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10 LinkedIn Best Practices for Nonprofits

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From: Nonprofit Tech for Good

Here’s the list. Read More online for details on each
1) Set up and prioritize LinkedIn Pages in your social media strategy.
2) Post 2-3 times weekly to your LinkedIn Page and react to your followers.
3) Monitor your LinkedIn Analytics.
4) Experiment with LinkedIn Ads.
5) Engage as your nonprofit page to elevate your brand on LinkedIn.
6) Encourage current staff, board members, and volunteers to complete their LinkedIn Profiles.
7) Empower your current staff, board members, and volunteers to advocate for your nonprofit on LinkedIn.
8) Encourage executive staff to be regularly active on LinkedIn.
9) Use LinkedIn to connect with major donors, corporate sponsors, and foundations.
10) Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups.

10 Online Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits

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From: Nonprofit Tech for Good

Here’s the list. Read More online for details on each

1) Implement donation page best practices.
2) Proactively promote your monthly giving program.
3) Launch a tribute giving program.
4) Know the power of email fundraising.
5) Prioritize a matching gifts strategy.
6) Experiment with crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising.
7) Sign up for Facebook & Instagram Fundraising Tools.
8) Embrace cause awareness and giving days.
9) Host online fundraising events.
10) Invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

10 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Tips To Help You Raise More

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From QGiv

Peer-to-peer campaigns are now one of the most popular fundraisers nonprofits all over the world embrace. In fact, 39% of Americans say they’ve donated to a charity based on a request from a friend or family member.

Here’s the list. Dread more detail about each, online

1. Come up with an idea that fundraisers are excited about
2. Prepare your fundraisers
3. Use branded pages
4. Incorporate social media
5. Ask your fundraisers to set personal goals (and raise them later!)
6. Gamify your event
7. Engage your fundraisers
8. Ask volunteers to use their talents to encourage donations
9. Encourage updates on their progress
10. Have a plan for retaining those first-time donors

10 Ways to Boost Fundraising and Attract More Big Gifts This Year

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Excerpt from The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Three seasoned fundraisers share proven tactics — and real examples — to help you adapt your big-gifts strategy to the current climate and maximize results.
By Lisa Schohl
FEBRUARY 13, 2024

1. Focus on midlevel donors.
…because oftentimes, $2,500, $5,000, $10,000 is more accessible than higher-end major gifts, and people are more inclined to maintain their giving to an institution in that regard.

2. Identify gaps in your donor pool.
… such as communities that might have a natural connection to your cause but aren’t yet giving.

3. Diversify your board.

  • Ask corporate partners to recommend company leaders who care about your organization’s mission and might be interested in serving on the board.
  • Consider donors who demonstrate passion for your work.
  • Create a “young patrons’ board.”

4. Tap into big donors’ networks.

5. Maximize your board.

… set clear expectations for their annual giving and involvement in fundraising from the get-go, including asking them to sign a board member commitment form where they could indicate their interest in helping with specific types of donor outreach, such as visits, hosting a gathering, or sponsoring an event.

6. Streamline your donor communications.
… Automate as many processes as you can to help ensure that all donors get attention throughout the year, while freeing up fundraisers to focus on building relationships with big donors and bringing in new supporters.

7. Be vulnerable.
… you don’t want to be existential, but it’s OK to be honest and open with donors about your nonprofit’s need.

8. Highlight gifts to inspire more giving.

9. Use matching gifts to boost results.

10. Prioritize donors who have DAFs or family foundations.
…start by mining the donor database to identify individuals who have given in one of these ways. Don’t wait until November or December to talk with DAF donors- that is when many are focused on adding money to their DAF, rather than distributing it.

10 Words and Phrases You Should Never Use

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An advice piece in the Chronicle of Philanthropy goes after “Philanthro-speak” which often means one thing to a foundation program officer and another to people outside that bubble.

Here are a few terms — suggested by the CP staff as well as nonprofit leaders and communications experts — that may alienate or confuse rather than inspire:

Asset mapping
This is a popular term in community-development work. “Asset mapping,” explains the Local Initiatives Support Corporation on its website, “is a capacity-focused way of reimagining the place-making practice around the strengths and gifts that already exist in our communities.” More simply, the phrase describes the process of cataloging a community’s strengths and resources. A derivation perhaps more confusing: “asset-based framing.”

Best practice
The phrase was first found in Scientific American in the 1920s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and burrowed into the business and management consultant fields in the 1980s. It since has migrated to medicine, government, education, and the philanthropy and nonprofit worlds. The problem, experts say: Something is best practice only until research finds something else is indeed better. The phrase also encourages standardization — a one-size-fits-all approach that fights against the philanthropy trend captured by another buzzword: “participatory grant making,” in which communities or individuals closest to a problem are the ones that decide what’s best.

Bridge building
Words from the design or construction fields — including “scaffolding” and “infrastructure” — suggest that philanthropists are expert planners. “Bridge building implies an architecture designed to bring things together that weren’t intended to be together in the first place,” Dean-Coffey says.

Concretize
An authority no less than the Allied Grant Writers advises grant seekers to “concretize your overall idea of a project.” Dictionaries confirm it’s a word — the OED says it dates to the 1800s — but a more user-friendly piece of advice might be: “Offer details to illustrate your project.”

Ecosystem
National Geographic Society, the venerable nature and science nonprofit, calls an ecosystem a “geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscapes, work together.” Nonprofits often use the term to describe the set of relationships between groups in a network of organizations. The result can be quite confusing. When Deloitte Consulting’s Monitor Group identified 45 roles for community philanthropy organizations, it included those “proactively planning for the long term,” some “building collaboratives,” and others “managing formal collaborations.”

Impact
It’s probably one of the most seemingly benign yet most overused words in philanthropy. Every program officer wants their grants to result in change. But “impact” is something that happens to something; it suggests, for instance, that a community working with a foundation has no role in its betterment, says Jara Dean-Coffey, director of the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, an effort to redefine how foundations determine grant results.

Meteors make impact. Teeth get impacted. The word is “violent, nonconsensual, and not fair,” she says.

Leverage
Tony Proscio, a retired consultant to large foundations, says that too often,  philanthropy leaders use fancy words from other fields that shroud what they really mean. “Leverage,” which is borrowed from the financial world, is “the one I despise the most.”

Socialize
Foundations sometimes say they need to “socialize” a big idea — shorthand for testing whether the people they want to help will embrace the concept. Merriam-Webster’s third definition — “to organize group participation in” — might be appropriate, but the word can strongly suggest training others in established values and habits — in other words, bending others to norms.

