9 Ideas For Finding Volunteers For Special Events

Finding individuals who are willing to be long-term volunteers for your nonprofit can be difficult. Many people in this country want to do whatever they can to help out organizations, but they don't necessarily want to do it all the time. That's why one-time special events can be very appealing to potential volunteers.

There are plenty of individuals out there who would love the chance to be a part of making your event a success; it’s just a matter of reaching them. In his book "The Idiot's Guide to Recruiting and Managing Volunteers," John L. Lipp wrote that you have to exhaust all avenues of communication to reach these potential volunteers. He suggested using the following techniques:

• Start by asking individuals who are part of your active volunteer program. As soon as you have a date confirmed for your event, send them a “save-the-date” message;
• Do the same thing with people who volunteered for your last special event. If your event includes sponsors, talk to them and see if they are interested in providing employees to help support it;
• Contact service clubs and professional organizations, especially those that have a connection to your cause, and ask them about making a commitment to provide a minimum number of volunteers for your event;
• Target people with specific skills;
• Reach out to organizations that specialize in recruiting volunteers for special events and one-time opportunities;
• Utilize the Internet to promote your event and volunteer opportunities;
• Contact local religious groups; and,
• Consider offering your clients an opportunity to volunteer for your special event.

Ex-Nonprofit CFO Sentenced

The former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a nonprofit in Metairie, La., has been sentenced to two years in prison after being convicted of embezzling nearly $25,000 from the organization and a company employee.

Kelley Williams was also ordered to pay $245,386 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, according to a report in The San Francisco Chronicle. The 38-year-old Williams must also serve three years of supervised release following her prison term.

Federal prosecutors charged Williams with forging the name of the nonprofit's president on checks she made payable to herself, which were then deposited into her bank account. She attempted to disguise these payments by making use of computer accounting software, prosecutors say.

While the name of Williams' former employer is not identified in court papers, it was revealed that the organization provides personal care attendants, transportation, and training to individuals with developmental disabilities.

You can read the full story in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Webinar: The Nonprofit CFO’s Survival Guide

Being a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of any business has its challenges, but it's even more difficult to be a CFO of a nonprofit. These individuals are under constant pressure to achieve various tasks -- automate processes, improve productivity, create greater levels of transparency and visibility -- making life very difficult for them.

Luckily, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Join The NonProfit Times and Intacct Corporation on Dec. 6 at 11:00 AM PST for a free webinar: The Nonprofit CFO’s Survival Guide. Joined by a panel of experts, Abraham Matthew, manager at CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, will bring his 10 years of experience of working with nonprofits to help CFOs better succeed at their craft. Matthew and the panel will be discussing the following topics:

• Fund Accounting: Supporting separate, balanced sets of books.
• Multiple Locations and Entities: Addressing centralized and local requirements.
• Controls and Cash Management: Distributing responsibilities while keeping tight controls.
• Grants: Tracking general vs. restricted dollars.
• Reporting and Visibility: Achieving transparency, accountability, and trust.
• Cloud Computing: Taking advantage of cloud computing to meet nonprofits' toughest challenges.

Any nonprofit CFO who is currently having trouble with any of the above topics should mark the date for this webinar on their calendar. Registration is free so sign up today!

Platform For The Nonprofit Sector

With Election 2012 now over, and President Barack Obama officially re-elected to a second term, we thought it was a good opportunity to bump up this post. President Obama will likely deal with issues of importance to the nonprofit sector again, perhaps even revisiting a potential cap on the charitable deduction, so it's important to see what the nonprofit sector wants out of the next four years

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In a special video filmed the day of The NonProfit Times' Power and Influence Top 50 Gala in Washington, D.C., 22 of the leading nonprofit executives let the two major party candidates know what the sector expects from the next administration when it comes to funding and cooperation. The video was released on the NPT website this morning, and a copy was delivered to both Gov. Romney and President Obama.

One of the key messages they delivered to the next occupant of the Oval Office was to increase dialog between Washington and the sector, and staying out of its way so that charity executives can do their jobs. They also urged the candidates not to attack charitable deduction or other tools, warning that they are needed to maintain the safety net for those less fortunate. The Obama administration has repeatedly tried to limit charitable deductions as a way to reduce the deficit.

