Nonprofit News and Comment

FUNDRAISING

“Aiding Sobriety, a Chord at a Time.” By James C. McKinley. New York Times. April 11, 2013. It’s about 1,700 miles from Madison Square Garden to Willoughby Bay in Antigua, and it is hard to imagine two places more different than the grimy canyons of Midtown Manhattan and the pristine, windswept hills overlooking the Caribbean that are home to the Crossroads Center drug rehabilitation clinic. But this weekend the two places will be linked by Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, which raises money for this small nonprofit treatment center, which he has built into a $20 million charity over the last 15 years, largely through selling his guitars and persuading friends to do benefit concerts. Like the previous three Crossroads festivals, the two-day event at Madison Square Garden will be a celebration of blues and blues-rock guitar, anchored by Robert Cray and his band, Los Lobos and the Allman Brothers Band. The lineup includes about 30 musicians, most of them, like Mr. Clapton, masters of the electric blues: B. B. King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Albert Lee and Jeff Beck. The gathering is daunting, even for veterans on the bill. It’s about 1,700 miles from Madison Square Garden to Willoughby Bay in Antigua, and it is hard to imagine two places more different than the grimy canyons of Midtown Manhattan and the pristine, windswept hills overlooking the Caribbean that are home to the Crossroads Center drug rehabilitation clinic. But this weekend the two places will be linked by Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, which raises money for this small nonprofit treatment center, which he has built into a $20 million charity over the last 15 years, largely through selling his guitars and persuading friends to do benefit concerts. Like the previous three Crossroads festivals, the two-day event at Madison Square Garden will be a celebration of blues and blues-rock guitar, anchored by Robert Cray and his band, Los Lobos and the Allman Brothers Band. The lineup includes about 30 musicians, most of them, like Mr. Clapton, masters of the electric blues: B. B. King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Albert Lee and Jeff Beck. The gathering is daunting, even for veterans on the bill.

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The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University

The nonprofit sector — the universe of associations, civil society, philanthropy, and voluntary action — is the most rapidly growing and changing organizational domain in the world.

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FUNDRAISING

“Christmas tree recycling a fundraising opportunity for nonprofits in Portland metro area.” By Sara Hottman. Oregonian. December 30, 2012. The Boy Scouts yelled “tree” through the icy wind each time a truck pulled up to their collection site Sunday to drop off a Christmas tree.Between donations, the boys of Troop 707 made a wind-blocking fort in the back of a large trailer where trees were stacked high, said Colby Lawson, 11. There’s all sorts of nooks and passages through the branches, he said. “It’s fun to play in the trees.” Oregon is the nation’s top Christmas tree producer and recycler. While many millions of the 7 million trees harvested each year are shipped nationally and internationally, the area’s nonprofits each year use Christmas tree recycling as a way to raise money and keep waste out of landfills, says the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Trees are biodegradable, but still produce harmful methane gas as they decompose in landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Recycle your tree To find a nonprofit recycling Christmas trees near you, visit Metro’s Find a Recycler page and search “Christmas trees.” Troop 707 is one of nearly 70 organizations — including 40 Boy and Girl Scout troops — across the Portland metro area capping the holidays with a Christmas tree recycling fundraiser. They take a small fee in exchange for recycling Christmas trees as mulch, habitat, or fuel. Most groups have trees composted or mulched. Some, like Tualatin Valley Trout Unlimited, collect Christmas trees each year for a coho salmon habitat enhancement project on the Necanicum River. Christmas tree recycling and mulching to raise money is a fast-growing trend nationwide, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Portland Organic Productions, a North Portland nonprofit, for the first time this year is collecting Christmas trees to turn into mulch for plantings in the neighborhood and for people in the area, said Anisha Scanlon, founder of the organization. Money raised will support the organization’s St. Johns Main Street Clean Up initiative.