Systems change
This phrase typically describes efforts to “tackle the root causes” of a societal issue, not the symptoms. But it’s so dense with connotations that Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors even wrote a “topic brief” to explain the term (complete with an infographic). Ambitious grant makers reach for “systems transformation.” And when change efforts grow complicated, they require an “orchestration mechanism” to coordinate parties involved.

Theory of change
The authors of a 2004 study commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation suggested that without a theory of change — that is, a plan for how to solve a problem — nonprofits and the people they serve are vulnerable to “wandering aimlessly.”

Enter a foundation, which will present a plan, packaged as a theory of change. Barriers to change will be identified, partners in the work engaged, money will be well spent, and the problem will be managed. But the term suggests a single answer to a problem and a prescriptive approach.

12 Ways to Attract New Donors

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From Network for Good

Here’s the list. Read More online for details on each

1. Relationship mapping
2. Research, research, research
3. Be where they are
4. Leverage your volunteers
5. Turn your board into advocates
6. Launch a peer-to-peer campaign
7. Host an event
8. Build partnerships
9. Get out in the community
10. Host cultivation parties
11. Cultivate the next generation
12. Maximize corporate partnerships

14 Ways to Improve Your Next Proposal and Build Ties With Grant Makers

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From The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Summary:

  1. Don’t apply for every grant out there
  2. Focus on the future
  3. Try to get meetings at conferences and through email introductions
  4. In proposals, start with the larger narrative about why your charity exists, what its big dream or vision is, how you want to achieve that, and how you’ve done that so far. Provide context beyond the duration of the grant.
  5. Look at every element of the proposal with the lens of that particular funder, and make sure that you’re making the strongest case possible to them.
  6. Demonstrate resilience by explaining how you’ve handled uncertain times in the past.
  7. Ban the boilerplate – tailor each application to address the specific ecosystem that the grant maker cares about.
    Write for skimmers.
  8. Use A.I. to streamline to help with tasks such as organizing and editing your proposal or finding facts for your statement of need. But be aware of potential misinformation and privacy concerns.
  9. Spell out your organization’s “why.”
  10. Plan your responses carefully. Most applications are now online, but it’s best to download the questions and take time to think about them before responding.
  11. Put the spotlight on your community.
  12. When speaking about the people your group serves, make sure to do so in a respectful and meaningful way.
  13. Be honest.
  14. After you get a grant, stay in touch with the program officer.

7 Mistakes New Philanthropic Foundations Make

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Kris Putnam-Walkerly writes in her “Confident Giving” Newsletter: “Drawing from my conversations with thousands of foundation leaders, spanning 23 years, here are seven prevalent missteps. By paying attention to these mistakes, you can avoid them and ensure your foundation’s success.”
  • Being stuck in overwhelm
  • Restricting your potential through a mindset of scarcity
  • Letting it go to your head
  • Assuming you have all the answers
  • Operating without a strategy
  • Failing to hold yourself accountable
  • Not seeking help.

Best tool ever for fundraising for children and youth orgs

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From Anne E Casey Foundation

Theses are Foundation’s signature resources tracking the well-being of children over time and across states in order to provide high-quality, unbiased information and encourage action on behalf of kids and families.

From the Website:

The KIDS COUNT Data Center is an online resource that provides data on child well-being over time from the most trusted national sources and from more than 53 state- and territory-based organizations. The KIDS COUNT Data Center houses hundreds of key child and family well-being indicators and more than four million data points at the national and local levels.

The KIDS COUNT Data Book provides a detailed picture of how children are faring in the United States, ranking states on overall child well-being and domains. The Data Book also contains key indicators covering economic well-being, education, health and family and community. Each year, the release of the Data Book generates significant media attention and a unique opportunity to discuss ways of improving the lives of children and families.

Candid advice to fundraisers from foundation leaders

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Ever wonder what really happens to your LOI once a foundation receives it?

The Center for Civil Society recently hosted Catherine Koenen, executive director of the Gianforte Family Foundation, and Marshall J. Sana, senior program officer of the Apex Foundation, for a conversation about foundations fundraising.

Read the entire article online Link to Philanthropy Daily

Here are a few key takeaways to make sure that your foundations outreach is the best it can be.

  • GET THE PROCESS DOWN: First and foremost, do your research!
  • NO SUBSTITUTE FOR A GOOD PROPOSAL: The details are important.
  • COMMUNICATION IS KEY: Don’t underestimate the value of your relationship with your foundation contact—they are the ones who go to bat for you with the board, after all.

 

 

ChatGPT in Philanthropy: Useful?

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A number of recent articles have covered artificial intelligence gone awry: Microsoft’s AI’s strange declarations of love. ChatGPT’s inaccuracies. Midjourney’s odd human portraits with too many fingers and too many teeth. And worse, accusations of plagiarism from both human and AI.


But could ChatGPT in Philanthropy be a Useful Tool for Philanthropic Writing?

Here’s One Way it could: Breaking Writer’s Block

There are certainly a whole host of questions to consider and issues to address when it comes to this newest technological advance. However, there is a useful and ethical way to use the technology for writing purposes, specifically in the philanthropic sector: brainstorming.

You may be familiar with the feeling of blank-page-anxiety. That feeling you get when you have a prompt and a flood of information in your head but no way to funnel that information onto paper. ChatGPT is a powerful tool to bridge that gap.

Create ChatGPT account > Get acquainted > Give a command for a response > Ask bot to revise> Make it your own

Step 1: To use the chatbot you’ll need to first make an account on OpenAI. Using ChatGPT is currently free, although there is an option to purchase a Pro account subscription where you get priority access to the chatbot when it’s overloaded with use and unavailable to free use.

Step 2: Get acquainted with the chatbot. It can be a bit daunting at first and you might not know what to ask. The best way to start is with a question or a command. You could ask, for example, what the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation does. Then perhaps command the chatbot to write a paragraph about the efficacy of mosquito nets. Really get into the brainstorming mindset here.

Step 3: Once you have an idea of the functionality, you can start asking the real questions.

Say for instance you’re writing a grant proposal for a program that would increase pollinator habitats in cities and you’re stuck on that first large daunting question: What is the goal of the project/program?

I asked this very question and received a moderately acceptable response.

Not the worst response, but it could use a bit of pathos and a bit more specificity. The situation might also occur where you forgot a key piece of information or the chatbot didn’t give you exactly what you’re looking for.

Step 4: Ask the chatbot to revise. A useful function of ChatGPT is its ability to learn within the current conversation. If the chatbot didn’t answer the question quite the way you wanted, you can tweak the language or ask it for something specific.

