The Third Sector

Nonprofit Sector Solid Employer Over Last Ten Years

2012-01-23T16:29:00.002Z

Surprising information coming out of a study featured in the Nonprofit Quarterly stating that the Nonprofit Sector retained and even created jobs over the last ten years. This includes the recession where the sector held the line while for profits were shedding jobs at a dramatic rate.
Les surprisingly, the study points out there are increasing threats to the sector as government looks to permanently outsource services and for profits look to compete with nonprofits for market share. The study was recently released by the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Civil Society Studies . Read the full article here.

Nonprofit Startup 101 Workshop January 20th at UNF

2012-01-06T17:24:00.001Z

Motivated to start a nonprofit? Get the facts on how to get a North Florida organization up and running at our two hour workshop on January 20th at the UNF SBDC! This workshop will take you through the many types of nonprofits you can form and how they work. Emphasis is places on the many things you must know to be compliant to local, state and federal regulations. Most of the discussion will focus on tax-exempt 501(c)3 organizations. There is room for a maximum of 12 participants so act quickly. Friday, January 20th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. $40.
Click HERE for more information or register by calling 904-620-2476

Measuring Nonprofit Performance

2011-12-15T15:12:00.000Z

Nice article from the Harvard Business School regarding the pressure nonprofits are under to show quantifiable results from their programming. The article discusses new measures and accountability and can be read here.

Dolores Barr Weaver: Her Philanthropy Won't Go Away

2011-11-30T23:04:00.000Z

Dolores Barr Weaver made it clear today that despite the selling of the Jaguars she intends to continue her involvement in charities in Jacksonville. She is an admirable woman and a key player in supporting philanthropy in Jacksonville. Her message comes at a time of uncertainty in Jacksonville and she deserves a lot of credit for making the community know she and Wayne are still interested in making Jacksonville a better place to live. Read the T-U article here.

Nonprofit Loss Prevevention Awareness

2011-10-27T01:38:00.000+01:00

The State Attorney's Office in Duval County is hosting an informational forum Thursday morning for nonprofit organizations with a focus on loss prevention awareness.

Nancy Todd will serve as the key-note speaker. Todd is a senior program manager, tax law specialist and instructor for the IRS. Other representatives from the State Attorney's Office and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office will also speak.

The forum is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to Noon in the 15th floor of the Duval County Courthouse Annex at 220 East Bay St. (From the Florida Times Union)

1st Annual UNF Nonprofit Conference Very Successful

2011-09-30T21:21:00.000+01:00

Over 80 nonprofits from Northeast Florida attended the very first UNF Nonprofit Conference on September 23rd, 2011. The attendees were treated to a keynote address in the morning by Audrey Moran, who gave a us a look at the sector and how an organization can not just endure, but grow and thrive in uncertain times. A wide array of breakout sessions were provided on topics like nonprofit collaboration, nonprofit social media, social entrepreneurship and strategic planning. UNF's Kevin Monahan facilitated a wrap up best practices panel with Rena coughlin of the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, Jim Clark from Daniel and Brooks Biagini from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Special thanks to the UNF Masters of Public Administration program for co-sponsoring this event with the UNF SBDC.

Nonprofit Startup Today!

2011-08-18T16:21:00.000+01:00

We will be facilitating Nonprofit Startup 101, Thursday, August 18th from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. It is right in our office! The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida ‐ begin with an understanding of why you may or may not want to start a nonprofit organization and what opportunities may be available to you!

Workshop! Getting Ready to Fundraise Sponsored by the Nonprofit Center

2011-08-04T21:14:00.000+01:00

Getting Ready to Fundraise

9:00AM-4:00PM 9/15/2011

Jacksonville Golf and Country Club

Successful nonprofits understand they must lay the proper groundwork long before they ask for a donation. Please join the Nonprofit Center and fundraising expert Terri Chastain for a day-long interactive workshop that will help you build relationships necessary for successful fundraising. Beginning with an overview of fundraising, attendees will participate in exercises and learn how to create a budget and evaluation of the programs in which they deliver. This workshop is well worth the time, whether you are a beginning, intermediate or advanced level fundraiser. We are excited to offer this workshop for a fraction of the cost compared to similar workshops priced well over $300 per person. Spots are limited; register today!

Getting Ready to Fundraise Workshop Costs:

Nonprofit Center Member Rate $100

($100 for first participant; $80 for each additional participant per organization)

Non-Member $150

AFP Member $115

Early Bird Nonprofit Center Member $80

Early Bird Non-Member $130

Early Bird AFP Member $105

*See additional discounted rates below if participants attend both workshops.

Fees include: Lunch, program materials, parking, beverages and afternoon snacks

Discounted Rates for Attending Both Fundraising Workshops:

Nonprofit Center Member Rate $180

Non-Member Rate $260

AFP Reduced Rate $220

To secure Early Bird rates, reservations must be made and paid in full no later than August 15. No refunds will be given, but participants can use registration fees as credit toward future Nonprofit Center events. Please send check payment to 1301 Riverplace Blvd, Suite 301, Jacksonville, Florida 32207. Online payment is also available at the Nonprofit Center’s website- http://www.nonprofitctr.org/, the click on Donate.

Hosted by The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida

Contact: Leah Kremp 904.390.3222, lkremp@nonprofitctr.org or Kim Govan 904.390.4017

3985 Hunt Club Road

Ball Room A

Jacksonville, FL 32224

Two Nonprofit Workshops for the Price of One! 6/17/11 Find a Better Deal!

2011-06-01T02:49:00.000+01:00

Purchase two Non-Profit workshops for the price of one! With a $40 registration fee, attendees will enjoy a continental breakfast and participate in both non-profit workshops.

9:30am-11:30am--"Business Continuity Planning for Non-Profits: Beyond Disaster Preparedness"--This two-hour roundtable discussion will enhance your knowledge of business continuity planning and serve as a reminder of how critical it is to sustain your organization. Business continuity planning can help your non-profit fulfill compliance requirements, reduce exposure to civil or criminal liability, and enhance your image and credibility with key stakeholders.

1:00pm - 4:00pm--"NonProfit Fundraising"--A Feasibility & Planning Study provides you with the data and tools you need to raise funds by exploring both internal and external issues, including organizational capacity and capabilities, public perception, and sources and levels of financial support.

Dates/Locations

June 17th, 2011 - 09:30 am to 04:00 pm

UNF University Center

Building 43

12000 Alumni Dr.

Jacksonville, FL 32224

Cost

$40.00

Registration

Pre-registration is required
Or call: 620-2476

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Nonprofit Startup! Tonight May 24th!

2011-05-24T19:44:00.000+01:00

We will be facilitating Nonprofit Startup 101, Tuesday the 24th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. $25 at our office! The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida ‐ begin with an understanding of why you may or may not want to start a nonprofit organization and what opportunities may be available to you!

Call 620-2476 or visit our website to register here.

Grantwriting Workshop for Nonprofits April 25th at UNF SBDC

2011-04-18T14:52:00.000+01:00

Grant Writing for Nonprofits

At the core of every successful grant proposal is
the Case for Support. It is the Value Proposition
being presented to funders to show they should
invest in a program or project. This workshop is a
hands‐on, writing exercise to develop that Value
Proposition, and market it to the funding sources
most likely to make the investment.

Dates/Locations

Jacksonville
April 25th, 2011 - 06:00 pm to 09:00 pm
UNF University Center 12000 Alumni Dr. Jacksonville, FL 32224

Cost

$40.00 for single workshops
$30.00 each if you purchase 3 or more

Registration

Pre-registration is required. Call us at 904-620-2476 or register online.

Jacksonville Axemen Rugby Helping 50 Nonprofits

2011-03-25T13:43:00.000Z

Non-profit? The very popularJacksonville Axemen Rugby team is offering the first 50 Jacksonville Area Charities who contact them a "Season Ticket and T-shirt" prize pack to use at fund-raising events. Go to their website for details.

Nonprofit Business Planning Offered at UNF March 14th!

2011-03-07T18:38:00.000Z

March 14th, 2011 - 09:00 am to 12:00 pm
UNF University Center 12000 Alumni Dr. Jacksonville, FL 32224

Only $40

Learn how to create a great business plan for your organization. Attendees will receive a business plan template and get a better understanding on how to make their nonprofit model work.

A business plan is often prepared when:

Starting a new organization, business venture, or product (service) or
Expanding, acquiring or improving any of the above.

There are numerous benefits of doing a business plan, including:

To identify an problems in your plans before you implement those plans.
To get the commitment and participation of those who will implement the plans, which leads to better results.
To establish a roadmap to compare results as the venture proceeds from paper to reality.
To achieve greater profitability in your organization, products and services -- all with less work.
To obtain financing from investors and funders.
To minimize your risk of failure.
To update your plans and operations in a changing world.
To clarify and synchronize your goals and strategies.

For these reasons, the planning process often is as useful as the business plan document itself.

( Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC and Rolfe Larson, Rolfe Larson Associates.)

Nonprofits are increasingly motivated to use business planning tools and models to communicate their visions and their “value added” to funders, investors, clients and the community. Whether you have plans for a revenue-generating social venture, or simply want to analyze and communicate your goals through a business development lens, this introductory workshop will highlight the critical elements and best practices in business planning for nonprofit organizations.

For more information and to register, go HERE

Nonprofit Startup 101 at UNF Small Business Development Center

2011-01-31T19:21:00.000Z

The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida ‐ begin with an understanding of why you may or may not want to start a nonprofit organization and what opportunities may be available to you. Learn how to apply for 501(c)3 status and move your mission forward!

Dates/Locations

February 15th, 2011 - 11:30 am to 01:00 pm
Class is held in the UNF SBDC Conference Room on the second floor. LIMITED SEATING. Feel free to bring a lunch if you wish, or cookies!

Cost $25.00

Registration: 904-620-2476 or HERE

Computer needed for St. Johns River City Band

2011-01-09T23:25:00.001Z

The St. Johns River City Band is in need of a new computer for headquarters operations. The computer will be utilized to assist in financial management, payroll, fundraising, community friendraising, grantwriting and compliance. While it is desirable to purchase a new desktop with contributed funds through WeGive.org., a donated computer would also be considered.

Contact Bob Stone, Board President at 904-354-4162 x-108 or bobstoneevents@aol.com

Quickbooks for Nonprofits January 27th 1 - 4 p.m.

2011-01-05T20:21:00.000Z

This highly interactive, hands-on QuickBooks for Nonprofit Organizations workshop, you will learn how to maximize this software in your non-profit organization. New users will become confident in using QuickBooks and existing users will discover new tips and advice to move their use to the next level. This hands-on class will help you meet the needs of management, boards of directors, and grantors. Handle your grants and contracts, manage proposals, track funding sources, record in-kind transactions, reconcile bank statements, budgets, and more.

This course is taught assuming participants have a basic understanding of bookkeeping terms and practices and are currently using or intend to use QuickBooks Financial Software.

Dates/Locations

January 27th, 2011 - 01:00 pm to 04:00 pm
UNF University Center
12000 Alumni Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32224

Cost

$60.00

Call 904-620-2476 to register! Limited space in computer lab!

Nonprofit workshops announced for 2011

2010-12-21T15:24:00.001Z

The Small Business Development Center at UNF has assisted thousands of potential and existing business owners by providing the management advice, training and information they need to start, grow, and profit.

This experience and knowledge can be utilized by nonprofits to help their organizations manage more efficiently, find funding, and create more awareness. By learning the methods a small business may use, nonprofits can grow and prosper.

All classes will be facilitated by qualified instructors from the SBDC at UNF, public sector organizations, and other experts in their field.

These knowledgeable instructors are well versed and have experience working in the nonprofit sector. They will share insight and information on topics crucial to the success of any nonprofit organization.

Nonprofit Startup 101 (Mini-workshop)

The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida ‐ begin with an understanding of why you may or may not want to start a nonprofit organization and what opportunities may be available to you.

Dates/Locations

February 15th, 2011 - 11:30 am to 01:00 pm

Class is held in the SBDC conference Room on the second floor

May 24th, 2011 - 06:00 pm to 07:30 pm

Class is held in the SBDC conference Room on the second floor

August 18th, 2011 - 11:30 am to 01:00 pm

Class is held in the SBDC conference Room on the second floor

Cost

$25.00

Registration: call 904-620-2476 or click the link below.

Pre-registration is required

Fundraising for Nonprofits

A Feasibility & Planning Study provides you with the

data and tools you need to raise funds by exploring

both internal and external issues, including organizational

capacity and capabilities, public perception,

and sources and levels of financial support.

This workshop will teach you what questions

to ask, who to ask, and how to analyze the

results.

Dates/Locations

Jacksonville

June 17th, 2011 - 01:00 pm to 04:00 pm

UNF University Center 12000 Alumni Dr. Jacksonville, FL 32224

QuickBooks for Nonprofits

Participants will learn how to maximize QuickBooks software in their non-profit organization. New users will become confident in using QuickBooks and existing users will discover new tips and advice to move their use to the next level. This hands-on class will help you meet the needs of management, boards of directors, and grantors. Handle your grants and contracts, manage proposals, track funding sources, record in-kind transactions, reconcile bank statements, budgets, and more.

Dates/Locations

January 27th, 2011 - 01:00 pm to 04:00 pm

UNF University Center

12000 Alumni Drive

Jacksonville, FL 32224

Registration: 904-620-2476 or at the link below

Pre-registration is required

Business Planning for Nonprofits

Nonprofits are increasingly motivated to use business planning tools and models to communicate their visions and their “value added” to funders, investors, clients and the community. Whether you have plans for a revenue-generating social venture, or simply want to analyze and communicate your goals through a business development lens, this introductory workshop will highlight the critical elements and best practices in business planning for nonprofit organizations.

Dates/Locations

Jacksonville

March 14th, 2011 - 09:00 am to 12:00 pm

UNF University Center 12000 Alumni Dr. Jacksonville, FL 32224

Grant Writing for Nonprofits

At the core of every successful grant proposal is

the Case for Support. It is the Value Proposition

being presented to funders to show they should

invest in a program or project. This workshop is a

hands‐on, writing exercise to develop that Value

Proposition, and market it to the funding sources

most likely to make the investment.

Dates/Locations

Jacksonville

April 26th, 2011 - 06:00 pm to 09:00 pm

UNF University Center 12000 Alumni Dr. Jacksonville, FL 32224

Cost

$40.00 for single workshops

$30.00 each if you purchase 4 or more

Registration: 904-620-2476 or through the link below

Pre-registration is required

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Lots of nonprofit workshops planned for 2011

2010-12-01T02:01:00.000Z

At the Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida, we love working with nonprofit clients.They are an indespensible sector of our economy. Joseph Fedorowsky may have said it best: "Without nonprofit organizations there would be fewer programs for us to share and learn, places for our children to visit or places for seniors to socialize or get support. For some people, volunteering their services makes them proud and useful; it provides them a chance to get out of the house and into the community. Then there are people who are fighting for a cause and know without the additional funds they wouldn’t be able to continue with needed services in a particular community."

