In This Edition:

• What Are Your Donors Reading?
  
  
• Grants ...
  5 things to find out about a potential corporate sponsor
  
  
• Marketing ...
  10 practices you should employ now
  
  
• Donors ...
  10 reasons donors become quitters

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What Are Your Donors Reading?

By Mark Hrywna

In the search for upscale donors, publications like Forbes or Money are obvious choices for fundraisers targeting subscription lists. Or in the case of environmental groups, magazines with a similar focus likely will find a sympathetic readership able to part with a few dollars.

Looking a little deeper, other titles might work for your organization. Popular Mechanics might not be the first magazine you’d think would work for a health organization but its reader profile features an “affluent male hobbyist who has a soft side to them,” said Susan Rice Rappaport, president of data acquisition at American List Counsel (ALC) in Princeton, N.J. “A reader is what you’re finding. Hobbyists tend to be a little more educated,” she said.

To read the complete article click here...

Grants ...
5 things to find out about a potential corporate sponsor

If a foundation is affiliated with a company, conduct additional research to try and uncover as much of the following information as possible by surveying and keeping up with local newspapers, business journals, chamber of commerce events, online corporate databanks, and, in some cases, fee-based services, according to Bernie Jankowski at Jankowski Research in Frederick, MD.

Here are five elements of information you need to collect:

• What is the company’s size in terms of annual sales/revenues and number of employees? How healthy are its balance sheets? Is this the headquarters office or a subsidiary, branch, or affiliate location?
• What are its major products, services, industry position, and/or future direction as detailed in its annual report, available online for public companies? Many private companies also have set up Web sites for marketing purposes, providing researchers easier access to this kind information than in the past.
  Because corporations are more likely to support imaginative linkages between nonprofit organizations and their business interests, industry information is critical.
• Are there possibilities for other roles for the corporation beyond or in lieu of funding: in-kind support, hosting an event, board membership, meeting space, technical support, and/or employee volunteer opportunities?
• Do they have an employee matching gift program? The Council for Aid and Support to Education publishes a directory called Matching Gift Details that can help you research companies with such programs.
• Is this company a member of the Chamber of Commerce? Are there any ways you can collaborate? The best way to answer this question is for your nonprofit to be a member of the Chamber. This is one of the easiest ways for nonprofits to build bridges to the corporate community, establish long-term relationships, and take every opportunity to educate corporations about a societal need and about your approach to addressing it.

Remember, corporations are made up of people. A company’s grantmaking first and foremost indicates a person’s or a group of people’s interest in leveraging corporate resources to give back to the community.

Understandably, this is not a company’s top priority. When a company uses resources that could readily be allocated for new equipment, product development, or the hiring of employees, a charitable gift must necessarily provide some element of recognition or benefit to the company. Corporate philanthropy balances altruism and self-interest. Nonprofits need to recognize these needs by explaining how you might work together for mutual benefit.

For more tips, go to jankowskiresearch.com

Marketing ...
10 practices you should employ now

Marketing shouldn’t be a dirty word to your organization, according to Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, creative director and president, and Randi Hogan, vice president, of Metropolitan Group headquartered in Portland, OR. The duo explained 10 marketing practices that can transform your organization at the 46th annual Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) international fundraising conference in New Orleans:

• Don’t fear marketing. Make marketing a core part of your organization from the beginning and try to develop marketing plans.
• Know yourself. Live and breathe your mission. Develop a strong brand that will make your organization identifiable. Pay attention to the three “V’s” of social purpose branding – value, values and voice.
• Define your own success. Outline how you want to advance your mission and what you expect as a return on investment. Publicize the mission results you’re proud of.
• Know your audience. Understand how current donors and prospects feel about the organization’s programs and services. These are the people you are marketing to – so always keep them in mind.
• Question conventional wisdom. Don’t limit your marketing materials to your current audience. Try to speak to a larger audience. Create strategic partnerships that will extend your reach.
• What’s driving your prospect’s decision? Try to align the organization’s core values to the values of your prospect. Make the values relevant to your prospect right now.
• Emotion trumps data. A good story steeped in your organization’s mission will touch someone more than graphs.
• Build a community. Empower employees, volunteers, donors and members as stewards of your organization.
• Walk the talk. Brand isn’t just for the outside audience. Use your brand within your organization. Remember to be transparent.
• Use the platform to change the world. You can leverage marketing for social impact.
  

Donors ...
10 reasons donors become quitters

No one likes to be a quitter. So why do so many people quit supporting your organization?

There are reasons that donors stop giving to your organization, according to Dr. Adrian Sargeant, Robert F. Hartsook Professor of Fundraising at The Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University. But it’s up to your nonprofit to foster a dedicated donor commitment to keep that donor engaged.

Sargeant listed ten main reasons why your organization might fall off a donor’s radar at the 46th annual Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) international fundraising conference in New Orleans:

• Financially incapable of making a donation
• Donor doesn’t remember making the gift
• Shows support in other ways
• Decides that other causes are more worthy
• Feels that the organization no longer needs that individual’s support
• Death or relocation
• Did not receive information about other donations
• Organization did not say how the donation was used
• Thought a nonprofit’s communications were inappropriate
• Thought a nonprofit asked for an inappropriate donation amount

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