This week I thought it would be nice to focus the resource roundup on the environment in honor of Earth Day (which was Monday) and Arbor Day which is today. Some of these are news items, others are resources and there’s a couple of actual enviro-friendly fundraising ideas. Enjoy!

The Earth Day 2008 Action Center is the first stop for Earth Day information, ideas and events. Founded by the organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network (EDN) promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide.

Tracie shares the history of Earth Day and what her family did to celebrate on her blog Turn it Green Today.

At Make Earth Day Every Day Sweepstakes pledge to reduce your environmental impact and enter to win great prizes like a 5-day spa & golf trip for two, a new bike or a collection of Burt’s Bees products. (last day to enter is May 30, 2008)

The Official Google.org Blog explored green jobs this week. Along these lines, also check out the Green For All website, which I discovered after Van Jones was on the Colbert Report earlier this month.

Interest is growing in dropping the plastic bag from stores. Your group could even provide reusable bags as a fundraiser.

This recycling fundraiser success story features a group that uses a printer cartridge and cell phone program to raise funds.

Save-R-Planet Kids is helping children in central Florida learn about recycling. Here are a few things that other young people around the country did for Earth Day as reported by the Christian Science Monitor.

And if you still need more green news, opinion and ideas check out the Carnival of the Green Earth Day Edition.

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When shoppers bring in their own bags to carry their items home in, it reduces the number of non-biodegradable plastic bags. Personally I have been wanting to get some reusable bags for some time now. I am tired of the plastic and paper bags cluttering up my garage and polluting our community (and our world in general). So when my local grocery store started offering these bright green reusable shopping bags for just 99 cents each I was delighted.

These bags are very durable, flat bottomed and can hold as much as much as 3 times what a plastic sack would. Now these bags in particular were not being sold as a fundraiser, just as a promotion for the store. In fact the grocery store offers 5 cents off when you bring them in. Not much, but it’s a nice touch.

Til now I have held off reviewing or promoting reusable bags as a fundraiser, even though there are several companies out there providing them. I believe I’ve finally found a great recommendation for you, and here’s why:

First I like to see a company who is selling a product not just make a buck but because of a driving principle. InStore Products Ltd. out of Ontario impresses me as being very committed to reducing pollution. Their website BringYourBag.com is professional and educational with statistics about plastic bag use and what impact reusable bags could have. According to the calculator (left hand side of the screen, scroll down) an average person will take their shopping home in 250 plastic bags per year!

Fundraising with Reusable Grocery Bags

First to use these as a fundraiser the bags need to have attractive pricing, both the wholesale cost for the non-profit agency and a good price for the consumer. I’ve seen bags from other companies that have suggested retail of $10-20 which even for a fundraiser is a bit pricey. This high pricing will be a turn-off for some people.

A product sales fundraiser has to be something that people really want and need. The general public is becoming more and more interested in actions that will help preserve our earth. Using these bags instead of plastic or paper bags that will end up in a landfill is one of the easiest ways to do something. Retailers also have an incentive to promote these bags. If customers bring their own bags the stores save thousands of dollars per year in costs.

I talked with John at InStore Products Ltd. and he said that they have provided the bags to several charities as a fundraiser. They will sell them in bulk to your group at less than $1 per bag and you can sell them for $2-5. This might not sound like a lot raised per bag but this way more people can purchase them and can get several of them. Most families will need at least 2-6 bags if they plan on using them at the grocery store.

This would be a great way for a retailer and large organization, such as a school, to partner for mutual benefit. For example, by using school colors and logo it’s a spirit item. If the store and/or other retailers put their logo on them its a publicity item. It could be a co-branded promotion where both the store and the charity logos are on the bags. The minimum order for custom imprints is 5,000 but they also have stock bags for those needing lower quantities.

As I mentioned each bag will only bring in a dollar or two, so you will need to set a goal for the number of bags you want to sell in order to meet a fundraising goal. Keep in mind that in addition to the funds raised you are raising awareness about your cause and providing a way for people to do something good for the environment.

