Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

Our Assistance & Advising program is launching our first communications workshop that will feature the expertise of our internal communications team.  Trevor Parham, Creative Director, and Sean Aquino, Creative Producer, will be leading this interactive workshop about communications strategy.  Attending will give you an opportunity to ask questions about various types of communications strategies, to learn from each other, as well as allow you to offer insight into what our future workshops around technology and communications strategy will be about.  Click HERE to register.  Also, you can find more information about this and future workshops, like our upcoming series on Program Evaluation, on our Assistance & Advising web page.  Hope to see you on March 9!

The Foundation Center is having its annual open house in San Francisco on Tuesday, February 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  As part of the open house, you can check out some of the Foundation Center’s most popular training programs for FREE.  You can drop by for refreshments and informative demonstrations throughout the day, but if you want to attend one of the free, full-length scheduled programs, click HERE to register, or you can call 415-397-0902. To register online, just click on the particular session that you want to attend in the Center’s calendar for February 23.

Here’s the Open House Agenda:

Full-length Scheduled Programs (requiring registration)

9:00-10:15 a.m. Fundraising in a Challenging Economy

10:30-12:00 p.m. Strategic Wisdom for Challenging Times – (Panelists: Jan Masaoka, Blue Avocado; Stephanie Roth, Grassroots Fundraising Journal; Charles Fernandez, TCC Group; Moderator: Lisa Hoffman, Nonprofit Consultant & Coach)

12:45-2:00 p.m. Innovations and Trends in Online Fundraising – (Presenter: Michael Stein, nonprofit tech strategist)

2:00-3:15 p.m. How to Approach a Foundation: From Initial Contact to Getting Funded — What Does it Take?

3:30-5:00 p.m. The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle: The Role Nonprofit Leaders Can Play in Turning a Vicious Cycle into a Virtuous One – (Presenters: Ann Goggins Gregory & Don Howard, The Bridgespan Group)

Demonstrations (drop-ins o.k.)

10:00-10:30 a.m. New Online Tools for Researching Funders

12:00-12:30 p.m. Spotlight on Resources for Individual Grantseekers

3:00-3:30 p.m. Hidden Electronic Treasures Available at the Center

4:30-5:00 p.m. A Baker’s Dozen: Featuring Staff’s Favorite Resources

I was glancing through the latest issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy and came across an interesting news briefing that said Americans who volunteer donate 10 times more money than those who don’t volunteer.  This was based on a study that Harris Interactive, a consumer research firm, conducted on behalf of Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund.  I would presume that individuals who care enough about a cause or organization to volunteer time may have a deeper connection to that particular cause than someone who does not.  It’s common knowledge that volunteers provide lots of in-kind support to organizations, with some organizations being completely volunteer driven.  But, this study shows that volunteers don’t just give their time.  They give their treasure as well.  I never thought much about this in the context of fundraising and the potential impact that volunteers can directly have on an organization’s bottom line.  But, this study suggests that it may pay to invest in building up your volunteer base, if your organization can support the use of volunteers.  For those of you who want to improve your volunteer outreach strategies, here are a couple of resources that may help: CaliforniaVolunteers, VolunteerMatch, and Volunteer Center.

Foundation Directory Online

I’m sure many of you have heard about San Francisco’s Foundation Center.  One of the Foundation Center’s key resources is their Foundation Directory Online (FDO) which allows nonprofits to electronically search their extensive database of over 100,000 foundations for relevant potential funders.  They’ve also added a new Power Search engine called FDO Professional, which searches through NINE Foundation Center databases at once, identifying even more funding prospects. Their databases have also been updated with a section called ‘Economic Crisis Information’ to let you know how the particular foundation has altered its funding strategy in response to the economic crisis.  If you go to the Foundation Center, they can show you how to use the directory, AND you can use it for FREE.  If you access it from work or home, you will need to pay a subscription fee based on the type of access you want.

