Nonprofit Resources Regarding the Oct. 15 Deadline

Time is running out for small nonprofits facing loss of tax-exempt status because they have not filed Form 990-N or Form 990-EZ for three consecutive years. The deadline for the IRS's one-time filing relief program is October 15, 2010. After that, nonprofits that are required to file a 990 and whose filings are at least three years in arrears will automatically lose their exemptions. To regain tax-exempt status, they will have to apply to the IRS all over again, a process that can take several months and requires payment of fees. To help you make sense of the rules and regulations surrounding this program, GuideStar is offering you a few resources:

• GuideStar Resource Center: includes articles and links to keep you updated in this ongoing process.
• IRS Communications Toolkit: includes facts outlining the situation, a list of organizations IRS records show are at risk, a YouTube video, and a widget for posting on Web sites.
• Guide Star Charity Check: includes information on exemption status of organizations and is updated as more information from the IRS becomes available.
  

New Ideas for Discussion

Ideas have been put forward for consideration regarding future LAEA programs. They are as follows:

• Storytelling, as part of a series of similar topics. This includes use of social and print media as part of a whole concept for an organization
• Organizational infrastructure with regards to funding, for those without endowments or governmental funding. Could answer questions such as: How are development departments structured? What are some ways to shepherd members and donors to give more or contribute to projects? How do you track the chaos? Why are "thank you"s important?
• Case Statements, or making a compelling case for people to donate. This would include thinking about a case statement, how to write or start one, who's involved, and points that should be made

Please submit feedback or other ideas via e-mail to Andrew Marietta at amarietta@nycon.org

Oct 20th Program Features Panel of Board Presidents and EDs!

The October 20th Program will feature the following 5 organizations:

• Opportunities for Otsego: Dan Maskin, ED and Dr. Alan Donovan, Board President
• Chenango Health Network: Tina Utley Edwards, ED and Debra Marcus, Board President
• Roxbury Arts Group: Susan Kenny, ED and Michael Mathis, Board President
• Cooperstown Art Association: Janet Erway, ED and Cheryl Wright, Board President
• MARK Project: Peg Ellsworth, ED and Brian Mulder, Board President

The program will focus on the relationship between the Executive Director and their board of directors, including the role of the ED and how he or she supports and works with the Board President. The panel will first discuss some general questions, and then break out into smaller groups by organizational budget to discuss questions from participants. The Leatherstocking AEA encourages area Executive Directors to attend with a board officer or member.

REGISTER HERE

Let Your Donors Know Everything About You

Let Your Donors Know Everything About You

September 21, 2010 from NonProfit Times

Philanthropic training and immersion appears to be an effective way of encouraging donors to contribute more money and spend more time volunteering, according to a recent report published by The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at USC.

The findings stem from research examining donor socialization within Social Venture Partners International, an organization aimed at improving communities by enlisting donors to contribute their time as well as their money. The donors – called “partners” – join local “SVP” affiliates by giving $5,000 or more annually to a pooled fund. Partners also volunteer for the nonprofits they fund and participate in educational and collaborative decision-making activities.

“Becoming a Venture Philanthropist: A Study of the Socialization of Social Venture Partners” was written by Michael Moody, formerly of USC’s School of Policy, Planning, and Development. Among the report’s key findings:

• 70.9 percent of partners said their amount of giving to all causes had increased since joining SVP.
• 68 percent of partners said their amount of volunteering had increased.
• A third of those surveyed said their level of giving and volunteering rose by 50 percent or more.
• More than half of the partners said their levels of giving and volunteering rose by more than 100 percent.

Social Venture Partners’ innovative donor education methods have received interest from other nonprofits interested in boosting higher-end donations and increasing donor engagement. However, to date there has been little scholarly work on the processes of “donor socialization,” the processes through which donors learn to give in a particular way and become a part of an organization’s philanthropic culture. This new research project helps to increase our understanding of how new approaches to giving such as Social Venture Partners are facilitating donor education and learning.

