A Month of Giving Thanks

		November 2014 A Month of Giving Thanks  There's always a lot of talk about how our culture has lost sight of the true meaning of the holidays. With one of our favorite, Thanksgiving, approaching fast, we wanted to take the opportunity to list some of the things we're thankful for. Of course that list includes all the donors and funders that pump life into the sector. But we know firsthand that nonprofit work can be hectic and tiring, and rarely glamorous. We get to spend our days helping nonprofits achieve their goals, reach their constituents, and make the world a better place--as a result, we get to see up close all the work that each of you does, and to be inspired by it.  So, to each of you who has chosen to work for a nonprofit, who has plugged names into a database, stayed late to post event photos to your organization's Facebook page, or spent hours crafting an email that perfectly encapsulated your mission, thank you. Thanks for all the work you do. And we're especially thankful for every chance we get to help you with that work... back to top Upcoming Trainings FREE! Five Data Don'ts for Nonprofits November 13, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern.Program data can be very useful--from being able to prove the effectiveness of your programs to providing information to funders. However, there are a few missteps it is important to avoid. In this free class, we will go over five data don'ts that will help you make the most of your information while avoiding common pitfalls. Read more or register >> Visualizing Your Data Through Dashboards November 20, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Eastern. $40.00  Your senior staff and board of directors can benefit from the ability to view high level metrics for your organization, but it’s not obvious how to easily pull such a thing together. We'll outline what has worked for other organizations to define the metrics that should be tracked, strategies for compiling data from different systems, and then possibilities for putting it all together into a visual dashboard. Read more or register >> Digging Into Program DataWednesdays, December 3 - 17, 1:00 - 2:30pmEastern. $95.00 In our increasingly data-driven world, nonprofits need to be able to measure and monitor the effectiveness of their programs more than ever. It’s difficult to improve program services or reach without first understanding what's working and what isn't. Gathering the right data is key.  From how many meals served at your soup kitchen or the number of students in a mentoring program who graduate high school to the percent of your target population without access to affordable housing, being able to track such numbers can help you identify the improvement or impact of your programs or organization. Read more or register >> You received this email because you signed up for Idealware updates. If you are no longer interested in hearing from us, click here to unsubscribe. Idealware | One Pleasant Street, Suite 4E | Portland ME | 04101			SUBSCRIBE If you have received this email second-hand, you can subscribe on the Idealware website. Subscribe Now » DONATE TO IDEALWARE Have Idealware reports and articles saved you time? Money? Allowed you to make better decisions? If so, please donate what they are worth to you and help keep these resources coming. Donate Now » CONNECT WITH US Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to get more software resources, links, and news about Idealware.

A Court Case Reminds Us About the Importance of Donor Restrictions

All nonprofits should learn from this recent court case.  Donors can restrict gifts, and they can take the money back if we aren't accountable.

