Posts by Maria Di Mento
May 17, 2010, 12:05 PM ET
A Cautionary Tale From Oil-Spill Cleanup Volunteers; Plus More: Monday's Roundup
- On the blog, Transformational Giving, Eric Foley, vice president of giving and training for Mission Increase Foundation, criticizes what he calls BP's missed opportunity to recruit volunteers to assist with the oil spill cleanup off the Gulf Coast and what nonprofit groups could learn from the company's approach.
- If nonprofit groups are really serious about acquiring younger
donors, they should hire some of them and put them in leadership
roles, writes Bill Jacobs, vice president of research and analytics
at Grizzard. Mr. Jacobs says that nonprofit
organizations need to stop hiring young people to do administrative
work, which leads them to quickly become bored and want to move
on.
- Mark Rosenman, director of Caring to Change, is interviewed on the Foundation Center's blog about a new report by his group on how foundations can be more effective.
- On the...
May 14, 2010, 11:00 AM ET
A Critical Look at International Aid Appeals, Plus More: Friday's Roundup
- Duncan McNicholl, who works in Africa for Engineers Without Borders Canada, dissects the types of images that international aid groups use in their fund-raising solicitations. On his blog Water Wellness, he writes about how the pictures tell a very incomplete story.
- On the blog, Open Road Advisors, Larry Blumenthal, director
of social-media strategy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
discusses how public-health organizations use social media to reach
more people.
- Geoff Livingston, a social-media expert, writes on Mashable about how to use social media to turn "slacktivists"—slightly lazy online do-gooders—into activists.
- On Conor's Fundraising blog, Jonathan Waddingham, an employee of Justgiving, discusses a new iPhone App called iHobo that allows volunteers to care for a virtual homeless person by giving him food, money, and shelter. Mr. Waddingham writes...
May 13, 2010, 11:00 AM ET
Organizations That Aid Charities Urged to Collaborate, Plus More: Thursday's Roundup
- On the Philantopic blog, Bradford Smith,
president of the Foundation Center, writes about the challenges
facing his organization and others that are designed to provide
information and services to the entire nonprofit world and urges
greater collaboration among the "philanthropic infrastructure"
groups.
- Nonprofit groups need to learn to develop messages that move people to take action, writes Nancy E. Schwartz, a marketing expert, on her blog, Getting Attention. Ms. Schwartz discusses the power of New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority's ubiquitous tagline, "If you see something, say something," and how nonprofit organizations can use a similar approach to communicate their messages effectively.
- On the blog Transformational Giving, Eric Foley, vice president of giving and training for Mission Increase Foundation, asks what nonprofit groups are doing to help...
May 12, 2010, 01:00 PM ET
Why Branding in the Nonprofit World Matters; Plus More: Wednesday's Roundup
- Nonprofit branding should show donors what their gifts make possible, rather than guiding the way they think, writes Jeff Brooks, a nonprofit consultant. On the blog, Future Fundraising Now, Mr. Brooks points to a video featuring Ije Nwokorie, a strategist at Wolff Olins, who discusses the value of branding during a recession.
- On the Center for Effective Philanthropy blog, Kathleen Enright, of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, writes about how to develop a "gut-level connection" to grant recipients.
- Robert Egger, founder of DC Central Kitchen, discusses how the nonprofit group will be posting a "volunteer bill of rights" around its offices to remind volunteers that they are owed an explanation of "what impact your work made in the community."
May 11, 2010, 11:00 AM ET
What Makes a Campaign Truly Successful? Tuesday's Roundup
- Why do fund raisers say an appeal is successful if it raises money and is generally ethical? asks Eric Foley, vice president of Giving and Training for Mission Increase Foundation. On the blog, Transformational Giving, Mr. Foley says that successful campaigns should make donors feel as if they are committing a "heroic" act rather than simply transferring money into a charity's bank account.
- Shaun Dakin, director of business development at Infield
Communications, offers his perspective on the Mobile
Communications for Progressives conference, hosted by the
Progressive Communicators of D.C.
May 10, 2010, 12:01 PM ET
The Nonprofit World's Response to the Oil Spill; Plus More: Monday's Roundup
- The Foundation Center has a roundup of philanthropy's response to the Gulf Coast oil spill.
