Charity law specialist Mark Blumberg doesn’t do individual pro bono work, unlike many of his professional colleagues. Instead he offers plain-language expertise to thousands of charities through his three-year-old website, GlobalPhilanthropy.ca.

“A lot of so-called ‘public information’ isn’t actually that accessible,” he says. “You can’t find it easily, and much of it is written at a very high level for people like tax litigators. That’s a gap I’ve tried to fill.”

While planning a successful “a-thon” may seem like a daunting task, preparation goes a long way. Last month, we looked at practical tips to help you get started with event planning. Now that you’re organized, let’s focus on strategies and tools for publicizing your fundraiser. Use these promotional tips to maximize engagement and tap into the power of social networking to ensure your next event is a fundraising success.

Get on calendars early

As soon as the event date is confirmed, mention it in any communication you send to donors. If thank you letters or emails are automatically generated, update the templates with your event’s information.

Does this sound like your ideal workday? You arrive at work, sit down in front of your to-do list and work calmly through each item in order. At the end of the day, you’ve finished every item on your list, and then you leave at a reasonable time.

“In your dreams!” as the saying goes. For most of us, “the modern workday is a minefield of unexpected tasks, problems, and requests that blow up at completely unpredictable times, often one right after the other,” says Work Smart columnist Gina Trapani.

That leads us to work erratically, responding to short-term, perceived or imposed urgency rather than a priority-based task plan. Before you know it, you’re caught in the “busy trap.” 

One of the first things that would-be priests or ministers are taught at seminary is the importance of listening. They’re constantly reminded that they were born with two ears, but only one mouth – that listening to parishioners is more important than talking at them.

Stephen Covey’s fifth habit of highly effective people is “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Marriage counsellors probably most hear the phrase “he just doesn’t listen to me.” Buddhist monks grasp that praying is asking, while meditation is listening.

Great fundraising is defined by the quality of the relationships between charities and their donors. Great fundraisers know that human connections are more important than financial transactions. And great connections of any type start with really strong listening.

That headline isn’t mine. It’s the latest entry by one of my favourite bloggers, Jeff Brooks. He describes how American Airlines not only rejected helpful, professional-level input from a frustrated customer, but fired the one employee who took that input seriously.

And he’s being kind. Brooks found the story on TomorrowToday.com, where it’s headlined “Are Most Big Corporates Really Psychopaths?”

The saga should raise questions at all nonprofits about how they react to customer (donor) input and whether their culture impedes staff creativity. Here’s what happened.

From March to May of this year, Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy and Innovative Research Group surveyed Canadian nonprofit organizations, the consultants that serve them, and the foundations that support them. Our goal: to take the pulse of the sector after a year that brought recovery from the 2008 downturn to some charities, but continued uncertainty to others.

Here are some of the highlights we heard. 

Fundraising improved or stable for many

Fundraising revenues were up for one-third (34 per cent) of respondents, stable for another third (34 per cent). Size was no guarantee of success or stability. Thirty-eight per cent of large nonprofits reported increased revenue, but another 38 per cent saw a decline. Smallest nonprofits were more likely than any other group to maintain stable fundraising results (45 per cent).

Nonprofit leaders seldom have their own speechwriters. So here are some tips from Fletcher Dean, director, executive speechwriting for Dow Chemical. Some of his insights are equally useful for appeal letters.

Dean uses as an example the worst speech he’s ever read, one he unearthed while researching a presentation for a Dow executive. “Off to a slow start, it meanders through a torpid middle and ends up slogging to its bland finale,” he recalls. “There are so many problems it could stand as a recipe for failure.”

Boring opening

If you spend more than 30 seconds saying “thank you for inviting me,” “thank you for this opportunity” and so on, Dean warns you’re going to lose your audience. Get to the meat fast, he advises.

With every gala, fun run, charity walk or fundraising event, the need for and the pursuit of sponsors becomes a focus of those trying to use these events to raise funds and awareness for their organizations. In the charitable sector marketplace new and bigger events begin on what seems like a daily basis.

