Brand Promises Are Worth Keeping

A brand has many elements that contribute to its success. One of the most important of these is what is known as the brand promise.

A brand promise is a short yet inspiring statement that will provide the focus an organization needs to make use of its distinctive resources to make a difference. There are many examples of promises, the most famous probably being Smokey the Bear's "Only you can prevent forest fires" tagline.

It's definitely critical for these statements to be catchy but, according to David McNally and Karl D. Speak in "Be Your Own Brand," the most important thing that they reflect is what an organization is and how it wants to engage with others.

McNally and Speak offered the following tips on making a brand promise effective:

• Make it short -- five to eight words.
• Give it a voice that is direct and action-oriented, even exciting and inspirational.
• Orient people directly or indirectly to how the brand pays off for them.
• Base it on the organization’s brand ethos.
• Reflect how the brand provides value to others.
• Fine-tune it through many iterations. Don’t be reluctant to tinker and revise.
• Eventually, get it to be extremely strong. Don’t settle too soon. Go for a great personal brand promise that will keep everyone motivated and focused on the organization’s brand strengths.
• Test it with close friends or family – if their eyes light up and they immediately sense how the promise can help connect with others, it passes the test.

Things Not To Do On Facebook

Creating a great Facebook page is a lot harder than it sounds. It's easy enough to create an account and keep supporters up-to-date about your organization's mission, but there's more to it than that. To create a truly effective social media presence on Facebook, you should look to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

HSUS has more than 100 pages on its Facebook network, with six full-time staffers and a social media intern dedicated to keeping them updated. If that sounds like a lot of work, it's because it is. That's the kind of effort you need to be successful with the popular social network.

During a session at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), titled “Why I Don’t ‘Like’ You,” Carie Lewis, director of emerging media at HSUS, offered some suggestions about nonprofit should not do on Facebook:

• Post too much or too little.
• Only talk about yourself. Constituents can see right through it if all you’re doing is self-promotion.
• Post nothing but text, with little or no video or images.
• Sell, sell, sell. If all you do is push your products or ask for donations, it could feel like a used card lot.
• Ignore questions or disable comments. If constituents just wanted to read, they’d go to your website; social networks are social.
• Automate posts. Facebook users might not be on Twitter, so talk to them like Facebook users, sans hashtags.
• Not link to social media from your website.

Mission Statements And Your Belief Systems

Everyone involved with nonprofits know that mission statements are essential for an organization's existence, but do they know exactly what needs to be included?

In his book "Protecting Donor Intent," Jeffrey J. Cain wrote that the best statements go above and beyond what is required. They describe the principles and beliefs that inspire your philanthropy in addition to the main goal of the organization. Whether you think it's fair or not, your belief systems play an important role in how people perceive your organization.

Cain wrote that it's not enough to simply state the beliefs that are behind your goals. You must explain them so that those carrying out your mission can consider them. He recommended asking the following eight questions about your beliefs when crafting a mission statement:

• Are you religious? Do you want your faith to be reflected in your philanthropy? If so, how?
• What are the ideas, traditions, persons, events, and circumstances that shaped you as a person?
• Why are you establishing a philanthropic entity? What are your motivations?
• What would be the worst thing that could happen to the assets you’ve dedicated to the charity?
• What good are you trying to achieve?
• How important is family involvement to you?
• Over time your values might come into conflict with each other, with your heirs, or with your society’s changing mores. How should such matters be resolved?
• What parts of your foundation’s mission and grant-making would you like to remain constant over time? What aspects are nonnegotiable?

Breast Cancer Nonprofit's Mysterious End Prompts Calls For Investigation

After the abrupt shutdown of a Chicago, Ill.-based breast cancer nonprofit, State Senator Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) is calling for the state attorney general to investigate the organization.

Y-Me, which operated a nationwide hotline for breast cancer patients, caused a shock last Thursday when it suddenly fired its staff and shutdown its offices, according to a report in The Chicago Sun-Times. Sen. Silverstein was one of more than 20,000 people who helped the organization raise more than $2 million by participating in its May 13 race and walk.

The office of Attorney General Lisa Madigan said that it would review Y-Me's finances, but didn't accuse the charity of any wrongdoing.

Sharon Green, the charity's first executive director and a current board member, said that economics were the only cause for the shutdown. She told The Sun-Times that Y-Me's finances will be revealed when the organization files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy later this week. She also said that the money raised by the May 13 race was used to keep the charity's hotline open as long as possible.

