Cultivating Foundations

Posted on March 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

Patrick J. Heryford

Writing grants is a major source of revenue for many non-profits. However, writing the proposal is only one part of the process. We asked Patrick Heryford, the director of corporate and foundation relations for the YMCA of San Francisco to share his experience.

Saad & Shaw: You mentioned that there is so much more to grantsmanship than writing a proposal and sending it off to a funder. Would you share with our readers a little bit about what that “so much more” is?

Patrick Heryford: An accurate and well-written proposal is essential, however, building open and trusting relationships with funders is considerably more important. It is easier for a foundation to say “no” to an anonymous piece of paper than it is to a human being. By the time you submit a proposal, you should have already had conversations with foundation officers and you should have a good idea as to whether or not you will be funded. If you do not have existing relationships, attend industry events where you will have access to officers. In the Bay Area, Development Executives Roundtable (www.dersf.org) frequently hosts “Meet the Grantmaker” type panels, and the San Francisco Business Times hosts an annual Corporate Philanthropy Summit.

Saad & Shaw: What do you consider the top five things an organization should include as part of their stewardship of grantmakers?

Patrick Heryford:
1. Do Good Work: If you do good work that has a positive impact in the community, funders will recognize this and it will make your fundraising efforts much easier. And remember that foundation officers talk to one another. An officer who is well-versed on your mission could very well become your advocate with other funders.
2. Research Funders: Be sure you are applying to the right funder for the right program and not wasting the officer’s time (or yours). My favorite online research tool is the Foundation Center’s Online Directory (www.foundationcenter.org).
3. Meet Deadlines: Use whatever record-keeping system you need to ensure you meet application and reporting deadlines. For reports, if you can’t make a deadline, let the funder know well in advance. My experience has been that they will give you an extension provided you are up front with them.
4. Communicate: During the grant period, you must let the funder know of significant staffing or organizational changes, or any reallocations to the budget you presented with the proposal. Invite them to events connected with the funded program, and send them updates related to the program. If your proposal is declined, send a brief hand-written note to thank them for considering your request; it will help them remember you next time you apply.
5. Check In With Your Program Staff: Schedule regular meetings with the people who are running the program at your organization. Are they making progress toward the goals and objectives? Are they using the funds for the appropriate items? Better to keep tabs on this during the grant period than at the end when a report is due.

Saad & Shaw: Any last words of advice?

Patrick Heryford: Some may think that due to the struggling economy and foundations’ reduced assets, a nonprofit should scale back their stewardship. The opposite is true. Now is the time to ramp up your stewardship program. When was the last time you communicated with past funders? You need to stay on their minds so that when the economy turns around, they will know you and your organization’s mission.

Patrick Heryford can be reached at pheryford@ymcasf.org.

© Mel and Pearl Shaw 2010.

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HBCU support – its alive on the West Coast!

Posted on February 25, 2010 | Leave a comment
James Mayo II, Vice President, UNCF

James Mayo II, Vice President, UNCF

“All that I am and ever hope to be I owe to my family and to Howard University, an HBCU” – James H. Mayo II

We recently talked with James Mayo, Western Regional Vice President for the United Negro College Fund about the role of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Here is some of what he had to share.

Saad & Shaw: What do you see as the important role of HBCU’s today?

James Mayo: There are three principle reasons why our HBCUs are as indispensible today as they were when they were founded more than 150 years ago. First, these institutions provide a level of affirmation and care that allows our students to learn and grow in a climate where people are genuinely concerned that they survive and thrive. Faculty and administrators come from similar economic situations, and they know the challenges that so many of our students face. Second, the cost of a college education at an HBCU is one third of that charged by majority institutions.

HBCU’s stretch funds farther than larger majority institutions. This is our history. This is what we have done since our founding.  The third reason is the low faculty-to-pupil ratio that affords students the opportunity to work more one-on-one with faculty members.  There is nothing more compelling, more urgent, more immediate than to afford higher education opportunities to those African American students who, but for HBCUs, would never have access to the low faculty-to-pupil ratio that results in the attention and care that they need and succeed with.

