ADVERTISEMENT GuideStar Charity Check: Verify with Confidence Knowing the facts beats the fear of uncertainty any day of the week. In uncertain times like these, verifying nonprofit organizations is even more crucial for grantmakers. GuideStar Charity Check makes your due diligence quick and efficient. Get GuideStar Charity Check–starting at just $75.

In This Edition:

News Update:

• Transition From Information To Action

Tips of the Week:

• Web 2.0 ...
  Going mobile to find donors
  
  
• Capital Campaigns ...
  7 ways to utilize volunteers
  
  
• Finance ...
  8 steps to avoid misappropriation of assets

ADVERTISEMENT 

Maximize efficiencies across your value chain
Times are changing and organizations are looking at new practices and forms of technology to improve their business.Join CDS Global and our partners for a complimentary and informative webcast hosted by the American Marketing Association and The NonProfit Times on Thursday, April 30 at 1 p.m. EDT.
To register for the webcast, visit www.marketingpower.com/
43009cdsglobal.

	NPT Jobs
	NPT Resource Directory
	Subscribe to NPT
	NPT Latest Edition
	NPT Advertising
	Contact Us

Please forward NPT Weekly to your colleagues so that they can also subscribe.
Tell-a-friend!

Transition From Information To Action

By Michele Donohue

Bill Clinton’s 1992 slogan “It’s the economy, stupid” was a simple statement that represented a complex problem. Nonprofits should adopt their own slogan – “It’s the awareness, stupid.” People know the issues are out there – poverty, war, discrimination, natural disasters, abuse. But, do they understand the need? You can’t build a following of people volunteering, donating, and advocating if they’ve never heard of you.

The Alzheimer’s Association faced those problems. Nearly 90 percent of Americans know someone with Alzheimer’s, but most don’t realize the disease’s scale. Alzheimer’s ranks seventh among the 10 leading causes of American deaths, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and nearly 5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, according to the Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association.

To read the complete article click here...

Web 2.0 ...
Going mobile to find donors

Capital Campaigns ...
7 ways to utilize volunteers

Do you have so much to do for your capital campaign, with so little time? Think about including your most zealous volunteers in your fundraising program, according to Michael J. David-Wilson, executive director for the Middlesex County College Foundation in Edison, N.J. Why not use your best supporters to cultivate other organization members?

David-Wilson presented his ideas in a session at the recent 46th annual Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) international fundraising conference in New Orleans. Here’s how to turn your volunteers into development participants:

• Volunteer participation. Volunteers can be a great addition to your fundraising team. Just make sure if they are asking others for gifts, they make one of their own.
• Major gift donations. Try to tackle big gifts early. Use your own board’s participation as examples of campaign giving.
• Volunteer training. Ensure that your volunteer solicitors are properly trained before they ask for gifts. Team your professional fundraisers with volunteers for some role-playing in donation asks.
• Give information. Compile important donor information for your fundraising team. Set up a gift amount to ask for and what that gift amount would do for the campaign.
• Set up success. Everyone needs a boost of confidence. Arrange some telephone solicitations for your volunteers with donors most likely to give. That will put your volunteers on the right foot for in-person asks.
• Provide backup. Volunteers don’t normally ask donors for gifts – so they may lose their confidence at the meeting. Couple volunteers with a professional development staff member who can move in if the volunteer gets too nervous.
• Celebrate successes. Make volunteer solicitors excited about their hard work. Think about building some friendly competition among volunteers by tracking donor visits or amount raised.

Finance ...
8 steps to avoid misappropriation of assets

As effective as these steps may be, there are a number of other things you can do to prevent the misappropriation of assets. Consider instituting the following eight procedures.

1. Review all bank and credit card statements. A key executive should open the sealed statements and scrutinize them before they go to bookkeeping to be reconciled.  Before paying credit card bills, insist on seeing original receipts.
2. Monitor cash receipts and deposits. Someone who is not involved in making deposits or recording accounts receivable should be responsible for opening mail, counting the payments, and recording the payment totals.
3. Reconcile accounts receivable/payable and inter-fund balances monthly. Require that all exceptions be cleared by you or a designated independent staff member.
4. Qualify first-time vendors. Verify the supplier's name, address, and federal tax identification number before placing an initial order. Checking with the Better Business Bureau is also a good idea.
5. Restrict authorization and access to finances. Password-protect computer files and set dollar limits on monetary authorizations. Be sure to change passwords regularly and to delete the passwords of former employees.
6. Insist that all employees take their allotted vacation time off. Mandatory vacations are particularly important for anyone who works in accounting or another cash-handling function; double-check their work while they're out of the office. Employees who've been cross-trained should take over their functions, but you or a trusted colleague should take a look, too.
7. Watch for suspicious behavior. Be alert to signs of substance abuse, gambling, personal debt, or any other crisis or major lifestyle change among your employees, as well as indications of unusually high job dissatisfaction. If you notice any of these signs, monitor the employee's performance closely.
8. Conduct background checks on new hires. Check references and employment dates, and make sure any time gaps in their resume are accounted for. Have employees with access to cash or other financial functions bonded. Obtaining a Fidelity Bond (available through your insurance broker) for high-risk employees with access to organizational assets is an essential security measure.

Don't Forget Us!

Changing positions? Or have you moved to another organization? Then, make sure you still get NPT's family of enewsletters by simply updating your profile.

Copyright @ 2009 The NonProfit Times.

To read our Privacy Policy click here.

To forward NPT Weekly to your colleagues so they can also subscribe click here.