In This Edition:

• There Are Fewer Millionaires These Days
  
  
• Capital Campaigns ...
  5 tips for getting your campaign ready
  
  
• Fundraising ...
  8 sections to a case statement
  
  
• Management ...
  6 innovation keys for leaders

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 There Are Fewer Millionaires These Days

The numbers of millionaires in the United States dropped by more than a quarter last year, and those millionaires have seen their assets drop in value by about a third.

Research from Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm, indicates the number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more fell 27 percent to 6.7 million in 2008, the lowest level in five years. Those with a net worth of $5 million or more dropped by 28 percent, to 840,000 last year while households with $500,000 or more in net worth declined 28 percent in 2008 to 11.3 million, down from 15.7 million in 2007.

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Capital Campaigns ...
5 tips for getting your campaign ready

You can’t just decide to run a capital campaign and start fundraising tomorrow. Well, you could. But, it will probably fail.

Organizations should prepare and plan before running head first into a capital campaign, according to Michael J. David-Wilson, executive director for the Middlesex County College Foundation in Edison, N.J.

David-Wilson presented his ideas during a session at the 46th annual Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) international fundraising conference in New Orleans. Here are just some tips how to get the ball rolling:

• Emphasize personal participation. Tell your board members that you expect a capital campaign gift from each of them. The same goes for any volunteer who would like to solicit others.
• Create a realistic financial plan. Outline what resources you will need. Costs might be greater than you anticipate -- so make sure you budget a little wiggle room.
• Set a fundraising goal. Once again, be realistic. It will just be icing on the cake if you surpass the goal.
• Handle critics. It would make your life much easier if everyone stood behind the campaign. If you are not that lucky, identify who in the organization would most likely oppose the campaign and meet with those people. Address their concerns and try to build their support.
• Establish expectations. Outline expectations for leaders before launching the campaign. Have board members read and sign statements agreeing to expectations and financial obligations.
  

Fundraising ...
8 sections to a case statement

Case statements require a great deal of deliberation in planning and care in execution. As intimidating as the prospect might be, however, writing a case statement is necessary and it is something that can be done.

Speaking at the International Conference on Fundraising sponsored by the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP), consultant Tom Ahern broke the case statement down into eight sections, which he explained to the audience.

The sections are:

• Section 1. The welcome message -- 72 words long. It explains the campaign theme.
• Section 2. The introduction -- six paragraphs totaling 288 words. It specifies the need; For example, $30 million for “a number of significant capital projects.”
• Section 3. The organization’s history -- 10 paragraphs totaling 500 words.
• Section 4. The organization’s philosophy -- 144 words. It explains the organization’s concept behind a wonderful nursing/retirement home.
• Section 5. Why our mission matters today. It brings the reader up to date on what the organization is doing now. The midsection: at 1,600 words, the longest, too.
• Section 6. The vision. The chair talks briefly about the vision – in 500 words.
• Section 7. The call to action. The foundation chair calls for gifts. The section devotes 1,200 words to what will be built with the $30 million.
• Section 8. A closing thank-you. A 250-word wrap-up opens with a quote from the foundation president stressing the members’ proud legacy of caring for others. It pleads, “Won’t you give?”
  

Management ...
6 innovation keys for leaders

Different organizations have different approaches to innovation, from actively discouraging it to paying lip service to it to genuinely embracing it.

One problem with innovation in the nonprofit sector is that it can be difficult to evaluate, often torn between financial results and program-related outcomes.

In their book The Charismatic Organization, Shirley Sagawa and Deborah Jospin maintain that organizations committed to innovation should do six key things. They are:

• Empower all levels and parts of the organization. Valuing everyone in the organization, from the volunteer answering the telephone to the chair of the board is a key quality.
• Seek ideas from a broad range of sources. Strong bridging capital requires an organization to reach beyond a tight inner circle.
• Problem-solve. Research into the major unsolved challenges impeding the achievement of an organization’s mission could well inspire a creative search for solutions.
• Nurture the new. An organization might be bursting with new ideas, but how those ideas are treated determines whether the innovation cycle is functioning. They suggest the SUN approach to new ideas: Suspend judgment; Understand the idea better by asking questions and seeing the concept from the author’s point of view; Nurture the concept by brainstorming together to take the idea to the next level.
• Test promising ideas. It is important to test new ideas fairly and thoroughly.
• Have the capacity to implement change consistently. Once an innovation has been tested and its value confirmed, its broader implementation is warranted.

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