Saad & Shaw: In your experience, why do people in California support the UNCF?

James Mayo: First of all, the one thing we can all agree upon as Americans is the importance of education. People support UNCF in largest measure because of the quality of education that is provided at a very low cost. People on the west coast support UNCF because of the many testimonies provided by people who have attended our colleges. Likewise, corporations see the investment. They understand that the cost ratio is low. These institutions do more with less than most majority institutions. These schools have soul. Soul is the ability to take nothing and make something out of it. HBCUs take students from all environments and they stretch a small amount of funds to create an environment where our students can succeed.

We have always had as our mission to go forth and provide service to those who do not have. “Enter to learn. Go forth to serve.” Service is at the core of our colleges and universities. This is another reason why people support UNCF. HBCUs are as vital today as they were on the day they were first founded. Their historical mission is as important as it was when envisioned by their founders. We are working not only for our local communities, but for our nation, our world, and for all mankind…

Join UNCF supporters at the annual UNCF gala on Saturday February 27th at the Oakland Marriott. For more information call (415) 956 – 1018 or visit www.uncf.org.

And as always, have a FUNdraising good time! – Mel and Pearl Shaw

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Be a better board member in 2010

Posted on February 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

Do you remember your New Year’s Resolutions? Do you recall the one about being a better board member? We want to encourage you to stick with your resolution. We want to encourage you to strengthen your commitment to the organizations and institutionsyou believe in.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of criticizing staff, pointing the finger at others, and blaming the economy. But here is why we believe in FUNdraising – it has to be fun. If you are focused on what’s not working, take a moment to focus on how you can be part of the solution. And think about what you find to be fun.

Here are three suggestions for you to consider as you contemplate how to be a better board member in 2010.

  1. What do you like to do? Go to basketball games? The movies? Cook? Figure out a way to invite people you know to join you in doing something you love. AND, ask them to give $25 at the same time to your organization. If you ask 10 people to come to your house for dinner and ask them to bring a $25 check for the food bank, you will have raised $250 doing something you love – cooking and entertaining.
  2. Think about a friend who shares your belief in the organization you serve. Ask them if they would be willing to serve with you on a specific committee. Your friend or colleague doesn’t have to join the board. She can simply become a member of the governance committee, giving of her legal skills. Or he can join the annual gala committee with you and work on promoting and selling tickets.
  3. Look at your finances and figure out what size gift you can give in 2010. Divide that by 12. Can you give that amount each month? Can you give more? If so, do so. Consider automating your monthly contribution. Have a preset amount automatically deducted from your checking account or charged to your credit card each month. That way you don’t have to think about. And, it is easier to give $25 each month than it is to give $250 at one time. Once you get in the swing, consider increasing the amount. And think about how much you can ask your friends to give. Tell them what you are doing and ask them to do the same. Automating your giving can take the “pain” out of writing a check.

And remember – you are giving to something you believe in. It’s got to be good! That’s it. Not too difficult. But you will be making a difference.

As always, remember to have a FUNdraising Good Time! – Mel and Pearl

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Haiti relief: how to make your gift

Posted on January 18, 2010 | 1 comment

Haiti Relief

What can be more important than making a gift to help relieve pain and suffering in Haiti? Where could your dollars make a more direct, immediate impact than giving to bring water, food, blankets, and medical supplies and services into Haiti.

 We urge you to give. To give now. And to give a month from now and six months from now. The question is who should I give my money to?

 There are many options ranging from the Red Cross to your local church or community based effort. Evaluating how to make your gift is important. Because your money is valuable.

Ask yourself:

  1. Does the organization have experience giving to international disaster relief? If no, ask why are they collecting money for Haiti. (see below)
  2. Does the organization have the expertise and relationships to ensure that aid actually gets into Haiti?
  3. Does the organization have people on the ground in Haiti who can help ensure that short-term and long-term relief and rebuilding efforts affect those in need?
  4. Is the organization large enough to handle a major influx of financial contributions?

