Have you ever had a funder pull out of a sponsorship or grantmaking deal because of your association with a revolutionary movement or because of something a person at your nonprofit said about them?

Do YOU find it horrifying that an AmeriCorps VISTA might make $16,000 per year, or just minimum wage, while the CEO of Goldman Sachs makes $16,000 per HOUR?

Did you hear Goldman pulled out of a fundraiser after learning it honored Occupy Wall Street?

Apparently, the revolution will NOT be funded.

If you read Phil Cubeta’s short posts over the last week or so, you’ll see that he is picking the scab on the thing fundraisers don’t like to talk about, namely, you have to keep your head down and not seem TOO revolutionary, or you won’t get funded.

According to Phil, if you look too closely at the cause of income inequality, you find the very people who are funding you to study it. And they don’t want to hear that.

Here’s some good news. Occupy Wall Street now has almost half a million dollars in donations. They are putting it in a credit union. The credit union decided to throw a fundraising dinner, and Goldman Sachs withdrew their $5,000 sponsorship. Capital One, however, is still in. Wonder why?

Maybe Goldman Sachs thinks that Occupy Wall Street can actually WIN.

If you even mildly criticize your funders, you get denuded of funding as well, as Pamela Grow reported on the Reel Girls/Comcast debacle. She called it, “The Story of a Small Nonprofit and the Power of Social Media.” Then Reel Girls decided to show what Comcast was doing, and make up the comcast grant (which was only about $15,000) and ask their supporters to side with them. And they did, overwhelmingly. Because Reel Girls are about free speech, and they think that Comcast should recognize it. Comcast later said okay, you can have the money (probably because it turned into such a PR headache for them) but Reel Girls said no, thanks, we’re good. and this is why your gift policy and grant agreements should clearly state that funding will not stop just because your nonprofit exercises free speech.

What do you think?

How do YOU feel about having to rub shoulders with people high up in finance and industry, in the name of your cause, all the while knowing that the people you’re talking with make more in a few months than anyone at your nonprofit makes in a year?

Have you ever had an issue with wanting to criticize a funder, but being afraid to lose your funding?

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Have you ever had Grantus Interruptus? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on October 24, 2011.

Cause Marketing for Dummies by Joe Waters and Joanna MacDonald

I’ll be honest, before I picked up this book my interest in Cause marketing was pretty much zero. But this book got me excited, thinking about possibilities for some organizations I’m currently doing work for.

I just received this book in the mail last week, and so far, I love it! I have gotten so much out of this book. You can see me here with the cat, who promptly started licking the book when i put it down. I guess that makes two of us who like it!

But good things need to be shared.

If you leave a comment below, I will enter your name in the drawing to win this book.

Here’s why I love this book.

Clear Definitions
Joe puts the difference between Sponsorship, Cause Marketing and Philanthropy as a difference of involvement.
At one end of the spectrum, Sponsorship, nonprofits do all the work and the corporation just shows up.
With Cause marketing, nonprofits and corporations do roughly equal amounts of work.
And with Philanthropy, the corporation does all of the work, and the nonprofit shows up to collect the check.

Three kinds of decision makers
One of my favorite parts is on page 100-102, where Joe shows you the kinds of people you are going to need to deal with as you convince corporations that it’s a good idea to enter a cause marketing partnership with you. The three kinds of people he has dealt with are Thinkers, Feelers, and Deferrers.

Thinkers want a low or no risk model, something where they don’t have to put in a lot of up-front cash.

Feelers will respond to a heartfelt story, but don’t over-do it. They also want to get hope, joy and compassion by being involved with you. They don’t want fear in the story.

Deferrers will wait and see if they want to get involved with you if you have a string of successes before this one. So if you have a celebrity on board, that will be an instant green light for deferrers. Or if you’re vetted by a local elected official, that will lend your proposal some clout as well.

Joe put in this equation that I loved, for Thinkers: Value + Free – Risk = Great Opportunity

You could apply this to sales in general, not just fundraising and not just cause marketing.

