Registered charities with inappropriate social media content are more likely to be audited by the Canada Revenue Agency. And ignorance of the law will be no excuse, warns Mark Blumberg, partner at the law firm Blumberg Segal LLP and editor of www.globalphilanthropy.ca. Moreover, nonprofits wanting to apply for charitable status may find it difficult to do so if their social media content is inappropriate. 

During an afternoon session at the 2010 MyCharityConnects conference in Toronto, Blumberg noted, “Registered charities that use social media are expected to be aware of and comply with legal requirements whether in the realm of social media or otherwise.” By “social media” he means blogs, Facebook and Skype, Twitter, YouTube and more – online tools and tactics that affect how nonprofits build profiles, dialogue with stakeholders, raise money and recruit volunteers.

Pay it Forward is what the charitable sector does – investing time and resources now in order to reap exponential social benefit later. Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy and The Sponsorship Report have had the privilege of covering the achievements and growth of this remarkable segment of our civil society for a collective 45 years: two decades for CF&P and a quarter-century for TSR. 

That’s why we partnered to offer five Pay it Forward bursaries to staff members of Canadian charities who could make a convincing case for the benefits of attending Strategic Sponsorship Marketing: The Canadian Summit, set for October 19-20 at the Grand Hotel & Suites in downtown Toronto.

The Pay it Forward bursary winners, selected from over a hundred applicants, are:

Who gives online? What giving channels do donors prefer? Are social networks a viable fundraising tool? At the recent IFC Online Conference Roger Craver of DonorTrends shared and interpreted recent demographic research that helps paint a picture of an online donor’s attitudes and behaviour – the first step in building an effective donor recruitment plan.

Writers and speakers on association topics often refer to what they call “the partnership relationship between the executive director and the board chair.” It is a nice concept, as long as you don’t think that it is a partnership of equals.

I have always cautioned executive directors, particularly those new to the profession, never to forget that the board members may be friendly but they are not your friends – they are your employers. As such, they should and will judge your performance, adjust your salary, and have the power to cause you to become unemployed. When they tell you your strong and weak performance areas, think long and hard before telling them theirs.

Staff turnover in fundraising is a problem. That’s what eighty-seven per cent of development executives told fundraising trends expert Penelope Burk in a 2009 survey. Even one more year of service from a valued fundraiser, they said, has huge implications on revenue, fundraising cost and donor confidence.

So what can we do, and what should our organizations do to extend the fundraiser’s tenure? Paying attention to employee relationships might be a good place for fundraisers and management to start.