Posted by Gayle Gifford on August 23, 2010 in Great quotes
Saw this Rumi quote two days ago on a wall hanging at a crafts guild shop. Thought it was a lovely reminder especially on a day that was pouring down rain and making us a little glum:
Posted by Gayle Gifford on August 10, 2010 in Fundraising
Below the fold in Monday morning’s Providence Journal was a lovely story about Ram and Nishi Nehra, a retired couple from Middletown, Rhode Island, who have been supporting an educational NGO in their native India since 2001.
I know that their story is not unique, that each day there are millions, probably billions, of philanthropic acts across the globe.
But what made me smile over my morning tea was the way that Ram described his philanthropy:
“I get so much satisfaction, so much pleasure out of this — I can’t tell you in words. You have to experience this. This is full of life.”
Demonstrating again the principle of “giving till you feel good” that my departed colleague, Herb Kaplan, always espoused.
Posted by Jon Howard on August 4, 2010 in Communicating, Fundraising, Nonprofit Highlights, Profiles of passion and courage
We got a wonderful letter out of the blue last week. The letter was from Alex Marthews, the executive director of Growth Through Learning, one of our very first Cause & Effect clients, and one we hadn’t heard from in the last 13 years.
“Dear Jonathan and Gayle,
“In 1997 a man named Roger Whiting came to you with a story about a Tanzanian woman named Alice Mnaku, who dreamed of going to college but could not afford it. Thanks to your sage advice, Roger went on to found Growth Through Learning. It is lessons he learned from Cause & Effect that has enabled us to become the successful non-profit we are today. This year alone, GTL granted 317 scholarships to bright girls from poor families in East Africa….”
Roger Whiting was a retired insurance man from Worcester, Massachusetts. With no background in international development or education, Roger devised a simple and direct response to Africa’s poverty that has, in the years since 1997, also proven to be profoundly life-changing for hundreds of young women. We were sad to learn that Roger passed away in May of this year. But we are pleased and proud to know that we played a part in setting Growth Through Learning on the path to success.
Just like business start-ups, new nonprofits face an uphill struggle for survival and growth — and with far less access to start-up investment capital. Only yesterday, Gayle and I met a whole roomful of passionate volunteers and staff at the New Roots Providence consultant fair, many of them seeking guidance in their start-up processes.
What might this new generation learn from a file we closed in 1997? We dug deep into Gayle’s hard drive and had a long talk with Alex Marthews to find out. Read More >>
Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 27, 2010 in Communicating, Effectiveness
The IRS has released a state-by-state list of nonprofits that are at risk of automatically losing their tax exempt status for failure to file required reports for three consecutive years. They are giving small groups an extension to October 15, but after that, you are out of luck.
According to the IRS site:
“This one-time relief benefits Form 990-N (e-Postcard) and Form 990-EZ filers only. Organizations required to file Form 990 or Form 990-PF are not eligible and are automatically revoked if they fail to file for three consecutive years.” Any organization that loses its tax-exempt status will have to reapply.
In quickly looking through the over 1,100 nonprofits on the RI list, I noticed at least one of my former clients whom I had told years ago when I worked with them briefly that they needed to file a 990 (I’ve let them know they are on the list) and surprisingly many veterans organizations.
This is pretty serious stuff. You can find the list on the IRS web site by clicking here. If you haven’t been sending any annual 990s to the IRS, especially if you are a very small nonprofit that was previously exempt from filing, you would be well-served to scroll through your state’s list.
Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 22, 2010 in Communicating
Maybe it’s because I’ve recently been reading Made To Stick, that I couldn’t help being puzzled at the strategy behind touting 17 policy points used by one of the candidates at last night’s mayoral debate.
After an hour and a half of debate, not one of the candidates left a ” sticky” idea behind. Sticky= Understood + Remembered
This morning, I went to the web site of that prime number loving candidate to look up his 17 point economic development plan. Interestingly enough, they were grouped into three key and much more sticky ideas: retain, recruit, reform.
(By the way, I had to count the bullets underneath these three headers and I swear, I’ve counted three times now, that there are 18 points, not 17. Maybe he’s giving us a baker’s 17 — one extra thrown in? )
The 17/18 points failed to meet the very first requirement in the book for making ideas stick: simplicity.
Maybe this candidate is thinking that voters will remember that he has a plan with 17/18 points. Maybe 17 is supposed to sound very comprehensive. Read More >>
Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 14, 2010 in Fundraising
The Institute for Conservation Leadership has just done small organizations a great service by releasing a study of the online fundraising experiences of 16 grassroots organizations. And a hearty thank you to those organizations that were willing to share their experiences in this report.
The study was compiled by consultant, author and trainer extraordinaire Andy Robinson (if you haven’t, you should check out Andy’s wonderful books through our mutual publisher Emerson & Church ).
Andy’s title cues us up for what’s inside: “Reality Check: How Grassroots Environmental Organizations are (or are not) raising money online.”
Some of the lessons learned by small organizations:
One particularly interesting finding came from the Ohio Environmental Council. While most of their membership giving came offline, those donors who had email and received ongoing contact through a robust online program gave twice as much annually as their no-email counterparts.
