Blueprint Fundraising

Preparing for the CFRE exam

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.

Quotation: What is the use of living…

“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

Lose the groom, keep the wedding

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.

Reader alert: switching to WordPress

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.

Quotation: I can live for two weeks…

“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?

Financial Fitness Workshops

For those of you in Abbotsford, Nanaimo and Victoria…

The Centre for Sustainability and Vancity are presenting very affordable ($35) half-day financial management workshops for nonprofits. Click here for more information and to register.

Phoenix in Calgary

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a good summer. Sorry the postings have been so infrequent lately! I’m back from holidays and ready to talk fundraising.

Nonprofit Quarterly has a very interesting free article this summer: “Phoenix In Calgary: How the Calgary Philharmonic Survived Bankruptcy and Flourished.” It’s a case study on how the CPO came back from bankruptcy, layoffs and near death.

You can apply the lessons (there were many!) to your own organization, even if your organization is healthy. For example: focus and build on your strengths, involve many people in defining your future (in a meaningful way), listen to stakeholders, be transparent and share information, stay relevant to the community, recognize when you need external expertise… The article gives hope that even the most messed up organizations can be transformed and renewed.

Proof that premiums work (for at least one person)

“Premiums” are the little gifts and trinkets that charities give donors before or after they make a donation. Think address labels, pens, notepads and stickers. People often ask me: Do they work? Answer: yes, depending. Are they a waste of money and an annoyance donors? Answer: yes, depending… Here’s at least one person who likes premiums, via PostSecret. I’ll talk more about premiums and when they are are a good idea in another posting later this week.

A to Z of Fundraising

I’ve just discovered another useful resource on the AFP website, especially for people who are new to fundraising. It’s a Fundraising Dictionary (download it as a PDF at the bottom of the page) covering absolutely every term, acronym and expression even remotely related to fundraising. Here are a few of the words that were new to me. What can I say, I’m a dictionary-reading nerd.

• Ademption – noun – the invalidation of a bequest in a will because the testator, before death, had already disposed of the property bequeathed.
• Eleemosynary – adjective – 1a of, for, or pertaining to charity, charitable. 1b provided by charity; free. 1c supported by or dependent upon charity.
• Hanger – noun informal – an additional appeal or personalized note enclosed in a direct-mail package. A hanger is usually smaller in format than the original, main letter and usually signed by someone other than the signer of the main letter. Also lift note.
• Reason code – the vehicle or technique that elicits a donation, such as a personal solicitation memorial, acquisition mailing, newsletter, annual appeal, or membership dues. Also campaign code.
• Soft credit – 1 the action of crediting a donor, who has a matching gift given by the donor’s employer, with the same amount as the matching gift, for determining the donor’s standing in a giving club.
• Syndicated gift – a gift composed of as few as two (although usually more) individual gifts bound by some shared attribute, such as members of the same family or a group of corporations.

By the way, the Z for zombie is from the very cute Politically Incorrect Alphabet.

Update: trading up

You might have heard the good news.. this week Kyle MacDonald made the final trade on his journey to trade one red paperclip for a house.

The town of Kipling Saskatchewan has given him a house in exchange for a movie role. It’s an amazing story! He’s going to paint the house red. And Kipling is going to build a giant red paper clip in his honour.