resource development – Page 46 – The Healthy Non-Profit

How Can SOPA/PIPA Affect Non-Profits?

January 16, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising, Mondays with Marissa, nonprofit, technology

The Final Frontier . . . The Information Superhighway . . . The World Wide Web . . . The Place Where Cute Cat Videos Reside.

Call it what you will, but the Internet as you know it might change drastically after Tuesday, January 24, 2012. On this date, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) goes up for vote in the Senate. If it passes, censorship will have a permanent home on the Internet. PIPA is the Senate bill of the more publicized SOPA bill that was in the House, both have to do with censoring the Internet.

What are PIPA and SOPA? What does this have to do with the non-profit world?

Well, let’s take a closer look.

The main idea behind both PIPA and SOPA is to stop online piracy and ensure that content creators get benefits (mainly monetary) for their work. While this sounds pretty fair, it’s the enforcement of the bill that upon further inspection has people concerned. A recent TechCrunch article does a nice job explaining the issue:

“The big problem with SOPA is in the way it is supposed to be enforced, namely by blocking domain-name system (DNS) servers of copyright-infringing websites. But DNS servers are a basic technical component of the Internet (they translate site names like techcrunch.com into numerical IP addresses computers can understand better). Once you start messing with DNS, all sorts of unintended problems arise.

Blocking DNS without a full adversarial hearing in a courtroom raises the potential for censoring speech and other lawful activities. It is also the same method China uses to block “offending” content from China’s Internet.”

Furthermore, Ars Technica explains that passage of PIPA encourages online companies to act independently of the court system.

“The PROTECT IP Act goes even further than forcing these intermediaries to take action after a court order; it actively encourages them to take unilateral action without any sort of court order at all.”

So what does this have to do with the non-profit world?

Since there is currently no definition of what an “intellectual property right infringement” might be, your site could get cited under SOPA or PIPA because of links you’ve included in your online newsletter or stories on your website. If your agency gets cited, donors and supporters who might be trying to find you online via Google or other search engines wouldn’t be able to see you in their search results.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t this have a tremendous impact on what you’re trying to accomplish with your online presence?

This post on nonprofitmarketing360.com provides more clarity on why ALL non-profits should care:

“Ostensibly, nonprofits do not present anything that would seem to threaten these conglomerates, but, under SOPA’s current terms, nonprofits will not get a day in public court if they are deemed of trafficking in any such material. Even if they did, what nonprofit has a cabal of lawyers and lobbyists to counter the plaintiff’s accusations?”

Moreover, the effect of PIPA and SOPA goes beyond just impacting search results. It can wreak havoc with your ePhilanthropy efforts. Check out this quote from an article by Computer World:

“Basically, Sec. 103 will give the owner of any intellectual property the right to pursue private action against websites that they deem are infringing their rights. Under SOPA, IP rights holders will be able to ask payment providers such as MasterCard and PayPal to shut off services to allegedly infringing sites. They would also be able to ask Internet advertising networks to stop providing ads to the websites.”

So not only would the passage of these two bills affect your visibility on the internet, but donations taken via your website could be shut down as well if you are found to be in copyright infringement. Here’s a helpful infographic for more information.

In a nutshell, both PIPA and SOPA would cut off a resource many of us use everyday to communicate, research, and learn.

Can you imagine doing research for a grant and not having access to the information you need? Or what if your Twitter account gets taken down because you linked to a YouTube video? The landscape of the Internet will never look the same if these bills pass.

In response to a signed petition, the White House has recently come out against many of the main tenants of PIPA and SOPA, but this doesn’t mean the need for you to take action has passed.

This Wednesday, January 18, 2012 there will be a hearing on SOPA in the House of Representatives. In response, many popular sites such as Google, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, LinkedIn, PayPal, and WordPress will be participating in a blackout to draw attention to the issue of Internet censorship.

If you want to get involved in the process, you can contact your Congressperson at opencongress.org.

