I Have a Dream…

How far we have come since that day On December 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in compliance with the Jim Crow laws that required black people to sit at the back of a bus and give up their seats to any white person requesting it. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against segregation and urged the people of Montgomery to Boycott the buses. That boycott ended in the United States District Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle that ultimately ended racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama.

Today, January 19th, is the day the nation observes the birthday of Rev. King. He is remembered for his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington. He said in that speech "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'" King’s assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968 focused the civil rights movement and moved American’s to take more action against discrimination.

It seems fitting that Barack Obama, our first African-American president, will be sworn in tomorrow, Janaury 20th, in front of that same monument. According to National Public Radio, Barack Obama will enter the office of president with the highest rating in history of an incoming president, 80%. Perhaps the near collapse of our economy and the low approval rating of outgoing President George W. Bush have contributed to this optimism, but our country seems to be looking forward to the change.

We all have a dream of a brighter economic future for this country. How do you think Barack Obama is handling his transition? How do you think his policies will affect the nonprofit sector? What policies would help to improve your efforts to keep your organization going in these difficult times?

The Senate Presses Forward Land Protection Bill

Yesterday, in a rare Sunday session and with a 66-12 vote, the Senate moved forward legislation that would reserve more than 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness. Final Senate approval is expected later this week and supporters of the bill hope the House will also approve the legislation.

The bipartisan package of bills represents years of work by many senators from many states to continue the legacy pushed forward by Theodore Roosevelt in 1891 when Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act allowing the President of the United States to set aside forest lands.

The bill is actually a collection of about 160 bills sponsored by many states to give the land the government's highest level of protection. The lands that have been designated as wilderness include Zion National Park in Utah, California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, Oregon's Mount Hood, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan. The bill would also limit further oil and gas leasing in the Wyoming Range. Additionally, 387 miles of rivers and streams in Snake River headwaters will be protected.

If this bill continues forward and passes in the House, it will represent a real victory for environmental groups. Hopefully this type of positive reform will continue with this new Congress. How do you believe this legislation will impact your nonprofit organization? Is this the first of good things to come with regard to protection of the environment? Give us your thoughts.

Helping Donors Make Wise Choices

Attorneys General across the United States warn donors about making charitable contributions due to the number of scams that have surfaced using the internet. The suggestion that donations are not making it to intended destinations feeds the worries of donors, perhaps making them hold back on contributions.

Would donors still be interested in your cause if they knew that less than half of the money they donated actually made it to the worthy beneficiaries? Helping donors make wise, informed decisions about charitable contributions could come down to putting information at their fingertips. Most people want to be sure that they are giving to a worthy cause and that the money they give is helping. Here are some ideas that might help make the gift-giving experience a success on both sides.

Help donors to make an informed choice. Provide information about how much of the gift givers’ donation will actually go to the charitable cause.

Don’t make high-pressure appeals. Legitimate charities don't rush donors.

Provide written information. Legitimate charities will be willing to send information to donors before a transaction takes place. Provide information on your organization's mission and on how your donation will be used along with proof that the contribution is tax deductible.

Have a call in line. Make sure that your charity can be reached by phone. This will allow a donor to make sure that you are legitimate.

Make sure credit card payments provide security. Credit card payments make funds available more quickly. Using a secure site like PayPal can make the user experience easier and secure.

Provide appropriate tax information. Make sure to provide tax deductible information for federal and state income taxes. Donating to some tax-exempt organizations may not necessarily result in a tax-deductible donation and some organizations may even try to use terms like "tax I.D. number" or "keep this receipt for your records" to suggest they are tax-exempt charities when they aren't. For record keeping, a canceled check or credit card statement generally is sufficient for IRS purposes when you donate less than $250. For larger donations, you will want to provide properly worded receipts from your charity confirming the donation.

Provide alternative forms of giving. Provide alternative forms of giving such as charitable gift annuities, gifts in-kind, and endowments.

Make it easy to volunteer. Giving of time and personal skills can be a valuable to nonprofit organizations. Get organized and make it easy for someone to give their time.

What has worked for you? Give us your ideas.

