Jean Case: Giving Tuesday -- What the Season of Giving Really Means

Jean Case: Giving Tuesday -- What the Season of Giving Really Means: Just when I could be a little discouraged about where all of this is going, I'm encouraged and inspired by a counter movement. A movement to redefine the season of giving, away from the emphasis on "sales, sales, sales!" and toward the true spirit of giving to others in a more meaningful way, especially those in need. Called "Giving Tuesday," this effort is designed to create a moment and build momentum for the season of giving back, in the same way that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday kicks off the holiday shopping season. The Case Foundation is excited to join the UN Foundation, 92Y and more than 200 other organizations on Tuesday, November 27, to celebrate this special time of year and to highlight the exceptional work that so many nonprofits and social enterprises do to strengthen our communities during the holiday season and all year-long.

Nearly $220M in charitable donations for Sandy relief raised thus far - NorthJersey.com

Nearly $220M in charitable donations for Sandy relief raised thus far - NorthJersey.com: Donors have given nearly $220 million to charities for superstorm Sandy relief and recovery efforts.

Non-profit officials say that's the largest outpouring of donations for any domestic disaster in the past five years. But it's only about one-third of what was raised in the first two weeks after Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast in 2005 and about half the donations made in the same amount of time following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Wanted: New nonprofit leaders in Rock River Valley - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

Wanted: New nonprofit leaders in Rock River Valley - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star: ROCKFORD — It’s time for nonprofit agencies in the Rock River Valley to recruit new leaders.

A wave of retirements that’s likely to continue as baby boomers age has a mix of six area nonprofit and government agencies searching for its next generation of directors.

Legal Expenses Are Mounting For Charities - TheNonProfitTimes

Legal Expenses Are Mounting For Charities - TheNonProfitTimes: The biggest drivers of legal expenses are usually employment issues, according to Cynthia Rowland of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass in San Francisco, Calif. Active charities with a lot of employees might typically be faced with higher legal expenses, she said. “Sometimes it’s not a lot if you have employment practices insurance, or you’ve got insurance for those unfortunate events,” said Rowland, but it can be the biggest area, even bigger than contract disputes.

A lot of organizations get pro bono legal help so it might appear that they don’t have legal expenses, Rowland said, particularly smaller, mid-sized community organizations. The really large national and international nonprofits usually don’t get pro bono legal help, she said, but most smaller, community-based organizations get free advice whenever they can, from friends of the organization who are lawyers, or board members. That also might be a strategy in board member recruitment.

What Comes After Cyber Monday? #Giving Tuesday | Millionaire Corner

What Comes After Cyber Monday? #Giving Tuesday | Millionaire Corner: “Giving Tuesday is intended to open the holiday season on a philanthropic note and put heart back into the holidays,” Sarah Renusch, of the global aid organization World Vision, said in a statement. “World Vision is encouraging Americans to dedicate this day to getting back to the true meaning of the holidays. It is about community, not commercialism, giving, not receiving.”

Philanthropy can work better by working smarter � Philanthropy North Carolina

Philanthropy can work better by working smarter � Philanthropy North Carolina: n addressing them, we are fortunate to be able to work through the philanthropic sector to pool resources and find shared solutions to problems that affect our entire community.

To do that, philanthropy itself needs to do a better job in putting its resources to work.

Marketing Without a Master - Morra Aarons-Mele - Harvard Business Review

Marketing Without a Master - Morra Aarons-Mele - Harvard Business Review: But right now, I'm working on a marketing campaign that knows no master, a ship without a captain. And it's exhilarating. Its logo will never win any design awards, and there are no brand guidelines, but somehow this idea has grown to over 1,000 volunteer partners in every state. It's called #GivingTuesday.

'#GivingTuesday' event aims to boost charities

'#GivingTuesday' event aims to boost charities: Now, a group of charities and corporate sponsors is urging Americans to make the Tuesday after Thanksgiving just as powerful a day of giving to those in need.

It's called #GivingTuesday, and organizers say it's gaining momentum as the holiday shopping season approaches.

Flea-market Renoir reignites tensions between museum and art donor’s descendants - The Washington Post

Flea-market Renoir reignites tensions between museum and art donor’s descendants - The Washington Post: ehind every museum’s art collection, behind every terse “Gift of” plaque on a museum wall, are the little-known, often fraught histories between museums and their donor families. On one hand, museums feel obligated to keep donor families happy so that other wealthy collectors might give but, on the other hand, feel entitled to exercise their curatorial judgment.

The New Model of Moves Management For Effective Fundraising

Moves Management White paper from Avectra. 

The New Model of Moves Management For Effective Fundraising

Develop More Engaged Donors By Incorporating Social Data To Build Relationships & Increase Involvement

Moves Management has been defined as “changing people’s attitudes so they want to give.” A successful moves management model is built on targeted, quantifiable actions that shift donors from a passive or one-time contribution to an active, ongoing relationship with the organization.