The media has neglected to cover PIPA/SOPA effectively. I hope that this post shines some light on how the issue of censoring the Internet could impact your everyday Internet life and the life of your non-profit organization. These two bills are just the start of trying to define the relationship between the government and the Internet. Even if they do not pass, there will be others that try. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject in the comments below.

What can fundraising professionals learn from a 3-year-old?

January 13, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

Yesterday, I was meeting a friend and someone I recruited to the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin board of directors almost a decade ago for breakfast. Well, I was a dunderhead and accidentally showed up 30 minutes early. While I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs, I couldn’t help watch this mother and grandmother having breakfast with their 3-year-old boy. By the time my friend showed up for breakfast, this young boy had blessed me with a fundraising epiphany.

After finishing his breakfast like a good little boy, he politely asked his mom if he could have a scoop of ice cream. She reluctantly agreed only because he had been so good. He turned his big baby blue eyes upon the waitress, who melted faster than any dish of ice cream, and he placed his order.

There was immediate joy and celebration!

The boy stood up in the booth and started jumping around and clapping his hands. I must admit that I haven’t seen a “victory lap” quite like this one. When the scoop of chocolate ice cream arrived, his mother reminded him of how important it is to use a spoon. After a minute or two, the spoon was abandon and this young boy had his face in the ice cream sundae dish.

Here is what struck me as I watched this unfold: this boy had a passion for ice cream. He didn’t care who knew it. He also didn’t care who witnessed it.

So, what in the heck does today’s blog post have anything to do with non-profit work or fundraising professions?

You need to discover your inner fundraising child and not be afraid of showing everyone your passion for fundraising and your agency’s mission!

Donors can smell a fake a mile away! Fundraising professionals who don’t love interacting and engaging with their donors are miserable people. They are typically ineffective and do serious damage to their agency’s resource development program before moving on to different pastures.

So, take a moment today and ask yourself the following questions:

When you wake up in the morning, do you get excited thinking about sitting down with a donor later that day?
Do you take it as a personal challenge to help donors figure out what they’re passionate about and link those interests with philanthropic opportunities?
Does hitting a special event or annual campaign goal give you a thrill unsurpassed by most other things in life?
Do you enjoy being able to share news with donors when program staff achieve program outcomes and community impact?

If you answered YES to these questions, then congratulations because you are in the right place. If this isn’t you, then I encourage you to do some soul-searching. Try to look like this boy I found on YouTube who is also enjoying his ice cream experience (however, he doesn’t come close to the boy I saw yesterday at Colonial Cafe).

Where do you find your passion for non-profits and fundraising? How do you know if the non-profit mission that you’re working for is the right one for you? I would consider it an honor if you would share your story on the DonorDreams blog. Please use the comment box below. Perhaps, your story will inspire others to discover their inner fundraising child.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Strategic special events?

January 12, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising, Planning

Back in October, I outted myself as a fundraising professional who isn’t very fond of special events when the purpose of the event is to raise money. I don’t know how many times I’ve shared the link to Charity Navigator’s 2007 Special Events Study with subscribers to this blog. I’m sure it has been too many times, but I’ve haven’t seen anything else that more convincingly makes the case that special events cost more money than they raise.

However, my position on special events does change when the objectives associated planning and hosting an event are more inclusive than: “let’s make some money.”

So, some of you might be asking: “What other objectives could there be?” Well, try some of these on for size:

Engaging new volunteers from a different social circle in your community.
Introducing yourself to a new set of prospective donors from a different social circle in your community, and cultivating new prospective donors for your individual giving annual campaign.
Stewarding existing donors by providing them an enchanted evening awash in mission-focus.
Marketing and getting your agency’s brand into the media marketplace.

I think it is great if your agency wants to run a few (e.g. one, two or three) special events as part of its annual resource development plan. However, I encourage you to ask the following questions before doing so:

How does this event support other aspects of your fundraising plan?
Who is the target audience for each of your special events? Does this event really do a good job of engaging that segment of the donor marketplace?
Are you just sending invitations out to those who attended last year? Are you just blasting invitations out to your entire donor database? Or are you thoughtfully engaging your event committee in identifying new prospective attendees who fit within the target audience parameters you’ve set?
How are you injecting “mission-focus” into each of your events so new prospective donors are getting cultivated and current donors are getting stewarded?