FUNDRAISING

“Helluva Town: Donations pour in, post-Sandy; Fundraising activities take place all over the area.” By Miriam Kreinin Souccar. Crains New York Business. November 11, 2012. Superstorm Sandy is bringing out the spirit of giving in every quarter of New York. On Nov. 12, the New York Islanders are hosting a free open skate at Nassau Coliseum, where the public can enjoy the ice—and make a donation to the American Red Cross’ Hurricane Sandy relief fund. The Dumbo Improvement District is holding a fundraiser on Nov. 14 at Galapagos Art Space to raise money for arts organizations and businesses in the hard-hit neighborhood. Tickets for the party start at $25. As of last Thursday, 165 had been sold. Alexandria Sica, executive director of the improvement district, said she expects to raise about $15,000. Though every penny helps, it’s just a drop in the bucket. Because of flooding, Ms. Sica estimated, the neighborhood’s businesses and arts groups have sustained around $1.5 million in losses. “I don’t think anyone ever imagined this amount of damage,” she said. “This is the worst thing that has ever happened to our neighborhood.” Events have been popping up on a daily basis. Last week, some 40 Williamsburg restaurants participated in a fundraising night where they gave about 20% of their proceeds to the Red Cross. The Jazz Foundation of America sponsored a benefit concert last Thursday to raise money for jazz musicians who have been affected. Nonprofits are even helping other nonprofits. On Nov. 18, the Queens Museum of Art is hosting a fundraiser to bring in donations for the Rockaway Waterfront.

FUNDRAISING

“River To River floats fundraising effort;The free festival is asking individual donors to help the cause.” By Miriam Kreinin Souccar. Crain’s New York Business. June 8, 2012. The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is starting a new initiative to find individual donors for the massive River To River Festival held downtown each summer. The festival, which debuted in 2002 as a way to re-energize lower Manhattan after Sept. 11, has a $2 million budget that is funded by the government and corporate sponsors like American Express and Century 21. This year, the council launched a $25,000 fundraising campaign to attract individual donors. It has already raised 95% of the funds from 144 donors. The nonprofit intends to increase the size of the campaign next year, which would help reduce its reliance on corporate funders. “River To River engages more than 100,000 loyal, excited, and diverse audience members and receives significant support from corporations, foundations and government agencies,” said Nicola Salvage, the cultural council’s marketing director. “[We] felt it was important to engage individuals in supporting the festival as well.” The festival, which provides free entertainment and runs from June 17 to July 15 at a variety of downtown venues, will feature nearly 100 artists this season. They include the Philip Glass Ensemble, Eddie Palmieri and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. The festival also has a number of other programs such as model boat making workshops at the South Street Seaport museum. The cultural council last year took over as the lead producer of the festival from the Alliance for Downtown New York.

“N.J. Symphony Orchestra Closes Fund Campaign.” By Matthew Oshinsky. Wall Street Journal. June 11, 2012. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra on Monday announced that it was closing its NJSO Comprehensive Campaign fundraising initiative, with the program having raised $35 million in support of the group, exceeding its $32 million goal. The campaign, launched in October 2010, was the NJSO’s effort to “invest in world-class orchestral concerts, reach nearly 250,000 patrons each year and contribute to the culture of New Jersey,” according to a statement released by the orchestra. It included annual support and major gifts to secure the future of the orchestra, providing needed operating funds. Among other gifts, the campaign—which formally closes at the end of the fiscal year on June 30—received gifts from, among other bodies, 43 individual households.
“The three and a half years this campaign spanned have been among the most challenging economic times our country has faced,” said the NJSO’s president and CEO, André Gremillet. “In a time when other nonprofits have had to suspend or postpone major campaigns, the NJSO has not only met but also exceeded its goal. This extraordinary generosity speaks to the deep connections our patrons have with the Orchestra, and it recognizes the essential role that the NJSO plays as a major cultural institution in this state.” In lieu of a single performance home, the NJSO travels to seven different venues around the state.

“Fundraising By Text Message.” By Peter Overby. Morning Edition/National Public Radio. June 11, 2012. If you’ve ever felt a sudden urge to give money to a politician but you just couldn’t get to your checkbook or your computer in time, well, the Federal Election Commission is getting ready to help. The Commission today might approve a proposal to allow contributions via mobile phone. Contributions by text message have done very well for some charities. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the American Red Cross used texting to raise $32 million in donations of $10 each, so this may be the technology that makes impulse giving easy in politics. The idea’s been around for two years. The main hang-up, federal law sets deadlines for processing campaign contributions and it takes longer than that to get mobile contributions through the billing cycle of wireless providers. There’s going to be a fix for that. The Obama and Romney campaigns have both endorsed the proposal, not that it will come cheap. The processing fee will likely be 20 to 25 percent of the contribution. So that five dollars you give to your favorite candidate might be only 3.75 or four bucks by the time the campaign gets it. That’s an undeniably tough nut. Still, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that what the relocation and Gehry plans have in common is the delusion that in museums, architecture is destiny. Ever since the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened a satellite in Bilbao, Spain, in 1997 designed by Mr. Gehry, museum boards around the U.S. have come to believe that all will be well if they can just hitch their wagons to a starchitect. Never mind that some museums have faltered after opening a flashy new building, most notably the American Folk Art Museum in New York. Yet success, defined as building audiences, attracting support and making your institution part of the conversation, comes not through architecture but programming, primarily exhibitions and acquisitions. And this is where the Corcoran has fallen down.

