Don't Tell The Donor

The anonymous blogger "a fundraiser," blew like the wind through the NTEN conference in New Orleans last week. Here's a report.

"More than 1,000 of the cool cats in the country are descending on New Orleans for the 2008 Nonprofit Techology Conference hosted by NTEN over the next couple days.

David Pogue, the personal technology columnist for the New York Times will be speaking at the plenary session at 8:30am... although given some of the festivities on Wednesday night, I doubt that all of the attendees are going to drag their butts to that event on time.

Beth Kanter was one of a couple dozen honored colleagues to be recognized by NTEN at the member's luncheon. Her award was "Most likely to have an account on every social networking site."

Nancy Schwartz has already posted to her Getting Attention blog that she is thrilled with the focus on how attendees can make connections with other nonprofit fundraisers and marketers.

They even have an official widget to track updates from the conference and they have a cool syndication feature for blogs that post to their own sites with the tag 08NTC."

For more, go to donttellthedonor.blogspot.com

NTEN And NPT Survey Shows Tech Budgets Average $40,658

Staffing the information technology (IT) function is frequently a challenge for nonprofit organizations. Financial resources are typically limited and hiring managers often feel overwhelmed and under-educated when it comes to IT. Determining where IT should fit into the organization, how many IT staff people are needed and what those people should be spending their time doing can be difficult decisions.

To shed some light on these questions NTEN and The NonProfit Times teamed up and created the Nonprofit IT Staffing Survey. We began this effort with the 2006 survey– the first of its kind. We repeated the survey in 2007, and plan to continue doing so annually, so that we can provide a long term view of nonprofit IT staffing.

This report, the second on the findings, covers IT salaries, budgets and evaluation in the nonprofit sector. The first report, published in January of 2008, covered the nature of IT staffs and departments at nonprofit organizations.

Visit Here to Download Complete Article...

E-Newsletters: Making Your Code Uniform (Relatively)

To make your organization’s simple HTML e-newsletter appear (relatively) alike across platforms, one tip from the experts: code like it’s 1999. This means:

• Decide which email clients are a priority. One expert prioritizes Outlook, Thunderbird, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail, and recommends against prioritizing Lotus unless your organization uses it (“It’s a pain in the neck to standardize.”). Set up email accounts with each of the email clients to test your email.
• Also for seamlessness, use tables for layout, not cascading style sheets, or CSS. Many email clients don’t understand CSS.
• Again, don’t depend on CSS. Use inline styles. This means going back to the old-school style of formatting: putting tags for color, font, decoration, margins, etc., directly on links, paragraphs and images. (Example: a style="text-decoration:none; color:#00ff00; font:Arial".) According to one expert, you can put styles into the header, but make sure to define them in the body of the email as well.
• Don’t use Javascript, Flash, video or anything a 1999 Web browser couldn’t handle.

Management ... Clouding the decision-making process

As nonprofit managers have learned, an organization does not operate simply in a world of organization and constituent. Current events can play a huge role in the operation of any nonprofit, from the smallest to the largest.

Writing in the book Wise Decision-Making in Uncertain Times, published by the Foundation Center, Dennis R. Young cites the work of Lester Salamon and others to show that there are several forces that have affected nonprofits recently and will do so in the future. They include:

• Government funding. Government funding of social services has increased since the Reagan cutbacks, but the composition of that funding has changed and continues to be uncertain. Medicaid, for example, plays a greater role in supporting social services
• Developments in philanthropy. Trends indicate that charitable giving is becoming a less significant proportion of nonprofit income over time, but such revenue promises to remain a critical component of nonprofit support.
• Demography. The American population is becoming increasingly diverse and multiracial. More than 40 percent of young persons are now "minorities," and by mid-century are expected to become a majority.
• Technology. Modern and rapidly improving communications, information and other technologies continue to transform the economy as a whole. The implications for nonprofits are enormous and are not predictable.
• September 11. Most short-term effects of this day have been dissipated or accommodated over time, but an analysis of long-term effects heightened awareness of the need for nonprofits to embed themselves in supportive networks.

Branding... Your image can take a hit from myths

By now, the term "branding" is ingrained into the consciousness of everyone in the nonprofit/philanthropic sector. Despite this widespread awareness, there is a lack of understanding about just what a brand is and what it does.

