Five Trends Help to Create "Nonprofits of the Future," Report Says

The nonprofit field isn’t going to simply bounce back a few years from now to the state it was in before the recession, according to a new report by La Piana Consulting, which explores five trends that are hastening the emergence of a new nonprofit landscape. Those trends are:
shifting demographics, technological advances, new ways to collaborate, greater interest in service, and blurred lines between nonprofit and for-profit.

Full text article by Caroline Preston is available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 11/9/09.

Volunteers screened before working with children, elderly

Charities that work with children, as well as disabled and elderly people, are increasingly subjecting volunteers to criminal background checks. Checks by nonprofit groups for convictions on drug, domestic-violence, child-abuse, or sex-crime charges have risen steadily since enactment of the National Child Protection Act in 1993. The measure was amended five years later to enable charities and businesses to use national fingerprint databases to screen volunteers. Several states have followed suit, with Minnesota last year making such checks mandatory for organizations that work with vulnerable clients.

Full-text post by Jeff Schweers is available via USA Today, 11/1/09.

Give Options To Donors Waiting Until Next Year

A vice president of development explains that most donors are too spooked about the economy to even think about multi-year commitments, especially when donors are looking at significant decreases in their stock portfolios and real estate values. One way to approach the shy donor base is to start talking about planned giving, as donors are holding their money tightly while they are uncertain about the not-so-distant future.

Full-text post by Michele Donohue is available via The NonProfit Times, 9/21/09.

A Home Run for Harlem

Harlem RBI, a community-based nonprofit created to support youth development through sports activity and team participation, and its valuable summer program has just broken its all-time fundraising record. The organization hosted its annual Bids for Kids, honoring the Executive Vice President for Business of Major League Baseball Tim Brosnan, where the combined take from ticket sales and an auction exceeded $1.5 million, the greatest amount raised in its 18-year history.
Full-text post by Susan Carey Dempsey is available via onPhilanthropy, 9/15/09.

Equal Rights for Fundraising

Writing on his Free The Nonprofits blog, Mr. Dan Pallotta argues that fund raisers are treated as “second-class citizens to the program staff,” something he says is ridiculous given that “without fund raising there are no programs.” He claims that fundraising is the black sheep of the nonprofit sector. Without fundraising there are no programs. The less we spend on it the less money there is for programs.

Full-text post by Dan Pallotta is available via Harvard Business Publishing, 9/10/09.

Nonprofits: We Must Start Beating the Drum

How can the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) totally overlook more than 10% of the American workforce?

A recent CEA report regarding the economic impacts of health care reform on small businesses completely disregards the 15 million people employed by nonprofits (in 2008, according to DHHS [PDF]) and an entire sector that accounts for 11-12% of the nation’s GDP (in 2007, according to GAO [PDF]).

Full text article by Tim Delaney is avaialable via The Nonprofit Quarterly, 8.19.09.

Survey: Fundraising Confidence Reaches New Low

Confidence in the fundraising climate declined 22 percent in the last six months, reaching its lowest level in a decade, according to a survey of nonprofit professionals.

Full-text article by Mark Hrywna is available by the NonProfit Times, 12.18.08.

Nonprofit Hospitals Could Face New Rules in 2009

Aides to Sen. Charles E. Grassley say that the Iowa politician is considering proposing legislation early in 2009 that would require nonprofit hospitals to spend a minimum amount on free care for the needy and set restrictions on executive compensation and conflicts of interest.

Full-text John Carreyrou and Barbara Martinez is available via the Wall Street Journal, 12.18.08.

Fasten Your Seatbelts: It's Going to Be a Bumpy Giving Season

For the past several weeks, news organizations throughout the country have found that charitable donations are down at the same time that demand for nonprofits' services is rising. The results of GuideStar's seventh annual nonprofit economic survey indicate that these news stories are right on money.

Full-text article complete with survey data is available via GuideStar, 2008.

Research Tool for Grantseekers

The Foundation Center offers a helpful research tool for grantseekers. With Trend Tracker, a free charting and graphing tool, nonprofits can quickly create summary presentations of fiscal data for a specific funder or compare up to five grantmakers in up to four fiscal categories — assets, giving, expenditures, and gifts received. The data may be generated in either bar chart, line graph, or table format.

Trend Tracker contains data from 2000 to 2005 for the nation's top 20,000 foundations.