The NonProfit Times - August 12, 2013
Read full article here.       
It’s a simple concept: If a donor gives an organization a restricted gift, the organization must use that gift for the purpose determined. Some see it differently and that’s how it ends up in court.
The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, ruled that charities that do not follow donor intent must return the gifts. A three-judge panel ruled that a Mercer County animal shelter must disgorge a $50,000 gift originally slated for specialized construction.
Judge Jose Fuentes wrote in the opinion, “we hold that a charity that accepts a gift from a donor, knowing that the donor’s expressed purpose for making the gift was the fund a particular aspect of the charity’s eleemosynary mission, is bound to return the gift when the charity unilaterally decides not to honor the donor’s originally expressed purpose.”
The case turned on a gift given by a Princeton couple, Bernard and Jeanne Adler, to animal shelter SAVE (now SAVE, A Friend to Homeless Animals). The gift was to finance the building of an area for larger dogs and older cats, whose adoption prospects are limited, as part of a new facility in Princeton.
Before construction could begin, SAVE merged with another animal welfare nonprofit, Friends of Homeless Animals. The new plan was to build a new shelter in nearby Montgomery Township roughly half the size of what the new Princeton facility would have been; construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2013. Though SAVE trustee John Sayer testified that the new shelter would “absolutely” have rooms for large dogs and older cats, according to court documents, the court said that evidence suggested otherwise.
“Based on Mr. Sayer’s testimony and the letter announcing the merger between SAVE and Friends of Homeless Animals, we are satisfied that the 15,000 square foot shelter to be constructed in Montgomery Township does not include two rooms specifically designated for the long-term care of large dogs and older cats,” wrote Fuentes.
The Adlers filed suit in Mercer County in 2007, and a judge ruled in their favor in 2010. SAVE appealed, saying the first judge erred when he determined the Adlers’ gift was restricted. SAVE also argued that even if it was restricted, its purpose would have been fulfilled and, barring that, the lower court should have reworked the gift so SAVE could spend it on a project as near as possible to the original intent.
The appellate court disagreed, saying SAVE had courted the Adlers, who had been long-time supporters but who had never made a significant gift prior, with a campaign that specifically included the two rooms and a naming opportunity. “To be clear, the record shows that SAVE: (1) decided to construct a substantially smaller facility; (2) outside the Princeton area; (3) without any specifically designated rooms for large dogs and older cats; and (4) without any mention of plaintiffs’ names,” Fuentes wrote.
The appellate court affirmed the lower court’s decision on August 5. “By opting to disregard plaintiffs’ conditions, SAVE breached its fiduciary duty to plaintiff,” wrote Fuentes. “Under these circumstances, requiring SAVE to return the gift appears not only eminently suitable, but a mild sanction.”
Read more here.

182 Nonprofits Partake in Buffalo’s 24-Hour Online Giving Event

WRITTEN BY AINE CREEDON

From Alabama to Minnesota and Austin, Texas to Seattle, Wash., many states and cities are experimenting with time-condensed online giving events. One of the latest entrants in this field comes in the Buffalo, N.Y. area, where the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County (with support from the United Way of Greater Niagara) organized a “Spring It On” online giving event to raise awareness of—and contributions for—Western New York nonprofits. On March 1st, the 24-hour give-a-thon raised $72,549 for the 182 nonprofits that participated throughout Erie and Niagara Counties. A total of 1,307 donors took part in the give-a-thon during this first stab at the Spring It On event.

You can view the statistics of total donations raised here. Although only nine nonprofits attained their fundraising goal during the event, several organizations raised thousands of dollars, including the International Institute of Buffalo ($4,830), the Elmwood Village Charter School ($2,535), the BISON Scholarship Fund ($2,260), Harvest House of South Buffalo ($2,235), Lockport CARES Homeless Shelter ($2,220), Jewish Family Service of Buffalo & Erie County ($2,197) and others.

Beyond fundraising, the event also focused on bringing a large base of nonprofit supporters from throughout the area together and generating some buzz for the work these nonprofits are doing. The event also encouraged nonprofits that may not normally use social networking to tap into social media to reach potential online donors. As United Way of Buffalo & Erie County CEO Michael Weiner put it, “In addition to financial support, we believe Spring It On helped to educate local citizens about the tremendous contributions made by the nonprofit community every day.” The local United Way saw enough promise in the inaugural event that it plans to make it an annual occurrence.

Is there such a time-condensed online giving initiative in your community? If so, we’d love to hear how it went. If not, should there be? –Aine Creedon

To see the online article click here.

Recap on Fund Development and Marketing Partnership: Video and Presentations

Leatherstocking AEA April 20th RECAP

SEE WHAT YOU MISSED!

Fund Development and Marketing Partnership: Increasing Your Nonprofit's Success

Thank you to our speakers, Paul Adamo, Tara Collins and Mike Stein!

Presenations and Video Available!

The Leatherstocking AEA program featured an engaging discussion about defining fund development and marketing in nonprofit operations, including their overlap and how to improve the partnership in these two areas. The presentation began with Paul Adamo, Vice President for College Advancement and Executive Director, College at Oneonta Foundation. In Paul's presentation (available here), he discussed his key fundraising factors and tips, as well as how marketing is involved. You can watch Paul relate his fundamentals here. In this video, Paul asks participants why people should give their nonprofit money. Lastly, Paul stresses the importance of your board in fundraising in this video.