On the Brink of Change

It is difficult to spend much timing musing over the year 2008. At this time of year many of us look back on the year that has passed and try to make sense of it. Our mistakes, hopefully, will teach us what not to do or guide us toward trying things that worked for others. We reminisce over the fun and exciting events of the year with plans and goals freshly laid for the coming year. The last quarter of 2008 was fraught with daily upheaval and financial losses that caused many people to despair. I needn’t list everything that went wrong (it is a long, long list). I have had enough doom and gloom and 2008 can be summed up as a financial mess. So let’s step back to look only at those things that stand out as hopeful against this grim backdrop.

Most prominent was the election of a new President and the excitement, swelling around the globe, of his upcoming inauguration on January 20th. Obama has wasted no time organizing his transition and making appointments to his cabinet. All of Obama’s picks appear to have substantial experience and come from diverse backgrounds, they are:

• Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state - Clinton seems to be uniquely qualified to be secretary of state bringing her years as a senator and first lady in her husband's administration as important experience.
• Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury – has been the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2003
• Larry Summers as Director of the National Economic council – served as The World Bank’s chief economist and treasury secretary under Bill Clinton.
• David Axelrod as Chief Advisor – served as Obama’s chief strategist during his campaign.
• Eric Holder as Attorney General – served as Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general and as Obama’s legal advisor during his campaign
• Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader – served in the house from Las Vegas and then moved to the senate in 1987.
• Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services – was a congressman from South Dakota and minority leader in the senate until he lost his seat in 2004.
• Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce – has served as governor of New Mexico and as energy secretary.
• Robert Gibbs as Press Secretary – lead Obama’s communications team during his campaign.
• Paul Volcker as Chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board – served as chairman of the Federal Reserve under Jimmy Carter.
• Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense – is currently serving as secretary of defense under George Bush.
• Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff – is an Illinois congressman and was an aide to Bill Clinton.
• James L Jones as National Security Advisor – was a four-star general who served in the Marine Corps for four decades.
• Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House and is the congresswoman from San Francisco.
• Henry Waxman as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee – is a representative in the house for Los Angeles and chairman of the committee on oversight of government reform.
• Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security – served as Arizona’s attorney general and became governor of that state in 2002.
• Susan Rice as US Ambassador to the United Nations – was a Rhodes Scholar with a doctorate in philosophy, and held several positions during the Clinton administration including assistant secretary of state under Madeline Albright.
• Arne Dunkan as Secretary of Education – is the head of education in Chicago, the third largest education system in the US.
• Steve Chu as Head of the US Energy Department – is the Nobel-prize winning physicist from the University of California Berkeley.

Generally, Americans are looking forward to the change in government with anticipation. The nonprofit sector has suffered recent setbacks along with the rest of America but a reason for optimism shines as a beacon of hope for all of us. What do you think of Obama’s picks? How do you think these choices will affect your nonprofit?

Plenty of Money

When I was a student in primary school, I performed in a production of a play entitled “Plenty of Money”. It was a madcap musical production where a crazy old lady prints her own money to be able to give it to charities. As I listened to what Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke has planned to get our economy going again; I was reminded of that crazy musical. We will just print more money!

In the old days, the gold standard, monetary system backed our paper notes with gold and those paper notes were freely convertible into fixed quantities of gold. That was a solid, rule-based system that protected citizens from hyperinflation and other abuses of monetary policy. In 1971, however, the representative gold system collapsed and nations of the world switched to the fiat money system in which paper notes are backed only by use of lawful force and debt payments are collected through taxes.

The Wall Street Journal reported the excitement that everyone but me was feeling about Bernanke’s announcement that the Fed’s would print more money. They said:

“Wall Street that day did handsprings. Even government securities prices raced higher, as if, somehow, Treasury bonds were not denominated in the currency with which the Fed had announced its intention to paper the face of the earth. Economic commentators praised the central bank's determination to fight deflation -- that is, to reinstate inflation. All hands, including President-elect Obama, seemed to agree that wholesale money-printing was the answer to the nation's prayers.”

I read that the root cause of hyperinflation is an unchecked increase in the money supply. So, the question is what is to protect us today from hyperinflation? Should we just print more money in order to keep our country’s businesses, including charitable organizations afloat?

Madoff Made Off with Billions

First there was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the bad mortgage lending. There was the loss of Lehman Brothers and who could forget the AIG Credit Default Swaps that left taxpayers holding the bag. Then the top three Detroit auto makers announced they were pushed close to insolvency. Citigroup announced the layoffs of 75,000 jobs in order to stay afloat. Now, the news of Bernard Madoff’s investing scam leaves you dumbstruck and makes you wonder how so many people could be taken in.

