Blueprint Fundraising

The McCord Museum has some cool online tours of their Canadian history collection. “A Bourgeois Duty: Philanthropy, 1896-1919″ has some amazing photos documenting the role of philanthropists in the care of vulnerable populations and the development of cities (before government assumed the leadership role we see today).

This 1908 photo shows the kitchen and volunteer workers in the “Montreal Diet Dispensary” which “cooked and delivered nourishing food to the sick poor, the convalescent and the incurable.”

The main problem is not the haves and the have-nots — it’s the give-nots. - Arnold H. Glasow

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest feature on how US public television stations have built successful major gifts programs has been fantastic. So many great ideas. I thought would share how they formally evaluate their major gifts fundraising staff.

Many organizations seem to shy away from evaluation — after all fundraising is about relationship-building right? And that can be hard to quantify. Gifts can take years to come to fruition. Nonetheless, I think it is good for organizations and fundraisers to have very specific targets.

Here’s a summary of the system developed by Richard K. Dupree , Executive Director of Development at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and being used by public TV. Fundraisers are given a rating out of 25 on how well they perform in each of these four equally important areas:

1. Meeting a specific dollar goal of funds raised/pledged
2. Making a minimum number of formal proposals to major gift prospects at minimum gift levels
3. Making a minimum number of contacts and recording the details (the prospects for future fundraising)
4. Overall quality of work — this is a flexible criteria but could include things like how well the person engages volunteers in their work, their success rate with proposals, their ability to cultivate relationships, and their management of their budget

According to Dupree, the fundraiser should achieve at least 75 points to be considered “satisfactory.” Those who achieve 80+ points are eligible for a bonus. You can download a detailed PDF explanation of the system here.

The latest CRA charities newsletter is very dry (no kidding!). But there is a handy table explaining how long specific types of documents should be retained by charitable organizations. For example, did you know that duplicates of receipts for donations should be kept for two years from the end of the last calendar year to which the receipts relate? Or that meeting minutes should be kept for two years and financial records kept for six years? Well, now you do.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do. - Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

Don’t ask me why I haven’t known about it until now because it’s been on since last year… Polo Jeans/Ralph Lauren has an entire campaign built around the coolness (and importance) of volunteering. The G.I.V.E. (”Get Involved. Volunteer. Exceed.”) collection aims to “inspire and encourage community service through volunteerism.” A portion of sales from the collection is donated to nonprofits and the ad campaign features eight real-life volunteers as models. One element of the campaign is a “Denim Drive.” More than 13,000 pairs of jeans have been donated and turned into insulation for Habitat for Humanity homes.

The Vancouver Foundation has launched a new program designed to help arts organizations build their capacity to access the BC Arts Renaissance Fund endowment matching program.

The MEDICI Program (love the name!) will support activities that assist arts and cultural organizations “improve their capacity, market their offerings and seek out strategic opportunities.” Priority for MEDICI grants will be given to organizations that are working towards accessing the BC Arts Renaissance Fund’s matching endowment program. Some examples of what the program could fund:

• Implementation of marketing, development, communications, and fund-development plans and/or initiatives;
• Audience development and outreach (engaging new and diverse audiences);
• Creation and production of outreach and communications materials
• Support for key staff positions identified to implement an organization’s strategic opportunities;
• Development of initiatives that build profit centres, and/or alternative revenue streams.

All the details can be found here.

I’m starting a new category: quotes on philanthropy and fundraising. If there are any quotes that you like, please email me or post them as comments.

It is possible to give freely and become more wealthy, but those who are stingy will lose everything. The generous prosper and are satisfied; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. - Proverbs 11:24-25

Via True Wealth Report

A new report by CIBC’s T. Stenner Group, the True Wealth Report 2006: Values and Views of Ultra-Affluent Individuals, provides an insight into Canada’s wealthiest. A few factiods:

• Canada’s wealthiest prefer to stay at the Four Seasons
• Favourite activities are travel and golf
• Most popular travel destinations: London, New York, Paris
• Cars of choice: Mercedes, BMW, Porsche
• They collect art, antiques, and wine

There is an interesting section on “Philanthropy and Family Values” in the report. Here are some highlights:

• The survey results indicate that the type of charitable organization
  respondents are most committed to supporting is children’s
  charities.Survey respondents are also committed to supporting the arts
  (55%) and religious organizations (42%). Mental health (10%) does not
  garner as much support within the survey sample nor does the environment (12%). It may be surprising with
  the multitude of health-related charities that health care was only the
  fourth most frequent response (38%).
• The most important aspect of wealth for nearly half of all
  respondents (47%) is providing “Security for my family�. “Security for
  myself,�came in at a distant second with 16% of respondents listing it
  as being of primary importance.
• 60% claim that one of the top three reasons they choose to give their
  time,money and/or support is that “While I give to support a certain
  cause or organization,I am also mindful that it provides me with
  strategic personal tax and estate benefits.�

Are you following the trial of Ken Lay and Jefferey Skilling in the news? I am fascinated by it, having recently watched an excellent documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, examining how the world’s largest corporate fraud went down. Two thumbs way up.

The most admirable character in the story is Sherron Watkins, the whistle-blowing Enron VP who had the guts to challenge her bosses and say that something was deeply wrong with the books. Everyone else is SO greedy and smug that it makes your skin crawl: from Enron execs to bankers, investors, analysts, accounting firms, lawyers, and politicians who went along with schemes that they knew were wrong. The most poignant people in the film are those mid-level workers who had a small inklings that things were not right, but never applied the now-ironic corporate slogan “Ask Why.” They quietly went along with things and in the end, were victims in the collapse. It’s a modern day morality tale, except a lot of people seem to be getting off without punishment! We’ll see if Lay and Skilling are so lucky (I don’t think so).

This post doesn’t have much of a link to nonprofit issues except:

• Yay for the gutsy whistle-blowers of the world — individuals and organizations
• I’m grateful to work this sector, surrounded by so many admirable people