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Conference Notebook
March 2009
March 31, 2009
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Half of Charity Campaigns Plan to Extend the Length of the Drive, Survey Finds
With the recession making it harder to raise money, 51 percent of nonprofit organizations now in capital or endowment campaigns have extended the length of their drives, and another 11 percent have reduced the amount they are trying to raise.
That is the conclusion of a survey conducted in January and February by two Chicago companies, Campbell & Company, a fund-raising consulting firm, and Slover Linett Strategies, a research company.
The goal of the survey of more than 300 nonprofit organizations — which either were in a current campaign or had completed one in the past decade — was to assess how charities handle budgeting for large fund-raising drives.
Campaign goals of the respondents ranged from less than $1-million to $1-billion or more, with a median goal of $13-million. Colleges and universities had the highest goals, a median of $40-million, followed by arts groups, with $20.3-million. Those organizations also had the highest campaign budgets, with a median of $1-million for both arts and higher-education drives.
Among other findings of the survey:
- Thirty-seven percent of the institutions surveyed reported paying for the campaign through their operating budget. Another 17 percent said that they folded the campaign budget into the overall campaign goal.
- Less common methods of paying for campaigns included tapping reserve funds, obtaining a gift from one or more trustees or donors to cover the campaign budget, and tapping endowments.
- When asked whether and how they would do things differently in budgeting for a big campaign, 31 percent of respondents said they would engage in more formal campaign planning. Twenty-three percent said they would monitor campaign costs more closely, and 13 percent said they would fold the campaign budget into the overall financial goal of the drive.
- The average campaign budget included 39 percent for staff members, 22 percent for consultants, 19 percent for marketing, and 20 percent for other costs such as events, travel, and office expenses.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
American Fund Raisers Urged to Look Overseas for Ideas
American fund raisers have much to learn from overseas charities, say Andrew Watt and Jon Duschinsky, who travel extensively to advise charities outside the United States.
In an audio interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Watt, chief programs officer at the Association of Fundraising Professionals, described his activities over the past three years to organize chapters overseas and to provide resources to fund raisers in many countries.
Both Mr. Watt and Mr. Duschinsky, a consultant, said donors are increasingly interested in solving problems rather than donating money to causes. Fund raisers, the two men said, must seek ways to help donors do that rather than just ask for money. Fund raisers, they said, too often think only about the amount of money raised, not about creating movements for change that inspire donors to join in hands-on involvement.
“We need to move away from talking about our organizations’ being the best and give people the tools to self-organize,” said Mr. Duschinsky. He added that he no longer looks to the United States or Britain for the best, most inspiring examples of fund raising.
Fund raisers in the United States need to adopt new approaches when starting fund-raising efforts, he said. “The donor pyramid is dead.”
Instead he urged fund raisers to think about a “change cylinder,” in which donors come together as equal participants who give money, time, and other resources to a project, then move on to other accomplishments, perhaps to come together again later.
“The donor pyramid is measuring money,” Mr. Duschinsky said. “If we now agree that effecting change is about so much else, to say that the only thing that will change the world is money misses the point.”
You can listen here to Mr. Duschinsky’s example of what he means when he says that charities need to learn to think differently:”
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Where Do Donors Turn for Advice on Giving?
Many fund raisers seek relationships with estate planners and lawyers on the theory that those experts will influence wealthy clients to make charitable gifts.
However, research by Indiana University and Bank of America has found that, in recent years, wealthy donors have shifted preferences in terms of the experts they rely on for guidance in making gifts, said Tricia Ambler, a manager at WealthEngine, at a session today at the Association of Fundraising Professionals meeting. The Bethesda, Md., company provides online research tools to help charities identify potential donors.
While wealthy donors said that they relied on estate planners and lawyers for charitable advice in a 2006 study, she noted, a later study, in 2008, found them more likely to seek charitable advice from investment bankers, wealth managers, and other experts who help them build assets.
“If you have wealth managers among your donor base, you should cultivate them for their contacts” to wealthy potential donors, said Ms. Ambler. Those are the experts who’ve helped them create private foundations and donor-advised funds, she said.
