FundVisor

New Public Service Resources

The School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers-Newark launched new resources for students and professionals who are dedicated to public service. The new Alliance for Public Service network is moving to connect everyone who is committed to civic engagement. 

The Alliance for Public Service website contains up-to-date information on public service news, events, organizations, research, publications, and more. The website also contains career information such as professional development and internship opportunities. Please visit the site at: http://publicservice.newark.rutgers.edu. Or find public service news updates on our social networks: www.facebook.com/RutgersNewarkSPAA and http://twitter.com/RutgersNWK_SPAA

The website exemplifies the Alliance’s objective to promote service across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The Alliance collaborates with a broad array of groups to build programs that advocate for public service through media channels, publications, conferences, and more. Their public service magazine, Civic Engagement, speaks to the commitments of millions of public service students, teachers, and professionals across the nation.

It is available at: http://publicservice.newark.rutgers.edu/index.php/home/civic-engagement.html

EIA needs help finding email/event management software

I need your help.

I am exploring options for an email service for Executives in Action. I have used Constant Contact in the past and been happy with it, but just discovered CVENT. After a quick tour, I am impressed with their event registration service.

EIA plans to send out at least one monthly email to its stakeholders, and more frequent communications to its executive volunteers. We are also hosting multiple events per month, and would prefer a tool that could handle it all.

What have you used? Any recommendations (or warnings)?

Vote to help Samaritan House win $15,000!

EIA's largest project so far is at the Samaritan House, where we placed 10 Executives in Action to help them on a series of very important and ambitious projects. We are incredibly impressed by their leadership, and feel very fortunate to be a part of their work.

Samaritan House has been selected as one of three finalists in the "House the Homeless" category (3rd page) in an online grant competition. Project 7 will give $15,000 to the organization with the most votes. 

Please support Samaritan House by voting through Jan. 31st at www.project7.com/voting. 

You can only vote once per e-mail address, so invite your friends to go online and vote too.  With your help, Samaritan House will win the vote.  Thanks for your support!

You can read the press release here.

Video that our realtor made... Buy this house!

Doesn't this video just scream, "You should buy our house!" :)

A Fundraiser's New Year's Resolutions

Welcome to 2010! 
 

As fundraisers, what can we do to reverse the two-year downward trend in donations that many are projecting? How can we raise our game in a way that challenges the donor community to raise theirs?

Some ideas for resolutions that we should all consider:

• I will treat donors like people instead of checkbooks.
• I will treat volunteers like valuable assets rather than pairs of hands.
• I will not exploit my clients to raise money, but will honor their stories as examples of human triumph more than organizational by-product.
• I will acknowledge that my job is not fundraising, not even friendraising, but life-changing -- starting with my own, then rippling out through donors to affect the lives of those who depend on my organization.
• I will also accept the truth of "No margin, no mission" -- and will run my business as if I owned it.
• I will embrace transparency as the pinnacle of good stewardship, and endeavor to be honest and forthright in all of my communications with active and prospective supporters.
• I will focus on relationships so that the true impact of my work will not be seen until I am gone.
• I will not seek to raise funds from my donors, but from their grandchildren; if I can make such a profound impact on my donors' lives that their own children and grandchildren will be pulled in to my organization, I will have accomplished my task.
• I will not carve off a larger piece of the pie, but will work to inspire a movement to increase the size of the pie for everyone. If one of my initiatives is so effective that it increases a donors' overall commitment to philanthropy, I will have accomplished my task (even if my organization's own receipts do not change).
• I will build at least one collaborative partnership with a peer in another organization -- learning from each other, supporting each other, celebrating each other's successes and inspiring each other.
• I will donate more than I have ever donated before, and will do so joyfully.

Today, let us do all that we can to improve tomorrow.

Happy new year,

Jeremy

Today's To Do - Update Receipt Letters

Revise your receipt letter each month. No option. This is the only way to keep recurring donors interested in reading your mail – which is essential to cultivating larger gifts. It doesn’t have to be fancy – just make the second paragraph a different success story each month. While you’re at it, post these success stories on your Web site, Facebook, blog and Twitter account. Find ways to leverage your stories as much as possible.

Today's To Do - Cultivation with Photos

Take a digital photo of every person that volunteers for your organization. Email it to them along with a link of that picture on your organization’s Facebook account (so that they can share it with their friends). Also, print and mail a copy to them – that’s three ways to use one action to remind your volunteer of how much THEY care about you (and, of course, how much you care about them... but it's THEIR opinions of you that motivate their giving behavior). 

Not only is this great cultivation, but it’s viral if you use the Facebook component. Remember: Your job is not to recruit donors, but to turn donors into fundraising ambassadors for your organization.

