What We’re Reading, Week of 8/3 part 2

From AFP: Nonprofit Technology Blog…
Nonprofits use pilot site to post events, causes
Linking to an article from Democrat and Chronicle.com, the AFP blog calls attention to the use of pilot sites by nonprofits. According to the article, over 100 nonprofits are using the “Do Good” pilot site that connects readers with information about a variety of charitable causes. It allows users to post information about events, causes, and nonprofit jobs. Tools like “Do Good” can help drum up support and interest in nonprofit activities in an easy, cost-effective way.

From Beth’s Nonprofit Blog…
Crowded Roads Ahead for Charity 2.0: How to address scaling and cause fatigue?
As the use of the internet and social media continue to expand, it’s important to address the inevitable issue of media clutter. Beth’s Nonprofit Blog discusses the recent coverage given to nonprofit clutter, and offers some insights on how organizations can continue to raise funds and promote their causes in a crowded field.According to Beth, building a movement around a cause rather than a brand, and ensuring that social media initiatives are properly scaled, will allow nonprofits to succeed amidst competition.

From Frogloop…
Is Your Nonprofit Complying with State Charity Regulations?
This week, Allyson Kapinat Frogloop blogs about the regulations that accompany online nonprofit fundraising. If a nonprofit raises money on the internet, than it needs to ensure that it is in compliance with state laws. These regulations can be complicated: for example, as Allyson points out, a charity based in one state may have to register itself in other states if the residents there make donations. Nonprofits should be aware of these rules, and should stay up-to-date on compliance.

What we’re reading, week of 3/23

From Network for Good…
Five Things We’re Forgetting When We Take Our Fundraising Online
Rebecca Ruby Higman explores some of the principles we may lose sight of when taking campaigns online. Incidentally, these are the same principles that govern good fundraising, no matter what the medium.

From The Fundraising Coach…
Free podcast: Fundraising in a Recession
We give a hearty endorsement to Marc Pitman’s podcast, examining everyone’s favorite topic in 2009 (and 2010? and 2011? Say it isn’t so!).

From Frogloop…
GuideStar Study Says Nonprofits Need to be Transparent
A comprehensive study reveals the state of transparency in the nonprofit sector, and the effect this has on potential donors. In addition, Guidestar provides steps organizations can take to become more transparent immediately.

Should donors be wary?

Today the Wall Street Journal offers a “guide for vetting charities.” As nonprofit governance is a topic we’ve grown quite interested in at i On Nonprofits, we’ve recently made the acquaintance of an expert on this subject, who will be sharing his insights on this and other news and nonprofit sector items going into the new year!

John McGee is an executive with 32 years of nonprofit management experience, specializing in issues of regulatory compliance and governance for nonprofits. With the ongoing debate about how nonprofits can (or indeed, should) be run froma  regulatory standpoint, we look forward to bringing you John’s ideas and advice in the coming weeks.

What we’re reading, week of 9/1

From NTEN…
Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond
As an interesting counterpoint to our discussion about when nonprofits should not pursue social media, this post examines ways organizations can overcome the objections that are getting in the way of constituents’ adoption of a social media strategy.

From AFP…
Students Flock to Microfinance to Learn Real World Skills
Another example of microlending in action, this is the story of student groups that are making organized efforts to fund microfinance projects for community impact and entrepreneurship alike.

From 1cent Thoughts on NpTech…
I have been without tech for 2 months.
1cent discusses a recent layoff and job search in the context of nonprofits’ inadequate or inaccurate role descriptions for IT staff. “I think when it comes to technology, more specifically technology strategy and staff, nonprofits don’t plan for it, they just let the existing staff grow into it.” With an increased emphasis on nonprofit transparency, will technology strategy become something for which organizations start to feel more accountable? 

What we’re reading, week of 8/18

From Give & Take…
Making Charity Web Sites More Informative
More on a topic we love to discuss – the Chronicle offers some ideas about how nonprofits can become more transparent through their websites.

From NTEN…
Rate Your Donor Management Software
The survey is now open! Respondents can take this 5-10 minute survey to rate their donor management systems.

From Non-Profit Tech Blog…
More on Convio Not Going Public…
Allen Benamer points us to a Fortune Magazine article offering more explanation of Convio’s decision not to go public. “Personally, I would love for more nonprofit CRM vendors to go public,” says Allen. ”It makes it easier for me to cover them because of the added transparency.” Note the recurring theme here!

From A Small Change…
Raise Supporters Not Support
Jason Dick is back in action with a thoughtful post about the difference between fundraising and creating cause evangelists. Great reading. See also: Seth Godin on Sneezers.

Nonprofit transparency, Part II

We asked, and you answered! Here are some of the most interesting responses to last week’s questions about nonprofit transparency:

I think its several things:
- Making it clear what your money goes to
- Stating an expense ratio so people can see what percentage of every dollar donated goes to the cause
- Having financial reports avaialble for donors
- Disclosing what you will and won’t invest any reserves in.
- Disclosing any related party transactions

- Director, Marketing and Business Development at Heart Foundation

In addition to all those good things that Darrin mentioned, I think transparency is also about creating a culture within your organization that questions are welcome, not an annoyance, and patrons and others are encouraged to learn more about the organization and see how it works. It’s one thing to tell them what their money is going towards. It’s even better to show them in your publications and your website, and having opportunities for them to see the offices and operations, to ask questions, and to learn.

- Non-Profit Fundraising & Management Professional

In the ‘for profit’ world transparency to investors is accomplished through a 10K or a 10Q. These documents not only highlight financial information, but also describe operations, ‘wins’, and risks to success.

To the extent your organization can emulate to some extent what companies in the public sector do, you go a long way towards accomplishing transparency to your constituents.

While in general I agree with the previous comment, expense ratios certainly don’t provide as much insight into the success or lack thereof of a NFP. As a highly simplistic comparison to the for profit world, Rolls Royce certainly has a higher operating cost than that of Volkswagon. But I think we could all conclude that Rolls Royce certainly makes a higher quality product.

The bottom line is that successful transparency results in full disclosure of financial, non-financial, objective and subjective information to your interested parties.

- Director-Finance/Controller at X PRIZE Foundation 

What do you think? Anything else to add?

Nonprofit transparency

As we explore the idea of transparency in nonprofits, we thought we’d also conduct an experiment in using LinkedIn’s Q&A feature to source some industry experts’ thoughts on the matter. Please feel free to weigh in on this question, either here at iOn or via LinkedIn, and we will be compiling some of the more interesting responses next week:

What is transparency with donations? Ok, so when we all donate, we want to know what our money is going towards, right? Is this the only form of transparency NFPs need to think about? Anyone out there have particular feelings on what this is and how NFPs should be addressing this issue?

What we’re reading, week of 7/28

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy…
Few Charities Wow Donors During Process of Giving
The Chronicle reports on recent research by Campbell Rinker, showing that only 13 percent of donors feel that their giving experience “exceeds expectations.” Dirk Rinker comments that nonprofits should consider these findings very important: “Word of mouth is your best form of advertising.”

From The Nonprofit Consultant…
Nonprofit Website Mistakes: Lack of Transparency
Ken Goldstein taps into a factor that may be responsible for this type of donor experience, by examining the ways in which nonprofits can establish organizational transparency within their own websites. Ken suggests that posting 990s, audits, board activity and full staff contact information – as well as openly blogging – can do a lot to increase transparency for donors, and build trust.

From Tactical Philanthropy…
Untapped Information
Jacob Harold takes a broader view of the same phenomenon, arguing that nonprofit transparency comes from a combination of information/sharing from constituents, volunteers, peers, experts and beneficiaries of an organization’s work.