Training Scholarships

In addition to the Foundation Directory Online, the Foundation Center offers a variety of training opportunities.  Did you know that they also have scholarships available to help under-resourced nonprofits attend their full-day training seminars? If you represent a CA nonprofit organization with a budget under $1,000,000, you are eligible to apply. The Foundation Center offers another way to save money as well.  They provide special discounts: if more than one person from your organization attends a particular full-day training, you only have to pay $25 for each additional person on your team to attend a particular fundraising course or $25 for each additional fundraising course you attend.

I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities to advance your knowledge base, especially when you have excellent resources available like these!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I recently received a short article called “Keep Up the Momentum: Use Your Year-end Fundraising to Kickstart 2010: 10 Strategies for Turning Your Year-End Fundraising into Sustained Growth in the New Year.”  The article was sent by Convio, a constituent relationship management software and services provider.  Here is a short breakdown of the ten strategies.  I hope they’re useful to you!

1. Capture email address for offline donors at events, through direct mail response cards, and through telemarketing.
2. Use multiple channels (email, mail, and telemarketing) to garner support – Convio’s research shows that direct mail donors who also get email solicitation give twice as much and renew at 10% higher rates than those who just get email.
3. Get to know your supporters better -  This allows you to segment your lists and send targeted communications and appeals based on their interests, gender, age, etc.
4. Segment your welcome messages and follow-up practices for the different types of supporters you have.
5. Be transparent – Provide regular updates via email, direct mail, and phone on how funds are being used.
6. Promote a Sustainer or Pledge Giving Program – Give reasons why supporters should give on a recurring basis or give more money and allow that money to be paid over time. Convio says that Sustaining and Pledge donors renew at rates 10-20% higher than single-gift donors.
7. Optimize your website home page by having a strong message, decreasing clutter on the website, and improving registration opportunities which increases chances to get email addresses.
8. Create targeted website content for your various audiences.
9. Make email newsletters more engaging: perhaps having two versions – one for prospects/non-donors and one for current donors. You can also give donors a chance to update their addresses or to share stories.
10. Tap into the power of viral marketing – Donors can help spread the word about your organization if you provide things like Tell-A-Friend links, personal outreach tools, and widgets that supporters can plug into their social network sites.

Hopefully you can find something in this list to help you strengthen your fundraising strategies.

Click here if you want to read the entire article.

(Artwork from beyondwar.ning.com)

Each year, the James Irvine Foundation recognizes individual leaders from any sector — nonprofit, public or private — and in any field, such as education, health, housing, economic development or the environment, who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant California issues.  Four to six award recipients will each receive $125,000 in organizational support and assistance in sharing their effective program models with policymakers and other practitioners.

Nominations for the 2010 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards are due by October 13, 2009, and awards will be announced in April 2010.  Nominations are welcome from people who are well-acquainted with the leader or leadership group and can verify their qualifications for the award.  More details about the awards are given at the James Irvine Foundation website along with selection criteria, profiles of past recipients, and answers to frequently asked questions.

Again, the deadline is October 13, 2009.

We heard you loud and clear.  Some of you mentioned wanting to have an electronic version of our grant application prior to going into our online system to make it easier to cut and paste responses.  So, we have added an electronic sample grant application, which can always be found under ‘Submit a Request‘ in our ‘How to Apply‘ section.  We’re constantly tweaking our process to make things as smooth and seamless as possible, so thanks for all the feedback you give us in your final reports.  It’s really valuable!!

BRING YOUR “A” GAME, produced by one of our grantees, Twenty-First Century Foundation, in partnership with actor-director Mario Van Peebles and producer Karen Williams, will have its BET debut this weekend.  Per the Twenty-First Century Foundation’s website, the documentary aims to catalyze ” a national conversation on the plight affecting Black men and boys…Using a cinematic style influenced by popular culture and employing innovative technologies, the film details strategies that have improved the lives of Black men and boys. It underscores how essential educational achievement and high school graduation are to survival and success in today’s world.”

Interviewees include such Black male icons as Dr. Cornel West, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Richard “Dick” Parsons, Chris Rock, Spike Lee, Lupe Fiasco, Ice Cube, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, Kevin Liles, Lou Gossett Jr., Hill Harper, Damon Dash, Kevin Powell, Melvin Van Peebles, Geoffrey Canada, Bruce Gordon and former NBA star Alan Houston, and others.

