Nonprofit News

In a ruling that could have implications for many charities, the Internal Revenue Service has denied a tax exemption to an organization in part because the group did not spend enough of its money on charitable programs. This is the first public sign that the revenue service is measuring how much charities spend by using a controversial approach that the government has recently decided to apply. The IRS said the organization — which it did not identify, as is its policy — did not carry on a charitable program “commensurate in scope” with its financial resources. The…

Many speakers at the annual meeting of InterAction, held here last week, said the United States was in dire need of a fundamental restructuring of how it delivers aid overseas. “Our top development professionals know that sandals on the ground today can prevent boots on the ground tomorrow,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democratic Congresswoman from Minnesota. “But our Cold War-era tools are not up to the challenge.” InterAction is a coalition of more than 160 charities devoted to providing humanitarian aid and fighting poverty. Ms. McCollum described a foreign-aid…

AmeriCorps alumni are more likely than their peers to volunteer, be active in their communities, and trust others, according to a study released today. What is more, AmeriCorps alumni are much more likely to have careers in public service, and alumni from racial and ethnic minority groups and poor backgrounds are much more likely to be employed in public service careers than their peers. The survey reported that 44 percent of minority and 46 percent of alumni from needy families were employed in public service careers, versus only 26 percent of their peers in comparison groups. The study was…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday tapped Jeffrey S. Raikes, a Microsoft executive, to lead the world’s largest foundation as it embarks on a period of rapid growth and grapples with criticism of its growing influence. Mr. Raikes, a 27-year veteran of Microsoft, will replace Patty Stonesifer, who has headed the foundation since it started 11 years ago. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining the Gates Foundation,” Mr. Raikes said on Monday. “This is truly a dream job.” He will start in September, and earn a salary that is comparable to those…

The Nature Conservancy today named an investment manager with a deep background in environmental issues to be its new chief executive. Mark R. Tercek, 51, managing director at the investment firm Goldman Sachs and head of the firm’s Center for Environmental Markets, will replace Steven J. McCormick, who left the charity in October. (See The Chronicle’s article about his departure.) Mr. Tercek, who will start his new position in July, takes over at an important time for the nation’s largest environmental-conservation charity. The Arlington, Va., organization recently started…

Officials in San Francisco hope a new effort to use 10 old parking meters to collect spare change will help the city’s homeless population and cut down on panhandling, reports The San Francisco Chronicle. Instead of giving directly to panhandlers, the money will be given to charities that help the homeless, the newspaper reports. Other cities, such as Denver and Baltimore, have used this method — which does not necessarily raise a lot of money for charity — as a way to cut down on panhandling. At least one charity official, Sister Bernie Galvin, executive director of Religious…

In an attempt to generate revenue, an official at the American Red Cross said the organization might relocate as many as several hundred of its employees from its Washington headquarters to a satellite office housed at the site of its emergency office building at an undisclosed location in Northern Virginia, reports The Washington Post. Laura Howe, a spokeswoman for the charity, said that relocating employees to the emergency site, which is near Dulles International Airport and maintained for use in the event of an attack on Washington, would open office space at the organization’s…

As part of a program called Partners in Preservation, five historic sites in New Orleans will receive $400,000 in grants today from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express, reports The Times-Picayune. Grant recipients include St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church; St. Alphonsus Art & Cultural Center; St. Augustine Parish Hall; Odyssey House Louisiana, a social-services organization; and Save Our Cemeteries, which will use the money to refurbish a burial ground in the city’s Garden District. Each site’s importance to its neighborhood was…

Roxana Brown, director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum, at Bangkok University, in Thailand, was arrested on Saturday in Seattle, where she was detained and indicted in connection with a federal investigation of looted Southeast Asian artifacts, reports The Seattle Times. Ms. Brown, who was scheduled to deliver a speech at the University of Washington that afternoon, is charged with one count of wire fraud. She is accused of allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms for pieces that were donated to several Southern California museums at inflated prices so collectors…

Following announcements by dozens of colleges and universities that they plan to overhaul their financial-aid programs, many are calling on donors to help ease the burden of student debt, reports The Wall Street Journal. More than a third of restricted gifts made to colleges and universities support financial aid, but institutions continue to seek more. After receiving an anonymous $100-million gift last May to improve its financial aid, the University of Chicago started a campaign to raise an additional $300-million to replace loans with scholarships for needy students.

Most CEOs Think Board Members StinkThe NonProfit Times, NJ - May 12, 2008Most heads of midsize nonprofits give their trustees low marks for fundraising and monitoring board performance, an Urban Institute study of nonprofits with

70 Foundations Make Grants Easier To GetThe NonProfit Times, NJ - May 1, 2008More than 70 foundations that distribute $350 million annually and whose trustee or grant-making agent is Bank of America will be participants in an online

Email Donor Lists Growing, Open Rates DroppingThe NonProfit Times, NJ - Apr 24, 2008Open rates for email campaigns and fundraising messages have declined for the past three years, but those who have provided an email address are starting to

Volunteers Worth 3.3 Times Minimum WageThe NonProfit Times, NJ - Apr 17, 2008The value of a volunteer hour nearly kept pace with inflation during 2007, increasing 3.94 percent while consumer prices tracked at 4.1 percent.

The NonProfit TimesVideo A Key Element In Healthcare FundraisingThe NonProfit Times, NJ - Apr 15, 2008By Tom Pope Fundraising prospects of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, Houston, can view a DVD that shows the center's success

The latest issue of the Journal of Community Informatics is out. My favorite paper so far is a case study by Arnold, Shepherd, and Gibbs entitled Trouble at Kookaburra Hollow: How Media Mediate. Essentially it looks at a public conflict in a housing estate and how four different media - a community intranet, hand-made signs, public and private meetings, and a television broadcast - mediated the actions in the dispute. They also lay out three factors as accounting for the differences between each medium: the medium's domain, it's "register", and it's patterns of circulation.