Public records from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) indicate that the breast cancer charity saw a big drop in donations over the last five years. Contributions dropped from a high of $16.7 million in 2007 to just $5.2 million in 2010. In addition, an audit released by Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office on Monday revealed that the worth of Y-Me's investments also plummeted. They carried a value of $1.5 million in 2010, but fell sharply to $803,204 as of June 30, 2011. This would indicate either investment losses or that the money was used to pay expenses.

While Green blamed economics as the reason for Y-Me's downfall, a former volunteer and founder of the group's fundraising race, Margaret Harte, said over the weekend that "incompetence and mismanagement" was to blame. She put added blame on the leadership of former CEO Margaret Kirk, who ended her tenure at the end of 2009.

You can read the full story in The Chicago Sun-Times.

Defining Your Accounting System Requirements

Yesterday, we posted a preview from our upcoming webinar showing how inefficiencies in accounting systems can lead to a lack of focus in business leadership. We have one final preview from the presentation today, which documents one of the important decisions nonprofits have to make when choosing new software: Your requirements.

Just as a job seeker wouldn't settle for the first opportunity that came his way, organizations should have pretty high standards about what they want from an accounting system. While every nonprofit is going to make different decisions, Bob Blake, founder of Xanergy, and Taylor MacDonald, vice president of channels at Intacct, recommend some requirements to keep in mind:

• Document the issues with your current system.
• What do you want to achieve with your new system?
• What type of information does management need to make better organizational decisions?
• What is the impact to the organization?
• Which processes do you want to automate?
• Tap into outside experts and your peers.
• Document expected improvements and return on investment and total cost of ownership.
• Use a third-party expert to help.

To learn more about the decisions you will have to make if you decide to choose a new accounting system, attend our free webinar tomorrow at 2:00 PM EDT.

Accounting System Inefficiencies Can Hurt Focus On Leadership

In two days, Intacct Corporation and The NonProfit Times will be holding a free webinar on accounting systems for nonprofits. We'd like to take this time to give readers a sneak peek at some of the content in the presentation.

The right accounting system for your nonprofit should work smoothly so that the organization's focus remains on the important issue of business leadership. Unfortunately, too many accounting programs are inefficient, which means more time is spent on them. In the upcoming webinar, the top issues CFO organizations are facing:

• Managing cash and budget: 24 percent.
• Improving information provided to managers in the organization: 23 percent.
• Improving operational business processes: 23 percent.
• Improving finance and accounting business processes: 15 percent.
• Improving controls and compliance: 8 percent.
• Managing investments: 3 percent.
• Implementing a new ERP system: 2 percent.

The top bottlenecks these same organizations face in the monthly close process are also discussed. They are:

• Manual processes rather than automated: 26 percent.
• Systems not integrated: 24 percent.
• Staff shortage: 12 percent.
• Inadequate data: 10 percent.
• Processes not followed: 9 percent.
• Staff lack of skills: 8 percent.
• Processes undefined: 7 percent.

As you can see, organizations are facing a host of problems with their accounting systems. If you want to find out how to better tackle these issues, we encourage you to attend our free webinar on July 19th at 2:00 PM EDT.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another preview of the webinar!

Bronx Nonprofit Director Accused Of Bribery

An employee at a Bronx, N.Y. nonprofit that manages apartments for poor people, was arrested yesterday on charges of bribery, according to federal authorities.

Satnarine Seebachan, the program director of Bronx Shepherds Restoration Corp., is accused of accepting $100,000 from contractors doing business with the nonprofit. The money was allegedly used to make numerous improvements to his home in Glen Cove, Long Island, according to The New York Daily News.

The indictment presented by federal authorities quotes Saeebachan as allegedly telling one contractor that he would "make it worth his while" by giving out Bronx Shepherds contracts if he performed the free work on his home. The work done on the house included installing marble floors in the foyer, bathroom, and kitchen in 2006 and 2010.

Seebachan pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan Federal Court Monday  and was released on $50,000 bond. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

You can read the full story in The New York Daily News.

Nonprofit Farms Feeling The Heat As Drought Continues

The current heatwave affecting most of the country hasn't just been hard on the average Joe trying to beat the heat. It's also forced nonprofit farms to improvise as rain continues to be scarce.

One of these farms is Harvestland Farm West of Anerson, Ind., where the state is enduring the longest drought in nearly a century, according to The Herald Bulletin. The nonprofit farm has been forced to tap a pond in the center of its property to keep crops alive.

Another farm, Growing Places Indy, is faring a little because two of its three gardens have in-ground sprinkler systems. However, the organization's executive director -- Laura Henderson -- said that while the crops are growing, they are not surviving as long as they would given better conditions. She estimates that crop yields will fall 10 to 20 percent if the drought doesn't end soon.

