Because of the traffic on my website www.nonprofitexpert.com I receive a lot of email. Many times email is from individuals needing specific help or the nonprofit organizations themselves or board members with a specific question. Regardless, I am happy to answer these questions and help, that is what I do.
However, I also receive quite a few emails from companies either wanting to advertise on my site, which I am very picky who I allow, or people that want to promote the next great fundraising idea that will make nonprofit organizations able to walk on easy street.
Once again I received an email telling me about this wonderful opportunity where nonprofits can create a residual income stream, blab, blab, and blab. This statement alone in and of itself is a clue as to the line of bull that is surely to follow.
The nonprofit only has to pay a one time fee to get started of $199 and then $29 a month. Then, all they have to do is get their donors and friends and enemies and people they don’t know to shop online and the money will pour in or so the claim goes. Ugh!
All this nonsense makes a huge assumption that nonprofits are going to have the time, energy and effort to convince all their donors or people involved with their organization to magically and overnight change all their ingrained buying habits that they have established over the years as well as forgo all the discounted prices they can get at Wal-Mart, Sams or other retail stores not to mention the convenience of shopping locally to go to a website no one has heard of before and where the nonprofit will only get a few pennies from purchases made.
This pitch even said the average return for active sites was a whopping $2 to $4 a month. Yep right…. So to pay for the annual cost for the first year of $547 i.e. $199 plus $29 X 12 using you have to have 138 suckers… oops I mean donors to use this lame website site to make a purchase just to break even, assuming you will get $4 back from their purchases. That is of course is with the moon in the seventh house and Jupiter is aligned with Mars which I sure happens quite often, right?
In this presentation there was also an example of how easy it would be for a nonprofit to have a residual income of $3,600 annually.
My closing comment to this bozo was for him to ask the company to provide me with a list of nonprofits that have made the quoted $3600 annually from this program after expenses. My guess is there will be no such list.
Folks, I’m sorry but there is no easy fundraising program that will make hundreds of dollars for nonprofits with little to no effort.
Regardless, I’m sure people will keep looking and I will keep getting these ridiculous emails, but then again they can become blog entries!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Helping Nonprofits (NGOs) Overseas
The Denton Program allows private U.S. citizens and organizations to use space available on U.S. military cargo planes to transport humanitarian goods, such as clothing, food, medical and educational supplies, and agricultural equipment and vehicles, to countries in need. The program is jointly administered by USAID, the Department of State (DOS), and the Department of Defense (DOD). In FY2008, more than 600,000 pounds of humanitarian goods were sent to 17 different countries through the Denton Program.
Since Denton is a space available program, it is impossible to predict when transportation will materialize. Therefore, no guarantees can be made regarding completion of a shipment. Although the program is active in most areas of the world, it is more difficult to obtain transportation for more distant countries.
Overview of Denton Application Process
Online applications and additional information about the DOD Humanitarian Assistance Programs, Denton and Funded Transportation's Programs, are available at
http://dentonfunded.ohasis.org
The Funded Transportation Program
The Funded Transportation Program provides door-to-port surface transportation of humanitarian aid to worldwide destinations at little or no cost to the donor. Potential shipments are reviewed for appropriateness and feasibility on a case-by-case basis. All PVOs, non-governmental organizations and individuals interested in shipping to worldwide destinations are encouraged to contact the Program Manager for the Funded Transportation Program at (703) 601-3854. Guidelines and an online application for this program can be found at:
http://dentonfunded.ohasis.org
Contact Person:
Sara Lemanski, Traffic Management Specialist, OFR Program Officer, Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Transportation, (202) 712-1181 or denton@usaid.gov
Since Denton is a space available program, it is impossible to predict when transportation will materialize. Therefore, no guarantees can be made regarding completion of a shipment. Although the program is active in most areas of the world, it is more difficult to obtain transportation for more distant countries.