In this example, I asked the chatbot to add an example of a city that is designated as a “Bee City” in the paragraph it had generated.

Step 5: Revise. You may notice the AI also uses certain phrases much more commonly than others, making it sound a bit stiff and a bit one-voiced. These traits are generally unappealing in grant applications or website descriptions; both of which are common time-consuming writing tasks in philanthropy. At the end of the day, you can likely write a more specific and targeted response than the chatbot can, with better pathos. The response is just your starting point.

Say I decide that actually, the first response was a better fit for the direction I want to go in. I might revise it to:

Urban development and other human activities have led to a decline in pollinator populations (bees, butterflies, and the like), exacerbating issues of health and wellness. However, by increasing pollinator habitats in cities through our program, “Save the Pollinators,” we can support the health of the entirety of urban and rural ecosystems, human and nature, through the process of acquiring land and developing land into pollinator-friendly green spaces. Pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining the health and productivity of these ecosystems specifically by aiding plant reproduction. In urban ecosystems this means an abundance of flowers and lush green plants which increase the urban beauty, aid in the mental health of residents, and increase overall the temperature regulation of the area. In rural ecosystems, this means stabilized food production of croplands and an aid in the strengthening of the entire ecosystem, from insects to apex predators. In addition to these benefits, increased pollinator habitats can improve air and water quality and reduce soil erosion.

In this new paragraph, I saved those green highlighted lines but shifted everything else to include some more pathos-centric words and specificity as well as more firmly solidifying a problem-solution narrative. For example, using “urban beauty” and “acquiring land and developing that land.” Had I needed to write this paragraph wholly unaided, it may have taken me a good 30 minutes to complete, needing to go through the task of brainstorming and listing and condensing. With the ChatGPT generated response, I finished in 15 minutes flat, cutting my time in half.

Limitations to remember here: the chatbot won’t have any knowledge of something that doesn’t exist yet, or likely personal details of your organization. In fact, at present, it has limited knowledge of events that occurred after 2021 due to its training data ending in that year.

It also has the ability to make incorrect information sound factually plausible. For example, I asked the AI how many countries start with the letter “v.” The first answer, “There is only one country that starts with the letter “V,” and that is Vietnam,” obviously did not cover every country. I tried again: “There are only two countries that start with the letter “V”: 1. Vanuatu 2. Vatican City (officially known as the Holy See).” Venezuela is nowhere to be found. So that information on Bee Cities? Worth a fact-check.

Four articles on DEI

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  1. In an open letter published on Black Feminist Fund, some of philanthropy’s most influential organizations say that “It’s time to fund Black feminist movements like we want them to win”. Among the 11 prominent grantmakers who signed the letter are Pivotal Ventures (Melinda Gates), Clara Lionel Foundation (Rihanna), and the Ford and MacArthur foundations.
  2. The B Corp Arabella Advisors is talking about the Future of Black Wealth in a new series of articles and events. It is part of Arabella’s Racial Wealth Gap practice that aims to connect changemakers to philanthropy and impact investors. The series starts by pointing at the racial wealth gap in generational wealth – which is what buys and keeps power. That gap is six to eight times larger than the income gap between Black and White Americans. The follow-up article outlines “three levers changemakers must pull to eliminate” this gap: philanthropy, impact investing, and advocacy.
  3. Philanthropy Always Sounds Like Someone Else: A Portrait of High-Net-Worth Donors of Color, compiled by Donors of Color Network, presents a qualitative analysis of interviews with 113 high net worth BIPOC donors, conducted over three years in ten cities across the U.S
  4. The Northwest Area Foundation’s second blog entry in their series on racial capitalism: How Philanthropy Plays a Role in Economic Systems that Harm People of Color, and What It Can Do to Help Heal and Repair.

Four common grant proposal documents (free samples included)

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There are four major documents that you may need to create if your nonprofit is looking for funding. Each has a different purpose and elements you’ll need to make your case to funders. In the Candid’s blog, they share the major types of grant proposal documents, their components, and free sample resources to show you what a successful version of each one looks like.

FREE information on grant makers

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Is this one in your prospecting tool box?
Cause IQ has a load of 🌟 FREE information on grant makers.

As a business, Cause IQ is an impressive data stack built for consultants, accountants, and IT firms to find and market to nonprofits. It’s subscription-based BUT founder Josh Hurd and his team have not skimped on the
freemiums. You get much more than you would from just the 990, and its way more accessible.

Here’s some of what’s in a search with a free account:

🔹 First, when logged in, you get a Dashboard with a search box.
🔹Type in the name of a funder, or, keywords, like “Minnesota Foundations” – that gives you a list of 2,880 organizations, each with a profile.
🔹Under “Advanced Search” you see how many are Private foundations, Corporate foundations, etc.
🔹Filter on any of these Types, and/or Revenue, and/or City.
🔹 A Cause IQ profile shows Program areas, Funding, Grantmaking, Financials, and Personnel. With the free account, it’s mostly 990 data but MUCH easier to read than the tax form.

🔹You can save the Search, to return to over time.
🔹The Grantmaking tab offers more: Graphs comparing issues that received funding, the number grants made in what states, the NTEEs, and more.
💠 Graphs likes these are behind paywalls on other search sites.💠

Another pleasant discovery, the Dashboard remembers recent searches, viewed profiles, and lists updates on them.

Give it try: https://www.causeiq.com/

From Inside Philanthropy: What Books Are Philanthropic Leaders Reading?

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Here Are 21 Great Picks From IP Interviews

Here are a few:

  • Amy Freitag, New York Community Trust President recommends “The Culture Code,” by Daniel Coyle
  • Jamie Bennett, Former Head of ArtPlace America and United States Artists recommends “Red at the Bone,” by Jacqueline Woodson
  • Alesha Washington, Seattle Foundation President and CEO recommends “What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky,” by Lesley Nneka
  • Amoretta Morris, Borealis Philanthropy President recommends “All About Love,” by bell hooks

Read the rest:
Have a subscription? Link to the article

or

Download a pdf of the article

Fundraisers aren’t afraid to ask, it’s because*:

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  • They know success is dependent on putting the donor in charge of the pace and the donor is in no rush.
  • There’s no real urgency they can point to.
  • They don’t feel like they have the right project to put in front of the donor.
  • They don’t want to blow a bigger opportunity
  • The donor has asked for something that the organization hasn’t provided.
  • Something about the project doesn’t seem quite right (e.g. they don’t feel the organization can deliver on the promises being  made.)
  • The donor is asking for more that the organization can deliver on.
  • The donor’s cognitive or physical health is  questionable.
  • They sense the donor needs more time, information, or interaction with project leaders.
  • They know the donor is distracted by some other life event.
  • They just can’t tell where the donor is, but the vibe isn’t one of great interest.
  • The donor has brought a new person into the equation (a spouse, child, financial advisor, etc.)
  • Some pre-existing issue the donor had with the organization hasn’t been worked out.
  • The donor has expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership of the organization.
  • (*First published on Linkedin by Langley Innovations, commented on by Council for Advancement and Support of Education : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7073992379359252480?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios)

