March 9, 2011

Data Technician
Pasadena, CA
Russ Reid, the nation’s leading full service direct response agency serving nonprofits for over 40 years, seeks Data Technician to support the agency through the management of proprietary databases and to generate comprehensive reports using varied applications.

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Editor's Note:

The NTEN technology conference has sold out yet again. Roughly 2,000 of the smartest nonprofit technology wizards are gathering in Washington, D.C. for the annual event. You can still be there – digitally. What? You didn’t think they could figure out a way to do it? Go to www.nten.org for details.

Red Cross Tweeting Has A ‘Sheen' To It

By Samuel J. Fanburg

With seemingly the entire nation transfixed on the misadventures and public scorched earth policy of actor Charlie Sheen, the American Red Cross (ARC) has capitalized on his Internet meme of the Twitter hashtag #tigerblood, propelling the charity into the middle of the condemnation of the television star.

On March 2, the official Twitter account of the ARC tweeted, “We may not collect #tigerblood, but we know our donors & volunteers have a fierce passion for doing good! #RedCrossMonth.” Topping the trending topics section of Twitter, the tweet was quickly retweeted by more than 100 people and is now the third result when you click the hashtag “#tigerblood.”

“When we saw that #tigerblood was the top trend of the day on Twitter, we simply and spontaneously used the hashtag in a tweet thanking our blood donors,” said Wendy Harman director of social media at the ARC.

Grants …
Match criteria a vital element to applicantions

Although grants can appear to be a limitless source of funding just waiting to be tapped, the reality is that grant-making organizations receive huge numbers of requests and need to make tough decisions about where to distribute their help.

In her book “How to Say It: Grantwriting,” Deborah S. Koch recommends finding a grantmaker that is a good match for the project or organization requesting support. In fact, Koch reports that grantmakers consistently report that their rejection of a proposal comes because it is not a good match with their goals, preferences and limitations.

Koch further suggests conducting research on a grantmaker to learn about its preferences. Look at:

* Does a grantmaker fund what it says it does? Does it fund organizations or projects like ours?

* For small and local family foundations, do they only give their money to the same grantees each year or only to mainstream or big-name organizations?

* Where are organizations like ours getting funding from?

Once those questions are answered, Koch recommends seeking out the following match criteria:

* Is your organization an eligible applicant?

* Is your organization within the funder's preferred or restricted geographic area?

* Is your work in alignment with the funder's stated subject matter interests?

* If you are applying under a specific request for proposals (RFP), does the subject you propose respond to the specific issues the RFP addresses?

* Is the amount of money you seek appropriate for that funder?

* Do your organization's problem-solving approach and pont of view match the funder?

What would a murder mystery, soap opera or conniving-family comedy be without a will? It's all about that winning combination of motive, intrigue, money.

It might be a good plotline, but 50 percent of all people in the more than 50 percent of Americans do not have wills, and that includes the extremely wealthy.

That insight was offered by James R. Hackney Jr., managing partner of Alexander Haas, during Blackbaud's Conference for Nonprofits. Hackney was speaking about nonprofits and major gift donors, and he offered more interesting tidbits, such as the fact that only 4 percent of the U.S. population makes $100,000 or more a year and 48 percent of people worth $20 million did not make any charitable gifts last year.

Further, most mega-gifts are the donor's idea, the best chance is to keep the jet-rich involved, and the idea must be worth the funding.

Stewardship is important, so the ask should be face to face, with the right timing and the right person, asking for the right amount, but also listening, anticipating objections and following up. The essential keys to major gift success:

• Long-term investment in the process.

• Consistency and quality of activity.

• A personalized approach.

• Continual evaluation and fine-tuning.

• Sensitivity to a prospect's time needs.

The future of fundraising is on the Internet, unless it's in direct mail. That is, if it isn't in some other format.

One thing that is fairly safe to say is that multi-faceted approaches and flexible thinking will be big parts of the fundraising future. During a recent DMA Nonprofit Conference, representatives of the Save Darfur Coalition, A.B. Data, the National Wildlife Federation and ParadyszMatera discussed multi-channel marketing as an effective means of fundraising.

The panel offered several interesting and possibly challenging observations, some taken from individual fundraising campaigns and others from analysis across several efforts. Among the findings:

* Although some view email as the future of fundraising, direct mail donors are easier to stay connected with and some donors are still more inclined to give by mail rather than by email.

* The way people give and the solicitations they respond to are lifestyle issues, not age issues.

* Contrary to popular opinion, direct mail donors are not dying off quickly. A progressive donors survey conducted 12 years ago by A.B. Data showed that the average age of the direct mail donor was 65. Today it is 68. The percent of direct mail donors who were over 60 years old did not change in those 12 years.

* Direct mail donors are more discerning. They prefer more accountability, broader public education, keeping issues visible and financial transparency.

* Email donors are more impulsive givers.