There is something very powerful about throwing a party focused around your agency’s mission. If it is done haphazardly and all in the name of “raising some money,” then you most likely didn’t raise the money you thought you did (read the Charity Navigator report and look at both direct and indirect costs) and you also missed an opportunity.

However, if you are strategic in your approach to special events, then I suspect you are seeing improvements in your overall fundraising program and starting to attract new donors.

Is your non-profit organization “strategic” in its approach to special events? If so, how? Please use the comment box below to answer these questions. The one or two minutes it takes for you to comment might make a huge difference in another fundraising professional’s life.

Here’s to your health!

The Age of Austerity: Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face!

January 11, 2012 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Yesterday’s blog post introduced the idea that the non-profit sector might be entering into “The Age of Austerity” thanks in part to projected decreases in government funding. Today, we continue exploration of this topic by looking at what types of budget cuts are occurring and processes for responsible cutting.

First, I decided to ask my non-profit Tweeps on Twitter where they were making cuts and why certain things were off-limits. Needless to say, people were all over the place, and there was no consensus except around two things:

100 percent of respondents said they would start with cutting administration and management expenses.
100 percent of respondents also said they would start with facility maintenance cuts.

After an informal survey of my Tweeps, I did a little research using my best friend “Mr. Google,” where I found a recent article from the Wisconsin State Journal titled “‘New normal’: Nonprofits struggling with budget cuts“. Not surprisingly, a much more scientific survey than my informal Twitter poll found that approximately one-third of respondents plan on cutting or reducing programs services. This number is up from where it was in 2009, when 29 percent of respondents said they were cutting or reducing programs.

I suspect there are many non-profits who started cutting what they saw as “non-essential services” a few years ago. Now that there isn’t any more “fat to cut,” it is time to start cutting muscle.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that more and more non-profits are getting to the brink of collapse, failure and contraction. We see signs of it in the Wisconsin State Journal article where they point out that smaller agencies have no cash reserves. We saw it in the Guidestar report that I referenced in yesterday’s blog post. I even wrote about it during my new year predictions blog series at the end of 2011 — “2012 Non-Profit Trends and Predictions: Contraction Continues“.

So, how should a non-profit organization go about making these tough decisions? Here are just a few tips:

Always go back to your mission and ask: “how will this cut impact our ability to fulfill our mission?” Obviously, you would prioritize your cuts so the ones that affect mission the most are some of the last cuts you’d ever consider making.
Are there things you can do to save money that are less painful than others? (e.g. Can you stretch a project (and its costs) out over a longer period of time? Can you re-bid certain services such as insurance or building maintenance?)
Stop trying to hide these discussions from key donors. Invite your biggest supporters into the discussion so they can better understand how and why certain decisions are being made. For those not at the table, develop a communications plan to inform them of why certain cuts were made (not just that they were made). No one likes a surprise — especially donors. Remember, this is a way to get lots of smart people, who care about your mission from different backgrounds, around the table and focused on your problem. Please don’t approach this with a hidden agenda to secure more money from your supporters. They are surely able to see through this, and it’ll feel disingenuous.

The bottom line is that non-profits who find themselves cutting services run the risk of harming their program outcomes and community impact. Once this happens and donors see it, fundraising dollars will start drying up, and you know what they say about being on a “slippery slope”. Next thing you know, you’re at the bottom of that hill and you’re going out of business.

Of course, there is a another road to take. Stop exclusively focusing on cuts-cuts-cuts and start focusing on engaging donors and fundraising activities. I’m not suggesting that you stop cutting. There are most likely smart cuts your agency can make, but I’m suggesting you do so while implementing an aggressive resource development plan.

In my research, I found an amazing white paper written by David Maddox of John Wiley & Sons which was reprinted with permission by The Grantsmanship Center. The paper was titled “Strategic Budget Cutting“. It really is an amazing resource with great ideas and process. I encourage you to check it out!

