March 29, 2010


  March 29, 2010
  

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U.S. Postal Service: Pay More, Get Less

A proposal to reduce mail delivery to five days a week took another step closer to reality, with a Web site announcing details coming soon. The United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors approved management’s request to move forward with its five-day delivery proposal and to file a request for an advisory opinion with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) tomorrow.

That comes on the heels of an announcement that the USPS will seek rate hikes for 2011.
A Web site to provide customers with the details of the proposal will include a special section telling business mailers how to manage a change in delivery. The site is http://www.usps.com/communications/five-daydelivery/

The five-day delivery proposal is part of a larger plan, “Delivering the Future,” announced March 2, which includes legislative and regulatory changes needed to give the Postal Service the flexibility to make necessary business decisions in a timely manner, including the prefunding of retiree health benefits, pricing and delivery frequency.

In a survey by The NonProfit Times last spring, nearly 88 percent of the 729 charity executives who responded said cutting Saturdays would hurt the organizations least, followed by Wednesday (5.3 percent) and Tuesday (4 percent). Nonprofit executives said cutting Monday delivery would hurt the most with 67.1 percent, followed by Friday (15.8 percent) and Tuesday (9.3 percent).

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Management …
Evaluation is not the enemy of efficiency

“Maybe if we were just left alone, we could do our jobs.”

That lament, heard often in many settings, has an element of truth to it, but sometimes activities that seem extraneous might really be part of the job.
So it is with evaluations.

Not many people like conducting evaluations, but well-conducted tire-kicking can be beneficial to almost any organization.

In their book “Evaluation in Organizations,” Darlene Russ-Eft and Hallie Preskill maintain that evaluations can pay big dividends, and that the resistance to evaluation that is common in the philanthropic sector could be based on erroneous assumptions about just what evaluation is, as well as about what it can do or is intended to do.
The following then are considerations offered by the authors about evaluation. Evaluation:

  • Is a systematic process, a planned and purposeful activity.
  • Is a mechanism for collecting data on questions or issues.
  • Is a process for enhancing knowledge and decision making.
  • Is a means of judging the evaluation’s merit, worth or value.
  • Is not the same is research.
  • Should be conducted with the intention of using the results.
  • Might be developmental, formative, summative or any combination of these.
  • Can be conducted by internal or external evaluators.

Planned Giving …
Eliminate “unproductive” donor segments

A lot of finding what you need is knowing where to look.

During the Direct Marketing Association 2010 Washington Nonprofit Conference, Steve Froehlich of the ASPCA outlined the success his organization had found by reviewing a segmentation strategy of eliminating “unproductive” segments. That strategy was improved the efficiently of individual mail campaigns by ignoring lower dollar and further lapsed donor segments, but it disproportionately excluded donors aged 70 and up who had been giving smaller gifts under $10. In other words, the organization was not talking to its best planned giving prospects about the ASPCA’s work.

Instead, the ASPCA identified older donors who are likely to consider leaving a charitable donation in their estate plans and to market the organization’s planned giving information while using basic reports to track the effectiveness of its efforts.

The organization increased the number of planned giving leads in 18 months. Froehlich outlined the “5 bucket strategy” the organization utilized.

  • Total donors in the last 0-24 months.
  • Need more donors 70 years of age and older.
  • Focus on converting older donors to be “active and committed.” This was defined as three or more gifts in 0-24 months.
  • Find donors interested in being planned giving Information Seekers.
  • Identify donors who have already listed the ASPCA in their estate plans.

Boards …
9 action steps for a dynamic board

Many nonprofit managers, beset with a mountain of issues even before they get to work, regard the board of directors as a necessary inconvenience.
The truth, however, is that a dynamic board can do wonders for the mission of an organization.

Speaking at the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy 43rd Annual International Conference, Jason Chandler of the Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation, June Bradham of Corporate Development and Greg Pope of the St. Thomas Health Services Foundation highlighted the importance of a good board, as well as the necessity of a board working well with paid staff.

Some considerations include:

  • The relationship of foundation board work and institutional priorities should be transparent, believable and aligned.
  • Board members give to organizations where their personal satisfaction is high and their respect for and like of the CEO is significant.
  • The satisfaction of the board is the responsibility of the CEO.

Further, they suggest that nonprofit managers take action steps by asking the following questions:

  • What is your relationship with the board?
  • Who is driving the case for support?
  • Are your board meetings coming early and staying late for meetings?
  • Do you watch for the gleam in the eye of potential board members? Are you looking in their eyes during recruitment?
  • Does each board meeting include meaty discussion? What about decision?
  • Is everything, really everything, open to the entire board?


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