Nolo’s Fundraising Tips for Busy Nonprofits

So, the Girl Scouts have gotten themselves into a flap about whether they should be forbidding use of the Internet as a way of selling cookies. It seems that door-to-door is okay; and marketing your cookies on the Internet is okay; but once a girl (in this case, a particular girl named Wild) starts actually letting customers order online, that's either unfair to other girls or a safety risk. Not exactly a bright dividing line.

You'll find the whole story, called "The Cookie Crumbles," written up by Kurt Soller in Newsweek. He raises the important points that Internet sales are not necessarily safer than knocking on strangers' doors, and that a little entrepreneurship should probably be rewarded rather than slapped down, especially in a world where kids will need to know how to use the Internet (at least until the Next Big Thing comes along).

Another point that didn't get raised in the article, which may also underlie the unease with Internet sales, is that the girl in question had her parents' help in setting up the website, and not all Girl Scouts have that opportunity. That's a little troubling, but hardly new. I remember being irked as a kid when other parents took the cookies to work and sold them, while my dad worked at home and had no office to peddle sweets at. Here's hoping the Girl Scouts find a way to make this a "teaching moment" about Internet usage for all concerned, rather than get into an impossible enforcement effort.

And while we're on the topic, when is a major nonprofit going to come up with healthier snacks to sell?

Confession first: I based that headline on a sample of one. Namely me.

But I've noticed over the years that one of the secret pleasures of volunteering is feeling like I'm part of the "inner circle" of a cool group that's providing a great service.

Most recently, in volunteering to walk and socialize with dogs at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, I actually get to meet the adoptable dogs before members of the public do. Like the two here: The smiling Pomeranian is Popcorn, and the cone-wearing one, whose parentage I don't know, is Pippi. If I were looking for a dog right now, I'd be in a prime position to choose my new friend (not that it didn't take all my willpower not to tuck these two into my car and drive off... ).

I'm sure nonprofits can do more to capitalize on sentiments like mine, both to recruit and keep more volunteers, and to get donors interested as well. I've already heard of theater companies that give major donors a "backstage tour". What else can your group do?

I'm still in the mode of reading and summarizing scholarly articles so you won't have to. This next one is from the summer 2008 issue of Nonprofit Management & Leadership (vol. 18 no. 4). (Yes, I'm a little behind.)

This time around, it's an excellent article titled "A Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Online Volunteering," by Beatrice Bezmalinovic Dhebar and Benjamin Stokes. The authors evaluated more than 300 organizations' use of online volunteering services, talking to both staff members and the volunteers themselves.

Their conclusions are simultaneously more and less heartening than I would have expected.

On the positive side, a few groups have been able to use this seemingly random method of reaching out to people to get some serious help, particularly with technological, operational, or fundraising matters. Some have even built entire programs around online volunteers. The online services can create natural matches between nonprofit organizations that are either remote, small, or new, and volunteers who are busy during normal working hours, live far from opportunities for volunteering, or are physically disabled -- but want to help. Not too surprisingly, most volunteers chose assignments with limited time commitments, in most cases only one to five hours of work a week.

On the non-so-great side, most organizations find that a lot more volunteers say they want to help than actually follow through. Even those who complete an assignment rarely come back and do a second one.

But it quickly emerges that the problem can't simply be chalked up to flaky volunteers. Like any staff member, volunteers need training, management, and feedback. The article provides some concrete suggestions for giving this, including suggestions like:

• ask volunteers about their qualifications before assigning them anything (they actually tend to like being taken seriously this way!)
• send a "Thanks, but we've filled that volunteer slot" email to applicants whose services you don't intend to use
• start with short test assignments
• be clear about the scope of work and your expectations
• keep in touch at least once a week (or more) about how things are going, and
• tell the volunteers (effusively and often) when you're happy with their work and that it's making an important difference to your organization.

As with so many other human relationships, communication seems to be the key. The overriding lesson I took from this article was: While the Internet can be an amazing way to link nonprofit organizations and volunteers, it can also create a barrier between you. Nonprofit managers will get the most from online volunteers if they keep nurturing the human side of this relationship.

Oh and, for a bonus, here are links to the list of volunteer matching websites set forth in the article:

• http://www.idealist.org/volunteer/index.html
• http://www.mentornet.net/
• http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/en/index.html
• http://www.serviceleader.org/new/virtual/
• http://www.volunteermatch.org/

Here's a lovely article by Marjorie Ingall about the personal benefits of volunteering, called "What goes around comes around," from the December 2008 issue of SELF magazine. It's a good one to leave lying around where your nonprofit volunteers can see it... or perhaps hang on the bulletin board by the copy machine.

The author starts out saying, "I'm not proud. I'll admit that I started volunteering, in part, to meet men." Of course, she cites various other benefits she found, from the endorphin lift created by doing good to the free Oreos she gets after giving blood. But who doesn't want to know how her romantic quest progressed? Good news, here: She ended up dating a fellow volunteer at the New York Association for New Americans.

No, I'm not suggesting that you turn your nonprofit volunteer program into a dating service. But isn't an important part of any volunteer stint to feel connected to other people (or animals)? It's worth examining whether your nonprofit's volunteers really get a chance to make those connections. Sometimes simple changes can give everyone a more satisfying experience, from having volunteers (and staff) wear name tags to creating team projects.

And by the way, your volunteers, donors, and others have a new way of telling others about their experience at your nonprofit -- the website www.greatnonprofits.org/, which both accepts and posts reviews. The site is profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle in the article, "New Web site a network for nonprofits."

