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Government Grants for Nonprofits Require Many First Steps

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:40:41 +0000

Just as fundraisers need to take many steps to land a donor, nonprofits need to go through many growing phases before they can even think about tapping into state or federal funding.

Guest writer Heather Stombaugh of JustWrite Solutions has guided many nonprofits up that ladder of success and knows just what it takes to apply for government grants.

Heather lays it all out in 8 Ways to Make Your Nonprofit Competitive for Government Grants.

Photo: Getty Images

Could Philanthropic Equity Revolutionize the Nonprofit Sector?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:12:29 +0000

Welcome to guest blogger, Nell Edgington! Nell is the President of Social Velocity, a consulting firm that helps nonprofits grow their capacity and become financially sustainable. When a new report recently appeared about philanthropic equity, I asked Nell to comment and explain what it all means.

There is a fairly new concept in the nonprofit world that has the power to completely transform the sector. "Philanthropic equity" (or "growth capital") is just a fancy term for the money many nonprofit organizations desperately need.

Philanthropic equity is a one-time infusion of significant money that can be used to strengthen or grow a nonprofit organization. It can be money that grows a successful program to other clients, other cities, other regions. Or it can be money that strengthens the organization and makes it more sustainable.

But before you can understand philanthropic equity properly, you must understand a critical distinction about money. There are two kinds of money.

Revenue is the day-to-day money required to run programs. For a homeless shelter, revenue buys meals, beds, sheets, job training programs, staff time.
Capital is the one-time infusion of money that builds or grows an organization. Again for a homeless shelter, capital could purchase a better system for gathering data on clients, a donor database, a Development Director.

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Could Philanthropic Equity Revolutionize the Nonprofit Sector? originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 01:12:29.

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Join Me in Rebooting Valentine's Day

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:33:58 +0000

A movement is afoot to remake our favorite holiday into Generosity Day. I'm all for it! Forget the chocolates and roses and just pledge to be generous of heart and help out others for that one day. You can pledge, tell everyone what you plan to do and share with your friends. The cute video with its happy melody is bound to get you in the mood.

I said yes to being the secretary for my neighborhood book club. I'm sending notices and reminders and taking notes about the books we'll be reading. Sweetly enough, this month we meet on Valentine's Day. How cool!

Join me and say yes. Get Generous here.

Best Links: SEO, DoGooder Video, Thanking Online Donors

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:05:20 +0000

Opportunities

Nonprofits are proving themselves every proficient at producing videos to promote their causes. It's no wonder. People generally love videos, they are the perfect medium to tell your cause's story in a heart warming, visual way, and it no longer costs an arm and a leg to produce one. The doGooder Nonprofit Video Awards is a way to test your best against the best in the field and win some cool rewards. John Haydon has written a nice announcement of the awards replete with a video and links to more information. Catch the doGooder video fever now - entries are being accepted through February.

You can't do good nonprofit marketing if you're in a silo. That's the messge Kivi Leroux Miller will be driving home in one of her only-once-in-a-while FREE webinars. Helping Your Staff and Board Become Great Nonprofit Marketers is on Feb 16th, so rush over and register now. Kivi says, "...stop daydreaming and start working with what you have right in front of you...learn how to turn the people already associated with your organization into a marketing team (whether they know it or not!)."

Marc Pitman has kicked off the February Nonprofit Blog Carnival with his Valentine's Day themed How do you take care of yourself? Marc asks, "We often focus on letting donors know we love them, but how do you show yourself the love?" So get those hearts for yourself going and let Marc know about them. Participating in a Carnival is an excellent way to extend your blog's reach. Another link, more readers, an enhanced reputation and maybe your Klout score will even go up!

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Best Links: SEO, DoGooder Video, Thanking Online Donors originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 01:05:20.

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New Books Bring Nonprofit Finance and Legal Issues Within Reach

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:00:13 +0000

If you're anything like me, a financial statement or a contract makes you feel like your spaceship just got sucked into a black hole.

But as board members or nonprofit staff, we have to make an effort to understand what amounts to the corporate law and finance that undergird our organizations.

That's why I was very happy to see two books land on my review pile in recent weeks. They are Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal needs of Nonprofits, by Lesley Rosenthal and The Board Member's Easier Than You Think Guide to Nonprofit Finances, by Any Robinson and Nancy Wasserman.