 While giving is of utmost importance you should also know that in-person and on-line fraud does occur in the wake of disasters and that people are taken advantage of. To help prevent being a victim of fraud do not give cash. Write a check or use your debit or credit card. Make sure the organization is a recognized charity. Make sure you know how the organization will use your money. Get a receipt that lists the organization’s tax identification number.  Check out www.give.org a website of the Better Business Bureau if you have questions about how to make your gift.

 Disasters are also a time when well meaning people and organizations appeal to others for disaster assistance when they really don’t have the ability to directly impact the lives of those who are suffering.

 Yes, organizations without direct experience in Haiti or without experience in disaster relief may turn around and use your gift as part of a larger gift to an organization such as UNICEF or the Red Cross, but you don’t know that for sure. This is a good time for organizations to increase their revenue while “passing through” money to larger organizations. There is certainly no problem with giving a $100 check made out to the Red Cross to your church or a local community based effort. There may be a problem giving $100 to such an organization for Haitian relief. If you give this way, make sure that they are aligned with a larger organization that knows how to get needed people and resources into Haiti.

 Your care and concern for others is so important. Together we are making a difference. As we write this column $16 million has been given to major charities by text messaging alone often in amounts of $5 and $10. American businesses have given over $43 million. The NFL gave $2 million.  We as a country are giving $100 million via USAID. Your gift makes a difference.

That’s it for now. And as always, remember to have a FUNdraising Good Time! You can make a difference.

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Fundraising for Haiti – what you need to know

Posted on January 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

Clinton and Bush Raising Funds for Haiti

Disasters are a time when we come together to support each other as human beings. Plain and simple. It’s not about politics. It’s not about religion. It’s about people. Saving lives. Food. Medical care. Clean water. A place to sleep. Everyone is getting involved. President Obama has allocated $100 million via  USAID. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush are busy fundraising. And so are many others.

Disasters are also a time when Americans give generously as a country and as individuals, families, and local communities. We give and we fundraise. We also need to be paying attention to how we give, who we give to, and how we fundraise.

Here are some links you can check out for more information.

Advice on Giving to Haiti Support – guidance from the Better Business Bureau regarding how to make your gift to support Haiti.

Good Intentions Are Not Enough – learn the Do’s and Don’ts of Diaster Giving

Text and Give – how to give via text messaging. Includes a list of 21 different organizations you can give to via a text message. $16 million have been given via text messages as we write this blog!

Giving to the Red Cross – links for how to direct your giving

Updates on Giving to Haiti – stay up-to-date with information about giving and fundraising for Haiti. Information provided by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

That’s it for now. And as always, remember to have a FUNdraising Good Time! You can make a difference.

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Take a page from the pros….

Posted on January 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

Hillary Clinton - International Fundraiser

How do you make the “case” for your organization, institution or project? Do you seek to raise funds from people you personally know? Do you call on others who can extend their influence on your behalf? Do you rely on how you will use the funds raised as way to motivate giving? Or do you promote the impact those funds will make?

 Secretary of state Hillary Clinton helped raise $54 million in just nine months for the United States national pavilion at the 2010 world’s fair in Shanghai China. She was legally prohibited from personally solicit gifts and no public money could be used for the project. While attending is not currently in our plans, we want to share with you what we have learned about how she worked her miracles.

  1.  She engaged two experienced fundraisers with whom she has strong relationships: Elizabeth Bagley and Jose Villarreal
  2. She kicked off the project with a conference call with ten of the nation’s top CEOs. According to the New York Times Chevron, PepsiCo and General Electric each pledged $5million. 
  3. PepsiCo’s CEO made calls to other CEOs
  4. Bagley and Villarreal reached out to companies with operations in China
  5. The initial pitch was patriotism “How can the US be one of only two countries without a presence at the world’s fair in Shanghai?”
  6. The second pitch was “commercial diplomacy.” In other words, helping to fund the US pavilion will help open doors for future business.
  7. While Mrs. Clinton did not solicit gifts, she did meet with sponsors when she visited the actual site.