Shame on Livestrong Donors Who Want Their Money Back

Shame on Livestrong Donors Who Want Their Money Back: Lance Armstrong may or may not be a cheat in the cycling competition world, but he wasn’t cheating when he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation in 1997. As you read the foundation’s milestones, it is very clear that the nonprofit has accomplished a great deal in its history.

Exclusive: Livestrong cancer charity drops Lance Armstrong name from title | Reuters

Exclusive: Livestrong cancer charity drops Lance Armstrong name from title | Reuters: (Reuters) - The Lance Armstrong Foundation has formally dropped the name of the disgraced cyclist from its title, the organization said on Wednesday, marking the latest move by the cancer charity to distance itself following the biggest doping scandal in the sport's history.

New Effort Seeks to Steer Donors to High-Impact Charities - For Donors - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

New Effort Seeks to Steer Donors to High-Impact Charities - For Donors - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: As the year-end giving season gets under way, a new effort aims to steer more donations to nonprofits that can prove they get results and have a plan to expand to help more people.

The Social Impact 100 Index features high-performing nonprofits that focus on education, health, poverty alleviation, and youth development, bringing them together on a Web site that makes it easy for donors to learn more about the groups and to give.

How a Planning Committee Can Catapult Your Capital Campaign Forward

How a Planning Committee Can Catapult Your Capital Campaign Forward: A Short-Term Planning Committee Is the Answer

We find that many community leaders are quite willing to serve on a shorter-term planning committee to help organize the campaign and plan campaign strategy.

And once they are involved on the planning committee, they become much more interested and personally invested in the campaign's success.

Your campaign planning committee is distinct from your campaign steering committee. It gives you a unique opportunity to invite a few special people to help shape the campaign over a couple of short meetings without asking them to join a committee that will meet for the entire duration of the campaign.

8 Steps to Writing Successful Fundraising Appeals | npENGAGE

8 Steps to Writing Successful Fundraising Appeals | npENGAGE: No matter how digitally savvy you are, if you want to be successful in fundraising you need to come to grips with the fact that fundraising letters work.

At this point in the year, you should already have all your direct mail appeals at the mail house. (You do, don’t you?) Here are some tips to help you get ready for next year’s fundraising letters. It’s not too early to begin designing the package!

Deconstructing Philanthropy: Take a Sunday drive on the road to annual planning

Deconstructing Philanthropy: Take a Sunday drive on the road to annual planning: Think of your annual plan as your fundraising roadmap. Like a road trip, fundraising doesn’t just happen. It requires both a plan and a process to ensure milestones are set and achieved. It requires that you know where you’re going and how you intend to get there. These six questions are key to the planning process:

The AFP Blog: Happy National Philanthropy Day�!

The AFP Blog: Happy National Philanthropy Day�!: I want to celebrate National Philanthropy Day by talking a little about service. Each year, it’s my privilege to travel and share this day with many of you. Everywhere, I meet people from different backgrounds and nationalities, different ages, experience and outlook. All of us united and included in our community by one thing – our desire to serve.

Nonprofits to get a 1-day boost

Nonprofits to get a 1-day boost: The Georgia Center for Nonprofits is going to find out exactly that with the first-ever Georgia Gives Day this December.

The Georgia Center for Nonprofits is holding Georgia Gives Day on Dec. 6. The event is a 24-hour fundraising campaign for nonprofits that will take place Dec. 6, midnight to midnight.

18 Nonprofits Honored for Outstanding Taglines: 2012 Taggies | Nonprofit Marketing | Getting Attention

18 Nonprofits Honored for Outstanding Taglines: 2012 Taggies | Nonprofit Marketing | Getting Attention: The 18 winners, listed below, were selected by more than 3,300 voters from 63 nonprofit tagline finalists identified by our expert panel of judges. The finalists were drawn from 1,400 tagline entries.
The organizations behind the winning taglines range from the regional (Elder Services of Worcester Area, Inc.) to the national (Wounded Warrior Project) and global (The TARA Project).

Fidelity Charitable Offers 4 Strategies for Giving in Fluid Tax Environment

Fidelity Charitable Offers 4 Strategies for Giving in Fluid Tax Environment: Last week, Fidelity Charitable rolled out an online Giving & Taxes Center to help philanthropists find the best approaches to funding giving plans now and in the future.

The new tool offers four strategies to make the most of the 2012 tax environment and prepare for potential changes in 2013:

How to Turn Your Stakeholders into Fundraisers: Social Fundraising and How Measurement Can Make It More Effective - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly

How to Turn Your Stakeholders into Fundraisers: Social Fundraising and How Measurement Can Make It More Effective - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: When nonprofits marry tried-and-true fundraising techniques with social media, social fundraising is the result. Social fundraising is only a couple of years old and very much an emerging practice, but it has already shown tremendous power and promise in its ability to turn an organization’s stakeholders into fundraisers. With 90 percent of nonprofits having a presence on Facebook in 2011 and virtually all nonprofits having some presence in social media, best practices in social fundraising are evolving quickly as nonprofits use measurement to learn what works best.