Fundraising Event Experience survey

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Classy, a leading online fundraising platform and thought leader, highlighted donors’ 2022 Fundraising Event Experience in a survey of 1,000 event attendees:

— 26% attended live events, while 36% went virtual because there was no live event or because they preferred a virtual experience
— In-person and virtual attendees gave roughly the same dollar amounts (beyond ticket sales). 20% of virtual attendees gave $500+ and 22% of live attendees gave over $500.
— 96% of virtual attendees rated the event excellent or good, while only 87% of live attendees thought the event was excellent or good.

Top Five Favorite Virtual and Live Events:

VIRTUAL ATTENDEES– Endurance Events (32%)
— Performance (31%)
— Auction (31%)
— Galas (26%)
— Competitions (24%)

LIVE ATTENDEES

— Endurance Events (43%)
— Performance (38%)
— Auction (36%)
— Galas (36%)
— Competitions (29%)

Grant Writing Tips

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Last updated on December 29th, 2024

A Social Psychologist On Five Elements Of Good Writing

grantmakers become more isolated from most grantseekers, and most grantseekers become less visible to grantmakers, the art of writing becomes more and more critical to relationship-building success. There are a thousand good articles on good grant writing. Joachim Kreuger, a social psychologist from Brown University, offers these universal writing good elements:

  • Relevance: A good text conveys the information that matters, although a few exceptions can spice things up without much distraction.
  • Economy: Wordiness debases writing by diluting it. I began this post with the sentence “Good writing is hard,” when I could have written, “It has long been recognized that writers must overcome many difficult challenges before they can deliver an appealing and comprehensible body of text.” Look out for boilerplate and run-on sentences! Even if a sentence is sound, most adverbs and adjectives can be stricken without loss of information. Strong action verbs communicate better than noun-heavy phrases.
  • Vividness: Good writing evokes images in the reader’s mind. It is perceptual and hallucinatory. A poor text allows readers to hear the words in their minds without evoking images. Again, action verbs help.
  • Coherence: The text must hang together, tell a story, and follow a narrative arc. Lists don’t do this, and this post is playing with fire. Each part of the text has its own mission. Section headers can help, but an elegant text won’t always need them. When the writing is good, readers know where they are in the story.
  • Humor: A good text is entertaining, and humor is a spice that keeps boredom at bay. Good humor is subtle and not thigh-slapping. Good humor lets the reader in on a joke without being condescending or obscure.

What’s in Font?

The Washington Post has a couple of tests you can take to determine which font is right for you, your organization and your prospective donors. It’s probably not what you think.

Grant Writing 101: Know Your Impact

Grants consultant, Barbara Stratton, recently did a piece for the Chronicle of Philanthropy that  critiques “faulty” grant requests to illustrate “How to Write Grant Proposals That Get Results“

Grantseeking mistakes

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Five silly grantseeking mistakes:

Philanthropy Daily newsletter and blog are published by American Philanthropic, a conservative-leaning philanthropy research and consulting group. Lots of good content. With support from funders and fundraisers, they’ve put together their favorite Five Silly Grantmaking Mistakes:

— Missed deadlines
— Proposals lacking in content
— Too much selling
— Not doing your homework
— Giving up too soon (YES, WE ABSOLUTELY AGREE!)

How to Craft Your Organization’s Financial Story

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From Nonprofit Finance Fund

Crafting a financial story requires a shared understanding and interpretation of your organization’s numbers and how this connects to your current and continued mission success. This guide will help you develop your financial story, which can be used to align stakeholder and organizational priorities, navigate leadership transitions, and convey how your programmatic work and finances fit together to create a comprehensive picture of your nonprofit’s impact.

Link to NNF.org

How to have a successful introductory meeting with a funder

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Caroline Altman Smith, Deputy Director of Education for The Kresge Foundation in Detroit, writes: “I think the best introductory meetings are just that—the PO and the nonprofit getting to know each other and having a productive exploration of the fundraising Venn diagram: what the foundation is interested in funding, what the nonprofit needs funding for, and ideally, coming to a common understanding of that middle circle where you have mutual priorities.”

A few tips:

  • Have an Agenda
  • If there is something you want the PO to read in advance, attach it to this email – no longer than two pages.
  • Don’t assume they know much about you
  • Be ready to share key details. What is your North Star goal? How long has the organization existed? How many staff do you have? What’s your annual budget? What are your primary sources of funding? What is your program model and who are you trying to help?
  • Watch the clock.