But Russell N. James, a researcher at the University of Georgia’s Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, questioned whether donors will continue to rely on wealth managers for charitable advice as the economic crisis wears on.
Given how much wealth has been lost by investment managers, and the public outcry over irresponsible decisions by many investment firms, he said, donors will probably turn back to estate planners and lawyers, many of whom take a more conservative approach to money management.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Attracting Young Donors
Nonprofit groups should be aggressively working to involve people in their 20s and 30s.
But Derrick Feldmann, president of Achieve, a consulting company in Indianapolis, said they shouldn’t expect young donors to open up their checkbooks quickly.
Nor should they expect to raise significant money, Mr. Feldmann told an audience at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans.
But nonprofit groups shouldn’t abandon efforts to seek out young donors, even if the initial return is low.
“This is a long-term philanthropic strategy to engage young people,” he said. “They are not going to be young for long. The organizations that take this approach are the ones that are going to be very successful with reaching these individuals over the long term.”
In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Feldmann discussed four key steps nonprofit groups can take to attract young donors. You can listen to the interview:
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Scenes From New Orleans: Networking, Twitter-Style
The social-networking Web site Twitter is getting a lot of discussion among fund raisers gathered in New Orleans this week for the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference.
Many businesses in the exhibit area are inviting participants to join their Twitter groups — and the site has generated more than passing mention at several conference sessions.
Twitter is being discussed as a way to connect with younger donors, meet other fund raisers, and get ideas for improving their fund-raising efforts.
To help demystify the Twitter world, The Chronicle hosted its first “Tweetup” — a cocktail reception for fund raisers who follow its Twitter feed.
The event attracted local fund raisers as well as people from California, Indiana, Nebraska, New York, and elsewhere— and it brought together colleagues who had previously met only online.
To learn more about Twitter, read The Chronicle’s recent article with tips on how to use it for fund raising.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Advice for Grant Seekers
Opportunities for new grants lurk in some unexpected places, said Gail Vertz, executive director of the American Association of Grant Professionals, at a session today at the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in New Orleans.
For example, she says, one place for grant seekers to check out is their local bank. Often family foundations that don’t want to oversee the foundation will appoint a bank vice president to manage it. When visiting a bank, she suggests, charity officials should check to see if anyone there is a contact person for a foundation, and should always be prepared to give a quick, concise speech about their organization’s mission and needs.
Similarly, she says, it pays to stay in touch with foundation program officers, who can sometimes tell you if new money becomes available because another grantee is unable to use it.
As a grant reviewer, Ms. Vertz says one of the weaknesses she sees most often on grant applications is a budget that doesn’t match up with program descriptions.
“If you’re putting in staff time and you say you’re getting half of your case manager’s or social worker’s time, make sure it’s easy to see that someone is spending 20 hours on a project,” she says.
Otherwise, grant makers are likely to give an application a low score and may not award it any money.
Ms. Vertz said she is also irked by line items marked “miscellaneous” on grant-application budgets. “If somebody can’t tell me how they’re going to spend that money, that’s inappropriate,” she said. “You should be able to explain everything you plan on doing.”
She recommends including an evaluation component that describes how a program’s results will be measured and how that will be reported to the grant maker – even if the foundation doesn’t seek such details. That will demonstrate the charity’s seriousness about making a difference.
Most federal grants require an evaluation as a stipulation of the grant. For small organizations that may not be able to hire an evaluation specialist, Ms. Vertz suggests looking to a local college or university where a graduate student may be interested in following a grant as part of a thesis.
March 30, 2009
Association of Fundraising Professionals
The Fund-Raising Picture: Gloomy Results
Forty-six percent of nonprofit organizations raised more money last year compared with 2007, according to preliminary findings of an annual survey, released today by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Reflecting the toll exacted by the economic downturn, the percentage of fund raisers whose institutions raised more money last year was a new low in the eight years the survey has been conducted. In a typical year, 60 percent of fund raisers in the survey report being able to raise more money.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Fund-Raising Events on a Shoestring
Traditional fund-raising events like galas are expensive and labor-intensive for small groups to organize. Plus, every nonprofit group in town has one. In these belt-tightening times, it’s even more important to look for novel special-events ideas that make fund-raising dollars go further, said Tracey Gainforth, executive director of Planned Parenthood Ottawa, in Canada.