These two books have taken their places on my bookshelf along with a few others that address the necessary but sometimes tough issues that face all of us who work with nonprofits, whether we are a board member or a CEO.

You can see what these books offer in my reviews: Put a Nonprofit Lawyer On Your Bookshelf and Board Members and Financial Conflicts of Interest - 6 Ways to Stay out of Trouble.

By the way, the publishers of these useful books are Wiley and Emerson & Church. You probably have many of their books on your shelves simply because they specialize in easy-to-read guides on difficult subjects in nonprofit.

More books that transform tough subjects:

Nonprofits Urge Adopt or Sponsor a Pet for Valentine's Day

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:00:23 +0000

I can't think of a better way to serve up a Valentine's Day scoop of love than to adopt or sponsor a pet.

My long time favorite animal sanctuary, Best Friends, is sending a very cute email to its supporters suggesting sponsoring either Jack, "a pig with a plan," or Nito, a shy dog who loves the ladies. It's all in the name of creatively expressing your heart for Valentine's Day.

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Nonprofits Urge Adopt or Sponsor a Pet for Valentine's Day originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 01:00:23.

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Do You Know Who Your Nonprofit Is Sleeping With? Komen's Outing

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:06:50 +0000

I've never seen a reversal as fast as the one Susan G. Komen for the Cure made last week.

In a head-spinning set of moves, Komen, which was outed on Tuesday for cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, 1) thought they could get by with a canned video that said a new policy about grantees who were under "investigation" was behind their defunding, 2) changed its story to something about "pass-throughs" on Thursday, and 3) changed its mind and apologized to supporters and critics on Friday.

Meanwhile Planned Parenthood raised several million dollars in three days and scored a Superbowl like PR coup.

What this entire incident underscored for me is that nonprofits still don't get crisis management, and how careful donors have to be to make sure that their money is going to organizations that truly match their personal, religious, moral, and political beliefs.

Looking under the covers to see who else is bedding down with our favorite nonprofit through political ties, funding, or favorite ideologies is just something that we all must now do.

It really doesn't matter which side you're is on with the Komen situation -- what you found out about the breast cancer fundraising operation could scare you off.

If you're Republican and/or pro-life, you found out that Komen has been funding Planned Parenthood for years. If you are pro-choice and/or Democratic, you learned that Komen has a strong political favoritism going on. Founder and CEO Nancy Brinker is a long-time and politically active Republican, and the organization recently hired a pro-life Republican to be its public policy director.

As Gail Collins so wittily explained in her recent New York Times column, The Politics of Absolutely Everything, the raucous downhill race to the Republican presidential nomination has pretty much politicized just about anything you can think of. And it's only going to get worse!

That politicization is political-party blind. Republicans and Democrats will be doing it, not to mention their subgroups and super PACs.

Public outings of nonprofit mischief seem to come every few months lately. Just consider the Three Cups of Tea controversy, the Jerry Sandusky, Second Mile, Penn State revelations, and the very recent admission by the Sierra Club that it took millions from the natural gas industry while talking up the safety of that fuel over coal.

Was it ever this hard for donors to pick charities that use their money well, don't go off the deep end of ideology, and that avoid conflicts of interest or even outright crimes?

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Do You Know Who Your Nonprofit Is Sleeping With? Komen's Outing originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at 07:06:50.

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'Heroes with a Heart' Honors Those You Most Admire

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:21 +0000

Near me is a beautiful little ranch that has been converted into a therapeutic riding center for physically challenged children. Every day several volunteers -- most have been coming here for years -- show up to lead the horses and to protect the delighted kids who ride the horses and ponies. They all serve with gentle care, love, and commitment, and no fanfare at all. Those volunteers are my heroes.

If you're like me, you are inspired by people who are quietly changing the world each and every day. They're not on the front page of the newspaper, and they're not mingling with the Gates and Buffets of the world. They're everyday people like you and me who have shown extraordinary commitment to making this world better than they found it.

Now you can honor those individuals through the CTK Foundation's "Heroes with a Heart" Grant Awards. You can nominate your heroes, and give them a chance to win $5,000 - a simple thanks for the hard work that they do.

What Are the "Heroes With A Heart" Grants?

