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Fluff Free Fundraising
From Access Philanthropy
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November 2021
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WE’RE MOVING THE
NATIONAL FUNDER WORKSHOP
MONDAY NOVEMBER 22
1PM
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The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and Access Philanthropy originally scheduled our National Funders workshop on November 18. Unfortunately, that’s Give to the Max Day.
The program is now set for November 22, 1-3:30 pm with a break midway, followed by a virtual social half-hour, 3:45-4:15 pm, for additional conversation with Access Philanthropy staff.
Find out which funders are no longer working in Minnesota (WHYFU? Fundraiser lingo: “Why have you forsaken us?”); which funders have increased their investments in Minnesota, and why there are so many funders from North and South Dakota. What are corporate funders doing in MN? Who are all these small family foundations who love MN, but don’t live here? Most importantly, get the book, the PowerPoint, and access to our database.
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Funding Notes
The biggest youth-focused funder in Minnesota has some new priorities, broadening its focus:
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Constellation: out-of-school programming
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Sex Trafficking Prevention: ending sex trafficking & exploitation of young people
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Vibrant Communities: youth access programs.
The foundation is accepting LOIs for several of these new areas, but will continue to have an invitation-only process for older priorities.
Main Street Recovery Program
The past legislative session passed the largest jobs bill ever. More than $275 million will be available through the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and several local conduits to help Minnesota recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Main Street Economic Revitalization Program is the first part of the program. This is an $80 million statewide economic redevelopment program that will award grants to partner organizations so they can provide grants and guaranteed loans for economic development and redevelopment projects.
The first round of grants awarded $39,850,000 to organizations across Minnesota. The second round, with up to $40 million in funding, will be made available in February of 2022.
These are the first-round partners/awardees:
- African Career, Education & Resource (ACER), INC, Brooklyn Center, $312,000
- Destination Medical Center Economic Development Agency, Rochester, $3,120,000
- Duluth Local Initiatives Support Corporation Inc., Duluth, $1,235,100
- Heartland Lakes Development Commission, Park Rapids, $208,000
- The Minneapolis Foundation, Minneapolis, $20,800,000
- Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, Saint Paul, $8,960,000
- Southwest Initiative Foundation, Hutchinson, $2,232,400
- Virginia Community Foundation, Virginia, $1,794,100.
Minnesota Council of Foundations has resurrected The Giving Forum as an annual booklet. Online versions are available to anyone interested in MN philanthropy.
Minneapolis Foundation has also reignited its OneMPLS Capacity Building Grants, a fund for small and medium nonprofits ($3 million or less annual budget) that support children, youth, and families in need, or adults seeking living-wage career and business opportunities during the pandemic. The program is accepting grants for all kinds of management/admin stuff:
- Staff and administrative capacity
- Technology resources
- Staff wellness resources and incentives
- Planning and visioning resources.
The Minneapolis Foundation will also be announcing a new round of Racial & Economic Justice grants in the next month.
When she joined the McKnight Foundation, we predicted you would see Tonya Allen’s leadership bloom, not just locally, but nationally. Have you read the recent issue of Newsweek? She’s co-written an article in it, and is leading mega funders on big issues.
National Trust for Historic Preservation is offering a new opportunity -- its Telling the Full History Preservation Fund is a “one-time grant program to interpret and preserve historic places of importance to underrepresented communities (women, LGBTQ, immigrants, BIPoC) across states and territories of the United States.” You must be humanities-based and working in research, architectural design, or training. The deadline is December 15, 2021. It’s a federal program, so there are LOTS of rules, but wow…!
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THE NATIONAL WORKSHOP
Some of the things we found while prepping for this workshop on November 22.
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Grants from Minnesota resident funders to Minnesota organizations are, on average, about $2,300 less than the Minnesota grants from non-resident funders.
- However, when it comes to general operating support grants, Minnesota resident and non-resident funders give about the same size grants to Minnesota recipients.
Minnesota Bank philanthropy is on the rise again. Bank grants and investments in local nonprofits are supporting the popularity of new bank branches and wealth offices.