The second portion of the program featured Tara Collins, Communications Director at Watershed Agricultural Council. In Tara's presentation (available here), she defines marketing and relates about the importance of marketing strategy. Watch here as Tara defines and stresses marketing strategy. Watch here as she elaborates on strategy and shows an example from Watershed Agricultural Council. Her presentation also addressed how to make the most of your efforts, and includes a number of linked resources.

The final portion of the program featured Mike Stein, Vice President of Development at Bassett Healthcare Network, discussing the partnership between marketing and fund development. He discussed how they often seem to compete with each other rather than build on their partnership. His suggestions for this issue included bringing both sides together through a planning and implementation, as well as ongoing communication. He also stressed recognizing the different goals fund development and marketing have, and figuring out the commonalities.

Thank You Again To Our Panelists!
Paul J. Adamo, Vice President for College Advancement and Executive Director, College at Oneonta Foundation

Mike Stein, Vice President of Development, Bassett Healthcare Network

Tara Collins, Communications Director at Watershed Agricultural Council

How to Donate like a Pro

In a Time of Tighter Budgets—For Benefactors and Charities Alike—It's More Important Than Ever to Make Your Gifts Count. Here's How

Investors demand a good return from their assets. Now donors are increasingly seeking the same for their charitable dollars.

Many philanthropists, large and small, are anxious about writing checks—and many endowments have yet to recover fully from the bruising they took during the financial crisis. Finding the worthiest, most-efficient organizations to maximize the impact of your donations couldn't be more pressing.

Yet identifying the best charity can be as difficult as picking a good money manager, with philanthropists left to navigate a world of tax forms, ratings systems and often misleading jargon. It's easy just to write a check and hope for the best—but you stand the risk of getting a poor return on your charitable investments.

Making matters more complicated: Many long-cherished tax breaks are coming under fire. Next year could bring the return of limits on itemized deductions, including those for donations, if Congress doesn't extend the Bush-era tax cuts for couples earning more than $250,000 ($200,000 for individuals). Even if Congress extends the cuts for all, the idea of cutting back charitable tax breaks is still in play: President Obama's deficit commission this week proposed limiting the deductions for large gifts to amounts above 2% of adjusted gross income.

All this is making donors rethink their giving strategies, says Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. "They want to make sure now more than ever that they're using their money wisely."

Overall giving is down sharply from its recent highs. Among high-net-worth households—who account for the bulk of individual charitable dollars—average giving dropped 34.9% to $54,016 in 2009, from $83,034 in 2007, according to a survey conducted by the center and sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The downward trend appears to be continuing. One in five people say they are giving to fewer organizations than in the past, according to a November poll from Harris Interactive. A third are giving in smaller amounts this year than last. And the percentage of people not giving at all has doubled to 12% in 2010 from last year.

There are a host of charity-rating agencies to consult, but to get a more-accurate picture, consider volunteering your time before giving money. Do your own research: Talk to beneficiaries, visit work sites and study a group's finances yourself to judge the effectiveness of its programs.

That's what Denise Winston did. The former business banker "always just wrote a check," she says. But after leaving her job and starting her own financial-education business in 2009, the Bakersfield, Calif., resident became more frustrated over how little of her donations were going to beneficiaries. She decided she would spend time volunteering with different organizations before giving, partly to get a better sense of her time and money's impact.

"I'm closer to the person receiving support," she says. "Anyone can write a check. But I like to give things you can't buy."

Here's how to navigate the system and make sure the dollars you donate are making the biggest impact possible.

Article continued at Wall Street Journal.com, includes ways of gauging donor's impact and red flags that donors should watch out for.

New Mapping Tool Fosters Strategic Grantmaking in Education

New York, NY — October 12, 2010. The Foundation Center has launched Philanthropy In/Sight®: Education, an innovative data visualization tool that helps grantmakers maximize their investments in education. The tool is available through the organization's Foundations for Education Excellence web portal, a knowledge hub for funders researching best practices and funding opportunities in the field. Through support from the C.S. Mott and JPMorgan Chase foundations, education funders can register to use the tool free of charge at the project web site.

