Blueprint Fundraising

POD applications due in February

The Partners in Organizational Development (POD) grant program has announced upcoming deadlines. If you don’t know POD, it is one of the very few capacity-building grant programs for arts, environmental and social service organizations in BC. If you need help with fundraising planning, marketing, board development or strategic planning, a POD grant might be able to help.

• EnviroPOD applications are due Friday February 22nd, 2008
• ArtsPOD applications are due Friday February 29th, 2008

You can find all the details at the Centre for Sustainability.

Creative services grant from Karo

For nonprofits in Vancouver and Calgary… Karo is accepting expressions of interest for their Karo Kaus program. A short application due on January 3rd could land you $50,000 worth of creative services in the area of marketing/communications.

Software discount coming next week

If your organization has an annual budget of less than $50,000 and you need donor database software, check out TechSoup Stock next week. They will be having a promotion on GiftWorks software. Nonprofits with an annual budget of $25,000 or less can purchase one single-user GiftWorks license for $25. Those with budgets of $25,000 – $50,000 can purchase one single-user license for $99.

Upcoming workshop for fundraising newbies

I’m leading a workshop on “Fundraising Fundamentals” for the Alliance for Arts + Culture on December 4. If you are relatively new to fundraising, come check it out. The main focus of the session will be how to take the first steps into the world of private sector fundraising (such as individual donor appeals, special events, foundation grants and major donor work). Most of the people in attendance will be from arts organizations, but the principles will apply to any nonprofit organization. Here are the details:

Fundraising fundamentals:
Going beyond government grants
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
10 am to 1 pm
The Alliance for Arts and Culture
Suite 100- 938 Howe Street Vancouver BC

Workshop cost: $75 (+ GST) for Alliance members and $100 (+ GST) for non-members. Pre-registration and payment is required. Please phone 604-681-3535 or email info@allianceforarts.com to register. See you there!

Donors give to keep names off and options open

When I teach the “Capital Campaigns” class in FUND 1215 of BCIT’s Fundraising Management program, I always ask students how they feel about naming rights. There are usually a few who have no problem with them, seeing it as a way to encourage or honour donors. But a greater number wrinkle their noses and say they don’t really like naming — especially corporate naming.

The Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison seems to have tapped into that sentiment, with great success. They recently announced a commitment of $85 million from a group of 13 alumni who want to keep a name OFF the business school for the next 20 years. They call themselves the Wisconsin Naming Partnership. You can watch a video of the no-naming ceremony. The unusual gift is getting lots of coverage.

From the announcement:

The Wisconsin naming gift is the first of its kind received by a U.S. business school. Conventional business school naming gifts adopt the name of a single donor in perpetuity. By preserving the Wisconsin name for 20 years, this gift leaves open the option of future naming gifts.

UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley calls the gift “a creative act of philanthropy and a major milestone for our university.”

“These partners have stepped forward to ensure that their deep pride in this school, this university and this state is passed along to the next generation of business students,” Wiley adds.

Before you think that this is all about altruism and high ideals… members of the naming partnership are going to provide advice to the business school on issue of naming rights in the future. From a CityNews interview:

Micheal Knetter, Dean of the School, has noticed that the price of naming rights has been skyrocketing in recent years. He suspects that by 2027, when the agreement is up, he could reap a major fortune by offering up the rights to the school’s name again, a figure he estimates could be worth an astounding $300 million or more by then.

The trends: fewer donors, larger gifts

Those are the trends according to Statistics Canada’s newly released numbers on the state of charitable giving.

Canadian taxfilers reported making charitable donations totaling $8.5 billion in 2006, up 8.3% from 2005. But sadly the number of donors decreased 1.4% to 5.8 million. For the fourth year in a row, donors in Abbotsford had by far the highest median donation of any metropolitan area at $620. For a little bit of speculation on why the number of donors is decreasing, check out this article from the Globe and Mail.

Now every Canadian charity can accept stock donations

In case you haven’t heard, CanadaHelps.org recently added the ability for donors to make gifts of stocks through their website, to any charitable organization in the country. You don’t need to have your own broker to handle stock donations.

There is a great advantage for donors to give this way and it is well worth promoting the option to your prospective supporters. Since legislation changed in 2006, donors do not have to pay capital gains tax on publicly traded stocks when they donate them to charitable organizations. The donor saves more by giving stocks than they would by selling the stocks and donating the proceeds.

Here’s a little illustration on how much a donor could save by giving stocks instead of selling the stocks and giving cash.

(Disclaimer: the details will depend upon the donor’s specific situation. This is just an example. Graphic from CanadaHelps.)

Required reading: Vital Signs 2007

If you live in Metro Vancouver (I like that so much better than GVRD!), you will want to check out Vital Signs 2007, a new report from the Vancouver Foundation.

Vital Signs is the second annual survey of how well the region is doing in many areas of importance to nonprofit organizations — housing, health, arts and culture, environment, transportation, work, education, the gap between rich and poor… In addition to being required reading for understanding community issues, you are very likely to find statistics and information to use in your communications and fundraising campaigns.

In the midst of looking at Vital Signs, I noticed that the Vancouver Foundation has a brand new website — looks great and includes video, grantee profiles and a new logo. Very nice!

Upcoming POD deadlines

Partners in Organizational Development (POD) is one of the very few granting programs to fund capacity building in the areas of fundraising, governance and marketing. The grant allows you to hire a consultant to help you with a specific challenge, such as developing a fundraising plan. There are two deadlines coming up for the program:

For arts and heritage organizations, the deadline for ArtsPOD’s fall grant cycle is September 21st, 2007.

For community service organizations, the deadline for Social ServicesPOD’s fall grant cycle is October 26th, 2007.

Summer slow down

I’m going on holidays so the fundit will be quiet until September. Hope you are enjoying your summer and taking time to relax. I’ll be enjoying cottage life (and a very slow internet connection) at Lake Anne, Quebec.