel 3. | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

Tabloid Fodder, Sure, But Also a Blow to a Laudable Nonprofit

"A central piece of our strategic plan a few years ago was to start reaching out to the underserved and underresourced," Camarena told me a couple of weeks ago. "We’ve continued that in the current strategic plan. … One of the biggest barriers to audiences using us is them learning that we exist and that we have free services for them to use around the country. That barrier becomes magnified when English is not their first language. … My own parents emigrated from Mexico. I was born in a household speaking Spanish. It’s a personal and intellectual challenge for me — how to reach communities I know are in need that don’t have access to philanthropic capital that can be very beneficial to them."

That personal stake aside, Camarena points out that the Foundation Center’s decision to launch its Spanish initiative in California makes good demographic sense. The effort will eventually reach the rest of the center’s locations across the country, and what I like about it is its tie to the organization’s mission.

"A lot of people don’t realize the Foundation Center is a nonprofit," she said. "A big part of our mission is public service. There are many different audiences, and they each have different needs, and this is one of them.

"People often wonder why we’re offering proposal writing in Spanish if the majority of foundations in this country will only accept proposals in English. We see the main audience of the training and the book we’re doing as a bilingual audience. The intent of the book is not necessarily to reach monolingual Spanish speakers, but to reach those that are Spanish-dominant. It would facilitate the learning process to have it in their native tongue. Proposal writing is hard enough to those of us who are native English speakers. This is one way to demystify the process." | 501(c)

Post from: EveryJoe

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