We are about to announce our schedule of nonprofit workshops facititated by some of the best nonprofit minds in Jacksonville. Workshops will be somewhat chronological starting with nonprofit Quickbooks,startup, nonprofit business planning, fundraising and culminating in a Northeast Florida Nonprofit Conference in September! Stay tuned!

Nonprofit Employee Theft

2010-08-02T15:23:00.005+01:00

Timely article about theft at local nonprofits in today's Times-Union. Dana Treen makes the point that nonprofits must keep a better watch on their funds and the staff that manages them.

Nonprofits that show they are poor stewards of money are at risk of losing funding from government, corporations and discretionary donors. Tarnished reputations are all the more perilous in a tight funding environment like the one we find ourselves in right now.

Nonprofit employees frequently get paid less than for profit counterparts, and in this economy, the temptation can be great. For profits have had trouble preventing employees theft, but can keep any occurrences quiet. Nonprofit theft is always a big story and media attention is certain. Creating accountability, good monitoring and layeringed spending approvals can help nonprofits make themselves theft proof.

Once again, funders should be more flexible in allowing more administrative costs to be covered in grant funding. It takes money to be compliant.

IRS Offers One-Time Special Filing Relief Program for Small Charities

2010-08-02T15:06:00.003+01:00

Thousands of small nonprofits in Florida risk losing their federal tax-exempt status. With a deadline already passed once before, The IRS has given an extension until October 15th to file a 990 form. This is likely the last reprieve Internal Revenue Service will provide.

The affected organizations are small non-profits — those with annual revenues of less than $25,000. Until a few years ago, small nonprofits didn't need to file any annual reports with the IRS. But legislation has since been put into the books requiring all nonprofits to file an annual tax return.

The main purpose of the returns is to provide basic financial data about non-profits to potential donors and the general public. The IRS is also supposed to review the forms to make sure organizations are complying with federal tax law, although it actually examines fewer than 1 percent of the nearly 2 million filed annually.

Any non-profit organization that fails to file for three consecutive years loses its tax exemption.

If you need help, contact the UNF Small Business Development Center at 904-620-2476

The Nonprofit Center’s Give and Go! program offers Jaguars fans an opportunity to give to local nonprofits.

2010-07-19T14:05:00.000+01:00

ACT NOW before the general ticket sale opens in August to confirm your seats and support a local nonprofit!

Football fans with a philanthropic desire can now take in a Jacksonville Jaguars football game and financially support their favorite nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida simply by purchasing the most economical tickets in the city.

The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and WeGive.org have partnered to help Northeast Florida nonprofit organizations raise funds through the sale of Jaguars football tickets. The partnership is called "Give and Go!"

Local nonprofits will be selling Jaguars tickets ranging from $40-$50, and for every ticket sold through the organization’s website, up to $20 will be donated back to that organization. The partnership provides football fans an opportunity to support their Jaguars team and their favorite nonprofit organization. General sale of Jaguars tickets will not be available until August, making Give and Go! the ideal opportunity to secure the most economical tickets to some of the season’s best match-ups.

Visit www.nonprofitctr.org and click on the Give and Go! badge to select your favorite nonprofit and your seats. Purchasing a ticket through the Give and Go! program on a participating nonprofit organization’s website will automatically donate $10 to that organization. Also, if that same organization has a project listing on WeGive.org, the donation will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling the impact of the Give and Go! program.

Fans who purchase tickets through the Give and Go! program are eligible for a tax deduction of $10 per ticket. For the first 2,000 tickets sold through the program, an anonymous donor has agreed to contribute an additional $10 to the participating organization. Tickets purchased at least 4 business days before the selected home game will be mailed to purchasers. All other tickets will be available at Will Call for pickup the day of the game.

For more information, contact the Nonprofit Center at 904.390.4007 or visit www.nonprofitctr.org and click on the Give and Go! badge.

Fundraising workshop offered

2010-07-12T21:11:00.003+01:00

Major Gift Fundraising - First Step to Success

Where will your nonprofit funding come from in the future? It's not enough to simply identify funding sources, you have to know they are interested in, and capable of, providing funds for your programs and initiatives. Direct, face-to-face encounters with prospective funders will give you valuable information you need before you ask for their support. A Feasibility & Planning Study provides you with the data and tools you need to successfully raise funds for your organization.

Learn what questions to ask, who to ask, and how to analyze the results. A proper Study will explore both internal and external issues, including organizational capacity and capabilities, public perception, and sources and levels of financial support. You will know who makes the decisions, how long the decision process takes, how much you should ask for, and the likelihood of getting what you ask for. This workshop teaches you how to design and conduct a comprehensive assessment and analysis of your potential funding sources.

Dates/Locations

Jacksonville
July 16th, 2010 - 09:00 am to 12:00 pm UNF University Center on the UNF campus
REGISTER: 904-620-2476

Future Nonprofit Leaders Graduate from HandsOn Jacksonville Program

2010-06-28T17:54:00.009+01:00

The 2010 HandsOn Jacksonville Blueprint for Leadership group graduated June 16 at The University Club. It is the 21st class to have completed the Blueprint for Leadership program. Lynn Mora, Blueprint for Leadership director, and Judith A.M. Smith, president and CEO of HandsOn Jacksonville, hosted the graduation.

Each year, the Blueprint for Leadership class develops a service project. This year, the members chose a renovation project at MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation. They transformed the Teen Room at the center as well as the outdoor courtyard.

They painted the Teen Room walls and donated new furniture and decorative items to make the room an inviting place for teens to gather. They also laid sod in the outdoor courtyard and planted shrubbery to give the space a more defined look. They then hosted an open house to showcase the center to the local community. Additionally, they raised $2,000, which they presented to the MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation.

The graduating 2010 Blueprint for Leadership members are Glenell Aucoin, STANDUP For Kids; Lee Bremer, Wachovia Bank, A Wells Fargo Company; Todney Bynes, CTI Resource Management Services; T.J. Cole, student at Florida State College at Jacksonville; Audra Craig-Walker, Everest University; Leah Donelan, Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida; Nancy Federico, Deutsche Bank; Thomas Flowers, University of Phoenix; Maria Giampaglia, Citi Cards; Gary Goldberg, Harden & Associates; Jay Howanitz, Spohrer & Dodd P.L; LaTonya Lockhart, HandsOn Jacksonville; Kevin Monahan, University of North Florida; Ray Oliver, Citi Cards; Harnish Parikh, Prudential; Nisa Roberts, The Jacksonville Bank; Trina Banks Session, HandsOn Jacksonville; Michael Skowfoe, Wells Fargo; Jessica Smith, Auto Body Speed Shop USA; Michele Snow, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office; Chester Spellman, Project S.O.S. Inc.; Dave Strupp, Jax Nonprofit News Group Inc.: and Corvus Whitaker, Operation New Hope.

University of Phoenix was the host site sponsor for this year’s group and Fazzini’s Coffee & Tea sponsored refreshments. Citi provided a scholarship donation. Donations for the project at MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation were made by Alpha Landscaping, Blue Fish Restaurant and Oyster Bar, Lacy Boswell, Bushor’s Tree Surgeons,Inc., Casbah Café, Chew Restaurant, Chey Corporation, Citi, Citi employees, Roger J. Dodd Lawyers PC, Annelies Dygraff, Marsha Hatcher, Jay Howanitz, The Jacksonville Bank, Lowe’s, Matthew’s Restaurant, Pastiche, Spohrer & Dodd P.L., Sunbelt Rentals and The Wells & Drew Companies.

For more than 20 years, HandsOn Jacksonville has mobilized, equipped and deployed leaders as interns on area nonprofit boards. Blueprint for Leadership was launched in 1988 as Project Blueprint in response to a Kellogg Foundation study which indicated a disparity between the percentage of income given by minorities to nonprofit organizations and the representation of minorities on governing boards of the same organizations.

“Project Blueprint” was created by HandsOn Jacksonville to identify, recruit, train and place minorities on nonprofit boards. The program experienced success and in 1997, HandsOn Jacksonville broadened the mission locally and it became known as Blueprint for Leadership. Since the program’s inception in 1988, more than 800 people have graduated from Blueprint for Leadership and have interned on more than 50 local nonprofit boards of directors.

Nonprofit Fundraising Class Offered

2010-06-28T14:49:00.003+01:00

Our next nonprofit workshop on July 16th is entitled "Major Gift Fundraising." Call us at 620-2476 to register.

As a nonprofit, it's not enough to simply identify funding sources, you have to know they are interested in, and capable of, providing funds for your programs and initiatives. Direct, face-to-face encounters with prospective funders will give you valuable information you need before you ask for their support. This workshop teaches you how to design and conduct a comprehensive assessment and analysis of your potential funding sources.

How to start a nonprofit

2010-05-12T21:46:00.002+01:00

The Small Business Development Center will offer a workshop by Kevin Monahan titled “Starting A Successful Nonprofit” from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, May 21, in the University Center.

The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida, including the pros and cons of starting a nonprofit organization and available opportunities. The cost is $50 per person. For more information contact Marice Hague at mailto:mhague@unf.edu or ext. 2476, or visit the SBDC Web site at http://www.sbdc.unf.edu.

Writing a letter of intent for grant funding.

2010-05-03T20:16:00.002+01:00

We found out this morning about a great grant opportunity to do nonprofit capacity building, but we were going to miss our deadline to send a letter of intent to the funder. That sent us scrambling to get one out immediately. The letter of intent is an introductory letter letting the funder know some baseline things about your organization and demonstrates that you have the qualifications and eligibility to apply for funding.

Odds are you have material you have written before that can be used in writing the letter. If you have created a grant proposal for something similar to what you are proposing now, you may find some very good verbiage there. There is a nice ten step guide to writing letters of intent on E-How.

Free Microsoft Templates for nonprofit use

2010-05-03T20:02:00.004+01:00

Just in case you did not know, the Microsoft Templates website has 34 templates that nonprofits can take advantage of. They include templates for raffle tickets, a walk-a-thon fundraisers form, silent auction bid sheets and posters, and even a charitable contributions database using Microsoft Access. All are easily downloadable into the appropriate Microsoft Office format it was created with. To access the templates go here.

Jacksonville Area Nonprofit Workshops Offered

2010-05-03T16:58:00.001+01:00

Starting A Successful Nonprofit
May 21
9:00 am to 12:00 pm

The process of transforming your idea into an operating organization can be complicated. This workshop will provide the information you need to start a nonprofit organization in Northeast Florida - begin with an understanding of why you may or may not want to start a nonprofit organization and what opportunities may be available to you.

Major Gift Fundraising - First Step to Success
July 16
9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Where will your funding come from in the future? It's not enough to simply identify funding sources, you have to know they are interested in, and capable of, providing funds for your programs and initiatives. Direct, face-to-face encounters with prospective funders will give you valuable information you need before you ask for their support. A Feasibility & Planning Study provides you with the data and tools you need to successfully raise funds for your organization. Learn what questions to ask, who to ask, and how to analyze the results. A proper Study will explore both internal and external issues, including organizational capacity and capabilities, public perception, and sources and levels of financial support. You will know who makes the decisions, how long the decision process takes, how much you should ask for, and the likelihood of getting what you ask for. This workshop teaches you how to design and conduct a comprehensive assessment and analysis of your potential funding sources.

Nonprofit Strategic Planning
September 17
9:00 am to 12:00 pm

This session is for nonprofit directors, key management, and board members eager to create a mission-fulfilling roadmap that inspires the team, community, and potential funders. Explore the fundamentals of strategic planning, organizational identity statements, and go through a process to define an agency’s competitive advantage in the “marketplace” and help identify Critical Success Factors.

Campaign Planning
November 5
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
There are four steps to successful fundraising - plan, plan, plan, ask. This workshop will take you through the process of planning for a successful fundraising campaign. Based upon Feasibility Study findings, you can develop a comprehensive strategy that focuses on: What you are raising funds for (specific details, including an expense budget); Who will be leading this effort (securing credible leadership with the integrity, affluence and influence to raise funds); When the campaign starts and finishes (timing is critical); Where the financial support will come from (individuals, foundations, corporations, public sector investors); How Much you expect to raise (this also determines how much you ask from each prospective investor); and How (the specific details that are unique to each organization and campaign).

All workshops will be held at the UNF University Center on the UNF campus. For more information or to register call 904-620-2476 or go to www.sbdc.unf.edu

Free clinics on their way out?

2010-03-29T16:38:00.004+01:00

Interesting article on from the Nonprofit Quarterly about the impact changes in our health care system will have on free clinics. Some believe that with the advent of vouchers, free clinics will not be a necessity. Many experts argue that in the long term, free clinics will be needed to plug holes in the system. Most free clinics are nonprofits. According to the National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC), there are about 1200 of these organizations operating in the U.S today.

Nonprofits are jumping into Facebook

2010-02-15T20:22:00.004Z

Bakersfield.com just posted an article talking about the many California nonprofits who are using Facebook to inform and update stakeholders and potential supporters about their organizations activities. Read the article here.

The UNF SBDC has been encouraging our local nonprofits to get on the social networking bandwagon for some time. Our January 22nd workshop on social networking pointed out the opportunities for tremendous community exposure at a very low cost and time commitment.

Facebook is particularly useful as it has a lot of posting flexibility and gives you an opportunity to host a fan page as well. Posting on Facebook should be done by someone in the organization who is willing to maintain the persona of a professional working for that organization. An example of that would be one of our staff here who's Facebook personal page is presented as an employee of the UNF SBDC. He engages in community activities and talks about his friends and relatives but also intermingles postings and links projecting a positive image of the UNF SBDC. Fan pages can and should be updated frequently. If your organization has a blog, it can be set so that each posting automatically displays on the nonprofits fan page as well.

Facebook even has a page dedicated to nonprofits to help them take advantage of their site.

You can write about clients, grants or new programs,supporters,sponsors, your service niche, staff, board members etc. The possibilities are endless.

For more information on utilizing Facebook, check out this section of TechSoup called Using Facebook for Your Nonprofit.

Nonprofit Social Networking January 22!

2010-01-04T20:56:00.003Z

At the UNF Small Business Development Center, for profits have been coming in to learn more about social media as they it is and effective way to get their message across without spending much more than a little time.

As budgets for nonprofits get smaller, more organizations are turning to using online social networking as an essential part of their marketing strategy. Nonprofits can use online social media as an inexpensive way to build relationships, increase involvement, and help out with publicity and education efforts. Tell your story and reach a bigger audience by learning to use the latest social media tools effectively!

January 22nd

9 a.m.-12 p.m.

UNF University Center

$50 per person

Registration: 904-620-2476

or by visiting our website.

Nonprofit Executive Directors: Overpaid?