At a recent national conference on nonprofit marketing, Larry Checco, of Checco Communications in Washington, D.C., discussed the most common myths about branding and offered the straight story on where those myths go wrong. The myths are, as he sees them:

• Myth: Marketing and branding are one and the same. Fact: marketing and advertising sell products and services. A brand is a reflection of everything associated with the organization, including but not limited to the quality of the organization's work, as well as its reputation, staff, leadership, culture, core values, programs, services and products. A good brand is nothing less than an organization's DNA.
• Myth: Once you have an attractive logo and catchy tagline, you have your brand. Fact: Your logo and tagline are the banners for the brand. Your brand drills much deeper into your organization's core values.
• Myth: Branding is the responsibility of your communications/marketing staff. Fact: Branding is the responsibility of everyone in the organization, from board members to support staff. If it helps, consider the person who answers your phones as your Director of First Impressions.
• Myth: We don't have a budget for branding our organization. Fact: If you effectively leverage your current resources, you might not need much of a budget to better brand your organization.

New NonProfit Times Editorial - Don’t Tell The Donor and many more!

NPTimes has a new editorial section! Visit us every two weeks to check out our latest web-only content including articles from Don't Tell The Donor and many others. Click Here to go to NPT's Web Exclusives. Below is a taste of the latest article from Don't Tell The Donor featured on our site.

*Editor’s Note: Don’t Tell The Donor is one of the hottest blogs in the sector. It’s written anonymously because the author is well known in the sector and he/she/its bosses wouldn’t be pleased. Be assured, The NonProfit Times knows the author’s identity, at least enough to write the check. You’re going to have to trust us.

When I was growing up, my mom used to say to me:

“Little fundraiser. I told you to clean your room. Go in there and do it right now or else, I will take this garbage bag and go clean it myself – and you won’t like what I’m going to throw away!”

It was the scariest threat my mom ever made. Yet, I never found out if she was bluffing or not because nothing motivated me more than the fear of my mom rampaging through my room throwing my beloved toys in the trash.

I’ve been thinking of this personal experience during the past few years as I’ve listened to Congress’s threats that if the nonprofit sector failed to regulate itself then government will stage its own intervention. We all know there are some bad apples within the nonprofit sector. But, there should be a way for the industry to clean its own room first before a bunch of bureaucrats get involved.

In October of 2004, at the urging of Congress, the Independent Sector conveyed the “Panel on the Nonprofit Sector” in an attempt to build consensus around a list of principles that could serve as a guide for self-regulation. The idea was that if nonprofits could find a clean our own house of misbehavior, we could avoid the intrusion of scary government intervention.

Read Complete Article Here...

Nonprofit IT Staffing

Staffing information technology positions at nonprofits is not easy and it can be very expensive. The NonProfit Times and NTEN, the nonprofit technology network, teamed up to find out the state of the nonprofit IT sector from more than 1,000 organizations. Small organizations continue to struggle. The average tenure of an IT profession is slightly more than four years. Read the report at: http://www.nptimes.com/webex.html#nten

*&%$#@* Your Email Got Trashed

With a little imagination and a bit of a potty mouth, it shouldn't be too hard to think of what the "Seven Dirty Words" might be in George Carlin's infamous 197s stand-up comedy routine.

SubscriberMail offers up a different set of words, not ones that the Federal Communications Commission might have an issue with, but rather those that email junk filters might flag and not deliver to inboxes. The Lisle, Ill.-based email marketing services and technology company issued a white paper, titled "The Seven Dirty Words you can't say in subject lines; plus 100 others."

Among the words that make the black list were pretty obvious ones that you likely have seen in your own junk folder:

• Eliminate dept
• Free, or FREE, or maybe Free access, free gift, free info and free instant
• Any words having to do with sex, pornography, cures or medication; and more specifically, Cialis (though nonprofits probably don't have to worry about putting that last one in an email subject line)

Other words might not be as obvious, or they might be more frequently used by nonprofits:

• Undisclosed recipient
• Text that has gaps, or numerical digits at the end
• Multi level marketing

For a complete list of the dirty words to avoid in subject lines, visit: http://www.subscribermail.com/white_papers/seven_dirty_words/
-Mark Hrywna

Web tools that can make your life easier

Although getting the maximum use out of online tools can be complicated at first, even daunting to smaller organizations, there are avenues that can be helpful.