Read her article

New Terms: 2023

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  • Social Impact Infrastructure Organizations (SIIOs) Propel Philanthropy uses the term to identify groups they call “the indispensable backbone for the philanthropic, nonprofit, and civil society sectors”. They are resource builders, conveners, networks, platforms, trainers, educators, researchers, media outlets, and advocates.
  • Race Equity Glossary: Maintained by MN Education Equity Partnership, used by several national organizations, coalitions and higher education groups.
  • Definitions of Empowerment Language Borealis Philanthropy has published their Glossary Definitions.
  • This guide from Disability: walks through the general dos and don’ts when interacting with individuals who identify as disabled
  • Racial Equity Tools Glossary SOURCE: Project Change’s “The Power of Words.” Originally produced for Project Change Lessons Learned II, also included in A Community Builder’s Toolkit – both produced by Project Change and The Center for Assessment and Policy Development with some modification by RacialEquityTools.org.
  • Meanwhile spaces: Disused sites leased or loaned for a certain period of time by the public sector or developers to local community groups, art organizations, start-ups, and charities. These sites may be vacant or under-used shops, buildings, open spaces, or land. Temporary contracts allow community groups, small businesses, or individuals to pursue economic activity at below-market rates to generate social value for the neighborhood and its inhabitants
  • Diversity Dishonesty:  hiring a ton of diverse people, putting diverse people on company photographs and advertising assets, but not valuing them in the organization, and then gaslighting when the issue is raised (from According to stylist.co.uk)
  • Houseless, unhoused, unsheltered:People are turning away from the most common term, “homeless,” in favor of alternatives. Each one has a slightly different meaning.
  • Generosity Experience: your new term for the online solicitation process, as in How to Design a Magical one on Your Nonprofit’s Website
  • The Communications Network (the association of grant maker communications people) has a dedicated website directed at how foundation and nonprofit communicators can improve racial equity through their work. The site includes tools to craft relevant messaging that centers diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the results of the 2019 survey of DEI experts. Some of the findings:
    • The terms “race” and “racism” rarely appear in organizational DEI definitions, even for organizations focused on justice and equity.
    • Respondents rated their organizations’ staffs as more diverse than their boards, and their boards as more diverse than their senior leadership.
    • Less than half (42%) of respondents said they had a strong understanding of DEI concepts.
    • Over half (57%) saw the impacts of implicit bias present in social good communications.
    • Almost half (46%) recognized unintentional reinforcement of stereotypes and an overall lack of understanding of what language should be used in racial equity messaging.
    • About one-fifth (21%) of respondents said there was a lack of support for DEI initiatives within the organization.
  • BIMPOC – Black, Indigenous, Multiracial, People of Color. This more inclusive term is becoming more popular in philanthropy trade journals
  • Third Places – Read the Walton Family Foundation’s opinion piece on funding “third places,” including non-work and non-home places, commercial and public indoor places like bars, restaurants, cafés, barber shops, beauty salons, museums, and libraries, as well as outdoor places like trails and bike paths.
  • Latine – There’s a growing debate about the use of “Latinx” as an all-inclusive term for people of all the folks who used to be included in “Hispanics” and “Latinx”. We each get to choose our own names.
  • Canopy Gap and Tree Grief – The Star Tribune recently had a piece on how poor neighborhoods have so many fewer trees and shrubbery than wealthy neighborhoods. Evidently, there are some very serious problems when we don’t have enough trees which we call “canopy gaps” or “tree grief”.
  • Virtue Signaling – Another old term that’s resurfaced – Mostly intended for corporations or powerful people, “virtue signaling” implies actions taken only to improve their moral reputation. In the early 1990s, it was overused by folks who were pointing out politicos or businesses who did something that looked great that was also hugely visible. It’s back and for good reason.
  • Revisiting Capacity Building and Strategic Philanthropy – Sara EchoHawk wrote a nice piece for Nonprofit Quarterly in 2019 on “capacity building” and how many funders use “strategic philanthropy” as code for “overly prescriptive grantmaking”. Both capacity building and strategic philanthropy are back in style. Maybe it’s good to think what each term really means.
  • Narrative Change – We debated whether to put this item here, in the Toolbox section or the Survey Says area. Narrative change is a becoming more popular as a distinct and successful tool for advocates and human service people alike. Critical Race Theory and Climate Change stories are two key examples of narrative change. This report, Funding Narrative Change, defines terms, delineates benefits (e.g., funders want to learn), and provides “how to” examples. An important read for people who need to open minds.

Not posting a salary range? You may be losing half your applicants

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From Human Resource Executive:
When it comes to job postings, employers are using a range of approaches to be transparent with pay, Kohn says.

That’s the attitude of 44% of job applicants who, over the past 12 months, did not apply to positions because they lacked a salary range, according to a recent Gartner survey of nearly 3,500 job candidates.

HR leaders can look to their pay transparency practices as a recruiting tool in such an environment, says Jamie Kohn, a senior director in Gartner’s HR practice.

“We’ve seen a lot of candidates look at these pay ranges and job descriptions as an initial filter on whether to apply,” Kohn tells HRE. “They feel that companies that share pay ranges are more fair and honest than those who don’t. And, understand, you’ll be competing against organizations that do offer pay ranges if you don’t.”

In addition to states enacting pay transparency requirements, some companies that post employers’ job listings, like Indeed, also calculate salary ranges as part of that posting.
As a result of these moves, pay transparency in job listings is likely to become the norm in another two to three years and also further accelerate the expectation of it by job candidates, Kohn adds.

How to set a pay range for pay transparency

For companies looking to stay competitive in this new reality, one of the most important first steps in setting a pay range is to review all of your current salaries, says Kohn.

“We’ve seen a lot of organizations do salary corrections, especially with all the inflation that we’ve seen,” she says. “People have been raising the salaries for their existing employees to make that pay range that they’re posting.”

When it comes to job postings, employers are using a range of approaches to be transparent with pay, Kohn says.

Some employers include a salary range in all of their job posts, regardless of whether the states they’re hiring in require it, she notes. In other cases, large employers with jobs in multiple states may post a very broad range but then also note major markets like San Francisco or New York City fall into a different category and list the range for that specific geographic region. For remote positions, Kohn will often observe the pay range based on the company’s headquarters location.
In determining the salary range, employers will often use the minimum to the mid-point of what they are willing to pay, or rely on using the 25th percentile to 75th percentile, she notes.

When Gartner has done surveys of job candidates and employees, they say they are more likely to apply to a job with a narrower range, says Kohn, adding that would be about $10,000 on each side of the mid-point.
Most importantly, HR leaders need to ensure that the current workforce and job candidates understand what factors influence where they fall in the salary range.

“People need to have a way of gauging what a reasonable salary expectation would be within that range,” Kohn says. “So, sharing some context around what determines it is really important.”

Link to the article

Question & Answers from Introducing Your Organization to Funders Workshop

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In May 2024, Access Philanthropy held a workshop on Introducing your Organization to Funders, presented by Access Philanthropy Senior Grant Writers Kirsten Gulbro and Ann Madsen. Topics included drafting a Letter of Introduction (LOI), other other outreach methods, helpful tips, things to avoid, and tools to help with the writing. We held a Q&A with the 80 attendees. Below are the answers Access Philanthropy provided after the event.
1. How do I access Form 990s?

Several online sources provide access to 990s – the best resource to learn about the financial and operational details of foundations, and to better understand their activities and funding priorities. A primary 990PF source is the IRS website. Additionally, GuideStar allows you to search for and view millions of Form 990s for nonprofit organizations and foundations. Other free, valuable tools with 990s and additional information are ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, CauseIQ, The Foundation Center, and Charity Navigator. Some foundations publish their Form 990s directly on their websites, or a list of their grantees, as part of their transparency efforts. Subscription services include Foundation Directory and Instrumentl.

2. I have come across funders that explicitly state they don’t accept unsolicited LOIs. Any feedback on how to introduce our org to funders like that, especially when you don’t have an in with staff/board?

