Petfinder.com forums :: View topic - 9/22/08-9/28/08 Fundraising Fundamentals [ ]

Are you a young rescue or shelter just getting your feet wet in the world of fundraising campaigns, or a long established organization looking to breathe some new life in to your existing programs or to create new ones, or are you an individual who volunteers or would like to volunteer with your local organization(s) in their fundraising efforts.
We welcome everyone to our September topic, Fundraising Fundamentals.

Our guests this month are Heidi Hemingway and Jo Sullivan from the ASPCA and they are here to anwer your questions and help you get a jump start on your holiday and Spring 09 campaigns. Please join us starting September 22nd!

Please read below to learn a little more about our guests.

Heidi Hemingway, Senior Director, Fundraising Strategies

Heidi Hemingway Miller has a background in corporate film and video production, and magazine publishing. She began her career at the ASPCA in 2000 as the Direct Marketing Assistant. Over her seven year commitment to the ASPCA Development Department, she served in many different roles, most recently as the Senior Director of Direct Response and Member Support. Heidi is currently the Senior Director of Fundraising Strategies for the ASPCA Community Outreach Department where she serves as a consultant for the ASPCA® Mission: Orange™ target communities. Heidi shares her knowledge of direct marketing, special giving clubs, and donor relations with the ASPCA Mission: Orange partner agencies to help them grow and sustain their fundraising programs.

ASPCA Mission: Orange is a focused effort to create a country of humane communities, one community at a time, where animals receive the compassion and respect they deserve—a nation where there is no more unnecessary euthanasia of adoptable animals simply because of a lack of resources and awareness. To learn more about ASPCA Mission: Orange, please visit www.aspca.org/missionorange

Jo Sullivan, Senior Vice President
Development and Communications

Jo Sullivan has more than 14 years of marketing experience, and joined the ASPCA in 1999 as Director of Direct Marketing. She is currently Senior Vice President of Development and Communications.

Since joining the ASPCA, Ms. Sullivan has developed and overseen many successful marketing initiatives. In her first year managing the ASPCA’s Direct Marketing efforts, she achieved results of more than $19 million, making up more than half of the total operating budget for that year. Spearheading the launch of the ASPCA’s e-marketing program in 2001, Ms. Sullivan aided in increasing the net income of the organization by 8% and the total donor base by 2% through viral marketing, outbound campaigns and website promotional offers. In 2004 she led the launch of ASPCA’s Direct Response Television campaign, which resulted in a 13% growth to the monthly donor file. She currently directs the management and strategic direction of the ASPCA’s fundraising efforts, including Major Gifts, Planned Giving, Special Events, Foundation and Direct Response which account for approximately 95% of the organization’s annual operating budget. In 2008 the ASPCA will achieve an operating budget of close to $100,000,000 under the leadership of Ms. Sullivan.

In addition to her development responsibilities, Ms. Sullivan oversees all external communications for the ASPCA, including directing the creation of a new member magazine, ASPCA Action, and media relations and public relations activities. She has represented the ASPCA as a speaker at various industry events and conferences including the Association of Fundraising Executives, Direct Marketing Association, and Direct Marketing Nonprofit Federation. Additionally, she has been featured on the covers of Direct Marketing and Target Marketing magazines, and will serve as an editorial consultant for Fundraising Success magazine in 2007. Most recently, the ASPCA’s Marketing & Licensing divisions have been added to Ms. Sullivan’s portfolio of responsibility.

Ms. Sullivan started her career in marketing and advertising, managing several international promotional and direct marketing campaigns. She earned her BA in Communications and Public Relations from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is the proud pet parent of two dogs, a hound/beagle mix named Flash and a lab mix named Mickey. She currently resides in Manhattan.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:22 am Post subject:

Thank you for taking the time to help organizations on PF in educating on fundraising activities. I was hoping that since the ASPCA has a grant program that you can by example explain what criteria you look for, for consideration on your grants.