The report was based on 175 responses to web-based survey questions that were collected from 14 SVP affiliates in the US and Canada, as well as in-depth interviews with 18 partners and SVP staff. The research was supported by the California Community Foundation Endowed Research Fund for The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy at USC.

In addition to increasing how much donors give, involvement with SVP also affected how they give, with 86.3 percent of partners saying they gave in a new way after becoming active in SVP. Partners reported being more “strategic” in their giving, being more results-oriented, more engaged and collaborative, and writing fewer but larger checks.

Social Venture Partners was started in Seattle in 1997 as technology companies and advances created a new form of “dot.com” wealth, and entrepreneurs and others then became interested participating in philanthropic projects. SVP International has now grown to more than twenty affiliates in the United States and Canada.

Previous surveys have found significant effects of SVP engagement on donors but they were created with different research questions and primarily focused on Seattle’s Social Venture Partners affiliate. The Center’s study looks closer at precisely how the programs impact giving and it incorporates data from a broader range of cities.

“This research provides important insights into how individuals come to be more sophisticated and strategic donors through their participation in donor circles and peer networks, as exemplified by SVP,” says Jim Ferris, director of The Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy.

Partners clearly indicated that their involvement with SVP was a factor – in most cases a “significant” or “primary” factor – in changing how much they give and how they give, though the report adds that additional research is necessary to investigate just how these changes come about.

Partners identified two of the SVP activities – serving on the committee that makes collective giving decisions, and volunteering with the organizations they support – as the most beneficial socialization experiences. Formal donor education events also played a key role, but were not as important to partners as these intense engagement experiences.

The report makes the following recommendations for nonprofits, philanthropic advisors, and others who work with donors and who are interested in using more effective donor socialization techniques:

• Create more experiential, interactive venues for learning.
• Provide ample opportunities for both intense and sustained development, but allow for individualization.
• Help donors that have little experience in the nonprofit sector with the translation process.
• Encourage and provide opportunities for peer-to-peer learning among donors.
• Learn about and complement where donors are coming from.

A resource for all those who work with donors interested in new forms of giving, “Becoming a Venture Philanthropist: A Study of the Socialization of Social Venture Partners” is available on The Center for Philanthropy and Public Policy website at: www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/philanthropy/research/publications/papers/

The NonProfit Times - A Real Personal Touch Gets Huge Response

New Knowledge Bank Helps Those Seeking To Measure Effectiveness of Philanthropy

"Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact" Debuts Today

The Foundation Center, the nation's leading authority on philanthropy, has launched an online database of proven approaches to measuring and analyzing the impact of social investments. As philanthropists and the nonprofit community shift towards more strategic approaches to get a "social return," evaluation activities must also operate at a higher level. TRASI ("Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact") addresses these growing needs by offering tools and methodologies that place a premium on evidence and metrics in tracking progress.

"Measuring the effectiveness of social programs has always been a challenge because it's not just about the numbers. TRASI helps organizations meet that challenge and go beyond simply determining whether projected outcomes were achieved," said Lawrence T. McGill, the Foundation Center's vice president for research. "The organizations that have generously shared their own strategic methods for measuring impact will greatly help others to find a solution that is a good fit for them."

Developed in partnership with McKinsey & Co., the assessment approaches in TRASI were authored by a range of organizations, including social investors, foundations, NGOs, and microfinance institutions. The Better Business Bureau, USAID, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Center for Effective Philanthropy are among them. The resources in the database range from off-the-shelf tools and concrete methodologies to generalized best practices and are complemented by multimedia features and social networking tools.

Each approach has been carefully indexed against a common set of key elements and presented in a way that makes it easy to compare their relative merits. The key elements include: who the approach applies to, what kind of organization or evaluation the approach is best suited for, and the costs and techniques involved in its implementation. Each approach was thoroughly reviewed by an Expert Review Panel convened by the New York University Stern School of Business.

Online Kick-off Event
The Center is hosting an online event to kick-off the TRASI launch. Beginning at 2:00 pm EDT on Wednesday, September 22, 2010, a live chat with some of the individuals from the Expert Review Panel will be held. Anyone interested in learning more about impact assessment and the TRASI platform is invited to attend by visiting http://trasicommunity.ning.com.