Overview of Denton Application Process
Online applications and additional information about the DOD Humanitarian Assistance Programs, Denton and Funded Transportation's Programs, are available at
http://dentonfunded.ohasis.org
The Funded Transportation Program
The Funded Transportation Program provides door-to-port surface transportation of humanitarian aid to worldwide destinations at little or no cost to the donor. Potential shipments are reviewed for appropriateness and feasibility on a case-by-case basis. All PVOs, non-governmental organizations and individuals interested in shipping to worldwide destinations are encouraged to contact the Program Manager for the Funded Transportation Program at (703) 601-3854. Guidelines and an online application for this program can be found at:
http://dentonfunded.ohasis.org
Contact Person:
Sara Lemanski, Traffic Management Specialist, OFR Program Officer, Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Transportation, (202) 712-1181 or denton@usaid.gov
Friday, July 30, 2010
Charity or Profit Potential?
Unfortunately in today’s world it does not seem that there are much goodness and mercy left. You would think as a consultant for nonprofits I would be surrounded by all like minded people that in short are all seeking to make a difference in others’ lives and doing everything for the right reason.
Now more than ever I feel as if I have to be on constant guard as I am approached by individuals, all that tout they want to take up the banner of “doing good” and helping others. Yea, right!
As I talk to others and peel away the layers seeking to really understand what the person’s motivation might be, in many cases I discover quickly that it is not all about helping others, but helping themselves as well.
Let’s look at a case in point that is known nationally. Most of us at some point have seen TV commercials advertised by various chain office supply stores encouraging you to help the kids going back to school with school supplies because they can’t afford to buy them.
The local stores in turn ask their customers to buy that extra pack of paper or box of pencils and donate them to the school of their choice. On the face there is nothing wrong with school teachers getting help but we tend to forget the store is making a sale. All that warm and fuzzy advertising is just that, advertising.
Likewise, there several different websites like http://www.iloveschools.com/ and http://www.donorschoose.org/ that have as a goal to connect teachers with donors. Again, there is nothing wrong with that! How the programs generally work is that teachers post a wish list and then donors can go and make purchases via the site to help with that wish list that was posted. The donor gets a donation receipt, the teacher gets the item and the website….well the website or I should say the managers of the site get a commission on the sale.
Again, is good being done, absolutely! However, if there were no profit potential would the site be online because it was the right thing to do or would the store care about the school children needing school supplies?
I’ll let you answer this question in your own mind.
Now more than ever I feel as if I have to be on constant guard as I am approached by individuals, all that tout they want to take up the banner of “doing good” and helping others. Yea, right!
As I talk to others and peel away the layers seeking to really understand what the person’s motivation might be, in many cases I discover quickly that it is not all about helping others, but helping themselves as well.
Let’s look at a case in point that is known nationally. Most of us at some point have seen TV commercials advertised by various chain office supply stores encouraging you to help the kids going back to school with school supplies because they can’t afford to buy them.
The local stores in turn ask their customers to buy that extra pack of paper or box of pencils and donate them to the school of their choice. On the face there is nothing wrong with school teachers getting help but we tend to forget the store is making a sale. All that warm and fuzzy advertising is just that, advertising.
Likewise, there several different websites like http://www.iloveschools.com/ and http://www.donorschoose.org/ that have as a goal to connect teachers with donors. Again, there is nothing wrong with that! How the programs generally work is that teachers post a wish list and then donors can go and make purchases via the site to help with that wish list that was posted. The donor gets a donation receipt, the teacher gets the item and the website….well the website or I should say the managers of the site get a commission on the sale.
Again, is good being done, absolutely! However, if there were no profit potential would the site be online because it was the right thing to do or would the store care about the school children needing school supplies?
I’ll let you answer this question in your own mind.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Nonprofits Geting A "Free Pass" By Government
Today the IRS announced a one-time filing relief for small organizations that failed to file for three consecutive years!
Small nonprofit organizations who were at risk of losing their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required returns for 2007, 2008, and 2009 can preserve their exempt status by filing returns by October 15, 2010.
Two types of relief are available for small exempt organizations - a filing extension for the smallest organizations required to file Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard), and a voluntary compliance program (VCP) for small organizations eligible to file Form 990-EZ, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax.
Find more information about the filing relief program on IRS.gov.
Small nonprofit organizations who were at risk of losing their tax-exempt status because they failed to file required returns for 2007, 2008, and 2009 can preserve their exempt status by filing returns by October 15, 2010.