Although the blog is SalesForce focused, NonprofitCRM's Anand Sethupathy's recent post on the cost of a CRM implementation is worthwhile reading for anyone thinking about planning such a project. All the major cost factors are described, including: Business Functions, Business Process Re-engineering, Iteration Cycles, Training & Documentation Needs, 3rd Party Applications, Consultant, Custom Code, Systems Integration, Web Integration, Data Migration, Reporting Requirements, and Do It Yourself costs.

The new Journal of e-Media Studies has published its inaugural issues. Published and supported by the Dartmouth College Library, the papers are available in full online. The first issue includes pieces on e-poetry, an examination of FolkVine, and a review of Fred Turner's excellent From Counterculture to Cyberculture.

This month's research theme at IssueLab is on Veteran's Health, a timely topic that is in desperate need of sober assessment. It opens with an editorial by Vanessa Williamson of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I like the very fact that there is an editorial involved. It's one the multiple frames of reference here which reflect that, even though we must strive for quality in the specifics of our methods of investigation, research is not a socially or politically neutral phenomenon.

Teresa Crawford and Matthew DeGroot of the Institute for Sustainable Communities have launched a blog on advocacy called The A Spot. So many helping organizations fall into the trap of being patronizing, but the ISC has worked hard to avoid that. The blog, with its motto of "Change, not Charity" reflects this strategy.

Angry government officials have complained that the military junta which rules the impoverished country is misappropriating aid donated by the UN World Food Program....

Drawn from the foundation's Young Scholars Program, twenty-eight high school seniors from lower-income backgrounds have been selected to receive four-year college scholarships....

Announced on the ninety-third anniversary of the trust's creation, the grant is expected to boost the community foundation's ability to revitalize neighborhoods and preserve affordable housing....

The Safe Banking Opportunities Project will work to develop bank account standards for moderate- and low-income households that are new to or have been left out of the mainstream banking system....

Teach for America sees applications jump by more than a third this year.  [Associated Press] The directors of several relief organizations in Myanmar believe that some of the international aid arriving into the country is being stolen, diverted, or warehoused by the military.  [New York Times] Dozens of colleges and universities seek funding from donors to overhaul their aid programs.  [Wall Street Journal] Jennifer Lopez will host and help coordinate the third Noche de Ninos gala benefitting the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.  [Associated Press]

Microsoft executive Jeffrey Raikes has been named the new chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  [New York Times] The United Nations presses the junta in Myanmar to accept international assistance.  [New York Times] Jeffrey Raikes speaks about the transition from technology to nonprofits.  [Wall Street Journal] The American Red Cross might relocate some of its employees to a satellite office in Northern Virginia to generate additional revenue.  [Washington Post]

The first U.S. aid shipment arrives in Burma, as international officials warn of a "massive health catastrophe."  [Washington Post] India's Green Revolutionary says the current food crisis offers the world a chance to put farmers on the right road to unending growth.  [Reuters]

Massachusetts lawmakers eye private colleges with endowments over $1 billion as their exempt status is debated.  [Boston Globe] The U.N. suspends relief supplies to Myanmar on Friday after the military government seizes the food and equipment it sent into the country.  [New York Times]

Aid workers and supplies from some U.S. nonprofits, blocked from entering Burma, funnel aid to groups already on the ground.  [Washington Post] Four Nigerian NFL players return to Africa to help.  [New York Times] The Landmarks Preservation Commission oppose St. Vincent's Hospital's plan to demolish nine exisiting buildings in the historic Greenwich Village district.  [New York Times] Our Lady of the Lake University, in San Antonio, is substantially damaged in a fire.  [New York Times]

Remember Chuck Quackenbush? Barely avoiding a perp walk, Quackenbush had to resign his post as California insurance commissioner in order...

Whether it is New York, Hawai’i, Wisconsin, or South Carolina, efforts to bolster nonprofit accountability are undermined when state...

We all need our critical observers to be good leaders. Enter the executive coach, an intervention that can be enormously...

How a board handles a leadership transition can have powerful and long-lasting effects. This article discusses how the board’s handling...

The State of Vermont recently adopted legislation creating a new type of entity, a Low-profit Limited Liability Corporation. The L3C, as it is called, is sort of a hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit created as a way to attract both private and philanthropic capital to build businesses with a social benefit. The leading advocate for this new structure has been Americans for Community Development and the Mannweiler Foundation. The idea behind this hybrid, from an excellent overview of the L3C written by Americans for Community Development, is to “access the vast pools of market driven wealth…

Many nonprofits think about the Internal Revenue Service only once a year - when they are filing their 990 return. Since the IRS is the regulator and enforcer of exempt status and activities, you might want to pay closer and more frequent attention. Of increasing importance are questions about the role and scope of the IRS’s watchdog and oversight activity. The IRS website has a section devoted to Exempt Organizations that contains some valuable resources. The article on Governance and Related Topics opens, “The Internal Revenue Service believes that a well-governed charity is more likely…

Following up on questions raised during some training workshops I presented last week, I’ve decided to start an occasional series called Mythbusters – Nonprofit Finance Edition. There are a number of pieces of “common wisdom” that I hear over and over again, and some of them are just not helpful. So starting with this post I’ll be adding my own spin to the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters (is it true that a penny thrown from the top of the Empire State Building will kill a person on the ground?). Nonprofit Finance Mythbuster #1 – “Every nonprofit should have a cash reserve…

For those of you who are not familiar with Alltop, it’s a place that gathers and posts stories on a particular topic, in this case nonprofits. You can visit Alltop and see the most recent posts from a range of news sources and bloggers, as well as find new sources of information to expand your online resources. In their own words,”You can think of an Alltop site as a ‘dashboard,’ ‘table of contents,’ or even a ‘digital magazine rack’ of the Internet…we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that…

I recently had the pleasure of participating in a roundtable conversation with leaders from several Minnesota foundations about the Big Topic of general operating support. The meeting was convened by Minnesota Council on Foundations and published as the feature story in the new issue of Giving Forum. This issue includes the roundtable discussion as well as related stories about trends in types of support, current practices, and additional thoughts from other leading foundations. I left the roundtable with a sense that this may be a good time to start moving on from this endless…