At a session of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in New Orleans Ms. Gainforth offered some pointers for putting together a special event on a shoestring budget: Plan the event far ahead to increase your likelihood of securing donated space. Always ask for donations of everything needed to run the event. And when appealing to corporate sponsors to underwrite events or donate products or services, always give them a written statement showing what you will do with the money you raise.
Ideally, said Ms. Gainforth, an organization should spend only 15 to 25 cents for each dollar it hopes to raise through a special event.
But some organizations are able to plan a memorable special event on even less.
MexFam, a family-planning group in Mexico City, for example, recently hosted an event in which it sold 200 boxes painted by well-known Mexican artists. Because the artists donated their work and the organization was able to secure donated space from Marriott Hotels, as well as donated food and champagne from Moet & Chandon, MexFam’s only outlay for the event was $2.50 for each box, said Ms Gainforth. The evening raised $80,000 from 500 people.
Ms. Gainforth’s organization plans to run a similar event in Ottawa in November. Her goal, she says, is to raise $20,000 on a fund-raising budget of $1,000.
One local children’s aid society had another good idea for raising money on the cheap, she said. The organization created a “martini madness” event at which it sold three kinds of drinks (including a non-alcoholic option) for $15 apiece. The event raised $7,000 through the martinis alone.
Adding a special new element to an existing fund-raising event can also be an effective way to freshen up an event and bring in new revenue, said Ms. Gainforth. If hosting a spring event, consider adding a garden tour to the event, or a house tour to a winter event, Ms. Gainforth suggested. “Adding a component saves a lot of special events,” she said.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Making Fund-Raising Research More Useful and Accessible
Russell N. James, a researcher at the University of Georgia Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, in Athens, told participants at the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals that he understands why many fund raisers ignore academic research on soliciting gifts.
Too often, he says, such research comes up with conclusions that most fund raisers already know from anecdotal experience, or it’s so specific to a particular institution that other organizations cannot apply it, Mr. James said.
But, he says, some research now under way offer insights fund raisers in many organizations can use.
To expand the amount and quality of research that fund raisers can actually use in their work, Mr. James said that the profession needs a peer-reviewed academic journal that would attract researchers and encourage additional studies.
A publisher who specializes in nonprofit books could team up with the association to create such a journal, he suggested. However, Mr. James admitted, it might be difficult to get such a publication off the ground. “Academic journals are really expensive and normal humans don’t subscribe to them,” he said.
To learn more about the growing number of scholars who are producing research on charities, see this new article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Scenes From New Orleans: Fund Raisers Volunteer to Rebuild
Participants at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans had an opportunity to help rebuild a city that is still attempting to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
Many participants who arrived early for the conference participated in construction projects in New Orleans on Saturday organized by Rebuilding Together, the national charity that mobilizes volunteers to participate in renovation efforts.
The organization is working to rebuild 1,000 homes in the Gulf Coast that had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The Chronicle has uploaded photos from the volunteer effort to its Flickr page.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Audio: Creating a Monthly Giving Program
How can a small nonprofit group create an effective monthly giving program?
Greg Gorman, development director for St. Mary’s Catholic Center in College Station, Texas, discussed his organization’s monthly giving program during a session at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans.
In an interview with The Chronicle, he expanded on his ideas. You can listen to the interview:
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Fund Raiser Recommends New Way to Recruit Qualified Trustees
Charitable organizations in Great Britain often use executive recruiters to help them find qualified trustees to serve on their boards, said Sheila M. Bailey, a fund raiser at Apostleship for the Sea, a British organization that places chaplains on ships.
Ms. Bailey said that using professional recruiters to find board members is worth the cost, because “recruiting the wrong board member happens more often than we like to admit.”
Such trustees, she added, can upset the working of the board, or they have an agenda that conflicts with the organization’s.
Hiring executive recruiters to search for nonprofit trustees, Ms. Bailey said, “has become common in the U.K., and not just for larger organizations.”