Unfortunately, many foundations are using IRS flexibility on reporting deadlines. We’re still waiting for 2018 990 grant reports from many smaller and mid-sized funders!
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are on the top of everyone’s published giving priorities. But other than advertised multi-million-dollar programs, we don’t see a big change in the day-to-day corporate OR foundation grantmaking of. Could it be the IRS’ flexibility?
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Wonderful New Additions to the AP Staff
One of our favorite nonprofit CEOs, Deborah Kasarov (recently from Great Plains Institute and Great River Greening) has joined us as a Senior Advisor. She will be managing our foundation and corporate relationships work.
Andy Millman, retired ED of the Neighborhood House Community Center in Madison, WI, is also a published author having appeared in “Midwest Review,” “The Big Jewel,” “Zest Literary Journal,” and “Black Heart Magazine.” Andy is our new Prospect Researcher.
Kathleen Westerhaus has been a development director (CLUES), marketing director (Stratis Health), a grant writer, fundraising consultant, and a nonprofit board president. We’re so excited about having this experienced, multi-talented nonprofit hero with us.
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30-Minute Chats
AP Staff are participating and enjoying the 30 minutes chats we’re having with nonprofit folks who need a little advice, some information, or fundraising feedback. Our writers have a combined 100 years of grants experience. Our consultants have … well, more than 100 years of fundraising and grantmaking experience. Drop a note to gail@accessphilanthropy.com to schedule a time.
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Survey Says...
The Women’s Philanthropy Institute says in 2018 foundation and corporate support for women and girls’ causes grew slightly, to 1.92% from 1.8% the previous year. Really?!
The Council on Foundations’ annual survey showed small increases in the % of foundation staff who are women or Black, Indigenous or People of Color:
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According to the survey, 28.9% of all full time Foundation staff are BIPoC - up from 27.3% last year, but way DOWN from 35.4% in 2918 and 32.5% in 2019. How did that happen?
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The share of people of color who are foundation chief executives increased to 12.1%, and the share of program officers increased to 39.7%
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Women account for 60% of foundation leaders, up from 57.8% in 2020
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But their median salary of $180,300 remained significantly lower than that of their male peers, $215,870.
According to the humongous fundraising research center Blackbaud, online giving really did skyrocket in 2020:
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One-time giving increased by 15.6% from 2019 to 2020 (compared with a decrease of 1% from 2018 to 2019)
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Sustainer, or monthly recurring giving, grew by 14-20% every month
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Total email click-throughs (29%) increased twice as much as total emails sent (13.9%) year-over-year.
Bridgespan and the African Philanthropy Forum published some rough news for African-based nonprofits. Over the past decade, African donors directed just 9% of large gifts, and non-African donors just 14 percent, to NGOs based on the continent.
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Muslims on average gave $1,810 to faith-based causes, compared to $1,138 in the general population
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The average Muslim gave $1,400 to non-faith-based causes, compared to $767 in the general population.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that 9% of all nonprofit contributions go to the top 100 organizations - what the Chronicle calls “America’s Favorite Charities”. These 100 groups increased income by 3.7% in 2020.
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Job Board
Conrad Hilton Foundation has openings such as Senior Program Officers, Immigrants and Homelessness
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The Generosity Commission?
“The Generosity Commission is being launched to address the critical need to better understand generosity in America now and how it can be strengthened.” The Commission is particularly interested in increasing giving from middle- and lower-income donors. Yep.
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Giving Thursday…Or Tuesday
We mentioned the reason we moved the national funders workshop is the conflict with Give to the Max Day, which is the original version of Giving Tuesday – on November 30th. Our client, Kansas City Nonprofit Connect posted a guest blog, How to Stand Out This Giving Tuesday. Worth a look.
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Does Candid’s Color Rating System for Nonprofits Mean Anything?