Is your agency in cost cutting mode? What are you cutting and what aren’t you cutting? It is easy to say “use your mission statement to filter these decisions,” but how have you effectively done that? If you are both cutting and trying to do more fundraising, have you had much success? Please use the comment box below and weigh-in with your thoughts because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

The Age of Austerity: What does that look like for non-profits?

January 10, 2012 DonorDreams Uncategorized

I love to wake up on Sunday morning and watch the news shows. This past Sunday my favorite show — Meet the Press — hosted one of the Presidential debates for the Republican field. During that debate, one of the journalists or candidates used the phrase “Age of Austerity” in regards to government spending and programs.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes phrases just get stuck in my head, and I gnaw on them like a dog with a bone. This is what happened when I heard “Age of Austerity”. At first, I spent a lot of time processing what that looks like for government (e.g. more taxes to pay off accrued debt and reduction in services like police, fire and garbage). However, my mind quickly wandered to the non-profit sector and the questions started to snowball:

Could the non-profit sector be entering into an “Age of Austerity”?
What could this end up looking like for non-profits?
What could the societal consequences be when so many people rely upon non-profits to “fill the holes” in our social safety net (especially when government austerity likely means creating more holes in that safety net).
How many non-profits will tighten their belts to the point of going out of business because they can’t achieve their mission? And how many non-profits will look at merger opportunities?
Where will the cuts come from? Heck, most non-profits already stretch their resources too thin.

I believe that we might be on the brink of this “Age of Austerity” where donors demand more services, outcomes and impact with smaller and fewer contributions to pay for that demand. Consider the following few data points from Guidestar’s recent non-profit survey:

One-fifth [of survey respondents] projected decreases in operating budget for 2012 …

About half of survey respondents are facing declines in revenue from sources other than contributions (which includes government funding) or had less than three months of operating expenses in reserve. Similar percentages reported that their organizations rely on a limited number of funders, and more than half (52 percent), reported declining or flat philanthropic contributions.

Lots and lots of questions! LOL — Welcome to my world. However, the following question is the one that I’ve been stuck on for a few days:

Are some austerity measures better than others when trying to fulfill
your non-profit organization’s mission and achieve community impact?

I believe the answer is probably obvious — YES. However, I don’t believe there is any consensus around what cuts are better than others. For example, should an agency pull back on certain programs and focus more intentionally on core programming? Eliminate middle management and flatten the organization chart? Change executive leadership and hire a less experienced/less costly who might have more upside in the long-term? Reduce the size of the fundraising department?

In an effort to find some clarity, I’m going to ask my Tweeps and other social media friends to weigh-in with their thoughts. I’ll report back tomorrow on what I find out. Of course, you are very much encouraged to use the comment box (see below) and share your thoughts.

Here’s to your health!

The Secrets to Their Success?

January 5, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising, nonprofit

Yesterday was a fun day for me because I managed to get out of my home office and spend some time in the field trying to sell work. So, I hopped in my car and visited one resource development director and two executive directors. During the long drive home, I reflected on each of those three visits and came to the same conclusion:

In spite of sluggish economic growth,
there are some non-profit organizations
that are doing very well!

Here is a quick run down of what I saw in the field:

A fundraising professional with approximately 6-months under her belt at a new agency, planned and executed a $500,000 direct mail campaign in the fourth quarter of 2011.
An executive director who essentially closed a significant budget deficit in a matter of just a few months.
An executive director who quarterbacked a fairly reluctant board through the planning and implementation of a new annual campaign (developing a new revenue stream for their agency that is approaching 10-percent of their overall revenue budget).
A CEO whose non-profit organization has experienced a: 38-percent increase in individual giving, 80-percent increase in foundation contributions, and 222-percent increase in corporate sponsorships . . . all over the last two years. In fact, just last year this agency signed up 250 NEW donors.

