Several people have recently asked me if donations to nonprofit organizations will be affected by this years disasters such as the Tsunami in Asia, and Hurrican Katrina. My simple answer is "Yes".
A recent study conducted by the Association of Fundrasing Professionals showed that 20% of donors who responded to the survey admitted that they had diverted their charitable gift(s) from organizations they traditionally supported to the tsunami relief efforts.
Americans will continue to donate generously, but will give more to catastrophic relief efforts, and will have to decrease their giving to their regular or favorite charities. After the September 11, 2001 attack on America, charities outside of relief efforts felt the strain of reduced giving as people gave to help the those most affected by the attacks.
Katrina is another domestic disaster that individuals and corporations immediately responded to by providing goods and monetary donations. Since this is a national crisis and not one experienced overseas, Americans will dig even deeper to donate their time and money. This will profoundly impact the ability of other than disaster relief non-profits to maintain the same level of revenue as they have in recent years.
As noted above, 20% of individuals stated that they diverted giving to their regular charity in order to provide assistance to the Tsunami efforts in 2005. We can assume that at least 20% of Americans will do the same with the Katrina relief efforts, although I believe it will be a much higher percentage since this disaster took place on American soil. 20% of the $1.2 billion reportedly raised as of September 22, 2005 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy for the Katrina relief effforts means that approximately $240 million has already been redirected away from other non-profit groups because of donor diversion. This will affect the homeless shelters ability to provide hot meals, elder care will be reduced, and museums and art facilities will have close their doors early.
Yes, the impact of Katrina is being felt across the nation and will continue to be felt for years to come throughout the entire country.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Communicating With Potential Funders
Now you have done your research and and found potential funders for your program or project. Do you just submit the grant proposal, cross your fingers and hope for the best? Not if you really want to get funded.
Contacting the corporation or foundation prior to submitting the application is crucial. Sometimes funders will change their published focus of funding from year to year. Events such as the recent Katrina hurricane in the Gulf Coast states can and will affect an organizations giving strategy. Perhaps at the beginning of August some organizations would consider a gift to a museum or university. Now, since the disaster that same organization is changing its focus to help primarily with hurricane relief. A telephone call or email to the appropripe person to discuss their current ability/desire to give to your organization will help you to avoid wasting time in submitting an application to the wrong organization.
So how do you call or email if they do not publish that contact information or state in their literature "We do not accept telephone calls?" Some organizations want you to call and talk to them while others do not have the personnel to field calls or email. This is where your Board of Directors, friends, community partners and others who have a stake in your organization can help. Submit a list to those people that contain the names of the funding organizations Board of Trustees, and staff. Find out who knows who on that list. Perhaps one of your Board members knows one of their Board members through the Rotary club, church or other personal arena. Your Board member can make an informed call or request a meeting to discuss the impact that your program will have on the community. This person will hopefully be able to advise you based on information they know about the funder.This enhances the research you have already collected.
The point is that grantwriting is a team effort. No one person should be expedted to be the Lone Grant Ranger. You can have the best proposal ever written and yet it may be rejected because of limitations the funder may have. The more information you have the better prepared you will be to submit your grant request to the appropriate organization. It really is more about who you know than what you know or do in this field. Of course this is not the case with government funding sources. More on that another time...
Our hearts go out to the people affected by Katrina. If you would like to donate to a reputable organization click the links below to go to their website(s):
Red Cross
Salvation Army
Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund
Contacting the corporation or foundation prior to submitting the application is crucial. Sometimes funders will change their published focus of funding from year to year. Events such as the recent Katrina hurricane in the Gulf Coast states can and will affect an organizations giving strategy. Perhaps at the beginning of August some organizations would consider a gift to a museum or university. Now, since the disaster that same organization is changing its focus to help primarily with hurricane relief. A telephone call or email to the appropripe person to discuss their current ability/desire to give to your organization will help you to avoid wasting time in submitting an application to the wrong organization.
So how do you call or email if they do not publish that contact information or state in their literature "We do not accept telephone calls?" Some organizations want you to call and talk to them while others do not have the personnel to field calls or email. This is where your Board of Directors, friends, community partners and others who have a stake in your organization can help. Submit a list to those people that contain the names of the funding organizations Board of Trustees, and staff. Find out who knows who on that list. Perhaps one of your Board members knows one of their Board members through the Rotary club, church or other personal arena. Your Board member can make an informed call or request a meeting to discuss the impact that your program will have on the community. This person will hopefully be able to advise you based on information they know about the funder.This enhances the research you have already collected.
The point is that grantwriting is a team effort. No one person should be expedted to be the Lone Grant Ranger. You can have the best proposal ever written and yet it may be rejected because of limitations the funder may have. The more information you have the better prepared you will be to submit your grant request to the appropriate organization. It really is more about who you know than what you know or do in this field. Of course this is not the case with government funding sources. More on that another time...
Our hearts go out to the people affected by Katrina. If you would like to donate to a reputable organization click the links below to go to their website(s):
Red Cross
Salvation Army
Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