Rick Christ, managing partner of NPAdvisors.com in Warrenton, Va., an online marketing consulting firm, suggests several resources that can be helpful to any nonprofit. They are:

• MySpace.com. If you're looking for free Web page hosting, with blog tools, room for photos, email and newsletter service, get one that comes with about 100 million other users who are online 24 hours a day.
• Paypal. It is free to set up. It costs about as much per transaction as most donation processing services (and less than many), ant it is a tool of choice for 67 million people whose sole purpose in having it is to transfer money online.
• Text messaging. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) failed to provide street lamps and the forms necessary to run search operations in post-hurricane New Orleans, relief workers used text messaging to stay in touch with each other and constituents were able to ask questions and provide updates.
• IM (instant messaging). It is another free way to be "open" for business.
  ThePetitionSite. Com. This is a site for online advocacy, a place to post a petition and drive advocacy.
• Yahoo! Groups. This provides file sharing, group email, calendars and other features.

Online...Who's bidding at your auctions?

Who takes part in online auctions? According to a bidder study by Cambridge, Mass.-based cMarket 2006, the following can be said about the people competing for items at online auctons:

• 71 percent of online auction bidders are female.
• 92 percent go to the Internet once a day or more.
• They spend 49 minutes each time they log on.
• 79 percent typically access the Internet from home for personal use.
• They visit online auctions about four or five times a year.
• They spend an average of 17 minutes each time they visit an online auction.
  51 percent prefer to support their favorite nonprofit/charitable cause through online auctions.
• The top reasons for participating in online charitable auctions include lending support, purchasing products and services, and ease of use.
• 95 percent agree somewhat or completely with the statement: Online charitable auctions provide a unique way to purchase items of interest while giving to a worthy cause.
• Two-thirds indicate, "charity for which the auction is being given is a cause I believe in" as the most important reason they participate in the first place.
• The three categories bid on most recently by those who visited an auction are travel (16 percent), food/dining (12 percent) and home items (9 percent).
• Of the 34 percent who would be interested in a "pay over time" option, virtually all would be at least somewhat likely to use it.
• 50 percent would be willing to bid at least 20 percent more on an item if a pay over time option existed.

Finance... Mission-related investing

Some foundations are exploring the concept of mission-related investing, sometimes known as socially responsible investing.The Minnesota Council on Foundations, through its Partnership on Corporate Responsibility, suggests that mission-related investing could include:

• Portfolio screening: A foundation could screen portfolios to include best-in-class corporations or to avoid corporations with poor records on social issues, environmental issues or other issues of interest to the foundation.
• Proxy voting: Shareholder activity could include voting proxies on a company’s proxy statement or developing a set of proxy voting guidelines covering issues of concern to the foundation. These activities night also include engaging corporations in dialogues on issues of concern as well as filing and co-filing shareholder resolutions.
• Early investment: Mission-related venture capital uses the foundation’s assets for early-stage investment in companies that are seeking solutions to the problems that the foundation is seeking to solve through its grantmaking.
• Community investing: Community investing assists underserved communities in meeting their development needs. The Council acknowledges that there is disagreement in the foundation field about the use of mission-related investing. Some argue that the board’s primary fiduciary responsibility is to ensure the maximum return on investment assets. Others believe there is a responsibility to consider whether investment decisions will further charitable purposes, or at least not run counter to them.

Management... Being entrepreneurial and nonprofit at the same time

Many nonprofit organizations have benefited from adopting an entrepreneurial approach to their mission. Such an approach can utilize new ideas as a way of bringing in fresh air and increasing funding.

In a selection titled "Entrepreneurial Nonprofit Institutions: The Many Roads to Rome" that appears in Wise Decision-Making in Uncertain Times, published by the Foundation Center, Reynold Levy of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City writes that there are certain criteria that must be in place for a nonprofit to develop and sustain an entrepreneurial character.

• Any institution that aspires to be entrepreneurial must maintain a financially sound base of operations. This means balanced or surplus budgets and diversification of revenue sources.
• The nonprofit must be driven by its mission and focused on its accomplishments. A well-articulated and understood mission helps to define programmatic choice and guide the allocation of scarce resources.
• There must be a certain brand of leadership. The top of the organization must exhibit an upbeat, can-do attitude. Leaders must see opportunities, not problems. They demonstrate a sense of humor, a sense of perspective and a resilience that enables them to face setbacks without seeming defeated.
• The organization must be externally focused. It must be shaped to better serve customers or suppliers or partners. Doing so means that executives within institutions begin to see themselves as others see them.

10 mistakes to avoid with email newsletters

Newsletters have become the primary tool for nonprofits to keep donors informed about how their contributions are being spent and why the checks should keep coming.