2009-10-19T16:38:00.004+01:00

Interesting article about nonprofit salaries today in the Charlotte Observer. We have touched on the subject of nonprofit executive director salaries before and it continues to be a hot topic. Some say you must pay top dollar to get the best candidate while others see high salaries as poor stewardship of hard won donor support dollars.

The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle and you have to take all of this on a case by case basis. Some national nonprofits have a large and complex operation with all of the intricacies of a major corporation. Other smaller nonprofits have the capability to pay only one staff person who must do the work of many.

The problem is one of perception. There comes a point where the salary of the executive director smacks you right in the face when you look at the organizations IRS 990. At some point people are going to believe their donor dollars are better spent somewhere else.

There are many, many nonprofits who have a highly paid executive director and poorly paid staff that scrape to get by. This not only affects perception by some donors, but long term can undermine morale as the disparity in wages gets greater and greater over time.

Some believe that executive stay with an organization far too long and that their salaries get burdensome due to their longevity.

Boards have a responsibility to not only be good stewards in selecting and paying executive directors, they need to make sure all staff are adequately compensated for their work. Since the executive director represents all staff to the board, there is a danger of a disconnect where staff salaries come in second to the executive directors priorities. (which is sometimes themselves). The board must hold the executive director accountable and dig a little deeper to ensure the organization is functioning, competent and balanced.

Tought Times for Nonprofits:Time to Reinvent Ourselves?

2009-10-06T13:16:00.007+01:00

Nonprofits have really taken a hit during the recession with a big drop in donations, an inability to keep programs running, greater demand for services and fewer grant opportunities. A recent Associated Press article points out just how desperate the situation has become.

In Jacksonville, it is believed that the nonprofit sector will be the last to recover from our down economy. Nonprofit payrolls have been reduced by necessity, and there is a collision among nonprofits all over town trying to get donations from the same people. Nonprofits are going to have to reinvent themselves just like many small businesses are doing in order to sustain themselves and be able the make the most of our climb out of this recession. Here is an article on how some Tampa/St. Pete nonprofits are doing just that.

Nonprofits: Many Got Burned Playing Finance Game

2009-09-28T15:56:00.004+01:00

Many nonprofits took advantage of tax exempt bonds to expand facilities and fund endowments in recent years. According to a recent article in the New York Times, There were many nonprofits earning a 25% return prior to the bottom falling out of the economy. Now they have a far smaller return, but the same expenses. According to the article, "Those struggling now include the full range of nonprofits, including museums, colleges, orchestras and small local social service providers. struggling now include the full range of nonprofits, including museums, colleges, orchestras and small local social service providers."

Read the article: Nonprofits Paying Price for Gamble on Finances.

Nonprofit Workshop:Grantwriting

2009-09-02T20:21:00.003+01:00

Grant Proposals – Making the Case for Funding

At the core of every successful grant proposal is the Case for Support, or Business Case. At its heart, it is the Value Proposition being presented to funders --- why should you invest in this program or project.

This 3-hour workshop is a hands-on, writing exercise to develop that Value Proposition, and market it to the funding sources most likely to make the investment.

Topic areas will include program/project design, budget, developing the “story” and marketing the proposal.

Date
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Location
UNF University Center
12000 Alumni Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32224

Cost
$50 per person

Registration
Pre-registration is required.

To register by phone, call (904) 620-2476

Nonprofit Grant Proposals: Making the Case for Funding

2009-08-21T19:45:00.007+01:00

A new workshop offered to the nonprofit community by the Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida.

At the core of every successful grant proposal is the Case for Support, or Business Case. At its heart, it is the Value Proposition being presented to funders -- why should you invest in this program or project.

This three hour workshop is a hands-on, writing exercise to develop that Value Proposition, and market it to the funding sources most likely to make the investment.

Topic areas will include:

· program/project design

· budget, developing the “story”

· marketing the proposal.

This workshop is for nonprofit organizations either starting or existing.

Pre-registration is required.

Date: Friday, September 11, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Location: UNF University Center,12000 Alumni Drive, Jacksonville, FL

Cost: $50 per person

Registration: www.sbdc.unf.edu

(904) 620-2476.

Developing a Learning Culture in Nonprofit Organizations

2009-07-04T13:53:00.006+01:00

John Baldoni via Bloomberg.com, interviews Steven Gill who has written a book that talks about establishing a learning culture in organizations. The book addresses the following important questions.

How can today’s nonprofits demonstrate effective use of funds?

How can they motivate employees and volunteers and combat burnout and high turnover?

How can they ensure that they are performing in accordance with their mission and purpose?

What Nonprofits Teach Us About Learning

The recession that has staggered the world economy has leveled the nonprofit world. Endowments have lost significant value, and donations from corporations and private citizens have dwindled. But dealing with hard times is nothing new to many in the nonprofit sector. Well-run nonprofits know how to be frugal as well as creative in how they work with limited resources.

A core competency of the nonprofit world is people, men and women who are committed to a cause who know how to get effective results. A virtue of effective nonprofits is their culture; it extends beyond a gathering of like-minded people who want to do good; it is a generative culture that focuses on learning.

Recently I asked Stephen Gill, a colleague and consultant who has worked a good part of his career with the nonprofit sector, three questions about the value of creating a learning culture. This is a topic that Steve has written about in his newest book, Developing a Learning Culture in Nonprofit Organizations.

Organizations are cutting resources and headcount. Why is it important for an organization to create a learning culture?

"It is precisely because they are cutting resources and headcount that organizations, nonprofit and for-profit, must find ways to be more efficient and effective with what they have... To maximize productivity they need to be continuously learning. They must learn what they should be doing, how they can do it better, and how they will know when they have achieved the results they want...This means making information feedback, reflection, and knowledge-sharing part of the way they function on a day-to-day basis... Doing more of the same, even if slightly better, is not the answer."

What can the for-profit world learn from the nonprofit world about establishing a learning culture?

"Nonprofits tend to be values-driven. They are concerned about the beliefs and motivations of their employees. This means that these organizations ask themselves questions such as: Are we doing what we ought to be doing in the way we ought to be doing it? What's the impact on our communities and is that the kind of impact we want? Are our actions aligned with our values? In a learning culture, these questions are asked constantly. For-profit organizations should be asking these questions more often. They would have greater employee satisfaction and engagement and they would be better corporate citizens."

What is a key take away from your book that has relevance to a manager seeking to navigate hard times?

"This is no time to do nothing about improvement. Even when the economy turns around, it is no time to be doing business as usual. Rapid change will continue and unless organizations are continuously learning they will not be able to sustain themselves. They need feedback and they need to reflect on that feedback and turn that learning into action. What better time than now? A no-growth mode gives managers the time and rationale to focus the organization on the collective discovery, sharing, and application of new knowledge. This is critical for emerging from hard times and managing the economic upturn that is inevitable."

Fundamental to a learning culture is measuring impact, something in which Gill specializes. He has spent a good part of his long career helping organizations assess their learning and measure the effectiveness of their training programs. One evaluation tool included in his book features three essential questions that would be useful for any executive to use when gauging the effectiveness of any project. The questions are: one, what issues do we still have; two, how can we strengthen our organization based on what we know; and three, what challenges lie ahead. Answers to such questions can lead to honest evaluation of progress.

Next generation organizations will continue to evolve in response to the dynamic nature of bringing people together to work. Central to future success will depend on how well the organization can adapt and innovate. Those competencies will depend on creating a learning culture.

Nonprofits may see longer downturn

2009-06-30T02:21:00.009+01:00

Tom Parsons, writing for the Associated Press features Ruth McCambridge of Nonprofit Quarterly magazine. She believes that nonprofits are in for a longer than usual downturn if they are reliant on foundations for funding.

Once again, we recommend that nonprofits embrace revenue diversification. That is, not reliant on any one funding source, but embracing a spectrum of support besides grants, that includes discretionary donors, sponsorships, endowments and event fundraising.

Nonprofit expert sees longer-than-usual downturn

Charities tightening their belts because of the recession should gird themselves for a longer-than-usual downturn, the editor of Nonprofit Quarterly magazine said Friday.

Ruth McCambridge said the asset bases of foundations that provide much of the charitable giving in the country have fallen drastically, and grants from those groups have declined accordingly.

"And many foundations are planning to give less next year than this year," said McCambridge, who spent 35 years working at nonprofits before taking the helm of the quarterly in 1999.

Still, there are many creative ways "to help us get through this period," she told an audience at the Clinton School for Public Service that included many staff for nonprofit Arkansas agencies.

She recalled working at a women's shelter in Lawrence, Kan., as federal grants began to dry up in the early 1980s during the Reagan administration. The shelter got a notice that a grant providing 90 percent of the organization's budget would be discontinued in six months, she said.

The shelter staff and board - many of them volunteers - worked hard to expand the number of people involved with the organization and do more fundraising, McCambridge said.

"In the end, we had our budget covered locally, and we had been given a new shelter house," she said.

According to McCambridge, in nonprofits' drive toward professionalism, "we have forgotten that these people who are at our door every day are big assets."

Asked if organizations should consider dipping into reserves they have built up over the years, she said a lot depends on a group's particular situation. But if an agency's board decides that the rainy day has come, it shouldn't be done without an eye to the future, McCambridge said.

"You have to have a plan of what it's going to take to get through a period when you're using your reserves," and how to rebuild them, she said.

Philanthropy 101: students learn the science of giving

2009-06-27T19:27:00.004+01:00

Tracy Jan of the Boston Globe writes about college courses enabling students to understand the mechanics of philanthropy through group research and giving.

For philanthropy courses, students become the givers

College students, many of whom spend the little extra cash they have on pizza and laundry, don’t fit the typical profile of a wealthy benefactor. But in a growing national movement, students enrolled in newly created philanthropy courses are steering thousands of dollars to local charities.

At Tufts University, students decided this spring to give $1,500 to expand English courses to immigrant parents in Medford. Northeastern University students donated about $2,500 to a Boston after-school program promoting cross-cultural tolerance through cooking. And students at Boston University distributed $7,500 to help local at-risk teens land jobs in the financial sector.

At least 10 New England colleges, including Brandeis, Holy Cross, Boston College, Wheelock, and Lesley, will offer similar courses next school year, using seed money donated by corporate and family foundations. In the classes, students draw up mission statements for makeshift foundations, research nonprofits in their communities, and decide how to allocate the pot of money.

The goal, say professors and donors, is to build upon surging interest in social responsibility among college students and make philanthropy part of the mainstream curriculum. A potential side benefit: helping colleges improve town-gown relations and, some professors said, cultivate future alumni donors.

“Some of these kids will become very wealthy in the future,’’ said Paul Schervish, a sociology professor and director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, who will soon begin teaching experiential philanthropy classes. “The professors see that this is a way to teach financial morality in the realm of philanthropy.’’

But teaching students how to give away money responsibly is more complicated than one would think, said academic leaders who gathered recently at Brandeis’s Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy for the first national conference on teaching philanthropy. The Waltham college started a “practicing philanthropy’’ course this spring for graduate students and plans to create a similar course for undergraduates next spring.

Students spent about two months debating their priorities, ultimately narrowing their focus to organizations committed to economic development, and early childhood education. Their task: find worthy recipients of a $40,000 donation from the Sillerman family.

“At first everyone thought, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be easy. We have money to give away,’ ’’ said Charley Francis, a 26-year-old master’s student in public policy. “But the fact that we’re giving away real money adds a real seriousness to it. It’s not just an academic exercise.’’

Francis and his classmates drew up criteria on which they would evaluate the nonprofits, conducted interviews and site visits, and combed through financial statements, ultimately awarding four local charities each $10,000.

Two national foundations interested in promoting the teaching of philanthropy on college campuses began donating money for the courses across the country in recent years. The Sunshine Lady Foundation, established by Doris Buffett, sister of famed investor Warren Buffett, has given colleges $10,000 a year to disburse since 2003. The foundation’s Learning By Giving program will double next year to include 15 colleges across the country, including Tufts and Holy Cross.

The foundation has ramped up its efforts this year because there are greater unmet needs of all types because of state budget cuts, said Alex Buffett Rozek, director of Learning By Giving, and grandson of Doris Buffett. Undergraduate business students, who may wind up working for large corporations with charitable trusts, should learn to look critically at the needs and to assess how money is to be spent in the most effective way, he said.

“There needs to be better awareness of how to distribute these scarce resources more effectively, and do due diligence on how the money is actually used,’’ Rozek said. “It’s not just writing a check and saying, ‘Put my name on this building.’ ’’

The recent efforts on college campuses also build upon donations by Fidelity Investments, which in 2007 teamed with Campus Compact - a coalition of more than 1,100 colleges working to build civic engagement into academic life - to give schools one-time grants of $15,000. Fifteen colleges, including BU and Northeastern, participate.

In addition to just giving money away, the classes have inspired some students to choose careers in the nonprofit sector. At Tufts, where classes have disbursed $30,000 in the past three years, students learn to be grant writers and discerning grant makers. Those skills helped Laura McNulty land a job at the Somerville office of National Student Partnerships.

McNulty, who graduated in 2008 with degrees in community health and Spanish, had written a grant for the organization during a philanthropy class her senior year. Her class awarded $2,500 to the national nonprofit, which organizes student volunteers in antipoverty work.

“The hands-on experience of writing a grant, evaluating a grant, and then giving real money away made the whole class feel like it had a tangible purpose,’’ said McNulty, 22. “It made students feel more accountable for the work they were doing.’’

Her grant-writing experience and knowledge of what foundations look for when making funding decisions was invaluable in helping her secure a $10,000 grant to start her own nonprofit, Health Horizons International, McNulty said. She will move to the Dominican Republic this fall to help connect volunteer doctors on medical missions with community health initiatives in the Caribbean nation.

Students at other schools have taken what they’ve learned in the classes and spread the philanthropy movement campuswide. Northeastern students started an extracurricular club last fall that operates as a de facto board of directors charged with overseeing, and growing, the pot of money students disburse through the philanthropy classes.

Missy Elumba, a health sciences major and ice hockey player who founded the club, also started a spinoff for NU student athletes. The group granted about $8,000 to local youth sports organizations, including helping bring tennis to impoverished Boston elementary schools.

“The class inspired me to make a difference and build something that could go on year after year,’’ said Elumba, who graduated last month.

“In the future, these student athletes could go on to be professional athletes and make money with philanthropy instilled in them.’’

Nonprofit Brands Ranked

2009-06-27T13:57:00.006+01:00

Interesting article about national nonprofit branding. As highlighted by Stephanie Strom of the New York Times, the top ten came out as follows:

YMCA

Salvation Army

United Way of America

American Red Cross

Goodwill Industries

Catholic Charities

Habitat for Humanity

American Cancer Society

ARC of the United States

Boys and Girls Clubs

According to the study, few nonprofits question the benefits a strong brand can have for their organizations, yet some are not leveraging their hard-earned halo by translating it into bottom-line benefits.