The biggest drawback I can see with this project is the potential competition. Just today I was running errands and saw reusable bags on sale at two other stores in addition to the grocery where I bought mine. They were also selling for $1-2. The difference I can see though is that those stores are not actively promoting them like the grocery was. Of course they were also not benefiting any charity.

If your organization got behind this as a big campaign then you could be quite successful with it. Just be sure to be the first and/or biggest group in your area doing this program. If several organizations and stores can partner together it would boost your chance of success.

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When non-profit directors or development staff comes to me looking for help in the world of foundations, the first thing I usually have to do is dispel the most common myths surrounding foundation funding.

Myth #1: Foundation funding is easy.
Myth #2: Foundations are anxious to give money to organizations like mine.
Myth #3: Foundations just require a good grant proposal.

While each of these myths has some basis in reality, none are the whole story.

Myth 1: Foundation Funding is easy.

“Competition is a sin,” said John D. Rockefeller.
“Competition is good and has served us well,” Judge Harold Greene said.

Whichever way you look at it, finding foundation funding is competitive. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, there are nearly 1.5 million non-profits in the U.S. Like it or not, many of those organizations are seeking the same funding you are. Setting your organization apart in this pool of worthy causes is critical.

Ask yourself, “Why us, why now,” when considering how to make your non-profit stand out from the crowd. Do you have a track record of success? Perhaps you’ve accomplished amazing results in a very short time. Ask your clients and donors why they choose you to find answers if you are really stumped.

Myth 2: Foundations are anxious to give money to organizations like mine.

That may be true, but don’t make assumptions. Most foundations were started with a specific purpose in mind. They give to causes across the spectrum like human services, arts, community development and hundreds of other areas of interest. With the volume of requests growing rapidly, foundations may be more particular than you think.

Nearly every foundation I know gets approximately 10 times more requests than they can actually fund in a year. Many of those requests are form letters or template proposals. The writers have never bothered to research more than the foundation’s address.
Think about building relationship with funders – not just foundations but all your donors and potential donors. Then you’ll know which foundations are likely to fund your mission. Knowing is much better than sending blind proposals.

Myth 3: Foundations just require a good grant proposal.

Writing is only a part of finding foundation funding, a minor part at that. Behind the scenes of a successful foundation funding effort is strategic planning, outcomes measurement and many other components that ensure success. Finding a good writer is great for your organization, but a writer won’t bring dollars with them.

Research, reporting and relationship are essential to having a holistic approach to foundation funding. When you consider the entire approach, you give yourself a chance to stand out from the crowd and find good fits for your mission.

Before you begin…

When you start out to find foundation funding, you must be ready to take on some big issues. Have you asked yourself, “How are we measuring success?” Are you ready to be transparent with a donor?

Many foundations will value your forethought and candor when you approach them for the first time. Foundation staff is charged with giving away money in ways that get the best results. When you can say to a donor, “I believe what we do is the best approach,” then you are ready. Substantiate your claim with measurable outcomes, a prudent budget and realistic timeline. These tools allow you to plant seeds of fruitful funding for years to come.

This article is part of the “Mythbusters” series, published each Thursday in April 2008.

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Have you ever heard this saying – “You can’t keep going back to the same well – it will run dry.” You might have heard it from a Board member or Executive Director and usually this comment pops up during a discussion of grant writing or direct mail.

It’s said out of fear – fear that if you ask a donor too many times for support they will stop giving. It’s kind of funny really – we have some self-imposed ceiling on the number of times we can ask a donor for support, and we arbitrarily set this ceiling without input from the donor. Most of the time, we don’t even know exactly how many times we can ask a donor before it becomes annoying. We operate from this vague notion of “too many” to describe it.

Here’s the truth: you can ask a donor for support as many times as you need it, provided certain conditions are met.

