Change For Your Dollar

Why the poor are more generous, the wealthy more stingy

2013-03-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Great article in the Atlantic by Ken Stern called "Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity: The article talks about research looking into the relative size of donations among different economic classes. The findings included:

In 2011, the wealthiest Americans—those with earnings in the top 20 percent—contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid—those in the bottom 20 percent—donated 3.2 percent of their income. The relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns.

One reasonable explaination? Low-income people are more likely to see the need than those who live more sheltered lives. When the wealthy are exposed to the issues, their generosity rises to meat the level of those in the lower economic brackets:

...when both groups were exposed to a sympathy-eliciting video on child poverty, the compassion of the wealthier group began to rise, and the groups’ willingness to help others became almost identical.

The study also found that wealthy people living in more economically diverse communities gave more than those who lived in more wealthy enclaves. To me, this all doesn't surprise me much. People who live with problems in their back-yard are more likely to be motivated and educated about the issues, and willing to help change them. But even more to the point-- and this is something I didn't see addressed in the article-- people living in communities experiencing poverty-related issues are probably asked to give more often. By virtue of where they live, they are probably part of a more diverse network of people, including people involved in non-profit and social justice efforts on a personal level. The take-away for me is twofold- 1) that our job as fundraisers is to educate and expose those with the most capacity to give to the needs that are out there. 2) we need to find ways to reach and ASK those who have the highest capacity to give to get involved. This means showing them the problem, and how it affects real people.

Social Media Reality Check

2011-05-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

Re-posting from Care2.com's blog, frogloop:

The U.S. Population Does Not Spend Their Day Using Social Media

Guess how much of the U.S. population (comprised of 311,446,341 people) uses social
media these days? The stats may suprise you.

Twitter: 1.1 % of the U.S.
population is on Twitter. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)

Facebook: While Facebook says that they have 150M U.S. “active” users,
which is 48% of the U.S. population, only 50% of active users login any given
day. So 24% of the U.S. population logs into Facebook on any given day to check
or post updates. (source: Facebook)

LinkedIn: 0.37% of the U.S.
population is on LinkedIn. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)

YouTube: 19.94% of the U.S population is on YouTube. (source: April 2011
results from Experian Hitwise.)

MySpace: 1.19% of the U.S. population is
on MySpace. (source: April 2011 results from Experian Hitwise.)"

Holy moly. 1/4 of Americans check their facebook page EVERY DAY. That's actually pretty revolutionary when you think about it, especially when you consider how relatively new the site is in the grand scheme of things.

Still, 75% of Americans don't check it every day. And 52% of the population aren't on it at all.

It all goes back to who you're trying to reach. If you are looking to highly educated, computer saavy individuals, it's probably still worth it log on and spread the word, but only as an augment to other strategies.

A Different Kind of Funding for a Different Kind of Film

2011-05-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

A Different Kind of Funding for a Different Kind of Film

I have lots of admiration for creativity and entrepreneurship this filmmaker shows in crowdsourcing funding for his next film. He's literally funding it "frame by frame!"

Putting a face to a cause...

2009-12-17T10:34:00.001-08:00

Thought this was the funniest fundraising idea I've ever heard...

Your moustache makes a good point

Keeping your Organization on the Road with a Dashboard

2009-09-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

An important element of running a successful development program, and a successful organization, is to have effective management and reporting tools in place.

This article from BlueAvacado presents a nice model for reports to the board that help managers present information about the organization at the adequate level of detail, with coding that aids in comprehension. They call it a Dashboard and it looks like this:

Just like a traffic light, the green areas represent areas where things are running smoothly, yellow represents caution, and red represents danger. You can create one of these matrices for each major area of operations: Development, Finance, Human Resources, Programs, Compliance, Risk Management, Board Involvement, etc.

The key is to focus on measurable indicators of performance, rather than process oriented issues. Also, give appropriate levels of detail: not too much & not too little. Also, the benchmarks should be set at the time that goals are determined so management can quickly grasp which elements are working and which ones need more attention to support the the organization's needs and goals.