I thought this economy was supposed to be big, bad and ugly for non-profit organizations? So, being the curious person that I am, I asked lots of questions and here are some of the things I discovered that I believe are “The Secrets to Their Success”:

Investments in marketing — aggressive pursuit of public service announcements using print, radio and television helped two of these agencies generate amazing awareness and mission-focus throughout the communities they serve.
Investments in fundraising staff — all three of these organizations had either hired more fundraising professionals or were talking about doing so. It reminded me of something my for-profit friends are constantly saying: “It takes money to make money.”
Engaging prospects and donors — all three of these organizations haven’t been shy about calling lots and lots of people (both existing donors and lots of new folks who have never given them a penny). The strategy was simple . . . be aggressive . . . get as many people on-site to see what their agency does . . . don’t ask for money right away, but ask them shortly thereafter (a few weeks to a few months later).
Re-developing the board — two of the three organizations have been diligently working on identifying, cultivating and recruiting new board volunteers who are capable of writing nice checks, are willing to introduce their friends to the agency’s mission, and aren’t afraid to ask others to make a contribution.

While the last 4-years have been brutal for many non-profit organizations and some recent survey research shows that many more are on the brink of insolvency in 2012, I believe that good executive leadership with a bullish and aggressive approach to resource development and non-profit management is “the cure for all that ails you”.

Here are a few bloggers who I like pertaining to marketing, hiring fundraising staff, cultivation & stewardship, and board development:

Katya’s Non-Profit Marking Blog is a genius and I’ve followed her work for years
Mission Connected blog hits the nail on the head when it comes to hiring fundraising professionals
The Fundraising Authority blog outlines a very nice systemic approach to supersizing your cultivation efforts
Larry Checco at about.com provides some great board development tips you might like

As you look around your community, has your non-profit organization performed better than the others over the last few years of recession and sluggish recovery? If so, please use the comment box below and share one or two of your secrets. Remember . . . we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

What can fundraising professionals learn from the Iowa Caucus?

January 4, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

Welcome to the 2012 Presidential campaign season! I watched hours of news coverage of the Iowa Caucus and my eyes are about to melt out of my head. However, I walked away from the coverage with what I think is a very clear lesson to be learned for fundraising professionals.

The Obama campaign has been chugging along and exceeding its fundraising for about a year now. They have done this in the middle of a soft economy, which has seemingly posed problems for many non-profit organizations. Many political observers believe that Obama will raise a record-setting $1 billion for his re-election bid.

While Team Obama has continued to raise money, the same can’t be said for the Republican field. If you add up all of the fundraising efforts from all of the current Republican candidates, it still doesn’t come close to Obama’s totals. Is this because Obama is that much better at fundraising? Or is it because Obama is the clear choice of the political donor base?

The current political thinking is that once Republicans settle on their general election candidate, donors will line-up and both candidates’ war chests will equalize. It might be possible that both the Democratic and Republican candidates will have in the neighborhood of $1 billion EACH to run their campaigns.

So, you’re probably asking yourself: “Where is the lesson for non-profit fundraising professionals?”

I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned about your non-profit organization’s case for support.

I believe many Republican donors are sitting on the sidelines because the case for support isn’t focused. There are too many different reasons to donate to too many candidates.

Mitt Romney’s case for support involves “electability” and business experience.
Ron Paul’s case for support focuses on libertarian principles and shrinking the size of government.
Rick Santorum’s case for support centers around traditional values and national security.

Eeeeeeek! If I were a Republican donor, I’d probably take a wait-and-see approach, too.

In these tough economic times, non-profit organizations would do themselves a favor if they spent the first few weeks of January 2012 re-focusing their case for support documents.

Donors like clarity. Donors like winners.

When is the last time your organization revisited its case for support documents? How do you ensure your case is aligned with your donor base? What have you found to be the most difficult part of developing your case? Have you ever considered that your written case for support might actually be costing you money? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts and opinions. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Oooops! I forgot my annual campaign plan

January 3, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

The holidays are behind us and a new year is here. While this is obviously a time of renewal and fresh starts for some people, it is most likely annual campaign season for many non-profit organizations. I see Boys & Girls Clubs gearing up for their “It Just Takes One” campaign. The Boy Scouts are powering up their “Friends of Scouting” campaign. I also see many YMCAs hitting the streets with pledge cards in hand.

