NonProfit News That Matters
Welcome to our NonProfit News That Matters Blog. Here at Goettler Associates, we are continuously watching developments in the philanthropic marketplace, reviewing new research studies, reading trade publications, and scouring industry blogs. The quantity of available information is a little overwhelming at times, so we though we’d help our friends and colleagues along by sharing the NonProfit News That Matters most.
Let us know what you think, join the conversation.
Category: Fund Raising
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Category: Fund Raising
Professional fundraisers need to remember that Giving Makes People Happy. This is an informative and well researched post from Bloomerang that reminds us of how to best approach our work. Helping our colleagues, co-workers and board volunteers to adopt this philosophy will help them to share in the joy of successful fundraising done well.
Non...
Category: Fund Raising
50 Things You Can (Still) Do Before Year-End
In a FONK (Fear of Not Knowing) about your Covid-19 year-end fundraising? Here is a check list of 50 things you can still do before year-end (actually, it's more than 70) to make your year-end fundraising appeals more successful.
Lori Overmyer, Executive VP of GoettlerAssociates has developed a f...
Category: Fund Raising
Demonstrating our own advice to be nimble and adapt to the circumstances, we are sending our Tuesday blog on Wednesday of week 8. We thought it was best to steer clear of #GivingTuesdayNow.
Time to Reverse Engineer the Special Event
We hope you had great success with Giving Tuesday in May and tested some new strategies and ta...
Category: Fund Raising
Everyone is talking about the CARES Act and the deep and lasting impact of the corona virus on our lives and our economy. And rightfully so! But when we get back to raising money for our organizations we need to be equally aware of the impact of the SECURE Act. We all know that older donors are likely the best candidates for large major gifts, ...
Category: Fund Raising
It is the second day of week four of Covid-19 Fundraising, and this week we are inspired to adopt, adapt and improve. Like so many other regularly scheduled events, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) turned its 2020 Annual Conference into a VIRTUAL event, demonstrating the path for all of us to adopt, adapt and improve.
Yo...
Category: Fund Raising
Thanks to Penelope Burk for bravely jumping into this topic! Her thoughtful article reminds us to keep our focus on our donors and to be resolute in executing a specific plan that is right for our organization. Without this focus, it is difficult to resist the allure of national campaigns and promotions such as Giving Tuesday. Across the in...
Category: Fund Raising
Empowering others, establishing trust, learning from mistakes and setbacks, and having confidence in your team's abilities may seem like obvious methods of achieving results, but too often, leaders fail to put in the time it takes to cultivate a successful environment in the teams they lead. In a recent article by Christina Curtis, an executive c...
Category: Fund Raising
Here is a new take on composing a list of fundamental fundraising principles by UK's fundraising sage Ken Burnett at SOFII (showcase of fundraising innovation and inspiration). This list may be new to some, and strangely familiar to most here in the US. It provides a wonderful reminder of what it takes to realize the true fundraising potential...
Category: Fund Raising
The Special Event Fundraiser has long been a pet peeve of ours. It seems that every organization conducts their share of special events, unfortunately, too many seem to take on a life of their own and are now divorced from any rational strategy to truly advance the organization. The March issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy has some though...
Category: Fund Raising
The constantly evolving tools available to development professionals today are truly amazing. The pace of change is staggering. Are you old enough to remember what breakthrough technology used to look like, such as what the laser printer did for direct mail fundraising? This article (found in the Association of Fundraising Professional's eNew...
Category: Fund Raising
We have been watching the incredible growth of donor-advised funds, not only at your local community foundation but more significantly at investment firms like Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard. Donor-advised funds represented four of the top ten recipients on The 2014 Philanthropy 400. Lots of financial advisers are getting in on the game. This ...
Category: Fund Raising
We found this helpful article at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Of course any discussion about how charity boards work too often assumes that they are all alike, and that they should all operate in a similar manner. The truth of the matter is much more complicated. Some smaller nonprofit organizations struggle to secure adequate staffing an...
Category: Fund Raising
AFP News Release:
August 11, 2015
Fundraising Professionals Urge Candidate to Protect American Tradition of Philanthropy From Proposed Cap
(Arlington, VA.) – In response to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s college tuition plan, which would limit the value of the charitable deduction for gifts made by certain taxpayers, Andre...