Check it out:

http://www.blueavocado.org/content/nonprofit-dashboard-and-signal-light-boards

Choosing the right email provider

2009-08-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a helpful blog post from Heather Rast at Insights & Ingenuity about how to go about choosing the right bulk email provider when you are running a small or medium-sized shop. She also includes a list of helpful articles and resources for email marketing providers that should be very helpful for anyone looking to do email marketing for the first time.

Contact, Belief, Ability

2009-08-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

A very helpful article by Kim Klein about identifying major donor prospects:

https://www.compasspoint.org/askgenie/details.php?id=53

In sum:

"You are looking for three things in each prospect:
Evidence that the prospect is connected with someone in your organization,
so that you can establish contact.
Evidence that the person believes in your cause (or a similar cause), which
includes evidence that the person gives money to similar organizations.
Evidence that the person has the ability to make the size gift you
want."

Advice on Planning a Charity Auction

2009-07-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

I ran across this how-to on planning a charity auction on CharityNetUSA. It's a good intro to the nuts and bolts... http://charitynetusa.com/blog/?p=103

For my part, I think auctions can be a great source of revenue, but they require creativity, persistence, and a dedicated staff person or volunteer to do it "right."

Consider doing a themed auction- targeted to the audience you are trying to draw, or something that will bring home your mission. Be thoughtful while making solicitations for gifts. What can the donor get out of it? How does their product or service play into the theme of the event, or appeal to the audience?

Approach items it with the eye of a marketer. Can you group related donations to create a package that is more valuable than the sum of its parts? Package together theatre tickets with a limo ride and a dinner downtown and promote it as a killer date night! Can you provide an experience that the bidders could never put together for themselves? If you have access to important or famous people, see if you can get them to donate their time doing something fun or valuable with the winning bidder. Get a famous golfer to donate a round of golf for the winner and two of their friends. Or get and influential business or civic leader to donate a business lunch and see how much people will pay to bend his or her ear! Your celebrity's time doesn't have a fair market value, so bidders can deduct the cost of their bid above whatever expenses are involved, making it a more attractive way to give.

And just like all fundraising, in-person solicitations work better than more passive forms of asks. Many folks throw together a silent auction to augment their galas, and just stick the auction items in a corner for people to bid on in a rather passive manner. This doesn't give donors the visibility they could get for their donation, and really isn't optimizing the value of what is donated. So consider getting a professional auctioneer to do a live auction. It will put the fundraising activity front and center and since it's a public event, a good auctioneer can play on the peer pressure and competition to raise the bids.

2009-06-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a particularly apt article from Marketing Profs about marketing in a recession.

Basically, if you can maintain or amp up your advertising when tough times convince your competitors to cut back on their messaging, you're sure reap major benefits that will far outlast the recession.

Be sure to read the original New Yorker article that inspired the Marketing Prof's comments:

For philanthropy courses, students become the givers - The Boston Globe

2009-06-26T21:33:00.001-07:00

What better way to learn the value of giving than by actually doing it? It's an idea that I've been mulling over lately, and am glad to see it in action as described in this article- College students exploring philanthropy by going through the process of vetting charitable groups for real grants.

For philanthropy courses, students become the givers - The Boston Globe

I've been thinking lately about using this idea to help coach people who feel hesitant about fundraising, too. I think most people have a hard time, especially at the beginning, asking for money. But once you understand the mental, emotional, and spiritual process of deciding where and why you donate your money, the whole things starts to look and feel a little different.

I know I'm not the only professional fundraiser in the world who found her self giving more once she got into the business of asking. I think giving and asking naturally go hand-in-hand.

Giving declined in 2008

2009-06-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Total charitable giving declined by 2% last year according to a recent report. Given the fact that Americans have seen their home values and stock profiles tank, this is actually much better than you might have expected.

Giving to religious groups, united way groups and voter registration drives actually went up.