While approaching funders who do not accept unsolicited LOIs can be challenging, we recommend a few strategic ways to introduce your organization and build a relationship:

  • Research Thoroughly: Conduct in-depth research on the funder’s mission, funding priorities, and previously supported projects. Understanding their focus areas can help you tailor your approach.
  • Leverage Existing Networks: Use relationship mapping tools like RelSci, WealthEngine, or BoardEx to identify any indirect connections between your Board members, staff, or other stakeholders and the funder. Even distant connections can be leveraged for an introduction.
  • Engage Through Events and Conferences: Attend events, conferences, and webinars where the funder’s representatives might be present. Networking at these events can provide opportunities for face-to-face introductions and informal conversations about your organization.
  • Social Media and Online Presence: Follow the funder on social media platforms and engage with their content. Commenting thoughtfully on their posts and sharing relevant updates from your organization can increase visibility and demonstrate alignment with their mission.
  • Write a Thoughtful Introduction Email: If you have any point of contact, send a concise and well-crafted email introducing your organization. Highlight your mission, impact, and how it aligns with the funder’s priorities. Respectfully acknowledge their policy on unsolicited LOIs and express your interest in exploring potential synergies.
  • Collaborate with Funded Organizations: Identify organizations that have previously received funding from the target funder and explore opportunities for collaboration. Joint projects can increase your visibility and credibility with the funder.
  • Submit to Open Calls and RFPs: Keep an eye on any open calls for proposals or requests for proposals (RFPs) from the funder. Submitting a strong proposal in response to these opportunities can put your organization on their radar.
  • Demonstrate Impact: Ensure that your organization’s website and publications effectively showcase your impact, success stories, and testimonials. A strong online presence can pique a funder’s interest and encourage them to learn more about your work.
3. What is the definition of a Donor Advised Fund?

NOTE:  This is an excerpt from Access Philanthropy’s response to the DAF question.   A link to full response is below.

Donor Advised Funds (DAF) are pools of money ($10,000 or more) created and financially sustained by individuals, families, businesses, or organizations (the Donors). These DAFs are managed and technically owned by non-profit organizations such as community foundations, colleges, and investment companies (such as Fidelity, Vanguard or Charles Schwab). Note that, while Fidelity is a for-profit corporation, the company maintains a separate non-profit mega-fund (Sponsor) that manages thousands of DAFs.

Legally, the DAF is owned by the Sponsor as soon as the Donor opens their DAF and “contributes” its money to the Sponsor. Technically, ONLY the Sponsor can invest that money and, legally, only Sponsors are allowed to award grant funds to DAF recipients. However, if the Donor “suggests” the Sponsor award a grant to the Red Cross, the Sponsor obliges the donor about 99.999% of the time.

But there are two significant problems with DAFs [more …]

4. Do you recommend cold phone calling, or phoning after sending LOI?

Calling is the fastest and most direct way to connect with a funder, so we recommend calling before and after submitting an LOI (if time allows). It also gives you a chance to share more about your organization, answer their questions, ask your own questions, and talk through potential next steps.

5. Script suggestion when making a follow-up call?

A follow up call should be brief to be respectful of the donor’s time and include a concise update on your project and express your willingness to provide additional information. It is also an opportunity to express gratitude for their time. A general template is:

  • Introduce yourself: Hello, [Donor’s Name]. This is [Your Full Name] from [Your Organization’s Name].
  • Establish Context: I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time. I’m calling to follow up on the LOI we submitted on [submission date] for our project [brief project title or description]. Do you have a few minutes to discuss it?
  • Summarize the Project: “We are very excited about this initiative, which aims to [short summary of goals and impact]. We believe it aligns well with [Donor Organization’s Name]’s mission to [mention donor’s mission or focus area].”
  • Request an Update: “I wanted to check in on the status of our submission and see if there have been any updates or if there are any additional details we can provide to assist in your review.”
  • Offer Additional Information: “We’re happy to answer any questions or provide further information that might be helpful. Is there anything specific you would like to know more about?”
  • Express Gratitude and Interest: “Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today and for considering our application. We truly appreciate your support and are hopeful about the possibility of working together.”
6. In your recent experience, if a funder says they are not interested in unsolicited reach outs, is it ultimately worth it to use resources to pursue them?

If a funder has told you they don’t accept unsolicited outreach, that shouldn’t discourage you from starting to build a relationship. Many funders don’t accept unsolicited proposals, and yet, they accept a handful of new grantees each year. We recommend following up quarterly with these funders to share news articles (preferably featuring your organization, but also articles that highlight trends/news in their mission area), invitations to your organization’s events (e.g., program graduations), links to videos, or celebratory emails when the foundation has been recognized for something positive in the community. As you get to know the funder better, you can have a larger conversation about funding potential. Having said that, if they ask you not to contact them, it’s best to move on and save your hard work for the next one!

7. Last year a Board member from a foundation sent us a large donation personally. The foundation wants a LOI. Would I mention that this Board member gave a personal donation?

Because it was a personal donation, it is likely not necessary to include this in the LOI. Given your Board member’s connection to the foundation, however, you may want to reference their support of your organization more generally (without sharing details about the gift). You can also follow-up with the Board member to see how they recommend proceeding.

8. We are starting a funding campaign and are starting with people that know us and have been previous donors.  I’m wondering if emails are still better than letters?  I worry about emails getting lost in the pile of emails people get daily.

In this case, you can get away with doing both. You could send your donors a letter, and then follow up 1-2 weeks later with an email (making the email as personal as you can to avoid junk and spam folders). By doing a mailer and an email, your message is less likely to get lost.

9. In a LOI, do you attach it as a document or put it in the email?

Document into the body of the email. This ensures that the formatting and structure of the LOI are maintained, making it easier for the donor to read it. In the body of the email, provide a brief summary of the LOI, highlighting the key points, such as the mission of your organization and what you are requesting funding for.

10. What messaging and resources are helpful to Board members, staff and volunteers to help identify relationships they might encounter authentically in their work and community circles? (Clarifying to say relationships with funders)

Having a conversation at the board level about the importance of fundraising is a good place to start. It reinforces the idea that your organization needs resources and fundraising is a shared responsibility. Following up with 1:1 conversations with Board members helps you identify their individual barriers, questions, and next steps. Some Board members may find fundraising overwhelming and scary, while others simply don’t know where to start. Individual check-in meetings also give you a chance to brainstorm alongside your Board member (e.g., “Do you know anyone at XYZ company/foundation that we can set a meeting with?”).

1:1 meetings could also be a helpful practice with your volunteers, and particularly those you know or suspect are well-connected. On a broader scale, adding a fundraising plug to your volunteer materials and asking volunteers to forward/share those materials may jog their brains.

