Your nonprofit wants to ratchet up its brand visibility but who do you ask for the money?
Continue readingWhere Will the Money Come From?
FUNDRAISING: Lessons from a Charity
Amidst all the recent financial gloom and doom, I thought it’s worthwhile to report a blip of good news on the fundraising front and relate the lessons that can be learned from it. The New York Times reported today that its Neediest Cases Fund has increased its contributions significantly over last year. The number of donors has jumped 53% from 2,955 to 4,518, and the fund is $500,000 ahead of where it was this time last year (a total of $3.7 million was raised so far). Apparently the heightened awareness of the needs of those living in poverty has touched the middle class, despite their own financial concerns.
FUNDRAISING: Lift the Limits on Low Overhead Ratios
This entry is in response to an op ed piece by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times on December 24, 2008: The Sin in Doing Good Deeds.
Easing our insistence on low overhead ratios for charities, will help them to co-opt the profit motive. One reason that nonprofits are not as effective with their own in fundraising is not specifically the profit motive, but the fact that the public insists on nonprofits maintaining low overhead ratios (such as 85%). On the face of it, it makes sense that donors don’t want to see their money spent on administration or fundraising costs – they want it to go directly into programs.
Acknowledging Sponsors Names in Programs
How do nonprofit organizations address long sponsor names in their programs?
As more nonprofits turn toward individual and corporate donors, they face the issue of how to acknowledge these contributors often in contexts that do not easily accommodate long naming formats.
Red Rooster Group recently worked with a nonprofit organization that had multiple tiers of sponsorship naming — the entire building as well as specific wings of the building, its departments and individual programs, as well as a book series — all named after people.
Their series of brochures, are typically named for their respective programs. Given that these sponsors names, some of which were quite long, had to appear in the nameplates of the various publications, a plan was needed in order to handle them appropriately.
We identified the following three considerations for addressing sponsorship names:
1. Political – how the name is treated based on the donor’s request balanced with the needs of the organization. The size of the donation, the clout and influence of the donor, and the need and fortitude of the organization will come into play.
2. Relative – the size, nature and payout of the donation relative to other contributions for that organization. It is easiest to set up this hierarchy before soliciting contributions in order to set the standards for the appropriate recognition and treatment of sponsors’ names.
3. Logistical – the practical considerations that will determine how a sponsor’s name is treated. Each media will tend to have its own limitations. Building names, for example, may require a significant capital investment and have a fairly long lifespan, while links from an online recognition can provide quick means additional information.
TRENDS: The Grantmaking Gap
NEWS FROM GRANTMAKERS FOR EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS
Most foundations are not making changes they and their grantees say are essential to supporting nonprofit success, but there is evidence of a gradual shift to more nonprofit friendly grantmaking practices, according to a new survey from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations.
The research, conducted by Harder+Company Community Research, was the second-ever comprehensive survey of the attitudes and practices of all staff ed grantmaking foundations in the United States. It builds on a similar study conducted in 2003 by the Urban Institute in partnership with GEO.
Principle Findings
There is a pronounced disconnect between the ways in which grantmakers are supporting nonprofits and what nonprofits say could contribute most to their success. Further, many grantmakers have not adopted practices that they themselves see as important for effective grantmaking.
In focus groups through GEO’s Change Agent Project and in surveys conducted by colleague organizations, nonprofit leaders have consistently pointed to two critical areas where changes in grantmaker practice can lead to better support for nonprofits:
- Improving the type of financial support grantmakers provide, and
- Building a more productive relationship among grantmakers and grantees. GEO’s survey found that while by and large progress is slow, there is evidence of a growing movement among some foundations to provide better support for nonprofits.
WAKE UP CALL: It’s time for funders to recognize the importance of supporting capacity building.
RESOURCE: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
Also see the post: Valuing Intellectual Capital
Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites, and marketing campaigns to increase your visibility, fundraising, and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.
IDEAS: The Impact of Leverage
As the member of a grant allocations committee of a nonprofit, I was tasked with rating each grant application on a score card that posed the following questions:Continue reading
IDEAS: Valuing Intellectual Capital
Why don’t nonprofits value intellectual capital, particularly marketing expertise, when it can prove crucial to the success of their cause? I encountered that question when I learned about a nonprofit organization that was planning a campaign to raise $300,000 for food pantries and safety net social services, as well as to engage the community in volunteering on a regular basis.Continue reading
Doing More with 'Enough'
In light of current economic conditions, the nonprofit sector can’t afford to continue in a “business as usual” manner. This was the message that NYU Professor Paul Light delivered at the 6th annual conference of the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits. His keynote reflected the event theme of “Sustaining Nonprofits, Strengthening Communities.”
“We’re the first to go into a recession and the last to come out,” said Light, who is also Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. To that end, he recommended the following paradigm shifts:
- Greater state support. Grant money is appreciated, but state funds also need to help cover capacity building. Nonprofits can’t be expected to fulfill their respective missions with grants that don’t support training, marketing, and other critical areas.
- Sector makeover. Many leaders in the nonprofit arena are getting older and retiring—and young people aren’t clamoring to take their places. The nonprofit world needs to shed its stodgy, ascetic image to attract innovative young minds.
As the global community prepares to tighten its belt, everyone talks about the need to “do more with less.” Light argues that it’s time that nonprofits have the opportunity to “do more with enough.”
WAKE UP CALL: What steps can we take to increase state support and to attract the fresh talent we need?
Creating Awareness for the Third Sector
After the three-day Nonprofit Congress in May, the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA), which produced the Nonprofit Congress, organized a lobbying day to create awareness about the nonprofit sector. The New York delegation was one of many that went to Capitol Hill to lobby our Representatives and Senators about the National Capacity Building Initiative (put forth by NCNA). The bill provides $25 million for training and infrastructure for charities to help them become more effective and sustainable (half the funds from the federal government, half from private sources). That’s me (Howard Adam Levy, Principal of Red Rooster Group) in the yellow jacket, with Fred Fields, from the United Way of New York City, behind me, and Doug Sauer, Executive Director of Council of Community Services of New York State, bottom left.
The lobbying effort was important on three fronts:
1. To generate awareness about the need for funds specifically for non-program activities to allow nonprofits to pay for leadership training and operational costs.
2. To demonstrate to government the impact and importance of the nonprofit sector, which accounts for $1 trillion of the economy and 10% of the workforce.
3. To promote advocating for the nonprofit sector as an essential activity for nonprofits and to show that we can be effective when organized (with the NCNA the organizing body for the social services sector).
WAKE UP CALL: What are you doing to advocate for the nonprofit sector?