1. You are cultivating real donors. A real donor is someone who is invested mentally, emotionally, and financially in your organization. She cares about your organization’s work and the people you serve. She wants to see you be successful in delivering service and fulfilling your mission. Real donors give because they want to and because you asked. They don’t keep a scorecard with marks representing every check they write.
2. You are building relationships with your donors. In order to get real donors, you must build relationships. You spend time getting to know you donors and why they care about your organization. You invite them to tour your facility or to volunteer on the front lines. The more you engage your donor in the work you are doing, the deeper their commitment to your organization will be.
3. You practice donor-centered fundraising. Your fundraising efforts revolve around the donor, not around the organization. You share information with the donor about the impact of her gift and you invite feedback from her. Communication is not just one way. You let the donor tell you how often she wants to hear from you and you honor her wishes. In other words, you allow your donor to opt out of mailings.
4. You have a valid need for support. When you ask your donor for a gift, there is a real need. I’m not talking about being in crisis mode or trying to reduce the debt on your building. A donor will respond to these kinds of needs once in a while, but what they really want to support is continuation or expansion of a program that delivers tangible benefits. You can ask for support for the purchase of a piece of equipment that will help you become more efficient or allow you to serve more people.

If you’ve done a good job of building a relationship with your donors, and you practice donor-centered fundraising, your donor will support you as often as they can and as often as you ask.

If your organization is one of your donor’s favorites (and if you’re doing your job well, it should be), they WANT to support you and see you be successful. They care about your mission and they know it takes resources for you to fulfill it.

And they will be a well that you can visit as often as is needed.

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I do a lot of research for Step by Step Fundraising and it’s other sites. Recently I had a project requiring information from a variety of non profit websites. It didn’t take long to realize that some websites were more frustrating than helpful while others were easy to explore and informative. If the structure of the website is well laid out and is consistently maintained it should be a pleasure to visit.

Here are some tips I came up with gained from that most recent experience.

Your most important information should be on the first page of your website with quick access to the main point of the website. For example…if the main point of your website is to give people another way to donate to your charity, be sure to provide a means in which to do that.

Put yourself in the donors seat. He’s received a letter from you regarding your charity and decides he’d like more information before he makes a donation. He types in the address of your website. What does he see? Does your website appear quickly or do you have it bogged down with heavy graphics? Can he quickly scan the first page to find what he needs or where to go to find pertinent information? Structure and maintenance as well as simplicity and cleanliness are essential!

I couldn’t believe how many times I came across a website, knowing that the organization continued to function, only to find old information. It was like somebody abandoned their home and left all the furniture; dusty at that! Your website may be the only time a donor meets you. Make sure someone is home when he comes knocking on your door.

People are very wary when giving money over the internet. Make your donors feel safe. Do you have valid identification that is easy to find? Your contact information should include an email address, a phone number and a mailing address. It’s even better if you can provide an individuals name and email address. Place the information on the first page as well as providing a contact link. I spent a lot of time searching for this very information on an unbelievably large number of non profit websites.

Non profits exist through charitable giving and fundraising. It is very likely yours has a yearly fundraiser. Does your audience know when and where? Again, this should be first page information.

Who are you? I’m not referring to your name in this case, but the personality of your non profit. What are your accomplishments? Why do you exist and what is your real purpose? Share your passion by posting stories from yours and others experiences.

Remember to provide the who, what, when, where and why when designing your non profit website.

Here are some articles from other sites that provide additional tips:

10-Point Basic Website Checklist for Nonprofits from Non Profit Marketing Guide

Locally Focused Web Site Tips for Connecting With Your Customers: Part One from Local Point

Nonprofit Web Sites that Work — 3 of My Favorites from Nancy E. Schwartz of the Getting Attention blog

Great Websites: You don’t need 1 million visits to be successful a special report from The NonProfit Times

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In a time when many non-profit organizations are examining their budgets closely and looking anywhere to cut expenses, it is not uncommon that allocations for advertising and marketing are slashed. This may cause some to worry that existing customers will fall out of touch and potential new ones will never hear of you in the first place. This will lead to a dramatic loss of income and could cripple the organization.

However, in my experience working for non-profits, I have come to believe the opposite. I argue that marketing and advertising budgets should get cut in tough times. Of course, if your revenue stream is strong, by all means, use it for promotion. However, if your organization is like many others, you have no choice but to get creative in your strategies.

