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 >>
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.
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 >>
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 >>
I’m concerned that the word Volunteer may be limiting our ability to recruit some very needed assistance.
If I had to wager a guess, I’d bet that when most people hear the word Volunteer they are likely to think of direct service – like building a house for a deserving family, or serving meals at a soup kitchen, or cutting trails or dragging debris out of a river on Earth Day.
Programs that promote volunteerism or community service jobs tend to focus on these shorter term, immediate reward type of assignments.
But every day I encounter small organizations that desperately could use a different type of volunteer, like someone to:
show up each day to answer the phone or file papers,
see that important communications tasks are completed, like getting the newsletter out the door (or into email) on a regular schedule, keeping the mailing list up-to-date, managing the twitter feeds, or sending thank you notes to donors,
organize the monthly open house to introduce prospective donors to their organization,
help with cash flow analysis or long-term revenue projections, or
plan and implement those monthly programs from start to finish.
They especially could use someone willing to serve as their volunteer coordinator, a volunteer who understands that some of the best service they could give would be to help recruit self-managing volunteers for these other important, but not so obvious, assignments.
Did I forget to mention serving on the Board?
The Samaritans have telephone befrienders, those highly trained volunteers who staff their 24 hour suicide prevention hotlines.
Museums and zoos recruit docents, those volunteers who agree to specialized training and a long term commitment so they can lead tours or provide information to visitors. Docent sounds so much more important than a mere volunteer, don’t you think?
I think it’s time for some serious brainstorming to come up with a slew of new words to describe fundraising, financial, operations and project manager volunteers.
That’s the message from Bruce Lesley, Executive Director of First Focus, a national organization that works for greater federal investments in children. I heard Lesley’s keynote speech at this morning’s breakfast event for Rhode Island KIDS COUNT.
Lesley has cred in the case-making business. This year and last First Focus and allies helped save the vital Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from being wiped out in the new health care bill. He can also claim some credit for a broad federal spending turnaround, helping the President and Congress put more 2010 money where their mouths are on children’s issues. (I think there might have been an election in 2008 that had some impact, but still, even the right people need help to do the right thing.)
Lesley wants everyone who cares about kids to be as persuasive as possible, so he shared his methods for turning good ideas into the law of the land with the crowd of 500+ activist, nonprofit people and politicians on hand. First, share the information that shows the need. Then break down the silos between sub-interest groups and get them to collaborate on one issue at a time rather than presenting an impossible and disorganized wish-list. Build the will for change with hopeful, solution-oriented messages. Nail your message down with simple, strong words. (Words like “work,” “invest,” “our kids,” “future,” “healthy.”)
Lesley’s final advice: seize opportunities and celebrate victories, a mantra we heard often from RI Kids Count’s Executive Director, Elizabeth Burke Bryant in the course of our strategic planning work with Rhode Island KIDS COUNT last year.
Back at the office, I just discovered another great case-making tool at the First Focus research page: A LEXICON FOR CHILDREN’S HEALTH: Making Children a Priority in Health Reform. This 11-page reports, captures survey and focus-group research First Focus did in connection with last year’s fight to save CHIP, but most of it applies to any children’s policy issue. I wish more of my clients had this kind of message-shaping research on hand.
Thanks to the great Rhode Island KIDS COUNT team for making my morning!
Last week I received a very lovely recognition from an organization for which I have been a very active member for just over 20 years.
I was named a Partner in Philanthropy during our state National Philanthropy Day celebration. I was invited to the luncheon, had my photo and bio in the program, received a lovely pin, and was invited on stage with the other Partners who were being recognized that day by nonprofits they had served.
As I arrived at the check-in table, I received a name tag, pretty recognition pin, my table assignment and a recognition certificate in a folder.
When I opened the folder to view the certificate, my heart sank.
My name was misspelled.
While I tried to resist it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the gift I was being given had been selected for someone else. Like the time I opened a present anticipating something very romantic and found a rice cooker instead.
And this organization — I even served as its board president not that long ago.