We previewed a clip of the documentary at our recent Black Boys College Bound Initiative celebration of high school graduates.  If you or someone you know has kids in high school who need to hear this important message, please let them know that the documentary will be showing on BET this Saturday, September 12, at 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 13, at 12:30 p.m. in the afternoon.  BRING YOUR “A” GAME will be followed, on both days, by a showing of “Heart of the City”, which examines the impact of education issues on our communities.

Hope you’ll check it out!!

Over the past four weeks, my nephew, Michael, has been visiting from North Carolina.  During this first of hopefully many visits to California, he has been a volunteer here at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation learning about the work we do and helping us get some important things done as we move into the next fiscal year.  I’m really proud of the work he has accomplished during this short visit.  He even had an opportunity to volunteer at Glide Memorial to serve lunch along with other colleagues here in our offices.  Hopefully, we send him home with new skills, knowledge, and perspective.  Here is what Michael had to say about his stay here:

“Volunteering at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation has been a very exciting experience. I never really understood the real world and how it’s so fast moving and doesn’t wait for anybody. It’s always on the go, and you have to be ready to move with it, or you’ll get left behind. I didn’t think it would be hard to work in an office job, but little did I know what I was getting myself into. The first couple of days I got to get a feel for the working environment, but soon after that I was put to work. I had to do papers and documents and more papers and documents. It was really hard, but I started getting into the flow of things, and that really helped me get a system and a plan to complete all the things I needed to accomplish. I have had fun meeting the new people at the Mitchell Kapor Foundation. I had a wonderful boss (Cedric Brown) that taught me some real key concepts to help me not just in the office but in the real world as well. I met a wonderful lady (Carmen ) that made me laugh from the first time I met her. She always has a positive attitude and kept a smile on my face all the time. But last but not least, there’s my Aunt (Tiffany Price) who gave me this wonderful opportunity to come down here and spend some time with her and get to see what it is like to live on your on and have to take trains and buses to work. While it’s a lot to do, I finally got the hang of it, and I can say that this will be an experience that I’ll never forget!!”

Thanks, Michael!!!

With this daunting economic crisis and an ever-growing desire within the foundation world to increase foundation impact, I’m seeing more and more articles about improving the effectiveness of philanthropic dollars.  At the Kapor Foundation, positive impact towards social change is at the heart of our discussions about our work, and we’re working really hard right now to make sure our grantmaking and other strategies make a difference in our communities.

The Spring 2009 issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly has an article entitled, Measuring Grantmaking Excellence: How Good Are Your Foundation Donors? The article mentioned The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s (NCRP) report, Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best, which gives four criteria for excellent grantmaking.  I’ve listed those four criteria below and will be delving into the NCRP report later to find out more about the organization’s methodology for coming up with these criteria since foundations come in all shapes and sizes.

• Values: engages all communities; provides at least 50% of grant dollars to marginalized groups; gives at least 25% of grant dollars to advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement,
• Effectiveness: invests in the health, growth, and effectiveness of nonprofit partners; provides at least 50% of grant dollars as general operating support and as multi-year grants; and has application and reporting requirements commensurate with grant size,
• Ethics: demonstrates accountability and transparency to constituents; has an engaged, volunteer board of at least 5 people from diverse perspectives; has ethical policies and practices; discloses information freely,
• Commitment: spends most of its assets toward its mission; pays out at least 6% of assets in grants per year; invests at least 25% of assets to support its mission.

It’s nice to read an article that’s written from the nonprofit perspective as opposed to the funder perspective. It challenges me to remember to ask grantee organizations what their most pressing needs are as opposed to foundations placing funder goals at the center of discussions around grantmaking.  I see it as a partnership between a funder and grantee to marry their goals and resources in order to achieve a mutual benefit, hopefully with larger social change at the core.

I’m happy to work for an organization that has a mission to focus on low-income communities and communities of color, that is always looking for new ways to help support the nonprofits that we partner with, and challenges itself and others to be less risk-averse and to think more strategically and innovatively.  Have a great weekend, and if you see any other good articles on this topic, let me know!

(Photo from: www.power-of-giving.com)