The American Lung Association, Special Olympics, The Humane Society of the United States and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America all earned image scores in the top fifth of the list; however, their brand value fell sharply because revenue did not perform at the same level. The result is some of America’s most beloved nonprofit brands may be leaving millions of dollars in unrealized income on the table.

We wonder what the most recognized nonprofit brands are in Northeast Florida?

An Analysis Ranks Brands of Nonprofits

The Y.M.C.A. has the most valuable brand in the nonprofit field, according to an analysis by two marketing companies.

The second-most-valuable brand belongs to the Salvation Army, followed by the United Way of America.

The analysis, by the marketing firm Cone LLC and Intangible Business, a British brand-valuation company, used financial data, projected growth in revenues and a survey of 1,000 Americans to determine the top 100 most valuable nonprofit brand names among organizations providing social, environmental and animal-related services.

“We hope to show what a powerful asset a brand can be to a nonprofit, if it is leveraged properly,” said Alison DaSilva, executive vice president of Cone.

Nonprofits like the United Way and the American Red Cross, whose name was the fourth most valuable on Cone’s list, have made efforts to value their brand names in the past, but the new analysis appears to be the first that applies the same method of measuring that value across many different nonprofits.

The list is likely to interest companies as well as nonprofits and donors, Ms. DaSilva said. Businesses support nonprofits as a way of enhancing their own brands, and nonprofits with the best brand names will have a greater halo effect.

The analysis spotted some interesting things. Environmental groups are the darlings of donors right now and their revenues are among the fastest growing in the sector — but their brand names scored lower values in the Cone research.

“They have spent a lot of time raising awareness of the issues through things like calls to action — put a brick in your toilet, turn out the lights — but not for their brands,” Ms. DaSilva said.

Conversely, she said, the Make-A-Wish Foundation enjoys widespread recognition, but its revenues do not reflect that. “They can capitalize on the brand recognition to increase revenues,” Ms. DaSilva said.

Social Networking Explained! Get Great at New Media Networking!

2009-06-25T07:15:00.000+01:00

Jack and the Social Media Beanstalk

10 Magic Beans to Enhance Your Business

Learn about:

Social networking
Create a brand in the new media
Acquire the tools to stay ahead of the ever-changing web

When you embrace Social Media you have to learn how to plant your magic beans and watch your business grow!

Details
June 26 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
University Club
1301 Riverplace Blvd., Jacksonville, FL

Advanced Purchase Pricing:
$160 for a Corporate Table of 8
$25 per person / $20 for University Club Members
*Advanced purchases must be made by June 23rd

Continental Breakfast is included
Each attendee will receive a free E-Book of the presentation

For more information or to register http://www.newmediajax.eventbrite.com or call 904.240.4910

Presented by CIME4,NewMediaJax and the

Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida

Are Charities Really Public Money?

2009-06-24T13:55:00.003+01:00

John Tyler, secretary and general counsel of the Kauffman Foundation, and Evelyn Brody of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, have collaborated on a monograph titled "How Public Is Private Philanthropy?" Contrary to the popular assumption that governments should exercise tighter control over philanthropy because philanthropic assets are "public money," the authors argue that legal precedents treat charities as private entities with private assets.

Nonprofits Seeking Wealth Management Help More Often

2009-06-19T00:08:00.008+01:00

Shelly Banjo writes in this Wall Street Journal article about a new trend where more nonprofits are seeking professional investing advice to preserve their reserves. One might think this is adding kerosene to a fire, but as stewards of their mission, nonprofits must do what is seen as proactive in preserving precious program dollars. Nonprofits should follow guidelines in selecting a wealth manager.

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT:

Charities Turn To Wealth Managers

Wealth managers are seeing increased interest from charities and private foundations that, hit by endowment declines and shaken by prominent fraud cases, are seeking more professional help with investment decisions and due diligence.

Large financial companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) have long served these clients, but say more organizations are turning to them for help.

JPMorgan recently launched the JP Morgan Foundation Research and Investing Center, a group of investment, client, family wealth, philanthropic and tax professionals who meet at least monthly to manage foundation clients' assets and coordinate grant-making execution and tax and administrative services. JPMorgan manages more than $18.3 billion in assets for charitable organizations and works with 60 client foundations.

Based on research and historical analysis of foundation performance and the markets, the center launched a new investment strategy. "Our new approach focuses on a more complete diversification of a portfolio," said Tony Werley, managing director and global head of portfolio construction at JPMorgan. He said it depends less on equities and includes alternative investments and fixed income.

In 2008, foundation assets nationwide dropped about 22%, or almost $150 billion, from a year earlier, according to the Foundation Center, a nonprofit research firm in New York. Squeezed for cash, many foundations were forced to sell assets into a falling market to fund grants and operations. Nearly 150 foundations including the Picower Foundation of Palm Beach, Fla., and the Chais Family Foundation in Encino, Calif., lost millions of dollars due to the Bernard Madoff scandal.

As a direct result, investment-manager turnover could reach historic highs over the course of the next 12 months, according to a survey out Monday by Greenwich Associates, a Stamford, Conn., institutional financial-services research firm.

Two-thirds of U.S. institutions plan to hire a new investment manager in the next year and almost 30% of endowments and foundations plan to fire a manager, the report said.

This is an opportunity for investment managers who can answer to "increased demands for greater transparency, due-diligence practices and demonstrate that appropriate risk controls [are] in place," said Chris McNickle, a managing director at Greenwich Associates.

New Legal Structures Facilitate Social Impact

2009-06-16T20:48:00.005+01:00

John Tozzi, who writes for BusinessWeek points out an emerging trend where some nonprofits are turning into for profits to grow through investment, while many for profits are beginning to look like nonprofits when they place mission over money. The once black and white realm of business entities is turning grey.

Turning Nonprofits into For-Profits

New hybrid corporate structures allow nonprofits to accept private investment without diluting their missions

The nonprofit Bikestation reached a crossroads in late 2007. Founded in Long Beach, Calif., in 1996 to design, build, and manage bike transit centers, the 10-employee organization couldn't handle all the calls coming in on its $300,000 budget, funded mostly through earned income. With little grant funding available, the board determined that the best way to meet demand was to raise money from private investors—which meant turning Bikestation into a for-profit social venture. "We just didn't have the resources to expand the mission and the vision further," says Andréa White-Kjoss, who joined the nonprofit as CEO in 2004.

Social enterprises like Bikestation often don't fit neatly into existing ownership structures. Those that register as nonprofits have trouble tapping private capital to expand, while for-profit companies risk compromising their missions because they must put shareholders' returns first. But growing interest in hybrid business models has spurred recent efforts at the state level to create new corporate structures that allow entrepreneurs to integrate nonfinancial goals into for-profit businesses. "The intentions of entrepreneurs and investors have evolved over time to include a desire to create social value as well as shareholder value," says Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B-Lab, a Berwyn (Pa.) nonprofit that certifies mission-driven companies. "Corporate law has not evolved to serve these new needs."

One new form, known as the Low-profit Limited Liability Company (or L3C), is intended for companies that put their missions before profits. The structure lets them qualify for "program-related investments" from foundations—loans or investments that further a foundation's goals and also may yield financial returns. First adopted in Vermont in April 2008, the L3C is now also on the books in Michigan, Utah, and Wyoming. There are 53 L3Cs in Vermont and a handful in other states so far.

In California a separate effort is under way to take "a holistic approach to the real friction points of trying to meld a social mission and a true capitalistic model of a corporation," says R. Todd Johnson, a partner at Jones Day in Palo Alto. Johnson, along with attorneys Susan Mac Cormac and Derrick Britt, is leading a working group to draft language for the new form and present it to California lawmakers later this year. The rules would address tensions like how to report social impact to shareholders and what happens if the company is acquired or goes public.

"corporate constituency statutes"

For now, however, social ventures must find creative ways to straddle the line between nonprofit and for-profit. At Bikestation, the board decided to form a new for-profit company called Mobis Transportation Alternatives. They incorporated Mobis in mid-2008 and raised $500,000 from angel investors, including the Tech Coast Angels , late last year. Staff members switched to work for the new business, and Mobis licensed the intellectual property from the nonprofit, including the Bikestation name and other proprietary information for creating transit centers. The nonprofit remains essentially a holding company for the intellectual property, though Bikestation plans to use the licensing revenue to make grants. As part of the agreement, the nonprofit got a small ownership stake in the new Bikestation and controls a seat on the board.

Crafting such ad hoc solutions can be unwieldy—and expensive. "We had lawyers for the nonprofit, we had lawyers for the for-profit, we had lawyers for the investment group, says White-Kjoss." Bikestation's officers were careful to get an independent valuation for the intellectual property they licensed to avoid any appearance of self-dealing. In addition, they incorporated the new company in New York rather than California, because New York is one of 31 states with a "corporate constituency statute." Such laws let company leaders consider the interests of other stakeholders—such as employees or the community—in addition to the narrow financial interest of shareholders.

Of course, approaches to business structure vary. Some nonprofits control 100% of the for-profit enterprise. For example, the Mozilla Foundation formed a corporate subsidiary in 2005 to handle the development, marketing, and distribution of the group's open-source software, like Firefox, with revenue flowing to the foundation to support Mozilla's open-source mission. Other models split financial returns with outside investors but retain control of the mission through special classes of stock or other agreements written into the company's governing documents. Lee Zimmerman and Brian Anderluh bought Evergreen Lodge, an historic tourist lodge on the edge of Yosemite, in 2001 with a plan to start a summer jobs program for young adults from the Bay Area. They formed an LLC and raised $15 million in debt and equity from socially minded investors like Pacific Community Ventures and Juma Ventures , both nonprofits.

Zimmerman cautioned investors that returns could be diluted because of the company's social mission to hire disadvantaged youths, but he's not certain they will be. "I think that long term we will be able to fund this program and provide near-identical returns as an entity that didn't have this social program," he says. To reassure investors, however, Evergreen Lodge offered to return the initial capital invested once the company could afford to replace it with debt—which Zimmerman expects to happen in two years. Investors will retain ownership and still receive dividends, but they'll be able to get their original money out without selling the company. Since buying the lodge, Zimmerman and Anderluh have expanded it from 18 cabins to 90 and increased revenue from $500,000 in 2001 to $5 million in 2008.

For Bikestation, the for-profit model is paying off as well. The new company has increased staff from 10 to 14 and is helping to open four new transit hubs this year, bringing the total to 16. Bikestation won't disclose revenue, but White-Kjoss says it has raised projections for 2009. The company is expanding beyond its traditional customers—cities and transit agencies—to market to universities, corporate campuses, and other developments. "We're able to do what we've been wanting to do for a long time," says White-Kjoss.

The Nonprofit Good Practice Guide: Invaluable Nonprofit Asset

2009-06-13T19:37:00.007+01:00

The Nonprofit Good Practice Guide is one of our favorite nonprofit Internet resources, and we use it all the time at the Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida. It is a helpful tool in our work with nonprofits.

The site itself was created in 2002 with the goal of capturing, organizing, disseminating and promoting the use of knowledge in the nonprofit sector. It is founded by the Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. It serves as a clearinghouse for articles about a wide array of nonprofit topics such as:

Advocacy and Lobbying
Evaluation
Financial Management
Fundraising
Governance
Human Resources
Information Management
Legal and Regulatory
Marketing and Public Relations
Nonprofit Basics
Nonprofit Data and Statistics
Organizational Planning and Management
Volunteerism

The article resources run deep. For example, the fundraising category has over 300 articles to peruse on the topic.

In addition to the library, there is an excellent searchable nonprofit glossary of common terms used in the nonprofit sector. A search under "IRS 501", yielded 69 results. Related terms and resources are listed with the definitions whenever appropriate.

While taking graduate classes in nonprofit management, we used The Nonprofit Best Practices Guide to find a logic model for writing a grant. The site provided a complete guide to the concept as well as outstanding examples for our use.

The Nonprofit Good Practice Guide should be bookmarked as a web favorite by every nonprofit manager in the country.

You can find their facebook fan page here.

Charitable Giving in 2008 Better Than Expected

2009-06-11T01:49:00.008+01:00

Shelly Banjo writes in the Wall Street Journal that perhaps charitable giving did not fall off to the extent predicted in 2008.

GETTING PERSONAL:Charity Declines In 08 Less Dire Than Feared

Were doomsday scenarios predicting a 10% to 30% plunge in charitable giving a bit too extreme?

New totals for 2008 suggest those dire predictions were exaggerated, although the recession's full impact on philanthropy may yet to be felt.

Charitable giving dropped about 2% from a year earlier, or 5.7% in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2008, according to the annual Giving USA study released Wednesday. As a measure of gross domestic product, giving is still historically strong: The roughly $308 billion in charitable gifts was 2.2% of GDP, down slightly from 2.3% in 2007.

Still, it was the first decline since 1987 and the second since the group began tracking charitable donations in 1956. Gifts to private foundations fell by 19.2% and at many charities, donations weren't enough to replace funds lost by deep endowment declines and financial scandals.

The study doesn't break out quarterly results but anecdotal evidence suggests three quarters of strong growth in early 2008 may have propped up a dismal fourth quarter, said Nancy Raybin, chair of the Giving Institute. Deeper cuts of the recession, including job losses, auto company bankruptcies and the Bernie Madoff scandal, haven't been factored in.

"This is a snapshot in time, clearly the full impact of the economic downturn won't be reflected until 2010 and 2011," said Claire Costello, national practice executive for philanthropic management at Bank of America Corp. (BAC).

Giving was down across most sectors apart from religious organizations (up 5.5%), public and society benefit organizations, which include donor-advised funds and voter-registration groups (up 5.4%), and international affairs nonprofits (up .6%).

"Wealth drives giving - if people feel pessimistic about the future or lose jobs they aren't going to maintain the same level. People still give, they just give less," Raybin said.

Financial advisers say they're having more conversations with philanthropic families around how to continue to make an impact on a tighter budget. Donors are focusing on specific charities, doing more due diligence on charities, extending grant terms to existing pledges, and are setting expiration dates on foundations to allow for more immediate spending.

Families are realizing these are no longer "flush times where they can haphazardly give a little here and there" if they're going to make an impact - they're seeing it's time to get focused and do some planning, said Lisa Philp, head of philanthropic services at JP Morgan Private Bank.

"Financial advisers can help families shore up what core issues and organizations they care about most and focus on helping them make it through challenging times," Philp said.

What Kind of Nonprofit are You?

2009-06-08T12:33:00.007+01:00

Scott Russell of MinnPost.com wrote this article that got our attention. Jon Pratt and Jodi Sanfort really nailed these nonprofit characterizations!

The 3 types of nonprofits: velociraptors, tickbirds, viruses

The nonprofit world divides up into three organizational types: the velociraptor, the tickbird and the virus. (Hey, I'm not making this up. This is according to Jon Pratt, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN) and Jodi Sandfort, associate professor at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.)

The velociraptor (the small, meat-eating dinosaur made famous in "Jurassic Park") is the entrepreneur. It's nimble, competitive, sees potential and acts quickly.