"Foundations are driving fundamental change in our system of education," said Foundation Center president, Bradford Smith. "Now more than ever, they are looking to be more strategic and to increase the impact of their grantmaking. Philanthropy In/Sight: Education, gives them a virtual GPS for tracking the flow of education funds, whether it's across the country, around the world, or in their own backyards."

Philanthropy In/Sight: Education, a customized version of the Foundation Center's Philanthropy In/Sight® mapping tool, is the only resource of its kind to offer comprehensive data on who is giving and who is getting grants across all areas of education, from pre-K learning to preparation for college and career. More than 1,100 grant subject terms can be chosen to hone in on programmatic areas. In addition, a menu of geo-targeting tools allows grantmakers to map the locations of organizations and determine funding gaps in countries, states, cities, counties, metropolitan areas, and ZIP codes — as well as in school and congressional districts. By combining the Center's data with Google maps, grantmakers can quickly view information on funding relationships and giving trends in engaging visual formats.

According to product manager, Dave Clark, "Philanthropy In/Sight: Education is a powerful tool that can help grantmakers better target their programs. The ability to overlay dynamic grants information with a wide array of demographic, socio-economic, and other data will help shine a light on areas of greatest need." The data — including population, income, housing, and education-focused statistics — are drawn from authoritative sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Education, and the American Human Development Index.

Videos guide funders through real-world scenarios that show how to use Philanthropy In/Sight: Education to best advantage, including how to identify potential funding partners and grantees. "A key benefit of the tool," said Clark, "is its ability to foster collaborations between individuals and like-minded organizations. It's an effective way to connect the dots for a more vivid picture of the funding landscape in education."

About the Foundation Center
Established in 1956 and today supported by close to 550 foundations, the Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. 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 foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.

Family Thanks Pathfinder Village for care with $1M donation

The Daily Star reported that a family pleased with care provided at Pathfinder Village in Edmeston is saying ``thank you’’ with $1 million to further care and programs.

Pathfinder Village, a residential and program facility for people with Down syndrome, will expand elder-care services, thanks to a gift from Jane Davey Hamilton Warriner of Philadelphia.

Warriner and Edward Klees, also of Philadelphia — whose brother, Peter Hamilton, had lived at Pathfinder Village from 1998 to 2005 — announced the gift at Pathfinder’s 30th anniversary dinner Friday night at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown.

“We are very honored to be giving this gift to Pathfinder,’’ Warriner said in a prepared statement. ``Thank you very much for the love, care and support you gave Peter, and your friendship throughout the years. Pathfinder is a wonderful place that transforms lives.’’

Read more here.

SUNY Oneonta earns four-star Charity Navigator rating

The Daily Star reported that The State University College at Oneonta Foundation has been honored with a four-star "exceptional" rating by Charity Navigator, the leading independent charity evaluator in America, a media release said.

The rating is based on the foundation's commitment to sound fiscal management and its ability to deliver on its mission, the release from the State University College at Oneonta said.

Charity Navigator President Ken Berger praised the foundation's ability to "efficiently manage and grow its finances."

"Approximately a quarter of the charities we evaluate have received our highest rating, indicating that State University College at Oneonta Foundation Corporation executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America," Berger said in a letter to the foundation. Read more here.

Do sad faces make donors give more?

From http://www.donorpowerblog.com/

Do pictures of sad children stir more people to give than picture of happy children? In my experience: sometimes.

Recent research in the Journal of Marketing Research offers a more definitive answer than I do at The Face of Need: Facial Emotion Expression on Charity Advertisements (PDF, 54 pages).

From the abstract:
This paper examines how the expression of emotion on a victim's face affects both sympathy and giving. Building on theories of emotional contagion and sympathy the authors propose that (a) people "catch the emotions displayed on a victim's face and (b) they are particularly sympathetic and likely to donate when viewing sad expressions, relative to happy or neutral expressions.
These findings straddle the line between blindingly obvious and just plain wrong.
Obvious because anyone who's done repeated image testing in fundraising will tell you that "sad" images are usually more effective than happy ones.

But wrong because the research didn't look at actual fundraising results. And anyone who does that knows that sad faces are not always more effective. It depends on what you're raising funds for. Sometimes a happy image just kicks butt over a sad one. Click here to read more.