Two types of relief are available for small exempt organizations - a filing extension for the smallest organizations required to file Form 990-N, Electronic Notice (e-Postcard), and a voluntary compliance program (VCP) for small organizations eligible to file Form 990-EZ, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax.
Find more information about the filing relief program on IRS.gov.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
“Employers” Need To Apply
Starting Salary: $0
Benefits: To Be Determined
What would happen if a person was hired with the understanding that the employer had to pay the person something other than money?
Life as we know it today revolves around the use of a commonly accepted universal standard of exchange, that being money.
How much money one earns or has given to them through entitlements determines what is deemed the “standard of living.” Our standards have evolved as technology changes and for most individuals in the United States the term “poverty” means something totally different that in the rest of the world.
If I may, let’s step back to the original question and ponder for a moment as an employer. What do you offer other than money? One instant answer that might pop into mind is that of providing a place where job satisfaction occurs.
Unfortunately according to a recent study from The Conference Board in the U.S. job satisfaction is at the lowest level in two decades. “The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, finds only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted. "While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy," says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. "Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend." Fewer Americans are satisfied with all aspects of their employment, and no age or income group is immune. In fact, the youngest cohort of employees (those currently under age 25) expresses the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group.” (1)
One additional study I would like to share was done back in 2007 by Nathan Bowling, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Wright State which I think added another twist to this equation:
“Job satisfaction has traditionally been thought of by most business managers to be key in determining job performance. The prevailing thought is if you are satisfied and happy in your work, you will perform better than someone who isn’t happy at work.”
However, according to Bowling “My study shows that a cause and effect relationship does not exist between job satisfaction and performance. Instead, the two are related because both satisfaction and performance are the result of employee personality characteristics, such as self-esteem, emotional stability, extroversion and conscientiousness,” he explained.
Bowling, who specializes in industrial and organizational psychology, said his findings are based on reviewing data from several thousand employees compiled over several decades. His subjects, mostly in the United States, involved several hundred different organizations. Bowling said the public, and even researchers, can get confused over the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. “Just because two things are related doesn’t mean that one causes the other. For example, there is a relationship between the amount of ice cream sold on a given day and the crime rate for that day. On days when ice cream sales are high, the number of crimes committed will also tend to be high. But this doesn’t mean that ice cream sales cause crime. Rather, ice cream sales and crime are related because each is the result of the outdoor temperature. Similarly, satisfaction and performance are related because each is the result of employee personality.”
Bowling said he was surprised that researchers have devoted little effort to the illusion of job satisfaction and performance, and he hopes his work will lead to further research in this field. (2)
Ok, so we have a work force where a large percentage of the people are not satisfied and even if they are satisfied that may or may not directly pay off to the employer causing there to be a greater level of performance. Things are not that simple.
So, if you are employer that might take the time to try to figure this puzzle out, what do you think the answer could be? Is this a problem that really does not have an answer because of the individual nature of each employee and their own personality?
Jim Heskett posted on April 2, 2010 in the online working knowledge section at Harvard Business School the following question: Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs? (3)
“Charles Wegrzyn cited ‘incredible pressure from the economic side,’ ‘incredible instability,’ and a resulting ‘dog-eat-dog attitude.’”
Dennis Hopwood said, "In the end, it's all about making the numbers."
Akhil Aggarwal mentioned "Lack of personalized focus on employees and more on business and profitability."
Phil Clark posited that knowledge work that deals with intangible results and hard-to-pinpoint accomplishments "just isn't as satisfying" as work used to be.
John Alexander said, "When workers see senior management face no responsibility for poor performance and continue to get highly paid, it's no wonder there is widespread dissatisfaction."
E. Shields stated that it may be the result of disappointed expectations: "People believe that their work should allow them to use their special talents in the way that they most want to. This is a beautiful dream, but I believe it sets people up to be unhappy."
In closing with all the options on the table employers need to continue to struggle daily to better understand their most important asset, their employees. Until they are ready and willing to do this, they are destined to spend more money, time and energy hiring and training individuals that ultimately will leave their employment because there are tried of feeling like they are a part of the rat race.
Sources
(1) http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressdetail.cfm?press_id=3820
(2) http://www.wright.edu/cgi-bin/cm/news.cgi?action=news_item&id=1366
(3) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6404.html
Benefits: To Be Determined
What would happen if a person was hired with the understanding that the employer had to pay the person something other than money?