The tickbird (a bug-eating bird that has a symbiotic relationship with rhinos) could also be called a subcontractor. It's symbiotic with government: It gets government grants, follows government rules and implements government policies.

The virus is the networker. It moves easily person to person and finds strength in numbers (and gets money from long-term trusting relationships).

Pratt and Sandfort presented this entertaining model last week at MCN's conference "Practical Leadership: A Balanced Approach." Thursday's daylong conference drew hundreds of participants, and they needed a laugh.

Many face tight budgets and growing service demands and worry about upcoming state government unallotments. The conference offered them workshops on everything from "conflict fluency" to stress reducers such as "leadership balance through yoga."

Pratt and Sandfort said nonprofits tend to blend velociraptor, tickbird and virus approaches. They used the framework to talk about how conflicts arise within and between nonprofit organizations because of different organizational goals. Bottom line, Pratt and Sandfort preferred the virus, or networking, model.

In an interview, Pratt said nonprofits face pressure to choose strategies to get the greatest financial return — which may not be the same thing as addressing the greatest community need.

Nonprofits can use their networks and engage with people locally, "to counterbalance some pressures that may make them look more like Blockbuster Video than a community organization," he said.

Nonprofit Social Media

2009-06-06T12:28:00.004+01:00

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Trevor Hunnicutt comes this article about nonprofits utilizing social media. In Northeast Florida, this is a hot topic and local nonprofits are using social media to tell their stories and create awareness.

Nonprofits turn to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter to raise money, market themselves

Nonprofit and philanthropic organizations are turning to relatively cheap online social media to raise money and market their organizations as they grapple with recession-battered endowments, fewer grants and, often, less patronage by their customers.

"I see many layers of advantages to using these social networks," said Jim Kopniske of the Cleveland Museum of Art. He is one of four people responsible for updating the museum's Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages, as well as maintaining a blog.

"It's a small piece, but it's steadily growing," he said. "The only cost of it is our time."

This week, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association announced the launch of a Web site that allows patrons to sponsor acres of parkland. For a tax-deductible $75, donors choose an acre to sponsor on ParkShares.org and register it for a year.

The site allows users to create a profile of their acre with pictures, information about the park and a personal blog that can be shared with others. The donation supports the association, a nonprofit organization that develops park-oriented educational and cultural programming.

The park association said the site has been in development for years and is not a response to the recession. Still, the group's grants are down about 50 percent from last year, so it is looking for new money to plug the gap, spokeswoman Jocelyn Buckey said.

Most nonprofits tap into existing social-media networks rather than create new ones, as the park association did. Those include Twitter, the micro-blogging Web site that distributes users' casually short messages, or tweets, to computers and cell phones, and Facebook, with millions of users.

Organizations use both to drum up interest in their organizations, communicate with patrons and promote specific events.

Even as social networks gain popularity, most nonprofit organizations have yet to tap into them as a significant source of money. Only about 1 percent of nonprofits raised more than $10,000 using Facebook, according to a survey released last month by the Nonprofit Technology Network, a group that represents technology employees in nonprofits.

Some of Cleveland's biggest nonprofits do not use social networks at all, and many organizations that embraced the technology are using them for communication, not fund-raising. PlayhouseSquare and the Cleveland Museum of Art are among the organizations using the technology more to promote their broad-based recreational appeal than to raise money.

But many nonprofits say that even if they have not found a direct stream of revenue from their efforts online, there is a strong connection between marketing themselves online and raising money.

"We're researching best practices as far as how to use social media," said Karen Pozna, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland Foodbank, which has a presence on Facebook and Twitter. "When you educate people about your organization, ideally they would turn into donors."

Nonprofits Running Government Services: Fire and Forget?

2009-06-02T13:20:00.007+01:00

Steve Patterson offers this Times-Union article discussing the trend of nonprofits taking over city run community centers. This is an approach that is not limited to Jacksonville. Privitizing city services by moving them to the nonprofit sector is quite common. The problem is, some nonprofits are not ready to take on the responsibilities and the government tends to look the other way after the hand off. Successful nonprofit ventures of this sort require continued local government support in the form of training and appropriate funding.

Ian Greene, a York University professor, argues that there are five essential conditions for successful nonprofit delivery of city services: the capacity of the nonprofit to host a quality board of directors,staff and executive director, adequate training for the board;fair funding for the nonprofits;open lines of communication through effective liaison committees, and effective oversight by government funding authirities to prevent the malfunction of nonprofit agencies delivering services.

Jacksonville taps nonprofits to run neighborhood centers

Sirretta Williams, a church pastor, went to a community center thinking she might volunteer there. She ended up volunteering to run the place.

Last week, Jacksonville’s City Council voted to lease the Joseph Lee Community Center to Williams’ Lion of the Tribe of Judah Ministries for 10 years. After renovations to the center on Perry Street, a few blocks from the Gateway Mall, church volunteers plan to tutor kids and teach them music, tae kwon do and financial skills.

With governments short on cash, “this is the time where the religious sector and the community and businesses are going to have to come together and help,” Williams said.

City Hall couldn’t agree more.

By summer, the city wants to finalize deals for three other nonprofits to run community centers in Arlington, the Southside and Northwest Jacksonville.

Others are already up and running.

Those arrangements are part of a city push to remake centers that are under-used — often closed — into sources for youth programs and services the city’s budget doesn’t cover.

“With community centers closed, that’s not a good sign for the youth,” said Pam Wilson, marketing and community relations manager for the city’s parks.

Money from the Jacksonville Journey anti-crime effort is helping make deals happen.

Nonprofits invited to bid on running six centers were offered up to $100,000 apiece for repairs and improvements to the buildings, which are often a few decades old. A similar deal was made with Williams’ church, which was already asking about operating the Lee Center.

During a 2007 venture into private management, a loose agreement between the city and a group that wanted to run a center on Moncrief Road prompted questions about how much the deal would really benefit the surrounding neighborhood.

That deal, with a foundation launched by former Jaguar Tony Boselli, was eventually retooled and the same foundation later set up programs at a second center, on East 23rd Street. The second center opened last summer.

The city’s approach to management deals has become more formal. The three agreements pending now are with nonprofits who answered a public notice inviting bids to operate closed centers.

Besides showing insurance and tax-status records, their applications outlined the five-day-a-week children’s programs they would offer, staffing ratios, public-access rules and optional adult programming.

Children could only be required to pay for services if the city collects similar payments at other parks — for example, for summer camps.

Bidders had to find their own ways to finance day-to-day operations.

Seven centers were targeted for private partnerships as part of the Jacksonville Journey’s push to keep young people busy and out of trouble.

The first of those, at Normandy Park on the Westside, reopened in April under the management of Community Connections, a social service nonprofit with a long track record locally.

The organization wanted a new Westside location where it could move a youth program formerly based at an apartment complex, and Councilman Daniel Davis steered them to the parks department, said Pat Hannan, the nonprofit’s executive director. The Normandy center, which had been vandalized by spray paint, was undersized and needed updating.

Builders Care, a charity operated by the Northeast Florida Builders Association, lined up contractors who more than doubled the size of the community center, Hannan said.

About 120 children now use the upgraded center, which will start offering summer camp next month, she said. Money the group already received under a separate deal from the Jacksonville Children’s Commission pays part of the operating cost, with the rest coming from private sources, Hammond said.

One of the sites targeted for partnerships, in Arlington’s Fort Caroline area, was scratched from the list because of neighborhood opposition.

A series of neighborhood meetings and a public bid process brought responses from groups wanting to operate three of the five other closed centers — in St. Nicholas, the College Park area in Northwest Jacksonville, and off Merrill Road in Arlington.

All of those offers involve nonprofits that already work with people in surrounding neighborhoods, Wilson said.

Research:Nonprofits Focus on Cash, Not Volunteers

2009-05-29T15:31:00.002+01:00

From the Erie Times-News. This story about research showing that nonprofits and funders alike seem to focus on cash and not better utilization of volunteers to help bridge gaps in service.

Poll: Nonprofits focus on cash, fail to capitalize on volunteer expertise

While nonprofits often say they need more pro bono support, nearly 40 percent plan to spend upward of $50,000 on outside consultants this year, according to a recent survey.

The research suggests corporate grant makers and nonprofits are more focused on giving and getting cash rather than making effective use of skilled volunteers to offset falling contributions, said Evan Hochberg, national director of community involvement for consultancy Deloitte LLP, which commissioned the poll.

"The challenges are that businesses and nonprofits are still stuck in the old school thinking when it comes to volunteerism, treating it as simply a nice thing to do," Hochberg said. "But if we're serious about making volunteerism a powerful solution, we have to be more thoughtful in how we leverage intellectual capital and value skills and donation of time as currency."

About a quarter of nonprofit respondents said they have no plans to use skilled volunteers in any capacity in 2009, and about a third said they do not have the appropriate infrastructure needed to successfully deploy volunteers. Meanwhile, 95 percent said there is a great need of pro bono -- or no-cost -- support, especially in the current economic climate.

Don't Panic over the Economy: Dr. Phil Geist

2009-05-27T19:08:00.001+01:00

Check out Phil's presentation from May 14, 2009 "Dont panic over where the economy is right now." Dr. Philip R. Geist, a Certified Business Analyst with the Small Business Development Center of the University of North Florida, in Ocala, Florida, discusses the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009, the Recovery Act, funding for small businesses with stories and information for easy understanding. This edited recording is a portion of a speech presented at the Citrus Lodge, in Herando, Florida, funded by the Recovery Act.
Video produced and edited by Jannet Walsh, Workforce Connection, Ocala, Florida Workforce Connection © 2009

Nonprofit Restaurant Thrives: Social Entrepreneurship

2009-05-24T14:02:00.006+01:00

My wife subscribes to More Magazine and I am surprised at how many good articles they publish about business, entrepreneurship and reinventing oneself. This article is about a nonprofit restaurant that does things very differently than others. Considering how many restaurants have failed in this down economy, this story written by Jennifer Marguli s is particularly poignant.

Her Restaurant Breaks All the Rules, and Thrives

"Boiler Room" Nonprofit Fundraising Crackdown in Florida

2009-05-21T01:38:00.008+01:00

This has been a nationwide problem as long as I can remember. Sometimes a nonprofit organization (usually an association) doesn't bother with creating relationships that are meaningful for long term fundraising. Instead the go for fast money. They hire a "boiler room" fundraising agency to make calls to local citizens posing as nonprofit employees. The fund raising call center keeps most of the money donated over the phone. The contracting nonprofit takes what is left as found money as there was no effort on their part. I remember a PBA drive in New Jersey in the early 1990's. The callers were soliciting to send deserving kids to an "ice show". It turned out to be two skaters on a piece of plastic that was 20 feet by 20 feet. Let the donor beware!

Here is the article as presented by the South Florida Business Journal.

Florida has joined a nationwide crackdown on fraudulent charitable solicitors who claim to help police, firefighters and veterans.

The effort, dubbed Operation False Charity and announced on Wednesday, was led by the Federal Trade Commission, along with 61 attorneys generals, secretaries of state and other law enforcement agencies.

The actions were filed against 32 fundraising companies, 31 individuals and 22 nonprofits or purported nonprofits on whose behalf donations were solicited, according to the Florida attorney general’s office.

“These defendants allegedly tricked consumers into giving by claiming affiliations with law enforcement and veterans groups or misleading consumers about how much of the money donated would actually go to those groups,” according to a news release.

As part of the operation, Attorney General Bill McCollum said Florida and numerous other states have filed a lawsuit against Community Support Inc., which solicits donations on behalf of more than 35 charitable clients, but allegedly kept more than 80 percent of donor money.

In addition to misrepresentation, the organization is alleged to have harassed callers, falsely claimed to be law enforcement or veterans, or falsely claimed a person had previously made a pledge when they had not.

Community Support has agreed to stop all improper or illegal conduct, and a settlement is imminent.

The company also will have to regularly report information to the states and be more responsible for its employees’ training, conduct and representations made to consumers. Community Support also agreed to reimburse the states $200,000 for the costs of the investigation.

Consumers are urged before donating to:

Recognize that the words “veterans” or “military families” in an organization’s name don't necessarily mean that veterans or the families of active-duty personnel will benefit from the donation.
Check an organization before donating. Some phony charities use names, seals and logos that look or sound like those of respected, legitimate organizations.
Donate to charities with a track record and a history. Charities that spring up overnight may disappear just as quickly.
Do not send or give cash donations. For security and tax record purposes, it is best to pay by a check made payable to the charity. Ask for a receipt showing the amount of your contribution.

Nonprofits Suffer When Auto Dealerships Fold

2009-05-19T19:37:00.004+01:00

Interesting point made by Melissa Trujillo, in this AP article. As a kid I remember it was always the car dealerships who supported the little league and sponsored a team. Car dealers donated cars to charity for fundraising raffles or put a car up on the par three hole as the hole in one prise at charity golf outings. Our Coggin School of Business here at UNF is named so because of a local dealer's support. It appears nonprofit donations are be down from last year among car dealerships who are cutting costs to stay afloat. Those who have closed (or will be closing) are a loss which will not be replaced anytime soon.

Dealers' cuts means less cash for charities

By MELISSA TRUJILLO –

BOSTON (AP) — Jim Dimopoulos can't remember every organization his car dealership helped out in its 36 years of operation: police and fire associations, cheerleaders, baseball teams, even high school yearbook classes in his town.

But now those donations are finished, just like his business.

Seacoast Motors of Salisbury, a small coastal town, closed Thursday after getting word that it was one of the 789 dealerships Chrysler was dropping within weeks as part of its restructuring.

"We did the best we could," Dimopoulos said of donating to local charities. "They are going to have a tough time, a lot of places."

When Chrysler LLC, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., and the General Motors Corp., based in Detroit, close nearly 2,000 dealerships across the country by late next year, many communities will lose key sources of charitable funding — the businesses that helped sponsor everything from Little League to libraries, rodeos to road races. In return for their donations, car dealers got their names printed on jerseys, programs and signs, and customers were often happy to repay that generosity when it came time to buy new vehicles.

"You try to stay involved and support the community and keep your name out there also," said Charles "Buddy" Merrill IV, owner of Keystone Dodge, in Allentown, Pa., which was on Chrysler's cut list.

Merrill said he sponsors children's baseball, softball and peewee football teams and charity golf outings. And while he retains Kia and Isuzu truck franchises as well as used cars, he said he would probably have to reduce his charity work.

"Before I could spread the expense among three different franchises, so I'm sure I'll tighten the belt a little bit," he said.

Charities across the country were bracing for reduced help not just from the dealerships but also from their laid-off employees.

Robbie Baxley, a board member of the Lions Club, an international service organization in Mullins, S.C., said he expected some of the club's members to move away after losing their jobs at the local Chrysler dealership.

"We lose all the way around with that deal," Baxley said. "No doubt about it. It hurts when you lose someone that's been around as long as they have."