Giving to the arts, health, environment, and education dropped by 5%. And giving to human service organizations dropped by 13%, which is especially hard since they are seeing increased need and government budget cuts all at the same time. This is something I'm going to keep in mind when I plan my giving for this year.

Overall, it is heartening to know that when times are tough people aren't cutting donations first. As this NPR report notes, now is the most important time to tell your donors about the good work that you are doing.

Listen to the NPR story.

Read the report. (PDF)

Giving it away for free

2009-05-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

These days, almost everything you need to run a great organization is basically out there for the taking. I've put together a list of free or cheap online resources on the web that can help you put together some great fundraising campaigns.

Check it out: www.maustinfuller.com/resources.html

Fundit Bar

2009-02-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

This is a great idea, especially for any organization with a large number of internet-using supporters.

There have been lots of search and support projects out there, such as GoodSearch, etc, but now Yahoo! has created a more powerful tool for organizations to use internet searches to raise money, and improve brand loyalty.

This is a Fundit Bar:

Organizations can now create their own internet search bar. Every time their supporters use the search function, the organization earns 10 cents. That's close to 10 times what you'd earn from a search on the GoodSearch site.

Even sweeter, you can design the search bar to broadcast updates, give your supporters instant access to information, and constantly project your logo/brand whenever supporters have their browsers open.

Here's where you can get your own.

The Ask

2008-10-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

Jason Dick at A Small Change is focused on "The Ask" in many of his posts this past month. He's got some little gems of wisdom I want to remember and share. As a development professional who went straight from working as a Grantwriter to a Development Director position, it's helpful for me to hear from folks who are willing to talk about the nuts and bolts of this aspect of fundraising. What do you ACTUALLY SAY during those lunch meetings? Well here's what Jason would say:

To ASSURE a Gift you should Ask Out Loud then Be Quiet.

Check out all three posts. And forgive Jason the groan-worthy "ASKronym". It's useful stuff.

Trickle Down Woes

2008-10-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Watching the explosions and melt-downs on wall street here and abroad, I've naturally been looking for how it's going to affect giving. Well, here's an early indication, and of course it's not pleasant.

From the Foundation Center's Philanthropy News Digest::

High-Net-Worth Families Cutting Back on Giving, Study Finds (10/06/08)
A new report from private wealth-research firm Prince & Associates ( http://www.russalanprince.com/ ) suggests that the sputtering economy and financial meltdown on Wall Street are beginning to pinch the affluent, who are responding by cutting back on their charitable giving, Forbes reports. In a survey of 439 high-net-worth families in late September, 73 percent of respondents, up from 59 percent in April, said they had experienced significant adverse effects from the economic downturn. When asked about their anticipated giving in 2008, 51 percent of respondents said they planned to give less than in 2007, while 16 percent said they plan to give more. According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University,the wealthiest 3 percent of Americans account for approximately two-thirds of all household charity in the United States, so any scaling back by wealthy donors could have serious repercussions for charities. To make matters worse, wealthy individuals tend to give their largest gifts in the last quarter of the year. "This is a tough [situation] because so many charities get sup-port through year-end giving," said Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. "People tend to postpone their donations until the end of the year. And a lot of charities do appeals at the end of year.
"Farrell, Andrew. "Less Wealthy, Less Charitable." Forbes 9/26/08.

Recipe for a Fundraising House Party

2008-08-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've put together a detailed instruction article explaining how to organize a fundraising house party, which I hope people find useful. It's available for download here if you'd like to take a look. Please let me know if you end up using it and let me know any suggestions you have for improving it. It's intended for volunteers, but can also be helpful for organizations running their own house parties.

I first became conscious of house parties as many did, during electoral campaigns. They are an efficient way to have intimate contact with new supporters and leverage networks of people to form new relationships and get your message out. It's also a good way to energize your base, as house parties tend to be events that spark dialog and re-enforce the urgency and importance of your issues.