According to Time Magazine, “Many of Madoff's victims never had an account with his firm. Instead, Madoff got much of the money he allegedly stole through so-called feeder funds. These hedge funds were set up by outside investment advisory firms, which marketed the funds to high net-worth individuals and pension funds based on Madoff's supposed long-term track record of positive returns. Other investors lost money through so-called hedge funds of funds, which invested with Madoff as well as other asset management firms.”

Where was the Securities and Exchange Commission? Apparently this scam had been going on for years. A federal judge signed an order on December 15th stating that investors who may have been duped by this scam need the protection of the Securities Investor Protection Act.

Among those hard-hit were Jewish Philanthropists and at least two foundations have been forced to close because they had invested their funds with Madoff. According to JTA, The Global News Service of The Jewish People, The Robert I. Lappin Foundation in Salem, Mass., will shut down after losing $8 million -- all of its money. The Chais Family Foundation also announced its closing on Dec. 14.

Another organization that suffered tremendous losses is JEHT (Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance) Foundation that announced they will close at the end of January 2009. The JEHT foundation supports reform of the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Where did all of this money go and shouldn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission be culpable for allowing Madoff to operate? Give us your thoughts.

Human Rights Day - If not now, WHEN?

Today, December 10th, is the 60th annual celebration, across the globe, of Human Rights Day. This commemoration honors the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. It was the first global effort to proclaim the rights of all human beings. There are 30 articles in the document proclaiming such rights as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights. Other more fundamental rights include the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.

The Grameen Foundation is an organization that provides small loans, savings, and other financial services to poor people to help them launch businesses. According to Sarah Campbell of the Grameen Foundation:

• One billion people live on less than $1 a day
• One-in-five people live without adequate water or food
• 26,000 children die each day from preventable causes

Though the U.N. outlined human rights adequately in 1948, our inability to provide even the basics a half a century later is painfully obvious.

“Today, poverty prevails as the gravest human rights challenge in the world. Combating poverty, deprivation and exclusion is not a matter of charity, and it does not depend on how rich a country is. By tackling poverty as a matter of human rights obligation, the world will have a better chance of abolishing this scourge in our lifetime....Poverty eradication is an achievable goal.”
—UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, 10 December 2006

At this time of year we need to turn our sights outward, to the world, and rather than focus our attention on our diminished 401 (K)s, resolve to help promote the rights of everyone. Why not begin TODAY? What do you think?

Go Techno or Bust

After his successful presidential bid, Barack Obama still has $30 million left over. During his presidential campaign, Obama raised an unprecedented $745 million, $104 million of which came in the last five weeks immediately before and after Election Day.

Obama’s outspoken desire to change the way politicians raise money through special interest groups - opting instead to raise money on his own and not participate in the public funding system - fueled his record-breaking fundraising. Close to half of the funds raised were by private donations. What was the key to his success? The internet and Obama’s use of technology stand out as the single key factor in his successful fundraising.

Among the technical tools used were the following:

• Individual Fundraising - An easy web experience employing the tactic of keeping the donor on the fundraising web site throughout the entire contribution process, from initiation through authorization.
• Online Advocacy - These tools put users in a position to get information in the hands of policy makers. The idea is that when constituents participate - i.e. write their legislators reach out to news editors and opinion leaders, sign petitions - you get results.
• Outbound Email - There are many rules governing spam and there is software that can handle outbound email more effectively. With the proper emailing tools, you can stay in touch, raise money, and mobilize action - whether you have a thousand constituents or ten million.
• Social Networking - The power of social networking is extraordinary. These tools give your constituents a voice and ideas can be freely exchanged.
• Content Management - The ability to locate, reuse, repurpose and capture content is supremely important to a successful online experience. The tools are ever more sophisticated, but are also becoming essential.

It is clear that a new day has dawned with regard to fundraising. Fundraisers will not be able to compete for those important donor dollars without a technology plan for the future. What are your thoughts?

Food Bank Levels are Down as Demand Goes Up.

As layoffs continue to rise and the economy continues to decline America’s food banks are sagging under the increased load according to The Wall Street Journal. According to The New York Times, critical shortages have forced some Food Banks to ration supplies, distribute staples usually reserved for disaster relief, and in some instances close.

