The New Year's First Cultivation December 22, 2006 By RussBurke

As we approach the end of the calendar year, we are reminded that tax time is just around the corner.  And while I do not believe managing one's tax obligation is the primary motivator for supporting a charitable mission, it does loom important to donors, large and small, for accurate completion of tax records.

Many of your donors might think it nice to have some help with this.  It is easy to do with a beginning of the new year "Thank You" that recounts their giving over the previous calendar year. You can produce it as a "receipt" or produce it simply as a hearty thank you for their consistent commitment to your mission, eschewing all receipt language.  The presention is up to you, but the message should be clear:  We couldn't do it without your support!

For GiftWorks users, this Help Center document points the way to production of year-end receipts and letters:  http://help.missionresearch.com/issue_view.asp?ID=187 .

Finally, as we appraoch year end here at Mission Research, I just wanted to say what a pleasure it has been this year to have the opportunity to serve so many folks--you!--who work tirelessly to make communities better. You are a blessing to us all.

Thank you.

Russ Burke
Mission Research
Customer Education and Consultant Services

Sustainability December 17, 2006 By RussBurke

Folks:

For all of us involved in solving the hurts of this world, the concept of sustainability is hardly new.  No matter what our nonprofit mission...from saving trees to repairing limbs to soothing a child's pain...the task of keeping operations solvent necessarily was central to any activity.  The task of acquiring the resources to address our missions was never far from the surface, even if we chose to hide our head in the sand.

And now, for some of us, sustainability has taken on a much larger venue...life on this planet.  I was reminded of this in two ways this weekend.  First, I heard a scientist claim that we haven had this much carbon (today) in our atmosphere for over 20 million years.  Must have been a bad spate of calamities to trigger that non-industrial carbon spike.  Then I caught Jon Ritter's Lancaster Sunday News Article "Tracking Your Carbon Footprint".  In it, the story's protagonist buys off her share of her vacation airflight's carbon dioxide "culpability".  I was intrigued, and impressed, by the willingness of individuals to take responsibility for what they do in this world.

Is it time for us, as nonprofit managers and supporters, to consider that we act accordingly?  Of course, each of us must wrestle with the personal responsibilities we own.  But perhaps we should think seriously about how we might conduct our mission in ways that formally respect the environment and tread softly on resources. 

Often, the things we do that respect the environment work out to respect our budgets as well.  I encourage you to consider how your work processes and policies can be nudged to honor leaving a viable, even healthier, world to our children and to theirs.

We try to do that every day at Mission Research.  It's the very right thing to do.

Sustainability...two concepts, now linked.  For all our sakes.

Thank you!

Taking Stock December 6, 2006 By RussBurke

Folks:

This new Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) can be a real boon to you and your organization.  Finally, you will have at your fingertips objective data against which you can measure your results, factoring in staff size, longevity of development program, budget size, amount raised, etc.  The FEP leadership plans additional refinements that promise even more illumination in the years ahead.

But this raises the big question:  How formal is your fundraising planning?  Does your organization wobble from year to year, tweakling this and that in response to anecdotal "feelings" about how well it went?  Is your planning done in effort silos, i.e. you look only at the comparative outcomes of activites against like activities, year on year?  Are you factoring in effort, time, staff and non-staff resources, along with the hard costs of each solicitation effort?  Is the mix of fundraising and friend-raising efforts you make each year measured against a strategic advantage scale?

With FEP and some thoughtful evaluation, you should be able to construct an Annual Fundraising Plan that sets forth your plans and goals for the coming year, addressing what needs attention, what needs investment (however you define that), what needs critical assessment, all viewed through the strategic lens.  This is your great opportunity to be deliberate and demonstrate to your colleagues and your Board just what will be required to move your organization to the next level.

Its clear that an Annual Plan must to be rooted in outcomes recorded to give substance to outcomes desired.  With FEP and your own reporting, you will have a good start at building a Plan that makes real sense and serves as a compelling Action Case Statement for you and your leadership.

Achievement starts with a good plan....