If a charity can afford it, she said, it forces the organization to determine what type of trustee it actually needs. And, she added, “it is better than the old boys’ network.”
Association of Fundraising Professionals
How to Create a Successful Gift Catalog
A successful fund-raising catalog combines a wide range of specific products with higher-priced appeals for money that can be used for a broad range of needs, said Robbin Gehrke, senior vice president and executive creative director at Russ Reid, a fund-raising consulting firm, at a session of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conference, in New Orleans.
Charitable “gift catalogs” — which either sell merchandise associated with an organization’s cause or request more symbolic donation-type gifts, such as an opportunity to adopt an animal or sponsor a child — have grown in popularity and sophistication in recent years.
They have the advantage of appealing to younger donors, while also helping to raise additional, incremental gifts from existing donors, said Ms. Gehrke, who has helped design and test gift catalogs for organizations like World Vision and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
First time donors who give through a catalog usually give far larger amounts than single gift-givers acquired through more traditional sources such as direct mail, she added.
The key to a successful catalog, said Ms. Gehrke, is being able to offer a wide variety of tangible products with prices from $25 to $25,000.
Often, she said, catalogs are helpful in reaching midlevel donors, who are ready to respond to larger appeals than usual direct-mail solicitations but who don’t give at high enough levels to attract the attention of major-gifts fund raisers.
That’s why, she said, in addition to a number of items priced at the “sweet spot” of either $50 or $100 — which are usually the most popular in a gift catalog — catalogs should also include high-dollar products that go to pay for broad needs.
The World Wildlife Fund, for example, includes in its gift catalog a category of “extraordinary gifts,” such as an appeal to help Bolivian and Brazilian families start sustainable forest-based businesses, priced at $20,000, which appears on the same page as a $25 adopt-a-toucan gift.
When designing a gift catalog, Ms. Gehrke said, charities need to think like retail-catalog designers and pay careful attention to the catalog’s length and layout, and the quality and appeal of photographs. She suggested using an enclosed order form that lists all the booklet’s offerings on one page, which encourages people to add on a few more items as they complete their order — and can spur some donors to take the form to work or church groups for group giving.
Gift catalogs may not be a good choice for groups like advocacy organizations, which may not be able to parcel aspects of their programs into specific salable “products,” she said.
But, she said, they can be particularly effective for groups that already have a well-known brand and can quantify their programs by how much it costs to provide services per beneficiary.
She estimated that it takes about four or five years for a catalog program to reach peak performance. One client who started an integrated online and print catalog program in 2004 and raised about $8-million in its first year was able to bring in $20-million through its gift catalog during the 2008 holiday season, she said.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Can Monthly Giving Programs Work for Small Nonprofit Groups?
Large national and international charities such as Greenpeace and Save the Children are often held up as examples of how to set up monthly credit- or debit-card giving programs.
But can such programs also work for smaller groups?
Greg Gorman, development director at St. Mary’s Catholic Center in College Station, Tex., answers that question with an emphatic yes.
Mr. Gorman’s center, which is affiliated with Texas A&M University, operates with a modest $1.8-million annual budget. And roughly one-sixth of that budget — about $300,000 — comes from monthly gifts from donors who pay with debit and credit cards.
Those donors have become a source of consistent, predictable income for his organization — and he believes they are likely candidates for more significant gifts in the future.
“It’s about trust and it’s about major gifts in the future,” he said today in a session at the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans. “This is a way to institutionalize bringing people up the giving pyramid.”
Smaller groups do have to be smart about setting up such programs. To make them work, they need to determine their technological needs, figure out whether to manage the program internally or through an outside vendor, and create a consistent, simple message.
Mr. Gorman, for instance, started his first campaign by sending lunches in brown paper bags to potential donors. The message: If donors give up one lunch a month, they can use the money they saved to support the center through a monthly gift.
Mr. Gorman talked in detail to The Chronicle about what it takes to solicit monthly gifts. You can listen to audio excerpts.
March 29, 2009
Association of Fundraising Professionals
A Successful Fund Raiser's Three-Pronged Approach
For Kenneth C. Frisch, successful fund raising isn’t the result of a single strategy or process.