There are a number of strategies available that you can use to save money in marketing, yet still get your message out. With this article, I will focus specifically on some of the tools available on the Internet to accomplish this goal for you.

Web Sites

A custom-built website from a professional designer can be very expensive. For all of the bells and whistles, you’re looking at several thousand dollars, depending on the company. Fortunately, there are a number of options that will allow you to establish a professional web presence either for free or for much less than you’d get on the open market.

My favorite is WordPress. WordPress is what this blog you’re currently reading is built in. Its sole purpose is to present Blogs (Web Logs). However, the application is very flexible and you can add many terrific components that will provide your site with interactivity, clean organization, SPAM filtering, a shopping cart, comment editing, calendar items, and much more. With WordPress you are able to update the site anytime you wish and it easily holds digital pictures, streaming video, and MP3 music files.

Additionally, there are many sites on the Internet that offer free templates for your use. These templates can be very attractive and will give your site a modern feel.

The best part about WordPress is that it is free. There are two versions of it. The first is hosted on dedicated WordPress servers. There is no charge for this, but you are not able to place advertising on these pages, such as Google AdWords. The second option is to download the WordPress software and pay for it to be hosted on any server set up to interface with WordPress. (Call your local providers to see if they offer this service.). Again, there is no charge for the software, but the server will most likely charge you a monthly rate for hosting.

The only word of caution is that it may take a little while for you to feel comfortable navigating inside your new WordPress environment. There are FAQs and tutorials available to help you, and after some trial and error, you should be on your way.

Overall, there is very little a WordPress site can not do. For many organizations, this is a great solution.

There are other free blogging sites, like Google’s Blogger and LiveJournal. While many of these sites are fine and professional, I do not believe that they offer the extensive flexibility and adaptability that WordPress does.

Email Communications

Email has become, in recent years, a very effective and reliable means of communicating. However, when your email database grows very large, cutting and pasting a list of addresses into the BCC field gets to be cumbersome.

Fortunately, there are a number of pay services available that will allow you to organize your database, design visually attractive messages, and track the delivery route of each individual email after it is sent.

For a couple of years, I have been using Constant Contact and it costs approximately $20 per month. For this low price, I get an amazingly flexible service that I can use as often as I need. I am not a sophisticated web designer; in fact, I have two left thumbs when it comes to the keyboard and mouse. However, Constant Contact provides dozens of free templates that allow me to just plug in the text and images I need, and it does all the hard work for me.

It is simple to import my existing email database and then add or remove names afterwards, if necessary. Once the message is created and sent, customized reports tell me which messages made it to their assigned destinations and which ones bounced back. Furthermore, it will give me information about the failed ones. Perhaps the recipient’s email inbox was full or there was a typo in the address. I found that to be very helpful.

I have used Constant Contact for three different non-profits, and each time I have received great praise from my community. They loved getting important and topical information right in their email inbox and found the format very easy and enjoyable to read.

Merchandise, Apparel, and Online Shopping Cart

Only a few short years ago, a common problem for many non-profits who sold merchandise and apparel with their organization’s logo on them was the requirement to place a minimum order. This meant that non-profits with thin budgets had to make a gamble that they could actually sell the items and not get stuck sitting on inventory.

Now, there is a better option available. Although I have not personally used them myself, I have heard and read many positive reviews of Café Press. Here is one for you to judge for yourself. This service allows you to set up a web-based store and offer a wide range of items with your logo on them. Your customers buy the items online, and Café Press takes care of the shipping. The great part about this is that Café Press makes up the items only after an order is placed. Therefore, you will never over-order.

The prices at Café Press are a little on the high side, but remember, they are taking care of all the administration and saving you from carrying overhead. In the long run, you are probably coming out well ahead!

There are other options available such as contacting your local shops and comparing prices. CustomInk is another great choice that allows you to upload your logos and create artwork online. They will then ship the entire order to you to distribute or sell the items individually to your supporters.

