Blueprint Fundraising

Queer eye for the fundraising guy (and gal)

Grist recently posted a very funny article that every environmentalist should read. Author Lou Bendrick has great advice for people trying to lead social change.

His point: fashion matters. What you wear says a lot about you and helps people relate to you (or not). Environmentalists would have more impact if they traded the hippie look for a style that is admired by (or at least somewhat familiar to) the people they are trying to influence.

I think about the fundraising calls I’ve been on with people whose clothes did not position them well with donors. Inside some organizations, dressing wildly is totally acceptable. Hair doesn’t have to be combed. Matching socks are so boring. High school goth style can be cool. Head-to-toe fleece might be the de facto office uniform.

When meeting with donors choose something resembling smart business attire. You’ve heard the phase “dress for the job you want” and I think it applies to fundraising: “dress for the donors you want.” There are always exceptions… when wooing Marilyn Manson as your new celebrity spokesperson, go with the goth outfit.

Back to school — upcoming fundraising workshops

I want to let you know about a few upcoming workshops. I’m leading two this spring, where magical solutions to all your fundraising problems will be provided, for a small fee.

A Crash Course in Proposal Writing. Presented by Volunteer Vancouver on April 12 and again on April 27.

Fearless Fundraising: Building an Individual Giving Program for Your Organization. Presented by the Alliance for Arts and Culture on May 31.

Vancity and Volunteer Vancouver are launching the Financial Sustainability Workshops Series. This series of four workshops, starting April 5th, 2005, offers you access to experts in not-for-profit lending and financial management, real estate development, investment fund management, grant application assessment and partnership development.

Banks as donor advisors

A March 28 Maclean’s magazine article, Money with muscle, describes how “new style donors expect results for their efforts.” Puhleeze! This isn’t a new style — haven’t we been hearing about entrepreneurial and investment-conscious boomer generation donors for the last 10 years? Nonetheless the article is interesting because it explores the growth in foundations the new role that banks are playing as donor advisors.

In October 2004 you may have noticed TD Bank’s launch of its Private Giving Foundation where donors can set up their own endowment with $10,000. BMO’s Harris Private Banking division has also augmented their services in this area. This has been inspired by the meteoric growth of Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund in the US in recent years, which manages more than 31,000 funds and $2.4 billion in assets. Whatever you think of this trend, as a nonprofit it would be smart to build relationships with these banks and advisors! From the Maclean’s article…

Why are the banks becoming involved? Eyeing the large, and growing, assets of the charitable sector, the banks recognize that this new-style philanthropy stands to become big business in Canada. It used to be only Canada’s very wealthy families, motivated by guilt and a sense of noblesse oblige, who established foundations. Prior to the 1960s, there were fewer than 20 private foundations in Canada. Today, there are roughly 1,950, many created in the past 10 years. In 2002, Canada’s foundations had $11.9 billion in assets, up 32 per cent in two years. Bankers expect as much as a trillion dollars to change hands over the next decade as the boomer generation inherits the wealth of its parents. Logically, some of that money will fund philanthropic endeavours.

How do you find these new foundations and seek their support?

Many do not accept applications. The best approach is to build relationships with the foundation trustees as you would other individual major donors. A way to identify trustees and the foundations that accept applications is through Imagine Canada’s Directory to Foundations and Corporations or the BIG Database. Both are subscription services. When doing prospect research I consult both because although there is a lot of duplication, each allows you to search in a different way. If these are too expensive, you can find print versions of the Imagine directory in some public libraries.

Infect yourself with the giving virus

I went to a Tides Canada Foundation book launch this week. The Power of Giving by Harvey McKinnon and Azim Jamal is all about how to create joy in your life by giving your time, money, love, and talents to people and community. The authors are donating all book profits to a new fund at the Tides Foundation that will support various charities. Nice!!

This looks like an inspiring read. Could be an excellent gift for your special donors, who are already practicing this in their lives… You can buy the book on the website or download it for free. The authors are hoping to spread the giving virus far and wide so pass it on!

Seeking input on CRA policy

The Canada Revenue Agency is seeking input on the thorny issue of what acknowledgement charities can provide to donors, while still giving a tax receipt. In their recent newsletter they describe some of the grey areas you can find yourself in, especially if you have corporate donors or naming opportunities on offer.

The newsletter also contains some interesting statistics. In 2003, 5.6 million Canadians made financial or in-kind donations worth $6.5 billion to registered charities. This was the highest level of donations ever reported and represented an 11.4% increase from 2002. The number of donors increased by 1.2%. With 32 million people in the country, that’s only 17.5% of the population claiming charitable donations. We still have 26 million people to convert into donors… better get back to work.

ArtsNow announces next deadlines

In case you missed the very tight January 31 deadline, ArtsNow has announced that their next deadline for the Catalyst and Innovations programs will be in June 2005. Revised application forms will be available on their website after April 15, 2005.

New capacity building cash for enviros

Hey ENGOs! The Centre for Sustainability has launched a new granting program based on the successful model of ArtsPOD. I’ve been an ArtsPOD consultant for a few years. It’s one of the few places that small to mid-sized groups can go for capacity building help.

EnviroPOD (Environmental Partners in Organizational Development) will provide capacity building grants for BC environmental groups. If you haven’t heard of it, “capacity building” is strengthening internal abilities and systems such as organizational planning, governance, skill development, financial sustainability, and marketing.

This is a pilot program and applications will be due on Friday, April 29, 2005. Yay to the funders: Vancouver Foundation, Vancity, Columbia Basin Trust and Endswell Foundation!