 While those with the connections of Hillary or Bill Clinton are few and far between, we want to call your attention to the process she used. Here it is for the rest of us:

  1. Engage people you know who are committed to your personal and professional success and who have relationships and connections with other people who can help you achieve your fundraising goal
  2. Solicit the biggest gifts first. Identify those you believe can give the largest gifts and talk with them first. Learn how they respond to your project. Address their questions or objections. Ask for their financial support and their involvement with your fundraising effort.
  3. Ask your early donors to ask others to make a comparable gift to your campaign
  4. Identify who will benefit when you reach your fundraising goal. For example, if you want to build a new youth center, consider asking businesses in the immediate area to make a gift. When the youth center is completed more young people and families will be frequenting the area bringing with them the potential for increased sales.
  5. Review how you position your fundraising campaign. Do people respond more to “raising funds for scholarships” or to “funding our future leaders?”
  6. Embrace your funders and donors. Give them the red carpet treatment at all times. Their financial support helps you meet your goals.

 And remember to keep having a FUNdraising Good Time!

© 2010 – Mel and Pearl Shaw

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Timing is everything. Or is it?

Posted on January 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

Allen Temple reaches $1 million mark

Allen Temple Baptist Church of Oakland, CA launched its $5million capital campaign in October 2008. If you can recall that was the month of the American economic meltdown. Newscasters were crying the sky is falling….

But the church had been preparing for almost a year to launch their campaign to pay off the mortgage on their family life center building, renovate their training center, and build an endowment for social justice programming. They kept with their schedule not knowing that the remainder of 2008 and all of 2009 would prove to be very difficult times for fundraising in general.

But this volunteer-led campaign raised $1million in gifts and pledges during the first year of the campaign. They are 33% towards their goal of raising $3million from within the church family. They seek to raise an additional $2million from community stakeholders, foundation and corporations. And work on that has begun…

How did they do it? Here’s what campaign chairs Willis White and Connie Walker attribute their success to:

  1. At the core of our work is the belief that through God, all things are possible.
  2. This is something we believe is important to the life of the church and our community.
  3. We spent time securing buy-in from the church’s leadership. And we got it. We talked, we listened to objections, we made adjustments. The full congregation was behind the campaign before we launched. And our church leaders volunteered to provide campaign leadership as well.
  4. We put in place a system to ensure that funds given to the campaign by church members will be used to accelerate payments on the mortgage for our Family Life Center.
  5. We know our church culture and we designed a campaign that works with our church culture.
  6. We hired professional fundraising counsel to guide us, train us, and help us prepare.
  7. The pastor supports the campaign, the church trustees support the campaign, our deacons, ministers and other leaders support the campaign.
  8. We looked at how we had approached fundraising in prior campaigns and learned from our past experiences. We knew what we wanted from counsel and how we wanted counsel to work with us.
  9. We committed to treating every church member as an equal and committed to ensuring we talked personally with each member regardless of what size gift we thought they could give to the campaign.
  10. We engaged in a transparent process and regularly reported campaign results to the full congregation.

Join us in congratulating Allen Temple Baptist church and encouraging them as they move forward in 2010. Their campaign illustrates that when people believe in the importance of a specific campaign they are willing to give and get involved. It’s about more than timing.

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Online Communications and Fundraising – Workshop in SF

Posted on December 31, 2009 | 1 comment

It’s a new year and time to advance all those projects put on the shelf in 2009. And time to upgrade your already strong skill set. What’s next? Check out the Development Executive’s Roundtable (DER) meeting on the topic of online communications and fundraising. Everything you need to know for $20 PLUS a delicious lunch. ($12 if you are member!). Mark your calendar for Friday January 8, 2010(12:00-1:30 p.m.) Localtion and pricing at end of post! (Read on…)

Your New Year’s Resolution:  Figure Out Online Communications and Fundraising

Here’s the Buzz!