Printing

One of the most common tools in marketing is the good old flier. Fairly easy to make, the flier is a staple of getting the word out in the local market. And even though the Internet has become the premier means of marketing a product, there is still a value in creating printed material.

However, paper prices have risen dramatically, and the cost of a substantial printing run can be prohibitive. Up until recently, organizations had to rely on just a handful of local printers to shop for a good quote. Now however, numerous websites have spring up that will allow you to submit the details of your printing job to a open bulletin board and printers from all over North America can bid on the project, both for cost and for delivery time.

For example, there is Print Industry and Print Local. I have used such a site before and have saved significantly by using printers half-way around the country. The bids are accompanied by a contact name and phone number. You have the ability to interview (over the phone) any of the bidders to get more details. Once you have made your selection, you can communicate with the printer, just as you could have if they were located right around the block. The finished product is shipped directly to your door.

If your print job is time sensitive, make sure to give yourself enough time to submit the details and interview printers. Also allow for shipping time. Remember to account for the shipping costs within the bid.

For specific printing recommendations, I have had excellent service with Overnight Prints. Another online service that offers a variety of printable items is Vista Print.

Get Some Free/Cheap Publicity

While any media outlet would love to sell you premium advertising space, the truth is that most of the time, even the non-profit rates they offer are expensive. I would urge you to purchase advertising space as a last resort, only if you have the money to do it. Don’t cut into the “flesh” of your budget just to run some ads.

The Press Release & Public Service Announcement
First of all, become an expert on writing a press release. You should be drafting these things and sending them to every media outlet in your geographical area as often as you have something happening. Here is an article from eHow.com, which will show you how to craft a professional looking press release. This can be added to a separate pubic service announcement, which is basically a script for a radio or TV spot. Also from eHow, here is a quick guide to writing the PSA. Many times, radio and TV stations are looking for content and will happily pick up on these press releases free of charge.

The key to getting their attention though is to add some excitement to the announcement. Ultimately, this means adding some excitement to your event. In your release, focus on some key aspect of your activity that will pique people’s interest. Maybe you have a minor celebrity coming to the event, or somebody’s famous dessert will be served. Come up with a hook that will make your press release stand out among all the others. It will be hard to gain any attention if you are just putting on the same old auction you’ve been doing for years.

The Classified Section
If you do want to pay money to advertise, I would strongly consider doing it in the classified section of the newspaper. In my experience, the classified section is the most popular in the whole paper. When I was opened a day care center inside our elementary school, I ran a nice sized classified ad for weeks and got a great response. And, the best part was that it was dirt cheap!

Campaign Yard Signs
While it may be alluring to spend a lot of money on a big billboard ad on a heavily traveled road in your community, this can be very expensive- not only for renting the space, but also for creating the huge banner of an ad.

I would suggest paying much less and having hundreds of campaign yard signs made up. Your message space is limited, but if you get enough of them placed strategically in your target area, people will really notice. A new Charter School in my area utilized this strategy and they had the highest enrollment of any school in town that year. I used a company called Political Yard Signs.com, although there are dozens of such companies advertising online.

Conclusion

In the course of carrying out your non-profit’s mission, it is understandable that you would want to do or spend whatever it takes to spread the word. However, reality often forces us to re-adjust our desires and substitute them with practical compromises. Fortunately, when it comes to advertising and marketing, there are numerous alternatives that will both save you money and still bring you success in promotion of your organization.

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When a dear friend of our family moved into senior housing, we had to get everything out of her house. But her new apartment was full long before the house was empty. With all the additional stuff on the lawn, it felt like we were starring on an episode of the TV show Clean Sweep.

In order to save time, I rented a dumpster. Rather than the cute little green one I envisioned, a huge construction-sized monster dumpster showed up in her yard. And it was a good thing, too! This woman was a bargain hunter and a pack rat. We threw out enough “seen on TV” gizmos and gadgets to fill up about half of the dumpster.

Only once did she get really upset—when I threw out a kitty litter bucket that actually contained an expensive compost starter. The thought struck me, if she hadn’t spent so much money on “good deals” that she never used, she would have been able to buy bucket loads of compost starter.