I will be offering another Social Marketing University training in Washington DC in June. This is a great introduction to using social marketing to bring about health and social change.The training lasts 2-1/2 days, with the last half-day focusing on Next Generation Social Marketing. If you are a social marketer who already knows the basics and are interested in expanding your bag of tricks to include newer marketing methods using social media and other technologies -- many of the things I write about on this blog -- you can register just for the last day.Here's all the important…

Flickr Photo Credit: d200 dug No censorship!One of the big frustrations disaster preparedness professionals constantly face is the difficulty of getting people to acknowledge the likelihood of an emergency event -- whether its a natural disaster, pandemic flu or manmade terrorism -- and to take actions to be ready if when it happens. The fact is, people don't like to think about worst-case scenarios, and they definitely don't like to have to spend effort and money to address something that they think is likely never to happen to them.Public health and safety folks tend to come at the problem…

I'm happy to announce that the next session of Social Marketing University will be coming to Washington, DC on June 2-4, 2008. I do not have all the details set yet, but please save the date if you are interested in attending. It will be a similar format to the most recent event, with two days of intensive social marketing training and a half-day Next Generation Social Marketing seminar focusing on how to use social media.I am in the process of looking for a venue in which to hold the training. If your organization or institution is in an accessible area of Washington, DC and has a large…

I just turned 40 the other day and realized I might not live forever. So, I've decided to try to do something about that - the usual: eat better, exercise more, go to bed earlier. These are all things I've worked on at various other times in my life that somehow didn't quite stick. The irony is that what I do for a living is figuring out how to motivate other people to adopt healthy behaviors. Why is it so hard to apply social marketing concepts to myself?I thought about the benefits that I would get from becoming healthier, the barriers that I would need to overcome, how to remind myself to…

Last week, I finally had an opportunity to meet in person my longtime blog friend Rohit Bhargava, who writes the Influential Marketing Blog. I was excited to get to see the cover of his new book, Personality Not Included, though there were still a few more days until the actual book was set to be published and released. (I love that wind-up chicken with 'tude!)To celebrate the launch of the book, Rohit decided to put himself through a grueling virtual book tour, answering five questions each from over 50 bloggers within a couple of days. He even promised that he wouldn't be cutting and…

Sorry I just couldn't resist that video.  The sad thing is that I remember that TV program! Let's say you have carefully avoided walking around with the attitude "they don't get it" and you're not singing under your breath .. "you're so lame ..."   And, let's say all your thoughtful proposals have been rejected.  It's now time to go undercover, under the radar.    It's time to get your gadgets and your briefing file .. 1.  Go Read Colin McKay's "The Secret Underground Organizations Guide to Social Media".  It's packed with…

| View | Upload your own As you read this, I'm on my way to Palm Springs to do a presentation at the PBS Showcase Conference. I'm doing a presentation on a panel called "Let's Get Social."  It is a version of the Cute Dog Theory - what organizations need to think about to be successful. I put it on SlideShare a few days ago and it already has 1400 views - so I thought I'd share it here.  I put together a wiki for this presentation which includes a set of conversations questions.  These are conversations that you want to have behind the firewall.  What the heck is…

Slide from David Wilcox There were some fantastics reflections and comments in the post, "Social Change Behind the Firewall" and you all are so smart that I wanted to summarize the thread and share it with folks who many not have trolled through all the comments. The visual is from a reflection by David Wilcox after a workshop he gave in March.   What struck me is that it was the same message I heard last week at NDN from Micah Sifry.  It's no longer about top-down campaigns.  As Joe Trippi said, "It's the Network, Stupid."  Just wanted to flag…

That's today's nptech twitter stream over at nonprofitpulse.  You can see who is tweeting what in nptech land, tag cloud, and shared links.  Awesome! Who is behind this?   UPDATE:  Eduardo Bejar.  He says it is still in Beta and welcomes suggestions! Would be great if people could add their twitter feeds.  Also nice to see a week of top links or week tag cloud.  

Photo by LaurieLou I remember when Katrina struck and when Liz Henry decided to go to Texas to volunteer.  If you are thinking you want to volunteer your time, Natalie Jesionka has a post on Our World titled "Responding to Burma Crisis" that includes a list of opportunities to travel to the Burmese border and volunteer your time and energy to the underground grassroots NGO activity. Some of the organizations include: Organizations on the Border The Mae Tao Clinic Karen Women's Organization Women's League of Burma Project Enlighten What can we do if we can't hope on a plane and…

We had the first Net Tuesday meeting in the Twin Cities last night.  It was great, had quite a few attendees, and a lot of us got to meet each other and talk about what we're doing.  I'm looking forward to many more.

I'd like to announce a new website that I'm starting up called The Open Municipal Geodata Standard Organization Website, or OMG Standard for short, at www.omgstandard.com. The idea behind it is to have an open forum to discuss and collaborate on how to involve governments to effectively release their public data to communities. The goals at the moment are to: 1 create an open standard for the structuring of municipal data 2 convince governments it's in their best interest to make the data easily available 3 provide tools to let this happen efficientlyread more

Looking for recommendations for web-based polling and survey tools. What are you favorites? Flickr Photo Credit: Family Feud Video Game uploaded by omiksemaj  

I've just awarded the prize to EastSideDesigns.biz for his submission of logo #158 . Congrats! Thanks to everyone who talked with me or sent me messages about the designs they liked. It was really helpful to get some community feedback for this.read more

Social media practitioners must understand what not to do in the space, as the grassroots are extraordinarily unforgiving and interconnected. Don't be a weed. To wit, I received a message from a friend on Facebook, and immediately it struck me that he was shooting himself in the social media foot with an uzi. The message which I received was sent to 18 persons whose first name begins with the letter R. One can only assume that this instance of his message recurred many times, hence the uzi. It comes across as spam, however well-targeted it might be. It is a formula for failure. read more

Another post about hunger in Israel. Israeli Food Bank wanted to shake people up and face them with a cruel reality they can no longer deny: Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in hunger. Real food plates are placed in regular steel sewer grates out on main streets and give an exceptional illusion of a kitchen plate dryer, lying on the dirty pavement. The plates don’t just carry food anymore. They also carry a message: Too many people eat on the street. For donation and information go to www.bankmazon.org.