The executives in the video include Robert F. Ashcraft, Diana Aviv, Brian Gallagher, and Aaron Hurst. The full list of participants can be viewed on the NPT website.

You can watch the video, which runs at around 8 minutes, on our website. Let us know what you think of the executives' message in our comments section.

Introducing NPT Grants

Looking for grant opportunities? The NonProfit Times is pleased to announce a new addition to our site: NPT Grants. This new feature allows our readers to browse the latest grants from around the web. We will be adding more in the coming weeks and months.

Here's how it works: There are a number of different grant categories available (i.e. "Conference Funding"). Grants that match those categories will be posted within those categories, with links to the application at the end of each description. From there, you can decide whether or not your nonprofit would be a good match.

Here's one of the many grants we already have available:


Type of Grant: Conference Funding
Grant Name: Small Scientific Conference Grant Program
Agency(s): Food and Drug Administration
Closing Date for Applications: July 16, 2014


Description:

Does your organization want to hold a scientific conference? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is awarding grants to nonprofits and other groups that are interested and eligible to receive funding. Every application submitted should contain a cover letter that clearly explains the primary objectives of the conference, anticipated outcomes, and the FDA Office/Center that the application should be forwarded to for consideration.

Eligible Organizations:

• Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
• Private Institutions of Higher Education
• Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
• Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)

The amount of financial assistance requested from the FDA cannot exceed $50,000. Award periods will typically last one year, though applicants may request a multi-year project, up to five years, for permanently sponsored conferences held annually or biennially on a recurring topic or theme. You can find out more information at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-11-310.html

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Head to the NPT Grants page to look at the other opportunities available!

The Buzz On Executive Compensation

Compensation for nonprofit executives is a big topic of conversation these days. Organizations that receive a lot of tax payer money are under heavy pressure to not give their top employees salaries or perks that seem, in the public eye, to be excessive. Some states have even proposed legislation placing caps on executive salaries.

With The NonProfit Times' 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Top Executive Positions Salary and Special Perks Report, you will have all the information you need to ensure that your top employees are not being given salaries or benefits that are out of line with the competition.

The report uses the findings of NPT's 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Salary and Benefits Survey to examine the top 15 executive level positions within the nonprofit sector including base salary, bonus practices, total cash compensation, salary increases, employee turnover, and more. The 15 positions examined in the report are as follows:

• Chief Executive Officer/President/Executive Director;
• Chancellor/President;
• Chief Operating Officer/Associate Executive Director;
• Executive Vice President;
• Chief Administrative Officer;
• Chief Advocacy Officer;
• Chief Development Officer;
• Chief Financial Officer;
• Chief Human Resources Officer;
• Chief Information Officer;
• Chief Marketing Officer;
• Chief Medical Officer;
• Chief Program Officer;
• Chief Scientific Officer; and,
• Chief of Staff.

To give you an idea of the kind of information you will find in the Top Executive Positions Salary and Special Perks Report, here are the top 10 perks that were given to CEO/President/Executive Director positions:

• Car or Car Allowance: 44.96% of respondents
• Additional Vacation Days: 37.98%
• Excess Life Insurance: 27.13%
• Reserved Parking: 15.50%
• Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan: 14.73%
• Supplemental Disability Insurance: 13.18%

Head to our online store to purchase the 2012 Executive Salary and Perks Report, or any of the other four Salary and Benefits Reports we have available.

Ariz. Group Ordered To Release Donation Records (UPDATED)

Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.)

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times has reported that Americans for Responsible Leadership has released the names of its contributors. The release identified the nonprofit Americans for Job Security as the organization behind the $11-million donation. That money was then passed to Center to Protect Patients Rights to ARL.

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The California Supreme Court ruled Sunday that a Phoenix, Ariz.-based Political Action Committee (PAC) had to release its donation records to state records.

The state's highest court made the 7-0 ruling on a rare Sunday conference call, ordering Americans for Responsible Leadership (ARL) turn over records relating to an $11-million donation to a business campaign that opposed two propositions by Gov. Jerry Brown. The court ruled that ARL had to submit the records to the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) an hour after their ruling, according to The Sacramento Bee.

