A Fundraising Fundamental

Just awhile ago I gave a small donation to an organization I had heard about from a friend - I was keen on what they were about and thought I would give a few bucks to support their cause. It is now 3 months later and I have yet to hear anything at all from them - I looked - they cashed my cheque... so my money is helping them in their mission to accomplish good work in the world. Which is FABULOUS - that is what I gave them money for.
But... ummm... did your mom not teach you to send thank you cards? Or ... hey - more important to their administration - a tax reciept.
So just a fundraising note - send thanks for all your donations - especially from first time givers. It is a bit of a burden, after all someone needs to type it, maybe mail merge it on the computer or hand write it, and the org needs to pay for postage ... but its worth it. I might give money to that organization again because I like what they do - but I will wait for a bit - and if they send me an ask for money BEFORE I get a thank you note ..ohhhh, hard call.
So - if you run a non profit that isn't sending thank yous - who knows who you are offending? I mean - hey I have no money, but what if I did?
And yes, to stop the arugment right now - I believe it is important to acknowledge donors - even if it does cost a bit of time.

Sometimes...

Sometimes its probably just good to go your own way and not listen to ANYONE

Hiring for the Board

Governance
Some of the pillars - the foundations - the most important peices to have a successful board.

* Have a mentorship for new board members with someone who has been around on the board for awhile
* Have a host of board governance education peices in hand so new members understand that being a director is a continual learning process - not just about the particulars of the organization but on the literature out there to make the board stronger as a whole
* A job discription - if you can't put a board job discription together then you are asking someone to come into a position that YOU aren't even sure about - help create structure for the director to be as strong as they can be in.
* Recruit from outside your organization's sphere of influence - this will encourage the board to get out of group think and make decisions based that reflect the whole community.
* Consider what your organization needs - a political savvy business person? Someone with specific knowledge in fundraising? In law? Someone with great connections to a particular community within the community? and then hire to these ends.

1st Calgary

I was just at a presentation given by the Manager of Corporate Citizenship for 1st Calgary Savings - wow! What an inspiring presentation - She brought up a program that we all (in Calgary and area) need to know about. Through applying and getting through a review committee the 1st Calgary Savings is granting capacity building money up to $2500
https://www.1stcalgary.com/SharedContent/documents/learnopp_app.pdf - check it out.
Also a super cool event that Calgary 1st is working on with an organization from Toronto called Frameworks
The event is at Victoria's in Calgary I think on June 21, and is to support local and emerging artists. They did a call for art and got 75 artists with 5 peices each apply - they have narrowed the pool to 25 artists and 25 peices. THEN - they bought the art from the artists. It will be auctioned at the event at Victoria's - but auctioned for volunteer time instead of money!! They have invited 25 (I think) non profits to have booths at the event expaining what they needed volunteer hours for and people will bid on the art to volunteer for those organizations ~!!! WOW I love it!
When I find the link I will pass it on - It is 20 bucks to get in the door. I hope I see you there!