A focus on implementation
When you’re implementing your first cause marketing campaign, it can be daunting, and you might think, “How are we going to succeed with this?”

Well, you can start with Pinups. These are not barely dressed ladies from the 1940s, no, these are things that you can ask a local store to hand out and hang up for you. Around Valentine’s day, St. Patrick’s Day, or another holiday, you might see these all around your local starbucks or grocery store. If you’ve ever just seen a wall plastered with these, it can be impressive, and you might look closer to see what they are benefiting.

It doesn’t cost much to print these, and you can start with your local grocery store, asking if you could do a campaign for a couple of weeks to a month to get people engaged with your cause and make them look more like heroes too.

Joe says that people will give at the cash register if the cashier doesn’t just say, “Would you like to make a donation to MDA today?” no, the cashier needs to say something like, “Would you like to make a donation so a hungry family can eat tonight?”

But what if you’re an arts nonprofit? How can you make it compelling? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.

In short, Cause Marketing for Dummies is a really smart book, and I hope whoever gets it really enjoys it and puts these theories into practice right away for their organization.

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Book Giveaway: Cause Marketing for Dummies originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on August 15, 2011.

So I recently got an email from someone who thinks that their book is god’s gift to everyone, and they said, “You interviewed someone I know, so you should interview MEEEEEE!!!” And I checked out their website, and it has nothing to do with what I talk about. At all. It’s like they didn’t even read my website. And their website also was not finished. And there was really old content on there. So even if their book DID fit with my blog, I wouldn’t want to promote them, because they are messing up their image and would mess up mine.

And so, I told them politely, “Hey, not a match for my blog.”

And the dude wrote back, and said, “Well, that was fast you *insert bad word here*! Now I’ve got an idea for a blog post!”

And all I can think of is, “Really? Should I be shaking in my boots now? Will you call my blog out as the most horrible blog in the world? Will you use my name? Will you take me to the cleaners for not having the exact right kind of blog for your book?” I mean, seriously?

It’s actually pretty hilarious when I think about it. I mean, I pitch people and get shot down too, but not because I didn’t do my research. Oftentimes it’s just because I didn’t build up a relationship first. Or the timing was wrong. Or the person was no longer having a radio show. Lots of reasons.

Anyway, can we take a lesson from this?

If you’re pitching to someone, please, please, look at their blog or website first. See if there is, in fact, a reason that they would like to feature you. Maybe even comment, or follow them on twitter. At least. Show that you care about their community. Try to make your pitch relevant to their audience, even if there’s not a direct correlation to what you do and what they do.

You will see your pitches succeed far faster by building a relationship before you ask someone for something.

This actually happens to nonprofit staff a lot, when they ask for first-time grants that are WAY above what first time grant asks should be. I learned recently that this is actually insulting to them, and it makes sense to me from this perspective. Why should they give you money when they have no idea who you are? If you looked at their funding record, please call them and ask them, “Hey, what are your first time funding amounts usually like?” They want to help you. So don’t insult them. Show them you care by asking their opinion and advice first.

This also happens to people who are asking for sponsorships. You HAVE to find a point of connection between you and the person, maybe from a board member, a staff member, a volunteer, or even if you do a little research on them and find out you’re from the same state, or both have a similar hobby. Something.

Finally, IF you get rejected, PLEASE don’t take it personally. It often has nothing to do with you. I’d say, most of the time! Please don’t try to “get back” at a blogger, funder, or corporate sponsor who rejects you. You are only hurting yourself.

Do not do the eye for a tooth and tooth for an eye thing. Because you can’t chew with your eye. Or see with your tooth.
Capeesh?

An Eye for a Tooth and a Tooth for an Eye originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on June 27, 2011.

I did a webinar on May 5th for CharityHowTo, and it was SO POPULAR that I thought I’d offer it again here, for you!