Leaders Told To Chart Mission Delivery - TheNonProfitTimes

Leaders Told To Chart Mission Delivery - TheNonProfitTimes: Nonprofits were called upon to be the north star of change in the charitable universe and leaders should fix a point in time and space from which to chart their organizational course. The comment was made by Independent Sector President and CEO Diana Aviv during the organization’s annual conference, being held in San Francisco, Calif.

Aviv called on the more than 900 leaders assembled at the Union Square Hilton that managing data, investing in people and forging partnerships with other organizations will help to accomplish their goals.

To be a fundraiser isn’t a vocation–it’s a verdict. | AFP Greater Toronto Chapter Blog

To be a fundraiser isn’t a vocation–it’s a verdict. | AFP Greater Toronto Chapter Blog: Any vocation can be reduced to its mechanics. Some priests joke, rather darkly in my opinion, about hatching, matching and dispatching the members of their respective congregations over the course of their respective lifetimes. But they jest. They too, are about transformation.

To paraphrase another artist, there are two kinds of fundraisers: Those who like people, and those who don’t. A fundraiser who likes people (ideally employed at an organization that treats people accordingly) is about transformation. A fundraiser who doesn’t like people is focused narrowly on raising funds, having forgotten it (transformation) in people.

The AFP Blog: Thinking Bigger—and Beyond—the Charitable Tax Deduction

The AFP Blog: Thinking Bigger—and Beyond—the Charitable Tax Deduction: Thinking Bigger—and Beyond—the Charitable Tax Deduction
I'm in San Francisco at the Independent Sector conference listening to Jonathan Greenblatt, director of President Obama’s Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation; John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises and former assistant to President Bush; Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector; and Ralph Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Update: Charities Raise More Than $174-Million for Sandy Victims - Recovering From Sandy - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

Update: Charities Raise More Than $174-Million for Sandy Victims - Recovering From Sandy - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: As of Friday, charities have reported raising more than $174-million for relief and recovery efforts in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the New York and New Jersey region on October 30.

That’s more than the $136-million that U.S. charities had raised within 10 days of last year’s Japan tsunami and earthquake. But it’s dwarfed by the outpouring that followed the 2010 Haiti earthquake ($380-million 10 days after the event) and 2005′s Hurricane Katrina ($740-million nine days after the storm).

Red Cross pushes back on Sandy response, calls it 'near flawless' - U.S. News

Red Cross pushes back on Sandy response, calls it 'near flawless' - U.S. News: The American Red Cross, which bills itself as “the world's largest humanitarian network,” is pushing back against critics of its response to superstorm Sandy, with the head of the organization saying its relief effort has been “near flawless” despite criticism from stranded storm victims and elected officials.

Nonprofits get creative to reach donors | TBO.com

Nonprofits get creative to reach donors | TBO.com: MIAMI --

Feeding South Florida needed a fresh way to raise awareness about hunger. Enter the graffiti artists.

With a wall in the hip Wynwood neighborhood now devoted to the cause, the Pembroke Park-based organization has become a prime example of the lengths nonprofits are going to as need grows, traditional support shrinks and competition for dollars heats up.

Flexibility key for gift pledges in tough times � Philanthropy North Carolina

Flexibility key for gift pledges in tough times � Philanthropy North Carolina: Many gifts pledged to charities are falling short of what donors intended and charities expected as economic woes continue to change the conditions under which the gifts were made.

So donors and charities, often with the assistance of their lawyers or other intermediaries, increasingly are finding themselves negotiating over how to resolve their gift agreements.

Top 10 tips for nonprofit annual reports | Communicate and Howe!

Top 10 tips for nonprofit annual reports | Communicate and Howe!: hese organizations issued a 2012 edition of the Best Practices in Charity Annual Reporting. Since my last post continues to be widely read, I thought that I should take a look at their 2012 edition.

As I did last time, I will list each of the top ten tips recommended by the judges of the Voluntary Sector Reporting Awards. I will then comment on them from the perspective of a communications professional. My focus is to cover new ground and not repeat my comments in the last post.

Arts Branding Sucks. Here Are 4 Ways To Fix It | Co.Design: business innovation design

Arts Branding Sucks. Here Are 4 Ways To Fix It | Co.Design: business innovation design: Hollywood movies were as bland and formulaic as their posters, there’d be no point in going to see them. If the writers, directors, and performers on Broadway were as memorable as their publicity materials, their shows would be unwatchable.