Pasadena, Calif.

PASADENA, Calif., December 1, 2009 — Kaiser Permanente announced today that more than 60 nonprofit organizations from Kern to San Diego will receive grants totaling more than $750,000 to help fund a wide range of services for people with HIV and AIDS, including youth education, prevention, screening and treatment programs, as well as housing assistance and food pantries. Kaiser Permanente’s community benefit HIV/AIDS funding for 2009 will exceed $1.25 million to California agencies this year, bringing the total to more than $6.25 million since the grant program began in 1989.

Forty-five minutes and $240 can change a child’s life forever. That’s about how long it takes and how much it costs for Operation Smile to fix one child’s cleft lip. The organization has been fixing smiles and changing lives for more than 25 years. The worldwide medical charity, based in Norfolk, Va., has been providing free surgery to children in developing countries who were born with facial deformities since it was founded by Dr. William P. Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse and clinical social worker, in 1982. With the help of a crew

Any nonprofit organization’s success hinges in part on recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest people — and firing those who fall short. That according to Stacey Girdner, the chief people development officer at Russ Reid Company, a Pasadena, Calif.-based marketing and communications firm that serves nonprofit organizations. “[Fewer and fewer] people are available for your positions,” Girdner said at the session “Grooming the Next Generation of Fundraisers: How Do I Find, Train and Retain Good People?” at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2008 Leadership Summit held last month in Palm Beach, Fla. “You have to be more strategic.” Girdner, who has worked

Being a new leader comes with many challenges, and if you’re not accustomed to the culture of nonprofits (and even if you are), the task of moving the organization’s mission forward can seem daunting. But the encouraging news is that it can be done -- and it usually begins with having a solid strategy. To start, ask yourself the following questions: * What’s your fundraising direction? * Do you have a strategic communications plan or are you struggling to get the word out about your organization? * How is the organization collectively moving your fund-development plan forward? * Are your key staff and

Best Friends Animal Society, located in the heart of southern Utah’s golden circle of National Parks, is home to as many as 1,500 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits and other animals. For the past 10 years, the organization had been using the same acquisition package. Although it had done a great job, response rates were dropping, causing the donor file to remain flat.

The situation was dire: If a new package wasn’t created, the file actually would have started to decrease, which could have led to cuts in service.