I call this “poverty thinking.” Nonprofits get stuck in this poverty thinking all the time. They become so focused on stretching their money that they lose site of quality. They will put in the cheapest cabinets in a multimillion-dollar building. Or they will bring their major donor to McDonald’s to show her how frugal they are.

Most donors, especially major donors, are wise enough to know that paying a little more up front will save significant amounts of money down the road. Cheap cabinets may have saved a few bucks this year. But, due to less frequent repairs and replacements, buying a higher quality, more expensive cabinet will actually save money over time.

The same idea applies when it comes to cultivating donors. Paying a little more up front can save lots of money over time. Taking a donor out to a nice restaurant is a way of showing her that we value her, that her relationship means more to us than just the money she is giving. She needs to know that we care about her and share her interests.

Here’s a tip: If a donor means enough to your organization to take her out to dinner, go to a place with real silverware. By all means, show her how well you stewarded the money she gave, but don’t be a cheapskate.

To discover more fundraising myths, download a free chapter of Marc’s new book, Ask Without Fear.

This article is part of the “Mythbusters” series, published each Thursday in April 2008.

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When I conduct workshops about the CFC, the title is: “The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the Golden Goose of American Philanthropy.” Why that title you ask? Because just like the golden goose, the CFC just keeps chugging alone, raising millions of dollars every year for thousands of non-profits, all with hardly anyone noticing or understanding how it works, or how it could be even more successful. The intent of this report is to help the non-profit community to better understand the CFC and its many benefits, both obvious and hidden.

What is the CFC?

The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) is the Federal government’s workplace giving program, and it is the largest and most successful workplace giving program in the world. Through it, Federal public servants have donated more than $1.2 billion of unrestricted funds to thousands of local, national and international non-profits over the past five years.

CFC Fundraising Benefits

● Generates a reliable, twelve month income stream.
● Revenues are unrestricted.
● More leverage than any other means of fund-raising.
● Less risk than any other means of fund-raising.

CFC Hidden Benefits

Even though the CFC is first and foremost a fundraising tool, there are many other benefits that are available to non-profits that participate in workplace giving campaigns, including the Combined Federal Campaign. Once a non-profit learns how to benefit from the other opportunities that workplace giving presents, it can use the CFC to generate other benefits that are not so easily measured, which I call “Hidden Treasures.”The “Hidden Treasures” of workplace giving include:

● Leadership Development
● Public Speaking
● Volunteer Recruitment
● Project Management
● Market Research about your non-profit
● Recruitment of Board Members
● Development of multiple year income streams
● Increase of public awareness of your non-profit

First and foremost, one of the benefits is the opportunity to use participation in the CFC as an integral part of the leadership development process for your non-profit’s staff. By participating in a CFC campaign, there are opportunities to practice many different skills, including leadership development, public speaking, customer service, project management, and market research about your non-profit.
The paradox of workplace giving is that because the individual gifts are not huge dollar amounts (the average individual gift is $175), no one is going to “blow” a major gift presentation, but the non-profit staff member can gain experience in speaking to and listening to potential donors. Another advantage of the CFC as a training ground is that it is a set time each year (the fall), and it has a definite end point. This allows the non-profit staff to plan for, participate in, and then perform after action reviews of what worked, and what should be done differently next year.

Multiple Year Revenue Streams

Of all of the “hidden treasures” the one that is most easily overlooked is the fact that with the CFC, you really are developing multi-year donors. Since the CFC is an annual campaign, and with the way that the reporting mechanisms work, the results reported are for a given year.
The reality is that most CFC donors are multiple year donors, and once they start donating to a particular non-profit they tend to keep donating to that non-profit. There is no research that proves that point, but I have seen thousands of CFC pledge cards during my Federal career, and the reality is that most of the donors made minimal changes from year to year. There’s currently no reporting mechanism that allows for the reporting of multiple year gifts, but many CFC donors are five and ten year donors to the charities they care about and support.