Instead, it’s the result of a comprehensive plan that includes seeking money in employee charity drives run by companies, soliciting planned gifts, and recruiting and training a dedicated Board of Directors that works aggressively to raise money for his organization, Hospice of Northwest Ohio in Perrysburg.
Mr. Frisch, who raises more than $2-million annually as director of development for the charity, will be honored in New Orleans on Monday for his successful approach as the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Fundraising Professional of the year.
The award honors fund raisers who have demonstrated consistent excellence in their craft.
Mr. Frisch’s career includes stints at Ohio University and Bowling Green State University, where he led large, multimillion-dollar campaigns and managed hundreds of volunteers.
He was hired by Hospice of Northwest Ohio in 2003 to raise the final $6.4-million for a $9-million capital campaign. Since that time, he has managed the organization’s overall fund raising.
The conference will also honor the Greater New Orleans Foundation, which in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina granted more than $42-million to nonprofit groups working to rebuild the region and has more recently financed projects to expand the availability of housing, education, and employment to revitalize neighborhoods in New Orleans.
“New Orleans and philanthropy have seen some challenging times in recent years,” Paulette Maehara, president of the association said at today’s opening session. “But New Orleans is still here and donors are still giving and both continue to serve as an inspiration and hope to people around the world.”
— Peter Panepento and Paula Wasley
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Twittering From the Big Easy
Participants at the Association of Fund Raising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans can follow updates from fellow fund raisers on the social-networking Web site Twitter by following the tag #afpnola.
I’ll be among those who will be posting regular updates from the conference through the Chronicle‘s Twitter feed.
Other conference attendees who will be posting updates include the consultant Tucker Branham of Atlanta (through the Twitter handle tjbranham), Jennifer Barrouzet (jendarra), and John Dawe (@johndawe).
The Chronicle is also planning its first “Tweetup” — a live meeting of people who communicate online through Twitter — during the fund raisers’ conference. The event will take place Monday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Helix Wine Bar, in the French Quarter.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Focusing on What Works: Veteran Fund-Raising Consultants Offer Their Ideas
After suffering a downturn in contributions in the last quarter of 2008, many charities may be seeing an uptick in both the number of donations made and the amount pledged, L. Gregg Carlson, chief executive of the IDC telemarketing and direct-mail company told a group of fund-raising consultants gathered in New Orleans on Friday to discuss trends before the annual Association of Fundraising Professionals meeting opened here Sunday.
Mr. Carlson said he took a preliminary look at how his clients are doing in the first quarter of the year, and he said he was pleasantly surprised. He said organizations that explained to donors that “we need you now more than ever” were doing well.
At a session held by the Giving Institute, an organization that represents big fund-raising consulting firms, veteran consultants said that more and more donors are cutting back on gifts to the institutions they think are well endowed in favor of front-line social-service groups that meet growing human needs. In addition, they said donors were especially reluctant to make gifts for new buildings because they feared the overhead costs of maintaining those buildings would be too much.
In addition, they said donors were asking tougher questions than ever about how their money would be used.
Many of the consultants on the panel and in the audience said they saw a striking contrast between groups that were succeeding even in the bad economy and those that were not faring so well.
Among the ingredients of success:
- Focusing on the mission, not the dollars that need to be raised.
“People that are successful now engage people in what is stake now,” said Bruce McClintock, chairman of the Marts & Lundy firm. He said groups need to do more to train front-line fund raisers to understand the cause and what opportunities exist. Nancy Raybin, head of a consulting firm in New York that bears her name, said her husband, a marine biologist, has been enlisted by his employer to talk about the environmental work he does — and why it matters. She says his letters are so filled with real-world, emotional examples that they persuade donors to give.
- Understanding which fund-raising efforts are productive and which are not.
Edith Falk, chief executive of Campbell Company, said organizations that succeed know which techniques and approaches work for them and which ones are not producing great returns, especially compared with the money and energy they require. She said she is frequently struck by the number of organizations she sees “that have no idea how much time and energy they spend on things that are not productive.”
- Thanking donors.