As of this writing, however, ARL has yet to submit the records, having already unsuccessfully attempted to get the court to extend the deadline to 9 a.m. local time today. Matt Ross, a spokesman for ARL's legal time, said in a written statement to The Sacramento Bee that "While we are working to deliver the records, we still believe that the FPPC does not have the authority to take such action and have filed a request for immediate stay with the United States Supreme Court."

That letter was sent to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion in the controversial Citizens United case, which focused on campaign spending by corporations and nonprofits. In the letter, attorney Thad A. Davis wrote that the FPPC was unfairly targeting ARL because it was targeting Brown's initiatives.

For its part, the FPPC wants to review the donations records to determine whether ARL violated state rules that require nonprofits to disclose the names of its donors if their money was earmarked for a specific initiative. Depending on when they receive the records from the group, it remains to be seen whether the FPPC has enough time to make ARL disclose the names of its donors if a violation is found.

The NonProfit Times blog first reported on this story last week when a judge from the Sacramento Superior Court ruled that the FPPC could investigate ARL's donation records. That decision was eventually appealed to the California Supreme Court.

SBA Loans For Nonprofit Operations

Cross-Posted from The NonProfit Times Website

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If your nonprofit operates in any county that has been declared a major disaster area by President Barack Obama due to Hurricane Sandy, it might be eligible for low-interest loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Nonprofits can borrow up to $2 million at 3 percent interest rate on up to 30-year terms. Public liaison Carol Chastang said the SBA has already distributed 32,000 loan applications via mail and email in relation to Hurricane Sandy. According to Chastang, it takes 10 days after the SBA receives a completed application to render a decision.

As of Thursday, President Obama has declared major disasters in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut counties, but Chastang said her office, in conjunction with FEMA, is still conducting assessments in areas affected by Sandy and it is likely that additionally counties will be declared major disaster zones. The latest disaster declarations can be found at SBA’s Sandy hub: www.sba.gov/sandy

“We encourage people to make that phone call as quickly as possible,” said Chastang. “You can also apply online. We also encourage everyone to register with disasterassistance.gov or FEMA because other forms of assistance will be made available in the days to come.” She added that registering with FEMA, disasterassistance.gov or the SBA is “plugging into the pipeline.” Online SBA disaster loan applications are available at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/, or you can call 1-800-659-2955.

New Issue Of The NonProfit Times: 11/1/2012

Aside from the NPT 100 Report, the Nov. 1 issue of The NonProfit Times contains a number of articles covering a wide array of topics. Let's take a look at some of those stories:

Articles

• Nonprofits And Fundraisers Face Unflattering Light Of Consumer Media: Scrutiny by consumer media into some potential skeletons in the nonprofit sector’s closet has charity officials both capitulating and complaining.
• Mandel Center Changes Split Management From Business: Almost three decades after being among the pioneers in nonprofit management education, The Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations is making big changes to keep up with an evolution in the sector.
• Life After Lance: The Livestrong Foundation had been planning for life after Lance at some point – perhaps just not this soon.

Columns

• Funding 'Free': It’s a paradox. In a bad economy, more people are in need of the services provided by nonprofits just as it gets harder to raise funds for those services. People see that volunteers are important and organizations try to recruit more of them.
• Why It's Hard To Grow: There is a notable lack of attention paid to growth in the nonprofit sector, and it’s not because we’re just starting to come out of The Great Recession. There is a larger structural reason why growth is so difficult in the nonprofit sector no matter what the economic outlook. Being able to recognize that reason is the first step in overcoming this structural locked brake.

The NPT 100: 2012 Edition

The release of The NonProfit Times' Nov. 1 issue also marks the release of one of our most popular reports: The NPT 100. This in-depth study ranks the 100 largest nonprofits (by revenue) and offers a wide range of data on those organizations.

The YMCA of USA once again topped all organizations, bringing in $5,986,057,000 in total support for the fiscal year ending 2011. Yet, like most of the NPT 100 organizations, the Y had to look to different sources of revenue faced with dwindling government support and weaker charitable giving from a smaller pool of donors.