Leverage, Risk, and the CFC Process — Non-Profits

For a participating non-profit, one huge benefit they receive from the CFC is the amount of leverage they gain by having the Federal CFC teams help them raise funds. While the CFC is not a no-cost method of fundraising, compared to most fundraising methods, it is extremely low risk. Unlike a special event, where if you have a cancellation due to bad weather, your non-profit would still have to pay the hotel. With the CFC, even if you don’t raise any money, you have a limited downside risk, e.g. you’re not going to lose your shirt.
One example of the leverage in the marketing realm is that the campaign catalogs are printed with the CFC charity’s information, and delivered to every Federal employee in your region, with the 25 word description you wrote, plus your non-profit’s URL. How much would it cost you to send a postcard with that information to every Federal employee in your region?

The information above was excerpted from my CFC Special Report. To get your copy of the full report, please go to www.cfcfundraising.com and register to request your copy. I will also send you information about the CFC in your region.

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A month or so ago I learned about a great website called Alltop.com. The concept is simple, they take a particular topic, like non-profits, and give you the five most recently published stories from websites that cover that subject. The page is laid out with three columns and all the sites on one page. Your eyes can scan the subject lines, left to right and scroll down through the page. It’s a fast way to get the latest news on any topic.

So I was pretty excited when Step by Step Fundraising was accepted as a news source. (It’s currently listed on the most right hand column about half the way down. Though I imagine placement could change based on new sites being added.)

Here are a few interesting stories that I found using the Alltop non-profit section today:

Got Hope? I Do, in Generation Y - Britt at Have Fun Do Good talks about her experience leading a career counseling session with an extremely bright and motivated group of college students

Those college students, any would-be social entrepreneurs and aspiring non profit founders must read these two posts by Rosetta Thurman before jumping in head first: Social Entrepreneurship and the Courage to Fix What’s Broken and 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Start Your Own Nonprofit.

Nonprofits should treat their story like a business story, demonstrating the social return on investment - Steve at Nonprofit PR: Communication with a Purpose has a great case study.

Women and the Future of Philanthropy - Fern Portnoy writing for PhilanTopic says, “Women are positioned to lead the way in shaping philanthropy’s future.”

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Volunteerism is a defining characteristic of the Not-For-Profit sector, in that it sets us apart from the other two societal sectors. It is usually thought of as a virtuous, selfless enterprise on the part of the volunteer….yet my experience, both as an organizational leader and as a volunteer, is that this is not true. And moreover, to the extent that this notion is unchallenged, it can lead to negative outcomes for both the volunteer and the organization(s) she serves.

Let me explain…

Like most of us, before I began my Not-For-Profit sector career, I had been conditioned to believe that volunteers acted from a selfless need to improve their world, to make a difference in a situation – whether local or worldwide – that they found unacceptable. Volunteers acted in concert with some organization originally founded to meet a need, to fill some gap that was not being addressed by either government or the private sector, right? “Do-gooders,” they are called. Surely THEY did not expect to derive some personal benefit, to gain something, to become a different person, to meet a personal agenda, right? Yet, as I recruited, trained, and worked with volunteers – and as I did a lot of volunteering myself - I noticed that the most successful volunteer experiences were those in which the volunteers themselves felt that they were “giving” and “getting.” What was going on?

I endeavored to find out, by creating a graduate school research project, and by interviewing countless volunteers and volunteer directors. My criteria were simple: I concentrated on service as opposed to governing volunteers, and limited my research to health care settings. This latter criterion was meant to eliminate the influence of any potential for obvious benefit that a volunteer might receive as a result of their service, e.g., a theater usher who might receive comp tickets to a performance. My results surprised me, even though they confirmed my own experience as a volunteer.

Here are my key findings:

• ALL of the volunteer directors I spoke with – from HIV/AIDS-related groups, major medical centers, a direct service foundation, children’s organizations, and more – required their prospective volunteers to clearly identify and state their expectations as a condition of volunteering.

• The vast majority of my respondents agreed that their longest-term volunteer commitments were the ones in which they – the volunteers – felt like they got more out of their experiences than the organizations did.

• Failure on the part of the volunteers to successfully identify their “agendas” almost always led to failure of the overall volunteer experience.