So, why would so many well established charities hit the streets with pledge cards in hand this close to the holiday season?

This seems to be a time (January through April) of the year when donors have a little more time to sit down and talk. Don’t believe me? Think about what your summer look like (e.g. vacations, etc). Now think about your fall (e.g. back to school, United Way blackout period, third quarter sales projects accompanied by planning for fourth quarter initiatives, etc) Now think about the holiday season that we just exited (e.g. shopping, holiday parties, etc).
Pledge drives are wonderful in the sense that non-profits aren’t asking for cash . . . they only want you to sign an IOU. This means that every month you wait to ask a donor to sign their pledge card there is that much less time for the donor to stretch out their pledge payments. Let’s do the math on a $500 pledge. Asking in January means the donor can make up to 12 payments of $41.66. Making the same ask mid-year translates into approximately six payments of $70 – $80. Waiting until September only gives the donor a few months to pay their pledge and results in payments in the neighborhood of $125.

The first bullet point is the bigger reason for planning a January through May campaign unless your annual campaign is direct mail driven. The second bullet point is more relevant to non-profits whose fiscal year ends on December 31st. While it is true that pledges can be dragged over into a new calendar (and fiscal) year, many non-profits like to keep their books clean as they prepare for their year-end audit.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen non-profit friends get into early January with first and second quarter revenue budgeted for an annual campaign, but no written plan in place on how to move forward. If you find yourself in this situation, you’re in good company. However, you may want to reach for your “To Do List” and add the following things to it for this week :

Develop your Range of Gifts chart. (Click here to read a really good article on this from Joanne Fritz at about.com)
Engage a few volunteers and start brainstorming names of prospective donors who fit into various gift ranges.
Build a prospect list of potential volunteer solicitors who you think possess the skill sets and experiences to do a nice job with a personal solicitation model (e.g. face-to-face asks)
Start recruiting from your volunteer solicitor prospect list.

If the end of 2011 was a blur and you find yourself at the beginning of 2012 without a written annual campaign plan, these simple four bullet points are a great place to start. However, you can’t afford to dilly dally. These four things are your tasks for this week. There is still a mountain to climb. If you want to get a preview of your impending journey, you might want to read this very thorough article by Henry Rosso and Robert Schwartzberg that I found online at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Are you one of those non-profits who find themselves without a plan? If so, what do you find on your “To Do List” this week and next week? If you are one of those well-planned agencies, what advice or suggestions do you have for those who aren’t as fortunate? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

The Final 2012 Non-Profit Prediction

December 30, 2011 DonorDreams Fundraising

This entire week we’ve been looking back upon 2011 for major trends, and then looking forward to 2012 with an eye towards making a few predictions. Today’s post speaks to a fundraising prediction that has been true every year since the birth of our country more than 235 years ago:

If you ask people to donate, then you will raise lots of money.

A few days after Christmas, a friend sent me an email with the following Benjamin Franklin quote from Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings:

“It was about this time that another projector, the Rev Gilbert Tennent, came to me with a request that I would assist him in procuring a subscription for erecting a new meeting-house. It was to be for the use of a congregation he had gathered among the Presbyterians, who were originally disciples of Mr. Whitehead. Unwilling to make myself disagreeable to my fellow-citizens by too frequently soliciting their contributions, I absolutely refus’d. He then desired I would furnish him with a list of the names of persons I knew by experience to be generous and public-spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming in me, after their kind compliance to me solicitations, to mark them out to be worried by other beggars, and therefore refus’d also to give such a list. He then desir’d I would at least give him my advice. “That I would readily do,” said I; “and in the first place, I advise you to apply to all those whom you know will give something; next, to those whom you are uncertain whether they will give anything or not, and show them the list of those who have given; and, lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken.” He laugh’d and thanked me, and said he would take my advice. He did so, for he ask’d of everybody, and he obtained a much larger sum than he expected, with which he erected the capacious and very elegant meeting-house that stands on Arch-street.”

