Blueprint Fundraising

If you can stomach the ridiculous level of spin in all the writing, take a look at the full list of cuts that “Canada’s New Government” announced on Monday.

The tone is maddening and paints the nonprofit sector and some very important government programs as irresponsible, ineffective, wasteful, and superfluous.

Here is a fundraising project that I absolutely love.

The Urban Forest Project in New York is displaying 185 banners in Times Square, created by a wide range of celebrated artists. The banners all use the tree for inspiration and the result is an amazing array of beauty, though-provoking social commentary, humour and gorgeous art. At the end of the two-month exhibition the banners will be made into tote bags that will be sold at an auction. You can also order t-shirts of the images. Proceeds are going towards mentoring and scholarships for visual arts students.

On their website you can look through each banner and read the artist’s statement, plus comments from viewers. The image I’ve posted here is by Rob Alexander and shows the national birds of every country currently at war or in an ongoing conflict. Each bird is illustrated in the colors of its national flag.

I would love to see something like this in Vancouver! I can see it being so much more interesting that other types of fundraising through public art (think bears and orcas). The chance for so many artists to be involved and the ease with which people can see all the messages together in one place is powerful. The tree is such an evocative subject, especially within the city.

I’ll keep you posted on how they do with the auction!

Thanks to Isabelle for mentioning this to me.

For nomadic boards and those working in cramped spaces…

The Canada Line is offering their Community Information Centre boardroom to non-profits in need of meeting space. The office is at Cambie and 16th Ave and there is some parking available. Contact them at 604-639-8720 or info@canadaline.ca.

If only there were more business leaders with the vision of Sir Richard Branson.

Yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative he pledged to spend up to $3 billion over the next 10 years on projects aimed at tackling the global warming. The money is not a donation. He’ll be re-investing all the profits from Virgin’s train and five airline businesses in renewable energy initiatives.

He was asked about his motivation: self-interest or altruism? When it comes to global warming, the two motivations overlap:

“I was bequeathed a beautiful world from my parents and grandparents, and I want to bequeath the same world to my children and their children. And I think unless I can use my business skills to tackle issues like this, then the world that our children and grandchildren inherit will not be a pleasant world at all, and therefore it’s partly selfish, it’s partly, whatever, altruistic, but the important thing is that it is a gesture and I think things like this need to be done if we are going to tackle global warming.”

The Vancouver chapter of AFP is holding an information session for anyone thinking about writing the CFRE exam this fall. I’m sure this will be well worth attending. Even if you have been fundraising successfully for many years, this exam is rather quirky!

Preparing for the CFRE Exam
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Michitsch Systems Inc.
Suite 200, 1037 West Broadway, Vancouver
Free for AFP members, $35 for non-members

RSVP by calling AFP Vancouver at 604-736-1010.

“What is the use of living if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?”

– Winston Churchill

When Kyle Paxman found out that her rotten fiancée was cheating on her, she dumped him. But what to do with the 180 guests coming to her dream wedding? With only six weeks notice, some elements of the event couldn’t be cancelled without penalty.

So, Kyle decided to throw the party anyhow and turn it into a fundraiser for CARE USA and the Vermont Children’s Aid Society. The event was a celebration of “beautiful, powerful, charismatic, and charitable women.” She is taking her mom on her Tahitian honeymoon (pictured below)!

What a way to turn heartbreak into something positive! You can read the whole story in the New York Times.

Hi everyone

Please take a moment to read this boring but important technical information…

Over the next 48 hours this blog will be moving from TypePad to WordPress. I’ve been working with a great designer (Isabelle from Seven25.com) on a new design for my two sites, Blueprint Fundraising and Communications and the fundit, and they are almost ready for your viewing pleasure.

This will impact you if you use a news reader to subscribe to the fundit’s feed — if you do, please delete my old feed and use this new one:

http://www.blueprintfundraising.com/the-fundit/feed/

Also, if you get to the fundit through a bookmark in your web browser, delete the old one (http://blueprint.typepad.com/) and bookmark this instead: http://www.thefundit.com

If you are having any trouble subscribing or seeing things properly please get in touch with me. Your feedback would be great!

The move will start tonight and I hope that everything will be up and running smoothly over the weekend.

“I can live for two weeks on a good compliment.” – Mark Twain

When was the last time you told a volunteer how much you appreciate them?