March 15, 2021

Good March to you and yours! We’ve had a couple of really warm days already so far, so we, the overly optimistic Minnesotans are ready to put away shovels and bring out lawn furniture. One of our AP team drove up to Duluth in shirtsleeves. But you know what happens when the snow goddesses, gods and non-binary deities see the snow shovels in storage!

But, but, but… on the other hand grantseeking optimism needs to remain strong to justify the work you do on proposals, budgets, applications, and letters of inquiry. So, keep both your snow shovels and your budget templates within reach.

2021 Small Family Foundations Workshop Thursday, April 08, 2021, 09:00 AM - 12:00 PM – Virtual Live/Online from Access Philanthropy & MN Council of Nonprofits

Truthfully, who else talks about small family foundation fundraising except Access Philanthropy? There are more than 1500 small funders (<$1 million in annual giving) in Minnesota, and most of them are small family foundations. So, get goods from AP folks and small family funders, and then walk away with a book, the power point and some access time to AP’s Small Family Foundation 300+ database.

Corporate Foundations vs. Corporate Donations Programs (non-foundation gifts)

Interesting study on corporate foundations vs. corporate donations (non-foundation giving programs).

Corporations that use foundations instead of corporate giving programs are viewed as

The truth is corporate foundations are, to some extent, regulated by the IRS and state attorneys general (Bremer, ahem). Legally, they are independent of the corporation, but since the funding and the people come from the corporation, they do have corporate interests at heart. However, their interpretation of corporate interest is generally broader and different from those who only use corporate donation programs.

Anecdotally, it’s true that corporate foundations have invested in the infrastructure, people, and corporate volunteers, and are generally more professional about their giving. Corporate donation programs are not JUST about corporate self-interest (some of it is about size and corporate capacity), but corporate donation programs are often more limited in their altruism.

What’s our fluff-free advice? – When you’re thinking about soliciting gifts from a large corporation, understand the limitations of a corporation that uses only an in-house donations programs in contrast to using a foundation.

A great month for philanthropy jobs. See the variety on the MN Council of Foundations and the Bridgespan Group jobs boards.

Google Ads.

No more excuses. Look at this. Here’s the link to the downloadable Google Ads Guide.

Just as the pandemic was beginning last year, the Council of Foundations issued a public statement in which 850+ foundations agreed to offer more general operating support and put less restrictions on their grantmaking.

So far there’s not a lot of evidence that foundations are fully engaged in either – with two exceptions – multi-million-dollar gifts to huge national organizations are less likely to have all kinds of stipulations, and food/basic need grants have fewer restrictions. This is a good start, but someone should check whether unrestricted, gen op gifts are only for the wealthy NPOs, or whether these commitments also include mid-sized and smaller nonprofits.

We must admit that Covid philanthropy reports are getting as tedious as the damned virus itself. But let’s face it, last year was so different, so we’re all curious about what happened in our industry. Here’s a few trends from Candid, ARNOVA, and the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy:

Sports, movie, and television stars, and even politicians, have been part of the charitable solicitation world. There have always been questions about the value of using these celebrities for nonprofit work. The debate continues. But now some folks have done some great work with interesting findings:

The NY Times recently did an article indicating how the US retail industry is showing signs of re-opening:

 AP now has six senior advisors, all of whom have thirty-forty minutes to chat and lots of experience in grantmaking and grantseeking. (gail@accessphilanthropy.com or steve@accessphilanthropy.com)

Besides the April 8^th workshop on Small Family Foundations, here are a couple off the radar workshops.

Neuromarketing Workshop from the SBA:

Neuromarketing is a scientific approach to understanding consumers’ decision-making. It pays close attention to the role of emotion, intuition, and impulse in making buying decisions. Now guided by science, businesses can make their marketing much more effective by applying Neuromarketing, just like Apple, Google, and Amazon have all adopted it to boost their revenues dramatically.

The SBA is offering a virtual workshop on neuromarketing. Even if you’re not a small business you’re welcome to attend.

Candid (the merger of Foundation Center and GuideStar) is offering a $10 workshop on March 30. The workshop features Lori Villarosa, Co-author of Grantmaking with a Racial Justice Lens and Founder/ED of Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE).

Big Duck, a nonprofit communications firm, recommends avoiding these nine terms in 2021. Some of will be tough to avoid, but good writers will do so. See the website for additional insights:

 

The Nonprofit Marketing Guide issued its 11^th annual Nonprofit Communications Trends Report. It includes pieces on work in the pandemic, managing communications teams (including volunteers), growing communications efforts, email practices, and lots of stats on the effects and costs of communications tools.

If you can get together at the end of the month, raise your glass the United Farm Workers, the folks who unionized the grape and fruit fields of California. After decades of disappointment and lack of support from other unions, the UFW and its charismatic leaders Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez succeeded in establishing a union for migrant workers. Cesar’s birthday is March 31^st. Arriba, abajo, afuera, adentro.