Smaller towns could expecially feel the pinch, because there are few other businesses to turn to for donations.

The Eastern Oregon farming community of Hermiston may have to find someone else to sponsor its local pro rodeo because Dodge dealer Larry Campbell is on Chrysler's list for closure, Mayor Bob Severson said.

Douglas Graft, one of the owners of Graft Chrysler Dodge-Jeep in Scottdale, Pa., said his company had already reduced its charitable activities because of the recession and poor sales.

"We cut a lot of things out this year because of the economy," he said. "Spring and summer stuff, we just couldn't do it with the automobile market. We do the YMCA every year, but they have other sponsors. We do a community car show, and they'll just have to find another company."

But it's not just the local charities that will be hurt, said Ray Ciccolo, who represents Massachusetts' car dealers on the National Automobile Dealers Association's board of directors. The association's members give money each year to be distributed by the national and state organizations, such as the several million dollars donated to the employees of dealerships affected by Hurricane Katrina.

"When you have a shrinking dealer body," Ciccolo said, "that's much less we'll contribute to our local charitable foundation and our national charitable foundation."

Some dealerships, though, have vowed to do everything they can to keep helping their communities.

"I think the first thing we cut is the more expensive advertising," Ciccolo said. "This type of one-on-one, very personal, where you look someone in the eye and cut them a check, that would probably be the last thing we want to give up."

Ed Schartman's Dodge dealership in suburban Cleveland gives a scholarship to a high school graduate in North Olmsted every year and provides cars for community parades. He vowed that wouldn't change even if it lost the Chrysler franchise.

"Do we intend to stay part of this community?" he asked. "Absolutely."

Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein: Free Fundraising Answers for Nonprofits Via Hotline

2009-05-18T22:41:00.004+01:00

Stumbled upon this press release. I would recommend someone in our area try Dr. Goldstein out. There is nothing to lose! He has a blog that looks pretty good as well. Check it out here.

The SBDC will seek to interview Dr. Goldstein in the near future. In the mean time, I would say he has made a very generous offer to the nonprofit community.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Totally free, one-on-one fundraising consulting is now available for all Hawaii and U.S. nonprofits 24/7 at www.fundraisershotline.com.

"No boilerplate. Every question personally answered. Hawaii nonprofit fundraisers may ask anything they want--like How can I find donors? or How can I get my board to give more and to ask others to give? It's one-on-one attention," says Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein, creator of the hotline and president of The Nonprofit Institute, Educational Marketing Services in Fort Lauderdale.

"Nonprofits always have a hard time raising money. But many are really struggling in today's bad economy, including in Hawaii. They need immediate professional advice tailored to their specific needs. But most nonprofits cannot afford to hire an expert to give them quick answers to their pressing questions. So, www.fundraisershotline.com gives them personal access to an experienced professional as their sounding-board to increase their fundraising success," Goldstein adds.

That's what's so unique about the hotline. It's quick, efficient, direct--and free, of course. Getting answers from the hotline is simple. Go to www.fundraisershotline.com, fill out the short user form, ask a question, then send it to Dr. Goldstein. There is absolutely no cost or obligation. Every question is answered personally and within 24 hours.

Columnist, author, consultant, TV and radio personality, and workshop leader--Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein is a nationally recognized marketing, communications, and fundraising executive, as well as a trends analyst and forecaster. For more than 30 years, he has developed strategies for nonprofit success.

Dr. Goldstein is now the co-producer and host of "The Forum for Nonprofits," which airs on WNN & WSBR and may be heard 24/7 at www.forumfornonprofits.com. He was the producer and host of "Fundraising Success," a weekly radio program on WXEL, 90.7FM/National Public Radio and still available at any time from anywhere in the world at www.wxelpodcasts.org.

Dr. Goldstein's "Fundraising Guru" columns have appeared in The South Florida Sun-Sentinel and have been a regular feature of the Scripps papers on Florida's Treasure Coast. He is the author of the bestseller, 30 Days to Successful Fundraising.

Goldstein is also the developer of "Fundraising Briefing Books," the basis for the workshops and tailored consulting programs he offers nationwide.

Nonprofits Adopting Social Media

2009-05-17T20:30:00.017+01:00

Lini S. Kadaba wrote this piece from Philly.com describing how nonprofits are using social media to do more effective fundraising and host successful events. It is really about telling the story of what the nonprofit has done to accomplish its mission. Tell the story well and fundraising becomes alot easier. Getting the message out via social networks is a natural for nonprofits and it is certainly happening in Jacksonville. The Clara White Mission, St. Johns River City Band, our own organization and many others have either already implemented social networking or are in the process of doing so. In facilitating nonprofit strategic planning, we are seeing social networking or "new media" prioritized as a way to create and maintain positive branding. "Jack and the Social Media Beanstalk" featuring Damien Robinson is a social media workshop planned for June 26th at the University Club. For more information go here.

Nonprofits tap online networks to raise funds

Living Beyond Breast Cancer has won supporters for one of its biggest fund-raisers with e-mail blasts, brochures, and personal calls to big donors.

But that's so yesterday.

For the first time, the nonprofit based in Haverford is posting to its new Facebook page information on this year's Yoga Unites event, which takes place Sunday. It also is tweeting on Twitter as @YU4LBBC and uploading video to YouTube.

Of course, Living Beyond also blogs, and it shares photos on Flickr, including one of women saluting the sun on the steps of the Art Museum, where the annual Yoga Unites takes place.

As a result, the number of teams signed up for the event has nearly tripled, the group reports.

That's the bottom-line promise of "social giving," which uses online networks to raise awareness and, ultimately, money. Organizations with a cause are "friend-raising" on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and elsewhere to bolster that old-as-money objective: fund-raising.

How does it work? Social giving exploits online networks, which offer exponential possibilities for building personal relationships. Once an organization makes a connection to an individual, that person can leverage his or her personal contacts - the old "friends of friends" gone viral. When campaigns also include interactive contests, creative video clips, and real-time information, donating money becomes less of an obligation and more of an experience.

"Everybody saw the success of the Obama campaign," said Jean Sachs, who leads the national cancer group. During the presidential election, lots of small donations through online networks added up to big bucks for the candidate.

Nonprofits across the country - more than 85 percent use social media, according to a new survey - want to replicate that success. In an economy where purse strings are triple-knotted, the strategy has particular appeal.

But even though some national groups, such as the Humane Society, have had huge success reaping donations through social giving, many others have not come up with a successful strategy.

"It's not a magic cure-all," said Rick Cohen, director of membership and technology for the National Council of Nonprofits in Washington. "They're wonderful tools. It's just not automatic, that if you're there, your fund-raising is going to go through the roof."

Social giving at its best, however, can be the gift that keeps on giving.

"It has tentacles," Sachs said. "You have so many more people you can reach. . . . If we can get donations, even small amounts, from lots of people, we can continue to grow our goal."

Despite the tough economy, Living Beyond has bet on social giving to reach its new fund-raising target of $100,000 - twice the amount of last year's goal. So far, so good.

As of yesterday, the event had 690 registrants, compared with 460 at this time last year. It also had 56 fund-raising teams (compared with 22) that so far had collected $96,059, according to the cancer group. An event sponsor also was found through Facebook.

Michelle Zeigler, Living Beyond's communications assistant, said she enjoys the status updates and tweets that allow her to have "two-way conversations" with supporters and that demand about 20 percent of her time. "We have Facebook friends from Africa," she marveled.

Social networks can be a marketing bonanza. "It's the fastest way to get to people," said Bill Cowen, director of the public relations program at Villanova University. "In a downturned economy, it's one of the most cost-effective means of promotion."

A national survey, released in late April and sponsored by three groups that help organizations use social media, found that 86 percent of the 980 nonprofit professionals who responded had joined at least one social network. Nearly three-fourths have a presence on Facebook, and 43 percent on Twitter.

The vast majority of nonprofits have entered the online soiree in the last two years. Nearly 60 percent of Twitter users came on board in the last three months, as the network that allows only mini-posts (140 characters or shorter) has soared in popularity.

"I think there's a lot of experimenting in the sector," said Holly Ross, executive director of the Nonprofit Technology Network, one of the survey sponsors.

Recently, the network tried to raise $10,000 for its scholarship fund through Facebook and other online technology. Its successful approach fit the medium. Ross agreed that if the goal was reached, she would star in her take on Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" video, wiggling her derriere and all.

"I did," she said, laughing. "It's the fun, irreverent nature of the social-media world."

One of the top dogs in successful social giving is the Humane Society of the United States. A February Spay Day campaign that involved a pet photo contest netted $550,000 - largely due to a Facebook application that allowed owners to upload pet profile pictures, write the pet's story, and ask for votes, according to Carie Lewis, the society's Internet marketing manager. Each vote cost $1. Last year the contest (without the ability to post to Facebook) raised $70,000.

"It was brilliant," said Beth Kanter, a scholar-in-residence at the Packard Foundation who writes on nonprofits and social media at Beth's Blog. "You need to reach out to people in the right way."

That's the hurdle that can trip many nonprofits, especially smaller ones that may not have the expertise or staff time to devote to clever contests and frequent updates.

"It's important to understand how this fits into your nonprofit," said Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Some groups might use social media more to share information than to raise money.

Cohen, from the nonprofit council, worries that social media, while low-cost, can distract from a group's core mission. "It's a drawdown on time," he said. "Nonprofits need to focus on doing the public good."

Others caution that fast-paced, informal updates and tweets can backfire if poorly vetted messages get uploaded for the wide world to see.

Living Beyond is still exploring the possibilities and pitfalls of social networks but for now, Zeigler is busy working her connections.

She might post a tweet to 145 followers that touts "studios all over Philly region are offering special yoga classes to raise money for Yoga Unites for LBBC."

And she might update 995 Facebook fans about Living Beyond's latest blog post on a conference; a memorial for a community member who died; or its public-service announcement on YouTube.

"You just keep the cycle going," Zeigler said. "It's exciting to reach people who we never would have otherwise."

Nonprofits as Franchise Owners

2009-05-13T12:50:00.007+01:00

The SBDC has certainly seen First Coast nonprofits start for profit businesses. Clara White Mission and Challenge Enterprises are two that come to mind immediately as being entrepreneurial. I do not know of any franchises owned by a local nonprofit, but it is certainly happening elsewhere. There has been a trend in recent years for nonprofits to explore franchises as a way to create another income stream while either employing or training a target population. Ben & Jerry's were early adopters in helping nonprofits get into the ice cream franchise business. This article from the NonProfit Times reveals a resurgence in nonprofit franchise ownership.

Nonprofits Buying Into Franchises

The Evergreen Commons Senior Center, in Holland, Mich., never worked with a franchise before inking a deal four years ago with American Ramp Systems in South Boston, Mass.

The operation differs from the public health club the nonprofit purchased nine years ago. “Part of the decision to have the franchise comes from the uniqueness of the product,” said Larry Erlandson, president of Evergreen. “We determined that the product was very good and they offered services like a call center and marketing for support.”

Social Franchise Ventures, LLC, in Washington, D.C., brought the two parties together. While there is an estimated 900,000 franchise opportunities, Ventures lists fewer than 100 nonprofit-owned franchises.

“We believe partnering with a franchise brand that leverages a nonprofit’s strengths and assets is paramount to a successful social franchise venture,” said Doug Sudell, CFE, of Social Franchise Ventures. “It is of the utmost importance that a nonprofit use a highly disciplined approach when selecting a brand because that can significantly increase their likelihood of success.”

Figures show that franchised businesses provide more than 11 million jobs, or 8.1 percent of the national private-sector workforce with an annual payroll of $278.6 billion, or 5.3 percent of all private-sector payrolls in the United States.

Evergreen runs an in-home care service that could rival other such franchise operations. So taking on a franchise in that sector would not make sense, according to Erlandson. The health club requires no special support, so the ownership of that does not require a franchise arrangement.

“We saw the ramp product at a conference a few years ago,” he said. “We couldn’t recreate that product on our own and it was worth the franchise fee.”

Evergreen contacts rehab centers along with veteran administration facilities, and hospitals. In dealings with those groups, Erlandson saw that a product was in demand and could connect that to Evergreen’s already existing activities.

Deciding on having a franchise could depend on several factors. One could be the timing of your budget needs. Not every organization has the right capital and division for different types of operations or the ability to manage the activity. The organization also needs a board that gets behind the effort 100 percent.

“A danger exists with many nonprofits when they look at a business venture and overestimate how fast they can find a return,” Erlandson said. “Franchises are not a quick fix.”

Does the organization have a high-risk capability? “You have a risk when you start any business,” he said. What will the community think of the organization? “We had some donors question our activity, saying this was creeping away from our mission,” he said.

Franchises do offer another option from fundraising. “As a nonprofit, we regularly keep our eyes open for a business venture to help the organization,” he said.

Fees for service, membership dues, and program fees are just some ways to obtain revenue. Grants and fundraising are other methods. “Business ventures further add a diversity in revenue. This helps the nonprofit avoid depending on any one stream,” he said.

“We’re trying to have a diverse revenue base,” Erlandson said. The franchise offers a potential for a greater return than sticking the investment into an endowment fund.”

Report on Nonprofit Social Networking

2009-05-12T12:22:00.005+01:00

Social networking is a very hot topic in Jacksonville right now with small businesses rapidly raking advantage of free and/or low cost methods of creating relationships and getting their product or services noticed.

Nonprofits in Jacksonville are right behind as the see new ways to reach out and communicate their mission and achievements. Social media allows nonprofits to tell their story in a very cost effective way.

Locally, Linked-in is the favored social media for conducting business related social networking, with FaceBook and Twitter also being used. While not featured in the article below. many people on the First Coast are on Plaxo as well.

For those of you who do not know where to start, we will be announcing two SBDC sponsored social networking workshops by the end of the week. Stay tuned as we have arranged for some superb presenters who are experts in social media.

Mark Hrywna, presents this excellent summary in the NonProfitTimes about a report just released on nonprofit use of social media.

Social Networks Are Red Hot, Web Sites Are Diddlysquat

By Mark Hrywna

Nonprofits have plenty of room for improvement to their Web sites while their presence on online social networks is growing and expect to continue, according to two surveys released during the Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco this week.

A survey examining nonprofit use of social networking as a marketing and fundraising channel was co-sponsored by Atlanta-based ThePort Network, Inc., NTEN in Portland, Ore., and Common Knowledge in San Francisco. A survey by Ann Arbor, Mich.-based ForeSee Results gauged visitor satisfaction to a variety of nonprofit Web sites.

Commercial social networks might be popular, especially Facebook, but “average community sizes remain small, and presence is relatively short.” More than 86 percent of respondents said they have a commercial social network while more than 30 percent said they have a house social network.

Facebook is easily the most popular commercial social network, according to the survey, at 74 percent, followed by YouTube (47 percent), Twitter (43 percent), LinkedIn (33 percent) and MySpace (26 percent).

