Giving

The New York Times had a special Giving section in the paper last week. There were several good articles about fundraising and making gifts in “lean times”. I thought this one geared towards the arts was particularly interesting, especially since it offers solutions.

The Nonprofits Guide to Surviving a Downturn

Celebrating Philanthropy

Yesterday I celebrated, with close to 1,000 other San Diegans, National Philanthropy Day. I’ve got to say that with all the negativity out there right now, this was a great opportunity to celebrate what the nonprofit sector is doing and what amazing philanthropists there are in our city. It was also an opportunity to meet people and have some great conversations about what people are doing in these “economically challenging times”.

I had an excellent conversation with some people at my table about how a manager can really affect the attitude of an organization, especially in tough times. There is the “the sky is falling”manager, who basically inspires the sending of resumes. However, there are some organizations doing some amazing things. Some people shared some fantastic stories of how their supervisors were inspiring their team to continue their work and remember the value of their organization. One told me that the entire company is meeting at 9:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to share mission-inspired stories. Great stories about how their organization affected someone’s life. How cool is that? She said it is a stimulating way to start the day and really gets people excited about what they can accomplish. Someone else told me that their supervisor does a something similar in a daily email. They also had a brainstorming session one afternoon and had everyone write down the top 5 things that they think make the organization great. Awesome! These stories were really inspiring and it seems to be motivating their staffs too.

I’m not saying you should ignore that times are tough and things are much more challenging than they were six months ago. If you cannot inspire staff to stay and fight for the importance of your mission, you cannot expect donors to stick with you either. What is your organization doing to keep moral high and get your staff excited about their jobs?

The Sky is Falling?

Is anyone else tired of the doom and gloom of the economy? Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t know how many more articles I can read about “Chicago/New York/ Philadelphia Non-profits Concerned about Economic Downturn”. Is that really news? Really?

It would be nice if someone could write about something we can do in this time of economic crisis. How do you rally people in hard times? How do you encourage giving when we are concerned about our economic future?

Non profits have bills just like the rest of us. However, they are reliant on the kindness of others to pay their bills. What can each of our nonprofits do to make ends meet and get the money in the door? People want to slash their expenses and cancel events and cut back on marketing. Is that helping your cause? Is making your presence less known helping you meet your budget? How about celebrating your accomplishments and what you do for your community. Don’t let them forget the important work that you do.

Maybe cutting costs means teaming up with another nonprofit to combine forces for marketing or events. Create a monthly city arts mailing to promote events for all arts organizations that chip in for the costs. You may also find that funders are very willing to donate to “collaborative” projects. Updating a website usually costs little money and including your website information on all printed information is a great way to get people to see your website.

Think grassroots. How did you do things before you had the budget to do what you do now? Even combining efforts within our own organization can be a great way to save money. Why can’t a marketing piece have information about how to make a donation? Work smarter.

And donations? Who says donors have to pay them all today? Most people don’t anyway. Remind people they can pay over the course of the year, monthly even, because some money is better than no money. Ten dollars a month sure sounds less intimidating that $120 right now.