11. Can you address the differences between seeking operational funding versus a capital project?  We are looking to rehab a building to be used as a digital media training center and entrepreneurial coworking facility

Your best source of capital gifts are your current funders, as they know you, love you, and want to see you grow. Capital gifts tend to be larger investments and in many cases, outside of a foundation’s typical application cycle.  If your organization is soliciting capital gifts, we recommend contacting a program officer or foundation staff to have a conversation about capital gifts. In many cases, foundations will make capital gifts IN ADDITION TO your current operating/program support.

Because operational funding is more common, you can usually apply under the foundation’s existing application cycle(s). If the foundation is new to your organization, it’s helpful to give them a call, send an introductory email (with your LOI attached), or mail an LOI.

12. Currently, in general, if a funder says they are not interested in unsolicited reach outs—does this tend to be true?

This is likely true, but that shouldn’t discourage you from starting to build a relationship. Many funders don’t accept unsolicited proposals, and yet, they accept a handful of new grantees each year. We recommend following up quarterly with these funders to share news articles (preferably featuring your organization, but also articles that highlight trends/news in their mission area), invitations to your organization’s events (e.g., program graduations), links to videos, or celebratory emails when the foundation has been recognized for something positive in the community. As you get to know the funder better, you can have a larger conversation about funding potential. Having said that, if they ask you not to contact them, it’s best to move on and save your hard work for the next one!

Have your own questions?

Schedule a 30-minute chat with an advisor

Six tips on fundraising

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1. Holt Gift Planning on Matching an (In-kind) Asset to The Right Gift Type

Interesting chart matching the type of organization you have with the type of donation a donor wishes to bestow on you. Really a starting point if someone offers you a tractor. Download this Gift Grid:  It’s a quick reference guide for matching non-cash assets with appropriate gift techniques.

2. Nonprofit Finance Fund created a 12-part webinar curriculum on Nonprofit Financial Management Webinars  The series is on You Tube. Download slides and companion workbooks for each webinar from the NFF Website

3. Want to Know More About Peer-to-Peer Fundraising?

4. Network for Good Best LinkedIn Best Practices for Nonprofits

5. The great people at Propel Nonprofits have lots of good programs. But key for many organizations at this time of year are their lending programs, including a line of credit for late paying committed grants.

6.If you’re looking for child care related lending, our good friends at First Children’s Finance are a GREAT source.

The Due Diligence Tool

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This 65-page handbook was created by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, as a blueprint for nonprofits wanting to understand what reviewers are thinking about as they examine requests for support, and how they assessing an applicant and its proposal for funding.

Link to the publication

The Latest on Mackenzie Scott: A Web Database with Mixed Applications

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Mackenzie Scott’s new website Yield Giving is now accessible to the public. A cumulative gift database, it gives us a great deal of information the $14,000,000,000 she has given to 1,600+ non-profit teams… though 28% of the grants are missing key data points.

But let’s take a look:

In November 2022, after facing criticism about the secrecy of her gift giving, Scott promised a searchable gift database that would allow for more transparency in her philanthropy. Other third party websites like The Chronicle of Philanthropy had previously created databases, painstakingly constructing them from Scott’s blog posts (now also hosted on her website rather than Medium) however such databases were flawed from the start.

The information given in those blog posts was minimal and the effort required to make data points like geographic region and focus area took large swaths of time. By contrast, Yield Giving’s database simplifies the process while also providing some additional insights.

As promised, the site hosts details of each gift given by Mackenzie Scott, with filters and sorting by focus area, geography, and keyword. The database also details the gift amount and year. One of the best features is the ability to download the entire database as a CSV, allowing for much more granular analysis than what is offered on the more user-friendly web version.

Focus areas are divided into ten, color-coded subsections Geographic data can filter as specifically or generally as you like: identifying all 233 gifts to the Midwest or the 1 gift to a nonprofit in Hennepin County, Minnesota.

Using the sort feature provided some insights. For example, 53% of all gifts went to education (844), with the majority heading to the South at 36% (305);  just less than half of the environmental gifts went to nonprofits located in the United States.

Everything is self-identified by the nonprofits themselves, keeping with Scott’s assertion that the control should always remain in the hands of the nonprofit.

Disclosure Delays

There is at least one large limitations to this database, however.  Many of the gifts from 2020 to present feature the note “disclosure delayed for the benefit of recipient” in the grant amount field, which accounts for more than one-quarter of all the Foundation’ gifts.

The Ultimate Guide to Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits: 2024 Edition

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Google Ad Grants is a philanthropic initiative by Google that provides nonprofit organizations with free advertising credits of up to $10,000 per month on the Google Ads platform. The program allows nonprofits to display their ads on Google Search results pages, potentially reaching millions of people interested in their causes. Essentially, it’s an in-kind donation from Google to help nonprofits raise awareness, attract volunteers, and drive donations.

Nonprofit Tech for Good published a guide written by the Co-founder of Webup! – a Google-certified digital marketing agency focused on the Google Ad Grants Program, where he delve into the Google Ad Grants program, discussing what it is, who is eligible, the application process, creating your first campaign, and going through a Google Ad Grants policy checklist to make sure your account is compliant and would not be blocked.

Read the guide

Two Great Tools from the Nonprofit Finance Fund 

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The Nonprofit Finance Fund is a NYC-based national nonprofit finance organization, awarding loans, making investments, offering consulting services and workshops, and occasionally offering grant opportunities via other grantmakers. Recently, the Fund published two great grant/loan tools:

  • First, How to Craft Your Organization’s Financial Story. These days, your financial story is probably the most important document you can get a funder who’s not familiar with your work. It’s critical messaging in a way a funder can understand you.
  • Second, Cashflow Projection Template:. Cashflow projections are essential documents for determining how much working capital an organization needs to maintain or build to manage the low cash points in the year.

What Donors Want

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Graphic from Council for Advancement and Support of Education

 

What is the definition of a Donor Advised Fund?

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In our workshop on Introducing your Organization to Funders (May, 2024), we held a lengthy Q & A session and a few people asked about Donor Advised Funds. Below is the answer we provided, following the event. Link to the full Q & A >>

Donor Advised Funds (DAF) are pools of money ($10,000 or more) created and financially sustained by individuals, families, businesses, or organizations (the Donors). These DAFs are managed and technically owned by non-profit organizations such as community foundations, colleges, and investment companies (such as Fidelity, Vanguard or Charles Schwab). Note that, while Fidelity is a for-profit corporation, the company maintains a separate non-profit mega-fund (Sponsor) that manages thousands of DAFs.

Legally, the DAF is owned by the Sponsor as soon as the Donor opens their DAF and “contributes” its money to the Sponsor. Technically, ONLY the Sponsor can invest that money and, legally, only Sponsors are allowed to award grant funds to DAF recipients. However, if the Donor “suggests” the Sponsor award a grant to the Red Cross, the Sponsor obliges the donor about 99.999% of the time.

