Salvation Army

Blackbaud has entered into a Strategic Partnership agreement with the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the largest community of fundraising professionals in the world. As a strategic partner, Blackbaud will continue its work with AFP supporting educational opportunities for fundraising professionals.

Early donation totals are starting to come in from charities raising money to aid victims of the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. Among them:

• The American Red Cross had raised $7.75-million as of Sunday afternoon.
• International Medical Corps so far has raised $11,830 via text message.
• Mercy Corps had received more than $500,000 as of Monday morning.
• The Salvation Army has received $62,000 in cellphone donations.
• Save the Children had raised $2.5-million in the U.S. as of Monday morning.
• World Vision U.S. had received $848,000 as of Monday morning.

Las Vegas' nonprofit world is in a state of unease over news the Lincy Foundation, Kirk Kerkorian's charitable foundation, which gives out hundreds of millions each year, is going to give all its assets to UCLA to create the Dream Fund.

The Lincy Foundation has an estimated $200 million in assets and, pending government approval, all that will be transferred to the UCLA Foundation. While that's great news for UCLA, the ripple effect on Las Vegas charities and nonprofits may not be so cheery.

At a time when many Central Texas nonprofits are shrinking or struggling to tread water, Goodwill Industries of Central Texas is booming. Since 2002 , revenue has more than doubled from $25.4 million to $52.7 million. The number of people being placed in jobs has more than tripled. Goodwill has expanded beyond its traditional thrift store model and started new money-making ventures such as a staffing company, a computer store and an online book sales enterprise.

Blackbaud today announced the release of two groundbreaking research studies at the Run Walk Ride 2011 Fundraising Conference at the Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta. The first studyrevealed the results of their first annual “Peer-to-Peer Event Fundraising Consumer Survey.” 

The second study reported on the findings of Blackbaud’s first annual “donorCentrics Event Benchmarking Summary,” a study based on in-depth analysis of fundraising performance data from six top nonprofit organizations from 2007 through 2009. 

The Salvation Army raised a record $142 million during the 2010 annual Red Kettle Christmas Campaign. The increase of just over two percent from 2009’s record of $139 million raised reflects the continued determination of every American to support their neighbors during challenging economic times. The Salvation Army’s 2010 campaign employed traditional efforts with volunteers, celebrity endorsements and corporate partners such as Walmart and Sam’s Club, along with new technology and social media tools to set a campaign record for the sixth year in a row.

The Salvation Army discovered that nobody opened about half the printed annual reports it sent every year. So it decided to scrap the hard-copy version, moving to an all-digital one in 2009.

Because the digital content can be used in so many ways, it makes some of the high initial costs more cost effective.

More and more charities are doing what the Salvation Army has done, creating all-digital editions of their yearly reports. The new versions make liberal use of audio, animation, and video (watchable even on smartphones), rather than long, text-heavy articles.

After a somewhat contentious holiday season, Giant Food and the Salvation Army National Capital Area Command are looking to make amends. Giant has presented the Salvation Army with a $75,000 check in recognition of the grocery chain's 75th anniversary in business in the Washington area.

The supermarket chain came under some criticism from many of its customers during the holidays because of a policy change regarding solicitations outside its stores.

Blackbaud announced the release of “Connecting Online Advocacy and Fundraising”, a white paper focused on optimizing advocacy appeals that lead to increased response rates and fundraising.

“The integration of advocacy and fundraising has proven successful with many organizations,” said Daigneault co-author Steve Daigneault of M+R Strategic Services. “In fact, advocates are seven-times more likely to give as compared to non-advocates.”

Nonprofit organizations are turning to technology to aid them in the reinvention and evaluation of fundraising programs; a growing trend according to a report of Top Technology Trends released today by Blackbaud.