Pride - Institute of Fundraising

Pride - Institute of Fundraising: I’m not a fundraiser. That’s important because, since 1993, I’ve served the fundraising profession. Why? Because fundraising is a key driver of the impact we have on society, on our environment, on the lives we touch. That’s the mission I’ve served for over 20 years – a critical part of who I am.

Candy Crush for change: could your charity create the next big app? | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional

Candy Crush for change: could your charity create the next big app? | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional: Candy Crush for change: could your charity create the next big app?
Charities are starting to be creative with apps. But, there's lots more to explore and a plethora of eager supporters and funders out there

• Five ways charities use gamification
• The top charities finding innovative ways of fundraising

Shuttering Orchestra’s Head Says Recent Profits a ‘Fluke’ – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Shuttering Orchestra’s Head Says Recent Profits a ‘Fluke’ – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Shuttering Orchestra’s Head Says Recent Profits a ‘Fluke’

The executive director of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra says the organization remains in dire financial straits and will close as planned after the forthcoming season, despite ending two of the past three years in the black, the Green Bay Press-Gazette writes.

The Blackbaud Index: Charitable Giving to Nonprofits Increased 0.9% in May | Blackbaud News

The Blackbaud Index: Charitable Giving to Nonprofits Increased 0.9% in May | Blackbaud News: The Blackbaud Index today reported that overall charitable giving to nonprofits increased 0.9% and online giving increased 8.1% for the three months ending May 2014 as compared to the same period in 2013.

As reported in the recently released Charitable Giving Report, overall charitable giving grew 4.9% and online giving grew 13.5% for the full year 2013 compared to the full year 2012. Visit the interactive infographic to view highlights from the report.

Starting a Charitable Organization

Starting a Charitable Organization: There are so many for-profit startups that have completely exploded over the last five years – particularly in the tech and social media worlds. But there are also plenty of nonprofit startups that have had great success. And they’ve all made sure to dot their i’s and cross their t’s. (This article profiles a couple of really great ones.)

There are a few things that are incredibly important to do when starting a charitable organization, but are also incredibly easy to forget. Check them out and get them done:

Question to nonprofits: Who do you think you are? | Opinion Columns | The Olympian

Question to nonprofits: Who do you think you are? | Opinion Columns | The Olympian: In the nonprofit world, this is not always the case. Nonprofits often exist long past the point of losing sight of their original purpose.

This is why I was taken aback a few weeks ago when I read an email from Bread & Roses that said they were closing for the month of August to reconsider their mission and purpose and to think strategically about their role in the community. (SideWalk volunteers work with the women who live at Bread & Roses to help them find more permanent housing.)

Donor advised fund donors seen as involved, strategic, loyal � Philanthropy North Carolina

Donor advised fund donors seen as involved, strategic, loyal � Philanthropy North Carolina: Over half the donors at Vanguard Charitable use a donor advised fund for most of their giving, nearly three in four are involved with the charities they support, and nearly all recommend grants to the same charity more than once, a new report says.

And over three in five are strategic about their philanthropy when giving with a donor advised fund, says “An Inside Look: 15,330 donors who are giving to charity with a donor-advised fund.”

Collaboration and Beyond

Collaboration and Beyond: Collaboration and Beyond
Written on June 30, 2014 by Creating the Future in Collaboration and Cooperation, Foundations

What does it take to build real collaborations, where trust and exploration and learning together lead to pooling resources to make great things happen?

These 3 foundation leaders spent time with Creating the Future’s founder, Hildy Gottlieb, to share their thinking about the factors that lead to collaboration, and ultimately, to making a bigger difference in our communities.

Bogied Prizes: Hole-in-One Can Be Expensive | The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Bogied Prizes: Hole-in-One Can Be Expensive | The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: Charity golf tournaments are big fundraisers for nonprofits. Golf was used as a vehicle to drive $3.9 billion to charity in 2011, according to a study by the National Golf Association. Everhart estimates it will grow to $4 billion by 2015.

A hole-in-one prize is usually used to draw more participants into a charity golf tournament. It’s often a big-ticket item, such as a luxury car. “The people who want to be visible to this audience will do so by putting up a high-value prize,” said Everhart. “Those prizes are offered to add excitement and conversation to the golf tournament. It increases the participation, which benefits the charity through greater participation.”

Robert Wood Johnson Reshapes Approach to Health Philanthropy – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Robert Wood Johnson Reshapes Approach to Health Philanthropy – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation unveiled a major shift last week that will see the nation’s biggest health-centered philanthropy change focus from specific problems such as smoking and obesity to an ambitious effort to promote a “culture of health,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Theatre at the Center unveils fundraising strategies : Munster Community News

Theatre at the Center unveils fundraising strategies : Munster Community News: Theatre at the Center is planning a new subscription and fundraising campaign to support performances as part of its 25th anniversary.