Two ads from Associação Brasileira de imprensa, the Brazilian press organisation. Copy: “A censura nunca desiste. Ela sempre volta disfarçada. 3 de Maio Dia Mundial da Liberdade de Imprensa.” “The censorship never gives up. It always return disguised. 3th of May, world day for the freedom of press.” I have seen more censorship ads from Brazil in the past. What going on? Is censorship a big problem in Brazil?

To mark world deaf awareness day the Rumah Siput Foundation (An NGO from Indonesia that works with hearing impaired) wanted to invite people to a musical and spread the message that the most important thing that deaf children really need is a little encouragement and apprecation. To make people connect emotionally and demonstrate the power of their appreciation they wanted the idea to revolve around what is missing from the lives of these children - sound. They took a regular light box and made it sound sensitive. The sound of clapping has the power to light up the box and the…

Get out of bed and be a dogooder! Brilliant video from Unicef made by Leo Burnett, Bogotá Colombia.

This visual is submitted by Bashar Alaeddin, a freelancer photographer and visual-fx artist from Jordan. Bashar got the idea after reading an article about how people are fighting in the name of Lebanon. Copy: “Stop. Enough shooting fire in the name of Lebanon” (’Lebanon’ is the one that has the splatter on it). More work from Bashar Alaeddin at his website and on his blog.

Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog got my attention this afternoon with this post on writing like a human being, especially when writing fundraising appeals. I’ve been thinking about this lately, too. His main example is that of a typically written fundraising letter –which Jeff complains, quite fairly, that it sounds like it was written by a robot. Here’s his plea: When you write to donors — whether you’re asking for money, thanking them for a gift, telling them what their giving accomplished, or even taking care of details — keep it natural, warm, and human.

I’m in the final two weeks of presenting What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists — an eight-week class for artists who are just getting started in online promotions and sales — and today I spent some time firming up a few technical details with my next speaker, Len Edgerly, podcaster and videocaster extraordinaire. We sort of jokingly raised the question of how we would handle the Twitter back-channel, if there was one, during his session — jokingly because this class is only just getting wet in social media, and only a few of them are…

Jeremiah Owyang woke me up this morning (on Twitter) to a fascinating, instructive tale of a major brand getting drawn in to a major international crisis, against their will and to their detriment, and responding to it in a predictable, though shortsighted way.  Somewhere, a PR department is having a very bad Sunday. Yes, I check Twitter before I get out of bed. So what happened? An artist created a T-shirt to raise awareness of the genocide in Durfur, and to vent some frustration at a media culture that gives more face-time to Paris Hilton than the victims of conflicts such as this one. The…

I’m off to the Simmons Leadership Conference tomorrow, and I’m excited to meet some of the faculty in the Simmons MBA program, which hosts this annual conference. I’m particularly hoping that new faculty member Jill Avery will be around, since her teaching and research interests sound eerily similar to mine. But before diving into bed to get some decent sleep before my 4:30 am wake-up call and 2-hour drive to Boston, I wanted to take a quick stab at answering Chris Brogan’s questions about my first steps in social media. What were your first steps into social media?

I’m brushing up my quantitative skills in preparation for my first semester of MBA classes this fall, and it’s led me to one of the best and most encouraging AHA! moments I’ve had in a very long time. Despite what my undergraduate degree says (I majored in Geology), I have never been as in love with the quantitative side of things as I have with the qualitative side. I’m really more of a languages-and-writing kind of person — when I fell in love with paleontology in an intro class I took to fulfill a requirement, I had most recently been contemplating majoring in…

Flickr Photo: RobjtakThe leadership gap: wherever I go in the nonprofit world these days, the leadership gap comes up in conversation. Lots of research by lots of smart people points in one direction -- nonprofit leaders are leaving the sector at an increasing rate, and their staff don't feel ready or aren't interested in replacing them. (Get the specifics from Bridgespan's "Leadership Deficit" report and "Ready to Lead" from the Meyer Foundation, Idealist and Compasspoint.) At the same time, I've heard rumbling in the NTEN universe from those of you who…

It had been awhile since I'd played with Google Earth, but Jim Prosser at Direct Relief International gave me a good reason this morning: DRI has used GE to map the official health clinics and hospitals in Myanmar. When you first access their KML overlay, it looks like Myanmar is stuffed with health clinics, but zoom in a bit, particularly on the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta region, and you'll get some small idea of the miles and miles an injured person might have to traverse to find adequate medical attention. Direct Relief International's COO, Annie Maxwell, has written about the…

I attended a free webinar last week on the new book, Groundswell: Winning in World Transformed by Technologies, presented by its authors, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li of Forrester Research. The book is geared toward the for-profit sector, but the strategies can be adopted by nonprofits in terms of building community, engaging activists, and even raising financial support around a cause or organization online. Groundswell: What is it? Bernoff and Li apply the word to describe the "social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from…

Flickr Photo: alexander drachmannWe started the week off here at NTEN with a Q&A session with Chris Brogan, who answered questions from NTEN members about engaging people through social media. In case you missed it, you can see a transcript of the questions in the materials section (and if you're a member of NTEN, you can get the recording) here. Chris commented a few times on how impressed he was by the questions you all asked him -- demonstrating yet again that, in many ways, the nonprofit sector is a leader in harnessing the power of social media to engage and energize communities…

Flickr Photo: OzymanI gave a little talk on social media today to folks who publish print media (both non- and for profit). My big takeaway is that, nonprofit or for profit, we're all facing the same dilemmas regarding social media: we're nervous about the same issues of openness, and we all have trouble explaining it to our bosses. Another big takeaway was that everyone has the same email marketing questions. How much should we send? Should we buy names? What kind of segmenting should we do? The session after mine was presented by Alex Williams of eROI, and focused on emarketing…

By Jono SmithDo you believe in the power of the web to help nonprofits create social change? Do you know a talented Web strategist or developer interested in coming up with new ways to use the Web for social good? The Case Foundation is sponsoring two $10,000 prizes for Web enthusiasts who do just that.Network for Good, NetSquared, and the Case Foundation have come together to challenge developers to mash-up the Network for Good online donation processing API with another Web service to either (a) enhance the online donor experience or (b) revolutionize a nonprofit’s ability to…

I will be on vacation (including a blogging vacation) through next Tuesday! 

