Does your nonprofit face a fundraising generation gap?

While this is data from the UK, I think it is worth considering. Has your nonprofit done any studies to understand this? In the UK, older donors give 38 per cent more than baby boomers, according to a report by the fundraising software company Blackbaud. Charities are facing a generation gap in fundraising, with older donors giving 38 per cent more than the post-war 'baby boomer' generation, research suggests.

The report, The Next Generation of UK Giving by the fundraising software company Blackbaud, surveyed 1,498 UK donors of all ages about how they give and engage with charities.

According to the report, not enough is being done to address a potential long-term donations deficit in which older donors, born in 1945 or earlier, give 27 per cent more each year than those from 'Generation X', people born between 1965 and 1980.

More here: Charities face fundraising generation gap, giving survey says.

Free eBooks for fundraisers and nonprofits from Network for Good

At the Network for Good, they generate lots of great, free content.

Their library of free ebooks for fundraisers is excellent. You can view and download the guides here. Learn about everything from mobile to social media to fundraising to behavior economics.

The Wilson Nonprofit Report for April 29

Uncharitable: How businesses co-opt nonprofits and undermine their potential Well, this critique is blistering. Since I did publish the Ted Talk from Dan Pallotta, fairness would dictate promoting those who don’t agree.  More …

As a nonprofit executive, what should you know about WebRTC? Imagine holding video conferences with your volunteers across any device. That is bold and a game changer. More …

Is your nonprofit ready to join the lean start up movement? Are you starting a new program and want to use the lean start up process. Be prepared for lean’s consequences. Your nonprofit business model eventually leads to a set of implicit rules, norms, and metrics that govern its operation. Following the lean start-up methodology can require making rapid decisions about funding a particular venture; quickly killing ideas that hit too many roadblocks; or launching an idea before it has gone through the typical quality control process.  More …

Johns Hopkins Infographic: What makes nonprofits special? Johns Hopkins University released a study in December of 2012 that surveyed the core values that distinguish nonprofits, entitled “What Do Nonprofits Stand For? Renewing the nonprofit value commitment.” Now, Johns Hopkins has released an infographic featuring those seven key values the surveyors viewed as making nonprofits stand out:

• Productive


• Effective


• Enriching


• Empowering


• Responsive


• Reliable


• Caring

The infographic is shown here:

Some mistakes to avoid in online fundraising campaigns An online fundraiser is an effective way to obtain money your charity needs to grow and thrive. Online fundraisers are more than just putting a big “donate now” button on your website and mentioning it a few times. Online fundraisers take work, and like everything else planning. Here are some mistakes you should avoid when running an online fundraising campaign.  More …

Uncharitable: How businesses co-opt nonprofits and undermine their potential

Well, this critique is blistering. Since I did publish the Ted Talk from Dan Pallotta, fairness would dictate promoting those who don't agree.

I'm not sure that this is an either/or argument. Maybe we should look at it as yes/and.

What’s more mystifying is why Dan Pallotta would be popular among nonprofits, activists, and social changemakers. It’s clear Dan has no substantive message for them.

via Uncharitable: How businesses co-opt nonprofits and undermine their potential | Rootwork | Advocacy Online.

As a nonprofit executive, what should you know about WebRTC?

[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignright" width="259"] Ray Wang at Constellation Research[/caption]

Imagine holding video conferences with your volunteers across any device. That is bold and a game changer.

WebRTC is an emerging standard that enables real-time voice, video and data sharing in a Web browser without the need for browser plugins. Potentially billions of devices supporting a browser – PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and a host of new devices – from a variety of manufacturers will be real-time communications-enabled. Whereas browsers have typically interacted only with one or more Web servers, WebRTC allows browsers to exchange media and data directly and in a secure manner.

This is big. Check out the detail from my friend Ray Wang at Constellation Research. More here: Ten Things CIOs Should Know about WebRTC | Constellation Research Inc..

How to Deliver Patient-Centered Care: Learn from Service Industries

According the to the HBR, over the past decade, patient-centered care has become a mantra for high-quality health care. Policymakers, researchers, physician-leaders, and patients have all cited the need for care to be tailored to patients' unique needs and preferences. And there is solid evidence that patient-centered care can help improve care quality and reduce costs. However, in the rush to become more patient-centered, the health care system has misplaced its focus.

More here: How to Deliver Patient-Centered Care: Learn from Service Industries - Brian Powers, Amol S. Navathe, and Sachin H. Jain - Harvard Business Review.

Is your nonprofit ready to join the lean start up movement?

Are you starting a new program and want to use the lean start up process. Be prepared for lean's consequences. Your nonprofit business model eventually leads to a set of implicit rules, norms, and metrics that govern its operation. Following the lean start-up methodology can require making rapid decisions about funding a particular venture; quickly killing ideas that hit too many roadblocks; or launching an idea before it has gone through the typical quality control process.

Nonprofits with rigorous annual-planning processes or ones with very deliberate, consensus-based decision mechanisms (warning to most nonprofits) will struggle to truly embrace the lean start-up approach because it will run counter to many of these systems. Leaders have to carefully ensure that their resource allocation, portfolio management, and incentive systems encourage the rapid-fire experimentation that characterizes a lean start-up.

The lean approach can help launch a new program. Is your nonprofit ready?

Johns Hopkins Infographic: What makes nonprofits special?