This doesn't necessarily mean nonprofits will see a big hit to its revenue. Henderson said that crop sales account for less than 10 percent of the organization's budget. At the farm run by the mental health group Aspire Indiana, crops generate less than half of the group's budget. This is because the nonprofit uses farming for vocational rehab, not as a revenue generator.

You can read the full story in The Herald Bulletin.

Ethical Decision-Making For Nonprofits

Ethical choices are not always so obvious. Day-to-day pressures at nonprofits can have a big impact on the decisions managers or employees make. Suddenly these individuals find themselves in the middle of situations they didn't anticipate, leading them to make spur-of-the-moment decisions.

So with ethical decisions being anything than clear-cut, how are you supposed to make the "correct" decision?

Speaking during the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) 49th International Conference on Fundraising, Barbara R. Levy of Organization & Fundraising Counsel acknowledged the difficulties nonprofit employees face when making tough decisions. To help make the right decisions for your organization, Levy offered five questions to ask when trying to determine the more ethical path:

• What are the critical facts of the situation?
• What are the key, perhaps competing, values and ethics at stake?
• Who are the players and stakeholders in the decision?
• What are the driving forces in the situation?
• What is the worst case scenario and the effects or impact on all the players who are stakeholders?

8 Leadership Dos And Don'ts

A nonprofit is unlikely to have any success without effective leadership. Everyone’s definition of a leader is different but there are some common threads, according to Emmet D. Carson, CEO and President of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

In “Nonprofit Management 101,” Carson laid out the qualities that all leaders should and should not have. The direction of your organization will ultimately determine the specific characteristics you should express, but Carson wrote that the following eight factors shouldn’t be ignored, regardless of the situation:

• DO lead consistently with passion and explicitly stated organizational values to inspire those around you.
• DO insist on a comprehensive annual evaluation.
• DO learn equally from outstanding and mediocre leaders.
• DO cultivate the art of active listening.
• DON’T ever surprise your board.
• DON’T avoid confronting the –isms of racism, sexism, and ageism in your organization.
• DON’T confuse delegating with managing.
• DON’T rely on a one-size-fits-all leadership style.

8 General Human Resources Policies

Everyone knows about those major human resources policies that employees must follow. It’s basically a no-brainer that it’s unethical to steal office equipment, or something like that. Yet sometimes it’s the little things that can really get you in trouble.

So much for not sweating the small stuff.

In his book “Managing a Nonprofit Organization,” Thomas Wolf wrote that the little details relating to day-to-day work life should be properly spelled out to employees. Some of these relate specifically to in-office procedures, while some are more general.

Wolf listed eight examples of these policies that you should include in your employee conduct manual:

• Specific rules about how the staff is authorized to make purchases.
• Guidelines governing travel (such as per-diem limits, times when air travel is permitted, and mileage reimbursement rates).
• Controls on personal use of the office telephone.
• Rules governing the use and care of office equipment.
• Limits placed on the organization’s liability for personal property left on the premises.
• Guidelines governing outside work, such as whether the employer has first refusal on publications and whether the organization permits leaves of absences to do outside jobs.
• Intellectual property and confidentiality issues.
• Policies regarding working hours and conditions that address regular office working hours, flextime or overtime arrangements, and overtime compensation.

Law Would Shine Light On Nonprofit Finances

The financial records of North Carolina nonprofits receiving state aid would be subject to public access, should a recently ratified law be signed by Gov. Bev Perdue.

The Accountability for Nonprofits Act is one of 59 bills awaiting the signature of the governor, according to The Triangle Business Journal. It requires nonprofits that receive more than $5,000 in grants or loans from the state, local, or federal level to provide their annual financial statements should a member of the public request them. Organizations would also be required to provide copies of their most recent IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ or a document providing confirmation of the submission of tax forms from the IRS.

The bill allows nonprofits to comply with these requirements by posting the forms and reports on their website. If signed by Perdue, the bill would become law on Oct. 1.

While proponents of the bill argue this is necessary considering the amount of money going into local nonprofits (about $600 million annually according to the North Carolina Auditor's Office), Dave Heinen of the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits told The Triangle Business Journal that organizations have already been providing their Form 990s for inspection. He said that nonprofits can fulfill the Accountability for Nonprofits Act by continuing to provide their tax forms to online databases such as GuideStar.

Heinen said that the only real new wrinkle in this law is the insistence that nonprofits disclose how they use public money. However, he said even that is something that most groups already do when filling out various state or federal reports.

You can read the full story in The Triangle Business Journal.

Santa Cruz County Fair Considers Nonprofit Status

In the face of continuing financial struggles, the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds is considering pursuing nonprofit status as one option in an effort to stay operational.