Category: Fund Raising
This is a very thought provoking article from Chief Learning Officer. In many ways, descriptions of the new agile leader perfectly depict a successful nonprofit CEO or Executive Director. The successful nonprofit CEO has always been called upon to serve as a catalyst for constituents and donors; and, to be the architect that creates maximum va...
Category: Fund Raising
In some ways, development professionals and fundraisers can be their own worst enemy when it comes to communicating with board members and other decision makers outside of our profession. Too often we respond to seemingly simple questions with unapproachable jargon and overly complicated explanations. Penelope Burke has recently posted a direc...
Category: Fund Raising
Development Officers and Fundraisers are leaders. Whether or not your job title and description list leadership as a requirement within your organizations - rest assured that volunteers, donors and other colleagues look to you as a leader. That's why the headline of this article at the Harvard Business Review grabbed our interest. Upon consid...
Category: Fund Raising
The following post from the Independent Sector gives us all the current news on the IRA Charitable Rollover Deduction and developments of the 113th Congress, as well as an excellent toolkit to use in contacting your federal representatives encouraging the passage of this bill.
UPDATE: Congress restores giving incentives for 2014 tax year
The Se...
Category: Fund Raising
There has certainly been a lot of talk about the increase in giving to donor-advised funds, such as this article from the Investors Business Daily. We can't help but wonder what affect this might have for our communities in the future. At first glance, one would think that growth in giving is good news.
Is this growth in giving driven by ne...
Category: Fund Raising
What do donors want? Experienced fundraising professionals should be constantly asking themselves this question, and they should be earnestly working to learn the answer. Upon seeing this headline at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, our interest was immediate. It seems that so many articles these days address the emerging promise of increased r...
Category: Fund Raising
We were reminded of the essential advice of John D. Rockefeller on the technique of soliciting last week, while attending a conference and listening to a nationally renowned development expert. After reading Mr. Rockefeller's remarks again, we felt it appropriate to share these timeless words of advice from one of our country's most influential p...
Category: Fund Raising
We are pleased to see that the study of behavioral economics is picking up on the importance of "active involvement" to the success of private philanthropic organizations. This recent article in the New York Times presents a new twist on a basic tenant of major gift fundraising. The analogy of shareholders is also one that we have made in the...
Category: Fund Raising
The IRS has introduced a new process to apply for non-profit status, in what appears to be an attempt to relieve the backlog of new applications. The typical Form 1023 is one that requires a very significant amount of work and practically requires engaging specialized legal advice before an organization can hope to prevail in obtaining nonprofit ...
Category: Fund Raising
Just last week, a client told me that one of her volunteers said, "I never knew fundraising was going to be so much fun." That story made Arthur Brooks' piece in the Sunday New York Times all the more real. At times, it is hard for professional fundraisers to remember why we enjoy our work so much. Here is a nice reminder.
Why Fund...
Category: Fund Raising
If you like InfoGraphcs, Newtwork for Good has a great new post on their blog that presents a very compelling story for organizations to focus on their digital giving strategy and resources. Take a look, this might help a development officer make the case for investing additional resoruces . . .
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Category: Fund Raising
In our view, the most important point of this study is that maintaining a laser focus and investing in wealthy donors is worth the cost. This article at The Chronicle of Philanthropy on an AHP study caught our eye. At first glance, the idea that those organizations that spend more money raise more money doesn't seem to be such earth shattering ne...
Category: Fund Raising
This post could be listed as shock therapy for fundraisers. Mark Atkinson has posted a fictional letter from Mrs. D. Donor to her favorite charity describing her frustrations. As so many organizations race to the end of the year with a myriad of appeals, this blog post reminds us to work toward placing a greater value on the relationship betwe...
Category: Fund Raising
Fundraisers seeking to understand donors will find the following article from the New York Times of interest, and a call to work toward identifying the donor's perspective. This article also presents an interesting perspective of philanthropy from the financial adviser's view. When working to secure major gifts, the donor's financial adviser of...
Category: Fund Raising
At long last someone has the courage ask donors to stop focusing on overhead costs, and to say that it's okay for charities to have effective management and administration. No, 100% of your gift will not immediately go to feed the naked starving babies in the street. Some of your gift might actually be used to sustain an effective organization ...
Category: Fund Raising
When donors say No, is one of the time-tested metrics of a robust major gifts campaign. Too many clients and campaign directors will gleefully describe the progress of their campaign with that fact that no one has said 'No.' Wrong answer. If you haven't received 'No' you simply haven't asked enough.
This recent post caught our eye as an exce...