Heidi's Answer

ASPCA grants provide support to a variety of animal welfare organizations through cash awards, sponsorships, executive and technical assistance, and training. In order to be eligible for consideration the applicant must be a 501 (c) (3) or government funded agency. We currently require a letter of inquiry. The letter of inquiry should contain as much detail as possible about the agency and how a grant from the ASPCA would be used. The majority of our grants are by invitation.
While the bulk of our grants program supports ASPCA® Mission: Orange™ partnerships in target communities across the country, grants may also be awarded to qualifying organizations in other U.S. communities.
Funding priorities outside the ASPCA® Mission: Orange™ target communities include grants for the following purposes:
Increasing the live release rate
Training
Spay/neuter programs
Equipment
Capital improvements
Humane education programs
Conference or training sponsorships
Shelter programs for companion animals
Disaster recovery and preparedness
The ASPCA generally will not support:
Organizations whose mission is unrelated to animal welfare
Multi-year grants in excess of three (3) years
Individuals, private foundations, endowments, churches or religious programs, fraternal, social or labor organizations
Grants to groups with unusually high fund raising or administrative expenses
Political parties, candidates or lobbying activities
Travel funds for tours, exhibitions or trips by individuals or special interest groups
Organizations that discriminate because of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin or any areas covered by any applicable federal, state or local laws
International organizations
The ASPCA does not pay for overhead expenses.
The ASPCA staff accepts and reviews grant requests on an ongoing basis. There are no particular deadlines to meet. Decisions are made by regional managers and program executives. Proposals funded in one year are not always assured of future funding and will generally not be considered for more than one grant per 12-month cycle.
Because the ASPCA receives far more proposals than it can possibly support, some requests are declined and every effort is made to provide notification of the decision promptly.

Best,

Heidi

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

I represent a very small rescue. Most of our fundraising comes from several small events (bowling event, bike ride, bar night, etc.) and a mailed newsletter. Since we don't have the manpower to increase the number of events we hold, do you have any recommendations on what we should focus on to improve our fundraising?

Heidi's Answer

Thank you for your question. Here are a some ideas:

Newsletter
1) Include a response device in all of your newsletters
2) Keep the focus of the newsletters on supporters, animals, and programs

Corporate Sponsorship
1) Ask local businesses to sponsor you by sending a one page mass mailing to all of the mid to large retailers in your community.
2) Be sure and address them to the store managers. The managers may have discretionary community enrichment funds.
3) In the letter tell them how much you are looking for, why you need it, and what the benefits of sponsorship are.
4) Acknowledge their support on signs at special events, your lobby, or in your newsletter (remember if you advertise for a business you cannot send your newsletter at the nonprofit rate)

Website
1) Make sure that you have a website and that you are able to take online donations
2) Make sure that there is a donate button on your homepage
3) Include your website address on all printed materials

Direct Mail
1) Try a direct mailing. Be sure to include at least one direct ask for a dollar amount in the body of the letter.
2) Offer a few different donation amounts on your response device. Be sure and end your ask string with "Other $_______________" for those donors who wish to give an amount of their choosing.

Acknowledgements
1) Make sure that everybody gets a thank you letter regardless of their gift amount
2) Add a personal note to the bottom of the letters and hand sign

Board
1) Make sure that your board is making annual gifts
2) Encourage your board to "Friendraise" to help build your major gifts program

Major Donors
1) Determine what dollar amount is considered a major gift
2) Start working on a strategy to engage high dollar donors
Personal notes
Phone calls
Visits

Best,

Heidi

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:39 pm Post subject:

Thanks Heidi for clarification on what the ASPCA covers for consideration. From your experience what would you recommend organizations to do to stand out from the others from the numerous grant applications?

Heidi's Answer

The ASPCA looks for creative and innovative solutions to common problems. We encourage people to think out of the box. Special consideration is given to projects with a community or cross agency focus.

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:41 am Post subject:

Thank you for the response!

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:42 am Post subject: too many fund-raisers?

Posting this for a friend's organization:
Each year we have several fundraisers. One is a motorcycle ride done by a local group, one is our fall Walk -A-Thon and then we do an annual membership drive. We do have boxes placed throughout our county and try to attend all local community events. We are in an area where animal welfare causes tend to fall by the way side and we have been trying to come up with more exciting and community involving events. Any suggestions? Are we running the risk of too many campaigns? Any suggestions on how to keep the annual events from becoming stagnant?

Heidi and Jo's Answer
If you add another event it may be too many. A great way to get feedback on your events is to call people to thank them for attending and ask them if they have any suggestions as to how to make it even better next year. Remember just because you are feeling like an event is growing tired doesn't mean the people who attend are feeling that way. It may be something that they look forward to going to every year so you don't want to change it too much.