As reported in The Mercury News, the home of the California city's annual County Fair and Ocean Speedway announced that its revenue is about $200,000 behind the $1.2 million projected for this year. Dave Kegebein, the head of the volunteer team that took control of the fairgrounds in January, told a gathering of 75 people that the fair will be bankrupt by the end of the first quarter of 2013 if something isn't done.

The Santa Cruz Fairgrounds has always received funding from the state government, but with Sacramento struggling with budget deficits, that support ended, costing the fair $140,000. Kegebein said that another problem was spending $500,000 in excess of revenue last year.

Becoming an independent nonprofit is one consideration to saving the fair, Kegebin said, as it would free it from state regulations and enable operations to be run more efficiently. This decision has not been set in stone, however, and the fair is still considering all of its options. In the meantime, an organization called Friends of the Fair is appealing for donations from citizens to fund the fairgrounds in the short-term.


You can read the full story in The Mercury News.

Webinar: Is It Time For A New Accounting Software?

Accounting plays a big role in the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit. If you are finding your methods of this important practice are a little behind on the times, it may be time to consider a new accounting software for your organization.

Join The NonProfit Times and Intacct Corporation on July 19 at 2:00 PM EDT for a free webinar on how to select accounting systems. Attendees will hear from two experts in this field: Taylor Macdonald of Intacct and Bob Blake, founder of Xanergy. With their years of experience in the accounting software industry and the nonprofit sector, Macdonald and Blake will show you how to simplify the process for your organization. Here are some of the topics they will discuss:

• How to determine what you need from a new accounting system.
• Best practices for finding the right vendor.
• Making sure the system you select maximizes financial transparency and accountability to the board.
• New options made available by cloud computing.
• Calculating the return on investment (ROI) you can expect from a new cloud financial management and accounting system.

We encourage everyone who wants to attend this webinar to register today. Hope to see you there on July 19!

6 Items To Include In An Executive Summary

On its surface, the executive summary of a grant proposal sounds an awful lot like a cover letter. It’s true that they have their similarities but if you think writing a great cover letter will send you on your way to a grant, you’d be wrong.

Waddy Thompson, author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grant Writing,” wrote that whereas the goal of a cover letter was to connect with the reader on a personal level, executive summaries present your proposal in a more formal manner. It also should highlight all of the reasons your organization deserves funding, rather than just the key reasons.

Thompson stressed that your executive summary should summarize your entire proposal. He wrote that you must include the following six items if your summary is to be successful:

• A one-sentence statement about the program for which you are applying and the grant amount you seek.
• Mention of any grant history with the funder.
• A highly condensed context paragraph pointing out your charity’s qualifications for carrying out this program.
• A one-paragraph description of the program, including its main activities, goals, who will run it, and anticipated beginning and end dates.
• A reference to the budget, noting areas of greatest expense to be covered by the grant and if any other funder has already committed to the program.
• A moving closing paragraph stating the difference the grant will make to your constituents and to the community.

6 Ways To Improve Your Volunteer Recruitment

Nonprofits are always looking for new ways to improve their volunteer recruitment. The best way to do this, according to Susan J. Ellis, is to put yourself in the shoes of the volunteer.

Ellis, president of Philadelphia, Pa.-based Energize, Inc., suggested visiting online registry sites to look for volunteer opportunities, putting you in the position of a volunteer looking for unpaid work. Doing this can reveal some very important information, such as:

• What's your local competition? (Like it or not, other organizations are doing this too.);
• Conversely, what organizations do you know that want volunteers but are not listed online? Is this to your advantage or not?;
• What are organizations like yours asking volunteers to do? Might such tasks be valuable to your operation, too?;
• How flexible are the other assignments in terms of schedule, place(s) where the work has to be done, etc.?;
• How attractive does each position sound? How much detail does each listing provide?; and,
• Study the descriptions you're posting or preparing to post. How do they compare? Will you be able to compete successfully?

All of this information will help you to better form your own volunteer recruitment program so that it accurately matches what applicants want.

The Global Fund Tries New Method Of Solicitation

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM) is taking a new approach to solicitations by pitching its case directly to financiers.

After having difficulty in recent years raising money, The New York Times reported that the charity's new general manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, made a spirited pitch to finance ministers from participating nations. In a meeting in Tunisia, Jaramillo urged them to invest in GFATM now because "the out-years will be much cheaper as your number of cases goes down."

Jaramillo cited Nambia as an example of cost-efficiency. The African desert country spends $120 million a year on AIDS treatment, with half of that money coming from the Global Fund. These efforts helped Nambia free 9,200 hospital beds per year and saved the lives of 1,000 health workers and 550 teachers. In addition, the AIDS deaths in the country dropped from 2,700 to 56 over five years.

