August 13, 2009 ADVERTISEMENT Changing the world together—responsibly GuideStar's groundbreaking work is uniquely committed to serving and advancing the entire nonprofit community. By investing in the GuideStar Membership Program, your organization serves the much larger causes of your grantees, who continue to rely on GuideStar to expand their reach and impact. Please join us today. We greatly appreciate your support. In This Edition: 24,000 Job Openings In The Nonprofit Sector Religious Fundraising ... Organizational structure key to fundraising Major Gifts ... Covert capital campaigns get unveiled Management ... Steering the team toward a breakthrough goal ADVERTISEMENT  DonorBase is a non-profit cooperative prospecting database devoted exclusively to nonprofits & fundraisers. Comprised of unduplicated records supporting organizations in the animal, environmental, public environmental, health, international, public benefit, religious, humanitarian & political sector. It is available for acquisition prospecting & lapsed donor re-activation. Contact Bruce Demaree 914-925-2439 NPT Jobs NPT Resource Directory Subscribe to NPT NPT Latest Edition NPT Advertising Contact Us      Please forward NPT Instant Fundraising to your colleagues so that they can also subscribe. Tell-a-friend! Editor's Note: Do you work for the best nonprofit on the planet? We are looking for the best nonprofits where people love to work. They actually show up early and stay late. If your organization has at least 10 employees, we want to know why you're great. Please go to http://bestnonprofitstoworkfor.com/ 24,000 Job Openings In The Nonprofit Sector The economy may be constricting budgets but the need for nonprofit leadership is still growing. As per a recent survey, 28 percent of nonprofit organizations planned to make senior management hires, amounting to nearly 24,000 vacancies in 2009, according The Bridgespan Group. Respondents also reported that actual senior job openings in 2008 were 43 percent more than the leadership gap Bridgespan forecasted in 2006 in its “The Nonprofit Sector’s Leadership Deficit” survey.  To read the complete article click here...   ADVERTISEMENT How will you meet the new IRS form 990 documentation requirements for your organization's top executives? Find exactly the comparable data you need in the new NonProfit Times 2009 Nonprofit Organizations Compensation & Benefits Report. Order your subscription today! Click here. Religious Fundraising ... Organizational structure key to fundraising Every community varies, and that includes religious communities, according to Sister Kathleen Lunsmann, director of development at the Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Scranton, Pa. Sister Kathleen explained some basic religious organizational structure at the recent Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor, Md., hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Washington DC Metro Area Chapter and the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind: Know the mission. Different religious orders might have their own distinctive mission focus, for example teaching. Then each person within the religious community lives through the mission in their own way through their charism, or spiritual gift from God. Know the etiquette. Catholic religious sisters usually go by their first names. For example, you would say Sister Kathleen, not Sister Lunsmann, if you were addressing the presenter. And letters at the end of a religious person’s name usually denote the congregation, not a bizarre master's degree. Get to know leadership. The leader, such as a monsignor, might be chosen by the religious community, and may or may not know about the tenants of fundraising. Be clear about why you are trying fundraising strategies, such as direct mail, and how it works. Be prepared for turn over. Sister Kathleen said leadership could change and you’ll have to start back at square one with your fundraising strategy explanations. Major Gifts ... Covert capital campaigns get unveiled Typical capital campaigns start out like an undercover operation. Fundraisers target a select donor group that can make heavyweight gifts and try to raise a majority of the financial goal before most donors even know there will be a campaign. But it might help to use similar major donor tactics to cultivate public phase donors, who usually give smaller gifts toward the campaign’s end, according to Nancy Withbroe, director of integrated consulting services at CDR Fundraising Group, and Laura Zylstra, managing consultant, New England at Skystone Ryan. Withbroe and Zylstra translated major gifts strategies to direct response alternatives at the Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor, Md., hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Washington DC Metro Area Chapter and the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. High-dollar naming opportunities. Nonprofits usually give naming opportunities, such as buildings or scholarships, to major donors with substantial gifts. But think about lower-dollar equivalents, such as bricks, to offer donors. Benefit levels. Some organizations have giving clubs, where the price of admission can be $10,000 or more. Think about creating benefit levels for smaller donations. It may push donors to increase their giving level for the additional benefits. And the additional segmentation may have positive results on your direct response strategy. Exclusive special events. You can’t throw a cocktail party and invite anyone who gave $5. But think about hosting a general open event for your lower-dollar donors to go deeper with organization. Volunteer chairs. A major gifts volunteer chair may have a different approach than what’s needed at the direct response level. Try to name a new volunteer chair for the public phase. Volunteer cultivation. Major gifts usually result from face-to-face meetings. For the public phase, get volunteers to reach donors via phone, online or mail. Management ... Steering the team toward a breakthrough goal Every nonprofit organization has a goal, or several goals, but in his book You’ve Gotta Have Heart, Cass Wheeler writes that to really make an impact an organization needs a breakthrough goal -- a bold goal that challenges the organization in a way that it has not been challenged before. Wheeler emphasizes the following: Every nonprofit needs a breakthrough goal. It provides accountability and allows difficult decisions about the allocation of limited resources. Creating a breakthrough goal requires a four-step process: 1. Brainstorm, 2. Do your homework, 3. Test your theories, 4. Add flesh to the bone. A bold goal is meaningless without rock-solid execution. When you set a breakthrough goal, be willing to hold your organization’s feet to the fire. Shout your goal from the rooftops. All people associated with the organization need to see their role in a broader context. There is no such thing as overcommunication. Ask “What would it take?” This deceptively simple question stirs innovation and inspiration and, often, amazing results. It mentally circumvents a person’s unconscious barriers to thinking about possibilities. Breakthrough goals change the world. In the nonprofit world, setting and achieving big goals means nothing less than making the world a significantly better place. 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 Instant Fundraising to your colleagues so they can also subscribe click here.