Richard Friedman, Theatre at the Center general manager, recently addressed the Munster Town Council, announcing the upcoming campaign for activities at The Center for Visual and Perfor

Skilled Volunteers do it for free

Skilled Volunteers do it for free: In particular, he argues that young people entering the work place are now evaluating the contribution organisations make in the communities they serve. In what he describes as the Maslow Millennial effect he says that ‘while many generations have sought out purpose, Millennials make it a greater priority than ever before in everything from their consumption to their work to their communities to their relationships1.’

Recent research by Demos backs this up. 77% of young people believed it was essential to be satisfied with the ethical record of their employer.2 For BT in their recent partnership with Sports Relief in 2012, 99% of employees believed volunteering was a good use of their time and 94% said they were proud to work for BT.3

Philanthropy conference is ‘eye-opener’ for international attendees: Adventist News Network

Philanthropy conference is ‘eye-opener’ for international attendees: Adventist News Network: The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s world headquarters sponsored several international scholarships to a philanthropy conference in an effort to promote the profession’s best practices in more denominational institutions.

Headquarters contributed $15,000 for a dozen international attendees to participate in this year’s PSI Conference on Philanthropy, which is being held June 24 to 27 in Baltimore, Maryland. Nearly 350 fundraisers and nonprofit leaders are in attendance.

Red Cross Says Hurricane Sandy Fundraising is ‘Trade Secret’ – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Red Cross Says Hurricane Sandy Fundraising is ‘Trade Secret’ – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Red Cross is fighting a public records request filed by ProPublica to disclose how it raised and spent $300-million in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the investigative news organization reports.

The Red Cross gave some information about its Sandy-related activities to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, but has resisted publicly releasing details, arguing that they are a “trade secret.”

[INFOGRAPHIC] 2nd-Half of the Year Fundraising Advice

[INFOGRAPHIC] 2nd-Half of the Year Fundraising Advice: Can you believe that 2014 is almost halfway over? How would you assess the year so far? Are you exceeding your fundraising goals, or do you find yourself falling short?

We recently asked a few of our friends – Ryan Woroniecki, Anne Davis East, Erica Waasdorp, Rachel Muir, Marc Pitman, Pamela Altmeyer Alvey, Tina Cincotti and Mally Vu – what folks should concentrate on in the second half of the year. Here’s what they said!

Bush Foundation charts new course – again | Star Tribune

Bush Foundation charts new course – again | Star Tribune: The Bush Foundation, one of the state’s largest charitable givers, is once more helping nonprofits, both large and small

With A Boost From Bill Gates, Vietnam's Entrepreneurs Put Profits Into Philanthropy

With A Boost From Bill Gates, Vietnam's Entrepreneurs Put Profits Into Philanthropy: Sharing is not a strange idea for ordinary Vietnamese, but big-scale altruism is rare so far, given that serious wealth accumulation started in Vietnam only in the past two decades. Le–who holds interests in real estate development, golf courses and mining–belongs to the first generation of entrepreneurs who started businesses after the Vietnam War. He survived the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and began giving money to various charities and causes a decade ago. Now nearing age 70, he’s considering whether to devote most of his time to philanthropy.

For Hong Kong's Nellie Fong, Charity Begins Aboard A Train

For Hong Kong's Nellie Fong, Charity Begins Aboard A Train: Fong’s goal is to reduce blindness among the poorest of the poor in China. In 1997 she started Lifeline Express EXPR 0.85%, eye hospitals on trains that travel to the most far-flung corners of China to provide free cataract operations. Doctors have performed more than 150,000 operations on the trains, while the organization also has opened 36 cataract clinics for walk-in patients, 15 ophthalmology training centers in remote villages and 80 centers for taking the exams to become an ophthalmologist. It’s brought the latest technology to rural villages, disbursed medical scholarships for overseas studies and persuaded hundreds of top doctors from around th

Oliphant elected chair of the board of directors of the Center for Effective Philanthropy - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Oliphant elected chair of the board of directors of the Center for Effective Philanthropy - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Grant Oliphant, president of the Downtown-based Heinz Endowments, has been elected chair of the board of directors of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, effective Jan. 1, 2015.

The center is a nonprofit that provides data, research and programming to philanthropies. It has offices in Cambridge, Mass., and San Francisco.

Philanthropy Watchdog Examines The California Endowment and Daniels Fund on New Crowdsourcing Website -- WASHINGTON, June 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

PRESS RELEASE

Philanthropy Watchdog Examines The California Endowment and Daniels Fund on New Crowdsourcing Website -- WASHINGTON, June 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --: Today, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) unveiled the latest pair of foundation assessments for Philamplify, a new project aimed at bursting the isolation bubble in philanthropy by delivering honest feedback to grantmakers. The new reports, assessing Los Angeles' The California Endowment and Denver's Daniels Fund, are the second set of Philamplify assessments since the project launched in May.