Johns Hopkins University released a study in December of 2012 that surveyed the core values that distinguish nonprofits, entitled “What Do Nonprofits Stand For? Renewing the nonprofit value commitment.” Now, Johns Hopkins has released an infographic featuring those seven key values the surveyors viewed as making nonprofits stand out:

• Productive


• Effective


• Enriching


• Empowering


• Responsive


• Reliable


• Caring

The infographic is shown below:



via Johns Hopkins Infographic: What Makes Nonprofits Special? - NPQ - Nonprofit Quarterly.

Fundraising costs are not a measure of a charity's effectiveness | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional

This may seem counterintuitive when the survey also shows that when asked to grade against a direct question on the most important qualities for trust and confidence, "ensuring that a reasonable proportion of donations make it to the end cause" was the highest graded quality. The survey explains that: "This indicates that while respondents may state the importance of donations reaching the end cause, it is actually the impact that charities have that has the strongest impact on their overall trust levels."

Measuring and reporting on impact is not easy to do but at the very least more reporting on activities, outputs and results are needed to shift the focus from using accounts to arrive at cost ratios to fuel the 'stories' of charity inefficiency. Regrettably there continues to be a belief that charities can be evaluated and graded by looking at ratios, such as fundraising costs in accounts, and comparing them to the amount raised.

via Fundraising costs are not a measure of a charity's effectiveness | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional.

via Fundraising costs are not a measure of a charity's effectiveness | Voluntary Sector Network | Guardian Professional.

What is your mobile strategy?

According to Latha Maripuri, Director of IBM Mobile and Security Services, mobile technology has unquestionably changed how we interact in both our business and personal lives. In fact, mobile devices have quickly moved from a nice-to-have technology to a necessity for most of us.

But the integration of mobile within our lives doesn’t stop there. We’re using mobile technology in innovative ways and countless places across every industry. For example, doctors can track therapeutic effectiveness through remote monitoring apps, keeping them updated on patients even when neither is in the hospital. The examples are endless.

More here: Mapping Out the Top 4 Strategies for the Mobile Enterprise « A Smarter Planet Blog.

Some mistakes to avoid in online fundraising campaigns

An online fundraiser is an effective way to obtain money your charity needs to grow and thrive. Online fundraisers are more than just putting a big “donate now” button on your website and mentioning it a few times. Online fundraisers take work, and like everything else planning. Here are some mistakes you should avoid when running an online fundraising campaign.

More here: 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Running an Online Fundraising Campaign | Business 2 Community.

Can point-of-sale donations make a big impact on small charities?

The Nonprofit Research Collaborative has published the findings of its most recent Nonprofit Fundraising Study. According to the data presented, 70% of nonprofits expect to see their donations climb this year.

“Overall consumer confidence in the economy rose last year and that created a more positive environment for charities to go out in and build relationships [with donors],” explains Andrew Watt, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Giving a tremendous boost to the escalation in charitable donations is the evolution of payment donation options now available to the nonprofit community.

DonateWiseNow, for example, is a new solution for charitable organizations looking to capitalized on new market opportunities. DonateWiseNow offers cardholders making a credit or debit card purchase the option to donate at the point of sale to select nonprofit organizations. Cardholders can donate $1, $3, or $5 dollars or may round-up their transaction value to the next dollar through the point-of-sale payment device.

According to DonateWiseNow President Robert DiMattina, who created the program for Cynergy Data, the goal wasn't to simply replicate the point-of-sale fundraising strategy that requires a cashier to ask a customer to donate $1 - a situation to which some consumers are profoundly resistant. As a result, DonateWiseNow was designed to serve up a consumer-facing signature-capture device to help customers donate in a "subtler" manner.

“We wanted to create a very discreet experience for the consumer,” DiMattina says.

The Nonprofit Research Collaborative study shows that charities largely intend to establish ambitious fundraising goals this year and will make key investments of time, treasure, and faith into new technologies and related services that continue to drive donations even in times of economic difficulty.

The Nonprofit Fundraising Study is available now at np­research.org.

How to Build an Online 'Cult' of Constituents

Speaking at Inc.'s 2013 GrowCo conference in New Orleans, Baratunde Thurston shared tips on how businesses can use personal stories online to attract customers, motivate friends and customers, and ultimately drive business results. The comedian, founder of social media consultancy Cultivated Wit, and author of the best-selling book “How to Be Black,” used examples from his own youth, his time running the digital arm of satirical news website The Onion, and from his efforts to sell and promote his book online using everything from Twitter and Facebook to live broadcasts of his open word processor as he wrote it.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Baratunde Thurston[/caption]

“Tell your story. For any new business, that story is a big part of how customers will find themselves connected to you”

Here are highlights from his talk:

Use the entire animal. Don’t be afraid to multipurpose things you already have created. After he wrote his book, for example, Thurston created a spreadsheet of its funniest sentences, and then edited each one down to a Twitter-length message. “Don't be afraid to recycle,” he said. “I wrote 60,000 words, you think I need to write new tweets? They’re already in the book.”

Piggyback on a bigger story. The most efficient way to gain visibility for your product or service is to find a conversation that's already happening online, and join it. “There is very little value in going totally against the grain, creating extra work,” said Thurston. “How to Be Black,” for example, was published during Black History Month. “It just made sense.”

Start a cult. Or an army. To promote his book, Thurston sought help from friends, family, even “the people who used to rob me.” In one promotional activity he sent out advance copies of the book, asking the recipient to discuss the book over Thanksgiving dinner, and then report back on the book’s Facebook page. The promotion didn’t drive a lot of sales—but it did result in many 5-star reviews on Amazon.com.

Ask for help. “Specifically, make it easy for people to help,” Thurston said. “You already know them, you went to school with them, you worked with them...they are already invested. They really care.” Even if they don’t have money, there's probably something else they can do, Thurston said.