You can download a free copy of the report here from ICL, though you will need to register.
Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 8, 2010 in Better Boards
I just heard another sad tale today of a nonprofit that ended up in a financial pickle that almost ended its vital community programs.
Apparently the executive director took on a grant obligation which required a big match and the board took the exec’s word that the money was there to back up the obligation.
While it is the rare day that I find myself quoting Ronald Reagan, here goes: “Trust but Verify.”
The relationship between a Board and its CEO would be pretty broken if there weren’t high degrees of trust both ways. Yet for a Board to be truly exercising its fiduciary role, it can’t always rely on the word of its staff. It’s a sorry thing to have to say that, but even the most trustworthy person may find his or herself (or a family member) in a situation that they believe merits directly bending the truth or using silence to avoid disclosing a problem.
There was absolutely no personal gain in this case and nothing illegal. But how many times have you read a newspaper story about the loyal employee, the one that everyone trusts implicitly, who turned out to have been embezzling money all those years. (Often to support gambling addictions – we’ve had too many of those in our state). And think “that can’t happen to us.”
Instead, think about how that might happen to you and take some preventive action.
In their PolicyGovernance (R) model, John & Miriam Carver suggest three ways that Boards can monitor the situation at their organization:
1. Ask for a report from staff
2. Engage someone from outside the organization to conduct a review (e.g. your auditor), or
3. Inspect it yourself.
Every Board needs to make sure that they are judiciously using ways 2 & 3 in addition to relying on staff reports. It’s a heck of a lot wiser to trust, when you’ve got the independent verification that everything is hunky dory.
Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 1, 2010 in Little ideas
We just returned from five glorious days in the Black Hills of South Dakota (no Rocky Raccoon, though we did see bison, pronghorn, lots of deer, and a few prairie dogs in Custer State Park).
With our laptops at home, we didn’t check email, or Tweet, or blog. We barely used our mobile phones except to call home once or twice and to let our friends know we were coming.
Instead of being connected online, we spent the time reconnecting with the natural world in the warm embrace and good company of dear friends, attending the wedding of our honorary niece Lilly and her new husband Jon, rocking out at their reception on beautiful Sylvan Lake and bicycling the Mickelson Trail from Hill City to Custer and back again (where you get to ride by the Crazy Horse monument). 
We beamed enjoying the talented Hannah’s performance as Laurey in Custer High School’s production of Oklahoma! (on vide
o, we couldn’t be there in person), climbed to Little Devil’s Tower for the most glorious of views and played tourist in Deadwood at Mt. Moriah Cemetery and at Roughlock Falls.
We didn’t worry once about client projects (sorry! we do love you thoug
h) as we watched horses frolic (they did) in the meadow over breakfast, reveled over every newly discovered wildflower, and even spotted a bird for our life list (red naped sapsucker), though no golden eagle.
We shook our heads in dismay over the infestation of the forest by mountain pine beetles and learned all about forest and bug management from Lilly’s entomologist dad Bill and her park service step dad Duane.
While eating lunch admiring the view from Little Devil’s Tower, dear friend Marie taught us plant identification with this ditty: “Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have knobs from their knees to the ground.” (I spared sharing identification techniques for finding excellent board members — anyone have a ditty for that?).
Posted by Jon Howard on June 17, 2010 in Communicating, Fundraising
At first glance, I don’t welcome the email from Christina Wellington Traister. The body reminds me that I haven’t sent in my pledge to Bates. Not a word about what amount I had pledged, which I’ve long forgotten. Righteous annoyance almost cancels appropriate guilt.
But the PS grabbed me. (And yes, I read the PS first. I quickly see that the main message holds bad news for me).
“P.S. Have you heard the Bates parking meter story? It’s two minutes and guaranteed to make you smile…this was sent to alumni (who hadn’t made a Bates Fund gift or pledge) two weeks ago.”
I can’t imagine a parking meter on the leafy Bates quad of my memory, nor even on the surrounding streets of sleepy Lewiston, Maine, so “the parking meter story” monicker raises a question I can’t answer without clicking on the link, a classic teaser trope. Christina promises to answer the question in two minutes or less and amuse me in the process.
I like the quick and indirect way Christina clues me in that this is not just a funny story. She tells me this story was sent to non-contributing alums a couple of weeks ago. That truth-in-advertising builds vital trust and gently reminds me that I’m a delinquent, too. I click on the link. Read More >>
Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 15, 2010 in Great quotes
I had just had a few moments to crack open a magazine today and happened to pick up the June 14, 2010 edition of Time magazine.
Its”10 Questions” column featured the Dalai Lama, who apparently has a new book out called Toward a True Kinship of Faiths.
This quote really called to me:
In response to the question: “How can we teach our children not to be angry?” He replied:
“I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted.”
As we go about doing our own work, how much of what we consider essential, what we truly value, do we take for granted?
The Dalai Lama reminds us that we need be intentional in our actions to create the word we’d like to see.
But I also found in his concern, another request. That as we focus on achievement and producing results, we need to also remind ourselves that our humanity, our societal connections formed from kindness and empathy, are achievements too. And ones we need to work at.