Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

Fundraising in the Current Economic Climate – Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full? by David A. Mersky As I travel around the country – and as individuals from around the country come to campus – it has become increasingly clear that, as far as fundraising and development is concerned, we live in interesting times. About a year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached bottom. Fifteen months ago, Bernard Madoff was arrested. Eighteen months ago, Lehman Brothers, the global financial services firm, collapsed. By all indications, current realities reflect the worst economy since the Great Depression. According to a report from the Conference Board, a private research group, U.S. consumer confidence plunged 10.5 points in February 2010, raising concerns about the outlook for consumer... Continue Reading

Max’s Vision Continues

from Crain’s Detroit Business: Carrying on Max’s vision Fishers continue legacy of giving Five years after his death, Max Fisher’s philanthropic, civic and entrepreneurial legacy lives on – through his wife, five children and, soon, his grandchildren. The Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, one of the largest family foundations in the state, with assets of $235.9 million at the beginning of 2010, continues to support many of the causes Fisher supported during his lifetime, including Jewish communities at home and abroad, the city of Detroit and local arts institutions. Fisher left some philanthropic values for his wife and children, but no specific instructions. … The foundation has made grant commitments totaling $53.8 million since 2007-2008, when distributions... Continue Reading

Join Sabbath Manifesto in a National Day of Unplugging

Are you sick of having conversations with people with their noses buried in an iPhone? Are you that person? Then put down the cell phone, stop the status updates on Facebook, shut down Twitter, sign out of e-mail and relax, as part of a National Day of Unplugging. People across the nation will tune out to reclaim time to slow life down and reconnect with friends, family, the community and themselves for 24 hours, starting at sundown, Friday, March 19. The Sabbath Manifesto’s principles were created for individual styling, but for one day we are asking you to take on the challenge of Principle Number 1: AVOID TECHNOLOGY. Let us know how you interpreted this Principle. How do you unplug? Join Sabbath Manifesto in fighting back against the tidal wave of technology taking over society and our... Continue Reading

IFC 2010: Celebrate 30 Years of Changing the World

For 30 years the International Fundraising Congress (IFC) has showcased ideas that have helped fundraisers change the world. To celebrate the 30th IFC, they’ve invited 30 of the sector’s leading minds to share weekly insights into the future of fundraising… For more information on the IFC, check the Congress Website. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

New Data Privacy Law You Need to Know

from Philantopic: Mass Morass: New Data Privacy Law There’s a new Massachusetts regulation that affects nonprofits that access or store personal information provided by residents in the state. Do you accept gifts from Bay State donors and process their credit cards? Process or save copies of their checks? Are you seeing or holding the Social Security numbers of constituents? A “yes” to any of these brings your organization within the purview of Title 201 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations Section 17.00, Standards for the Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth. And compliance isn’t pretty. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Public Policy Update

The Association of Fundraising Professionals Winter 2010 Public Policy Update contains information on the proposed caps on the charitable deduction, the IRA Rollover provision, the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the charitable mileage deduction. It also includes state issues in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. The update also covers the Canadian government’s recognition of National Philanthropy Day and the elimination of the disbursement quota. Follow this link for the update. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Changes in Cross-Border Giving in Europe

from Civil Society Fundraising: Continental drift: Changes in cross-border giving in Europe The world did not have cross-border charitable giving in mind when it organised itself into separate nations. Charities, over the centuries, have been typically local or national although a relatively small number have always been truly international.  However, in recent years this has changed as both individual donors and civil society organisations have become so much more mobile in how they give and how they operate. The amount of cross-border donations has increased. Correspondingly, so too have the frustrations of donors who naturally expect a tax benefit for their gifts.  For obvious reasons, governments have always been very reluctant, to say the least, to grant tax relief to a donor making a gift to... Continue Reading

Text Giving: A How-to Guide

from MobileActive.org: Texting for Charitable Dollars: The Definitive Guide to Mobile Fundraising In aftermath of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake text donations to the Red Cross and other charities received enormous publicity, and generated a significant outpouring of donations. (SMS is an alternate term for text message – a160 character message sent over the mobile network) The swiftness and the magnitude of the response made many nonprofit organizations take note. Appeals to donate swirled around via social networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook and generated numerous article in the traditional media.  There was even a widely seen public service announcement recorded by First Lady Michelle Obama. … Naturally, text giving is now considered with great interest by many... Continue Reading

What About Free Fundraising?

from The Raffle.it Blog: There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so what about free fundraising? Yesterday Bmycharity announced the withdrawal of their online fundraising service. Bmycharity prided themselves on being the only company not to charge commission on donations taken through their site. Much like Justgiving, they set up personal fundraising pages for users to help them support their favourite charity online. They also allowed direct donations to charities. They made their money by charging a ‘one off’ fee of £150 to the charities in return for their service. They also charged 16p for transaction fees on all donations. Working in the third sector is a tricky business – all of us are out there to do good, save the world and help others. When is it acceptable to charge a charity? I... Continue Reading

The Challenge of Connecting With Younger Jews

from The Fundermentalist: What do the chairs of Hillel and the Jewish Federations of North America have in common? … According to Kathy Manning, who took over as the JFNA’s chairperson back in the fall, the federations are looking at four components of the challenge of connecting with younger Jews: Jews now are on the move. While it might have been a given in the past that Jews would either stay where they were or move to one of the major U.S. cities that have major Jewish populations like New York, now it seems more and more of them are moving west and south, to communities that do not have great Jewish infrastructure. Young people these days also have far more choices than they ever did, and they are “less frightened” about their survival than their grandparents might... Continue Reading

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