As a nonprofit leader, do you understand the benefits of personal use of social media?

As a nonprofit leader, do you understand the benefits of personal use of social media? There are many benefits both to your organization and professionally. While it may initially take some time to learn and acquire the habit, there are ways social media usage can make our time investment both more efficient and more fruitful.

“In my experience, I have found that by engaging on twitter, I have actually saved time. In the past, I made an effort to visit various blogs, websites, and other online information sources to stay apprised of my field (both philanthropy and the areas where the Irvine Foundation works). I have found that by following the right feeds, both institutional and individual, I get that same information more easily and, frankly, I am exposed to far more that I would never have found on my own. To be sure, it’s an investment of time, but I actually think it’s a more efficient use.” ~~Jim Canales, CEO of the Irvine Foundation

 

Should your nonprofit host a Twitter chat?

Did you know there are 400 million tweets generated every day and 50% of all Americans see, read or hear about a tweet daily? As you can Twitter has become a very popular and powerful social medium and can become a great marketing tool for a nonprofit. It can be used for customer service, public relations and a quick way to share key knowledge.

Another way your nonprofit can utilize Twitter is by holding a Twitter chat. By definition a Twitter chat is simply an interactive conversation ran on Twitter, held at a specific time on a specific topic.

To host a Twitter chat, you simply need a Twitter handle (eg. @yournonprofit), a hashtag, which is simply a dedicated hyperlinked keyword with the “#” in front of it (eg. #yournonprofit) and a pre-determined date and time. Aside from the time invested in planning and promoting them, Twitter chats are free on Twitter to do.

Twitter chats are a great way to have an organized conversation between a nonprofit and constituents on Twitter. They can be a great way to engage with donors and ask about their needs and wants and to announce a new service your nonprofit maybe offering.

For example, Apple may use the hashtag #iphone in a 30 minute Twitter chat to discuss with the Twitter community about new features on their newest smartphone and a way to have an open, transparent forum to discuss customer concerns and wants.

Twitter chats can be very affective in building loyalty on your mission or services but they need to be marketed ahead of time on other mediums such as in email blasts and on other social media channels. A spur of the moment Twitter chat probably won’t get the biggest following.

Growing Constituents And Revenues Are Top Priorities For 2013

As more signs point to strengthening economic activity in the US and selected regions of other parts of the world, corporate austerity is fading and growth is back in the spotlight. Acquiring customers, improving the customer experience, and growing revenues have returned to center stage. Forrester Research recently asked more than 2,000 global business decision-makers at large organizations what their “critical” and “high” priorities are for the next 12 months. We found that:

• Their top priority is acquiring and retaining customers (73%).
• Tied for the top spot is growing overall company revenue (73%).
• The third most important priority is addressing the rising expectations of customers and improving customer satisfaction (68%).
• Lowering operating costs now only takes sixth place on the priority list (63%).

It is evident from these data that effectively managing customer relationships has become the top priority for business success.

Better customer experiences drive improvement for three types of loyalty: willingness to consider another purchase, likelihood to switch business to a competitor, and likelihood to recommend to a friend or colleague. Forrester's models estimate that the revenue impact from a 10-percentage-point improvement in a company’s performance, as measured by Forrester's Customer Experience Index (CXi) score, could exceed $1 billion.

More here: Carpe Diem With The CRM Playbook: Growing Customers And Revenues Are Top Priorities For 2013 | Forrester Blogs.

The Wilson Nonprofit Report for Thursday, April 18, 2013

The only thing worse for a marketer than giving fundraisers no leads, is giving them bad ones: According to 1to1 Media, the only thing worse for a marketer than giving fundraisers no leads, is giving them bad ones. Lack of information on prospects such as their organization size, industry sector, job title, or just simple contact information can stop a record dead in its tracks, even though it may be a quality lead. Marketing processes like lead scoring, which prioritize the most important leads, are dependent upon correct information at the contact, demographic, and company level. More …

What do good nonprofit supporter engagement strategies look like? Here is a great visual from the recent NTEN conference. More …

Who are the most generous online U.S. cities? When it comes to charitable giving, some U.S. cities consistently rise to the top in their adoption of digital giving channels. Blackbaud recently released its fifth annual ranking of the Most Generous Online U.S. Cities based on 2012 online giving data from Blackbaud customers. More …

How Nonprofit Leaders Make Time for Social Media: Get Started With Small Steps: As a nonprofit leader, the best way to get started on social media is to make the commitment to make the time – like anything new whether it be a new exercise regimen or a diet and especially for learning a new tool, habit, or skill. Pick something small and an easy win and repeat for 3 weeks. Maybe you want to get started with Twitter – start by summarizing an article you have read and want to share. Don’t say you have #notimetotweet. Just do it. More …

Your desk job makes you fat, sick and dead … Podio co-founder Jon Froda along with panelists Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Work+Life Fit Inc, Kate Lister from Telework Research & Richard Leyland, Founder of Worksnug explored the potential of ‘workshifting‘ and how working from anywhere has immense possibilities when it comes to productivity & work-life balance. More …

Are there risks to mobile CRM?: There’s no stopping the mobile CRM revolution, but those who rush into it headlong with an eye only to the many benefits may be in for an unpleasant shock. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, mobile CRM is laden with risks, too — from getting on the wrong side of the customer to getting on the wrong side of the federal government. Then there are the myriad security concerns that go along with making sensitive data accessible on a device that may be woefully insecure. More  …

How to build a great nonprofit Board of Directors: Identifying and recruiting board members can be a daunting task, especially if an organization is new or reshaping itself. Either way, existing members of the board and community have a challenge ahead of them when identifying and recruiting qualified candidates. Blue Avocado, a nonprofit magazine for nonprofits, compiled a list of the Ten Biggest Mistakes Boards and Executives Make. Some of the mistakes mentioned can be avoided by trying out a couple strategies. More …

What do good nonprofit supporter engagement strategies look like?

