Welcome to the new subscribers from the ILF Conference last week!
Did you catch all the mentions of volunteering last week? They were even in the comic strips! There is currently a contest running (with a $5,000 donation for the winner’s cause) for the best script or idea for integrating volunteering into television shows. More information is available here: Deadline fast approaching for our VolunTV contest. Great chance to win $5,000 for your cause: http://ow.ly/waZS.
As always, please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel may also be helped by this information. Thanks for reading!
FUNDRAISING
Tips for End-of-Year Campaign Success (FundRaising Success) “End-of-year campaigns are so important for nonprofit organizations because they allow them to capitalize on the uptick in giving that occurs in November and December. Between 35 percent to 42 percent of online giving happens in November and December each year. This articles references a training which reviewed types of successful end-of-year e-mails and detailed steps organizations can take to help with end-of-year campaigns. http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/article/tips-end-of-year-campaign-success-413620_1.html
How Charities Can Learn to Exceed Donors’ Expectations (Chronicle of Philanthropy) Charities can enhance their relationships with donors by applying the same principles corporations have used to improve their ties to customers, according to London executives who spoke at the 29th annual International Fundraising Congress, which started today in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands. http://philanthropy.com/news/prospecting/9889/how-charities-can-learn-to-exceed-donors-expectations
All Together Now: Giving Circles Increase Impact (The Jewish Philanthropy Blog) “The past year’s financial crisis calls for a reevaluation of how we fund our organizations. In the face of a reality where reputable Jewish foundations and endowments have lost hundreds of millions of dollars, we have been reintroduced to the notion that the collective power of individuals has the potential to sustain our community’s needs. http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/all-together-now-giving-circles-increase-impact/
How Corporate Giving is Changing (Grantsmanship Center) A new survey of corporate giving staff by the LBG Research Institute shows that most corporations and almost half of corporate foundations reduced their charitable giving budgets in 2009. http://www.tgci.com/newsletter/index.asp?blockNum=BLOCK03#LETTER.BLOCK03
TECHNOLOGY
Online cancer-fighting initiative sets Guinness record (CNET) #BeatCancer, a charitable campaign that launched at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, started making its way around the social Web last week. Users were asked to include the #BeatCancer hash tag in tweets, Facebook status updates, and blog posts. 209,771 social messages were sent during the 24-hour period ending 9 a.m. PDT on October 18. The campaign tallied more than 100 million impressions. Both figures set new Guinness World Records. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10378799-2.html
Four-Out-Of-Five New Media Users Interact With Companies and Brands Online, Up 32% From 2008 (Cone Press Release) Almost 80 percent (78%) of new media users interact with companies or brands via new media sites and tools, an increase of 32 percent from 2008 (59%). And, the frequency of interaction is increasing, too, with more than a third (37%) of users engaging companies or brands via new media at least once per week (up from one-in-four last year). New media users overwhelmingly believe companies or brands should not only have a presence in new media (95%) but also interact with their consumers (89%). http://www.coneinc.com/content2601
10 Golden Rules of Social Media (Nonprofit Online News) Yes, the title is linkbait, but I like it anyway. Aliza Sherman has been doing this almost as long as I have and her digestion of 20 plus years of experience into 10 Golden Rules of Social Media are utterly simple and powerful. They could easily be a checklist for any social media project or campaign: http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/05/26/10-golden-rules-of-social-media/
OTHER ARTICLES
Nonprofit Mergers and Partnerships: Lessons and Advice (AFP) In today’s environment of limited resources, executive directors and boards are turning their attention to ensuring that their organizations not only excel at service delivery but are sustainable over time. New research in Canada offers a look at various ways nonprofits can restructure and form alliances to address present and future challenges. http://www.afpnet.org/ResourceCenter/ArticleDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4196
Don’t Waste Volunteers’ Time (Stanford Knowledgebase) Volunteering remains a bright spot at a time when philanthropic giving is down and nonprofit groups are stressed by the economic slump. But even as nonprofits need to rely more on volunteers amid the downturn, they fall short in managing this talent, the experts said. Consider this fact: more than one-third of people who donate their services drop out of organized volunteer work the following year. “It’s not necessarily because they had a bad experience, but a bland experience,” said Grimm. http://www.stanford.edu/group/knowledgebase/cgi-bin/2009/10/18/dont-waste-volunteers-time/
13 Nonprofits Honored for Outstanding Taglines: “Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job” Pulls Top Honors for Homeboy Industries (Getting Attention Blog) A nonprofit’s tagline is hands down the briefest, easiest and most effective way to communicate its identity and impact. But this high-impact, low-cost marketing tactic is often overlooked or under-emphasized by nonprofits. http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2009/10/13-nonprofits-honored-for-outstanding-taglines-nothing-stops-a-bullet-like-a-job-pulls-top-honors-for-homeboy-industries.html
When Will Giving Recover? (Chronicle of Philanthropy) If the past is any judge, Americans will not give as much as they did in 2007 until three years after the recession ends, according to a report released by the Giving USA Foundation. Foundation grant making could take longer to rebound than giving by individuals, researchers at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University write in the latest issue of Giving USA Spotlight. http://philanthropy.com/news/prospecting/9901/when-will-giving-recover
Southern or Midwestern, Geography Does Little to Influence Giving (Chronicle of Philanthropy) Money and education, not geography, influence why people give to charity, says a new study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. The study, based on data from 10,000 households, found that people who make at least $100,000 a year are: http://philanthropy.com/news/prospecting/index.php?id=9902