Check out this nice summary at Wild Apricot blog, which hosted the latest nonprofit consultants’ carnival.

This is product placement, but it’s a well-intentioned plug: If you’re not already signed up for Network for Good’s weekly fundraising and marketing tips, I encourage you to do so here.  Here’s a sample of the types of tips we feature from editor Rebecca Ruby: Why isn’t your website performing better? Where are all those online donors? Is this creating the urge to completely revamp your site?  You may not have to start from scratch!  Here is a way to give your website a five-minute facelift: Make your Donate button easier to find. Grab a friend or…

Here’s a nice summary of recent donor research by Nonprofit Communications guru Kivi.

It's time to expand my Changeblogger reading/listening/viewing list.If you have a favorite blog (or podcast or vlog) that uses its platform to raise awareness, build community and/or facilitate readers/listeners/viewers' taking action to make the world a better place, will you post the blogs/podcasts/vlogs' name and URL in the comments? I'll re-post the list of blogs/podcasts/vlogs you suggest on May 21st.Also, while having coffee with Chris Naff of HumanKindMedia yesterday, I realized there isn't a conference or meetup, or any kind of get together, that I know of (see update), just for…

How will you spend your economic stimulus check? FinancialAidPodcast suggests paying down your debt, putting it in a savings account, or donating to a charitable organization. They recommend giving to the United Nations World Food Program and America’s Second Harvest.Trista Harris of New Voices in Philanthropy thinks you should purchase goods and services from a local nonprofit. Harris is remodeling her home and is going to purchase some of the supplies she needs from the Habitat for Humanity surplus store and the ReUse Center. thejivefather is going to be donating as much of his economic…

The philanthropic blogosphere has been buzzing about Joshua Horwitz's Chronicle of Philanthropy piece, The Nonprofit Profession Lost Out in Oprah's Big Give. After watching the show's finale on April 21st, Horwitz wrote:"[T]he show ended up featuring amateur and embarrassing efforts at giving. It passed off as entertainment people wasting thousands of dollars of donated money and did little to help the American public learn what it really takes to change the lives of other people. Oprah’s last words on the show Sunday night were to encourage the television audience to “give big,” which…

Hey all you do-good bloggers! Ben Rattray of Change.org wanted me to let you know that they are hiring bloggers. Positions are part-time, paid and start in June. To apply, go to http://www.change.org/bloggers. I've pasted the blurb below: Hiring Bloggers for Change.org! Want to blog on an issue you are passionate about for an audience of hundreds of thousands of activists and nonprofit leaders? Want to create the premier online space for your issue and become a leading voice for social action? Change.org is launching a social action blog network this summer and is currently hiring a team of…

"I think that people have long associated feminism with older white women and the idea of bringing that back to women of color, and bringing it back to young women of color and asking them what it means is an exciting time for me."Anisha Desai is the Executive Director of the Women of Color Resource Center. Founded in 1990, the Women of Color Resource Center promotes the political, economic, social and cultural well-being of women and girls of color. Desai came to the Women of Color Resource Center from a Deputy Director role at United for a Fair Economy. She has co-authored publications on…

Microsoft Executive Will Lead Gates Charity - WSJ.com The Gates Foundation picks a business person (with a marketing background!) as their next CEO. The WSJ notes that he has experience “managing” Bill Gates, who will be working at the Foundation full time. (tags: philanthropy) The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Live Discussions: Marketing Nonprofit Causes New marketing superstar Seth Godin (the only non-philanthropy blog I read everyday) will guest on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Live Chat on 5/20 at noon eastern. (tags: philanthropy)

Yesterday I asked whether nonprofits delivered a commodity of a premium product/service. I want to reiterate that I did not use “commodity” to mean “inferior to a premium product.” I meant commodity to refer to homogeneous products that consumers general choose between based solely on price. Examples: milk, gasoline, printer paper, computer storage devices, generic pharmaceuticals. For-profit organizations can make a TON of money selling commodities (see oil & gas companies during the past few years), so I am not suggesting that selling premium products is somehow…

Does Being Ethical Pay? - WSJ.com A Wall Street Journal study shows that consumers will pay a slight premium for ethically produced products and deeply penalize brands that are unethically produced. (tags: philanthropy) Seth’s Blog: Marketing the charity auction Says Godin: “The goal of a non-profit seeking money needs to be to create an environment in which the community congratulates itself on overpaying.” (tags: philanthropy) Talent often unwelcome at foundations | Philanthropy Journal What a sad, sorry state of affairs. (tags: philanthropy)

From the Tactical Philanthropy Job Board: Senior Program ExecutiveUnited Jewish Appeal Federations of New York UJA-Federation of New York’s Jewish Leadership Forum (JLF) offers current and future leaders of the Jewish community, between the ages of 30 and 50, both locally through federations and nationally through United Jewish Communities, a venue for sharing ideas, exchanging views, and developing initiatives in both entrepreneurial and organized ways. The audience comprises donors and prospects with major giving capacity. The senior program executive (SPE) will be responsible for…

From the Tactical Philanthropy Job Board: Global Donor Program SpecialistTechSoup.org If you are a project or product manager with international interest and a desire to better the world, we may have the position for you! We are seeking a talented, enthusiastic, socially minded individual to expand the offerings of our highly successful technology donation program. You’ll also be a core member of a team developing strategies to grow efficiently while maximizing our impact on global civil society. If you are interested in challenging projects, international exposure, and making a difference…

Seth Godin makes another of his good points, this time about the role of copyeditors, in Sucking all the juice out. Seems a copyeditor got her hands on something he'd written and turned it all "boring and dry and mechanical." Trouble is, many copyeditors (and all kinds of others) think their job is to "normalize" copy, taking out everything that makes it eccentric, unusual, and non-standard -- that is, everything that gives it life and makes it memorable: If the job description of your lawyer or boss or editor or client is to make sure everything is pure and perfect and proven and beyond…

