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July 01, 2009
Job Security Declines and Stress Rises Among British Fund Raisers
The recession is catching up with British fund raisers, increasing their on-the-job stress levels, according to a new survey released this week by Third Sector, a publication that covers charities in the United Kingdom.
The survey of more than 300 fund raisers, conducted annually, found that worry and stress among fund raisers is higher this year than last — and they feel less career support from their employers.
For example, 43 percent of fund raisers said they felt stressed at work, up from 26 percent last year, and many are also concerned about the security of their job (34 percent) and the future of their organization (35 percent).
At the same time, fewer fund raisers said that they have support in developing their careers from employers: 42 percent said they have such support, down from 52 percent last year. And fewer fund raisers said they were satisfied with training and development in their organization this year (54 percent) than in 2008 (66 percent).
The survey findings are attributed to the poor economy, although one nonprofit consultant said that she believes “things are holding up very well. I thought we would see a bigger impact.”
Nobody surveys American fund raisers about job security, but do you see the same concerns as in Britain? Use the comment box below to share your observations.
Are Charities Telling the Truth About How Much They Spend on Fund Raising?
It is a widely held belief among donors that “good” charities are those that direct a high percentage of donations directly to their cause. Nonprofit groups that commit more money to their missions and less to fund-raising and operating expenses are seen as efficient and more trustworthy.
“But what if the accounting some nonprofits are employing to give us a number that will earn our trust is not to be trusted?” writes Dan Pallotta on Free the Nonprofits, a blog on Harvard Business Publishing’s Web site. “What if the ultimate measure of trustworthiness is highly vulnerable to deceit?”
Mr. Pallotta notes that some charities “game” that system and appear “holier” than others by labeling all or some fund-raising expenses as part of the cause. While he favors a “broad definition of the cause,” charities should tell the public “loud and clear” what that definition is.
“I have a problem with shortcutting critical donor education (i.e. about the importance of adequate administrative and fund-raising expense) in the interest of false piety and high revenues,” Mr. Pallotta writes. “That actually undermines donor education — it teaches the public that fund raising and social progress can be gotten for free, which is exactly why it rebels against sector spending on organizational strength and capacity.”
What do you think?
June 30, 2009
Former Google Executive Seeks Philanthropy Advice
A former Google executive is asking for advice on where to make a donation.
On his blog, Paul Buchheit spells out the idea simply: “I’m going to donate a bunch of money, but I want random people on the Internet to decide where it goes.”
Suggestions can be submitted on Google Moderator, an online chat program, or FriendFeed, a social-networking site that Mr. Buchheit helped found.
The would-be-philanthropist places few restrictions on where the money could go. The future recipient needs to be a tax-exempt charitable group, and he reserves the right to ignore all suggestions.
As for possible charitable causes he would consider, he writes, “I’d consider anything, but am probably most sympathetic to health, freedom, and education. In terms of solutions, I’m very skeptical of centralization, one-size-fits-all solutions, and people who are certain of the answer. I also prefer to support things that have tangible, objective outcomes (where you could say, ‘this money was used to purchase X’ or ‘this money was used to fund study Y, which will be published this fall’).”
Mr. Buchheit does not say how much he plans to donate. But Mashable, a blog about social media, says given that he was one of Google’s first employees, “it’s safe to assume that Buchheit has plenty to give.”
June 26, 2009
Nonprofit Tag Lines Compete For Awards
Board members, fund raisers, and other nonprofit leaders need to be able to quickly convey their organization’s work and its impact to potential donors and other constituents — and a good motto or “tag line” can help, says Nancy Schwartz, a Maplewood, N.J., nonprofit marketing consultant.
If you think your charity has a good tag line, submit it as a contender for one of the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards. The deadline for entries is July 31, and more than 300 tag lines have been entered so far.
Ms. Schwartz started the contest last year after doing an online survey about nonprofit tag lines and receiving more than 1,000 submissions. She selected 62 finalists and created an online poll in which 12 award winners were chosen by 3,062 nonprofit professionals who cast their votes online.
Ms. Schwartz’s research into nonprofit tag lines led her to write a free report, including advice on how to create a good tag line, tag line do’s and don’ts, and examples of both weak and effective tag lines.
A few nonprofit tag lines that do not work for Ms. Schwartz:
“We’re more than you think!” for a women’s health organization. “What are the unexpected services, and why are they important?” Ms. Schwartz asks.
“There is a difference!” for a hospice. The hospice, she writes, needs to “articulate what that difference is.”
“Life is a team sport” for a bone-marrow donor program. “Don’t use analogies that don’t hold water,” Ms. Schwartz writes. “You’ll only confuse your audience.”
Almost Half of Britons Have Lied About Giving, Says Survey
A new survey suggests that British people may not be terribly honest about their philanthropy.
On the Web site of Channel 4, in London, Press Association News reports that 47 percent of respondents said they have lied about having given to charity and 26 percent said they have told fund raisers that they had already made a donation when they had not.
In addition, the survey, which polled more than 2,000 people in Britain, found that 31 percent said they were giving less time and money to charity than a year ago; 12 percent said they were giving more.
The poll was sponsored by Leap Anywhere, a Web site that connects people with charitable causes.
What do you think? If the same poll were given in America, would the findings be similar?
June 25, 2009
U. of Colorado Hopes to Raise Money by Text Message at Football Games
The University of Colorado is looking at ways to solicit donations of $5 or so through text messages at football games or other events, the Daily Camera , a Boulder newspaper, reported today.