Ben Franklin is considered by most people to be the “Father of American Philanthropy”. His advice is timeless and perfect for those non-profit executive directors and fundraising professionals who are stewing over what their 2012 new years resolution should be:

Don’t say “NO” for anyone.

Ask everyone if they want to support your mission
and invest in the outcomes and impact your agency produces.

Ask! Ask! Ask!

If you do this, then my 2012 prediction for you is that regardless of the economy and any other external influences your non-profit organization will thrive and you’ll exceed all of your fundraising goals.

Speaking of non-profit new years resolutions, do you have any? If so, please use the comment box below and share your thoughts because we can inspire each other.

Here’s to your health!

2012 Non-Profit Trends and Predictions: Volunteerism

December 29, 2011 DonorDreams volunteers

This week I’m looking back upon 2011 for major trends, and then looking forward to 2012 with an eye towards making a few predictions. Today, we are looking at non-profit volunteer recruitment, retention and management.

Throughout the course of 2011, I had the opportunity to write about non-profit organizations and volunteerism. I’ve kept my eyes open for signs of what non-profits are doing with volunteers, and I see indicators everywhere pointing to:

2012 continuing non-profit agencies’ focus on volunteerism.

Here is what I’ve seen that leads me to this conclusion:

My fellow Generation Xers continue to increase the amount of time they spend volunteering. (I personally suspect this has less to do with their charitable outlook on life and a lot more to do with the fact that they’re in the heart of their child rearing years)
I see my parents’ Baby Boom Generation starting to retire, and they just don’t know what to do with themselves when they wake up in the morning. They are volunteering because they don’t see themselves as being old and they want to keep busy.
I see my Millennial generation friends standing in the unemployment line, and then turning around in search of volunteer opportunities that they hope might just turn into a job opportunity (or at the very least turn into a great reference or a referral).
I see my former employer — Boys & Girls Clubs of America — partnering with one of their major corporate supporters to fund a volunteer management pilot project in an effort to develop a program to teach their local affiliates to become better with volunteer recruitment, retention and management.
I see corporations demanding volunteer opportunities and projects from their philanthropic partners in an effort to drive down their employee turnover rates and grab onto what marketing professionals call “the halo effect”.
Let’s not forget about the research out there on the Millennial generation that shows this emerging generation is very much into volunteerism unlike any other recent generation.
According to a recent Guidestar survey, many non-profit agencies are trimming staff or putting a cap on hiring plans in 2012. Not surprisingly, the same survey showed that 65-percent of all non-profit respondents are looking for volunteers for program work and 54-percent are looking for volunteers for administrative work.

The reality is literally this simple . . . donors are saying they want to see non-profits do more with less . . . volunteer recruitment and management helps accomplish exactly this . . . and in the final analysis volunteers turn into new donors a lot easier than cultivating new prospects from scratch.

Investing in volunteerism could just turn out to be the non-profit sector’s version of an economic stimulus plan that pulls agencies out of their economic doldrums.

Volunteer recruitment, retention and management isn’t as easy as just putting out a call for volunteers. As with everything in life, it is science that requires planning and careful management.

Since the economic collapse four years ago, this trend has been taking form and the non-profits who are leading the way have been experimenting with such things as: volunteer databases, volunteer coordinators, various recruitment strategies, strategic alliances with agencies that specialize in volunteerism, recognition programs, orientation and training programs, placing value volunteer hours, and much much more.

As budgets get even tighter in 2012, the flood of non-profits who commit themselves to figuring all of this out will continue to propel this long-term trend.

Is your agency recruiting more volunteers? How has it gone about doing so? What challenges have you experienced along the way? How important is it to have a volunteer coordinator on your payroll to orchestrate recruitment, orientation, training, volunteer opportunity assignment, evaluation, retention, etc? How successful have you been at turning volunteers into new donors?

Please scroll down and use the comment box to weigh-in with your thoughts and experiences. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!