NPT's studies found that program service revenue was the second-largest portion of funds for nonprofits, coming in at $16.767 billion or one-quarter of all funds. Government support was at $11.1 billion, or 16 percent, up from $10.745 billion last year. Other revenue and investment income each contributed about 4 percent to the overall revenue pie, at $2.859 billion and $2.763 billion, respectively.

In terms of expenses, NPT 100 organizations spent $55.416 billion on program, $5.27 billion on administration, and $3.138 billion on fundraising.

Overall, the 24th annual NPT 100 Report received $33.374 billion in public support, falling below 50 percent of their total revenue of $66.875 billion. These same nonprofits saw $33.159 billion amid overall revenue of $64.43 billion last year, almost 51 percent.

To view the full report, visit our website.

Featured Nonprofit Job: Senior Director, Foundation Relations

Looking for a nonprofit job? The NonProfit Times' career center, the Nonprofit Job Seeker, has a couple of featured positions online today, including an opening for a Senior Director of Foundation Relations. Interested? Read on for more details.

The American Heart Association (AHA) in San Francisco, Calif., is hiring for this position, which involves building high-level relationships between top foundations that will increase giving to support the organization's mission. The successful candidate will work with volunteers and staff throughout AHA's Western States Affiliates to reach this goal.

AHA has a fundraising goal for this year of $785,200, so an emphasis will be placed on obtaining six-figure gifts.

Think you have what it takes for this job? Before you click that "apply now" button, make sure you meet the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in English, Communications, Journalism or related field;
• 5+ years’ development experience in the non-profit sector with a successful track record in developing and maintaining high-level foundation relationships, securing foundation grants, stewardship, reporting impactful outcomes, etc.;
• Ability to deal professionally in a corporate and non-profit environment and assume responsibility for guiding grants and programs from inception through completion;
• Exceptional communication skills;
• Ability to work in a fast paced, goal- and deadline-oriented environment with high expectations; and,
• Ability to work outside standard business hours as needed.

Apply today via our career center if you are interested.

California Judge Tentatively Allows Investigation Of PAC's Donors

A judge from the Sacramento Superior Court tentatively ruled Tuesday that the California's campaign finance watchdog agency could investigate an Arizona Political Action Committee's (PAC) $11 million donation.

Judge Shellyanne Chang said that citizens of California would suffer "irreparable harm" if contributions to Americans for Responsible Leadership were not investigated by the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), according to The San Jose Mercury News. The small business PAC has run campaigns against two propositions on the state's ballot, Proposition 30, a tax-hike proposal, and Proposition 32, which would stop unions from collecting dues for political purposes.

Judge Chang will oversee a hearing on the matter Wednesday before she makes her final decision.

California Gov. Jerry Brown praised the tentative ruling, telling the Associated Press that "This is the biggest campaign violation ever since the FPPC became operative in 1975, and it is heartening that the FPPC is going to court."

"We believe that the state has not proven its case and that the FPPC does not have the authority to issue an audit in advance of the election," said Americans for Responsible Leadership spokesman Matt Ross in a statement. "Depending upon tomorrow's final outcome, there is a high likelihood that Americans for Responsible Leadership will appeal."

Although 501(c)(4) groups are not required to disclose their donors under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) codes, California requires disclosure, and Gov. Brown has been campaigning hard to have PACs operating in the state to follow those rules. The pressure for Americans for Responsible Leadership to reveal its donations increased after the group received the $11 million meant to help it fight the two ballot propositions.

You can read the full story in The San Jose Mercury News.

Illinois Seeks Pay Data From Nonprofits

A new bill pending in the Illinois State Senate would require publicly-funded nonprofits to expose the pay their executives receive from private management companies.

The bill would accomplish this by closing a loophole that currently allows organizations to hide this data, according to a report in The Chicago Tribune. State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) filed the legislation after reading a series of reports in the Tribune that revealed that the nonprofit executive pay at 18 state-funded organizations rose at double the rate of the private sector in 2009 and 2010.

The report in question showed that nonprofits were able to hide their pay data by paying salaries through for-profit management companies they formed. The proposed legislation would amend Illinois's procurement code to specify that organizations would also need to reveal what executives are paid even if those salaries came through a private company.