It's one of the most self-destructive myths active in fundraising: That if you ask donors too often they'll stop giving. Or, as Step by Step Fundraising calls it, The Myth of the Dried Up Well. If you're relevant, honest, and respectful to your donors, you can't ask too much. Or, as Step by Step put it: If your organization is one of your donor’s favorites (and if you’re doing your job well, it should be), they WANT to support you and see you be successful. They care about your mission and they know it takes resources for you to fulfill it. And they will be a well that you can visit as…

Get your head around this trippy inference, expressed at The Power of Influence: Coming soon - Advertising damages your brand. Here's how it goes: Brands that need to use traditional advertising are not getting (enough) personal recommendation to succeed.... Brands that have to rely on traditional advertising are not as good as ones that succeed through word of mouth.... Advertising will actually damage a brand's reputation Not as weird as it might sound. You may have noticed the impulse in people around you: Folks sometimes distrust brands that seem "over-marketed." They search for better,…

So often, fundraising copy just sounds wooden, artificial, and inhuman. Here's a sample, pulled at random from the Donor Power Fortress of Charity Junk Mail Vault: Winter disasters and other emergencies are on the way. And your gift to [name of charity deleted] is critically important. Please send your gift of $35, $25, $50 or more right way. Use the enclosed envelope, or simply call [phone number deleted]. There's nothing flat-out bad about this copy. It's clear and readable, which is more than you can say for a lot of copy that gets written and published. There's just one thing: It doesn't…

I'm pleased to report another nonprofit guarantee has cropped up out there, as reported in The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Keeping Promises to Donors. The smart organization that's offering a guarantee is DonorsChoose, which I've written about a lot. Here's how this guarantee works: When you donate to DonorsChoose, you get real feedback from the classrooms whose projects you fund (it's very cool). But sometimes, around 2% of the time, something goes wrong and there's no feedback to the donor. In that case, DonorsChoose contacts the donor with the offer to fund a different project at the…

The Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Report has an interview with Michael Edwards, director of society and civil governance with the Ford Foundation, on his new book, Just Another Emperor: The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism. Mr. Edwards is critical of the application of business principles to philanthropy, saying that there’s no evidence that it leads to deeper, longer-lasting solutions to social problems. In the interview, Robert Frank, of the Wealth Report, asks, “So how should today’s philanthrocapitalists change what they’re doing?” Mr. Edwards…

Donors need more help deciding where to give during big natural disasters like the cyclone that hit Myanmar, the GiveWell Blog argues. “Google ‘Myanmar’ and you’ll see a huge list of organizations advertising for donations,” writes Holden Karnofsky, a program officer at GiveWell, a grant maker that publicizes its evaluations of nonprofit groups. “I don’t know whether they’re coordinating on the ground, but they’re certainly competing when it comes to raising money—and donors, including myself, have virtually nothing to go on in…

A conservative legal group’s effort to encourage pastors to preach about election candidates to test federal tax law is drawing plenty of critical questions. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Alliance Defense Fund, hopes a court case will result from this defiance of tax rules, which bar churches from engaging in partisan politics, and that the restrictions will be struck down by the courts. Not everybody agrees the prohibitions on politicking need to be challenged. “Responsible ministers understand that the First Amendment does as much or more to protect their…

While corporations award billions of philanthropic dollars each year, they need to do more to truly aid the world, says Marc Benioff, the chief executive officer of Salesforce.com, a software company. “It’s a large amount, but the world’s problems go beyond what funding can fix. Too many corporate philanthropic efforts occur in isolation, with little relationship to their community, employees, or corporate missions,” he writes on The Huffington Post. If businesses harness all their assets — workers, expertise, money, and products — for good causes, it could…

As The Wall Street Journal editorial page and others push for former President Bill Clinton to release the names of donors to his foundation, Liz Towne, director of advocacy programs for the Alliance for Justice, worries that other nonprofit organizations will face similar scrutiny. “The Clinton Foundation, and millions of other public charities, have no legal obligation to disclose their donors. Many have suggested this is a travesty, a miscarriage of justice — ‘bring on the sunshine to the whole 501(c)(3) public charity community,’ they cry,” she writes on…

Once again, like in last week's lightning response to Myanmar's cyclone Nagris, Mercy Corps was out there first with a program in place to provide relief to survivors of the earthquake in China. With more than 12,000 already reported dead, and the count climbing by the minute, it's clear that the scale of devastation is huge. Immeasurable relief aid needed for their survivors -- most without shelter, clothing, food and livelihood. Unfortunately, the challenge of raising relief dollars is going to be harder than ever, with last week's disaster in Myanmar leaving many…

As an art-loving New Yorker, I've visited the New Museum of Contemporary Art many times over the years to see its provocative shows, but hadn't visited in several years. After all, there are so many New York City museums competing for visitors and supporters. Frankly, my attention and support, and that of most New Yorkers, was pulled elsewhere by museums that more effectively raised their voice over the NYC cultural scene. So I was struck, hard, by the creative marketing and extensive media coverage around the re-branding and concurrent re-opening of the Museum in a striking new…

I was struck by this high-impact Mother's day fundraising campaign from City Meals featured in a full-page ad in Sunday's New York Times. The woman at left could have been my grandmother.City Meals educates readers that "70% of our meal recipients are women. Many no longer have spouses, siblings, friends or children in their lives. That can make for a lonely Mother's Day. Send meals in your mother's honor or memory to elderly New Yorkers who would otherwise be hungry and alone.Mom taught you to care for others. Show her how much you learned." Beautifully done,…

My husband received this highly-effective email from Nothing but Nets this week, just in time for Mother's Day. There's probably no better holiday to leverage folks' humanity, love and guilt (yes, mothers are known for that, whether its articulated or not) than Mother's Day. And nonprofits are doing a great job of it this year, especially those who can capitalize on a natural link to motherhood (focused on children, seniors, etc.). Here are just a couple of the powerful campaigns I've seen: 1) The Nothing but Nets email campaign, which opens with this hard-to-resist pitch: In the first few…

It's shocking to hear the current count (estimated at 50,000100,000) of those dead from last weekend's fierce cyclone (most from the low-lying delta region), and dismaying to learn that over 40,000 are still missing and almost 2-3 million more (that's the population of the region hardest hit) wounded and/or without food, water, shelter or fuel. Here's the latest from The Times (UK). Worse yet, as you've heard, the military junta has been slow to allow aid agencies in to help, only yesterday giving the heads up to these agencies whose staff are still waiting for visas. This delay will only…

Rob Zeeb and his team at Heritage Institute now have a blog. I went through a 2.5 day training program with them on values-based planning and found it quite valuable. They, as are Tracy Gary and I, are training not only advisors but fundraisers as donor-centered consultants who begin from donor vision and end with solid plans for the donor, the donor's family, and for the donor's favorite causes.

