Fundraising
What To Do When Foundatons Have Walled Themselves Off from Your Organization
What To Do When Foundations Have Walled Themselves Off from Your Organization
Reaching out to foundations that have predetermined your organization is outside their area of interest can be challenging, and doing it wrongly can close doors forever. Private foundations are mandated by law to give away a certain percentage of their assets each...
Metrics Can Be a Grant Writer’s Nightmare
Let’s pretend you’re the person in a nonprofit organization charged with seeking grants and that your boss is going to hold you accountable to one or more of the following standards. You must get _____ proposals "out the door" every_____. You must get ____% of the...
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...
Micro Gifts & Impulse Giving Online
How the Smallest of Gifts Combined with the Impulse to Give Can Yield Real Results Nobel-Peace-Prize-winner Muhammad Yunnus founder of the Grameen Bank Micro-giving is most often thought of as the charitable donation of small increments of money from individual donors...
Membership Campaigns: The “How-To”
You want to introduce a membership campaign, preferably as part of the Annual Fund Campaign. Your objective is an expanded and reliable base of donors who renew their support year after year. Good thinking. Give yourself a pat on the back: An effective membership...
Donor List Selling or Exchange with Other Non-Profit Organizations
Many non-profit organizations exchange with other non-profits their mailing lists of people served, i.e. their clients, users, patrons, etc. They do this for marketing purposes, especially in the arts and culture world. And it could be said it is a good thing, in the...
In-Kind Gifts: How to Acknowledge and Recognize Them
When you receive gifts of products, time and services, be aware that your organization can be held in even greater regard by donors of such In-Kind gifts, should you express your gratitude in a meaningful way—in a manner far and above how these contributions are...
Finance vs. Development?
Mixing Oil and Water and Making it Work in a Non-Profit Organization The receiving and the handling of donations made to non-profit organizations are simple to do, but very often poorly done. When that happens, a vital block is taken out of the foundation we strive to...
Pro Bono Services for Your Organization
Pro Bono: "Especially for the Public Good" (Merriam-Webster) The dictionary definition of pro bono fits well with non-profit organizations, which themselves are also for "the public good," according to the IRS description of how they must be created and operated. And...