Nonprofit fundraising is a hot topic in this shaky economy. With economic uncertainty looming, what has your organization been doing to raise funds to advance its cause? I hope your organization isn’t relying solely on government money. Why? Federal budget cuts and the future of nonprofit funding Take a look at what happened recently [...]

Finding Board Members The time has come to find board members for your nascent nonprofit organization. “But how do I do that?” you ask. Here’s how – don’t start looking until you do this: First Things First: Your “What We Do” Statement Before going out to find board members for your organization, you need to [...]

  Reinstating Exempt Status Is your nonprofit organization in search of what to do about reinstating exempt status with the IRS? As you’ve probably heard, the IRS dumped a truckload of nonprofit organizations from their list of organizations having tax-exempt status. Roughly 275,000 non-profits were told they had better get busy reinstating exempt status after [...]

How to Name Your Charity or Ministry “How do I pick a name for my non-profit?” – hardly a week goes by that I don’t get asked about non-profit organization names via email, phone call, or directly by friends. But while it’s important to select a good name for your charitable organization, it’s not something [...]

  The idea of starting up your own non-profit is overwhelming, but when raising money – or even online fundraising –  comes up it can make even the most passionate charity founder assume the  fetal position. Traditionally, forming a non-profit has always been like starting up a for-profit enterprise, where one must find investors (donors), [...]

Some disaster donations don’t help! Reposted from goodintents.org given the recent earthquakes and tsunami. Goodintents is run by nonprofit consultant Saundra Schimmelpfennig —– The following is a series of dos and don’ts to help you make the best disaster donations decisions. Do determine if the country is accepting international assistance. With all the photos and [...]

TEXT DONATIONS I constantly receive questions about text donations. The most familiar form of text donations is the process utilized by non-profit organizations like Red Cross for disaster relief. And the best example of this is probably the “text the word Haiti to 90999” campaign the Red Cross ran recently. Although text donations made their [...]

Picture yourself as a hard-working Salvation Army volunteer, looking forward to rolling up your sleeves and helping your fellow Americans dig out from this year’s devastating twisters – only to find yourself assigned to an “important” job you never expected……sorting an an endless pile of broken toys and…underwear. And as much as neither I nor [...]

Once upon a time, if you wanted to start a non-profit, it was preferred that you had a decent pedigree, that you were a “pillar of the community”. And you certainly didn’t want to be a “failure” in the eyes of society. Even today, there is a stigma associated with the phrase “college dropout.” You’re [...]

  It’s something that can be used for good or evil: the fact that from crisis comes opportunity. But when the crisis is going on, the real visionaries are the ones who don’t wait for hindsight to prove them right. They’re the ones charging in, doing good for the world, and showing others that you [...]