In MarketingSherpa's report on Top 10 Email Newsletter Mistakes, publisher Anne Holland makes the case that newsletters must remain kept fresh to be effective. "Your official newsletter has to be taken up, shaken upside down, tested, and then revamped every year or so," she wrote.

She also advises being careful. "I believe newsletter revamps are a lot like (Web) site revamps, where enormous changes ... can be dangerous," she wrote, especially in the short term. To minimize the disruptions, she ticks off several common mistakes to avoid, including:

• Don't assume you have permission to put someone on the mailing list.
• Don't write a "one size fits all" newsletter; readers may delete it quickly. Canvas readers to learn their interests, then tailor a newsletter accordingly.
• Don't send a plain acknowledgement email for a subscription. Dress it up in the text or with graphics or both.
• Don't set a publishing schedule arbitrarily. Research when readers will most likely read it.
• Don't write an institutional newsletter. Personalize it where possible without getting too cute.
• Don't make it one way. Include ways for readers to reply.
• Don't write too long. Include graphics or links to audio and video.
• Don't assume your email will get through filters.
• Don't use a typeface too small to read.
• Don't rely solely on email. Paper, for example, still has a place.

Gates Foundation CEO Patty Stonesifer Stepping Down

Patty Stonesifer, Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, today announced that she will be transitioning from her role as CEO by January 1, 2009. Stonesifer has led the work of the foundation since its inception in 1997.

“When Bill and I set out to help ensure libraries in the U.S. offer free access to computers and the Internet, we turned to our friend Patty, whose management ability and effective leadership made her perfect for the job,” said Melinda Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "More than a decade later, as we reflect on the progress and depend on the foundation team she built to continue and expand this work, we know enlisting Patty was one of the best decisions we have ever made.”

During the past 11 years, Patty Stonesifer has built a strong, stable organization committed to reducing inequity in the world. The work of the foundation and its partners to date has led to millions of lives saved globally through immunizations and other health advances and more young people graduating high school ready for success in places like New York City.

“Patty would be outstanding in any job but her talents have been particularly well suited to foundation management,” said Warren Buffett, foundation trustee. “Both head and heart go into decisions made in this activity – and Patty has an abundance of both.”

Under Stonesifer’s leadership, the foundation is organized into three program groups, each led by a president: Global Health, Global Development, and the U.S. Programs, and to date, has committed to more than $16 billion in grants aimed to ensure all people have a chance to live productive lives. The Seattle-based foundation has a $38.7 billion endowment and more than 500 employees. Stonesifer’s tenure has been marked by growth and a steadfast commitment to learning, improving, and delivering results...

Read Complete Article Here...

That's Hot! Foundation Getting Most of Paris' Inheritance

Paris Hilton might someday actually have to get a job. Well, probably not.

The woman who made being famous for being famous a fulltime occupation likely won't be seeing as many zeros in her inheritance. Her grandfather, Barron Hilton, plans to donate 97 percent of his net worth ($2.3 billion) to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Paris, 26, will have to make due with her share of the remaining 3 percent, a paltry $69 million, to split amoung Hilton's eight children and numerous grandchildren.

The 80-year-old Barron Hilton, chairman of the foundation, plans to donate $1.2 billion of the proceeds from the $900-million sale of Hilton Hotels Corporation and $300 million in stock of Harrah's Entertainment into a charitable remainder unitrust. It would be one of the largest charitable contributions made in 2007 and boost the foundation's totaly value to $4.5 billion.

The foundation expects to increase staff from 19 to 100 once the bequest goes into effect, according to Fortune magazine, so who knows, Paris might yet get a job.

- Mark Hrywna

NPT's New Editorial Section - with new posts from Don't Tell the Donor and More!

Starting February 1, NPTimes.com will have its own web exclusive editorial, articles not found anywhere else. Updated every two weeks, you can find more information in the print edition of The NonProfit Times, which contains a new NPT Online Table of Contents.

Be sure to view this week’s hot stories, including one from Don’t Tell the Donor, the hottest blogger in the nonprofit industry. Click here to view now.

Branding ... Reshaping a recognizable name without changing it

When drawing up a new logo and graphics package, leaders at the United Negro College Fund had to wrestle with a touchy subject: its name.

Although mainstream in 1944, when the Fairfax, Va.-organization was founded, the term "negro" had gone out of favor by the 1970s, said President & CEO Dr. Michael L. Lomax. In approaching what he termed the "sensitive issue" of the name, he said, "We didn't want to lose our heritage, but we didn't want it to be a barrier to attracting the attention and engagement of a new generation."