As reported by MarketWatch, Schwab Charitable recently released eight tips for donors wanting to stretch their charitable dollars during this giving season. While many of the tips are more financially sophisticated than the average donor is likely to use, one of them is simple enough for anyone: "Give time and expertise."

In fact, people I know who've recently lost jobs have mentioned volunteer work as a way to fill the gap and make new contacts. As a nonprofit, now is a great time to reexamine how you're using volunteers, and what opportunities you can offer that will help both your organization and the volunteer.

For those of us still working full time -- and working harder than ever, to keep our companies productive during a down economy -- the right choice of volunteer work can offer a great balance to a busy day. I'm still enjoying the break from work that volunteer dogwalking gives me; here's on of my latest furry friends. His name is Capo, a Chihuahua mix available at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society.

Sometimes a simple "thank you" is the best way to forge connections between a nonprofit and its supporters -- and that's just what People's Grocery recently did, with its "Flavors of the Garden" party. People's Grocery is a relatively new organization, developing creative solutions to the health problems in West Oakland stemming from a lack of access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh foods. Their projects include operating community gardens to grow and distribute organic fruits and vegetables, youth training, nutrition and cooking classes, and more. You can also sign up for a regular "Grub Box" of organic seasonal produce, the cost of which helps sponsor similar boxes going to low-income residents of West Oakland.

The party was billed as "a special thank you celebration for all our Harvesting Justice Table Captains, volunteers, donors, & supporters with delicious appetizers and yummy beverages crafted by local Bay Area chefs from organic seasonal produce grown at People's Grocery's gardens and farm. See the new Grub Box, meet the people who are People's Grocery, listen to live music and taste the flavor of summer with People's Grocery."

It lived up to its billing -- great food and music, good company, all in a lovely urban garden setting. But, the cynic might ask, did it directly contribute to their bottom line? Well, from my limited one-person view, I'd say yes. For starters, I was there as the guest of a volunteer, but the entry person was prepared for folks like me, and put my name on their mailing list. I know I'll be hearing more from them, but that's good -- I encourage organizations to make sure everyone who shows the slightest interest has their name captured for future contact.

And I heard one volunteer, perhaps inspired by the good time she was having, say, "I want to give People's Grocery more money after I get my next disability pension check -- I hope it doesn't go down too much with the whole economic crisis, but I'll try to give anyway." I'll let that one speak for itself.

Leyna Bernstein, of The CBO Center in California's San Francisco Bay Area, is passionate about getting board members to not only agree to but enjoy the money-raising part of their role.

But, as she notes, many board members shy away from anything to do with fundraising, perhaps picturing themselves sitting uncomfortably across the table from someone and asking them for a $25,000 check.

To hear Leyna's discussion about how to assuage board members' fears, find creative ways for them to support your fundraising efforts, and ultimately turn around an unwilling board, listen to my recent podcast.

Is a newsletter for members in your nonprofit's future? Or are you wondering why your existing newsletter isn't getting the results it should?

Check out the latest of my interviews with expert nonprofiteurs. This time you'll hear from Cheryl Woodard and Lucia Hwang, authors of Every Nonprofit's Guide to Publishing, talking about how your nonprofit newsletter can make money. Some of Cheryl's clients bring in money with every newsletter they publish, and you can do the same -- by first paying attention to important tips on budgeting, using volunteers, and writing text that excites -- rather than bores -- the reader. 

Here's an interesting blog post by Christopher Campbell on Cinematical, talking about the practice of enlisting movie theatre ushers in efforts to collect donations for nonprofits.

At first glance, it sounds like a reasonably creative idea: The ushers will be walking the aisles anyway, among theatre-goers in a presumably good mood. Why not have these ushers carry a can to collect some coins for a cause?

But as Cristopher's blog points out, the results have made some patrons feel they were being hassled -- especially when ushers were given incentives to "do whatever they could to get as much money as they could." He describes some ushers' aggressive tactics, including name-calling behind the non-givers' backs, and other ushers who may have skimmed money from the donation jar, referring to it as the "cigarette fund."

If ever there was a reminder that every volunteer needs proper training, this is it. I'm guessing those ushers didn't feel they had much choice in their charity collection activities. Did they receive an in-depth orientation from actual members of the charity, to inspire them about the cause and make sure they were committed to helping out? The blog doesn't say.

Before your organization says, "Wow, free volunteer help!" in any similar way, make sure to do the training first, to avoid the need for damage control and retraining later. And if it's going to be an ongoing effort like this one, follow up to see how it's going.

I seem to have been attending a lot of meetings lately, both in for-profit and nonprofit settings. That's given me a chance, while I wait for people to file in, to notice that it's often the meetings where the announcement contained the magical word "food" that draw the most attendees.

That's hardly a headline-worthy revelation -- but then why are some organizers still missing their chance at a little bribery? Particularly when the weather is getting better and motivation to sit around inside is going way, way down?

Maybe bribery is too harsh a word -- anthropologists can give us plenty of examples where the first words out of a host, even when greeting a stranger, concern whether the person would like some food. It's a primal welcoming thing.

Anyway, if the reasons are budgetary, that doesn't seem like much of a barrier. No one needs to promise a hot gourmet meal, just some snacks. In fact, two or three people planning to come (board members or other volunteers, for example) can be asked to bring those snacks. Some cookies, fruit slices, nuts, and cheese and crackers will not break anyone's budgets.