I think the key is to keep it simple, and keep it focused on your message. Don't try to touch on more than two or three important points, and don't distract people with random themes or performances, unless they are directly tied to what you are trying to raise money for. If you are a music organization, then a small solo performance would fit, but this isn't the kind of special event where you have to entertain your guests and get admission in exchange. This is a night all about you and your mission! People are there because they are at least open to the prospect of supporting your organization with their time and money, so don't be shy!

The rest is in the article.

Get it here.

Here are some issue or organization-specific how-to's that I used to research my article:

Amnesty International

Rainforest Action Network (PDF)

Nadar-Gonzalez Campaign (PDF)

Want more in-depth info on the topic?
Check out Morrie Warshawski's book: How to Throw a Fundraising House Party

"Thank You" is never cliche, but...

2008-08-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

After a recent meeting, my friend and co-conspirator called out his parting appreciation down the hall as I left. It started off strong- the gratitude, at least, was real. But as he said the words, they trailed off in a tone of awkward hesitation and almost ended with a question mark:

"Thanks!.. for being a Pillar of our Community?"

I caught the bemused and befuddled eye of a stranger walking behind me as he headed for the bathroom door. He obviously thought my friend was crazy. It sounded crazy to me too, even though I knew it was at the same time sincere and a little tongue-in-cheek (quite a feat). I, for one, was laughing all the way down the stairs and onto the street. Why did his little joke strike me as so hilarious? Partly because I was laughing at myself. At my last job, I TOTALLY used that exact phrase as a label for a sponsorship level for a golf tournament. To hear one of many cliched fundraising metaphors actually said out loud in everyday conversation was absolutely bizarre beyond belief. How did I ever think it was a good idea to write that on paper?

It's not uncommon to give strange, cheesy names to sponsorship or giving levels, but would you actually say things like that to people directly? It seems to me that we resort to this kind of language because we don't really know our constituents all that well. This stuff is burned into our brains from countless banquets and mail pieces, and it's hard to think fresh thoughts about how to express true gratitude when one is crunched by deadlines.

But I think if we hope or expect people to give for the "right" reasons, we should do a little work to thank them the "right" way. It's particularly hard to do this in the non-profit field, of all places, when under-paid, over-worked staff (talk about a cliche!) start to feel like they give more to the organization through their own blood, sweat, and tears and hardly get recognized for it. Who has time to be creative about thanking people who give money? Developing a culture of philanthropy means work has to happen on both sides.

Couple with small budget gives smart

2008-08-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

This Sunday I was fortunate to catch Human Kind on my local NPR station. The program has been doing a stand-up job exploring the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of charity and giving for a radio audience. This Sunday's broadcast, "Giving Back," features interviews with a number of people of various mean who dedicate a percentage of their income to help others.

I was especially touched by the story of a Boston couple who decided to plan to give 10% of their income to help improve early childhood education. These people don't make tons of money, and their annual gift amounted to about $5,000. Without any intermediary or support from an organization, the couple put together an application and distributed it to elementary school teachers and started doling out small grants for specific items that teachers needed to improve their teaching. Together they reviewed the applications and decided where to put their money. (Find a link to a free audio excerpt here)

This is precisely the kind of giving I'd love to foster with the "Two Cents Movement." Not everyone has the bandwidth or means to create a foundation. These people were under the average median income for the area, but they sat down, articulated what was important to them and why. They made up a budget, found out how much they could afford to give, and put together a plan for how to do it. They reached out to the group they wanted to target, solicited feedback and requests, and put their money to work in a way that was immediate and meaningful. They met the people they were helping, they could see their money at work, and their gift fit into their larger vision for making change. Bravo!

Sound advice on planning your social media strategy

2008-08-03T13:47:00.001-07:00

Lori Laurent Smith at Mediameme outlines sound advice on how to outline a media strategy that works for you "in five days".

"To get started, building a social media strategy requires focused thinking sustained over a few days. Not the multi-tasking mayhem that most managers find their daily lives to be, but the kind of focused thinking done in preparation for a major test or when writing a thesis."