We know: you never had time to wrap your head around “Web 2.0” and now you’re hearing Web 2.0 is over! Seminars and interns are telling you all sorts of frightening/enticing things about what you can do on the internet: Money flows in rivers online! Prospects flock like geese online! Data can be panned like gold at online! E-blast! Blogging! Twitter! Run! Catch up! Arrrggghhh!

Yes, the online landscape changes fast, but you don’t have to keep up with everything: you only need a basic map. In this presentation we’ll draw a map of the kinds of fundraising and communications tools that are available for nonprofits online, and how they connect with each other. We’ll look at your needs and how these tools integrate into an overall strategy. We’ll also look at specific services and providers so you can go straight back to the office and start trying stuff out.

Presenter: Claire Light is a Bay Area writer and cultural worker. She has worked for eleven years in nonprofit administration, particularly arts in the Asian American community. Most recently, she’s been consulting in online communications and fundraising for nonprofits in the Bay Area. Previously she worked as development coordinator for Women’s Initiative for Self Employment, co-founded and served as a senior editor and development director at Hyphen magazine, and was program manager at Kearny Street Workshop.  She currently blogs for Hyphen magazine.

Cost for Luncheon: DER = $12,  non-members = $20.  Lunch is included in your fee.

 Reserve by Wednesday, January 6th Programs often sell-out, so it’s “first come, first served!”

Location: Lighthouse for the Blind, San Francisco, 214 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102, Near Van Ness or Civic Center MUNI stop; Civic Center BART

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Leaders in our community – NABA

Posted on December 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

National Association of Black Accountants

Earlier this month we were in Houston, TX to conduct a workshop at the quarterly board meeting of the National Association of Black Accountants, Inc. We were impressed by the high level of commitment and leadership we witnessed. With local, regional and students chapters across the country NABA is an example of a well run volunteer-led national organization. Founded 39 years ago NABA represents the interests of more than 100,000 minorities as they further their educational, professional, and career aspirations in the related business fields of accounting, consulting, finance, and information technology.

We had the opportunity to talk with Moire Rasmussen from NABA’s San Francisco Bay Area Chapter who shared some of her passion for NABA with us. Moire has been a NABA member for 13 years, is a former national board member, and currently serves on the resource committee. She works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers where she is a market diversity leader.

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter has over 100 members. The chapter supports members’ professional development and encourages young people to pursue accounting careers. One of their programs is the Accounting Careers and Awareness Program, a week-long residency program for high school students that teaches students the basics of accounting including balancing checkbooks, understanding credit, gives scholarships ($15,000 last year), and provides help to young people as they apply to college.

We asked Moire why gives so much of her time to NABA and why she serves on the resource committee. She said “I’ve been given opportunities that would not have been afforded to me anywhere else. The people I’ve met and the guidance I’ve been given has allowed me to grow professionally. I want to help others see the value NABA has to offer, and that takes resources.”

She – and NABA as an organization – is committed to helping others enter the accounting profession and to grow in the profession. She carries a special message to young people in high school and college.

“Accounting is the foundation of business. Business is the foundation of how our country survives. No matter what you do in life you need to understand the basics of business. Accounting will give you those basics. Even if you do not become a Certified Public Accountant, majoring in accounting will open more doors than you can imagine.”

If you are interested in a career in accounting or want to grow in your career visit www.nabainc.org.

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Yes We Can – Building HBCU Endowments

Posted on December 21, 2009 | Leave a comment
Dr. John Berry

Dr. John Berry

Endowments are an important component of institutional stability and sustainability. They are a way to help address future needs and to leverage fundraising now and in the future. The growth of endowments at all colleges and universities has come under increasing scrutiny as those institutions with meaningful endowments examine their investment policies, and those with small or developing endowments look at how to grow theirs.

We asked Dr. John Berry to provide his insights in this guest blog. Dr. Berry’s dissertation focused on effective fund raising operations for endowment development.  Let us know your thoughts.

It’s safe to write that these are times in which greatness comes to the fore, as development professionals manage to make a way out of no way. It seems that all around us the fund raising landscape looks extremely bleak.