What do good nonprofit supporter engagement strategies look like? Here is a great visual from the recent NTEN conference.

How Nonprofit Leaders Make Time for Social Media: Get Started With Small Steps

As a nonprofit leader, the best way to get started on social media is to make the commitment to make the time – like anything new whether it be a new exercise regiment or a diet and especially for learning a new tool, habit, or skill.

Pick something small and an easy win and repeat for 3 weeks. Maybe you want to get started with Twitter – start by summarizing an article you have read and want to share. Don’t say you have #notimetotweet.

Just do it.

Your desk job makes you fat, sick and dead ...

Podio co-founder Jon Froda along with panelists Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Work+Life Fit Inc, Kate Lister from Telework Research & Richard Leyland, Founder of Worksnug explored the potential of ‘workshifting‘ and how working from anywhere has immense possibilities when it comes to productivity & work-life balance.

[slideshare id=17140312&style=border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px&sc=no]

Are there risks to mobile CRM?

There's no stopping the mobile CRM revolution, but those who rush into it headlong with an eye only to the many benefits may be in for an unpleasant shock. As if we didn't have enough to worry about, mobile CRM is laden with risks, too -- from getting on the wrong side of the customer to getting on the wrong side of the federal government. Then there are the myriad security concerns that go along with making sensitive company data accessible on a device that may be woefully insecure.

More here: The Hidden Risks of Mobile CRM, Part 1 | Mobile CRM | CRM Buyer.

Will you shape the vision?

IT is like business engine, CIOs are accountable for critical part of business that is constantly changing and evolving. Contemporary CIOs should be capable of evolving leadership skills to not only match pace with the changes in technology and the pace at which organization can effectively manage these changes, but also proactively drive changes in business transformation.

Shape the Vision: CIO and his/her team can play a large role in shaping a vision of the firm as a place where passionate individuals want to connect with and learn from one another. CIO offices also have a significant responsibility to choose and deploy the IT that will help their firms realize the vision. Simply put, IT can no longer just be about numbers and algorithms; it has an opportunity to be a significant catalyst for passion and a tool for encouraging questing and connecting the innovation dots.

Ignite Passion: The range of technologies have emerged that can help foster a deeper sense of connection and purpose in employees, ignite latent worker passion and bring together disparate parts of the organization. But these new tools also necessitate a new way of thinking, a creative way to do things and a flexible way to work smartly.

Set Evolution: The emergence of the CIO coincided with the birth of the PC and end user computing. That role certainly matured as the Internet age unfolded. Now, it’s social, mobile, consumerization of IT, Big Data and a major shift in how IT services are delivered (cloud). These changes are inspiring spiritual conversations around the role of the CIO, these are all evolutionary and in some ways even predictable.

Hirable like me?

Most managers would like to think they base their hiring decisions on candidates’ skill. But new research suggests that once a candidate passes through an initial HR screening, a bigger factor comes into play: how similar the interviewee is to the person doing the hiring. Kellogg School of Business assistant professor Lauren Rivera spent nine months embedded in a professional service organization and noted three key reasons why this takes place: the "Will this person fit in?" question; the fact that people define merit on the basis of their own experiences; and that managers get excited by candidates who have similar passions and interests. Hiring managers forget that "there are other ways people can a) be likeable and b) be socially skilled other than being a mirror image," Rivera says.

More here: Hirable Like Me (Kellogg Insight)

How to build a great nonprofit Board of Directors

Identifying and recruiting board members can be a daunting task, especially if an organization is new or reshaping itself. Either way, existing members of the board and community have a challenge ahead of them when identifying and recruiting qualified candidates. Blue Avocado, a nonprofit magazine for nonprofits, compiled a list of the Ten Biggest Mistakes Boards and Executives Make. Some of the mistakes mentioned can be avoided by trying out a couple strategies.

One of the more overwhelming challenges is determining the “Who,” “What,” and, eventually, “How” of establishing a board. Who do we want? What is actually necessary? How do we even find them?

More here: Building a board | MSU Extension.

What is the difference between responsive vs. adaptive web design?

Users who access your websites through their mobile devices or other display screens really do not care what method you use, just as long as that they can effectively navigate your website on whatever device they happen to be using.

For that reason, the two methods described in this article have been devised for web developers to meet the challenge, and while responsive (RWD) and adaptive (AWD) design methods are both addressing the issue for rendering websites on mobile devices, there are subtle differences between them that it helps to be aware of.

More here: What is the difference between responsive vs. adaptive web design? | TechRepublic.

What is your new ecosystem?

The need for change is obvious. The CIO as change agent not only touches his/her own function, but also need make influence on entire organization and business ecosystem as well, it takes strategic planning, methodology and practice in orchestrating such transformation. This is a big deal. If the business isn't strategic it will be impossible for technology to be strategic as well.

Define Roadmap: In fact, the required changes, at the most fundamental level, need be well documented. A clearly defined roadmap is available, and industry best practices are in place to serve as a framework upon which the solution can be implemented over time. The transformation to a more proactive service/solution delivery organization with repeatable management processes in place of the 'crisis of the day' leadership model, can be a reality, but only if the CIO is the proactive, visible and charismatic sponsor.

