Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

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)

Over the past week, a few job announcements have come into my mailbox. Thought I’d compile distribute them. Please send broadly to those who might be qualified. I’m especially interested in promoting the ED position at our sister organization, Level Playing Field Institute. Let’s find some great people for these organizations and efforts!

Level Playing Field Institute: Executive Director;  Education Programs Associate

Women’s Foundation of California: Development and Communications Director

Community Housing Partnership: Executive Director

Today, I read Rosetta Thurman’s blog, “Perspectives From the Pipeline,” that resonated with a lot of the conversations that Cedric, Carmen, and I have been having about how the Kapor Foundation can work to help the nonprofits we support to do their work better.  Given that my job’s purpose is to do just that, I was excited to learn about the focus of the blog: a recent report by the Nonprofit Quarterly:  The Nonprofit Quarterly’s Study on (U.S.) Nonprofit and Philanthropic Infrastructure.  This report examines the strengths and weaknesses of the network of supports that exists within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

Rosetta mentioned that  a broad definition of nonprofit infrastructure is organizations that provide capacity building, technical assistance, consulting, workshops, training, conferences, advocacy and research for the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.  Some examples include Independent Sector, Council of Nonprofits, Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), Guidestar, Council on Foundations, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Hispanics in Philanthropy and many others.  The main finding from the paper is that small to midsized nonprofits are often under-represented when it comes to building nonprofit infrastructure.  I’m still reading through the paper, but so far, I find the discussion very interesting and timely.

I’m trying really hard to think of strategies and partners and ideas to make sure that here at the Kapor Foundation, we help strengthen the organizations that we work with who most need it in spite of tough economic times.  I’m looking forward to talking with foundations and nonprofits alike regarding how best to help strengthen both sectors and address the social justice issues we’re striving to alleviate.  I welcome your thoughts!!