Why does the Sponsor listen to the Donor so often? Because the Donor pays a management fee (between 5% and 10%) to the Sponsor. For Sponsor organizations like the Saint Paul-Minnesota Foundation and the Minneapolis Foundation, DAFs are their primary source of income as well as the source of more than half of the Foundations’ grants. Unless the Donor is giving to an illegal organization, the Sponsor will always oblige the Donor.

To be fair, community foundations are providing huge services to the Donor, to grant recipients, and to the community. It’s very clear DAFs are the only way more than half their Donors give away money. Some organizations in Minnesota receive more funds through DAFS than through other private foundations. Granted you have to be big and famous for that to happen, but if it weren’t for DAFs, the Walker and the Guthrie would be in serious trouble.

  • Related, Sponsors like Fidelity and Charles Schwab are among the largest charitable giving operations in the United States. They charge a low management fee (5% or so) and they automatically award billions of charitable gifts/grants all over the world.

But there are two significant problems with DAFs.

  • Some Donors “warehouse” their charitable funding. They “contribute “ funds to the Sponsor and receive a tax deduction for their contributions. But then they let the money sit in the DAF and never direct the Sponsor to contribute funding to charitable organizations. Their “contributions “ just sit in the DAFs for years or until the Donor dies. No one in the community benefits from this supposed contribution except the Sponsor.
  • The second issue is more argumentative. Donors and Sponsors are not required to publicly divulge any information about the DAF, the Donor, the size of the DAF, or the charitable intent of the Donor. Only the Donor and the Sponsor know, and neither of them are talking. At least not to organizations not on the Donor’s grant list. So more than half of the funding from community foundations is actually anonymous and awarded behind a wall of secrecy.
    • For some donors, this anonymity is THE primary reason they use a DAF rather than a regular private foundation (in which the IRS requires annually published public information). That’s understandable. If my family is afraid of being inundated by grant seekers, anonymity allows me to give money without worrying about lots and lots of grant requests.
    • => Related, while the minimum DAF investment is usually around $10,000, that really means many DAFs are only awarding 10-15 $1,000 grants per year. Is it worth the Donor’s time and energy to chat with 100s of grant seekers to give away $10,000? Probably not, so the DAF system is time efficient for many Donors.
    • On the other hand, so many great organizations have no platform to make their case to the Donor and they can’t rely on the Sponsor to support their case to the Donor when the Sponsor is so beholden to the Donor. So, it’s easy to see why less well-known charities are frustrated by the lack of access and it’s understandable why community members are disappointed that only the most famous organizations have access to these funds.
    • Community foundations are legitimately protective of their Donors and relationships which raise so much of their annual income. But because of the negative community pushback and because of lots of recently proposed legislation and recently drafted IRS regulations about DAFs, some community foundations are becoming more accessible to grant seekers looking for DAF money.
    • Some offer “applications” (generally 2-3 pages of info) that they can share with prospective donors. The Tides Foundation in San Francisco allows everyone to fill out a simple application that becomes part of a “catalog” that’s sent to all their Donors.
    • Some community foundations allow the staff people who manage the DAFs and the Donor relationships to chat with high prospect grantees. One of our environmental clients met with one of Minneapolis Foundation’s DAF staff people and eventually received a $50,000 grant from a DAF.

Procedures shift from community foundation to community foundation and from grantseeker to grantseeker. If your group is not well known, it may not be “worth” the Sponsor’s time. Nevertheless, we recommend that grant seekers visit with community foundation program officers to determine their policies on DAFs.

Remember, virtually every community foundation, large and small, sponsors DAFs. From the 1500+ DAFs at Minneapolis Foundation to the 3-5 DAFs at places like the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the Headwaters Foundation for Justice, and the Catholic Community Foundation of the St Paul Minneapolis Archdiocese. And if you learn Margaret Cargill Philanthropies has a DAF at the Saint Paul Minnesota Foundation, please understand that their DAF is not really intended to make grants but to be an investment gift to the Sponsor.

If you see a gift from the Chicago Community Trust to a little theater company in Minneapolis, it’s a Chicago Community Trust Donor using their Chicago Trust DAF to support the little theater company. In Minnesota, more than 200 non-resident community foundations award grants to Minnesota groups through their DAFs. We’ve linked to a Donor Application from the Minneapolis Foundation that will give you a deeper understanding about the relationship between the Donor and the Sponsor.

What motivates donors to give? …Matching Gifts

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An estimated $4-$7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed per year.

This, according to American Charities, a 501(c)(3) membership-based nonprofit that promotes workplace giving.  In their Facts & Statistics on Workplace Giving, Matching Gifts, and Volunteer Programs, here is what they gathered on Matching Gifts:

  • 65% of Fortune 500 companies and 28% of small to mid-size companies offer matching gifts – the total represents a 58% increase since 2006.
  • Average employee participation in employer matching gift programs is 10%, demonstrating a marked opportunity for growth.
  • Corporate matches rate near the very top of incentives for employees to donate to charities through workplace initiatives.  84% say they’re more likely to give if a match is offered, and one in three say they would give a larger gift if it was matched.
  • More than half of employee matching gift programs are ‘open’ , where employees can choose the nonprofit to benefit.

Link to article 

 

Who Reviews Your Grant Proposals?

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From The NonProfit Times

… Who reads, votes, rejects or rewards your effort?

First, consider the size of the staff at the funder you’re approaching. If it’s the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the person-power is close to 1,800. If it’s a community foundation in a major metro area, it might be 50-75 people. For a small private grantmaking foundation, there might be a staff of 10 or even fewer.

  • If it’s a very large staff, there are probably program assistants or associates who take a first crack at proposals.
  • If it’s a very small foundation, with very few staffers — your proposal might only get one chance.

…there is a body of information that all reviewers probably subscribe to, however informally. Some years ago, a coalition of funders created the “Due Diligence Tool” — a 65-page handbook for assessing an applicant and its proposal for funding. The publication, by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, is a useful blueprint for nonprofits wanting to understand what reviewers are thinking about as they examine requests for support.

Why Hybrid Events are the Future of Fundraising

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From Network for Good:
Thanks to the cloud, laptops, and mobile devices, people are working, socializing, and attending experiences online. This trend started years before the pandemic, but it was catapulted forward by the need to socially distance. Now, people want to choose whether to engage either remotely or in-person. We’re seeing an increased demand for hybrid corporate events, and nonprofit event planners are wise to take note.