This is the latest step in a series of efforts by the state to bring greater transparency to publicly-funded groups. In July, the Illinois Department of Human Services, which funds many organizations in the state, started requiring all tax-exempt organizations that received $250,000 or more to release the pay data for all employees, including those paid through private companies. This requirement will extend to any nonprofit receiving $250,000 or more in DHS funding.

Harris's bill will bring similar requirements to many organizations in Illinois, regardless of which agency is funding them. During Fiscal Year 2011,  more than $9.8 billion was distributed to almost 6,000 nonprofits throughout the state.

You can read the full report in The Chicago Tribune.

New York Nonprofit Salary Information

There are few states that have as much diversity in the nonprofit sector as New York. From famous organizations such as Charity: Water in New York City, to the government-related nonprofits of the Capital region, there are plenty of opportunities in the Empire State.

That's why, for the 2012 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Reports, The NonProfit Times released a dedicated report for New York nonprofits.

The 2012 Nonprofit Organizations New York State Salary and Benefits Report is the ideal guide for managers who want to make sure they are offering compensation in line with competitors. It stands to reason that a large charity in Manhattan will offer vastly different salaries and benefits to workers than in smaller regions of the state, which is why the report offers a baseline on salary and benefits so you will be in line with your peers.

As any successful nonprofit manager knows, salary is just half of the picture when it comes to compensation, especially with top-of-the-line jobs. That's why the New York Salary and Benefit Report lists the top executive perks given in the state. Additional vacation days and a car or car allowance were most common among New York's nonprofits, with more than half offering these perks to their top executives. It should be no surprise, then, that these positions have some of the lowest turnover rates of those surveyed for the report.

Other information included in the NY Salary and Benefits Report include:

• Annual Salary Increases (executive and non-executive);
• Base Salary and Total Cash Compensation data with percentile rankings for each position;
• Total compensation costs as a percentage of operating expenses;
• Employee profile data: number of full/part time; exempt vs. nonexempt;
• Retirement Plans (maximum contributions, eligibility, plan offerings, participation rates);
• Executive Employment Agreements (organizations offering, terms and conditions);
• Part Time Employee Benefit Offerings;
• Overtime Practices – exempt vs. non-exempt staff;
• Flexible Spending Accounts (offerings, maximum contribution percentile rankings); and,
• General Benefit Offering (covers 34 unique benefit programs).

This report can be purchased, along with the four other Salary Reports, on The NonProfit Times' online store.

Komen Affiliate Rebounds After Planned Parenthood Controversy

A Susan G. Komen affiliate in Washington appears to be regaining some of the support it lost after the the national organization attempted to pull funding for Planned Parenthood, a decision that was eventually reversed.

One of the affiliates hit hardest by the controversy was Komen Puget Sound, which opposed the national organization's Planned Parenthood decision. Although they worked hard to distance themselves, Komen Puget Sound missed its fundraising goal by $700,000 during this year's Race for the Cure.

While the Planned Parenthood controversy still lingers, officials at Komen Puget Sound are seeing signs that support is coming back. According to a report in Puget Sound Business Journal, Wednesday's Power of Promise Lunch in Seattle is slated to have 450 participants, up from 360 in 2011. Jim Clune, communications director at Komen Puget Sound, told Business Journal that he is also hearing from supporters that they realize that they weren't connected to the national office's decision, and that they are considering returning their support.

A survey sent to supporters by the Puget Sound affiliate seems to confirm that supporters are coming back. More than 60 percent of donors indicated that they still plan to donate to the nonprofit in the next 12 months, while 23 percent are at least considering donating. About 12 percent of respondents had negative things to say, criticizing the national organization's decisions related to Planned Parenthood.

On February 1, the national Komen office announced new eligibility requirements for grants that prevented organizations that were under federal investigation to receive funding. Planned Parenthood fell under that category, as U.S. Rep. Cliff Sterns (R-Fla.) had initiated an investigation see if the organization was using federal funds for abortions, a claim that Planned Parenthood denies. After a massive public backlash, the decision was reversed two days later, but the damage had already been done.