Optimize Process: Meanwhile, to compete, business unit leaders need IT to ensure the availability and reliability of their business process automation tools/technology, so their staff can function as efficiently as promised, back when they justified the tool purchase. In fact, many organizations have little insight into their cost structures and who is consuming the assets. They have no idea where they are spending their money on and often assume it is mainly being spent on items which are actually much lower on the list. Every IT finance group can capture costs but the challenge is to have visibility and traceability between costs and the assets consuming those costs. The leadership team needs IT to be the business process optimization expert for the company, to find creative sources for competitive advantages, to better compete.

Ask for Help: One of the first things a CIO must do in a transformation initiative of this magnitude is to ask the business for help. The effort will fail if the business units are unwilling to invest resources and accept a "period of pain" where service levels may be adversely impacted. CIO can envision themselves talking with business unit leaders, selling them on the challenges and the vision for the future. Will CIO be open to new perspective, willing to adapt the new skill set to the demands of evolving technology or adapt their role to the evolving business requirements for technology? Will CIO be learning agile to understand business ecosystem and connect innovation dot cross-functional, cross-industrial and cross-cultural border? It takes both attitude and aptitude.

The only thing worse for a marketer than giving fundraisers no leads, is giving them bad ones

According to 1to1 Media, the only thing worse for a marketer than giving sales people no leads, is giving them bad ones. Lack of information on prospects such as their organization size, industry sector, job title, or just simple contact information can stop a record dead in its tracks, even though it may be a quality lead. Marketing processes like lead scoring, which prioritize the most important leads, are dependent upon correct information at the contact, demographic, and company level.

As a result, data quality is especially critical when every aspect of demand generation is under a microscope to prove its contribution to revenue. In the process-oriented world of marketing automation, every percentage point counts, and every factor that contributes to conversion must be scrutinized. Successful lead generation within both CRM systems and marketing automation relies on an abundance of good, clean data.

via Why the Data will Dictate CRM and Automation Success in 2013.

Who are the most generous online U.S. cities?

When it comes to charitable giving, some U.S. cities consistently rise to the top in their adoption of digital giving channels. Blackbaud recently released its fifth annual ranking of the Most Generous Online U.S. Cities based on 2012 online giving data from Blackbaud customers.

The rankings remain largely unchanged from last year's analysis, with the top four cities holding firm. For a second straight year, Seattle, Wash., earned the top spot, followed by Alexandria, Va., and Washington, D.C. Minneapolis made the biggest strides, jumping four spots to enter the Top 10 in 2012. Bellevue, Wash., dropped one position and out of the Top 10.

The analysis ranks 265 cities with total population of more than 100,000 based on per capita online giving. More than $509 million was donated online by donors in the 265 major cities, a 15 percent jump from 2011.

The current rankings come from donations processed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012.

Top Ten Most Generous Online U.S. Cities

1. Seattle, Wash.


2. Alexandria, Va.


3. Washington, D.C.


4. Arlington, Va.


5. Ann Arbor, Mich.


6. Cambridge, Mass.


7. Berkeley, Calif.


8. San Francisco, Calif.


9. St. Louis, Mo.


10. Minneapolis, Minn.

More here: Blackbaud Ranks Most Generous Online U.S. Cities for 2012; Five N.C. Cities in Top 50 | Philanthropy Journal.

YouTube Announces Winners of 2013 DoGooder Video Awards

Recognizing the best in video for social good, YouTube announced the four winners of its fourth annual DoGooder Video Awards Friday.

The categories, which include "Best Non-Profit Video" and "Funny for Good," celebrate videos that successfully tap into the power of the social web to garner support for good causes.

More here: YouTube Announces Winners of 2013 DoGooder Video Awards.

As a fundraiser, are you tired of endless appeals?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a fascinating interview with fundraising guru Penelope Burk, author of the upcoming Donor-Centered Leadership. Turns out it’s not just donors who grow weary of too many direct mail appeals and telemarketing calls.  It’s apparently a frequent reason fundraisers quit their jobs—the relentless pressure to bombard donors.  They’d prefer to take the time to figure out which solicitations work, but they often aren’t given the time or latitude to have a more thoughtful approach.

Over-solicitation, says Burk, is the most common reasons donors give for stopping their support of a charity.  Instead donors want to know what’s been done with their money.  Then they’d be willing to give again.  But too often, they get appeals instead of thanks and reports on impact.

Here’s Burk’s advice.

1. Thank donors after they give.

2. Send them a follow up thanks with detailed information about how their money was used.

3. Only ask for money AFTER you do these two things, and when you do, be as specific as you can about why you are asking for money.  What specific cause will benefit?

Will you transform the culture?

Many IT departments are still reeling from the "slam it in and fix it on the fly" approach that was required by the rush to automate all core business processes (late 1990s & early 2000s). A reactive, crisis-driven and internally focused 'systems management' culture evolved as a result, such culture becomes barrier for IT to reach higher level maturity.

From “Heroic effort” to “Collaboration Effect”: IT department-wide culture is maintained by a 'Heroic effort' reward system, a value system that is proving to be nearly intractable. Along with the Hero mentality, expertise silo evolved a non-collaborative, finger-pointing culture that renders truly effective SLAs impossible to measure & enforce. A fundamental change in the heroic effort rewards culture is required to put an end to the reactive, crisis-driven and technology systems focused role for the IT department, and shift to business-driven, collaborative IT mentality because the business requirements for technology management have changed. The rapid push for offering ‘cloud-based’ services and the need to retool IT to centrally manage these, is certainly a perfect opportunity to rethink the role of IT and make a cogent case for a service-level driven rewards and recognition culture

The transformation journey must start with the CIO. However, very few CIOs are willing to step away from the existing IT management paradigm and hero-based rewards culture to adopt a new role as a culture change transformation sponsor. This has not been a required leadership skill-set for the CIO role to date. It is a dramatic change in skills, priorities and rewards tactics. Can veteran CIOs who came up the ranks accept this need for a dramatic change in IT culture? Will they have the required skill set to sponsor such a change? Do they have the charisma to achieve buy-in from the current IT staff. Or will it take a crisis? CIOs must drive the elimination of the heroic effort reward culture. This is the principal challenge for current “up through the ranks” CIOs. Recognizing the need for this fundamental change has not been easy for most veteran CIOs.