• The identification of agendas and needs on the part of the volunteers was an ongoing process, not one to be performed only at the outset of a term of service.

As my own professional career and my volunteer service progressed, I also witnessed these same principles at work in the governing volunteer experience – among the many Board members I recruited, trained, and served with – albeit in a slightly different way. Board members more often served in part to obtain some organizational skill that might serve to further their professional goals. E.g., a person might join the Finance Committee of the Board in order to learn how to read financial statements.

But how? How do we, as sector professionals and/or as volunteers, arrive at this place where our motives and agendas are on the table for all to see? Moreover, isn’t this approaching heresy – doesn’t the very notion that a volunteer might be seeking a “return on investment” verge on the unthinkable?

And why? Why go through all this? Isn’t it enough that we have a cadre of volunteers at the ready, and that they find opportunities to give of themselves through their favorite organizations?

The “how” is performed via extensive questionnaires and personal interviews between the volunteer directors and their prospective candidates. The most effective queries offer “multiple choice” alternatives: in order to put the prospective, sometimes novice volunteer at ease, they list a number of often-stated volunteer objectives and ask their respondents to “check as many as apply.” They also ask the subject to consider previous volunteer experiences and offer their reflections on them. The interviews that follow thoroughly explore themes arising from the written material.

To the extent that the volunteer director is confident of a “match” between expectations and probable outcomes, it’s a “go.” To the extent that there is a palpable mismatch, or that the volunteer is unwilling to admit any expectations or agendas, it is unlikely that the match will succeed – and often either the candidate and/or the director perceives this and terminates the relationship. (As an example, the director at a major medical center told me that her numerous elderly volunteer candidates would frequently state that one hoped-for outcome was that they would meet a prospective mate. While this was not a “deal-breaker,” it was always clearly stated that this was NOT a likely outcome.)

For prospective Board members, the process may be a bit different. Questionnaires can still be used, and should be followed up by interviews with the ED, other departmental leaders as appropriate (focusing on those whose organizational roles naturally lead to frequent interaction with Board members), and perhaps current Board members (frequently but not exclusively officers and members of the Recruiting Committee).

As to the “why” of all this, I offer these key points:

• Volunteer turnover is expensive, inefficient, and can lead to a negative “rep” for an organization in its community. Volunteer training is costly, from both monetary and opportunity standpoints.

• Community stakeholders are ill-served by organizations whose volunteer programs are anything less than top-notch.

• Social capital is increasingly precious and no organization can afford its waste.

• The very process of thorough, ongoing identification of motives and agendas on the part of organizational leaders packs a powerful message to their volunteers: you are important to us, and the services you perform are valuable to our community.

• Monetary donations frequently go hand-in-hand with donations of time: we tend to give where we serve.

The strongest Not-For-Profit organizations of today realize that effective volunteers are precious commodities – we in the USA are working longer hours than most of the rest of the industrialized world, and our “discretionary time” is increasingly limited. And, too, the competition for volunteers is growing right along with the steady increase in the sheer number of Not-For-Profits out there.

Consequently, their ultimate insight is that the overall quality and longevity of the volunteer experience is determined at the beginning of the relationship, when both the volunteer and the organization are completely open and in agreement about their respective needs, motivations, and agendas. And really, when you think about it, isn’t this true of any relationship?

My own take on this is that we – both volunteers and organizational representatives – need to recognize the mythology of the selfless volunteer for what it is: a myth. And, we need to go even further and embrace a concept that cannot help but emerge from this bit of “myth-busting”: that volunteers have an inherently – albeit unconscious - legitimate expectation that they will be transformed to some degree through their service.

Whether it is the service volunteer who emerges with a new level of empathy for other folks in his world, the Board member who gains new skills that might serve her in her profession, or the worker who learns how to properly plant a tree by getting “down and dirty” and planting a thousand or so of them, volunteering HAS its rewards. That is not only unavoidable, but more importantly, it is as it should be.

This article is part of the “Mythbusters” series, published each Thursday in April 2008.

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