The Global Fund, founded in 2002, is almost entirely funded by the largest development nations and its taxpayers. Its largest private contributor is the Gates Foundation, which recently committed $750 million to GFATM. The global financial crisis had a huge impact on the organization, and the drop in financing has left it short of its goals. In May 2011, GFATM stated it was $1.3 billion short of its needs for 2011 through 2013. As a result, the organization has asked many of the countries it helps to make less ambitious plans and to cover more of its own costs.

You can read the full story in The New York Times.

Businesses Using Nonprofits To Hide Political Donations

When the United States Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Citizens United case two years ago, it opened the door for an influx of corporate money into elections. Most thought this would manifest itself in the form of so-called super PACs (Political Action Committees). 

While this has happened in some instances, a report in The New York Times indicates that many corporations are funneling their political donations through nonprofits so they are not subject to normal disclosure requirements. This allows businesses to push for a political agenda without being held accountable for it.

In its review of corporate governance reports, tax returns of nonprofits, and regulatory filings, The New York Times uncovered many previously undisclosed donations to political nonprofits from corporations. For example, health insurance giant Aetna donated over $3 million last year to the American Action Network (AAN), a Republican-leaning organization that has spent millions of dollars attacking President Barack Obama's health care law. This donation comes despite Aetna's president publicly backing the legislation.

Most of corporations' donations went to organizations like AAN, which fall under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code as "social welfare" organizations. Since they are not technically political organizations, they don't have to disclose their donors to the Federal Election Committee (FEC), which makes them attractive to businesses. As scrutinized as super PAC spending is, they were outspent by 501(c)(4)s in the 2010 midterm elections.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has already revoked the tax-exempt status of one political nonprofit this year, leading to speculation as to whether the agency will act on some of the bigger groups such as AAN or the Democratic-leaning Priorities USA. Until such action is taken, however, it appears corporations will continue to use nonprofits to shield their donations.

You can read the full story in The New York Times.

7 Ways To Engage Religious Donors

Religious donors are anything but a one-trick pony. As a study by The NonProfit Times and InfoGroup last year showed, these individuals will also give to a select number of secular groups as well as their favorite religious groups. In fact, they are almost three times as likely to donate to other groups than those who do not give to religious institutions.

As with any strategy to reach new donors, one marketing strategy doesn't fit all. This is especially true with religious donors. It's one thing to just reach out to them; it's another thing entirely to convince them that your cause aligns with their morals.

In “Nonprofit Management 101,” Jennie Winton and Zach Hochstadt, two partners at Mission Minded, identified seven tactics you can follow to get religious groups to appeal on your behalf:

• Tactic 1: Identify local religious organizations;
• Tactic 2: Create a brochure that explains the benefits of supporting your nonprofit;
• Tactic 3: Mail an introductory letter and brochure about the nonprofit to each group;
• Tactic 4: Schedule and make follow-up phone calls;
• Tactic 5: Create introductory packets for organizations that agree to raise money for the nonprofit;
• Tactic 6: Create fundraising templates for religious institutions that agree to appeal for money on your behalf; and,
• Tactic 7: Follow up with all partners monthly.

Study: Nonprofit Hospital CEO Pay Doesn't Affect Quality Of Care

A study by the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies (NHCPPS) found that there is no correlation between the quality of care at nonprofit hospitals and the pay of their CEOs.

The Bangor Daily News today reported on the study that showed that the size of a CEO's compensation package correlated closer with the size of their hospitals rather than the quality of its charitable care. For example, the head of Lebanon, N.H.-based Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital -- $1.1 billion in revenue -- made $785,000 in 2009, while the CEO of Colebrook's Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital -- $15 million in revenue -- made a comparably smaller $150,000 that same year.

New Hampshire Attorney General Michael A. Delaney, who hired NHCPPS to determine how CEO pay has changed in the state's 23 nonprofit hospitals, said in a statement that “Given these hospitals exist to provide quality health care and are required to provide community benefit and charitable care in light of their non-profit status, the lack of such a correlation is a significant concern."

Rather than just relying on public Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings, NHCPPS also made use of internal hospital records including CEO employment contracts, board minutes, executive memos, and W-2 forms from 2005 to 2010.

The study found that all of the nonprofit hospitals in the state met IRS standards for executive pay, except for a few instances. Three of them didn't provide written records from board meetings where CEO compensation was a topic, and two smaller institutions didn't use pay at similar hospitals as a benchmark for their executives.

You can read the full story in The Bangor Daily News.