Why are we unable to keep up with demand when we most need to? In part, the problem is due to successful farmers. There is less stored in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bonus Commodity Program that buys surplus crops in America. When the farmers have no surpluses, it translates to a shrinking program.

The fourth quarter oil and gas prices also contributed to the shortfalls by increasing the price of food as the high distribution costs are passed along through the system.

There is a farm bill currently in the Senate that would raise emergency aid of $250 million a year to Food Banks. Of all of the hands that are outstretched to receive economic aid from the government, this hand would deliver relief directly into the mouths of the people. Rather than allow American Food Banks to close, the Senate needs to move quickly to ensure that our relief programs are still in place when our people really need them, like right now! Your thoughts?

Oily Practices Might Be Responsible for Economic Slide

According to MSNBC, “Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported income … that shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.” Though prices have fallen since the announcement from Exxon on October 30th, the question is: How did the extreme inflation of oil prices get so out of hand? What role did that insane inflation play in the deflation of the world economy?

When you consider the delivery of food by the world’s food banks to those in need, most delivery methods involve petroleum fuel. The higher the fuel prices go, the less money there is to feed the same number of people.

American dependency on oil has reached a critical crossroad. Prices at the pump are falling because the demand has gone down as a result of fewer people having jobs. However, if the economy begins to improve, there will be an increased demand for oil and the world’s oil companies will take advantage once again. It is time to break the cycle of dependency that keeps us addicted to our gasoline fix. Another good reason for demanding alternative fuels is that fossil fuels are known to increase greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, further contributing to global warming. Michael Seibert, a biologist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., envisions pond scum as a possible source for bio-fuel. Whatever the new source of fuel finally is, now is the time to put our energies and research into renewable energy sources before we are held hostage at the pumps again. What are your thoughts?

Yes We Can.

Election 2008 was a truly historic event with the victory of America’s first African/American President. Excitement filled the air and tens of thousands of Obama supporters gathered in Grant Park, in Chicago to hear his victory speech. The message was one of hope. Though there is much to do to get America back on track, we can pull together and through our hard work, look forward to a brighter future.

President-elect Barack Obama began his speech:

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer…

…It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

The speech went on to tell the story of Ann Nixon Cooper an African/American woman of 106 years, who was born just a generation past the time of slavery. He told of the many times she was told “you can’t” in her lifetime. Conversely, the words “yes we can,” was the fitting climax to this hard fought victory that will hopefully put an end to racism in this country. These words of optimism brought tears to the eyes of many in the crowd.

Though there is much to do to repair our financial and political systems, there is great hope in the words of our new President Barack Obama. It is this spirit of optimism that propels nonprofit organizations to forge ahead in the momentous task of raising funds for so many noble causes.
The question remains, will those who make large donations hold back on their donations because of the battered economy? According to the latest study An Analysis of Million Dollar Gifts January 2000 – September 2007 from “The Center on Philanthropy” at Indiana University, “Self-made wealth holders make the most gifts. Just over forty percent of the donors making gifts of $1 million or more are ‘self-made’ millionaires. This includes entrepreneurs, investors, and real estate developers. ‘Self-made’ wealthy donors gave several times more, on average, than donors with paychecks or donors with inherited wealth.”Of course, 47% of those who voted in this election, voted for the Republican candidate, John McCaine. Will President-elect Obama be able to unite both his supporters and those who voted against him? On Tuesday, many believed the words of Barack Obama, that he could. What are your thoughts?

Watch the 2008 presidential results roll in

Making the call – Obama or McCain

As a result of the economic conditions, many nonprofits are facing unprecedented economic conditions that will affect philanthropy. In the next few days, we will each have to make our own call on who best represents our goals. When Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama debated on the campus of the University of Mississippi, they were asked by moderator Jim Lehrer of the NewsHour on PBS about what fiscal priorities they would “adjust” as a result of the current economic bailout:

LEHRER: …what are you going to have to give up, in terms of the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?

OBAMA: Well, there are a range of things that are probably going to have to be delayed. We don't yet know what our tax revenues are going to be. The economy is slowing down, so it's hard to anticipate right now what the budget is going to look like next year.

But there's no doubt that we're not going to be able to do everything that I think needs to be done. There are some things that I think have to be done.