Key Komen leaders departed the organization, culminating with Nancy Brinker stepping down as CEO, although she still remains as the chair of the board's executive committee. The breast cancer nonprofit has also seen major sponsors step aside, including Churchill Downs, parent company of the Kentucky Derby, which dropped Komen in favor of Stand Up to Cancer. The company claimed at the time that the change was made because they wanted to focus on ways to raise money for cancer research in general, not just breast cancer.

You can read the full story in Puget Sound Business Journal.

3 Online Fundraising Tips

Traditional means of raising money still have their place in the nonprofit sector, but there's no question that online fundraising is gaining steam.

In an article on The Huffington Post, Darian Rodriguez Heyman, who has edited books such as "Nonprofit Management 101," wrote that 15 percent of the $317 billion donated to nonprofits come via the Internet. Organizations must start implementing online fundraising into their overall campaigns, yet many managers fear that it will take up too much of their time. Is there any way to take advantage of this growing trend without the use of a lot of time and money?

Thankfully, the answer is yes.

During the recent Social Media for Nonprofits conferences, presenters shared tips on how to best utilize online fundraising. Heyman listed three that are most useful for nonprofits:

• Make Your Donate Button Shine: Your donate button should stand apart from the rest of your site. When Network For Good simply changed its button's color from grey to red, they saw a 30 percent increase in donations.
• Default Levels are Key: It's usually important to give potential online donors default donation levels (i.e. $25, $50, $100, $250, and other/fill in the blank) to guide their generosity. But just like with the other tips, embrace data vs. gut- take the time to play around with these levels and see what maximizes dollars in the door.
• Map Donations to Impact: As Kay Sprinkel Grace says, "people don't give to you, they give through you." So help make their gift concrete: for instance, a $100 donation may feed 50 children in a particular war torn region, a mere $50 purchases life-saving medication for 60 pregnant women in Africa, etc. Every default donation level must have a specific impact associated with it, but toy around with how you operationalize your impact to gauge what moves people to dig a bit deeper.

You can read Heyman's full article on The Huffington Post.

The 2012 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Reports

The NonProfit Times, the leading business publication for nonprofit management, has released the 2012 editions of its annual Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Reports. In partnership with Bluewater Nonprofit Solutions, these five reports will give managers the most up-to-date information on current trends in nonprofit salaries and benefits so they can properly fill out their IRS Form 990s.

This year brings the introduction of a new report to the standard four that were available in previous years: The 2012 Nonprofit Organizations New York State Salary and Benefits Report. All of NPT’s reports are based on responses from around the United States, but this is the publication’s first report to collect information based on a specific state. The New York Salary and Benefits Report contains information on mid-level salary information, complete benefits coverage, and key benchmarking information, including base salary and total cash compensation data with percentile rankings for each position.

The other reports released by NPT today are:

• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Salary and Benefits Report: The information in this report will give you the salary range for nearly 252 positions in the nonprofit sector.
• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Salary Report: This is useful for organizations that already have a handle on their benefits packages, but need information to create competitive salary structures.
• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Benefits Report: Similar to the report above, this is the one to purchase if your nonprofit only needs help with creating competitive benefits packages for its employees.
• 2012 Nonprofit Organizations Top Executive Positions and Special Perks Report: Nonprofit executive compensation is so important to understand thoroughly. In order to attract the best people to be a part of a nonprofit organization, a very competitive environment, you need to make sure that you offer appealing compensation packages for hiring individuals who you wish to play an important role in your organization.

All five of the reports are available for purchase immediately on The NonProfit Times’ online store. Purchase one, or more, today so that your organization can attract the best and brightest employees, and stay on top of those Form 990s.

10 Details To Share When Seeking Grants

Foundations and other funders not only require a detailed description of the program for which you are seeking a grant but, as Alan Silver explained in "How to Win Grants," also other details of how your organization is run.