How to get mega-sponsorships
A step-by-step guide to raising money via corporate sponsorships

Wednesday May 18th
Start Time: 1:00 PM  End Time: 2:30 PM (Eastern Standard Time)

Only $49.99

How do you get access to sponsors? How do you approach them, anticipate their questions, and make your event irresistible to their marketing or corporate social responsibility department? This webinar will show you how to make your plan, identify potential sponsors, create sponsorship levels, write your letter, and do impeccable followup to raise more money than you’ve thought possible.

Get Your Questions Answered:
We take 30 minutes at the end to answer all of your questions.

Webinar Outline:
During the webinar, you will learn:

Learn:
1. How to identify which corporations will sponsor you.
2. Who you need to talk to at corporations.
3. How you influence corporate decision-makers to sponsor your event.
4. How to identify and motivate volunteers to help you acquire sponsorships.
5. How much your sponsorship levels should be.
6. How you add value to justify different levels of sponsorship.
7. How to create a compelling sponsorship letter that gets results.
8. What type of marketing corporations expect.
9. How to follow up.

NEW! The following bonus materials are included with this webinar:
1. Sample sponsorship letter
2. Sample event script
3. Practice phone call scripts you can modify for your nonprofit.

May 18th Webinar: How to get Mega-Sponsorships! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on May 6, 2011.

So this holiday season, I, like millions of people around the world, traveled to visit family. Since I live in America, I was subjected to the new X-Ray or GROPE routine. I refused to be put through the X-ray machine, and so I was sexually assaulted by a member of the TSA. She put her hands in my shirt, and in the waistband of my pants. She touched EVERY PART of my body. I felt so dirty. I felt violated. And I of course, said something to the TSA person groping me. I said to her,

“Do you really think this makes us safer?”

But everyone I saw going through the scan line was mute. Everyone felt powerless to do anything about this. So I decided that if I was feeling this way, a bunch of other people must be feeling this way too, and I decided to write about it.

The reason I decided to go for grope-a-palooza instead of CANCER-SCANNER was because Cindy Sheehan wrote this article. In it, she writes,

“The first thing that bugs me is how complacent my fellow travelers are about the civil rights abuses we endure to be able to take the airplane seats we pay hundreds of dollars for. The second we click ‘purchase’ on the airline’s website, we are treated as though we are guilty just for wanting to go from point A to B by plane. This goes against our constitutional right of being presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Every time a TSA operative asks me if he or she can “take a look in my bag,” I say: “Sure, if you can show me a warrant.”

Previously to going through security, I read this post by Reuben Swartz (@mimiran on Twitter) about Value, Pricing, and the TSA. He writes,

“…every time the TSA ups the ante of ridiculous reactions to the last terrorist threat (or lobbying dollars from the well-connected), the perceived differential value of *all* airline travel decreases. Do I want a nice dose of radiation and a somewhat nude picture of myself sent to a server somewhere (TSA was caught lying about the ability of machines to store images. Of course they can store images!)? Or perhaps I’d like to be sexually assaulted (there’s really no other word for it) by a frustrated TSA official? Or perhaps I’d rather just do a video conference. Or drive, if the distance is short enough. Or just change my plans.

For all the billions spent, how many terrorists has the TSA caught? 0. Passengers have caught a few. Law enforcement has caught some. Again, TSA: 0.”

Then I read this timely article by Chris Hedges, (copyright Truthdig) and it really hit home for my experience. Hedges writes:

“We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through sensual gratification, cheap mass-produced goods, boundless credit, political theater and amusement. While we were entertained, the regulations that once kept predatory corporate power in check were dismantled, the laws that once protected us were rewritten and we were impoverished. Now that credit is drying up, good jobs for the working class are gone forever and mass-produced goods are unaffordable, we find ourselves transported from “Brave New World” to “1984.” The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is sliding toward bankruptcy. It is time for Big Brother to take over from Huxley’s feelies, the orgy-porgy and the centrifugal bumble-puppy. We are moving from a society where we are skillfully manipulated by lies and illusions to one where we are overtly controlled.