Then she offers ten points to keep the process focused:

1. Keep your objectives tight and reasonable.
2. Make the social media strategy EASY
3. Create the perfect storm
4. Clearly state your business objective.
5. Get engaged with your customers and target audience.
6. Be trustworthy.
7. Go extreme.
8. Fail to plan = plan to fail.
9. Don’t change your strategy.
10. Review, rinse, repeat.

See the points explained in the full text here.

The Day Facebook was crowned king...

2008-07-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

This is old news, but appreciated the chart...

"Mark it on your calendar - April 19, 2008 - the date that Facebook overtook Myspace as the #1 social networking site on the Web."
click here for the full story on Alexa blog

Reminder to self: the fundamental limits of online tools

2008-07-31T16:05:00.000-07:00

Daily travels through little corners of the blogosphere, myriad YouFacespacester accounts, email accounts, online collaboration websites/wikis, and plain old websites, it's tempting for a fundraiser to hide behind her computer screen and feel productive, when what she should really be doing is "getting on the horn" (as my grandfather would say) and speak to people directly.

No fancy facebook app or flashy splash page is going to substitute for the power of a firm hand shake when it comes to building trust, and no online donation button is going to subsitute for the face-to-face appeal. Online tools help us broaden our reach, visualize networks of relationships that are invisible in the real world, collect data about our audience and our prospects, and better communicate with images, sounds, and printed words. But in the end, all these play suplimentary roles to meeting people on the ground. Business deals are still sealed over lunch or on the golf course, even if they are maintained using twitter...

Adding pledge power to online campaigns...

2008-07-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Some journalist friends of mine are interested in doing some stories probing the claims and accusations that show up in political advertising during the election season. Anyone familiar with the state of journalism will be interested in the fact that journalists are pursuing crowd funding as a means of support for in-depth investigations (Hats off to you Spot.Us!). I'll save my rant on the lack of funding for quality non-commercial journalism in an age when corporate media consolidation is running rampant slashing editorial budgets for another post...

But the means of my friends' campaign is of immediate interest. They are using an online social media website called The Point that allows anyone to post a cause or petition, and ask people to sign on in a pledge of support in the form of a donation or action. The pledge is only fulfilled if the organizers hit their target for either number of members or donation pledges.

I like the social action bent of this style of online giving. It makes people feel that they are a part of a very specific endeavor and they can feel the momentum of the campaign move forward as they track the progress of the campaign. Plus it allows anyone interested to comment and to see what others who register pledge to the campaign. A good strategy for this one would be to get someone to set the bar early- like at $100 or $250- and challenge people to dig deep. The social nature of this tool lets people see what others are doing, so if people pledge small at the beginning, that pace will probably be set without some additional effort on the part of those running the campaign. But the real point is to get people involved by making it easy and fun to participate.

Coupled with other online media such as email, websites, and other social media sites, this tool gives organizations one more way to break through donor hesitation by letting them know that their credit card will only be charged if the full goal is attained, which gives donors the confidence of knowing that they will only contribute if the means are there for the project to move forward. In other words, they won't waste their money.

One more bright and shiny web 2.0 tool to build movements and get some change for your dollar!

Check out the tool: http://www.thepoint.com/

Start Succession Planning Now...

2008-07-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you all some notes from a roundtable about succession planning that I attended at a recent Arts Town Hall Meeting. It was given by Therese Martin who's been through 8 successions as either an ED or board member and had some good thoughts on how (and when) to plan one.