I admit it. I’ve got a thing about my first name. I’ve never been particularly fond of it. The only thing that has redeemed my name for me is its spelling. So when I see Gayle mistakenly spelled Gail, I feel particularly rebuked. I can’t help it.
I also use my middle initial L. Routinely. And given the organization that was honoring me, an extra special touch would have been to include the ACFRE credential after my name.
But I’ll shake it off. (I did bring it to the organization’s attention that day. They promised to send me a new certificate. I’ll let you know when it arrives.)
Unfortunately, mine was not the only misspelled name that day. My co-honoree for the organization, who was also a table sponsor, saw her name misspelled as it was projected on the screen with other sponsors. And a dear departed colleague would be rolling his eyes to have seen his name misspelled on screen for the scholarship award given in his memory.
Accidents do happen. I’ve made them myself (it’s a plague to locate all the typos in these columns).
As a fledgling development director, I misspelled the last name of a board member in my first annual report (which had been proofed by others). The misspelling was also a pet peeve of this board member. Like me, he frequently saw his name misspelled. It was tiresome and maddening to him to have to re-educate each new staff member who might have occasion to spell his name.
I’ve worked hard to get names spelled correctly ever since.
So please take the extra time to spell it right. It really does matter to your supporters. We’re not always so forgiving.
Providence started enforcing curbside recycling a few weeks ago.
The new rule is that you won’t get your trash picked up unless both of your recycling bins are on the curb when the trash trucks come by. (A blue one for glass, cans, and plastics and green for paper)
The city began promoting its new policy in September thinking it would give householders plenty of time to get ready before the November 2 start date. Public service announcements were sent to the media, the Mayor held a press conference, school kids were notified, and brochures were distributed to our homes.
Trash collectors even pasted an informational bumpersticker onto every city-issued big green trash barrel, figuring that had to get our attention when we hauled in the barrel at night.
The big day arrived and everyone should have been prepared – right?
Wrong.
Throughout the city, trash was left on the curb wherever there were no recycling bins. Officials reported that trash pickup went down by 63% — which should give you some idea of how many people ignored or weren’t aware of the new policy.
City Hall and City Councilors were flooded with calls from angry residents. A movement was started to reverse the policy (it wasn’t). Over 3,000 bins were sold in two days.
Residents were outraged! Why hadn’t they been told of the new policy?
It takes a lot of repetition to get a message through.
I was prepared for November 2nd. I knew about the city’s “no bin, no barrel” program. But then again, I read the local daily newspaper.
I also listen to my local public radio station, read most of my mail (or at least open the envelopes), and even take in the garbage can once in a while.
(Yes, some gender roles do die hard ).
But what probably made the biggest difference in my awareness?
I ALREADY RECYCLE!
You selectively pay attention to what you care about
As I’ve written earlier, we’ve been recycling for many years. We’ve faithfully sorted our household recyclables since we had access to curbside recycling.
As a colleague reminded me in a conversation a few weeks ago, I’m more likely to pay attention to news about the things that I’m interested in.
As I was already interested in curbside recycling, it wasn’t hard for my personal antenna to pick up the communications about the proposed policy change.
But as my fellow residents confirmed, householders who weren’t interested in recycling didn’t pay any attention to the City’s attempts to warn them, even when the notice was placed right under their noses where they couldn’t miss it.
So, what makes you think that you’ve done enough to communicate with your own constituents?
Whether you are trying to educate me about a community issue, hope to turn me out for a special event, or are trying to get me to renew my annual membership, don’t underestimate what it will take to get my attention.
If you think that you have sent too many communications, like the recycling program demonstrated, you might want to think your strategy through one more time.
What makes for a genuine process of engaging the public in policy-making?
After a summer of shout fests around health care reform, I’d like to suggest that the typical “public hearing” or even “town hall” process simply encourages this way of behaving.
Most of the problems that we face are pretty complex. In our current adversarial way of policy making, there will always be winners and losers rather than win/wins.
