K-State Proud

I’m a little disappointed with the K-State Proud campaign this year. Don’t misunderstand me, I think it’s a great idea. I’ve donated both years and I think that t-shirts really entice students to donate. I also think it’s a great idea that it’s students helping students. Overall, it’s a great campaign and helps a lot of students in need.

However, this year I don’t think it was a good idea to put those huge banners all over campus. They could have told us how great the campaign did by putting it in the collegian or maybe putting posters all over campus. Instead, they put HUGE banners on several buildings on campus. In the last two weeks I’ve noticed a few more as I’ve been on campus. While this is a great idea for letting us know how well the campaign did, I don’t agree with it. I know those banners couldn’t have been cheap and I don’t think that it was a good idea to spend the money on them. I don’t think that getting the message out that way is the best route. Even if the banners were donated I think the money from those donations should have gone towards the cause instead of advertising how well the campaign did. I know I’m not the only one who thinks this because last week I saw a message in the fourum asking how much the banners cost the campaign. Obviously, at least one other student thinks the banners were a waste of funds. I know that when I saw them my first thought was how much money it took from the scholarships for students. I know the campaign is new and getting the message out is important but I don’t think this helped the campaign for those people who are wondering where the money went to. The banners say where the money went but they don’t say how much was spent on advertising and things like that. Now I’m wondering how much money was really raised and where ALL of it went?

Robert Egger

It was cool to see Mark so excited about Robert Egger.  Everyone has something that triggers personal interest, and Robert Egger is proof that his edge is attracting people like Mark to consider being involved in nonprofit in the future.  (I have known Mark for years, so hearing this out of his mouth made me realize how big of an impact philanthropists can make).  We’re always waiting for the next eye-opening thing to happen, and it’s cool to see these new ideas surface in our current event topics.  I think that as long as these new innovative philanthropists come along at a steady pace, the future of philanthropy will continue to look sunny, even through a recession.  A recession may even make people more likely to volunteer because we’ll all (us poor students) will be suffering.  Anyway, I’m getting off topic, but I just think it’s really inspirational to see how each niche can be tapped into when it comes to philanthropy and fundraising.

A Night of Too Many Stars

So it seems as if Comedy Central has jumped on the bandwagon for TV fundraisers.  I was skeptical about watching it but since nothing else was on tonight (Sunday) I decided to watch a few minutes of it and I ended up watching most of it.  They’re raising money for autism and there were so many famous people I couldn’t even begin to name all of them on here.

I thought it was a nice change from most telefunds because it was all focused on comedy.  It wasn’t a bunch of famous people attempting to sing or perform stunts, or try bad circus acts.  Two of my favorite parts were when  Will Ferrall impersonating President Bush and when Steve Carell showed how $100 could be spent.  They also had the Blue Man Group, several cameos from numerous stars, and it was all hosted by Jon Stewart.

But not all of it was jokes and laughs.  They also showed clips of families with children that have autism and how they struggle financially.  It reminds viewers that these stars are trying to help people who could really use the donations to help their children.

E-mail Campaign

I thought I’d add to my presentation by giving part 3 of 6 from the echoinggreen.org/blog/putting-the-fun-back-in-fundraising about E-mail campaigns.  I didn’t really like the idea of sending e-mails and asking for money but this blog gives some good advice to fundraisers about e-mail campaigns.  Here are a few highlights:

It’s also a way to build relationships

It suggests using something in the news to create the subject of the e-mail.  That way readers know that the e-mail and subject are also current.

It emphasizes keeping a privacy a priority.  Everyone is concerned about their privacy and if you guarantee privacy your potential donors then they’re more likely to have confidence in your organization.

The blog gives great suggestions for when to send the e-mails as well.  It recommends times when people are more likely to check their e-mails.

I think the most important part is the last point in the blog: don’t ask for money in the first e-mail! “ You wouldn’t ask for money the first time you met someone, and you shouldn’t in the first time you email someone either.”  I agree with this and I think that non-profits should follow this suggestion as well.  I also believe it ruins the relationship you’re trying to build when all you do is ask for money.  That’s not a very good relationship if all you want is money.  You should build the relationship and build in trust and confidence before you start asking for money

Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges

I just read the article that Harvey posted about the Milwaukee based nonprofit helping at-risk teenagers go to college. I thought it was very interesting to read about all the great things they are doing for young people, and to read how it was made possible from a business standpoint. It seems like there are so many great ideas out there to help kids who would not be able to attend college without help, but many of them fail because it costs a lot of money to put a kid through college, and many slip through the cracks.