Be Change Agent to retool Organizational Culture: Culture is perhaps the most invisible, but powerful fabric surrounding organization, the toxic culture like water, which can sink the enterprise ship, IT is also at unique position to well align people, process and the latest technology to empower talent, enforce communication, enhance governance, and enable cross-functional collaboration, to retool organizational culture for achieving high business performance potential.

 

Google Adds Nonprofit Information To Knowledge Graph, Gives Them A Boost With Google+ Follow Buttons

With the introduction of Knowledge Graph last year, Google started showing information on the right-hand side of search results to help you figure out if you’re searching for the right thing, be it a person, place or thing.

Google has announced that it’s now filling up its Knowledge Graph with information about nonprofits, which will help people find the organization they’d like to check out and potentially donate to. Have you started to see your nonprofit show up yet? Is it helpful?

In its announcement, Google said that this is still in its early rollout phase, with more information being added all the time:

We’ve just started to add information about nonprofits to the Knowledge Graph. When you search for a nonprofit organization on Google.com, you will start to see information to the right side of the search results that highlights the nonprofit’s financials, cause, and recent Google+ posts. Start following the organization on Google+ directly from the panel by clicking the Follow button. To learn more about related nonprofits, click on one of the organizations under “People also search for” and a carousel of similar organizations will appear at the top of the search results. Over time, we’ll continue to work on bringing more nonprofit information into your search experience.

Related articles

• Google Adds Non-Profit Details To Knowledge Graph (searchengineland.com)


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Will you be the Change Agent?

Change is the second most popular word in 21st century. Why change is so tough and what really keeps (C-suite) executives from embracing organizational transformation is FEAR: fear of letting go of heroic leadership, fear of losing control, fear of navigating through uncharted territory, fear of chaos.

But change is inevitable, due to the CHANGE nature of technology, CIOs shouldn’t get pushed for change, they are actually at better position to play such a role as change agent in leading organizations’ transformation.

Will you be the change agent?

5 Social Media Marketing Tips for Nonprofits

According to David Bakke, a contributor for Money Crashers, there are a number of ways you can market your nonprofit, one method you shouldn’t ignore is using social media. Social media marketing allows you to reach a worldwide audience, and is very cost-effective. However, there are several “do’s” and “don’ts” you must keep in mind.

More here: 5 Social Media Marketing Tips for Nonprofits | GuideStar Blog.

What is the real cost of email?

Tom Cochran  believes that email is the most abused method of communication in every office environment. And the widespread perception that it has no incremental cost is chronically damaging workplace efficiency. According to Tom, the challenge we are facing isn't an aversion to technology, but change. I think that sums it up very well.

Tom suggests there is an entrenched level of comfort with email, making it habitual and a communications crutch. We have to take a holistic view and see email as one of many channels for collaboration. Adopt a breadth of tools to connect people, teach them the appropriate use of each and encourage smarter use of the right technology.

I also find that an open office environment creates less of a dependency on email as "literally" walls come down and teams naturally collaborate.

More here: Email Is Not Free - Tom Cochran - Harvard Business Review.

Who is responsible for your nonprofit Digital Community Building?

When it comes to building community and increasing brand awareness, some organizations hire communications, marketing, and engagement staff to handle these activities. And that makes sense -- someone needs to be charged with keeping a close eye on the organization’s community growth.

Jamie Millard and Lori L. Jacobwith also suggest that building awareness for your important work in an increasingly cluttered space can’t be the responsibility of just one person or even a department. When an organization embraces the culture of creating and empowering all staff to become “brand ambassadors,” authentic and exponential growth starts to happen.

More here: Ctrl+Alt+Delete: Rebooting Your Digital Community Building | NTEN.

Are you leveraging the power of your influential nonprofit followers on social media?

So, you have a Facebook and Twitter for your nonprofit. Great, so does everyone else.You also post content and updates several times a day. Wonderful, so does everyone else.

The point Artie Patel, VP of Business Development for Attentive.ly is making in this article is that having a social media presence and creating posts for existing followers is today’s baseline. Merely having a presence is not enough if you seriously want to further online advocacy campaigns and raise money for your nonprofit. It takes work and effort to do this, but it pays significant dividends for those organizations that are committed to actually devoting resources and time towards social media.

More here: Are you leveraging the power of your influential followers on social media? | GuideStar Blog.

Usage Of RSS Feeds

Google has announced that it will shut down Google Reader on July 1, 2013. In its announcement, Google states that it’s doing this because the usage of Google Reader has declined and it wants to concentrate on fewer products. There was a lot of buzz online about this decision, and some fanatical Google Reader fans put together a petition to keep the RSS reader alive. They garnered more than 50,000 signatures in just a few hours.



Forrester’s Technographics® data gives an understanding of the usage of RSS feeds over time. Google is right about the decline. The data shows that it was always only a dedicated group who used RSS feeds at least weekly — about 7% of US online adults in 2008; this had declined to just over 4% last year, with about one in 10 US online adults using RSS feeds about monthly.