If you work in higher education in this country, these are challenging times.  Large, midsized, and small colleges and universities are struggling with the reality of shrinking lines of credit or perhaps no line of credit at all. This situation has the potential to cause a catastrophic system failure for numerous colleges and universities, which is an unimaginable scenario.

At the Historically Black University where I am employed, my weekly directors’ meetings have become dire, to say the least. It’s clear from all of the power centers within the university that this institution is experiencing the onset of a massive reduction in its operational budget, stemming from the extremely poor condition of the national economy. The briefing that I’ve received is sobering.

But the circumstances surrounding my institution are not isolated. This university is not the exception but rather the rule, as its leadership grapples with the very difficult decisions of scaling down programs, disciplines,  and the very heart of any college or university—its faculty and staff.

The drastic funding concerns of higher education nationwide are simple and yet complex in their formulation. Historically, the primary resource formula is based on a college’s or university’s projected student recruitment. The more students successfully enrolled, the more tuition fees paid by Pell grants, along with scholarships, fellowships, and students loans to supplement financial aid packages. These are the power centers/funding streams of colleges and universities’ chief financial officers.

The present economic climate of institutions indicates that students from low-income households or those facing the loss of parental employment and federal grants no longer will no longer be able to cover the full cost of tuition. These students often must defer their dreams of pursing a college degree.  In the past, a viable option for a family’s tuition shortfall was applying for a private-sector student loan which generally supplements an existing federal grant thereby resulting in a zero balance with a college or university for the academic year.

At public universities such as mine, we have seen our state economy drop. Therefore state tax revenue has dropped, meaning massive operational budget cuts along with the act of reverting existing allocated funds back to the state’s treasury.

The question then becomes, what are the options for small to midsized schools like those within the HBCU sector? As a professional development officer/fundraiser at an HBCU, I have—along with many of my colleagues at other HBCUs—seen the handwriting on the wall. But I have been for the most part unable to build up counter measures to address difficult times such as this unprecedented economic downturn. All but a very few colleges and universities, if called upon to do, so could fully cover their annual operating budgets by drawing on the school’s private reserves resources. The critical aspect to this sustainability function is that the larger a college or university endowment, the more options an institution’s leadership has to ward off periodic economic downturns.

The fundamental question for higher education leadership of small and midsized colleges and universities must be “what is the annual yield of primarily unrestricted funds coming from their respective institutions’ endowment portfolios?’ The pure income from a college- or university-invested endowment has become of the utmost importance to chief financial officers. The leadership at HBCUs will be called upon to aggressively manage these funds for maximum growth toward annual income yield.

The Challenges for Leadership
Given the grim economic prognosis for the United States—perhaps for the next few years—nationally, higher education will be called upon to do more with less government-allocated and philanthropic resources. However, the reality is that colleges and universities with larger endowments portfolios will probably fare better than those that do not. The late Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, former president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, said once in an affirming speech to “always think big.” This should be the rallying cry for 21st century HBCU sector leadership.

The Nobel Laureate and Yale economist James Tobin said in regard to higher education leadership and endowment management responsibility in 1974, “The trustees of endowed institutions are the guardians of the future against the claims of the present. It is their task to preserve equity among generations.”

The challenge in the early part of the 21st century is daunting for most institutions of higher education, but one could argue even more so for the HBCU sector and these institutions fund raising officers.  However, if history does nothing else in this kind of situation, it can provide a road map from which a plan of action can be developed and implemented to achieve a new desired outcome. Case in point:  Dr. Mary McLeod-Bethune, founder and president of the college which bears her worthy name, started that institution with $2.50. However when Dr. Bethune stepped down as president of the college, it had a $2 million endowment. As noted in her biography, Dr. Bethune herself cooked and sold fried-fish sandwiches to enhance the schools fund raising efforts. A word to the wise is sufficient: We are able.

John M. Berry
Chief Development Officer
South Carolina State University Student Affairs

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