The corporate partners approached to sponsor such events are feeling new pressures to listen to support these groups. But they’re evaluating such proposals against an ever-increasing sense of their own corporate purpose and strategic objectives.

Even with the increasing sophistication of the charitable sector in how it appeals to corporations, acquiring sponsors remains a difficult task. In some cases it is still a “hit and miss” process.

The Aviva Community Fund competition is back for its second year with its award pool doubled to $1 million. The competition is the brainchild of Aviva, which bills itself as “one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in Canada.” The call for submissions opens September 27, but the pre-launch websites are up now, packed with ideas on putting together a compelling entry.

Plenty has been written, some of it in this publication, about the challenges of multiple generations working together: how to communicate to older and younger colleagues, how to manage older or younger staff. Jeff Brooks notes that the differences in effective fundraising copy for donors of different age groups can be equally dramatic.

Brooks starts with a study that popped up on Brent Bouchez’ Engage:Boomers advertising blog this summer. It’s not some merchandising fad, but a reputable research report from the Stanford Graduate School of Business about age and the meaning of happiness. And its two conclusions ring true.

Being an effective member of a charity’s board involves more than showing up at meetings. It requires staying informed and asking difficult questions, participating in planning and policy making, ensuring a sound financial footing, and monitoring and evaluating the management and governance of an organization. In addition, it frequently means fundraising. 

The board’s role in fundraising is to prepare and be informed in order to make the appropriate approach. It is important to enlist people who have served as fundraisers before, individuals with sales and marketing backgrounds, and people who understand public relations and advertising. 

The position description for board members should refer specifically to fundraising activities. It should be known up front that board members have a duty to enthusiastically seek support from various sources.

The most populous generation in history, the Boomers, are getting ready to…to what? To retire from their for-profit jobs? Yes. To start a second career in a nonprofit? Yes. To volunteer more than they’ve had time to during their work years? Yes. To retire from their nonprofit jobs? Yes. To retire later than our parents did? Probably. To hand off the leadership of our nonprofits to two generations of people that they really don’t understand? Yes. To stress out the social fabric of society to the maximum extent? Yes.

In Generations, author Peter Brinckerhoff invites you to think about the implications of this trend for your nonprofit. Will you have more people to serve in ten years, or fewer? If you don’t provide services to the aging segments of our population, do you think your funding levels from governmental and foundation sources will drop, stay the same, or increase? How are you going to replace retiring staff and board members, particularly at senior management levels? 

Hilborn FORA Executive Briefings, The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with social media to drive change, Allison Fine, author and consultant. Thursday, September 30, plenary 8 - 9:15 am, small group consultation 9:30 - 11:30 am, 88 Chestnut Conference Centre, Toronto. Option 1: Breakfast, presentation and a copy of Allison's new book, The Networked Nonprofit; Option 2: option 1 PLUS limited seating post-breakfast roundtable. Option 1, $97 +HST by September 10, $117 afterwards, Option 2, $277 by September 10, $307 afterwards.

http://www.canadianfundraiser.com/workshop_Viewer.asp?workshop_ID=390

Hilborn Key-To-The-Sector Workshops, Monthly Donors: How to find them and hold on to them, Harvey McKinnon, Harvey McKinnon Associates. Wednesday, September 15, 9 am - 4 pm, 88 Chestnut Conference Centre, Toronto. Includes lunch, nutrition breaks and a complimentary copy of Harvey’s book, “Tiny Essentials of Monthly Committed Giving.” Early bird $347 +HST to September 9; $267 + HST afterwards.

http://www.canadianfundraiser.com/workshop_viewer.asp?workshop_ID=389 

The search warrant that the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals obtained, and the manner in which the OSPCA carried out the search of the Toronto Humane Society’s premises were so flawed that the Crown has dropped all charges against former THS president Tim Trow and other society leaders. The decision was announced August 16.

Crown attorney Christine McGoey told a Toronto court that the warrant and search process was marked by “several serious breaches” of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ protections against unreasonable search and seizure.