We have to have energy independence, so I've put forward a plan to make sure that, in 10 years' time, we have freed ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil by increasing production at home, but most importantly by starting to invest in alternative energy, solar, wind, biodiesel, making sure that we're developing the fuel-efficient cars of the future right here in the United States, in Ohio and Michigan, instead of Japan and South Korea.

We have to fix our health care system, which is putting an enormous burden on families. Just -- a report just came out that the average deductible went up 30 percent on American families.
They are getting crushed, and many of them are going bankrupt as a consequence of health care. I'm meeting folks all over the country. We have to do that now, because it will actually make our businesses and our families better off.

The third thing we have to do is we've got to make sure that we're competing in education. We've got to invest in science and technology. China had a space launch and a space walk. We've got to make sure that our children are keeping pace in math and in science.

And one of the things I think we have to do is make sure that college is affordable for every young person in America.

And I also think that we're going to have to rebuild our infrastructure, which is falling behind, our roads, our bridges, but also broadband lines that reach into rural communities.
Also, making sure that we have a new electricity grid to get the alternative energy to population centers that are using them.

So there are some -- some things that we've got to do structurally to make sure that we can compete in this global economy. We can't shortchange those things. We've got to eliminate programs that don't work, and we've got to make sure that the programs that we do have are more efficient and cost less.

LEHRER: Are you -- what priorities would you adjust, as president, Senator McCain, because of the -- because of the financial bailout cost?

MCCAIN: Look, we, no matter what, we've got to cut spending. We have -- as I said, we've let government get completely out of control.

Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.

The point -- the point is -- the point is, we need to examine every agency of government.

First of all, by the way, I'd eliminate ethanol subsidies. I oppose ethanol subsidies.

I think that we have to return -- particularly in defense spending, which is the largest part of our appropriations -- we have to do away with cost-plus contracts. We now have defense systems that the costs are completely out of control.

We tried to build a little ship called the Littoral Combat Ship that was supposed to cost $140 million, ended up costing $400 million, and we still haven't done it.

So we need to have fixed-cost contracts. We need very badly to understand that defense spending is very important and vital, particularly in the new challenges we face in the world, but we have to get a lot of the cost overruns under control.

I know how to do that.

Click here to see the complete transcript.

In a nutshell:
Obama would continue to place early-childhood education, science education, affordable college tuition, energy independence, fixing the health-care system, and rebuilding the country's infrastructure as his priorities.

McCain’s priorities would be an elimination of ethanol subsidies, cut costs in defense by eliminating cost-plus contracts and freeze spending on everything but veteran’s affairs, and Social Security.

Who best represents your nonprofit priorities?

Who will be our next President?

The economy was on everyone’s minds last week as the final Presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama got underway. McCain launched his attack concentrating on Obama’s $60 billion proposal to improve the economic problems in the U.S, suggesting that this plan would mean tax increases for many Americans. Both candidates spoke directly to “Joe the Plumber” who had confronted Obama Monday at a rally in Ohio regarding his tax policies. Joe Wurzelbacher, the plumber, suggested that Obama’s plan would increase his taxes. According to Obama, his plan would increase taxes on wealthy American’s making over $250.00, so “Joe the Plumber” must expect to do pretty well if he thinks he will be impacted. McCain asked Obama why he would want to increase anybodies taxes right now. “We both want to cut taxes,” Obama said. “The difference is who we want to cut taxes for.”

Obama fought back using his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden’s comment that McCain’s campaign advertising had been 100% negative according to a study by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project that examined TV ad spending by the two candidates from September 28 to October 4.

According to the Campaign Media Analysis Group,"An analysis of campaign commercials aired over the last seven days shows Obama outspent McCain nationwide by more than 2-1: $21.5 million vs. $9.2 million. But just under half of the money Obama is spending is going toward negative spots, meaning the Illinois senator is roughly keeping pace with his GOP rival when it comes to negative commercials, in terms of cash spent," the story said.

Was there a clear winner in that debate? Which plan will offer the best hope for a bright future in the nonprofit sector? Let us know what you think.

Has the Money from Wall Street Dried up?