While those surveyed prefer traditional marketing channels to promote their social networks, such as email lists, events and their own Web sites, they’re experimenting with new social media channels. Nonprofits are allocating “small but real sources, staff and budget to their social networks according to the survey.” More than half of those surveyed intend to increase social network project staffing over the next year and about 80 percent commit at least one-quarter of a full-time staff person.

“For now, there is very little real revenue generated on those communities via fundraising and advertising,” according to the survey. Less than 40 percent of respondents have raised money via fundraising on Facebook, but 29 percent raised $500 or less during the past 12 months. Only about 9 percent of those surveyed raised $500 or less on MySpace, followed by 6.6 percent on Change.org, 5.5 percent on Twitter, 4.4 percent on YouTube and 1 percent on LinkedIn.

About a third of organizations have built and manage their own house social networks. Among those, about 87 percent said their communities are comprised of 10,000 members or less. About a quarter of those doing it in-house reported fundraising, and a third raised $10,000 or more during the past year.

The average size of a community on Facebook is 5,391 members, with almost all respondents (94 percent) present for two years or less. That might not be so striking when you consider Facebook was launched exclusively for college students in 2004 and only opened up to the public in 2006.

Nearly all of Facebook communities (97 percent) are less than 10,000 members, with three very large communities of 500,000+ members. Discounting the three that skewed the average, Facebook’s average community would be 1,369 members. Only MySpace has an average community that is larger, with 1,905, followed by 291 on LinkedIn, 286 on Twitter, and 268 on YouTube. Change.org, a nonprofit-specific network, had an average 243 members.

Almost 94 percent of organizations reported using Twitter for less than a year. Of those on Facebook, a majority have had a presence for six to 24 months. Twitter is only about three years old, but nearly 60 percent of those on the network joined within the past three months, and 19 percent in the past three to six months.

For those without a presence on social networks, 44 percent said it was because of a lack of expertise, 21 percent specified a lack of budget and 13 percent did not believe that having a presence was a good use of funds.

The number of members and the amount of user-generated content were cited most as the “metrics that include in their definition of success,” at almost 69 percent each. Fundraising was the lowest ranked metric (16 percent) cited as an important variable in measuring the success of their house community.

Almost 1,000 nonprofit professionals were surveyed between Feb. 20 and April 15 about their use of commercial social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. For complete results of the survey, visit www.nonprofitsocialnetworksurvey.com.

Nonprofit Web sites scored just below the threshold of what’s considered excellence in Web site satisfaction, trailing e-government, e-retail and automotive Web sites, and far behind online banking, according to a new survey.

“Trends in Constituent Satisfaction with Nonprofit Web Sites: Building Membership, Donations and Loyalty through the Web Channel,” included more than 2,000 respondents visiting a variety of nonprofit Web sites to gauge satisfaction with these Web sites.

“Our research shows that the Web site is a colossal area of opportunity for nonprofits suffering from decreased giving,” according to the report by ForeSee Results.

The nonprofit industry still has a ways to go to catch up with other fields in terms of their Web presence. Nonprofits scored a 73 on a 100-point scale used by the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). A score of 80 is generally considered to be excellent. Only online banking scored that high (83) in the study, followed by automotive Web sites (78), and e-retail, and e-government (both 74). “Private sector standards aside, even satisfaction with federal government Web sites slightly edges out satisfaction with nonprofit sites, which may be a sign that it’s time for nonprofits to advance to the next evolution in their sites,” according to the survey.

A satisfied visitor to a nonprofit Web site is:

65 percent more likely to recommend the site to others;
57 percent more likely to have a favorable overall impression of the organization;
55 percent more likely to return to the site;
49 percent more likely to donate; and,
38 percent more likely to volunteer.

The top two reasons people gave for visiting nonprofit sites are news and events (40 percent) and to stay informed about the organization’s cause (40 percent), while almost one in five (18 percent) specifically go to make a financial contribution.

Key areas of improvement for nonprofit Web sites in general are functionality and the expression of the organization’s image online. Areas that have the greatest impact on a visitor’s likelihood to donate, volunteer and return, are site functionality and image, even more than content, navigation options or look and feel. Site functionality encompasses usefulness, variety and convenience of features while image includes how well the site reflects the nonprofit’s image.

Get the entire report here.

Guest Column: Brian Smith, Forensic Fundraising

2009-05-08T20:33:00.003+01:00

My youngest daughter is a big fan of the crime scene investigation shows. She tries to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed at the end of the show.

While watching television with her one night, it occurred to me that fundraising was a lot like crime scene investigation. Except, of course, for the corpses lying around.

“Collect the evidence” – CSI

Our campaigns begin with a thorough examination of the scene. We call this a Feasibility Study. The investigation calls for the study director to canvas the area, learning as much as he or she can about the community, the client and “known associates.” This includes board, staff, volunteers, donors and community leaders.

By learning all we can about the client and their needs, we are able to prepare our investigative tools -- interview questionnaires, mail surveys and other instruments. Using these tools, we “collect the evidence” of potential support for their mission and proposed project.

“Round up the usual suspects” – Claude Raines, Casablanca

A comprehensive feasibility study gives us background information we need. With this evidence and a list of “suspects” we can conduct research into the motives and motivations of each suspect, to determine whether they are capable of committing the act of philanthropy. As the detectives say, we look at “motive, means and opportunity.”

The campaign provides the opportunity. The suspects’ assets and financial status provide the means. Motive is frequently the most difficult to establish.

What are an individual’s “hot buttons?” What compels him or her to invest in an organization? Obviously, the more closely associated that person is with the organization, the more likely they are to give, when asked. But when the connection is tenuous, or the association unclear, how do we determine the individual’s motivation?

Assessing the capability of a potential prospect is relatively straightforward. You can access county tax roles to see what type of property they own, and its value. If they are listed in Hoover’s Rich List, or in Forbes.com, you have a pretty good indication of their capacity to invest. A Google search or other Boolean search engines can provide you with links to a person’s background and assets, if the information is public.

“Quick Watson, the game’s afoot!” – Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Determining motivation and interests is another story. This is where our investigator must get creative and dogged.

Most libraries have a Periodical Index which lists area newspapers, magazines, etc. These are indexed by subject, so you can look up an individual’s name and see which publications have articles written about or by that individual. The media coverage of a person’s life and activities gives an indication as to that person’s interests and motivations.

With what organizations is this person affiliated? What boards does he or she serve on? To which organizations has the prospect made significant investments?

A private individual’s tax returns are not part of the public record. But the gifts one makes to private nonprofits are. Any organization which files a 990 form, the nonprofit corporate tax return form, must list their major contributors as well as identify their board members.

Guidestar (www.guidestar.org) can provide information on nonprofit organizations – 990 forms, board members, etc. You must register (it’s free) with Guidestar online, then conduct an Advanced Search, seeking all organizations within a particular geographic area. A search of their Boards and 990 forms can reveal who supports those organizations.

Many states will also provide information on board members and registered agents of corporations, including private for-profit and not-for-profit corporations. This is generally available through the Secretary of State from each individual state government. Some states make the information readily available, others charge a fee. But you can identify which boards a person serves on, as well as any private enterprises with which he or she is associated. Annual reports of those corporations may be available to you.

Motive, means and opportunity. The ingredients necessary to commit first degree philanthropy.

Brian Smith

President & CEO
Th(inc), LLC

6999-02 Merrill Road, Suite 317 Jacksonville, FL 32277

Mobile: 904-553-2354 Office: 904-720-1852

$50 Million Announced for Nonprofit Best Practices

2009-05-07T12:58:00.005+01:00

Michelle Obama Announces $50 Million Fund for Nonprofits

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post writes that nonprofit best practices that can be replicated nationwide are in line for funding. We will keep you posted on any further news related to this initiative.

President Obama's budget for next year will include $50 million to help expand nonprofit programs across the country to promote national service, first lady Michelle Obama announced tonight at an event in New York.

The White House initiative, known as the Social Innovation Fund, is a component of the new Serve America Act. Mrs. Obama said that it would provide capital to support innovative nonprofit organizations and to help social entrepreneurs expand "their successful approaches to tackling our most pressing national challenges."

"The idea is simple: Find the most effective programs out there and then provide the capital needed to replicate their success in communities around the country," she said in a speech at Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People Awards," according to her prepared remarks, released by the White House.

Mrs. Obama added, "By focusing on high-impact, results-oriented nonprofits, we will ensure that government dollars are spent in a way that is effective, accountable and worthy of the public trust."

Mrs. Obama, who founded Public Allies Chicago, a AmeriCorps nonprofit program that prepares youth for public service, has made advocating for national service a key component of her mission as first lady.

Interview with Lucy Cortese: Tree Hill Nature Center

2009-05-05T12:15:00.007+01:00

What is the Mission of Tree Hill Nature Center?

Tree Hill is Northeast Florida’s center of excellence for environmental education, conservation and awareness.

What do you think sets you apart from other nonprofit organizations?

Tree Hill is a unique 50 urban wilderness in the center of Jax and is the only environmental education center in NE Florida serving 15,000 school children annually in direct science education programs.

What is your most pressing funding need?

State and local education budget cuts have directly impacted Tree Hill due to cuts in our school board contract. It the contract is not reinstated for next fiscal year, thousands of school students will be denied field study experiences and environmental programming.

How do you recruit and train volunteers? Volunteers are recruited from websites, corporate volunteer programs and college and high school community service programs. Training for varied duties are provided.

How long have you been at the center and what makes you passionate about your job?

I will celebrate my 22^nd year at Tree Hill on August 1. Here is what I wrote last year about loving my position here:

Following a hectic drive through rush hour traffic, I arrive at an oasis in the heart of Jacksonville. The stress of the commute from the beach to Arlington melts away and I am at work. My job as executive director is actually more fun than labor as I spend the day in the midst of majestic live oaks, running streams and hummingbirds gardens. No wonder I love my job at Tree Hill Nature Center!

I observe joyful sights…students awestruck by their first walk through the woods, a toddler enchanted by an encounter with a butterfly, or a family overcoming Nature Deficit Disorder. Simon the goat, Virgil the opossum and Snappy the baby alligator eagerly greet me-- especially when I am offering their favorite foods. My dynamic staff thanks me, their boss, for the opportunity to work as a team where we strive daily to make a difference.

On August 1^st I celebrated my 21^st anniversary, still happy to come to work every day. I am fortunate and proud to lead an organization whose mission is to promote an appreciation of our natural world. Working at Tree Hill for two decades has been satisfying. Having the job of my dreams, Priceless!

About Tree Hill Nature Center:

Located in the center of Jacksonville, Florida, TREE HILL Nature Center is the place in our community to experience family fun in a natural environment. TREE HILL is a center of excellence for environmental education, conservation and awareness, offers programs, facilities and access to natural areas, which promote understanding of and respect for our natural world. Green Your Imagination in 2009 by participating in TREE HILL programs, events and membership opportunities. (Open to the public Monday through Saturday from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Closed on Sunday and Holidays.) CONTACT: Lucy Cortese, Executive Director ADDRESS: 7152 Lone Star Rd., Jacksonville, FL. 32211 PHONE: (904) 724-4646 https://webaccess.unf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.treehill.org

Guest Blog: Brian Smith

2009-05-04T01:45:00.004+01:00

Brian Smith is a very successful capital campaign fundraiser, and a nonprofit management guru. He is a new and hopefully frequent contributor to The Third Sector.

Now is the Time to Prepare for Success

Community organizations have been undergoing an incredibly difficult time over the past several months. The economic recession has brought an increased demand for services, while philanthropic investments are either static or shrinking.

And most economists say this situation will be with us for awhile, and may even get worse before it gets better.

And to top it all off, most organizations are forced to use a system of funding that is, at best, fundamentally flawed. Organizations are forced to compete for funding from those whose own self-interest should dictate they advocate collaboration and partnerships.

Let’s take advantage of the current economic situation to complete re-invent fundraising and philanthropy. And those who start soonest, grow strongest.

Value Relationships

It has long been conventional wisdom that fundraising is based upon personal relationships. As a Board Member or supporter of Organization X, I go to see my friend and ask for his support for the organization. And we build our donor base upon those types of relationships and support.

But when my friend goes on the Board of Organization Y, guess who he’s coming to see? And so we go round and round with the check-swapping philanthropy. And it becomes evident that personal relationship fundraising is self-limiting, and reaches the point of diminishing return very quickly.

But when there is a value relationship between the donor and the organization’s services, we can move beyond the check-swapping philanthropy cycle into the realm of community investments. If I have a vested interest in the organization’s success, either personally or professionally, I am more apt to view any support I provide as an investment. And I continue to make an investment in the organization when I see that there is a return on that investment, in the form of positive outcomes that mean something to me.

When we reach the level of investment support rather than gift support, we can become a more sustainable, stronger organization.

What value does your organization demonstrate? Can you show the Return on Investment?

Th(INC), LLC --- The Innovation Company, can help you in securing investment support. We also work with you in helping forge the strategic collaborations and partnerships you will need to succeed for the future.

Call us at 904-553-2354. We offer a unique, cost-effective service that not only saves you money, but will help you earn the investment support you need.

Brian Smith

President and CEO

Th(INC), LLC

The Innovation Company

6999-02 Merrill Road

Suite 317

Jacksonville, Florida 32277

http://www.forensicfundraising.blogspot.com/

United Way Facing New Competition?

2009-04-29T14:00:00.006+01:00

21 Regional Nonprofits Withdraw From United Way in D.C.

Mistrust, Decline in Area Giving Cited

Social entrepreneurship, direct donatations, giving circles and a trend toward targeting specific social sectors of need, have all had some effect on local United Way programs. It looks like United Way may have more competition in organizing social fundraising in the future. The following article from the Washington Post discusses one such effort underway in Washington D.C. after a scandal shook their local United Way agency a few years ago.

By Megan Greenwell

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The United Way has replaced its entire board and hired a new chief executive since Norman O. Taylor resigned amid charges of financial mismanagement in 2002 and his predecessor, Oral Suer, was sentenced in 2004. But it has struggled to recover from a severe downturn in fundraising. Last year's campaign brought in $35.3 million, a slight decline from the previous year and much less than the $90 million raised before the scandals.

United Way's interim chief executive, Angela R. Woods, said she is disappointed by the groups' departure but believes that improvements to the United Way's reputation and relationship-building will ultimately bring them back to the organization. United Way announced this month that William A. Hanbury, CEO of Washington's tourism agency, Destination D.C., who is known for his fundraising prowess, will take over July 1.

"A large part of our mission right now is rebuilding trust," Woods said. "We've got to get people re-engaged in the United Way, and the fundraising piece will come."

Despite the development, the United Way of America's singular role in U.S. workplace fundraising campaigns remains little changed. The national group, based in Alexandria, is the largest nonprofit agency in the country, raising more than $4 billion a year for tens of thousands of nonprofits.

In Washington, America's Charities has raised a fraction of the United Way's totals, just $8 million last year. But it and a few other groups are beginning to compete in communities across the nation.

