Executive Issues

C-level executives Angel Aloma, Danny McGregor and Atul Tandon, along with moderator Tom Harrison, discussed the biggest issues concerning fundraisers at the DMA Nonprofit Federation New York Nonprofit Conference.

Fundraisers from all walks of life are encountering many challenges these days, but what do the C-level executives see as the most important issues facing the sector? At the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation’s 2010 New York Nonprofit Conference, three top nonprofit executives joined moderator Tom Harrison, president and CEO of Russ Reid, to discuss these issues in a two-part session, “Cracking the Shell: Open Dialogue & Discussion With America’s Top Nonprofit C-Level Executives on the Sector’s Most Pressing Issues."

When the Haiti earthquake hit back in January, the outcry and response were swift and plentiful. In this new era of the iPhone and other mobile devices, the biggest buzz in the fundraising sector was generated from the mobile-giving explosion following the disaster. But the biggest takeaway for fundraisers — all of them, not just disaster-relief organizations — is that donors have certain, higher expectations these days, and your organization must meet them.

At the 2010 Bridge Conference in National Harbor, Md., last Wednesday, Tony Elischer, managing director of Think Consulting Solutions, said fundraisers should focus on the third “R” — rewriting, as in rewriting how you think and how you fundraise. To do that, he proposed looking at fundraising as four babies — brave baby, baby and the bathwater, looking to the future baby, and fully managed baby — in his keynote presentation, “Futurology 2010: Focus, Determination & Transformation."

The days of organizations standing on a mountaintop and broadcasting their messages for the world to consume are rapidly evaporating. No longer is control solely in nonprofits’ hands, no matter how much they wish it was. To truly succeed in raising funds and solving the world’s problems, nonprofits must work in concert with networks of social changemakers — passionate individuals and organizations, among others.

More than 80 percent of donors would recommend the organizations they support to another potential donor, yet many organizations rarely ask for existing donor referrals.

At nonprofit groups in the New York metropolitan area, more chief executive officers than other senior staff members took pay cuts in the 2010 fiscal year, according to a new survey of compensation trends by the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York. However, austerity wasn’t universal for top leaders, and signs point to bigger paychecks ahead for more of them in 2011.

Thirty-one percent of organizations reported a pay increase to their top executives in 2010 compared with the previous fiscal year, and 42 percent expected another increase next year.

In a recent fundraising study conducted by Common Impact, 79 percent of nonprofits surveyed reported spending 2 percent or less of their operating budgets to support key infrastructure.

NEW HAVEN — Watching Michael M. Kaiser, the president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, speak to arts executives, as he did during two recent swings through New England, is like watching Jack Welch talk to business students.

The executives pay rapt attention, take notes and nod their heads. They ask questions, some of which begin with a heartfelt, “Thank you, Mr. Kaiser, for being here and speaking to us.” Standing ovations are routine, as are the crowds who hover hoping to shake his hand.

Many not-for-profit leaders ask whether temporarily and permanently restricted net assets should be included in determining an organization’s reserves. Operating reserves — funds that are available to support an organization’s day-to-day operations — are the appropriate measure to consider. This was one of the key findings of Grant Thornton LLP’s not-for-profit practice white paper entitled Maintaining Sufficient Reserves to Protect Your Not-for-Profit Organization.