FUNDRAISING

“Food Charity Packs a New Funding Drive.” By Melanie Grayce West. Wall Street Journal. April 23, 2012. As the recession takes a continued toll on food pantries and other emergency providers, one of the city’s top hunger charities is embarking on an ambitious fundraising drive to broaden its reach and double the amount of food it distributes. City Harvest plans to announce the five-year, $30 million campaign on Tuesday. Already, the organization has quietly raised $9 million toward the effort. The 30-year-old charity collects excess food from restaurants, groceries, cafeterias and farms and distributes it to hundreds of groups throughout the city. The new campaign would allow it to increase the amount of food it handles every year to 60 million pounds from 28 million last year. A popular charity in New York, City Harvest has support from some glamorous star chefs, including Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and Geoffrey Zakarian of the Lamb’s Club. Last year’s “Evening of Practical Magic” gala raised $1.5 million. Its May luncheon raises some $240,000. The new fundraising effort, however, plans to target the organization’s existing 70,000 donors by asking them to increase their average contribution. Only 2% of the group’s funding comes from government sources. It has an annual budget of $19 million. “We will never be in a position of having to say no to a client or agency because we’ve lost our funding,” said City Harvest Executive Director Jilly Stephens.

FUNDRAISING

“A Charity Event With Expletives Included.” By Marshall Heyman. Wall Street Journal. January 20, 2012. Last summer, the comic actor Seth Rogen (“Funny People,” “50/50″) and his then fiancee, Lauren Miller, decided they might like to try raising awareness for Alzheimer’s disease (and funds for the Alzheimer’s Association) among young people, “since Alzheimer’s is considered an old person’s disease,” said Ms. Miller. Ms. Miller, an actress, has a film premiering this weekend at Sundance that she co-wrote, called “For a Good Time, Call….” Her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 55. Hollywood already has a big Alzheimer’s benefit, called “A Night at Sardi’s,” which features stars of screen, stage and the like performing Broadway show-tunes. This year’s, the 20th Anniversary, will take place on March 21. “It’s very entertaining, but we were looking for something that was the opposite of that, that could complement that,” said Ms. Miller. “What do young people want to see?” asked Mr. Rogen. “Young people are unfocused. You have to do a lot of things to keep them entertained, so we started brainstorming. There are a lot of benefits in Los Angeles. There’s no shortage of rich people looking to get tax rebates. Part of our goal was to set ourselves apart from them.” They came up with a variety show concept they titled “Hilarity for Charity.” “We must have sent three or four dozen emails over just the name of the benefit,” said Mr. Rogen. “We wondered, did it sound too Seinfeld-y? But ultimately it was the one we agreed on.” Mr. Rogen and Ms. Miller started mobilizing their friends and took on jobs of their own. “Our only mandate was we wanted to create the type of event we would want to go to,” said Ms. Miller. To promote the party, Mr. Rogen said he took to the radio (via Howard Stern) and did the “Today” show. He joined Twitter, “which I vowed not to do.” “It’s hard to say” what was most effective, Mr. Rogen added. “We just threw a lot of s— against the wall.” “But something worked because we sold out,” Ms. Miller said. “All 600 tickets.” (The evening raised more than $250,000.)