Today's To Do - Set up Google Alerts

Put your top donors’ names in a Google alert and have it send you something on them every time their name appears on the Web. If it’s something interesting, print it out and forward it to them with a note, “Congratulations on this honor!” or “Just in case you missed this, here’s a great story that features you in it.” They will like to know that you care enough about them to notice – and they’ll begin to notice you more, as well.

Good is the new "Cool"

I missed out on Elvis' domination, and wasn't around to see Beatlemania. I am grateful I was not alive during the disco era, and am still a little angry that I was not around for punk rock's emergence. By the time I was old enough to appreciate music, the world was in throes of 1980s hair rock and piano keyboards... so, I tuned out.

But then the 1990s came, and I fell in love with music for the first time. The indie rock scene was blossoming, and the grunge groups of Seattle were not yet household names. 

It seemed like everyone had their favorite "unpopular" band. Indeed, fame became a curse that drove away the initially rabid fan base of many an otherwise awesome rocker. Some groups tried their best to fight appearing too "commercial," with Pearl Jam even taking the step to boycott playing shows at venues that were in the grips of Ticketmaster.

That world no longer exists. Pearl Jam has now signed with Target to release their latest album -- and people have moved from having their favorite indie rock band to making music an ongoing part of their life. Thanks to the ever-present iPods and smartphones that keep us all constantly plugged in to our catalog of thousands of songs, music has become like air -- necessary to live, but unappreciated. Or, at least, no longer appreciated as a differentiator.

Having a favorite indie rock band no longer makes us unique. So now, rather than bragging to our friends about knowing a band that they don't know, we each have our favorite charity.

Microlending. Social enterprise. Cause branding. Why is it that so many people now know this silly jargon?

Because nonprofits are the new rock bands.

In the online world, we are not people. We are a brand. Our Facebook pages and Twitter accounts become places to promote our values, to align ourselves with complementary brands and to give the appearance that we are, indeed, the person we aspire to be at our highest and best moments.

When we align ourselves with United Way or American Red Cross, that says something about us. But its like saying your favorite band is The Beatles -- who doesn't like them?

However, when I visit your Facebook page and see that you support Charity:Water or The Chiapas Project, I think, "Wow, this person is really cool."

Because good is the new cool.

Think about it. Bill Gates was a total nerd, and everyone hated him when he became the wealthiest man in the world. And then his amazing wife convinced him that they should give it all away, and suddenly he is on the cover of TIME Magazine with U2's Bono.

Congratulations, nonprofiteers. We are all rock stars now. And thanks to people like Robert Egger, we're actually beginning to look the part.

Today's To Do - Cultivation with Comics

Get a calendar that has a different comic each day (I use the Cartoons from The New Yorker Day-to-Day calendar). Every day, tape that day’s comic into a notecard and send it to the person that it reminds you of – regardless of whether they are a donor. It could be a staffer, a client or just a friend. Never let a day go by without writing a handwritten note to someone. Having this calendar makes it easy – and you’ll be amazed at the response rate. Everyone loves a good comic, and we all love to know that someone shared a laugh with us.

Central Dallas Ministries has doubled its food donations -- so what?!?

Check out this compelling video from Central Dallas Ministries:

Today's To Do - Find a Site Sponsor

Walk around your facility and note every place that might make sense for a donor’s name to fall. Go back to your desk and assess the “value” of each of them from the donor’s perspective – particularly from the corporate donor perspective, if any of their customers walk by – and match them up. Consider not just one-time sponsors, but opportunities for annual recognition. 

“Our 2010 reception area sponsor is MR. & MRS. BEN E. FACTOR.”

Free resources from McKinsey on nonprofit capacity building

Thanks to EIA member Dreama Gasaway for connecting me to this wonderful resource!

"Effective Capacity Building in Nonprofit Organizations brings some common language to the discussion of capacity building and offers insights and examples of how nonprofits have pursued building up their organizational muscle. The report contributes to the growing national conversation about how to help nonprofits become stronger, more sustainable, and better able to serve their communities. McKinsey & Company prepared the study at the request of VPP. McKinsey also developed a practical assessment tool for this report that nonprofits can use to measure their own organizational capacity. We hope that nonprofits and funders alike find value in this report."

Download the full report here:

http://venturephilanthropypartners.org/learning/reports/capacity/capacity.html

Today's To Do - Cultivation with Coffee Cards

Purchase ten $5 gift cards to Starbucks and mail them to ten lapsed donors with a note, “I’d love to share a cup of coffee with you to update you on our progress. Call me when you have time!” You’ll be amazed at the response… but don’t forget to call everyone that you send the card to within a few weeks. Strike while the iron is hot!

Today's To Do - Board Member House Party

Figure out which board member is the best fundraiser; analyze past donor lists and see which donors live in their Zip code. Ask that board member to invite them over to his/her house for an appreciation lunch/dinner… no ask, just a chance to thank them and let them know what’s going on with your organization. And let the board member do the talking.