Orwell warned of a world where books were banned. Huxley warned of a world where no one wanted to read books. Orwell warned of a state of permanent war and fear. Huxley warned of a culture diverted by mindless pleasure. Orwell warned of a state where every conversation and thought was monitored and dissent was brutally punished. Huxley warned of a state where a population, preoccupied by trivia and gossip, no longer cared about truth or information. Orwell saw us frightened into submission. Huxley saw us seduced into submission. But Huxley, we are discovering, was merely the prelude to Orwell. Huxley understood the process by which we would be complicit in our own enslavement. Orwell understood the enslavement. Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless. We are beginning to understand, as Karl Marx knew, that unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.”

The corporate state does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader. It is defined by the anonymity and facelessness of the corporation. Corporations, who hire attractive spokespeople like Barack Obama, control the uses of science, technology, education and mass communication. They control the messages in movies and television. And, as in “Brave New World,” they use these tools of communication to bolster tyranny. Our systems of mass communication, as Wolin writes, “block out, eliminate whatever might introduce qualification, ambiguity, or dialogue, anything that might weaken or complicate the holistic force of their creation, to its total impression.”

“The result is a monochromatic system of information. Celebrity courtiers, masquerading as journalists, experts and specialists, identify our problems and patiently explain the parameters. All those who argue outside the imposed parameters are dismissed as irrelevant cranks, extremists or members of a radical left. Prescient social critics, from Ralph Nader to Noam Chomsky, are banished. Acceptable opinions have a range of A to B. The culture, under the tutelage of these corporate courtiers, becomes, as Huxley noted, a world of cheerful conformity, as well as an endless and finally fatal optimism. We busy ourselves buying products that promise to change our lives, make us more beautiful, confident or successful as we are steadily stripped of rights, money and influence. All messages we receive through these systems of communication, whether on the nightly news or talk shows like “Oprah,” promise a brighter, happier tomorrow. And this, as Wolin points out, is “the same ideology that invites corporate executives to exaggerate profits and conceal losses, but always with a sunny face.” We have been entranced, as Wolin writes, by “continuous technological advances” that “encourage elaborate fantasies of individual prowess, eternal youthfulness, beauty through surgery, actions measured in nanoseconds: a dream-laden culture of ever-expanding control and possibility, whose denizens are prone to fantasies because the vast majority have imagination but little scientific knowledge.”

“Our manufacturing base has been dismantled. Speculators and swindlers have looted the U.S. Treasury and stolen billions from small shareholders who had set aside money for retirement or college. Civil liberties, including habeas corpus and protection from warrantless wiretapping, have been taken away. Basic services, including public education and health care, have been handed over to the corporations to exploit for profit. The few who raise voices of dissent, who refuse to engage in the corporate happy talk, are derided by the corporate establishment as freaks.”

“The noose is tightening. The era of amusement is being replaced by the era of repression. Tens of millions of citizens have had their e-mails and phone records turned over to the government. We are the most monitored and spied-on citizenry in human history. Many of us have our daily routine caught on dozens of security cameras. Our proclivities and habits are recorded on the Internet. Our profiles are electronically generated. Our bodies are patted down at airports and filmed by scanners. And public service announcements, car inspection stickers, and public transportation posters constantly urge us to report suspicious activity. The enemy is everywhere.

Those who do not comply with the dictates of the war on terror, a war which, as Orwell noted, is endless, are brutally silenced. The draconian security measures used to cripple protests at the G-20 gatherings in Pittsburgh and Toronto were wildly disproportionate for the level of street activity. But they sent a clear message—DO NOT TRY THIS. The FBI’s targeting of antiwar and Palestinian activists, which in late September saw agents raid homes in Minneapolis and Chicago, is a harbinger of what is to come for all who dare defy the state’s official Newspeak. The agents—our Thought Police—seized phones, computers, documents and other personal belongings. Subpoenas to appear before a grand jury have since been served on 26 people. The subpoenas cite federal law prohibiting “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” Terror, even for those who have nothing to do with terror, becomes the blunt instrument used by Big Brother to protect us from ourselves.”