Is The Donor Pyramid Really Dead? An Open Letter to Claire Axelrad from Andrea Kihlstedt | GuideStar Blog

Is The Donor Pyramid Really Dead? An Open Letter to Claire Axelrad from Andrea Kihlstedt | GuideStar Blog: Is The Donor Pyramid Really Dead? An Open Letter to Claire Axelrad from Andrea Kihlstedt
June 25, 2014 � by Courtney Cherico � in Nonprofit Leadership and Practice. �

Inspired by her recent posts on the death of the Donor Pyramid in Fundraising Success Magazine and Maximize Social Business Blog

The Arts Index from Americans for the Arts | Local Arts Index

The Arts Index from Americans for the Arts | Local Arts Index: he LAI provides a set of measures to understand the breadth, depth and character of the cultural life of a community. It provides a framework for relating arts and culture to community priorities and aspirations. Those community priorities may range from economic development and revitalization through jobs or infrastructure, or to youth, education or health concerns. As we know, most American communities regularly struggle with all of these challenges. The LAI can serve as a tool to frame questions about the roles or arts and culture in pursuing these priorities and aspirations, as well as show where a community may stand in relation to national norms.

The Local Arts Index was developed in partnership with arts leadership organizations in over 100 communities and is comprised of a variety of indicators to understand who we are as a community and how that manifests itself through cultural activities and participation.

Can philanthropy make good television? | Deseret News

Can philanthropy make good television? | Deseret News: How to share that with the 60 percent of Americans who don't have a passport or the means to travel? The natural solution for Sawalich, who has a background in entertainment and his own production company, was to form a crew and bring cameras along. That's the concept behind "Operation Change," a 10-part series created by Sawalich that premiered Monday on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Weaving Nonprofit Capacity Building Into Philanthropy: An Interview with Kathy Reich | Social Velocity

Weaving Nonprofit Capacity Building Into Philanthropy: An Interview with Kathy Reich | Social Velocity: In today’s Social Velocity interview, I’m talking with Kathy Reich, Director of Organizational Effectiveness Grantmaking at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Kathy leads a cross-cutting program to help grantees around the world improve their strategy, leadership, and impact. Her team makes grants on a broad range of organizational development issues, from business planning to social media st

Aviation Museum Inks Deal to Save ‘Rosie the Riveter’ Plant – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Aviation Museum Inks Deal to Save ‘Rosie the Riveter’ Plant – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Yankee Air Museum in Michigan has signed an agreement to purchase a portion of a historic former factory associated with the “Rosie the Riveter” army of women who built bombers during World War II, The Ann Arbor News and the Associated Press report.

Gaming Can Mean Big Revenue, Little Profit for Jewish Groups – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Gaming Can Mean Big Revenue, Little Profit for Jewish Groups – Philanthropy Today - Blogs - The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Several Jewish charities have reported losing money on bingo and poker fundraising in recent years despite taking in millions of dollars in revenue on the games, according to The Jewish Daily Forward.

Volunteerism up at United Way, down in U.S. � Philanthropy North Carolina

Volunteerism up at United Way, down in U.S. � Philanthropy North Carolina: The rate of volunteerism has grown at local United Ways in the U.S. but dropped in the U.S. overall, a new report from United Way Worldwide says.

Most volunteers are not volunteering for work likely to make the most impact in addressing priority community needs, says Volunteering: The Force Multiplier for Community Change.

PTA Thrift Shop grows, plans nonprofit center � Philanthropy North Carolina

PTA Thrift Shop grows, plans nonprofit center � Philanthropy North Carolina: ARRBORO, N.C. — Since it was created in 1952 to help generate funds for arts education in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the PTA Thrift Shop has raised and donated an estimated $7 million to $8 million to local schools.

In December, it opened a new 14,000-square-foot flagship store in a 22,000-square-foot facility it built at 125 West Main St. in Carrboro to replace a smaller building built in the 1940s as a grocery store.

Is it time for churches to go high-tech with the offering plate?

Is it time for churches to go high-tech with the offering plate?: "One of the phenomena that we've seen is that there's been a shift to people giving online," he reports.

Among charities that work with Dunham and Company, as many as 50 percent of people who receive fundraising mailings still go online to make their contribution.

Pittsburgh Suburb Tries to Restrict Door-to-Door Solicitors - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly

Pittsburgh Suburb Tries to Restrict Door-to-Door Solicitors - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly: Don’t knock on doors in Baldwin, Pennsylvania to solicit money for a nonprofit unless you’re carrying your registration. Stephanie Hacke reports for the Tribune-Review that Baldwin has passed an ordinance requiring members of nonprofit, religious, and charitable organizations to register with the Baldwin police before they solicit for anything on a door-to-door basis.