With the severe complexion of the financial industries’ bankruptcies, cutbacks, bailouts, and takeovers sweeping through financial markets, donations from highly paid financial professionals are expected to slump. Wall Street professionals have been a part of the richest 1% of the U.S. population. Some 51 percent of individual giving comes from the 10% of households in the highest income groups and slightly less coming from the 90% with income less than $100,000, according to Giving USA. “While higher-income families are major donors to many important institutions, ordinary-income donors are vital, too, for the health of the nonprofit sector in this country,” according to Del Martin, chair of Giving USA Foundation.

It is natural that as the economy slumps people will have less money to give to charity, however, “the trend of total giving of about 2% of income has remained about the same for the past 50 years”, according to Elizabeth Boris, director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

The effect of the financial crisis on giving is expected to be significant. Will it really? What will nonprofits do to make up for the shortfall? Perhaps the American middle-class will step in to shoulder the burden of bank bailouts and maintain the healthy philanthropic giving that has been our nature for so long. Though trickle-down hasn’t exactly worked, the question is, has it left charities out to dry?

6 steps to getting selected for federal grants

Federal regulations can be Byzantine, but the White House, through its office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, offered a guide called “Developing a Quality Grant Proposal” that offers guidance about selection criteria for a federal grant.

The criteria listed include:

• Need for the project. Explain how community need ties into the grant program’s purpose. Use recent statistics, compare target areas to region and nation, demonstrate through facts and avoid jargon and rhetoric.
• Project design. It should meet the stated need, reflect the life of the project, demonstrate a well thought-out plan, detail recruitment of target population, build community partnerships and develop a contingency plan.
• Project services. These should incorporate proven methods, tailor services to benefit the community, vary methods of meeting the need, emphasize individual services and cite examples of activities.
• Personnel. Provide detailed job descriptions of both paid staff and volunteers, highlight their qualifications, demonstrate their ability to relate to target populations, address professional development and align salaries with time and effort.
• Project evaluation. Measure goals and objectives to see if they are ambitious and attainable, what indicators will demonstrate progress and if they are achieved through services. Review project performance monthly or quarterly to see if it meets the needs in the proposal and if it can be used to replicate success. Include staff and participant input.

Budget. It should be for the life of the grant, address matching requirements, seek other support and focus on sustainability.

Power donor relationship building

The difference between Tiger Woods and the next guy is easily in the fundamentals -- the grip, the stance, the swing. More precisely, it's in how each one executes those fundamentals. The difference between a good fundraiser and a great one? It's in the fundamentals as well.

Through his book, Let's Have Lunch Together, the workshops hosted by his namesake consulting firm, and through his speeches, Marshall Howard teaches the importance of building strong relationships. "You must figure out how to climb up the relationship ladder, develop donor relationships, rather than try to figure out schemes to separate them from their money," said Howard, who spoke at the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals' 2006 Conference on Philanthropy.

Howard offered the four fundamentals of "power" relationship building:

1. Reach out. To create high emotional-impact time with prospective donors, consider how you communicate with them. "I don't email. Emails create the lowest impact of anything - one notch below letters." Having figured out through relationship building what his clients enjoy, Howard, for example, takes one client shopping, and another wine-tasting - high emotional-impact time.

2. Be more curious. "Why in the world do you keep your curiosity under wraps?" asked Howard. He then cited the "law of reciprocity," which, when loosely defined, suggests that when you share, there's an urgent need to share back. "Share, and ask questions. They will share back -- they can't help themselves."

3. Put the "person" first. Get to know the prospective donor as a person first, prospective donor (or board member, volunteer, etc.) second. Collectively create mosaics about the prospective donor -- and do it as a team, both organizationally and through high emotional-impact time with the prospect.

4. Uncover values, goals and interests, mutual and individual. The ability to connect is controlled by emotions, feelings and beliefs, said Howard. Every human being seeks to connect, and the stronger that connection, the more emotional energy that exists. The law of emotional reciprocity, loosely defined, suggests that when one gives, there's a need and a desire by the recipient to give back. "People decide emotionally; they justify logically. That said, why when we go see a donor do we plow them with facts?," asked Howard, who said that 88 percent of decisions are based on gut feeling, not fact.

Can you answer when a donor asks: “Why Me?”

Anyone affiliated with a nonprofit knows that any attempt at fundraising can be met with a barrage of questions.