FUNDRAISING

“USC pursues aggressive fundraising effort despite hard times; In its quest for $6 billion in new donations by 2018, the university bolsters its staff and looks to award naming rights.” By Larry Gordon. Los Angeles Times. December 29, 2011. Just outside USC’s central administration building, a new wall honors a handful of very special donors, those whose gifts to the private university have totaled at least $100 million apiece over time. Among them are film director George Lucas, Los Angeles philanthropist Wallis Annenberg and the Keck Foundation. But the wall still has plenty of empty marble for what USC hopes will be many additional names over the next six years, as the Los Angeles university pursues the most ambitious publicly announced fundraising goal ever in U.S. academia: $6 billion by 2018. The USC campaign, made public in August, already has garnered three new gifts of at least $100 million each, along with speculation about the potential risks of setting such an ambitious goal in a weak economy. “Coming out with a $6-billion goal certainly generated a lot of conversation in the field, and they did it in a very bold and brash way. But that is a part of the makeup of USC and is different from the way the Ivy Leagues might treat that kind of thing,” said Donald Fellows, president of Marts & Lundy, a prominent fundraising consulting firm with past ties to USC. As it gears up for the drive, USC plans to double its fundraising staff by next year, to about 400, officials said. The university has recently opened development offices in San Francisco, New York and Washington and may follow with Chicago and Dallas. It also reaches out to potential donors through alumni offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Mumbai. USC’s 300,000 or so living alumni are the campaign’s main focus, with special attention paid to about 50,000 people, companies and foundations the university believes can each afford to give at least $100,000 and possibly much more.

FUNDRAISING

“State tracks commercial fundraising for charities.” By Marisa Lagos. San Francisco Chronicle. December 25, 2011. That money you donated to charity last year may not all have actually gone to the organization – instead much of it may have been used to pay the commercial fundraiser that collected the cash, according to a report by the California attorney general. The annual report looks at how much money was raised by commercial fundraisers in California and how much of it went to charitable organizations. The office found that about 45 percent of the nearly $363 million raised in California in 2010 went to charities, up from 43 percent in 2009. Some charities, such as Special Olympics International, got every penny they raised. Others, including Amnesty International, actually lost money on their fundraising ventures in 2010. Shum Preston, a spokesman for California Attorney General Kamala Harris, said consumers should use the report as a resource to make informed choices. “This is really a situation where it’s best to be both smart and charitable,” he said. “The dollars we donate are precious resources, and it’s important to ensure that they have the maximum impact. Donors should be able to have confidence that their dollars are going to support the charity’s programs, and not their fundraising consultants.” Preston acknowledged that there can be good reasons for a charity not to see every penny, something fundraising officials at some charities stressed as well. For example, some of the outreach done by commercial fundraisers – including telemarketers – can help raise a charity’s profile and recruit donors or members who will keep on giving, said Rachel Querry, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States. That organization raised about $2 million in California in 2010, but kept only $237,000 of it. “The fundraising of a nonprofit organization should also be evaluated within the context of its broader goal of membership recruitment,” she said. “This program is a short-term investment of resources to recruit new members, but a long-term value for the organization over time. … While fundraising is a major component of mail and phone solicitations, there is a great deal more to these efforts than that. Telemarketing and direct mail program builds a constituency of supporters and educates the organization’s members and the general public about important animal cruelty issues, directly advancing our goals to build a more humane society.”

“Changing Lives for 25 Years.” San Francisco Chronicle. December 25, 2011. The Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund provides one-time, temporary assistance to help people experiencing an unexpected crisis. Each year, the Fund helps more than 5,000 families in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. We are one of the largest private sources of emergency financial assistance in the area. And our work is made possible by the incredible power of neighbors helping neighbors in their time of need. Click here to view the 2011-2012 Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund Major Donor List!

FUNDRAISING

“Nonprofits appeal for private funding; Groups gently tap individuals to fill gap left by shrinking public funds.” By Patrick Wall. Crain’s New York Business. December 12, 2011. This fall, for the first time, the Food Bank For New York City blanketed subways with ads to attract new donors. In an attempt to illustrate the impact of even a small donation—while serving up a healthy dose of guilt—one ad points out that for the cost of a $5 latte, the Food Bank could fill 25 children’s lunch boxes. The ad campaign is the outgrowth of a new reality at the Food Bank, which has long relied on government support to operate. Now, with government contributions on a downward spiral, the organization has had to flip its funding model to one that relies on private gifts to provide its largest slice of revenue. “As we’ve seen that the government piece is at risk and declining, we’re working very hard to increase and build up relations with private donors,” said Alyssa Herman, vice president of fund development for the Food Bank. In the fiscal year ended June 30, corporations, foundations and individuals gave the Food Bank nearly $15 million, while the government contributed $18 million. In the current year, however, the nonprofit expects to take in more than $17 million from private donors, versus $15.4 million from the government. The Food Bank is not alone. Human services charities across the city are being forced to reinvent their fundraising strategies, demand more from their boards, and learn how to appeal to individual donors—who account for the vast majority of private giving—if they want to survive. The shift comes at a time when demand for services has reached an all-time high and many individual donors are finding that they have less to give.