Mr. Carlson said that in recent months, 20 charities have hired his company to simply make calls to thank donors — not to ask for money. In previous years, he says, institutions “got lazy about stewardship,” and only one charity a year ever hired his business to acknowledge donors’ gifts. He said donors are so impressed that they are writing to his clients to thank them for the calls, sometimes saying that no charity has ever thanked them for gifts. What’s more, he said, donors who receive the calls are being asked how often they want to be solicited — and that some institutions are using that information to trim costs by cutting out unwanted mailings and other appeals.
- Listening to supporters.
Mr. McClintock says that during a downturn in the 1980s, a board member of a charity he worked for told him: “God gave you two ears and one mouth: That is so you’d listen twice as much as you talked.” That is especially important in hard times, as fund raisers need to learn what donors want and expect, he said.
- Asking donors to give now.
Many organizations are asking donors to make a gift this year and base the amount on how much an endowment would have earned when the stock market was strong. For example, they might give enough to allow a university to give as many scholarships as it could have when an endowed scholarship was producing a lot of income. In addition, some groups are encouraging donors to pay off pledges this year — and promising to match any payments made right away.
- Proving to donors what their money will do.
Donors are asking tougher questions than ever and holding institutions accountable, Mr. McClintock said. “People are looking for concrete examples of what I can do now that will do the most good and how you will steward the money so I can be proud of my accomplishments.
The consultants offered examples of the actions they think will cause charities to fail in the bad economy. Among them:
- Cutting programs across the board. Mr. Carlson said many charities are cutting budgets across the board, “using a hatchet when a scalpel is more warranted.”
- Using the economy as an excuse to sit back. Many organizations — and their board members — are slowing or halting their fund raising, said many of the fund raisers in the audience. Mr. Carlson said those organizations that are being aggressive in raising money are finding out that it is possible to raise money even when times are hard.
- Going negative. “You need to be positive about what you can do with the money,” said Mr. McClintock. “If you take too negative a view of the situation, that will work once, but only once.”
The consultants said that some organizations have cut back on their fund-raising staffs or made some fund-raising jobs part-time. Del Martin, founding partner of the Alexander-Haas fund-raising consulting firm, says many organizations are asking her whether she can provide an interim fund raiser to work until the economy improves and the group can afford a permanent employee.
Mr. McClintock said many fund raisers feel under tremendous pressure to fill revenue gaps and that he worries that some of the best people will leave the profession because they see too much focus on finances and not enough on the mission.
Many fund raisers are also being asked to take salary cuts, Ms. Raybin said. In the past, she said, chief executives were willing to pay their top fund raisers salaries that were much higher than those paid to other workers. But now as times are tougher, they are worried that they cannot continue to afford such salaries for people who can’t produce as much income for the nonprofit group. “Salaries are out of whack at many organizations,” she said. “It’s a tough situation.”
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Fund-Raising Lessons From China
American fund raisers may have a few things to learn from their counterparts in Chinese nonprofit groups about cultivating corporate philanthropy, said presenters at a session of the annual conference of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in New Orleans.
“The 80/ 20 rule is alive and well in China” said Vivian Ann Smith, a consultant at Liberty Quest Enterprises, who was among 28 fund raisers who toured China and Hong Kong in December to meet with representatives of local charities through an exchange sponsored by the fund-raisers association and People to People’s citizen ambassadors program.
But, she said, while North American nonprofit organizations may rely on individuals for 80 percent of their support, Chinese organizations receive 80 percent of their support from corporations and foundations, and only 20 percent from gifts by individuals.
“There’s a big conversation in China about corporate social responsibility,” said Barbara Talisman, a fund-raising consultant.
And some groups, she said, are using that dialogue to build strong relationships with multinational corporations operating in the region. The Hong Kong Council of Social Services, for example, has helped quantify and market companies’ charitable engagement through a competitive “caring company program” that honors 1,700 companies for their support of volunteering, their efforts to provide mentors to young people, and their donations to charity.
By contrast, said presenters, efforts to raise money from individuals are much less developed in China, although the 2008 Sichuan province earthquake may have opened opportunities for nonprofit groups by helping shift the culture of giving from family and village-based networks to broader national causes.