You may want to think about creating an annual t-shirt to give away at your events. You can change the design each year to keep it fresh and make it collectable.

You may wish to send an appeal between events to attendees. Maybe ask for one additional gift in summer if it is a winter event - or one additional gift in winter if it is a summer event.

It sounds like you could benefit from corporate sponsorship of your events. Here is an idea:

1) Ask local businesses to sponsor you by sending a one page mass mailing to all of the mid to large retailers in your community.
2) Be sure and address them to the store managers. The managers may have discretionary community enrichment funds.
3) In the letter tell them how much you are looking for, why you need it, and what the benefits of sponsorship are.
4) Acknowledge their support on signs at special events, your lobby, or in your newsletter (remember if you advertise for a business you cannot send your newsletter at the nonprofit rate).

You also may want to start building relationships with the local media to get a buzz out to the community about your work. You could feature a pet of the week in your local paper. Animals stories make great copy so be sure that they are aware of your events. Be on the lookout for reporters who cover "animal issues" and send notes to them. The lifestyle reporters are also a good group.

Best,

Heidi & Jo

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:45 am Post subject: Small Shelter needs advice

We are a small rural shelter in an area where the population unemployment rate is higher than the state average and most people struggle to place food on their table. Our annual fundraiser attracts only the very few individuals of the community who can afford to donate. Our memberships are low, but because our shelter has a good reputation of going beyond the call despite our shoestring budget, people from outside the community bring their pets to us rather than their own county's shelter.
We don't want to turn these pets away, but do you feel it would be a bad practice to require those from outside the community/county to pay a relinquishment fee? Currently we do not charge anyone for bringing a pet to us.
What advice can you give us in regard to finding other funding sources? We do not have anyone who knows anything about grants. Are there free or low cost classes through the ASPCA or another source?

Heidi and Jo's Answer

Membership:
We would be happy to provide you with a list of ASPCA supporters in your area. We don't know how many people we have on file but we can take a look. Please just fill out the attached request form and send it to Heidi's attention (email address is on form). It could take up to six weeks for processing.

admin is emailing the user the form

Relinquishment:
We would suggest that you ask for a donation if the person is from outside of your community. You can start with a recommended amount and gradually move toward a more concrete fee.

We would also recommend adding these people to your mailing list. Because you took in their animals they may contribute to you even though they are from outside of your area.

Best,

Heidi & Jo

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:13 am Post subject:

Heidi,

From your experience what would you recommend that organizations do to stand out in the crowd in the numerous grant applications? Can you elaborate what impacts the grantors in who they would support in a grant?

Heidi's Answer

You may find the Foundation Center website helpful http://foundationcenter.org/

The Foundation Center has a free Proposal Writing Basics webinar on October 15th or 30th. http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/training/webinars/pwb_webinar.html

Best,

Heidi

Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:02 am Post subject: want to help my shelter

What are some ideas that I as a member of the public can do to help my shelter raise funds?

Answer from Heidi & Jo

Thank you so much for this question. There are many things that you can do to help.

1) Auction items on eBay Giving Works with the proceeds going to an animal organization http://www.ebaygivingworks.com/
2) Have a fundraising dinner party and ask all those attending to make a donation and maybe even bring a toy for the animals.
3) Get a wish list from an organization and try to get items listed donated. You may have connections and be able to make this happen.
4) Ask your company to match employees gifts to an organization.
5) Participate in any walk-a--thons and get people to sponsor you.
6) Weddings - couples can ask people to make a donation to a chosen organization instead of buying a wedding gift.
7) If an organization is having an event try and get bunch of friends together to go. It is a great way to give and fun too.
Cool

Volunteer your time to help an organization's fundraising department.
9) If you have had a great experience with an organization offer to give them a testimonial that they can use in their fundraising materials.
10) If you have a website or are part of an online community, add links to your favorite organizations to your page. Let people know that you are a supporter and that you believe in their work.
12) Have friends who own retail businesses? Ask for permission to leave brochures or newsletters out for people to pick up.
13) Are you a member of any clubs? If so you can have a fundraising drive with each of the members collecting gifts from people they know.

Something to Remember
It is very important for organizations to be able to communicate with people who have supported their work as these people are likely to continue to give. Whenever possible gather as much information as possible from the donors - names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and gift amounts and provide that information to the organization.

Best,

Heidi and Jo

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