Hudson Institute:This Thursday beginning at 11:30 a.m., the Bradley Center will host Stanford University's WILLIAM DAMON, along with Corporation for National and Community Service CEO DAVID EISNER; SHIRLEY SAGAWA, a primary architect of President Clinton's national service program, now with the consulting firm sagawa/jospin; and JOE STASZAK-RODRIGUEZ of City Year Greater Philadelphia to discuss national service's role in preventing "failure to launch" among our nation's youth. Copies of Damon's recent book The Path to Purpose will be available for purchase.

Daniel Aguilar at his blog, Let's Grow Green:I’m getting “my” company hooked on going green, it’s going to be quite a journey since I have to show that going green is not just “my crazy new goal”, but also a good sales/marketing decision.

O my, did I ever have a fine idea! Foundations to make their grants effective need a well-grounded theory of social change. For that, they need an accurate map of how things are. What are the chances that a grant officer in a cushy inside job, under the direction of a monied and conservative board is going to come up with an accurate map of how things are at street level, or behind the closed doors where power games are played in secret, among those sworn to mutual aid and protection? So, to remedy this defect, why don't we crowd source the map of how things are, and with it the "theory…

Take your two bottom lines, label them to your own satisfaction. Mine are God and Mammon. Those two axes define four quadrants. In one quadrant you do well for God by doing good for Mammon. That is the world of social venture philanthropy. The promoters like to pretend that this quadrant is the largest or only one. We can all do well by doing good. But the most interesting quadrant is the one in which we do very well for God and not at all well for our own worldy self interest. Benefaction means good deeds. Those who peacefully resist injustice and die for the world we want are doing a good…

1.  Very little technical knowledge is required in order for nonprofit CEOs to participate actively in strategic IT planning.    As long as you thoroughly understand your organization's overall mission, strategy, and tactics and (are willing to learn a little bit about the technology), you can keep your information technology infrastructure on target...

As most readers of my blog know, I don't like working from home.  Although I love my clients and the projects I do with them, there's a downside to being a solo practitioner.  I yearn for an office to go to, a nonprofit environment, a sense of continuity with a team.  Fortunately, the good folks of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War have some spare office space and a need for an online strategy adviser, so they have very good-naturedly offered me a barter...

            I'm not sure whether the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference widget is going to work with my Blogware platform, but I'm giving it a shot. (If you see a big block of white space above this paragraph, then it hasn't worked.) I wish that there were a version of this widget that would fit into the righthand column of this page.

Ok, I just have to boast.  At the Ethos Roundtable, we have some exciting featured guests scheduled...

Some colleagues of mine, fellow nonprofit technology assistance providers, recently asked me to draft a guide to search engine optimization strategy for their clients.  They very kindly granted me permission to publish a version of it to my blog.  I am eager to elicit feedback from SEO mavens, and would like to encourage readers to post comments here...

The Gates Foundation has announced its new CEO, Jeff Raikes. Announcement is here.Tags: gatesfoundation, philanthropy, jeffraikes

An emergency teleconference to brief donors about relief and recovery needs and effective philanthropic strategies in response to the crisis in Myanmar is being organized for Monday, May 12th at 3:00 ET.Relief NGO, governmental and multilateral leaders on the ground in Myanmar will provide an up-to-date status report from ground zero. And experts in disaster philanthropy will reflect on lessons learned from past disasters as participants consider their own approach to assistance. An updated agenda and list of speakers will be posted as details become available.Dial in information is…

I recently participated in a discussion about risk and innovation in Jewish philanthropy at the JFN iJew conference. I also serve on the advisory board of a project called the Jewish Professional Co-op - which is in the ever-familiar stage of transitioning from pilot to reality, from project to organization. What is interesting to me about the JPC (which is also re-branding and changing its name) is its purpose - to support new ideas for engaging Jews in Jewish life. -It is in the business of finding and supporting new ideas and is itself facing some of the most common challenges of turning…

Here is a new video on the Giving Channel Philanthropy Today: Big Ideas, Big Gifts, Big Impacthttp://fora.tv/2008/04/21/Philanthropy_Today_Big_Ideas_Big_Gifts_Big_ImpactThis is from The New School's fourth annual Big Ideas, Big Gifts, Big Impact: A Conversation with Today's Philanthropists. It features Andrea Soros Colombel, president of Trace Foundation; Abigail E. Disney, president of the Daphne Foundation; and Peter G. Peterson, senior chairman and co-founder of The Blackstone Group.Tags: philanthropy, givingchannel, fora.tv

I've posted two pieces in the last few days that seem to have struck some nerves. And those whose nerves were struck seem to be too nervous to post their comments.The first such post was this one, called Google Recommends, in which I noted that Google was sending searchers who typed in "Myanmar relief" directly to a page with two nonprofits, Google Checkout-assisted donation services, on it. This changed within a day or so, but I used the post to ask the following questions (among many others):How many hits did that site get?How many clicks went through to those organizations?How much money…

At BloggerSocial08 Scott Monty had the idea of auctioning off the absent Joe Jaffe’s name tag to benefit the Frozen Pea Fund. After a spirited bidding war, Geoff Livingston (The Buzz Bin) wound up with the coveted badge, and we received a very generous contribution of $500. To keep the fun — and the good work — going, Geoff decided to pass the distinct honor of being Joe Jaffe for a day to anyone willing to contribute $25 to FPF. The effort has gone international, with its own Flickr group: I am Joseph Jaffe. Recent Jaffe poseurs (and fund contributors — thank you!)…