So why are we being scanned now? When the last terrorist attack was by a white guy driving a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas? I’ll tell you why. L-3 Communications and RapiScan, manufacturers of the invasive and horrible X-ray scanner products, paid plenty to put these new “security measures” in place. Yep. According to USAToday and the Huffington Post, they doubled their campaign contributions over 5 years. L-3 alone paid $4.3 million in campaign contributions to get a $39.7 million payment from the government for these machines.

So, civil liberties. Being overrun. Corporations. Abusing our rights. How can we combat this?

Well, we can ALL choose to Opt Out Of Flying. Take your car. Take the train. Opt out of this security theater.

But what ELSE can we do? We can give to Corporate Accountability International and Public Citizen-Congress Watch.

And we can give to Campaign Finance Reform. As it happens, fundraising is actually the cause of, and solution to, corporate abuse at the highest levels of our government. Imagine if every congressional, senatorial and presidential candidate did not have to fundraise continuously for 2-4 years before being elected. Imagine if everyone got the exact same amount of face time, articles, billboards, leaflets, and yard signs, all given by the government. Imagine if our politicians didn’t sell us out to the highest donor to their campaigns. Imagine this.

Any other ideas on what we can do? I’d love to hear your solutions!

If I’ve missed a nonprofit in this lineup, please let me know!

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Grope-a-palooza and what are nonprofits doing about it? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on December 28, 2010.

Want proof? I made a slideshow with pictures and stats from the events.
Events by Mazarine

So, if you want to have the same success with events, you can hire me, or simply follow my model.

When you’re organizing an event, the FIRST thing you want to do is brainstorm everything you want to do. Sit down with your event committee.

Then narrow it down.

The three things that will ensure your success are:

Your Event Budget

Your Sponsorship letter and relationships

The Quality of your Followup

Creating Your Budget

If you don’t know what should be in your event budget, never fear. I’ve got a sample one for you! It’s only $5.00, and it’s comprehensive. Suitable for everything from a fair to a dinner or gala, with realistic projections of how much you will probably spend.

How much will you spend on your event? Buy this sample Event Budget and learn! From The Wild Woman’s Guide …

Next, since you’ve made your goals with event sponsorship or booth space and ticket sales, now you need to start getting those sponsorships and booths.

How do you start to do that?

Write your Sponsorship Letter

First, go to your database and look at who gave before. If you don’t know, go to your board and ask who they know. Then go to the business journal in your city and look up likely businesses.

Then use this letter! It’s only five bucks. And it will pay for itself a hundred times over with the first sponsorship you get! Feel free to customize it to fit your particular cause. I think you’ll find the bullet points will fit what you’re doing.

You need money for your event? Buy a Sample Sponsorship Letter and convince more people to give! From The W…

Your Follow Up

Once you’ve set your letter, the first part of your follow up should be to send an email with the same information.

The second part of your follow up should be to call one week later to follow up, preferably on a Thursday or Friday morning.

What do you say when you call? I’m glad you asked! Check out my sample event phone-call follow up script, and tailor it to fit your nonprofit. It too, is only $5.00, and totally worth it.

How do you get an event sponsorship? Here’s a Sample Sponsorship Phonecall you can make. From The Wild Woma…

If you follow my advice, and use these scripts and letters, you will be getting the sponsorships in no time!

If you’d rather save a bundle of money, buy my new book, The Wild Woman’s Guide to Fundraising for just $45.00, it has so much information! Over 200 pages of resources, advice, stories, and more! AND it includes a CD with blank templates for you to use like your own fundraising office in a box!

When you’re organizing an event, what three things guarantee success? originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on November 23, 2010.

Of these, which ones do you think yield the most money? Which ones, the least?

If you have any to add, please leave a comment!

