Blueprint Fundraising

Attention Little Give applicants

The Little Give recently had technical troubles with their server and sadly, some applications have been sucked into the vacuum of cyberspace. They are advising everyone to re-submit their applications by email or by calling Kera McArthur at 604-623-3007. They have also extended the application deadline to June 5th. You have until Friday to apply to this cool program!

The Little Give is back!

The nice people at Karyo Edelman are doing The Little Give again.

Last year their staff spent a frenzied weekend helping four nonprofits in a variety of ways… renovating a playroom, creating a communications plan, and generally using their ingenuity to turn a small amount of money into a big impact for kids.

This year they will be selecting three groups. Go to their website and nominate your organization by June 1, 2009 if you are:

• - a registered non-profit organization;
• - based in Vancouver;
• - secular; and
• - make a difference in the lives of children and youth (under 24 years old).

This year’s Little Give takes place from 4 pm on June 18th to 4 pm on June 20th. You’ll also be able to follow the fun on Twitter and Facebook.

A thought for Earth Day

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”

-– Marshall McLuhan

Hugh Jackman’s $100K Twitter challenge

That elevator speech you’ve sweated over is really going to come in handy here!

Actor Hugh Jackman is giving away $100,000 to someone’s favourite organization. Tweet your case to him here.

Insights from the AFP International Conference

The annual Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference is on now in New Orleans. If you aren’t there (I’m not), you can still access some of the ideas being talked about in the sessions.

AFP has some coverage on their own website and the Chronicle of Philanthropy is posting highlights in their Conference Notebook. They have  audio interviews with presenters that you can hear without being a subscriber, such as this interview about attracting younger donors.

I found this interesting — its from a survey of organizations in the midst of capital campaigns:

- When asked whether and how they would do things differently in budgeting for a big campaign, 31 percent of respondents said they would engage in more formal campaign planning. Twenty-three percent said they would monitor campaign costs more closely, and 13 percent said they would fold the campaign budget into the overall financial goal of the drive.

- The average campaign budget included 39 percent for staff members, 22 percent for consultants, 19 percent for marketing, and 20 percent for other costs such as events, travel, and office expenses.

Help your board succeed in friend-raising

On April 15th Volunteer Vancouver is offering a workshop on a perennially important topic… “Increasing the Board’s Involvement in Friend-Raising.”

You’ll notice that says friend-raising not fundraising. It’s a good approach that many organizations could benefit from — you must walk before you can run and give board members the support, tools and environment to succeed in building relationships on behalf of your organization. Those relationships will naturally lead to all sorts of benefits for your cause, including donations. You can find out more and register here.

10 strategies for recession fundraising

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a great series up right now with 10 things to do now, to raise money during the downturn. You need a subscription to read the full articles but here’s their list. It is based on interviews with a variety of organizations. Some of these are back-to-basics ideas, which is what a lot of people are focusing on. Others are about being  frugal and innovative. All excellent ideas these days.

1. Don’t treat giving as a financial transaction. Tell donors how their giving is making the world a better place and don’t just focus on the perks they will receive (e.g. “you get a newsletter and four free tickets” — this is especially important for arts organizations).

2. Keep close ties to donors. Don’t make your only contact with donors be solicitations. Focus on thanking and showing impact. Find ways to let donors see the impact for themselves.

3. Offer matching grants. Ask a loyal donor or funder to provide the match.

4. Ask donors to give monthly. ‘Nuff said.

5. Look for ways to save money on fundraising. Trim special event expenses or eliminate programs that aren’t serving you well. Look for ways to move your communications online. Freeze salaries. Renegotiate with your vendors and consultants (don’t know about this one!).

6. Seek alternatives to soliciting private donations. Can you rent some of your space to another organization? Start a social enterprise? Develop a cause-marketing partnership with a corporation?

7. Collaborate to raise money. You can have greater impact and generate more attention by working with others. For example, ten grassroots organizations serving people with disabilities could put on one large event instead of each having their own. They would probably raise more, hold a better event and get more attention than doing it alone.

8. Scale back ambitious campaigns, but don’t give up on them. You may have to scale back on the goal or increase the length of your “quiet phase” where the lead gifts are solicited.

9. Avoid emergency solicitations. Asking donors to bail you out or save you from impending demise is not an appealing message — who wants to invest in an organization on the brink of collapse? Instead, tell people how the economy is hurting the people you serve and the issues you work on.

10. Shore up relations with grant makers. It is going to take some time before endowment-based funders can get back to decent levels of giving, but that doesn’t mean you should stop paying attention to them. Be on their list when giving resumes, by being in touch and continuing to show them you are making a difference.

Save the sea kittens

This campaign made me laugh! And it is doing something I’ve wondered about… How can a good cause capitalize on the online world’s unquenchable desire to view cute cat images?

PETA’s campaign is all about asking people to stop eating fish and write to the US government to ask them to protect fish. But since fish are not cute, they propose rebranding them as “sea kittens.” Maybe that will help. “Chicken of the sea” certainly worked for tuna. The site has lots of creative content to explore.

About the Campaign

People don’t seem to like fish. They’re slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you’re swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by.

Of course, if you look at it another way, what all this really means is that fish need to fire their PR guy—stat. Whoever was in charge of creating a positive image for fish needs to go right back to working on the Britney Spears account and leave our scaly little friends alone. You’ve done enough damage, buddy. We’ve got it from here. And we’re going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it’s time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?

Benefits of the Brushed Aluminum giving level

Shouts and Murmurs, my favourite section in The New Yorker has a funny piece by Bruce McCall, proposing donor giving levels for a Charity Gala Event.

As part of the Brushed Aluminum Motley, you can expect to receive: Sandwich; unlimited water-glass refills; simulated autograph of Guest of Honor on cover of official event program; preferred coat-check queue position; use of rest room (depending on key availability); partially unobstructed head-table view.

Read the rest… and Happy Friday!