Social Entrepreneur blog for the world changers
Archive for December, 2009
From The Chronicle: Charity Gift Catalogs Fare Well This Season
Dec 14th
Charity catalogs that pitch donations in lieu of material gifts have become increasingly popular — and are showing strong results in 2010, despite the weak economy, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.
Government and Politics Watch: Senate Approves Service and Innovation Budgets
Dec 14th
The Senate on Sunday approved a spending bill for fiscal 2010 that increases the budget for national-service programs and provides $50-million for the new Social Innovation Fund, reports Government and Politics Watch, The Chronicle’s online column.
Give and Take: List of ‘Best’ Philanthropists Stirs Controversy
Dec 14th
The Barron’s magazine list of the 25 “best” philanthropists continues to roil the nonprofit world, notes Give and Take, The Chronicle’s daily roundup of the best blog posts about the nonprofit world.
- How changes in Facebook could hamper charity efforts.
- Lessons from the demise of a Hollywood nonprofit drug clinic.
- Seeking the 10 most important developments in social entrepreneurship.
- How charities often miss an opportunity with new board members.
Prospecting: Hanukkah Gift Cards and Philanthropic Penguins
Dec 14th
JGooders.com, a charity portal in Herzliya, Israel, offers charitable gift cards that people can give instead of Hanukkah presents, notes The Chronicle’s Prospecting column. Donors have contributed more than $100,000 through the site since it was founded in November 2008.
Plus: Children who play video games on Club Penguin can use the virtual coins they earn to vote on how $1-million Canadian will be divided among five charities.
Organizing Your Donors
Dec 14th
A number of weeks ago I had a question about organizing your donors, so I thought I’d say a few words about how different organizations I’ve worked with have organized their donor pools.
As much as I wish we could treat all donors as major donors, we have to take a targeted strategy with different donor groups. Even if you are just a one-person shop, you still need to think about organizing your donors in some way. A small development office will often have a focused solicitation letter strategy for a small group of Major Gifts donors with whom they do some additional cultivation. Often these donors are founding donors of the organization or individuals who have responded with a larger gift through your mailing campaign.
Mid-size organizations seem to divide up the work by positions. You will often see a major gifts officer or team for gifts at the $1,000 or above level (for some organizations it is as high as $5,000 or $10,000). Gifts below $1,000 are often handled by an Annual Fund team that focuses on mailing campaigns, online giving, and large events. Some of the larger mid-size shops have their own business giving and event planning departments.
Large organizations tend to divide their donors in a similar way to mid-size organizations; they just do it on a much larger scale. Many large organizations will develop a middle giving group so you will have annual fund raising, middle giving, and major gifts. Often times, these groups are subdivided into geographic regions or focus areas. A large regional organization may have 3 or more major gifts offices in a state organized by major cities. A local university may organize their fundraising by schools of business, arts, and music.
Related posts:
- All Donors as Major Donors
- Starting a Business Program- PART 2
- QUESTION: Why mailings over phone calls?
- Monthly Giving
- The Multi-Year Cultivation
Schooling the Competition
Dec 13th
The top two winners at this year's Global Student Entrepreneur Awards show what it takes to balance higher education with entrepreneurial passion.
Conduit & Global Mojo: Grants & Awards
Dec 12th
Conduit Gives
Conduit helps ignite fundraising in your organization through increased engagement and growing your web traffic. The first 100 nonprofits who sign-up receive access to up to $300,000 a month throughout 2010.
Organizations can apply from now until February 15, 2010. Check out their website to sign-up.
GlobalMojo
GlobalMojo raises money for 501c3 nonprofits through online search and purchases. You download their browser and choose which organizations benefit from your surfing the web. For the month of December 100% of Global Mojo’s revenue will go to the nonprofits of your choice.
Check out their website for more details.
Related posts:
On Madoff Anniversary, Charities Are Still Assessing Damages
Dec 11th
One year after Bernard Madoff’s arrest, charities burned by his Ponzi scheme or caught up in the ripple effect of diminished giving are still scrambling to make up their losses and avoid getting burned again, say The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press.
The articles outline the direct impact on several organizations that invested with Mr. Madoff, who was arrested on December 11, 2008, and is now serving a 150-year prison term after pleading guilty to fraud charges.
(A paid subscription is required to view the Journal article. Free registration is required to view the Associated Press article on the Washington Post site.)
Pittsburgh Council Again Puts Off Vote on Tuition Tax
Dec 11th
The Pittsburgh City Council has decided again to delay a vote on a controversial plan to tax students at the city’s colleges and universities, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
The one-week postponement was the second on the 1-percent tuition levy proposed last month by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who is seeking more payments for municipal city services from tax-exempt institutions to help replenish stretched city coffers. Pittsburgh officials and university leaders are in talks seeking an alternative to the tax.
A group of Pennsylvania state senators is calling on the city to revisit a 2004 agreement aimed at securing $6-million in annual voluntary contributions from hospitals, universities, and other nonprofit institutions, according to the Post-Gazette. The pact never yielded the target amount, and last year an umbrella group of tax-exempt organizations offered less than $2-million.
In the Arts: NEA Survey Finds Arts Attendance Down, Online Audience Up
Dec 11th
Fewer Americans are attending arts events, and those who do are going less frequently, writes the Los Angeles Times reports, citing a comprehensive new National Endowment for the Arts survey.
According to the NEA study, conducted with the Census Bureau and made public Thursday, 34 percent of American adults attended at least one arts event in 2008, down from 39.4 percent in 2002 and the lowest figure since the agency began surveying arts habits in 1982. The average number events individuals attended declined from 6.1 in 2002 to 5.2 last year.
The same report found that Americans are increasingly turning to the Internet to enjoy the arts, with 47 million people watching or listening to music, theater, or dance performances online at least once a week, according to The Washington Post.
In other arts news, small Illinois cultural organizations are scrambling to stay afloat as the state continues to reduce or delay grant allocations, The New York Times reports. State money for the Illinois Arts Council dropped from $21.6-million in 2006 to $16-million this year and has been slashed by more than half for 2010.
Also, the Minnesota Orchestra said it has raised $10-million since September for renovation of its venue and is now 60 percent of the way to its $40-million goal for the project, reports the Star Tribune.
(Free registration is required to read the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and New York Times articles.)
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