I’ve experienced countless public hearings where, as a member of the public, I have been frustrated and angry at the lack of adequate time to share complex views. Standing at a microphone with just 1-3 minutes to make a comment and with no ability to have a thoughtful conversation with the other side — I can’t imagine what else could be designed to make audience members feel frustrated and angry.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The 7 Characteristics of Meaningful Public Engagement
What is necessary to ensure that the public is meaningfully consulted in policy making?
In our primer Meaningful Participation, an activist’s guide to collaborative policy making which you can download for free here, we set out 7 principles that need to be included in any process.
For citizen consultation to be meaningful, it must be:
1. Broad-based. That is, the process must truly include the full range of interests and positions that are represented. As the Quakers like to say, “everyone owns a piece of the truth.”
2. Open. Anyone who is interested should be aware of and understand how they can contribute and participate. They should feel welcomed. Meeting places should be accessible and well located. Meeting formats should be accessible and understandable.
3. Truthful. It is absolutely essential to ensuring the good faith of the participants that everyone acts in good faith. Accurate information needs to be contributed and analyzed. Important data, even if contradictory to your own views, should be included.
4. Responsive. For people to contribute civilly and in good faith, they need to know that their opinions are in fact being listened to and that they might have the ability to actually help create a better outcome.
5. Deliberative. Whatever the process is, it needs to provide enough time for everyone involved to be able to develop a shared understanding of the problem, to create a common vision of what could be, to be creative about options and to have time to thoughtfully reflect on possible solutions. One shot public hearings with citizen comment aren’t set up for this. People expect to have to demonstrate and shout to get their voices heard. There are better ways to talk to each other.
6. Fair. All participants need to know that they are equally valued and have equal access and input. Not just the highly paid lobbyists, but ordinary citizens.
And finally, the process needs to be
7. Competent. That is, it should result in the best decision being made because hard data was examined, real examples of solutions in action were examined, evidence-based practices were considered.
Whether you are a policy maker or a citizen advocate, you are going to need to work really hard to ensure that the process of developing major policies includes all of these elements. But it is truly worth it.
What do kaleidoscopes and successful fundraisers have in common?
I hadn’t thought about kaleidoscopes in years until I received one as a gift for presenting a workshop at a fundraising conference. Instead of creating designs from shapes embedded in the kaleidoscope itself, this one made fascinating patterns out of whatever you were looking at.
So what do kaleidoscopes and great fundraisers have in common?
Both are really good at creating many beautiful new designs from one starting point.
In this challenging economic climate, nonprofit fundraisers have to be as resourcesful as they possibly can be to make better and stronger connections with donors. As fundraisers, we are always on the lookout for donors whose dreams and desires are a perfect match with our organization.
Sometimes that match is pretty straightforward, as when a loved one is stricken by a disease and family members give to the organization that is working to find a cure. Or the guidelines of a foundation are a perfect fit with our programs.
Often, however, the match isn’t immediately obvious and requires us to do some mental stretching. A very philanthropic individual I knew gave money to a figure skating association, a community service organization, a library, and other seemingly unrelated institutions. Was there a common thread? Yes, he loved young people and gave to programs that helped them flourish.
Resourceful development professionals have the uncanny talent of making lots of successful matches – from the easy fits to the mental stretches. The ability to see the many facets of our organization and our donor’s interests – like looking through a kaleidoscope – can open many more donor checkbooks.
Here are a few tips for developing your own kaleidoscope vision.
1. Listen to see what your donors care about.
I can’t say enough about listening. When we get too wrapped up in pitching our organization, we can’t hear what a donor wants.
The executive director of a youth service organization wanted to upgrade a corporate donor from a modest in-kind gift to a major sponsorship. At an exploratory meeting with the CEO, the executive director spent the better part of five minutes pitching the organization and one particular sponsorship opportunity.
He wasn’t igniting any interest.
The development director then asked this corporate CEO a simple question: “What community projects are you working on?”
The CEO opened up. He explained how his company was exploring the idea of building playgrounds in inner city neighborhoods – something the youth service organization had a history of doing, but hadn’t mentioned. Suddenly, a match seemed inevitable. The company was excited to provide a corporate sponsorship that included building a city playground – and eventually went on to become one of the organization’s biggest supporters.
