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Klein & Roth Consulting E-Newsletter
Issue #5 – October 2011
Dear Friend,
Whether you are a new subscriber
who's joined us since the last issue or you've been with us for the past
few issues, welcome!
Sad News from the Klein & Roth Team
We are very sad to announce the tragic loss of Naima Kali
Liu-Fernandez, daughter of Senior Consultant Rona Fernandez, who died at
the age of four & a half months of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome) this past August. Rona is currently on leave from Klein
& Roth Consulting. We will let you know when she
returns. Our hearts continue to go out to Rona and her husband
Henry.
Rare Opportunity for Fundraising Training with Kim Klein
Kim is teaching a weekend-long course, "All Weather Fundraising: How Your Nonprofit Can Survive & Thrive in the New Normal"
at the Rowe Camp and Conference Center in Rowe, Massachusetts, October
14-16. This is one of the ONLY times you will have the opportunity
to participate in an intensive training with Kim, as she has cut back
significantly on her traveling and training work. For more
information and to register, click here.
Tax Quiz
Organizations call us all the time needing fundraising help. Many
have lost government funding and are in a downward spiral of trying to
do more and more with less and less. We believe that government
has a role to play in funding nonprofits and Kim Klein is hard at work
on a project called Nonprofits Talking Taxes to encourage nonprofit staff to become involved in tax policy.
Meanwhile, we all have to learn a little bit more about taxes in
general, and Kim Klein and Jan Masaoka of Blue Avocado developed this very fun quiz.
Take it and see how smart you are!
How I Became a Fundraiser (and tips for helping others get there too!)
By Stan Yogi, Senior Consultant, Klein & Roth Consulting
I was not born a fundraiser. Few people have an innate
knack for asking others to contribute financially to an
organization. When I started working with non-profits more than 20
years ago, I focused, like many of you, on generating grant
income.
It wasn’t until 1993, when I joined the board of the Horizons Foundation,
the San Francisco Bay Area’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT)
community foundation, that I came to value the importance of building
and growing a base of individual donors. That’s when I learned how
to become a fundraiser.
Horizons depends on contributions from individuals concerned about the
well-being of LGBT people. The community’s needs in the early
1990s were great: AIDS was ravaging the Bay Area. Gay
seniors were isolated. And LGBT youth were prone to suicide.
But government grants were not an option, and few foundations were
willing to fund LGBT groups. So, we had to take care of our
own. And that meant asking individuals for contributions.
When I joined the board, I was apprehensive about soliciting
donations. I had sold candy for school fund drives and asked
friends to sponsor me for walk-a-thons, but I had never gone out and
asked people for large gifts. My Japanese American cultural
upbringing—to communicate indirectly, especially about delicate subjects
like money—heightened my anxiety. Would I be imposing by
asking people for contributions? How would I deal with
rejection?
The Horizons Foundation provided me an ideal opportunity to learn how
to raise money from individuals. Here are some organizational
elements that helped me to become a fundraiser:
1. Culture of Fundraising:
It was a given that all board members would raise funds.
That was made clear when I was interviewed before joining the
board. And once I was on the board, organizational leaders
reinforced that responsibility through monthly board meetings and their
own example.
2. Board Giving:
Horizons introduced me to the idea that all board members should make a
personally significant contribution. I had given modest
amounts to non-profits since I was in college, but Horizons taught me
about giving exponentially larger gifts through monthly contributions.
3. Training:
Fortunately, I joined the board when two development professionals also
served on the board. They led an intensive training on the value
of developing relationships with donors, the importance of keeping
supporters up to date on the organization’s efforts, and how discussing a
donor’s financial support is a natural part of building and deepening
relationships with them.
4. Identifying New Donors: Meeting
with strangers daunted me, so I was much more comfortable with the idea
of asking my friends, family, and acquaintances to support
Horizons. Since I had existing relationships with these people, if
they chose not to support the foundation, I knew that my relationships
with them would continue regardless. It wouldn’t be a personal
rejection.
5. Structure:
Board fundraising took place within a structured campaign, with set
goals and timelines. Board members were assigned existing and
potential supporters to contact.
6. Support:
There was dedicated time at board meetings to share fundraising
successes, challenges, and advice. Horizons’ Executive Director
(the sole staff member at the time) provided logistical support, and
board members spurred each other on to reach our collective goals.
I served on the Horizons Foundation board for five years and introduced
dozens of friends and family members to the organization and met many
other existing supporters. My experience with Horizons
showed me that board members can overcome their trepidation and can
channel their passion to raise funds to fulfill an organization’s
mission.
I wasn’t born a fundraiser. But with training, structure, and support, I became one.
We
welcome your feedback on any of our posts, so let us know what you
think. And we hope you’ll remember to take some deep breaths and
take care of yourself in the fundraising rush of the coming
months. We’re trying to do so ourselves!
All the best,
Klein & Roth Consulting
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