1. Quarterly Appeal letter

2. Grants

3. Your Annual Report

4. Sell Fruit

5. Old-time photograph booth for your museum

6. Gala/Dinner

7. Sell t-shirts

8. Do a Twitter push for donations

9. Collaborating on grants with another nonprofit

10. E-newsletter

11. Ask your most faithful donors to become monthly givers

12. Ask for donations on Facebook

13. Create a bequest program

14. Ask for gifts of stock

15. Set up a workplace giving speaking engagement tour and ask your most successful local corporations to give.

16. Have a phone-a-thon

17. Hold a yard sale for your nonprofit

18. Ask donors for baked goods to hold a bake sale

19. Ask new local businesses to donate to promote their business in your next newsletter.

20. Ask your local library to donate old books to your nonprofit, sell the books on Amazon.com

21. Get people who are selling their houses to use a broker that will give your nonprofit a percentage of the proceeds.

22. Invest in stocks or CDs for your nonprofit

23. Get people to donate their cars to your nonprofit

24. Get people who are having a bridal shower to have their friends give the money they would have spent to your nonprofit.

25. Get a billboard donated to your nonprofit and ask for donations there.

26. Get a celebrity to come to an event, and sell a pre-event where rich people can hobnob with the celebrity.

27. Ask a scout troop to adopt your nonprofit and raise money with a carwash.

28. Ask a ladies auxiliary committee at your local hospital to consider donating to your nonprofit,

29. Ask your local community foundation if they have any donor advised funds that would be a good fit for your nonprofit

30. Ask the Moose Lodge or Shriners to donate to your nonprofit

31. Get people who are having a wedding to get their guests to give to your nonprofit instead of getting them gifts.

32. Advocate for state appropriation of funds to your nonprofit

33. Ask churches to give to your nonprofit out of their collections once a month.

34. Make a food cart and sell food for your nonprofit downtown, at festivals, or farmer’s markets.

35. Lease space in your building to other nonprofits or businesses.

36. Hold an arts bazaar in your nonprofit space, partner with community artists, and get lots of people to come in and see what your nonprofit does, and ask them to give.

37. Hold a movie night and ask people to give.

38. Ask your volunteers to give to your nonprofit.

39. Ask your board members to give, and introduce you to their rich friends.

40. Cultivate long term relationships with many different community members that lead to giving.

41. Hold a festival around your nonprofit cause, and ask people to give there.

42. Research people who gave large amounts to other similar nonprofits, and ask them to give to your nonprofit via a long cultivation process.

43. Hold a community forum about a particular topic and then ask people to give there.

44. Hold a friendraiser for your most loyal and generous donors, secure their support for another year there.

45. Ask sororities and fraternities to organize social gatherings for your nonprofit.

46. Get a group of cyclists to do a long ride for your nonprofit, and get people to sponsor them.

47. Use MGive where people get their own donation page on your website and can direct friends and family there to give.

48. Ask for text donations to your nonprofit.

49. Send out a paper newsletter or magazine and ask for money for your nonprofit.

50. Ask your own employees if they’d like to start a monthly employee giving program to your nonprofit.

51. Set up a partnership with Credo Mobile so that people can round up their cellphone bill and give that to your nonprofit each month.

52. Ask local restaurants to donate a portion of one night’s profits to your nonprofit.

You obviously can’t do one a week, some of these are long term ideas. However, others would only take one phonecall to hear if they want to help you or not. Why not make a list of those phonecalls today? Start with people already in your database. See who you know. Give this list to your board members. See who wants to run with it.

These are my ideas, do you have any you’d like to share?

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52 Ways to Fundraise originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on November 8, 2010.

Brian Massey, The Conversion Scientist

First off, who is Brian Massey and why should you care?

Brian Massey was recommended to me by my good friend Vicki Flaugher. When she makes recommendations, I listen, so I started to research Brian. He runs a consulting business called “The Conversion Scientist.” What this means is that he helps people buy your products or services.

The way this relates to you and your nonprofit is that we can easily apply these principles to getting people to donate to your cause.

I scheduled a phone call with him last week, and he gave me lots of good ideas on how to get more people interested in what I’m doing, and help them buy.