The solution, unveiled on Jan. 17, was to place just the acronym next to a restyled torch and above the signature tagline, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

Going forward, the organization will use UNCF as a first reference in all its public materials. However, added Lomax, "We are, as far as I know, always going to be the United Negro College Fund" when it comes to the legal name.

The new logo caps a four-year organizational review that began when surveys identified an age problem: the World War II and baby boomer generations understood the UNCF's mission, but the iPod generation was hazier about it. "That was somewhat troubling," Lomax said.
That led to a revamping of the communications strategy two years ago, including freshening up the "Evening with the Stars" annual fundraiser. Last year, the UNCF turned to graphics, recasting the previously black-and-white torch in light blue, yellow and burnt orange, as well as changing the typeface.

The fund not only underwrites scholarships -- amounting to about $80 million for 8,000 students -- but also sends money to 39 historically black colleges and universities and runs education advocacy arms.

Database... Protecting your data and managing risk

Got data backup?

Several high-profile stories have hit the news media in the past few months about losses of data, sometimes because of the inadvertent theft of equipment holding sensitive information.

In addition to those well-publicized cases, there are other facts: a hard drive crashes every 15 seconds; 2,000 laptops are lost or stolen daily; one in five computers suffers a fatal hard-drive crash during its lifetime. This would be bad enough, but 40 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses don't back up their data at all.

Experts in the field of data protection and security recommend the following:

• Risk management is number one. No matter how much insurance you have, you will never totally cover your loss. Educate employees about phishing and have a reasonable backup plan.
• Evaluate your current backup plan. Consider the newer backup technologies such as virtualization, which allows you to run multiple servers on one computer, for example.
• Develop and implement a system. Don't just leave it; designate somebody with the absolute responsibility of implementing the risk-management system.
• Anticipate your likely loss. Recognize that trouble can come from different places. Also, realize that security breaches can occur no matter the level of your firewalls.
• Have the appropriate insurance that deals with what's likely to happen. Also consider your cyber exposure as a separate and unique exposure.
• Try to get your host to indemnify you. It doesn't hurt to ask your software provider if it will provide coverage.

8 Steps to raising money on eBay

Use of the eBay online selling system, which is very popular with individuals, is proving to be a real help for nonprofit organizations. Utilizing a name and vehicle with a huge recognition factor can be a great help in fundraising.

In their book Fundraising on eBay, Greg Holden and Jill Finlayson offer suggestions on what must be done up-front by organizations that might have experience with online dealing but are new to eBay.

Their suggestions:

• Register with eBay and MissionFish. This includes both setting up accounts and setting selling preferences, as well as signing up for PayPal or other online payment solutions.
• Obtain inventory/donations. This involves both soliciting and collecting donations from individuals and companies.
• Create event branding. This can be as simple as naming your event and creating your personal page on eBay or as advanced as having graphic artists and web designers create a logo and selling templates.
• Photograph items. Most items sold on eBay will need at least one photograph.
• List items for sale. It means filling out the Sell Your Item form for one or two items are possibly using software to expedite the listing process.
• Market auctions. Publicize the event and be willing to leverage online marketing opportunities.
• Manage auctions. If your descriptions are complete and clear, there will be less need to answer questions, but you must answer emailed questions.
• Complete sales. Collecting the money is not enough. Pack and ship items.

Finance ... Acting quickly when fraud is suspected

The consequences of employee fraud at a nonprofit are so many and so potentially devastating that organizations must be prepared to act quickly and decisively when employee fraud is suspected.

Wrongdoing by a nonprofit employee will very often have implications for the entire organization, from casting a taint on the nonprofit or its mission to legal and financial responsibility in the case of monetary loss. The consequences can be huge.

At a recent national conference, attendees learned from Gerard Zack, founder of the Nonprofit Resource Center and president of Zack Accounting and Consulting, that there are certain initial steps that must be taken when someone in an organization suspects fraud.

The critical first step is risk assessment. The organization must determine what access the suspect has, what other types of fraud schemes the suspect could have perpetrated, given his/her level of responsibility and access, what the likelihood is of multiple perpetrators (collusion), how long it could have been going on and what technical complexities could have been involved.

After that, the organization must:

• Document all allegations,
• Obtain and document all pertinent information, documents and records,
• Identify all bank accounts involved and consider closing or freezing them,
• Determine who needs to be interviewed,
• Perform background checks if considered necessary,
• Develop details of an investigation plan.