BOSTON, June 24, 2009 — The YMCA of the USA’s brand is worth almost $6.4 billion, making it the nation’s most valuable nonprofit brand, according to The Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100. This first-of-its-kind research explores the unique relationship between nonprofit brand image and financial performance and revealed some organizations may be leaving millions of dollars in potential unearned revenue on the table.
If you haven’t gotten it yet, the memo is probably on its way. It says, with a great many words: You must cut your fundraising budget!
"I must say that I have seen Americans make great and real sacrifices to the public welfare; and have noticed a hundred instances in which they hardly ever failed to lend faithful support to one another."
— Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America"
Set aside a few seconds to try to imagine what the United States of America would be like without a healthy, vibrant nonprofit sector.
Unique selling proposition … benefit-oriented messaging … brand management — sounds like a bunch of advertising execs talking strategy, doesn’t it? Could be. Or it just as easily could be a bunch of development professionals.
Latinos tend to think with the right side of their brain — the section that focuses on emotion, intuition, creativity and vision — and fundraisers need to keep that in mind when they’re trying to get donations from the Hispanic community, said Michael Saray, president of New York-based Michael Saray Hispanic Marketing during the session “How Do You Listen to Different Ethnic Communities? Fundraising in the Hispanic Market” at the 2008 New York Nonprofit Conference last week. “It is important to understand that, in general, Latinos are culturally hard wired differently,” Saray said. He explained that fundraisers need to adjust the basic factors
Fundraising professionals should be on the lookout for these new books — one that offers guidance for grant seekers and one that aims to answer questions that all nonprofits need to be able to answer for their donors. New Guide for Grant Seekers “The Grantseeker’s Guide to Winning Proposals” provides 35 actual proposals for general operating support, program development, staff salaries, program evaluation and other needs. The book — geared toward helping development officers, nonprofit board members, fundraising consultants and volunteers seeking foundation grants — is available for $34.95 on the Foundation Center Web site. “Grantseekers often tell us that they want models
An organization’s brand touches a person’s head, heart and spirit, says Tony Elischer, managing director of U.K.-based THINK Consulting Solutions. “A brand is a relationship that creates and secures an emotional connection to a cause in a profound way that leads to a funding preference and volunteer loyalty,” Elischer said in his session, “Brandraising: Securing Share of Mind, Heart and Spirit,” at the 2008 Bridge Conference held last month in Washington, D.C. “Do a brand right, and a donor will trust you. They will tolerate us asking for money,” he said. Branding can make or break an organization. Marketers must own and drive an
In May, FundRaising Success conducted the webinar “If You Optimize It, They Will Come: SEO Best Practices for Fundraisers,” featuring Todd Whitley, vice president of e-marketing at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society; Farra Trompeter, vice president of client relationships and strategy at Big Duck; and Rob Yoegel, vice president and online publisher, for the Target Marketing Group. Our panel was able answer many of the audience’s questions, but not all. Here, our experts address those questions that we couldn’t get to. To view this webinar, go to www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/story/story.bsp?sid=96827&var=story. For a look at all of the archived FundRaising Success webinars, go to www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/docs/webinars.bsp.
Members of the Millennial generation are just as likely to open their wallets to charities as those born decades earlier, according to a report released in May by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. The report, which analyzed generational giving trends by focusing on donors’ motivations for giving, types of causes supported and the amount donated, showed that young donors are as generous as those from older generations. “We thought we would see some real differences, but giving across generations is not all that different,” says Edith Falk, chair and CEO of Chicago-based fundraising consultancy Campbell & Co. The study, funded
Often, seeking funding from traditional sources is like filling a funnel— you receive money from grants, sponsorships, donations, and pour the money into the funnel, use it up and have to work like crazy to keep the funnel filled. And the money in the funnel usually comes with strings attached defining how you use it, report it, etc. Funnel-filling becomes an endless cycle. Wouldn’t it be great to have a regular source of unrestricted income that you could use for operating expenses or new programs or whatever your agency needs to better fulfill its mission? This concept of unrestricted income isn’t a pipe dream.
