Blog
Category :: Board Development
I’m keeping busy this week with facilitation and am excited to have the opportunity to work with so many groups. Here’s a quick glimpse of my schedule:
Tuesday:
-Facilitating a subcommittee of Green LA Coalition
-Facilitating a community meeting for the City of Seal Beach
Thursday:
-Leading a seminar at the Center for Nonprofit Management on planning successful fundraising events
-Facilitating a discussion with the Board of Directors of LA Voice
Friday
-Leading a seminar at the Flintridge Foundation on Researching and Cultivating Donors
-Facilitating a discussion with the Board of the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Hosing Developers
I’m thrilled to work with so many leaders of so many organizations working for positive change in Los Angeles.
I’m excited to be working with the leadership at LA Voice to create a fund development plan. LA Voice is an interfaith organization engaging congregation members on a number of social change related issues in Los Angeles, including affordable housing, homelessness and health care. For an inspiring video about the organization’s work, click here.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many organizations to create a fund development plan, including having recently developed a plan for SOAR Charter School. A fund development plan helps chart a future fundraising course for a nonprofit organization and contains the following:
- An assessment of the organization’s current fundraising generated from a fundraising audit and leadership survey
- A review of the organizations fundraising materials, including past grant proposals, cover letters and appeal letters
- Development of an overall goal targeting specific strategies to achieve that goal
- A timeline/workplan to implement plan
- A list of possible funding sources
- A staffing plan
- An appendix with additional resources.
By investing time to create an overall fundraising strategy, an organization is in a much better position to realize its fundraising goals. Rather than reacting in a haphazard way to fundraising strategies that may sound good but yield weak results, it stays focused on strategies that have the highest chance of building strong donor relationships that lead to sustainable fundraising in the long term. The process also engages staff and the Board of Directors in the process of creating the plan, which helps ensure they’ll be engaged when it comes to implementing the plan.
If you or your organization would like more information about how I may be able to assist you with the creation of a fund development plan, please contact me.
I’m very pleased to be working with the leadership at the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH). SCANPH creates affordable housing opportunities for low-income people by expanding the knowledge, capacity and influence of the nonprofit development sector. Over the years, SCANPH has championed affordable housing in Southern California and helped build a strong network of local affordable housing developers that have generated housing that’s affordable. SCANPH also has some excited plans to green development in the future, which I’m especially excited to see happen.
I’m working with the organization’s leadership to build their fundraising capacity so that they’re able to bring in the needed resources to do their good work. I’m excited to attend their upcoming Board meeting in March to work with the entire Board of Directors on engaging in the fundraising process. For some tips on how to build a fundraising Board of Directors, check out my recent blog post.
1. Ask: Your job is to ask. The person you ask – their job is to decide.
2. Thank: The most important words in fundraising are “Thank you”. Thanking donors affirms their gift.
3. Build relationships: People give to people. Remember to build relationships with your donors.
4. It’s an ongoing process: The folks who are most likely to give large gifts to your organizations are folks who already give.
5. You might get nine “no’s” before a “yes”: Don’t be afraid if someone you ask says no. Thank them for considering.
6. Develop your case first: Before you start asking for money, it’s important that you have a strong case for your organization.
7. Research, Network and Cultivate: Constantly work to develop potential new donors.
8. Diversify your funding base: Seek to raise funds from multiple sources: individuals, events, foundation grants, government grants and earned-income.
9. Diversify your fundraisers: Fundraising generates the strongest results when lots of people in the organization are involved in the process.
10. It’s an ongoing learning process: We learn fundraising by doing it. I wish you the best as you move forward.
I will elaborate on these in future blog posts and wish all of you the best as raise funds for whatever organizations you are affiliated with in 2010. I also welcome any suggestions you have to raise money for nonprofit organizations. Thanks!
Hispanic Outreach Taskforce – I facilitated an afternoon session that developed a short-term strategy for raising funds. The group has continued to provide numerous programs for the community.
Urban and Environmental Policy Institute – I planned and facilitated a number of pre-meeting to the first annual Bike Summit which brought together 300+ advocates from the region.
Bikestation– I facilitated numerous project management meetings that led to the development of an implementation study for a new Bikestation. The group recently opened a new Bikestation in Washington D.C. and is expanding throughout the country.
I really enjoyed working with so many different leaders working on a variety of sustainability issues throughout our region. I learned a great deal about so many different, but interrelated issues and greatly appreciate the work they are all doing. I look forward to serving even more organizations in 2010.
I'm staring to plan what trainings I will lead in 2010 and would love to get your input. Please take a few minutes to fill out my short survey on this. I really value your input and will do my best to tailor my trainings to your needs. Thanks!
For a listing of the trainings I currently lead, check out my Workshops page. For a listing of my upcoming tranings, checkout my Calendar page.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I recently facilitated a day long planning session for the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust, an organization working to exercise land stewardship as the basis for creating pedestrian-centered neighborhoods that emphasize sustainability-oriented affordable housing.
We had an especially productive retreat. As a facilitator, I helped create a space for the Board of Directors to decide their organization's long-term goals, short-term goals and the beginnings of a 2009/10 workplan.
At the end of the retreat, one of the participants shared a list she had been making throughout the day of “Ronisms”: little things I said to encourage the group as they made tough decisions throughout the day.
Here are some of the things I said: “Nice”, “Excellent”, “Good work”, “Awesome”, “That’s Great”, “Huge”, “Amazing”, “Lets Rock and Roll”, “Give yourselves a hand of applause”, “You folks have chosen well” and “We have less than 40 minutes people”.
I laughed as I heard this list and was reminded that part of my work as a facilitator is to help ensure full group participation in the decision making process, which is done in part by encouraging and affirming participation throughout the process. By the end of the day, everyone was very happy with the results of their hard work and thanked me for my hard work as a facilitator.
I continue to provide a number of capacity building trainings that are open to the public and invite you to attend one of them. To date, I have the following workshops scheduled and expect to lead several more throughout the year:
· Hosting a Successful Fundraising Event (3/25)
· Winning Campaigns (4/27/-4/29)
· Introduction to Facilitation (4/28)
· What’s your Message: Getting Media (5/7)
· Essentials of Effective Meetings (Date TBD)
2. Developing a Strategic Plan
3. Developing a Fundraising Plan
4. Finding Funders:
5. Tapping into the Wealth of Individuals
6. Crafting a Successful Annual Appeal Letter
7. Introduction to Grant Writing
8. Advanced Grant Writing
9. Hosting a Successful Fundraising Event
10. Building a Strong Board
11. The Art of Cultivation
12. Fundraising Infrastructure
13. Balancing Fundraising with your other Responsibilities
14. What’s your Message? Getting Media
15. Campaign Planning 101
16. Finding, Engaging and Thanking Volunteers
17. Introduction to Facilitation
18. Running Effective Meetings
Please contact me if you would like for me to create a customized training for your organization. I hope to see you at a future training!
Greetings,
Welcome to my new website! In addition to describing the services I provide, background on my experience and my past clients, I’m excited to launch a blog where I will share with you valuable lessons I’ve learned about nonprofit management over the last 11 years. Every week, my goal is to capture a bit of wisdom I’ve learned that will hopefully be a resource to you and your organization. Over time, I hope to build an online library that you can access anytime, on a series of different topics. If there are certain areas you would like for me to address, or questions you have, please email them to me. If you would like to discuss any of these areas in greater detail, please contact me. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Ron