- Mike Burns, a nonprofit consultant, discusses a two-page advertisement by the charity Malaria No More, which features a diagram indicating the progress of a $10 gift. Mr. Burns writes that nonprofit groups should be applauded with any effort to be transparent while telling the story of what happens to gifts. But he questions the overall effectiveness of Malaria No More's advertisement, which left him wondering why so many people have to "touch" the $10 gifts before it gets to its intended use.
- Gordon Campbell, chief executive of the United Way of New York City, says on the Huffington Post that taxing charities isn't the answer to governments' fiscal woes.
- Thinking of joining a nonprofit group's board? Alice Korngold, a nonprofit consultant, writes about some
May 7, 2010, 02:46 PM ET
Are Business Leaders Doing Enough to Push Social Change? Plus More: Friday's Roundup
- Are business leaders doing enough to shape corporate-responsibility and philanthropic efforts that produce real change? Ellen Remmer of the Philanthropic Initiative ponders that question on Duke University's Philanthropy Central blog.
- Jeff Raderstrong, a young nonprofit worker, writes on his Change Charity blog about the
dilemmas facing small-dollar donors who want to support a charity
that doesn't have a big enough budget to evaluate its
results.
- Holden Karnofsky, a co-founder of the nonprofit-evaluation group GiveWell, discusses Kiva's decision to end its relationship with one of its microfinance partners.
- If you are going to do one new thing in 2010 to move your nonprofit organization forward, it should be producing a video, writes David Neff on the blog, Getting Attention. Mr. Neff, co-founder of Lights. Camera. Help, which aims to help nonprofit ...
May 6, 2010, 02:34 PM ET
Debate Over MacArthur Support; Plus More: Thursday's Roundup
- The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's recent announcement that it would give an additional $5.6-million to create master's programs in "sustainable development" is prompting reactions from bloggers. Michael Clemens, of the Center for Global Development, says his organization has been calling for changes in how development leaders are educated for some time, but he also raises many questions about whether the programs will be effective.
- Laura Freschi, of the Aid Watch blog and New York University, wonders whether the MacArthur-supported programs' multidisciplinary approach will "encourage critical thinking and help straddle the theory-policy divide" or "produce students with a standardized, narrowly prescribed view of how to approach development problems"?
- Heather Mansfield, of DIOSA Communications, notes that one in five Americans access the Web via mobile...
May 5, 2010, 02:22 PM ET
How to Reshape a Grant When Plans Fail; Plus More: Wednesday's Roundup
- Jean Case writes about how her foundation came to terms with the fact that its aggressive goals for PlayPumps, an effort to bring clean drinking water to rural African villages, couldn't be met. Instead of giving up or ignoring reality, she says, her foundation reshaped the grant program.
- Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center, makes the case for why more foundations should have Web sites in a blog entry on his organization's site. According to a survey of 11,000 U.S. grant makers conducted by his organization, only 29 percent had a Web site.
- On Kivi's Nonprofit Communications blog, Gail Perry, a nonprofit consultant, discusses how to pitch a fund-raising event as if it were "the best party in town." She says that it is important for others to know that you are a happy go-getter group that can have a good time while working to change the world.
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May 4, 2010, 03:27 PM ET
Mobile Technology and Social Change; Plus More: Tuesday's Roundup
- Anyone with a mobile phone has the potential to create change by contributing expertise and data through a global network, says Lucy Bernholz, a nonprofit consultant and founder of Blueprint Research & Design. On the blog, Philanthropy 2173, Ms. Bernholz discusses how mobile technology can be used as an effective social-media tool.
- If you lived in a world in which new donors were very scarce, what would you do? Tom Belford, a fund raiser, discusses on his blog, the Agitator, what steps might come after "retention, retention, retention."
- On Change.org, Nathaniel Whittemore, founder of a start-up group called AssetMap, writes about the e-Bay sponsored Humanity Calls competition, which is "striving to prove that online giving contests can be more interesting, filling [sic], and fun for nonprofits than skeptics might otherwise believe."
- Jeff Brooks, a nonprofit...