The United Way of King County in Seattle raised $100.3-million in the fiscal year that closed on June 30 – a sum that probably allows it to continue to reign as the United Way that takes in the most in its yearly campaigns.

The overall total represents a decline from the $116-million it collected last year. But the King County United Way credits the support of corporations like Boeing, Microsoft, and Costco and the high-profile leadership of Tod Leiweke, the CEO of the Seattle Seahawks– who chaired the 2008-2009 campaign—with allowing the group to hit the $100-million mark for the third year in a row at a time when many other organizations are struggling to raise money.

“It has been a challenging year,” says Jared Erlandson, a spokesman at United Way of King County. “The economy has really pushed people to their limits.”

He says companies and their employees have stepped up their …

Read More

The economic crisis has prompted some positive shifts in attitude among donors and grant makers, says Ellen Remmer, president of The Philanthropic Initiative, a Boston consulting firm that advises individuals, family, community, and corporate foundations.

In the Philanthropy Journal, Todd Cohen, the news service’s editor, notes that Ms. Remmer’s observations suggest what might become the “new normal” for giving.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Ms. Remmer says donors realize they need to respond differently — that it’s not just the responsibility of nonprofit groups.

One change she has observed is increased collaboration among both government and private grant makers so that stretched resources have more of an impact.

For example, she says, the State Street Foundation in Boston recently brought together a group of corporate, government, and private grant makers interested …

Read More

At Donor Power Blog, Jeff Brooks is less than impressed with a Charity Navigator video advising donors fed up with too many direct-mail appeals to “take matters into their own hands,” but he warns fund raisers that the sentiment is one they have to deal with head-on.

Charity Navigator’s YouTube video offers irritated donors five tips on how to stop charities from sending them unwanted mail, which include: refrain from giving small donations to many charities, and “if all else fails,” give anonymously through Web sites like Network for Good.

“It’s more than a little irresponsible for Charity Navigator to buy into the myth that fund raising is a form of harassment,” writes Mr. Brooks. But, he says, fund raisers need to get used to the idea that donors are increasingly finding ways to block out their appeals.

With that in mind, Mr. Brooks, the creative director of Merkle, a…

Read More

While foundations like to see that their grantees have planned for the departure of an executive director, many nonprofit boards make the mistake of putting in place a deputy to eventually succeed as leader, says Amy Houston, director of management assistance at the Robin Hood Foundation.

All organizations should have in place an emergency plan to cover “what happens if someone flies to Tahiti or gets put in the hospital for three months” Ms. Houston told attendees at a session of the 30th annual Fundraising Day in New York, a conference sponsored by the Greater New York Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

But beyond that, she said, cultivating a “deep bench” of staff members with the skills and support to take on a range of leadership roles will do far more to ensure an organization’s future than making sure a string of deputies are ready to take over.

“I…

Read More

Fund raisers might want to be more concerned about shifting demographics than economic swings, Judith E. Nichols, deputy director for external affairs at the Brooklyn Public Library, told fund raisers on Friday.

While charitable giving historically tends to be affected less significantly than other sectors of the economy either by recessions or by economic booms, it has undergone tremendous changes in response to new generations and their changing attitudes toward philanthropy, said Ms. Nichols at a session of the Fundraising Day in New York, a conference sponsored by the Greater New York chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

For example, she noted, by 1990 the average American donor was giving half of what the average donor gave in the 1920s. And since 1995, the wealthiest Americans have reduced the amounts they give to charity when measured either as a…

Read More

Each week Target Corporation distributes 5 percent of the company’s income – or about $3 million – to charity. This month the retailer is giving the public a say in how it allocates its next $3-million through an online campaign that lets Facebook users vote for one of 10 national nonprofit groups they would like the company to support.

Visitors to Target’s Facebook page can vote once a day during the two-week campaign, which ends on May 25. The percentage of votes each nonprofit group receives determines what percentage of the $3-million it receives.

Facebook voters are also encouraged to volunteer through a link to VolunteerMatch, an organization that pairs volunteers with local nonprofit groups.

The competition was designed to help the charities Target supports get comfortable using online social networking tools, says Laysha Ward, Target’s president of community relations….

Read More

Following on the heels of efforts like Twestival and Aston Kutcher’s Twitter challenge, a new venture called TwittaCause seeks to tap the social-networking site, Twitter, for large-scale fund-raising.

TwittaCause seeks to raise $1-million for charity through a combination of small corporate sponsorships and individual pledges made and broadcast through Twitter. The project was started in January by Sam Swanson, a 23-year old student in New Zealand, who says he wanted “to try to see if I could raise money for charity without spending any money.”

TwittaCause’s first order of business: choosing a beneficiary. After soliciting nominations through Twitter, Mr. Swanson has selected the 15 most-nominated groups and is asking followers to vote on which should receive the $1-million. Among those on the list are: One Laptop Per Child, The Kempe Foundation, Epic Change, and National Multiple…

Read More

Poorly designed nonprofit Web sites are deterring many donors who would be willing to give to charity online from doing so, suggests a new study conducted by the Internet research firm Nielsen Norman Group.

The group asked study participants to examine the Web sites of 23 nonprofit organizations with a wide range of missions and to choose one to support.

“We observed several donation killers that caused some of the charities to lose out,” said Jakob Nielsen, an expert on Web-page design, in a written statement.

Chief among them was poor presentation of the charity’s mission. The first thing most participants looked for was a description of the nonprofit organization’s goals and objectives, but only 43 percent of the Web sites included this information on their home pages.

Participants also said that they wanted to know how their contribution would be spent, but only 4 percent of …

Read More