Here's an overview of the CTK Foundation awards and details on how you can nominate your Hero:

$15,000 for Three Heroes
One Hero with a Heart from each of the three categories of Health and Human Social Service, Animal Rights and Environmental Protection, and Arts and Literacy will be awarded $5,000 USD plus a professionally produced video about their nonprofit for use in public awareness or education.
$1,500 for One Hero
The CTK Foundation will also give a $1,500 (USD) President's Choice Award (the Susan Lee Winter Grant Award) for an individual working to provide creative and innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS education or prevention.
Blogger's Choice Award
The $1,000 CTK Foundation Blogger's Choice Award will recognize the blogger who does the best job of promoting HWH, with that blogger selecting a volunteer award recipient of his or her choice, from any category.

Applications for all Heroes with a Heart grant awards open on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 and close Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at midnight.

Finalists will appear on the CTK Facebook page for public voting during April and winners will be announced on May 1, 2012. This award is open to registered nonprofits or charities of all types and sizes, worldwide.

Nominate your Hero with a Heart here. Do it today!

For regular updates on the Heroes with a Heart Grants, check out the CTK Facebook Page.

Good Luck, Heroes!

More about Charity Contests

Best Links: Shy Board Members, Google Search, B Corps

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:00:45 +0000

Nonprofit Blog Carnival

Nancy Schwartz collected all our dreams for the nonprofit world in her January Nonprofit Blog Carnival. Who would have thought that we would dream so much and so creatively?

Marc Pitman kicks off the February Nonprofit Blog Carnival with his Valentine's Day themed How do you take care of yourself? Marc asks, "We often focus on letting donors know we love them, but how do you show yourself the love?" Oh, did you forget to reward yourself? This will be an opportunity to pledge anew to do just that.

Fundraising, Social Media, Business for Good

Katya Andresen reminds us of The 6 absolutely essential keys to influence, ala Robert Cialdini. Katya lists the principles of influence from "authority" to "social proof" and provides a wonderful video of the great Cialdini himself explaining them all.

Ifdy Perez, writing for Razoo's blog, reminds us Why You Shouldn't "Go Viral". Ifdy writes, "Because you can't really predict what will or won't go viral (assuming you don't have millions in your budget to create an outstanding ad campaign like the Old Spice Guy), there are other ways to focus your precious time and energy into things that will surely pay off for your organization." She gives us three possibilities--fun, magnetism, and purpose.

Every Monday, Marissa Garza shows up at DonorDreams. She writes about tangled tech questions in a way that we can all get through. This week, Marissa tackled How Google's Recent Changes Affect You and Your Non-Profit Organization . Such a thorny topic, but Marissa whacked it down to nonprickly manageability, explaining Google search, the privacy issues, and what you can do.

I follow the Motley Fool religiously. So I was delighted to find this article by Alyce Lomax, of that investment guide, about the new business for good law in California. Alyce explains how the new B corporation works in Doing Good to Do Well Gets a Legal Boost in California, which appeared in DailyFinance. There are some excellent examples here of companies that combine innovation with social good.

Rather than just think of recalcitrant board members who won't help fundraise as deadbeats, take a new tack suggested by Nell Edgington of Social Velocity. Nell, in 9 Ways Board Members Can Raise Money Without Fundraising, says, "The good news is that there are lots of other things board members can do to bring money in the door. And remember, if you are financing not fundraising your organization, your definition of 'bringing money in the door' should be very broad.

Nonprofit News

Obama campaign deploys Square for mobile fundraising - Gigom

2012 Top 100 Best NGOs - The Global Journal

Photo: Getty Images

Go Red for Women: American Heart Association's Signature Program

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:00:03 +0000

Feb 3rd is National Wear Red Day. It is a creation of the American Heart Association to create awareness of heart disease among women. Heart disease kills more women than does breast cancer.

Go Red is the overarching campaign, of which National Wear Red Day is a part, and it is a model of cause-marketing.

Cass Wheeler, long-time CEO of the American Heart Association, told the story of the Go Red campaign in his book, You've Gotta Have Heart: Achieving Purpose Beyond Profit in the Social Sector.

Wheeler said the organization worked with the leader in cause-marketing, Cone Inc., to develop "the most far-reaching, comprehensive marketing campaign in nonprofit history." But he also pointed out that nonprofits should not be intimidated by the sheer size of this program. Many of its branding, marketing and promotion strategies can be replicated by even small nonprofits.

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Go Red for Women: American Heart Association's Signature Program originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 11:00:03.

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