In fact, in his book The 11 Questions Every Donor Asks, Harvey McKinnon has encapsulated that barrage into 11 points. Being able to answer them can be crucial at fundraising time.The first question McKinnon poses – or has donors posing – is “Why Me?”, and it reflects the tendency of all human beings to think selfishly at some point or other.

He points out that by asking this question the prospect is trying to situate himself in the world, or at least in the world of the organization asking him for money. It includes such concerns as: Do you really know me?; Do you care about me?; and, Am I important to you for reasons other than money?

McKinnon suggests that there are many answers but that the following are especially pertinent and helpful with respect to the Why Me? question:

• Because with your past gifts you have shown that you care;
• Because you have met so-and-so (a person the cause/organization has helped) and your gift can help others like her;
• Because you are respected and your support will inspire others; and,
• Because you know how big the need is, and your gift will help to provide solutions.

Donors... Romancing the ask

The importance of making the ask cannot be overemphasized, but “making” the ask might not be the best operative term.

At the recent Fund Raising Day in New York, sponsored by the New York chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Tom Gaffney, of Tom Gaffny Consulting suggested the concept of “romancing” the ask, a way to turn a simple request into a compelling story.

“People don’t give because you have needs – the give because you meet needs,” Gaffny said.

He added that any fundraiser must demonstrate that the organization doing the asking is clearly meeting certain needs. That kind of demonstrable accomplishment, letting a prospect know that a donation actually brings about a desired end, is the kind of approach that will encourage donors to give.

To do that, the organization must achieve the following: Be specific about what is at stake, tie in a specific dollar amount to an important action the organization will undertake and show the reader exactly how that amount will help someone, and then tell them again.

To achieve those objectives, Gaffny offered five ways to romance the ask:

• Use odd gift amounts, such as $67, $14, etc.;
• Focus on one amount;
• Attach recognition to an amount;
• Give the donor a “deal;”
• The ultimate weapon – an irresistible offer.

Disaster planning for your technology

Taming the technology beast can be a daunting prospect for many nonprofits, particularly when it comes to emergency preparedness. Taming that beast involves a detailed assessment of your organization’s current processes and systems.

Dennis Bagley, manager, and Michael Harnish CPA, Associate, technology, consulting and solutions at Plante & Moran provided an assessment questionnaire during the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Not-For-Profit Financial Executive Forum. Scoring is on a basis of 0 to 5 with no being 0 and 1, sort of and 5 for yes.

1. Within the past 12 months, has your organization made a detailed assessment of all its computer applications and identified which ones are of top priority in supporting routine business operations?
2. Based on the results of study and analysis, do you know the estimated dollar losses your organization would suffer if it had a computer or network outage for a week, two weeks, a month?
3. Do you think the quality and completeness of your organization’s documentation and operating instructions for information systems would enable otherwise qualified strangers to understand and operate your systems without undue delay, research and guesswork?
4. Does your organization back up computer tapes (or diskettes) off-premises, so that at least minor recovery operations might be performed?
5. When was the last time you inventoried your organization’s computer backups to ensure that all needed files are being kept? (Be sure to consider your newer applications and changes to older ones)
6. Within the past 18 months, have you formally surveyed or interviewed key representatives from departments that use and rely on your computers or network to obtain their views on what kind of manual or semi-automated processing could be accomplished if all services were suddenly cut off for periods ranging up to one month?
7. Does your organization have an up-to-date, detailed, written set of procedures on what to do in an emergency and on exactly how recovery operations would go forward if your computer facilities were destroyed or made inaccessible?
8. Has your organization performed tests under simulated disaster conditions in order to help verify that its computer processing can be accomplished at an alternate computer site under whatever provisions your organization has for backup and recovery operations?

A score of 40 indicates a good state of emergency preparedness; 30-39 shows a need for additional attention in some areas. Consider strengthening your disaster recovery plan in areas of relative weakness; 20-29 indicates you are unprepared for potential difficulties that could have been foreseen and avoided. Address the indicated weaknesses in your recovery plan; 10-19 shows very spotty attention to a number of key areas. Significant difficulties and delays in data recovery can be expected. Prompt corrective action is advised; 1-9 shows little attention has been given to a disaster recovery plan. A system disaster is sure to be very costly. A task force should be chartered immediately to address the development of a plan;
0 – Indicates the need for divine intervention to preclude major dollar losses and delays should you experience a disaster