An announcer could ask fans to pull out their phones during a break in play and text a small donation for scholarships or other purposes. The mobile donations would be paid through the donor’s cellphone bill.
The small donations can add up. On a recent episode of American Idol, the musician Alicia Keys asked fans to text message donations to her charity that helps HIV orphans in Africa, “Keep a Child Alive.” Her request raised $450,000 from 90,000 donors, the newspaper reported.
One student who had a season pass to football games last fall said she and other students would probably donate to Colorado if they could do it through a text message.
“It’d be a good way because it’s something that students do all the time anyway,” Ariel Braude. a sophomore, said.
(Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article about new efforts to make cellphone donations an efficient way for charities to raise money.)
—Kathryn Masterson
National Youth Charity Pushes Local Chapters To Start Raising Money
B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, a century-old Jewish youth charity, is tweaking its fund-raising approach to survive the recession.
Jacob Berkman, who reported recently on how the Birthright Israel Foundation was changing its fund raising, writes on the Fundermentalist blog that the B’nai B’rith group is asking its regional chapters to raise donations.
That’s a departure for the group, which has traditionally raised its $16-million budget through the national office and from local Jewish federations.
But now the B’nai B’rith group is working with 20 chapters to set up local “friends of BBYO” networks and alumni networks, says Mr. Berkman. Last year, the nonprofit organization raised $250,000 locally through such efforts; this year, it hopes to raise an additional $400,000.
“We are going very grass roots,” Matt Grossman, the charity’s executive director, told Mr. Berkman. “Most BBYO programs don’t need to raise more than $50,000 or $100,000, depending on their federation allocation. We don’t need a lot of million-dollar gifts on the local level. We need a lot more people giving reasonable amounts.”
What do you think of the new approach? Do you know of other charities encouraging their local chapters to raise money for the first time?
June 23, 2009
Young Alumni Help College With YouTube Spoof
Gifts to the annual fund at Juniata College, in Huntingdon, Pa., grew this year after two recent graduates produced a YouTube parody of a popular ballad.
The video entitled Just Five Bucks features a performance by 2007 graduates Brenton Mitchell and Brandon Long, who ask others who graduated from Juniata in the last decade (in song) to donate $5 to JC, as the college is known.
The video, also posted on the college’s Facebook page, raised $73,000 from May 28 to May 31 after it was included in an e-mail appeal sent to alumni. That was an 18-percent increase over what was raised with a text-only e-mail sent during the same period last year. Young alumni who graduated in the last decade gave a total of $29,000, an 81-per-cent increase over their donations in 2008.
The JC grads’ video performance is an imitation of the romantic ballad “More Than Words,” released by the funk-metal group Extreme in 1991.
In their parody, Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Long, wearing college T-shirts, sit on stools with the same posture as the original performers did in their own video. Rewriting Extreme’s original lyrics, they sing:
Just five dollars is all you have to give to make it real
Then you wouldn’t have to say that you love JC
Cos we’d already know
What would you do if we said not one or two?
Just $5 will show you feel
That your love for JC is real
Face-to-Face Fund Raising Grows in Britain
The number of people who respond to face-to-face fund raising in Britain grew 16 percent during the 12 months ending March 31.
According to the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, a London association of charities that practice street and door-to-door fund raising, says that an estimated 680,000 people were recruited as donors, the largest number since the group began tracking such data in 2003.
Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the association, told Third Sector Online, that the report shows that asking for gifts in person works despite the recession.
Street fund raising is popular with British charities, though the public has objected to some aggressive face-to-face tactics. American groups have started to adopt some of the techniques in recent years, which have met with success.
Read The Chronicle’s article about how American fund raisers are using face-to-face appeals.
What do you think? Has face-to-face fund raising been successful with your group despite the downturn in the economy?
June 22, 2009
New York Public Library Successfully Fights City Budget Cuts With Online Campaign
The New York Public Library successfully used an online fund-raising and advocacy campaign to fight the city’s plan to slash its municipal support by $28-million this year — and now it has won back $23-million in subsidies.
Key to the library’s success was an urgent alert message that the institution used to replace what viewers typically see when they visit its main Web site.
Starting on May 6, the library encouraged online visitors to make a donation of $5 or more and to contact their city representatives to protest the cuts.
“Keep your library open,” the message read. “We need your help! Record numbers of New Yorkers are relying on The New York Public Library in these difficult economic times.” The city cuts, it said, would shut city libraries for an extra one or two days a week and restrict residents’ access to job-search tools.
The campaign included a celebrity-studded YouTube video, featuring the actress Bette Midler, the writer Amy Tan, the actor Jeff Daniels, the director Mike Nichols, and several others. All donated their time to urge viewers to participate in the campaign.
The library also used messages on Facebook and other social-networking sites, inviting its donors, to use Twitter and other tools to tell people about the campaign and the library’s budget woes.
The campaign brought in $50,000 from 1,100 donors, with an average gift of $47. Eighty percent of those who gave were first-time donors. “We are really excited about this,” says Catherine Carver Dunn, the library’s senior vice president of external affairs.
Equally critical, she says, was the campaign’s ability to galvanize more than 30,000 area residents who contacted their city representatives to protest the cutbacks. Says Ms. Dunn: “We created an opportunity for library users to be heard.”
Copyright © 2009 The Chronicle of Philanthropy