Blog
Why Give to the Arts When People
Are Starving in the Gutter?
I actually read that riveting question in the marginal notes of a proposal for funding an orchestra. The notes were penned by a trustee of a grant-making foundation during a meeting to review the proposal. Another trustee of the foundation, the one who presented the...
Use of Social Networking Sites on the Rise
If you are managing a nonprofit or some aspect of a nonprofit’s fundraising and have not yet found yourself faced with the question of what to do about online social network participation, you will be—and more likely sooner rather than later. Year after...
Can One Non-Profit Donate Money To Another?
I was asked if one 501(c)(3) non-profit can give money to another 501(c)(3) charity. With the usual, and necessary, caveat of, “I am not attorney, nor am I giving legal advice,” I responded that, Yes, when the transaction advances the donor non-profit's charitable...
Survey Shows Blacks & Hispanics More Likely Than Whites to Support Causes Online
African American and Hispanic adults are more likely to make charitable donations online than Caucasian adults, according to a study jointly conducted by Georgetown University Center for Social Impact Communications and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and released...
Foundations: Are They Really
Where the Money Is?
Why is it that the new and emerging non-profits all too often see foundations and other grant-making entities as their first and best source of funding? Why do they think that's where the easy money is to be found? Is it because foundations are required by law to...
Do the Rich Have too Much?
Ah yes, don't discuss religion and politics it is often said. And why not? They're a pretty big part of our total being. At stake, are our livelihood and spiritual lives. The "politics" thing, however, does have me walk with some care on a rocky and sometimes perilous...
Hiding Major Donors from Foundations
April 2, 2011: The other day I came across yet another instance of a non-profit's leadership huffing and puffing about a potential funder's request for the names of their top ten individual donors to support the organization's grant proposal. "Our policy," the...
Will They Ever Learn?
March 31, 2011: Sometimes you just have to wonder about an organization. The other day I received a solicitation letter for the annual campaign of a major nonprofit of which I am a member. The letter began "Thank you for your generous support of the (name). As a...
Google for Nonprofits
March, 18 2011: In the past decade, Google has provided a number of tools and opportunities that have been attractive and useful to nonprofits—everything from site search engines to grants for their AdWords program. Now they have announced on the Google for Nonprofits...
Virtual “CARE” Packages
March 8, 2011: Today's New York Times has a story on the revival of CARE packages. Those old enough will remember them from the 1940s and '50s when actual boxes of food and other necessities were sent to people in need. The new CARE packages are virtual and offer...