RIP Google Reader. I will miss you.

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Why are the most successful leaders also givers?

Inc. editor-at-large Leigh Buchanan talks to organizational psychologist Adam Grant about his new book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. Expect to sit through heated conversations in the next few months about who in your circle is generous to a fault, who expects a quo for every quid, and who is out for what he can get.

That's how Adam Grant categorizes the ways people use interactions to succeed--or not--in their careers and lives. Grant's book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, is already garnering plaudits for the rigor of its science, the freshness of its arguments, and the pleasure of its prose. Inc. editor-at-large Leigh Buchanan spoke to Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, about how giving can help you lead.

More here: Why the Most Successful Leaders Are Givers | Inc.com.

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CRM Roundup for April 6

Evolving Social CRM to Become CRM—Again By: Esteban Kolsky (@ekolsky)

With the constant conversations about Social CRM, Esteban points out a key understanding that’s finally sinking in – Social CRM is just regular CRM now. In adapting to the new abilities the “social” aspect of CRM provides, Esteban recommends four critical steps for effective CRM implementation. These include using each channel for its respective purpose, rethinking your strategy within the new capabilities of CRM, focusing on bottom-line metrics over “fluff” metrics like followers, and embracing the change.

Scribe Online Platform Updated with New Visual Interface By: Jason Gumpert

MSDynamicsWorld’s Jason Gumpert covers the newest version of our Scribe Online Platform, with a focus on the easy-to-use visual UI of Integration Services (IS). With IS, as Scribe’s VP of Product Management Betsy Bilhorn explains, "The concepts (of the customer data integration) are natural language based and easy to pick up if you have any level of technical background – for each record, if this, do that.” This opens up data integration to more users to enable better decision making, lower TCO, and faster realization of benefits.

CRM Winners and Losers By: Chuck Schaeffer (@cschaeffer)

For those in the market for a CRM system, this post analyzes the relative Buyer Consideration (aka popularity) of the top 15 CRM systems in Q1 of 2013. Not surprisingly, Salesforce.com and MS Dynamics CRM hold top spots by a wide margin (72% and 51% of Buyer Consideration). For those interested in branching out from the two CRM titans, both Infusionsoft and Oracle RighNow are on the rise, but have a ways to go (19% and 5% of Buyer Consideration respectively).

Businesses Can Turn to Scribe for Integration in the Cloud Anytime By: Mark Smith (@marksmithvr)

In a week full of data integration news (see Mulesoft’s funding), Mark covered another important data integration update – Integration Services (IS) for our Scribe Online Platform. Ventana found that 44% of organizations spend the most analytics time on data-based tasks, meaning that increases in data efficiency and integration can hugely benefit these organizations. Like Jason Gumpert and others have noted, the visual UI of IS greatly simplifies the process of data integration, leading to better, cheaper access to customer data. As Mark puts it, “Scribe Online is a great step forward. Having software that can align business and IT is essential, as less than a fifth (19%) work together well for the information needs of an organization, according to our information management research.”

MuleSoft Rakes in More Moolah to Connect Your Applications to the World By: Barb Darrow (@gigabarb)

Barb covered this week’s announcement of Mulesoft’s $37 million funding round. The influx of cash into the data integration space is indicative of the massive wave of change coming and the importance of integrating CRM and other customer data systems – Mulesoft CEO Greg Schott estimates the value of connecting all enterprise applications at $500 billion. What’s interesting about these new funds is the fact that Mulesoft raised money from two competitors – Salesforce and SAP – underscoring the recognized need for CRM and cloud providers to connect their services using integration solutions like Mulesoft and Scribe.

 

Can you make your donors twice as generous?

Are you a big believer in the positive effects of peer pressure? Global Giving has proved this again - in an intriguing experiment focused on recurring giving. Last year, the organization experimented with a number of different calls to action to get donors to upgrade to recurring donations. They tested the messages on all donors who added a project to their giving cart.

More at Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog.

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Win a Copy of 'Lean In' by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer and Learn About Mobile Fundraising!

To celebrate Artez Interactive's brand new whitepaper, Mobile Matters, they're giving away a copy of Lean In, the #1 bestselling book by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer and one of Time Magazine's 2012 Most Influential People!

Want to win? Here's how!

1) Download a free copy of their Mobile Matters whitepaper!

2) Head to Twitter and tweet the following, while filling in the blank:

"I learned about _________________________ from @artezonline's #MobileMatters whitepaper http://bit.ly/14j9eep"

The first 50 responses will be entered into a drawing, and they'll send the winner a free copy of Lean In!

Here is what they have discovered:

• 15% of traffic to fundraising and donation pages comes from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.


• 23% of participants in peer-driven events and campaigns choose to use mobile technology to help them fundraise for good causes.


• Participants who use mobile technology to fundraise in a campaign raise up to 2.95x more than those who do not.


• The percentage of donations made on mobile web browsers has grown 205% in the last 12 months!


• Event participants using iPhones raise just slightly more than participants on Android devices.

Learn more here: Win a Copy of 'Lean In' and Learn About Mobile Fundraising! - Artez Interactive

Top Salespeople Use LinkedIn to Sell More

Steve W. Martin (Harvard Business Review) recently interviewed 54 top salespeople about how they use LinkedIn to research accounts, prospect for leads, and generate sales. All of the study participants sell technology-based products to the IT departments of mid to large size companies.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150"] Image via CrunchBase[/caption]

The study included three types of salespeople: 33% were inside salespeople who sell exclusively over the phone, 41% were outside field reps responsible for acquiring new accounts, and 26% were outside field reps who managed existing client account.