You, as a nonprofit marketer, are in the unique position of being able to address a larger social issue, and then boil it down to how your nonprofit helps, and then parse it down even more specifically into how a donor can take action to help you.

You go from ‘BIG SOCIAL PROBLEM’

to ‘WHAT WE DO’

to ‘NOW YOU CAN DO SOMETHING TOO.’

You are solving the problem that they have, and if the donor likes what you’re doing, they are primed to give to you.

Here are two things that I learned from Brian Massey.

1. Your front page design needs to make it easy to see what you do.

How easy are you making it to buy? What is a pain point?

Now here’s how I’m going to break it down for you.

Have you ever gone through the donation process on your own website? Have you watched someone else do it?

How easy are you making it to give?

Is your donate button above the fold? (The fold is where the screen cuts off the rest of your website, when someone first comes to your website.)

Is it clear what your nonprofit does, how transparent you are, and how the problem gets solved, all above the fold?

Can people sign up for your newsletter above the fold?

Can people find you on Twitter and other social networks above the fold?

Do you have social proof, above the fold, that lots of people are supporting what you do?

(If you answered yes to ALL of the above, you’re in good shape, really, tell ME what to do sometime!)

It may be impossible to put ALL of this above the fold, but you can prioritize which ones you’d like to emphasize, and make sure they’re SOMEWHERE on your front page.

2. Are you optimizing your donate page?

When it comes to donating, what’s on your donate page?

Is it JUST a form for their credit card information?

Shame shame!

What if they want to do a monthly gift?

What if they are interested in bequests?

What if they want to make a request for your nonprofit to come and speak to their social group?

What if they want to learn more about corporate giving?

What if they want to have their donation deducted from their paycheck?

What if they want to donate AND volunteer?

What if they want to give in-kind donations to your nonprofit?

What if they want to blog about your nonprofit after giving?

What if they want to organize an event for your nonprofit?

What if they want to set up their own donation page on your website and direct their friends and family there?

Do you see now how you could be leaving more than money on the table, but other opportunities to engage with this donor?

You could easily put checkboxes on your site where people could sign up to do MORE for your organization.

Here are some articles Brian Massey’s written. You can apply these to your nonprofit. If you need some support with that, I am available to help your nonprofit.

Making your e-newsletter

Making a landing page

Measuring your social media return

Reading your web stats and making sense of them

Helping set up a place to experiment and make mistakes

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What you can learn from Brian Massey about using social media to get donations originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on November 4, 2010.

I also had a full page article in Special Events Galore! October edition, a subscription based newsletter.

And finally, I had a post on Sharp Skirts about The Power of Free.

So, thank you NetSquared, Sharp Skirts and Special Events Galore so much for these opportunities!

Here is how you can find volunteers.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. Your board are volunteers, and they are responsible for the oversight of everyone at your nonprofit or charity.

Volunteers are also there for you when you need to do an appeal mailing, when you’re stuck with one hundred phonecalls you need to do for a phone-a-thon, when you need someone to do grant research for you, or pro-bono graphic design, when you’re tired and just want to go home.

Volunteers are so wonderful. And they save your organization $18 for every hour they’re there.

So where do you find these wonderful, mythical creatures?

1. Your donor database. Is there anyone in there, a loyal donor, who could be engaged as a volunteer?

2. Volunteermatch.org. You can post volunteer opportunities on here, and it’s a wonderful place to get volunteers.

3. Local faithbased organizations. Many faithbased organizations give a donation to a nonprofit each month. If you already have such an organization, why not ask if you can go speak to their group and ask for volunteers? There are tons of people in these organizations who love to help others. Give them a compelling story, and mention how you want to offer a fun gardening opportunity for them (for example).

4. The Extraordinaires. This is so fun. This website helps you connect with volunteers that may have 15 minutes or 1 hour to help you, but they can be anywhere in the world. So if you have a legal document that you need a lawyer to look over, you can start a volunteer opportunity on here. Maybe you have a grant you’d like to get edited, or some research that needs to be done. You can get volunteers to do that here too.

