from RJ.org blog: Congregational Life ... The issue at hand is the possibility of not providing anything of meaning in our congregations. So I guess this is a challenge that must go back to our leaders. Stop trying to tweet to us. I don't need to be your friend on Facebook and the "turn off your cell phone" jokes at the beginning of services were never funny. Teach me something. Make me think. Make me repent. Don't play to our collective weaknesses, play to our strengths and make us stronger. Then I will come back to your services and even read your blog. But first, be my rabbi, cantor or teacher. For there to be meaning there must be substance. My generation has grown up in a time of instant information and somewhat lackluster content. Our religious experience should be more than just a … Continue Reading
Learn; Then Give
from The Jewish Week: Making A Jewish Case For Giving If our destinies in the coming year can be changed by repentance, prayer and charity, then let’s start out with the easiest of the three: tzedakah. ... If Jewish philanthropies spent more time educating donors about Judaism and worrying less about direct mail and campaign slogans, we’d find Jewish giving on the rise. Sadly, many Jewish leaders and communal professionals, including fundraisers, have virtually no Jewish literacy when it comes to the laws of tzedaka. They lack the elemental Jewish language to make the case from a Jewish framework. … Continue Reading
Sticking With the Same Old Thing
from Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: 'Old' donors give more - so do we stick to the same ‘old’ fundraising? ... focusing only the oldest donors is short-sighted, and we definitely can’t assume what has worked in the past will work in the future. The fact that “older” donors give more does not mean we should do the same old fundraising. Even the crowd here agrees on that: Boomers (who are not so ‘old’ for goodness sake) - and everyone younger - have a whole new set of expectations from their charities, from greater tranparency and accountability to a greater sense of engagement. We have to start changing how we fundraise now or we’re going to be irrelevant very soon - and for generations to come. … Continue Reading
Sharing is the New Normal
from Harvard Business Review: How Millennials' Sharing Habits Can Benefit Organizations The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently asked a large group of experts if they thought Millennials would grow out of their currently strong penchant for online sharing and self-revelation. A strong majority of this group - 67% - said that this would not be the case, and that Generation Y would keep sharing as it aged. I agree, and my favorite explanation for why came from Matt Gallivan, a senior research analyst for NPR, who said "Sharing is not 'the new black,' it is the new normal. There are too many benefits to living with a certain degree of openness for Digital Natives to 'grow out of it.' Job opportunities, new personal connections, professional collaboration, learning from others' … Continue Reading
The Shabbat Experiment
from The Shabbat Experiment: What This Is All About As a Hillel professional, I spend my days, nights, and weekends helping students connect to Jewish life. It's a busy job. While I help students celebrate the day of rest, I myself am working. I and many of my colleagues lose touch with the reasons why we went into this work in the first place. … Continue Reading
Is DotOrg a Success?
from Stanford Social Innovation Review Google’s philanthropy, dubbed DotOrg, launched in 2004 with bold ambitions and almost $1 billion in seed funding. But the corporate culture built by engineers proved challenging for the development experts brought in to run DotOrg. Six years later, the philanthropy’s leadership has been replaced and its ambitions have shrunk. Do No Evil ... A company of Google’s size was bound to make waves when it stepped into the social change sector. Starting with the founders’ bold promise, there was nothing modest about DotOrg’s goals. Nor was there a guidebook for how to operate a hybrid for-profit, nonprofit philanthropy. Is Google living up to its original pledge? Google says yes, pointing to $170 million in grants and in-kind donations made last … Continue Reading
The Intersection of Followership and Leadership
from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation blog: The Need for Followership Programs The past decade has witnessed the emergence of a new generation of programs in which the primary focus is on those who participate, not on those who lead. While Taglit/Birthright Israel, Moishe House, Hillel and Limmud are among the most obvious examples of this shift, a host of other organizations have also embraced the concept of “followership” by making engagement of the many a higher priority than the empowerment of the few. Unsurprisingly, some of these organizations have had greater success than others. ... The best followership programs also recognize that it is their responsibility to sell, rather than the obligation of their potential participants to buy. All too often, we in the … Continue Reading
Offer or Sell?
by Tamsen McMahon Let me ask you a question: Are you offering what you sell, or selling what you offer? One is about relationships, the other transactions. One is about pull, the other push. One is about permission, the other interruption. One is about engagement, the other broadcast. One is about conviction, the other convincing. One is about giving, the other taking. One is long-term, the other short. One is about value, the other cost. One is about relevance, the other utility. One is about service, the other commodity. One is about finding opportunity, the other filling holes. One is about them, the other…you. Do you see a difference? What are you doing? Tamsen McMahon is the Director of Digital and Strategic Initiatives at Sametz Blackstone Associates. Offer or … Continue Reading
Thanking Donors Properly
from Sharpe Tips: Eight Mistakes to Avoid in Donation Thank You Letters for a Fundraising Gift or Contribution The easiest way to encourage a donor to mail you another donation is to thank her properly for her last gift. There are right ways and wrong ways to thank your donor. Avoid these mistakes when mailing your donation thank-you letters, notes and cards. … Continue Reading
Finding the Right Year-End Story
from bigducknyc.com: Your path to storybook year-end fundraising starts here The hottest NYC summer in years isn’t the only reason we’re dreaming of the holidays here at Big Duck (though a cold snap sounds pretty glorious right about now). Many nonprofits receive as much as 40 percent of their annual donations during the month of December, and we know that early planning is key to making the most of your year-end fundraising season. But where do you actually start? More than almost anything, the strength of your campaign will depend on finding the right year-end story to tell your donors - and then telling it through every channel you’ve got. But how do you home in on a year-end story that’s both rooted in emotion and makes an urgent case for giving? Here are a few questions to get … Continue Reading
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