Some organizations have had success raising small amounts from individuals through text-message fund raising, which circumvents some of the fund-raising challenges posed by an unreliable postal system and a tendency of the National Bank of China to retain or divert small amounts intended for charity.
But, said Timothy Burcham, vice president for advancement at Kentucky Community and Technical College System, there are many untapped opportunities to cultivate wealthy Chinese donors with the ability to give large stock or cash gifts. “The place for opportunity in China is individual giving,” he said.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
With Times Tight, Focus Is on Education, Not Frills
The down economy is causing many nonprofit groups, businesses, and families to cut some of the excess out of their budgets.
The same holds true for organizations such as the Association of Fundraising Professionals that play host to major conferences.
To manage costs, planners have found ways to scale back this year’s event without skimping on educational sessions for participants.
Gone are free catered lunches in the exhibit hall.
Another cut: live musicians. Instead of hiring a band to serve as the warm-up for major speakers, organizers have instead opted for recorded music.
“We really tried to focus our attention on maximizing the resources that are important to our members,” said Paulette Maehara, the association’s president.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Stay the Course, Fund-Raising Leader Urges
The recession is clearly a top-of-mind issue for most of the people attending the Association of Fundraising Professionals annual conference in New Orleans.
But the organization’s president, Paulette Maehara, said she has seen glimmers of optimism despite what she says is a “solemn” atmosphere at the event.
Most fund raisers face declines in staff and other resources, skittish donors, and worries about how long the recession will last.
Many others are working with donors who want to extend their pledges or put off big gifts.
Still, Ms. Maehara said the organization has found that many groups are doing well.
A recent survey of the organization’s members found that 60 percent are expecting gifts to their organizations to either increase or remain about the same in 2009 when compared with 2008. That number suggests the recession, while painful, is not going to be a crippling blow to many organizations, she said.
With that as the backdrop, Ms. Maehara said she will be reinforcing the message to members that they should stick to the fundamentals.
“My advice is ‘Don’t panic,’” she said. “Listen to the message you get from your financial adviser — take the long view. That means being prudent, being realistic, and focusing on the fundamentals that got you here. Those are all important messages for donors to hear.”
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Attendance at Fund Raisers' Conference Suffers in Face of Recession
The number of fund raisers attending the annual meeting of the Association of Fundraising Professionals has dropped by about 20 percent from 2008 — a drop that organizers attribute to the recession.
About 3,200 people registered to attend the 2009 conference in New Orleans — down from a record 4,500 participants at the 2008 conference in San Diego.
Many fund raisers are staying home this year because of budget cuts at their organizations, said John Skendall, a spokesman for the fund raisers’ association.
Paulette Maehara, president of the association, said in an interview today that some of the decline is the result of the fact that the conference is in New Orleans — a destination that is still causing trepidation for some potential attendees following Hurricane Katrina.
She said that the biggest number of fund raisers this year come from social-service groups, many of which have started focusing on private fund raising as their government aid has been reduced and demand has been soaring. She said usually education and health-care fund raisers account for the biggest share of participants.
The conference is also drawing a large number of first-time participants. About half of those who registered have never previously attended the national conference, Ms. Maehara said.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
Fund Raisers From Around the Nation Gather in New Orleans
The Association of Fundraising Professionals this week plays host to its annual conference in New Orleans.
The event, which in previous years has attracted as many as 4,500 participants from across the country, will probably have a somewhat different flavor this year, as many organizations cut back on travel costs for professional meetings and struggle to find the best ways to raise money in the recession.
While the economy isn’t getting much attention in the event’s official program, it is expected to be a major topic of conversation throughout the conference, which begins today and runs through Wednesday.
The conference will also be colored by its host city, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. The association, in fact, organized a day of service for conference participants on Saturday.
Among the keynote speakers are the actor Sidney Poitier, the businessman and author Christopher Gardner, and the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
The Chronicle will provide regular online coverage of the key events at the meeting.
You can expect regular updates in our online conference notebook and on our Twitter page. We’ll also send a special edition of Philanthropy Today to readers each day of the conference to help you stay up with all the news.
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