More: Top Salespeople Use LinkedIn to Sell More - Steve W. Martin - Harvard Business Review.

The Wilson Nonprofit Report for Friday, April 5, 2013

Operational Excellence, Meet Constituent Intimacy: Most nonprofits continuously strive to achieve operational excellence, but they spend less effort understanding constituent needs — and few marry these two sources of constituent value effectively. While a focus on lowering costs, improving quality, and providing consistent, reliable service will continue to be important, this HBR article author sees a shift in the coming decade to combining operational excellence with constituent intimacy: tailored solutions for individual constituents based on a deep understanding of their needs. More …

The state of the nonprofit sector?  Not so hot it seems. The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) has released its annual State of the Sector survey, and it shows nonprofits like yours are struggling with a tough funding environment and increasing need for the services you provide.  This is requiring tough choices - and changing the way you do business, according to the survey. Here’s a summary of the report from the NFF.  Does it capture your situation?  Are you better or worse off than your peers? More …

How Nonprofit CEOs Use Social Media (Enthusiastically) for Personal and Organizational Leadership: As the leader and voice for your nonprofit organization, should you use social media as part of your organizational or personal leadership tool set?    Certainly, your marketing communications staff has talked about the benefits of effective social media integration that personalizes your organization’s brand with the voice of its leader – you.   But getting into the habit of regular tweeting, Facebooking, or experimenting with new tools like Instagram is another story. If you don’t, will you regret it 5 years from now? More …

4 practical tips to help your nonprofit grow: No one knows the challenges a nonprofit faces better than its employees. Day-in and day-out, you’re trying to move the mission forward, encourage volunteers and raise donations, usually on a shoestring budget. Running a nonprofit is full of challenges, and fortunately, there are a number of tools at your disposal to help your nonprofit grow.

Donations from big donors dipped somewhat in 2012, as seen in the Blackbaud Index on nonprofit donations. And while the market’s tight overall in regards to donor contributions, AllianceTrends.org reports big donors are more apt to give higher amounts of money to organizations that are looking to grow rapidly. If your nonprofit can grow quickly, then you may be more interesting to large donors. It’s a situation akin to the types of investments that small tech startups have seen in recent years. If your nonprofit is struggling in a still-sluggish economy, here are some tacks nonprofit leaders have utilized to better market themselves.  More …

Steps for Developing Constituent Journey Maps: What is a CJM? It’s a representation of the steps and emotional states that a constituent goes through during a period of time that may include some interactions with your organization. CJMs are valuable because they help identify how a constituent views an organization by putting the interactions with a nonprofit in the context of the constituent’s broader activities, goals and objectives. The output often includes an easy to understand graphic such as this example that has been used from Lego for many years: More …

As a leader, do you have more than two modes of operating?

Any great leader faces a multitude of challenges every day. Whether it's communicating strategy, helping people through change, holding on to excellence in the face of compromise, or just navigating the leadership environment, there is no shortage of development opportunities lurking in each day's schedule.

Les McKeown has worked over the years with leaders on all of the challenges above--and many, many more. But surprisingly, the skill that he sees more leaders struggle with more than any other is relatively mundane (but very important): the ability to work with their team as an equal. To be "merely" a resource, rather than the team leader.

As we've seen, many leaders can only operate in one of two modes--in charge, or not there. In other words, once they join their team (virtually or otherwise), the team instantly defers to them, and they take the lead.

Truly great leaders have a third mode: The ability to sit with their team without needing to be in charge, using their subject matter knowledge just the same way as anyone else around the table would. More here.

How is your nonprofit doing?

The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) has released its annual State of the Sector survey, and it shows nonprofits are struggling with a tough funding environment and increasing need for the services you provide.  This is requiring tough choices - and changing the way you do business, according to the survey.


Here's a summary of the report from the NFF.  Does it capture your situation?  Are you better or worse off than your peers?


According to NFF:


Nonprofits need new funding sources and models:
• 42% of survey respondents report that they do not have the right mix of financial resources to thrive and be effective in the next 3 years.
• 1 in 4 nonprofits has 30 days or less cash-on-hand.
• Over the next twelve months, 39% plan to change the main ways they raise and spend money.
• 23% will seek funding other than grants or contracts, such as loans or investments.


Nonprofits that receive government funding face particular challenges:
• Only 14% of nonprofits receiving state and local funding are paid for the full cost of services; just 17% of federal fund recipients receive full reimbursement. Partial reimbursements require additional funding to cover the growing gap as nonprofits serve more people.
• Government is late to pay: Among those with state or local funding, just over 60% reported overdue government payments; over 50% reported late payments from the federal government.


Under these challenging conditions, many nonprofits are unable to meet growing need in their communities:
• For the first time in the five years of the survey, more than half (52%) of respondents were unable to meet demand over the last year; 54% say they won't be able to meet demand this year.
• This represents a worrying trend; in 2009, 44% of nonprofits said they were unable to meet demand.
• Jobs (59%) and housing (51%) continue to be top concerns for those in low-income communities.
• 90% of respondents say financial conditions are as hard or harder than last year for their clients; this is actually a slight improvement from prior years' outlook.


Nonprofits are changing the way they do business to adapt to the new reality. In the past 12 months:
• 49% have added or expanded programs or services; 17 percent reduced or eliminated programs or services.
• 39% have collaborated with another organization to improve or increase services.
• 39% have upgraded technology to improve organizational efficiency.
• 36% engaged more closely with their board.


For more on the survey and detailed data, go here.