Candid (the name for the merger of Guidestar and Foundation Center) has a color system rating organizations’ transparency and care in reporting their data -- from Platinum down to Bronze. But who cares and does it mean anything? Program officers and trustees say if there’s no color it doesn’t mean anything negative. If it’s Platinum, it means they can ask harder questions.
To small family funders, most of whom don’t ever see the color ratings, ratings do mean something, but usually not enough to turn a decision one way or the other. So, it’s a good idea, like any Seal of Approval, but don’t panic if you don’t have it.
Do Corporate Foundation Trustees Really Understand Me?
Corporate giving programs and foundations are generally governed by corporate leaders who have little or no experience with nonprofits or their areas of interest (like arts education or domestic violence). So how do they judge my work? Recently, we’ve asked a few corporate program officers.
Program officers say when a corporate trustee doesn’t understand issues, they fall back on stuff they do understand. They ask about the grantseekers’ finances or technology, such as the reputation of auditors, or the nonprofit’s capacity to use advanced communications technology.
Our two ex-corporate people agree. Make your program look great (and simple), but if you’re asking major corporations for grants, make sure your organization’s finances and communications technology look simple and clear.
The Four Five Horsemen Of Nonprofit Media Coverage
Back in 2000, the queen of nonprofit news coverage, Felicity Barringer of The New York Times identified “the four horsemen of nonprofit coverage — charity balls, big gifts, soft features about worthy programs and, of course, scandal.” We would add a fifth – collaboration with government and private business. These collaborations often downplay the amazing innovative initiatives of nonprofits’ involvement in these partnerships, but it’s better than charity balls.
Unfortunately, scandal is still the most popular media focus, but what we’ve noticed is the juiciest scandals are usually about nonprofits serving or operated by underserved people. So, either nonprofit country clubs and private foundations are really spic and span or something else is happening for these nonprofits.
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Feds Are Done With Duns
The federal government is now transitioning from using the DUNS Number to a UEI assigned directly by SAM.gov for federal award purposes. This transition will be finished by April 4, 2022.
So what? If you have a current or inactive registration in SAM.gov, your UEI has already been assigned and can be viewed on SAM.gov. New applicants can register for a UEI number directly through SAM.gov, with or without a full SAM registration.
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“Corporate Purpose:” New Corporate-Community Speak
The CECP (Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose) retains its purpose as advisor/analyst on things related to corporate-community relations. The group also reports on new corporate community vernacular. The term for the intersection of corporate profits, corporate community goodwill and other ethics areas is now known as (drumroll, please) Corporate Purpose. If you read corporate giving reports or hang around with corporate funders, keep that in mind.
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End of the Year Fundraising: The Most Important Time of the Year
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Nearly one third (31%) of annual giving occurs in December
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12% of all giving happens in the last three days of the year
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53.8% of nonprofits start planning their year-end appeal in October
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November (46.2%) and December (30.8%) are the most popular months for making year-end asks, but 7.7% of orgs start as early as September!
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28% of nonprofits raise between 26 – 50% of annual funds from their year-end ask
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36% of nonprofits raise less than 10% of their annual funds from their year-end ask
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Two-thirds of people who make donations do no research before giving
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79% of volunteers also donate to their organization
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59.9% of nonprofits make between 1-3 donor “touches” for their year-end campaign
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Direct mail is the most popular medium for year-end asks, followed by email, a nonprofit’s website, and in-person asks.
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While You’re Gathered Around for Thanksgiving, November 25th …
Remember the 25th is also the United Nation’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. When you’re enjoying time with family or friends, remember Violence against Women is still a thing, a BIG thing. Some of the folks at your celebration or those you see on a postprandial walk have been abused. Remember the survivors.
Need to talk fundraising? Need a monthly injection of Fluff Free Fundraising?
gail@accessphilanthropy.com
Steve at 651-295-4684
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Steve Paprocki
President
Access Philanthropy
651-295-4684
www.accessphilanthropy.com
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Access Philanthropy Inc | 612-900-8861 | 2100 Stevens Ave., Mpls, MN 55044 | www.accessphilanthropy.com |
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