Silver refers to these details as "boilerplate items," and he recommended all nonprofits develop hard-copy and electronic versions of them so they can be easily inserted into your grant proposal. There are a number of things that can be on your boilerplate list, but Silver narrowed it down to 10 items he deemed most important:

• Documentation of agency legal status;
• Agency mission, vision, and values;
• Description of services, programs, staffing, fees, eligibility, or admissions criteria;
• Descriptive information on your geographic service area and target population (including state, regional, and national comparisons);
• What makes your agency special (examples include unique mission, quality, and cost metrics);
• Volunteers: Numbers, roles, hours, and the aggregate annual economic value of the time they contribute;
• Key management and staff;
• Summary statistics/utilization data; and,
• Key performance indicators and trends (cost per client or per encounter, number of clients served per year, comparison to industry standards).

Microsoft Employees Raise $1 Billion For Nonprofits

Cross-Posted From The NonProfit Times

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Microsoft Corporation employees have given $1 billion to nonprofits since the inception of the company’s Employee Giving Campaign in 1983. The software company, co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates, made the announcement at a town hall event yesterday. Gates is also the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer announced the news along with Gates and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire on the corporation’s campus in Redmond, Wash. The event was held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Employee Giving Campaign, which has benefited 31,000 organizations nationwide.

To mark the occasion, Microsoft announced that the four nonprofits that received the most money from the program would get a $25,000 grant. Those organizations were World Vision International, Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation, the American National Red Cross, and United Way of King County.

“I'm incredibly proud of our employees, and this is truly a time to celebrate, not just because we've raised a record amount of funds, but also because together with our nonprofit partners, we have impacted and improved the lives of hundreds of millions of people,” said Balmer.

When the Employee Giving Campaign was first implemented by Microsoft in 1983, 200 employees raised $17,000 for nonprofits. The company now has 35,000 employees, and it predicts that over $100 million will be raised for organizations this year.

“The impact of all that giving is almost incalculable, and the statistics don't even begin to tell the whole story,” said Jon Fine, CEO, United Way of King County.

Gates proudly recapped the employees’ history of giving, saying they have been involved in their communities from the company’s earliest days.

“Thirty years and $1 billion later, that impact can be felt around the world,” Gates said. “The company and its employees have much to be proud of at this remarkable milestone and, I know, will continue to make a positive impact in the years ahead.”

Gates is no stranger to philanthropy as his foundation has worked to support programs that aim to enhance healthcare and end global poverty. He also partnered with Warren Buffet in the Giving Pledge, which urges billionaires to agree to donate half of their wealth to charity. Gates was once again selected to The NonProfit Times’ Power and Influence Top 50, which honors the top nonprofit executives in the country.

The Employee Giving Campaign is a year-long effort, with the company matching employee volunteer time at $17 per hour and dollar-for-dollar charitable contributions to all eligible nonprofits up to $12,000 per employee. In addition to the $1 billion raised, employees have also volunteered more than 2 million hours of their time to causes since Microsoft began its volunteer match program in 2005.

The company places a special focus on the month of October both on its Redmond campus and in its offices across the U.S. Employees work together not only to volunteer their time and raise money through direct donations, but they also organize a month-long series of activities. These include a 5K run, an online auction, and an “underground” car show.

5 Suggestions For A Modest Website Redesign

When you hear the words "website redesign," images of major overhauls and hours upon hours of work come to mind. This is often the case for sites that have serious problems but, thankfully, that doesn't necessarily describe your nonprofit's webpage.

This was exactly the point that Jono Young and Rahell Guba of Blackbaud made during their session, "Better Nonprofit Websites: 52 Tweaks in 52 Weeks," during the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in San Francisco. As the title of the session suggests, Young and Guba offered 52 tweaks that nonprofits can make to their websites without having to commit major resources.

Here are five of those suggestions that you can use immediately that will make a world of difference when it comes to your website design:

• Use fifth grade language: Clean, simple, understandable external language. Making it relatable is better than making it likable.
• I don’t just want your money: Provide alternate ways to support in addition to donations, such as social media, email, word of mouth, blog about us, templated messages.
• Pictures speak louder: Visualize your achievements, goals, mission, appeals and campaigns. Use an infographic approach and make content digestible.
• Content approval workflows: Have a second, or third or fourth, set of eyes review your content before it goes public.
• Social your confirmation pages: These are your top supporters – help them brag about what they just did and market your organization for you.