So:

ONGOING NEEDS IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY OR RAPID TRANSITION:

groom a promising internal staff member for a potential successor, invest in professional development across all staff so shifts and promotions can be made easier, identify someone on board who has time and skills who could serve as an interim ED if something happens
Train cross functionally among staff so if illness or sudden transition happens, others can pick up duties. There should also be at least one or two board members who are up to date on, and have skills to manage, the financials.
ED should document important relationships with funders, partners, etc. Three good options are:

Sending emails to yourself with the subject heading [ED Notebook] after important conversations with funders, board members, etc.
Internal blog or wiki that all staff can access
Keep a notebook in the office with documentation (could be lost in the shuffle)
Important thing is to use one method consistently and make sure others know the system you use and how to access it in case of an emergency

Document processes (workflows, project management tools, budgets with notes, account info, etc.)
Gantt chart to all board members at each board meeting- not discussed, just for contingency- gives info update to each member so that if an emergency happens, there are at least 14 copies of vital information and status of projects that can be used by someone to pick up and carry on activities.
Have a money reserve that sits on the balance sheet that will help cover costs of the next transition (search, consultants, etc)

WHEN TRANSITION FIRST BECOMES APPARENT:

Hopefully the ED will 3 months notice or more... Ideally there can be a few weeks of overlap.

Board:

Form an outreach committee to talk to funders and major donors to let them know a transition is coming and explain the plan and ask for continued support.
Form a search team- decide what skills needed for next phase of growth (marketer, fundraiser, capital fundraiser, financial manager, generalist)
Form an "on boarding" team to help orient new ED- may need increased board and staff retreats to get everyone up to speed and make a new org plan that fits the new capacity level.

UPON HIRE:

Talk to new ED about how they might want to handle their transition out of the organization- If the relationship is good and the ED just wants to move on, then s/he could perhaps take a 6 month sabbatical and then join the board, or maybe just a friendly parting of ways. But Terese said it is a good idea to have the conversation early on and to check in every year or so.
Start thinking about transition in terms of "ongoing" items above from day A.

Free Like Kittens... The parade of new technology possibilities and the real cost...

2008-07-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended a training called "eAdvocacy: Basics, Best Practices and New Tools", sponsored by the Women's Foundation of California and given by consultants David Taylor from Radical Designs and Allen Gunn of Aspiration.

No matter how many bagels and coffee cups they lay out for you at the back of the room, 8 hours is a long time to watch a power point presentation about how non-profits can use technology. But I've got to say, there were some take aways that really resonated with me.

One thing in particular is helping me frame my ideas about the cornucopia of bright and shiny toys that are flooding the Internet and promise efficiency, access to information, ever-increasing access to networks and the promise of more money, more time, more impact.

But as we engage all these tools, it becomes clear that the tools may be sparkly and new, but what they really do is amplify what we already do- communicate with our constituents, supporters, decision makers, and who ever else who will listen. Even so, they come with plenty of new hassles- like tech support, fixing bugs, and repeating the same message on multiple platforms where we used to rely on just a handful. And without a clear plan, it is easy for these myriad tools to just become a giant time suck. (Hello facebook?)

Step one is a clear plan outlining what your goals, timeline, who's in charge, and what has to be done/ who has to be reached. Classic project management skills apply. But now we have more ways to reach out, and each platform has a different emphasis or user group. So our plans have to have even more layers of understanding of how various platforms and communications media intersect, reinforce, and mobilize your message. And as soon as you work that out, the scene will change, and you have to adjust for the next big thing...

Your two cents matter

2008-07-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

Two cents won't get you to far in an age when gas costs over $5.00 a gallon. But I want to challenge people to think about their pennies and where they go. That's why I'm going to work on the idea of a personal philanthropy plan based on the idea that people should vote with their dollars, and plan to plan how they'll donate 2 percent of their annual income to issues that they care about. Two cents on the dollar multiplied by over 300 million Americans can buy a lot of rice for the proverbial starving children in China, not to mention help support sustainable technology research, plant trees, help low-income youth go to college, house the homeless, pay the rent for non-commercial media organizations who educate us on issues we vote on, and much, much more.

So this will be the journal of this process of building a "two cents" movement. Along the way, I'll also make observations on how non-profits can reach out to their constituents and build sustainable impact through best practices in fundraising, communications, and non-profit management.

This is an experiment, so... here we go.