A new podcast series will give listeners a chance to hear the thoughts, opinions and advice of key fundraisers and leaders in the world of philanthropy. Canadian Fundraising and Philanthropy is hosting the series, the latest information service for the nonprofit sector from The Hilborn Group. 

Along with each edition of CF&P, there will be a link to the newest podcast available. This link will also take you to the podcast archive. Listeners can either hear the show online or download the file to be placed on an mp3 player or other mobile device. In the coming weeks, it will also be available on iTunes. This means that listeners can take the CF&P podcast with them wherever they go.

Oh, my. How long have we saluted the mantra of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) and bowed to the experts who told us “If it can’t be measured, it doesn’t count”? Turns out those goals can be pretty dumb after all, according to a study from Leadership IQ that concludes, “... too often they [SMART goals] act as impediments to, not enablers of, bold action, and actually encourage mediocre and poor performance.”

There’s even more reason to avoid them, the researchers say. Very few employees find them useful.

Only 15 per cent of the 4,182 workers in the study strongly agree that their goals would help them achieve great things. Only 13 per cent strongly agree that their goals would help them achieve their potential.

Though the ultimate responsibility for an organization’s financial integrity is the board’s, the executive and staff also are deeply involved with the day-to-day financial operations, including budgets, audits, financial reporting and accounting in accordance with the policies and procedures set by the board.

The leadership team must work together knowing that both governance and management responsibilities are brought into full play. Both the board and executive have areas in which they each take principal responsibility. 

Over the past few months, The Toronto Star, the largest local newspaper in my region, has followed two stories of shrewd con artists exploiting human greed for their own benefit. Each conducted fraudulent financial transactions and set up corporations that operated under false pretences. Despite those parallels, the paper presented the two tales quite differently.

One story, published in the business section (“Tang trading again,” January 7, 2010) led by naming the fraud artist as the perpetrator. It and a follow-up story on an inside page of the May 11 business section mentioned the names of his corporations only in passing and said nothing about other cases of fraud or mismanagement in the financial services sector. Bernie Madoff, who defrauded investors on a much grander scale, received comparable treatment.

But when the Canada Revenue Agency lowered the boom on a particularly flagrant, tax sheltering pseudo-charity, a headline screaming “Bogus charity shut down” appeared in the largest print I’ve seen for some time, above the fold on the front page of the Star’s May 11 issue.

Unlike humanitarian causes that must inspire compassion to be successful, such as the massive Haiti campaign, community fundraising relies on local people coming together with concrete short-term goals for which they have a personal affinity.

Donors likely have a personal connection with a community cause and may stand to gain from it in material ways. 

So how can one maximize donations to a community cause? Drawing on the community spirit of potential donors is a strategy not to be overlooked. An effective method is to remind potential donors of the cause by offering tangible gifts, which themselves often strengthen community ties and bring diverse people together. Donors wearing such gifts display community pride and create a visible sense of solidarity.