“An Outpouring of Support for Clean Water.” By Valentine Uhovski. Wall Street Journal. December 14, 2011. The organizers of the sixth annual “charity: water” fund-raising ball had an atypical dilemma: too many interested ticket buyers. The line outside of the Lexington Avenue Armory stretched for nearly a block. Nearly 2,200 guests who shelled out $300 (or more) to get in waited even longer at the coat checks and for wine. More than $2.7 million was raised in a single evening for the water initiatives in developing nations—an extraordinary figure considering that no mignon dinner was served, no glitzy fashion sponsor was involved, and Lady Gaga or Prince didn’t hit the stage.

“A Night at the Opera Benefit.” By Marshall Heyman. Wall Street Journal. December 14, 2011. It takes a lot of dough—and probably, even, a village—to get an opera off the ground. That’s why composer Paola Prestini held a small get together slash fund-raiser at the Ethan Cohen Fine Arts space in TriBeCa in support of her in-progress composition, “Oceanic Verses. “Performances of the multimedia opera, which is based in Italy and explores the lives of a sailor, a mother, a scholar and a soldier, are slated to begin in Massachusetts in May, with a stop in Manhattan in June. Ms. Prestini, a 36-year-old Italian composer who splits her time between the Upper West Side and San Francisco, said she needed $60,000 to pay for the production, and was hoping to raise $25,000 of that from the evening at Mr. Cohen’s gallery. The event included a performance by Phillip Glass, a friend and mentor of Ms. Prestini, as well as an excerpt from “Oceanic Verses” by Helga Davis. The crowd included composers, musicians and artists, including Heidi Rodewald, Mickey Strauss, Diane Volk and the Klezmer clarinetist David Kracauer. Hanging at the gallery were works by the American artist Ali Hossaini, including video segments and 3-D photographs. Mr. Hossaini and Mr. Cohen said that 3-D glasses weren’t imperative to enjoying the show, but they helped. Mr. Hossaini is also contributing visuals to Ms. Prestini’s opera though he hadn’t decided yet if they should be in 3-D. Should he decide that they are, Ms. Prestini believed that hers would be the first opera that incorporated said technology.

“Friends Toast a Center.” By Mike Vilensky. Wall Street Journal. December 14, 2011. On the top floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Monday evening, the six-month-old Dubin Breast Center of the Tisch Cancer Institute held its inaugural benefit, with champagne toasts and violin performances. The comprehensive medical facility, at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, focuses on breast health and cancer treatment. “I never had a bar mitzvah,” said Eva Dubin, the physician, philanthropist and former “Miss Sweden” who founded the Dubin Center. “So all of my friends are coming out now.” Among those friends were hedge funder Paul Tudor Jones II, music industry bigwig Tommy Mottola, the actor Michael J. Fox, and, of course, Ms. Dubin’s husband, Glenn Dubin, the philanthropist and founder of Highbridge Capital Management LLC. The crowd of more than 450 helped raise more than $1 million for the center, which has treated over 9,000 patients so far. Ms. Dubin said she was inspired to create the 15,000-square-foot facility, which she conceived of eight years ago, because she felt she was in a unique position as a doctor, donor and breast-cancer survivor. “I love being able to help women, and I’m planning to stay involved as long as I’m here,” she said.

“In a Time of Giving, Learning When to Say No.” By Paul Sullivan. New York Times. December 16, 2011. This is the time of year when you are asked for all sorts of donations. I always find the process moderately stressful, but not because my wife and I are agonizing over how much to give. There are plenty of guides that tell you what to give to your mail carrier (not allowed to accept cash, and noncash gifts cannot exceed $20), your babysitter (one to two weeks’ pay) and your doorman, if you live in an apartment building ($75 and up, but make sure it’s not less than last year). My daughter just started preschool this year, so we have a whole new category on our list, and it includes items like gifts for teachers and meeting a request for the school’s annual fund. But that was easy to solve. We just asked other parents what they gave. But because these are not ordinary economic times, and a lot of people are unemployed or underemployed, some of the requests for money this year don’t fit into a neat mathematical calculation. Should you respond with a gift? And how do you figure out the appropriate amount? I thought it worthwhile to ask other people how they were handling this. I also wanted to quiz experts on the ethics and etiquette of giving. Here’s what I learned.