2. Look deep into your existing programs.
Just like a prospective donor, you’ll be more passionate about your organization if you see the work first hand. You’ll be better informed too. It’s hard to comprehend the complexity of your organization if you don’t get up close and personal with your program staff, your projects, and especially the people you serve.
A successful fundraiser I know recently took a position as the major gifts director for a hospital. In her first few weeks on the job, she arranged an intensive training program for herself:
“I wanted to meet everyone and see EVERYTHING: operations, autopsies, the emergency room, even the kitchen. I asked hundreds of questions so I could know how we made a difference and what our needs were. Not only did I feel more confident I could explain our work to a prospective donor, but I also knew I’d be better at finding giving matches. An added benefit — because I showed that I cared, I made lots of friends on our staff who are now willing to help in fundraising when I need them.”
3. Look beyond the usual funding suspects.
Arts groups look for arts funders. Senior groups for donors to the elderly. But sometimes it makes sense to look beyond the category in which your organization falls.
A small neighborhood organization heard that the Environmental Protection Agency had funding available for urban environmental projects. As they weren’t an environmental group, they easily might have dismissed this particular funder.
But with some research, the group discovered the EPA had funded vacant lot clean-ups similar to the programs they were already running. With a bit more detective work they discovered that garbage dumped in vacant lots frequently contained materials that the EPA would consider pollutants or even hazardous waste.
By understanding that vacant lot dumping was as much an environmental problem as it was a community development one, they were able to get funding from EPA to develop a more comprehensive program to prevent illegal dumping and clean up vacant lots.
4. Be creative about seeing the connections.
If your vision is too narrow, it’s easy to overlook opportunities.
A statewide organization located in the capital city ran a number of fee-based education programs for school kids. A prospective business donor only funded projects in the northern town in which it was located.
At first glance, there didn’t seem to be the opportunity for a match. But with a little more exploration, the business was pleased to donate the program fee and busing costs of a local school so that three fifth-grade classrooms were able to participate in this education program.
5. See where you fit in the big picture.
Locally-based organizations and nonprofits in small population states often have a hard time attracting regional or national funders. But if you can put your work into a much bigger framework, you may open doors that looked closed at first.
For example, an AIDS service organization from a small east coast city was alerted to a request for proposals from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Five grants would be awarded nationwide for prevention work with young people in minority communities.
At first this organization didn’t think they had a chance competing with major population centers like San Francisco or New York. But they knew they had one of the highest HIV infection rates in the U.S. and that many immigrants from countries with high incidences of AIDS settled there first before heading to big cities like NYC. By articulating their connection to the bigger picture, they were able to win one of the five grants.
6. Look at yourself through someone else’s eyes.
Have you seen the optical illusion of two faces and the vase? If you look at the image in black, it forms two profiles looking at one another. But if you look at the white space between the faces, you can see a vase. Some people see the faces right away but have a hard time seeing the vase. For others, it’s just the opposite.
A senior center had a small, drab thrift shop that didn’t raise much money. While it was located in a college town, the center never really considered it would be of interest to college students so it never bothered to connect.
When a new director was hired, she was able to see the possibilities in the thrift shop. She approached the fashion merchandising program at a local college and offered the thrift shop as a class project. The students were excited at the chance to gain some real merchandising experience and volunteered their time to design attractive new window and floor displays for the shop. (And of course, college students love second hand bargains.)
Not only did the thrift shop start raising a lot more money, but the students recruited their friends for other volunteer work at the senior center.
7. But don’t make it up.
While I urge you to be creative about finding new connections between potential donors and your organization, don’t try to turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear. It never benefits your organization, your donor or philanthropy to misrepresent the work you do. Don’t try to pass a program off as something it is not.
Your success in fundraising ultimately depends on your reputation as being worthy and trustworthy of support.
So get out those kaleidoscopes to start finding the possibility in your organization.
We invite you to share you stories of how you successfully reimagined your giving opportunities.
“Dear Jonathan and Gayle,