One day you’re talking with your daughter about what colleges she’d like to attend and the next day you’re praying you’ll be alive to see her graduate, go off to college, get married and have babies. … This wasn’t part of the plan. – Tricia Cancer is never part of the plan. It strikes unexpectedly, and it does not just strike an individual. Cancer affects an entire family — even an entire community, to varying degrees. This past week many in our online community were saddened to hear that Tricia, the sister of Todd Andrlik (@ToddAnd on Twitter), was scheduled for a…

Just a note to let you know that our Donation Widget is temporarily disabled. We are making some web site changes as we transition into being an independent nonprofit organization. Exciting things are happening but they’re not quite ready to announce yet — we’ll be updating you soon. In the meantime, here are some suggestions for ways to commemorate Frozen Pea Friday besides monetary contributions: 1. Mike Gunderloy (@MikeG1) is donating platelets to his local Red Cross today. This is an excellent suggestion for any day of the week, but it’s especially meaningful to…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BJohuPHsQ4 While Susan Reynolds was in Austin, a bunch of Twitter folks got together at Waterloo Ice House on Saturday night for dinner. Bryan Person and family were also visiting from the Boston area. It was a lovely evening, and the group — 16 adults and 4 kids — enjoyed eating outdoors by the playground. Attending were @susanreynolds; @condopro (Susan’s husband, Bill); @BryanPerson and his wife, Stella, and their children; @conniereece; @khaynes (who volunteered to coordinate the event); @RichardatDell; @karasoluri; @taxtweet; @mikeneumann;…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/4iO9reWKLuI[/youtube] Susan Reynolds and Connie Reece (or Laverne and Shirley as they referred to themselves after viewing this video) finally got to meet in person this week when Susan and her husband, Bill, flew to Austin for meetings. Frozen Pea Friday #10 marked a milestone: incorporation and trademark papers have been filed. When completed, the Frozen Pea Fund will be a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. There will be a lot more to report in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. For now, Susan and Connie want to thank you for supporting those who, like Susan, are…

Posted by Salimah Samji, Program Manager, Google.orgPeople in developing countries often lack information that is critical for their well-being. For example, in India, the poor often do not know what they are entitled to and what services are available to them. I recently attended an international conference on the Right to Public Information at the Carter Center and learned that there are approximately 70 RTI (Right to Information) laws in the world. However surprisingly, little has been done to evaluate whether these laws are accomplishing their stated and unstated objectives.Access to…

Posted by Shannon Oliver, Associate, Google.orgIn the spirit of Earth Day, I took a look at how the environmental movement can foster job growth. Here's what I found:First, what exactly are green jobs and what can they do to spur the U.S. economy and stop climate change? Simply put, green jobs are jobs that are good for the environment, good for our planet, and pay a living wage. In a recent New York Times article entitled, Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar, the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope stated, “A green job has to do something useful for people, and it has to be helpful to, or at…

Posted by Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.orgGoogle Earth is a great tool for exploring the world in ways never before possible. Many of the non-profits and other public-benefit organizations that we work with find it especially useful for showing people the remote places where they work and telling their stories in a very compelling way.Have you ever looked at the amazing high-resolution images in Google Earth and wondered when the photo was taken? Well now you can stop wondering! Google Earth 4.3 was launched this week, and one of the many new features is the…

Posted by Aleem Walji, Head of Global Development Initiatives, Google.orgTwo members of our team recently attended an international conference at the Carter Center on the right to information (RTI). I must admit that I didn't have much knowledge in this area and didn't even realize that the US passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOAI) more than 40 years ago. Today, roughly 70 countries have adopted legislation that theoretically gives their citizens the right to ask for and receive from their governments information on any number of issues, including property records, tax files, and…

Posted by Amy Luers, Program Manager, Google.org The World Health Organization (WHO) has dedicated today, World Health Day 2008, to raising awareness of the health risks of global climate change. Health belongs in the climate change discussion, and we're glad WHO and its member countries are using today to bring the linkage to the forefront.Climate’s effects on health are wide reaching. Climate affects the quality of air we breathe and the quantity and quality of water resources. It affects the productivity of agriculture, distribution of pests and disease, and the severity and frequency of…

For those I haven’t responded to as of late, no worries. SocialButterfly is still still alive and fluttering about! However, for now, I am vacationing and graduating from grad school and will be unable to post until Monday the 18th. After a busy time this semester… Living in Washington DC Working Full-Time in Washington DC Commuting 2 hours a day Conducting my thesis research Writing a Thesis Job Searching and… making the official decision to move permanently to the DC area… ALL IN FOUR MONTHS! I need a much-needed vacation. =) So, I am traveling to California for the…

Continuing my weekly “Blogger Neighborhood Series” in honor of the great Mr. Rogers, who called us to “Get to know our neighbor,” I welcome Stacey Monk from Epic Change, who continues to leave me inspired. Stacey is an amazing writer, showing both her contagious passion and gracious, sincere personality through every word, so I’ll let her tell you about her journey, mission and how she’s gotten to where she is… Blog Name: The Epic Change Blog Blog Topics: The Epic Change Blog is a diary of our experiment in social entrepreneurship and an organization I recently…

Is everything going 2.0? Health, Science, Museum, Birding, Philanthropy, Reputation, Enterprise, Food and more! Feel free to add to the list. ********************** Museum 2.0 is a blog itself by Nina Simon that talks about how Web 2.0 can be applied in museum design. Nina paints her vision for the revitlization for museums and future possibilities here, and in her video. Health 2.0: SocialButterfly’s own post sparked by recently released research studies, regarding the developments in the growing Health 2.0 field, offering numerous examples and resources. Science 2.0:…

Today, Kivi Leroux Miller at NonProfit Communications participated in a continuing blog posting style called a meme, titled: Meme: Excerpt from a Book on My Desk. Until today, I did not know what a meme was or is. I’m pretty excited though, now that I know what it is, as I’m always looking for new ways to evolve the style of blog posts. (Another recent favorite is Bamboo Project’s 31 Day Comment Challenge Series. Today is Day 6 of the Challenge.) A meme is like an internet chain letter, with depth. One blogger posts a topic or call to action,