About the Foundation Center
Established in 1956 and today supported by close to 550 foundations, the Foundation Center is the nation's leading authority on philanthropy, connecting nonprofits and the grantmakers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit the Center's web site each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of 450 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and beyond. For more information, please visit www.foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.

Special Panel October 20th: ED and the Board Working Together

ED and the Board Working Together
Special Panel and Break Out Discussion

The panel will feature up to 5 nonprofits, represented by their Executive Director and Board President. The following are confirmed participants:

•Chenango Health Network: Tina Utley Edwards, ED and Debra Marcus, Board President
•Roxbury Arts Group: Susan Kenny, ED and Michael Mathis, Board President
•Cooperstown Art Association: Janet Erway, ED and Cheryl Wright, Board President
•MARK Project: Peg Ellsworth, ED and Brian Mulder, Board President

The program will focus on the relationship between the Executive Director and their board of directors, including the role of the ED and how he or she supports and works with the board. The panel will first discuss some general questions, and then break out into smaller groups by organizational budget to discuss questions from participants. The Leatherstocking AEA encourages area Executive Directors to attend with a board officer or member.

Have you ever asked any of these questions of your nonprofit ED or board?
o What is EDs responsibility for board development?
o What is/how do you define the relationship between the board and ED?
o How do you keep reinforcing mission and focus of board?
o How do you (and who) set board expectations, get commitment, and monitor/facilitate them?
o How do you communicate and convey obligations and other related info to the board and make them understand?
o How do you clarify and emphasize the importance of conflict of interests and priority issues for the board?
o How much involvement should board members have in daily activities?

Date: Wed, October 20th
Time:
10:00am to 12:00pm- Program
Cost: Free
Location: A.O. Fox Hospital's Levine Conference Center
1 Norton Avenue, Oneonta, New York

REGISTER HERE

Celebration of Women Evening October 21st

In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month:
Please Join Us!
As we celebrate our 7th annual unique event…

Catholic Charities of Chenango County
Crime Victims Program
Proudly announces our
“Celebration of Women” Evening
Our Cause: To enlighten, empower and educate women with a greater knowledge of services available to them in Chenango County

 Massage Therapy
 Hair & Nail Design
 Employment Resourcing
 Fitness Information
 Nutrition Analysis
 Housing Information
 Educational opportunities
 Home Based Business Information
 Women’s Health Resources…….and many more

Plus….Light appetizers and great door prizes
Informative speakers
Live music through-out the evening

Thursday, October 21st
Five to seven o’clock pm

Howard Johnson Ballroom
North Broad Street
Norwich, NY 13815
If you would like to participate and reserve a table for the event,
or just attend and enjoy….
R.S.V.P. 607 334-3532
attention; Maggie

Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego Counties First Annual Celebrate Recovery Award Dinner

Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego Counties
Invites you to
The First Annual Celebrate Recovery Award Dinner

In partnership with LEAF Council on Alcoholism & Addictions and the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council of Delaware County

Friday, September 17, 2010
6:30 pm
St. James’ Episcopal Church, 305 Main Street, Oneonta, NY 13820

Menu
Hand-carved Roast Beef & Turkey
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Seasonal Vegetables
Tossed Salad
Rolls
Celebrate Recovery Cake
(Optional Vegetarian Entrée)
$10.00 per person; children 8 and under free

Smart Casual Attire

Program
Presentation of Awards
FOR-DO Amethyst Award to Ray Hamilton
LEAF Sioussatt Award to the Oneonta Police Department
ADAC Appreciation Award to Tom and Debbie Ackerly

Entertainment
William’s Daughters- a duo giving workshops and performing their original recovery songs
in country-tinged “heart” rock

Plus a special performance of an original song created especially for this occasion by local tweens and teens who attended a song-writing workshop led by William’s Daughters prior to the dinner

For reservations, call (607) 267-4435 or email directorfordo@hotmail.com, giving name, phone number, number attending, asking for vegetarian option, if desired.

Reservation deadline – Friday September 10, 4:00 pm