Fund raisers at community-organizing groups need to be able to explain the work that their organizations do clearly and in a way that is easy for prospective donors to understand, according to a new fund-raising guide.

“Donors can’t and won’t support what they don’t understand,” the authors write. “And they can’t help you with introductions to other possible supporters if they can’t explain what you do.”

The article, Seizing the Moment: Frank Advice for Community Organizers Who Want to Raise More Money, was written by Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and Marjorie Fine, who directs the Linchpin Campaign, a project of the Center for Community Change.

More people are aware of community organizing than ever, they write, in large part because of Barack Obama’s past experience as an organizer in Chicago and because of the scandal a...

In the past, the YMCA of Greater New York faced several obstacles when it tried to talk to donors, potential participants, and others about its Global Teens program. Chief among them: Very few photographs, and the difficulty teenaged participants had putting into words what the service trips meant to them.

The organization’s inexpensive solution: Train a cadre of participants to document the trips and provide an inside look at what is often the young peoples’ first experiences in another country.

Since 1996, more than 700 teenagers have traveled to other countries through the Global Teens program to work on service projects, learn about another culture, and push themselves to try new things.

This past summer, 120 students went on 10 overseas trips. Twelve participants who volunteered for the new Press Corps program were equipped with both a digital camera and a video camera to...

Americans seem to be conflicted about the role of social networks as a way to support the causes they care about.

According to a new survey, while nearly eight in 10 people who use new media think the technology can help companies and nonprofit organizations to raise money and awareness for causes, fewer than one in five has made a donation using the tools.

In September Cone, a Boston marketing firm, asked 587 people who use new media a series of questions about how they use the technology to interact with companies and nonprofit organizations.

For the study, the company defined new media as “dialogue among individuals or groups” on social networks, blogs, Twitter, online games, mobile devices, message boards, and sites that allow people to share photos, audio, and video. In some cases, the company also included e-mail and Web sites.

Nearly three quarters of respondents agreed ...

Colleges and universities continue to see increases in the money they raise via the Internet, but online fund raising is still a modest part of their revenue, according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s 2009 survey of online fund raising.

More than 560 educational institutions responded to the survey, which was conducted in March and April.

The 184 colleges and universities that provided financial information about online giving raised a total of $155.3-million in the past year. The median amount raised was $61,113, meaning half of the schools raised more and half raised less.

Of the 429 institutions that reported the year that they started raising money online, 178 schools –- more than 40 percent –- only began soliciting Internet gifts in the last four years.

The study found that colleges and universities are beginning to experiment with social media,...

An online matching-grant challenge brought in $3.75-million for Detroit-area cultural groups — but not without technical difficulties and some angry donors, reports the Detroit Free Press.

The Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan put up $1-million for Tuesday’s Community Foundation Challenge, during which it agreed to match every dollar donated through its Web site to roughly 75 local arts groups with 50 cents from the foundation.

For weeks, participating groups had been using e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media sites to let supporters know about the matching challenge, but their outreach efforts proved to be too successful. The large number of donors trying to make gifts overwhelmed the Web site. Some people spent hours trying unsuccessfully to make a gift, while others had their credit cards charged multiple times.

Amy LaBarge, of Dearborn, Mich., tried to...

The recession is keeping the fund raisers who conduct research on potential donors busy.

At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston, researchers have had to go back and redo the majority of the profiles they had compiled before the economy went into a tailspin last fall, says Susan Paresky, a senior vice president at the institute.

Profiles are based on information about potential donors, such as the value of their homes, their stock holdings, and their charitable giving, all of which are likely to be down, says Ms. Paresky.

“If someone is rated as having $10-million in assets, and maybe being a $1-million prospect, now all of a sudden, they don’t have $10-million in assets,” she says. “They might have half of that.”

In that case, she says, fund raisers might decide to wait until the economy rebounds and the potential donor’s wealth increases to ask for a gift, or they...

Boston

Fund raisers who are responsible for identifying potential big donors need to think about their pool of prospective givers like an investment portfolio and seek out people in different industries, Augie Freda, director of development research at the University of Notre Dame, told participants here at APRA’s annual conference.

APRA is a membership organization for fund raisers who focus on researching prospective donors and managing information about contributors.

Right now, he said, if an organization’s prospect portfolio is too heavily weighted toward people who work in financial services, that group is in “a fair bit of trouble.”

But as tough as the current economy is, some industries, such as energy, entertainment, and hospitality, are holding their own — or at least haven’t suffered as severe a blow.

“If you have prospects in the industries that are doing well, it...

Boston

Wealth-screening services take a charity’s donors and check them against databases of publicly available information on real-estate holdings, stock ownership, charitable contributions, and other data. The information that the searches uncover can help an organization identify donors who have sufficient assets to make a large contribution.

But one of the challenges is that “even a moderately successful screening” is likely to identify more potential donors than the organization’s fund raisers can get to right away, Troy Smith, associate director of prospect research at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, N.C., told participants here at APRA’s annual conference.

APRA is a membership organization for fund raisers who focus on researching prospective donors and managing information about contributors.

“It’s a good problem to have,” said Mr. Smith. But the question the...

Boston

Globalization, the changing balance of economic power among nations, and increased levels of giving in emerging markets are all reasons why universities and other large nonprofit organizations should consider looking for potential donors overseas, experts told participants gathered here for APRA’s annual conference.

APRA is a membership organization for fund raisers who focus on researching prospective donors and managing information about contributors.

The number of people capable of making a substantial gift is growing in many parts of the world, said Deborah Miller, an assistant vice president at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, N.C.

She told the audience that the World Wealth Report 2009 predicted that by 2013 the number of millionaires in Asia and the total value of their wealth will exceed that of millionaires in the United States.

Reaching out to people...

A New York law firm is taking the “Casual Friday” idea and applying a charitable angle.

Lawyers and staff members at Anderson Kill & Olick are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays, if they make a small contribution to the firm’s ongoing fund-raising drive. Lawyers are charged $10 for the privilege each time they take advantage of it, other staff members $5, and interns $1.

Since starting the program in July 2008, the firm has raised more than $15,000 for three organizations: the American Cancer Society, City Harvest, and the National Parkinson Foundation.

“‘Doing Good Deeds With Denim’ adds a lovely twist to the bit of relaxation that comes with wearing comfortable clothes at week’s end,” says Ronni Meltzer, the firm’s director of human resources.