5. Craigslist. You never know, right?

6. Local corporations. Many people working in corporations would love to volunteer for you. You can frame it as a team-building activity, and possibly get an in for employee giving campaigns if you do this.

7. High schools. Many high schools have a requirement to do 20 or more hours of service before they graduate. I know I had to do a lot of community service in a library before I could graduate.

8. Local universities. Tons of students are looking for real world experience in everything from graphic design and marketing to case management to environmental stewardship. Why not do a little outreach and see if you can get people interested in the volunteer opportunities you have available?

Thanks for reading! If there are any other places you can think of to find volunteers, I’d love to see your ideas in the comments!

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8 places to find volunteers originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on September 29, 2010.

“Yes, we disabled the alarms on the Deepwater Horizon. Oh, like you’ve never hit the snooze button? http://ow.ly/2fQ6x” 1:57 PM Jul 23rd @BPGlobalPR

Today British Petroleum announced a new CEO, Robert Dudley, an American, meant to appease the millions of Americans without livelihoods now, and the millions of environmental activists up in arms about the devastation in the gulf.

He said they would remain strong on their pledge to pay reparations to the citizens of the gulf, AND KEEP DRILLING. Well, it seems like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has struck again.

So the concept of CSR, as far as I see it, is that you throw some volunteers or money at a relief effort for a tragedy that you may or may not have caused and suddenly you have purchased the indulgences to act exactly as you please, with no need for morals any longer.

What is even more unconscionable is that this is the second such disaster and CEO musical chairs that has been caused by BP in the last five years.

Yes, in 2005, BP had a big blowup at a Texas City oil refinery and some leakage of oil in Alaska as well. So their then CEO, John Browne, was forced to step down, and Mr. Tony Hayward took his place. We all know how well THAT worked out.

My favorite line from The New York Times Article today is, “Mr. Hayward, asked how he felt about the oil spill given that he pledged to improve safety standards in light of the Texas City explosion, said he “was determined not to have a repeat” of such an accident but “sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus.””

Wow. That is really incredible. Mr. Hayward is STILL NOT ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY for this oil spill. You’d think that if you were BP CEO, you could improve safety standards. That it would be, kind of, your job. Especially since you just stepped in after a previous disaster when your oil equipment wasn’t safe enough, and pledged to “not have a repeat” of the accident. And now he’s going to continue to work for BP, and get his over $14 million dollar payout.

What is wrong with our concept of corporate social responsibility? Basically, everything. But we shouldn’t stop there. We also need to take away corporate personhood, and do as Ecuador has done, and make Mother Nature a person in court with equal rights.

I was reading the Philanthrocapitalism blog yesterday, which is written by an Economist editor, Matthew Bishop, and he asked, “Is CSR evil”? He calls it “Short Term Thinking” that plagues companies. That’s so understated that it’s almost insulting. How about we call it, “We’re going to Rape, Plunder and Pillage your entire life and you don’t have a choice”? I guess that doesn’t really roll off the tongue.

We need to start asking, why aren’t we instilling the golden rule into our accountants, stockbrokers, CEOs and MBAs?

Why are we making “at will employment” the rule, giving people no legal recourse to being fired? Why aren’t we protecting our workers, strengthening our unions, and making safety standards real, instead of just paying lip service to them?

It’s not “short term thinking” we need to eliminate, Mr. Bishop, it’s the sociopathic lack of any concern for anyone other than the company and its image.

We need to dissolve British Petroleum and stop our dependence on oil. We need to FORGET OUR BRANDS and start trying to SAVE OUR WORLD. Thank you Leroy Stick, for putting it so succinctly.

Why aren’t you more angry? What can you do about this?

See more pictures of the spill here

BP Kills. Don't give them your money.

CSR=Look at the shiny thing while we trash your world! originally appeared on Wild Woman Fundraising on July 29, 2010.