About 35 percent of Washington area corporations' employee giving campaigns are run through America's Charities, some at large workplaces such as ExxonMobil, Lockheed Martin and SAIC. One expert estimates that about 60 percent of companies now offer employees an alternative to donating through their United Way campaigns.

The Washington Post's annual employee campaign is administered by United Way.

"Employees, especially younger ones, want the maximum choice in how they give and who they give to," said Stephen K. Greenhalgh, a consultant who wrote a 2006 report on workplace campaigns. The report was funded by America's Charities, which adopted some of his suggestions.

Nonprofit group leaders involved in Community1st said America's Charities lured them from the United Way by promising lower overhead costs, easily customized fundraising campaigns and fewer restrictions on where donors' money is directed.

In the cities of Austin and Orlando, where the government employees' giving campaigns are through America's Charities, the average gift is $70 a person, according Don Sodo, CEO of America's Charities. In the Washington region, he said, so many government employees have declined to donate that the average is $7.

"That means we need to do better," he said.

ExxonMobil community relations adviser Patrick Dexter said employees have been very pleased with the flexibility of the America's Charities campaign, which the company joined in 2002 after the United Way's problems. ExxonMobil workers can donate to any registered nonprofit organization in the United States, and because the company pays a fee to America's Charities, 100 percent of the donations go to the nonprofit groups.

Catherine C. Martens, Community1st's board chairman and CEO of the Bethesda-based Make-a-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, said the key point of Sodo's pitch to her was that America's Charities passes on 98 percent of each donation to its nonprofit groups.

United Way keeps 10 percent of most donations to its member nonprofit groups, and smaller donations go to a community fund, not the designated group. Woods said the United Way cannot efficiently distribute small donations because of processing costs.

Nonprofit Behavior Under Fire in Orlando

2009-04-28T01:09:00.004+01:00

The Orlando-Sentinel just posted this editorial taking a few Central Florida nonprofits to task for poor judgement. We are not familar with the details, but this is damaging press for these organizations in what is a tight donor environment.

What we think: Draining the public trust

The recent announcement by Florida's Blood Centers, clearing itself of any questionable business practices, might be comical — if only it wasn't so disheartening.

It essentially says: "Hey, everybody, an attorney whose firm has received more than $1 million in business from the blood bank says everything's just fine." Oh, please.

Is there something clogging Central Florida's common-sense filter? From the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau to the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority to the blood bank, agencies with oversight or transparency breakdowns are responding with clean bills of health or tune-ups, when what they need is an engine overhaul.

The blood center's mission is honorable. As the nation's fourth-largest independent blood bank, it brought in more than 320,000 pints of blood last year, which came from volunteers who gave blood for free or for minor compensation, like a T-shirt or gift card.

But by the giving nature of their business, nonprofits should hold themselves to a higher standard of accountability, openness, thrift and even selflessness.

Yet the blood center continues to do business with people on its board. It refuses to disclose all contracts put out for bids.

And when these practices were questioned, the board essentially shrugged its shoulders.

"We manage our operations and finances prudently, ethically ... " said board chairman Leighton D. Yates Jr. We can see why he might think so, since his law firm has received more than $1 million in business from the FBC.

Florida's Blood Centers CEO Anne Chinoda said that she is going to review similar nonprofits to ensure that the blood bank is following best practices. She should check with Charity Navigator, an organization that keeps tabs on nonprofits. It says that while giving contracts to a board member's business is legal, it doesn't pass an ethical smell test.

She might also check the organization's salary statistics against her own.

Ms. Chinoda's pay jumped by 22 percent in 2007, pushing her compensation to $569,808 — $300,000 in salary and $269,808 in bonuses. That's in line with other big blood banks, but it's out of whack with the national average for nonprofit groups. In a Charity Navigator review of 2008 salaries for 5,324 CEOs, the national average was $148,972. Ms. Chinoda is making twice that in salary alone.

Her compensation dropped to $506,770 in 2008 because of a decrease in bonus pay, and she's now frozen her base salary, which is a good move. But her overall compensation package still raises eyebrows considering the charitable nature of her work. She says she has a great deal of responsibility in overseeing 1,200 employees. True, but Orange County School Superintendent Ron Blocker has nearly 175,000 children and many thousands of employees under his charge, yet he makes less than $300,000.

Nonprofit groups shouldn't be forced to work out of damp basements filled with broken-down furniture. But neither should they behave like Fortune 500 companies.

It's not just a blood-bank problem. Kathy Ramsberger, president of Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center, got an 11½ percent raise and a 10 percent bonus in 2007, bumping her salary to at least $193,000 for running the nonprofit organization.

Sure, those increases came before the economy went sour, and last year she received a 3 percent raise and no bonus. That's more in line with reality, but the earlier generosity becomes awkward when arts-center supporters are scrambling to keep the troubled project on track.

Ms. Chinoda and Ms. Ramsberger represent causes and projects that are good for this community, and we support them. The community should, too.

But as such, their groups — just like public and quasi-public agencies — should have policies, practices and salaries that are above reproach. Secrecy, and a reluctance to change, invite suspicion.

USA Today: Giving by the Numbers

2009-04-22T12:04:00.004+01:00

USA Today is currently showing an interesting graphic data set about volunteering and personal giving. It shows the economics of giving, as well as a state by state rankings in contributions to nonprofits and volunteer time. Take a look at it here.

Nonprofits Pressured as Jobs Remain Open

2009-04-21T00:27:00.007+01:00

From Mike Spector at the Wall Street Journal, an interesting trend in nonprofit management staffing:

Nonprofits, already strained from declining donations, are facing another problem that could compound their woes: widening vacancies in senior leadership positions.

Despite the swelling ranks of jobless Americans from big corporate firms, many charities have been searching for months to fill key management roles. All told, about 77,000 senior management positions were open at nonprofits in 2008, according to a survey by the Bridgespan Group, a Boston firm that advises nonprofits. Those vacancies were 43% higher than Bridgespan had forecast two years earlier. What's more, an additional 24,000 senior positions are expected to open this year, Bridgespan found.

James Cleveland, president of Boston-based Jumpstart, a nonprofit that pairs college-student mentors with disadvantaged preschool children, has seen his staff stretched thin.

He would like to spend more time courting donors. Instead, he is often tied up overseeing the charity because he lacks a vice president of operations. Another unmet need: a vice president for government relations to help maintain the nonprofit's AmeriCorps community-service funding and nurture other donor relationships.

Mr. Cleveland already has laid off about 13% of his staff and slashed his budget to $15.5 million from $17 million as the recession drives down revenue. Jumpstart has grown quickly over the past several years and now serves 15,000 children in several U.S. cities. "I'm spending a lot more time operating the organization at a time when I should be spending a lot more time" raising money, he says.

Elsewhere, the YMCA in Atlanta has been looking for a chief financial officer for a few months, while the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship in New York needs a fund-raising chief. Project Sunshine, a New York charity that provides services to hospitalized children, took nine months to find the new executive director it just hired.

The reasons for the paucity of nonprofit leaders are myriad. More jobs are being created as nonprofits grow and become more complex. At the same time, many baby boomers are retiring, vacating nonprofit jobs.

The positions can be hard to fill because nonprofits pay less than for-profit companies; executive directors of charities with budgets between $500,000 and $1 million earned about $75,000 on average in 2006, according to GuideStar, an electronic database that gathers information about nonprofits.

Many charities are also insular in their searches, favoring those candidates with nonprofit experience over private-sector candidates. They worry that some talented laid-off employees from corporate America might be bad cultural fits with their organization's mission, or that they are interested mainly in a short-term paycheck, primed to jump ship when the economy rebounds.

Many nonprofit leaders today are unsure whether candidates from the private sector are "looking for a port in the storm," says David Simms, a partner at Bridgespan. "The last thing you need is to bring on senior leadership talent that's not committed to the mission."

Still, Mr. Simms says the current recession should serve as "a wake-up call" to some nonprofits to cast a wider net, tapping for-profit expertise flooding the job market in areas such as finance. In the past few years, many wealthy donors have increasingly looked for solid business plans at charities before committing money.

In some cases, business-minded candidates today are steering clear of nonprofits, daunted by the prospect of trying to boost donations during an historic downturn, says Marilyn Machlowitz, who runs an executive-search firm specializing in nonprofits.

For some candidates, "their faces wince visibly when I broach fund-raising," Ms. Machlowitz says.

Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com

Jacksonville Green Expo!

2009-04-14T00:22:00.006+01:00

This expo has legs. There are now over 100 exhibitors registered. Looks like it is going to be well attended and we wish to update you about the latest developments and added events.

We are finding that "Green Businesses" are doing rather well in this economy and it is likely to get even better for them as we grow out of this economic down cycle. There is a lot of new investor and funding attention to this sector. Here is an opportunity to learn more about the coming "Green Wave" in Jacksonville...

The 2nd Jacksonville Green Expo will be a two-day event to be held on Saturday and Sunday, April 25th and 26th, 2009 at the Prime Osborn Convention Center, downtown Jacksonville. The 2nd Jacksonville Green Expo, will be a much bigger event than last year and we will be featuring new and innovative technologies, added to a dynamic mix of exhibitors,expert speakers and workshops.

The first Green Awards Breakfast will honor the winning nominees in three different categories: non-profit, business, and individual. The winners in each category will be selected if they have shown a proven track record in actively promoting "green awareness" in Jacksonville.

ADMISSION: $5.00 PER ADULT
CHILDREN UNDER 12 - FREE

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE GREEN EXPO:
If you can, please carpool, vanpool or ride a bike or bus to and from the green expo!

If you ride your bicycle to the green expo you will get FREE Zombie Valet bike parking and a gift!

There will be a Green Awards Breakfast on Saturday, April 25 from 8.00am to 9.30am

US Senator George McGovern will be speaking at the green expo exhibition hall on Saturday April 25 at 1pm

There will be a solar powered car on display on both days of the green expo!!

Miss Florida Jesicca Minch will be taking pictures and signing autographs

Green Kids Zone where Radio Disney will teach kids to recycle, what it means to be green, etc

Green Film Festival with over 10 go green short films and documentaries

Over 20 really exciting classes and workshops

Free giveaways of green products and services

Locally-grown organic produce

Low emission and hybrid car demos

Free Going Green tips for your home and business

Organic food, coffee, beer and wine tasting

Solar and wind energy demos

On site used electronics recycling (PLEASE BRING OLD AND USED ELECTRONCS)

Recycle drive (PLEASE BRING OLD BUT CLEAN AND REUSABLE HOUSEHOLD ITEMS LIKE CLOTHS, SHOES, TOYS, FURNITURE, CANNED FOODS, ETC)

Batteries Plus will be accepting all types of used and old batteries so that they can be properly disposed!

Envionmental books and DVD's

Hourly Green Raffle Drawing

Green issues networking and discussion sessions

Information from local "green" organizations...and much more!

Nonprofits Angling for Federal Stimulus Money

2009-04-09T22:52:00.003+01:00

From the Orlando Business Journal and Melanie Stawicki Azam.

Jacksonville nonprofits need to collaborate to move forward. Here is an example out of Orlando.

Businesses and state governments aren’t the only ones eager for federal stimulus dollars — local nonprofits also want a share of the funds.

Take, for instance, Harbor House of Central Florida and Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando. They’re collaborating on a proposal for a three-year $500,000 grant involving federal stimulus dollars through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

If approved, Jewish Family Services would use the grant to expand its family stabilization program — which was created four years ago and helps about 100 struggling families annually with budgeting, counseling and more — to specifically aid domestic violence survivors.

Karen Broussard, Jewish Family Services’ director of program development, said the new program would start June 1 and complement Harbor House’s supportive housing program, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, that provides up to one year of rent assistance for domestic violence victims in Seminole, Osceola and Orange counties.

5 Tips For Keeping Your Volunteers

2009-04-06T15:52:00.005+01:00

Hardy Smith Consulting recently submitted these volunteer tips to the ASBDC and we are posting them for you. There are few things that require more skill than recruiting and managing volunteers. They are a vital component of our nonprofit community here in Jacksonville.

April 19-25 is National Volunteer Appreciation Week. Will those volunteers you are recognizing this year still be around for next year's recognition activities?

The Corporation for National & Community Service's annual survey on volunteering in America consistently reports millions of people volunteer their time to worthwhile charitable and community causes.

However, the report also shows equally large numbers of people each year are giving up on their volunteer activities.

This creates a revolving door of volunteers triggering a never ending cycle of recruiting and training to replace those who have left. If you could increase your volunteer retention rate, how much time and money could you save?

Understanding the volunteer's perspective is critical if you want to reduce your rate of volunteer loss.Here are 5 tips that will help.

Realize people get involved for their reasons and a good cause may not be enough to keep them. Take time to understand why your volunteer signed up. What is their true purpose for wanting to participate with your particular organization? They are likely to have a need that relates more to a personal reason and your organization or cause provides an opportunity for meeting that need. Are you fulfilling that need? If not, chances are high that is a volunteer or member you'll loose.

I challenge you to test yourself to find out how well you know your board members or volunteers. Do you know anything about their family? Do you know when their birthday is? Can you name their hobbies? Can you describe what they do for a living other than name their place of employment? The big challenge question for you is: Do you know what their personal reason for being involved with your groupreally is?

People want to feel connected. Work to build personal relationships with your volunteers. If you don't know them, you'll loose them. Help make sure relationships are being fostered between volunteers. Relationships develop connection to your organization and will keep your volunteers involved. Showing up to work with friends is a major motivator. Create opportunities that ensure the new person is made to feel a welcomed part of the organization.

Consistent communications with volunteers will also help with your connection efforts.

Don't use "sink or swim" management techniques. Often organizations will put someone in a leadership role without providing guidance, background information, training, or assistance from those previously serving in the same role. This common occurrence is a big contributor to frustration and increases chances of failure.

People don't volunteer to be frustrated. They obviously don't sign up to see their efforts fail. This negative experience is another contributing factor for turnover. In addition to losing another volunteer, your organization also has allowed an important activity to not be successful by not stepping in to ensure the success of those in leadership roles.

Loading up an eager performer who won't say no is a sure way to create burnout. It is easy to give tasks to a new volunteer who is willing to say yes. How many times do you see those shinning stars flame out in a short period of time? Keep that performer around longer by working harder to get others involved instead of always turning to the easy yes person.

Take time to recognize your volunteers. People want to be appreciated. Don't wait for your year end awards. Be generous with phrase and recognition. Make sure your volunteers know they aren't being taken for granted. A simple thank you that shows someone their efforts are making a difference can have a huge impact on how they feel about the organization. The better they feel, the longer they will stay.

Act on these 5 tips and you will help make sure the volunteers you are recognizing during this year's Volunteer Appreciation Week will still be contributing their valuable service a year from now!

Also see other volunteer articles on The Third Sector:

New Sources for Volunteer Management in Jacksonville?

Volunteers