I think it is good that the organization set some specific goals for what they wanted to accomplish. Then, they hired some people who really cared, and knew what they were doing (a winning combination) to make their vision a reality. I think that in order for a nonprofit to really be successful, you not only have to have a passion for what you are doing, but you also have to have the business skills to raise the funds and compete with all the other nonprofits and for profits out there. It seems like this organization has both of these aspects, and is doing a lot of good because of it.

Fundraising Misktakes

Fundraising has never been an activity that I have enjoyed doing. I hate to make my friends and family feel obligated to give to me, and asking complete strangers can be a bit awkward at times. I ran across this article titled “Five Fundraising Mistakes we make with our Boards” on http://www.guidestar.org/news/features/board_fundraising.jsp

This article gave five key points that cause failure when fundraising by board members. I found them very helpful as they stress many of the key points we have discussed in class. It stressed the importance of building relationships with your donors instead of contacting them only when you want money. It also said that asking donors at too low of dollar amount limits you to what they might have potentially gave if you had asked for more first. Finally, it stated the proper training and coaching is needed for your board members because they may have no experience at all with this type of fundraising experience.

It is also important for nonprofits when selecting board members, that they select ones with a large networking base along with the communication and sales skills needed to raise the required amount. Because fundraising is diffictul, but definitely attainable through the proper procedures and avoiding these five mistakes.

RSVP, an invitation to serve

I may be jumping ahead of myself a little bit since this topic will relate to a class project not due for weeks, but I felt inspired yesterday and wanted to share with everyone.

A classmate and I visited RSVP of the Flint Hills yesterday to discuss an upcoming project and I learned much more about RSVP and the great things they are doing in our community. A little background: RSVP is a volunteer program for people 55 years and older. The executive director shared with me that their biggest challenge is raising adequate funds for their programs because so many people are focused only on youth-oriented giving. The group would like to expand to other counties, but just doesn’t have the funding to do so yet.

I found this very interesting because I never gave this much thought before speaking with her; the idea that our society values youth the most. Donating to children’s causes is of course critial for our future and our society, but it surprises me that we would leave the older age groups behind. Perhaps things will change as the baby-boomer generation grows older, and generation Y moves into the professional workplace, but I am concerned with the immediate consequences. It takes volunteers of all ages to sustain a community, and it deeply saddens me that we cannot provide the funding to have more volunteers in the Flint Hills.

What does everyone else think of this topic?

A Void in Kansas

The below excerpt is from an article in Earth News. At the National Conference for The National Council of Nonprofit Associations the focus will be in part employing one in 10 Americans in the nonprofit sector. I think this is really interesting. According to http://www.nonprofitcongress.org/?q=localefforts#KS Kansas has no state coordinator or town hall meetings that would help facilitate Kansans receiving such employment. Why is this? Is Kansas inherently slow on the green movement? Would this be because we are not located on a coast and so there for the trend hasn’t fully hit? Now there are those who would say Kansas has many activities and this is just one instance where someone hasn’t stepped up yet. That may be so but I see a void here, and that’s troublesome.

The National Council of Nonprofit Associations, in conjunction with State Coordinators in 36 states and the District of Columbia, will host Town Halls throughout the country during March and April 2008. The Town Hall meetings provide a forum for local nonprofit leaders to identify challenges facing their communities and organizations, exchange ideas, and help set the agenda for the Nonprofit Congress National Meeting in Washington, DC this June. In addition, the Town Hall meetings will reveal strategies and programs developed in various states to address the three priorities identified by the Nonprofit Congress in 2006: public awareness and support of the sector; advocacy and grassroots community organizing; and nonprofit organizational effectiveness. http://www.nonprofitcongress.org/

More on Social Entrepreneurship

Google Alerts strikes again. I tripped over this blog entry about a new book, Forces for Good, which also discusses “The Power of Unreasonable People.” Majority of discussion about these books relates to nonprofit organizations modeling them after “their for-profit counterparts.” Interesting read. Check it out.

— Prof. Harvey

Nonprofit Exeutive Salaries

Though we haven’t spent much of any time in class discussing the salaries of nonprofit executives, and how they impact giving/contributions/fundraising-in-general, I came across this online article from one of my Google Alerts. A Portland, Oregon, TV news station looked at the salaries of nonprofit executives as part of an investigative journalism piece. An interesting read of how an audit can change executive’s perspectives. The article, as expected, is a little critical, but a rather interesting look at just how much salaries may impact administrative expenses. As many of my students know, I’ve discussed administrative costs, efficiency, and accountability ad nauseum in our discussions about the economics and and ethics in philanthropy.

Something to think about. — Prof. Harvey