Life as we know it today revolves around the use of a commonly accepted universal standard of exchange, that being money.
How much money one earns or has given to them through entitlements determines what is deemed the “standard of living.” Our standards have evolved as technology changes and for most individuals in the United States the term “poverty” means something totally different that in the rest of the world.
If I may, let’s step back to the original question and ponder for a moment as an employer. What do you offer other than money? One instant answer that might pop into mind is that of providing a place where job satisfaction occurs.
Unfortunately according to a recent study from The Conference Board in the U.S. job satisfaction is at the lowest level in two decades. “The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, finds only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted. "While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy," says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. "Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend." Fewer Americans are satisfied with all aspects of their employment, and no age or income group is immune. In fact, the youngest cohort of employees (those currently under age 25) expresses the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group.” (1)
One additional study I would like to share was done back in 2007 by Nathan Bowling, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Wright State which I think added another twist to this equation:
“Job satisfaction has traditionally been thought of by most business managers to be key in determining job performance. The prevailing thought is if you are satisfied and happy in your work, you will perform better than someone who isn’t happy at work.”
However, according to Bowling “My study shows that a cause and effect relationship does not exist between job satisfaction and performance. Instead, the two are related because both satisfaction and performance are the result of employee personality characteristics, such as self-esteem, emotional stability, extroversion and conscientiousness,” he explained.
Bowling, who specializes in industrial and organizational psychology, said his findings are based on reviewing data from several thousand employees compiled over several decades. His subjects, mostly in the United States, involved several hundred different organizations. Bowling said the public, and even researchers, can get confused over the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. “Just because two things are related doesn’t mean that one causes the other. For example, there is a relationship between the amount of ice cream sold on a given day and the crime rate for that day. On days when ice cream sales are high, the number of crimes committed will also tend to be high. But this doesn’t mean that ice cream sales cause crime. Rather, ice cream sales and crime are related because each is the result of the outdoor temperature. Similarly, satisfaction and performance are related because each is the result of employee personality.”
Bowling said he was surprised that researchers have devoted little effort to the illusion of job satisfaction and performance, and he hopes his work will lead to further research in this field. (2)
Ok, so we have a work force where a large percentage of the people are not satisfied and even if they are satisfied that may or may not directly pay off to the employer causing there to be a greater level of performance. Things are not that simple.
So, if you are employer that might take the time to try to figure this puzzle out, what do you think the answer could be? Is this a problem that really does not have an answer because of the individual nature of each employee and their own personality?
Jim Heskett posted on April 2, 2010 in the online working knowledge section at Harvard Business School the following question: Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs? (3)
“Charles Wegrzyn cited ‘incredible pressure from the economic side,’ ‘incredible instability,’ and a resulting ‘dog-eat-dog attitude.’”
Dennis Hopwood said, "In the end, it's all about making the numbers."
Akhil Aggarwal mentioned "Lack of personalized focus on employees and more on business and profitability."
Phil Clark posited that knowledge work that deals with intangible results and hard-to-pinpoint accomplishments "just isn't as satisfying" as work used to be.
John Alexander said, "When workers see senior management face no responsibility for poor performance and continue to get highly paid, it's no wonder there is widespread dissatisfaction."
E. Shields stated that it may be the result of disappointed expectations: "People believe that their work should allow them to use their special talents in the way that they most want to. This is a beautiful dream, but I believe it sets people up to be unhappy."
In closing with all the options on the table employers need to continue to struggle daily to better understand their most important asset, their employees. Until they are ready and willing to do this, they are destined to spend more money, time and energy hiring and training individuals that ultimately will leave their employment because there are tried of feeling like they are a part of the rat race.
Sources
(1) http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressdetail.cfm?press_id=3820
(2) http://www.wright.edu/cgi-bin/cm/news.cgi?action=news_item&id=1366
(3) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6404.html
The Silent Scream Inside
The older you get the more you realize life is passing by. If you are like many you might begin to wonder how much time you have left. Some people look at this in a realistic way while others tend to do everything they can to ignore facts. Middle aged is not fifty because no matter how much we would like to believe few people live to be one hundred and those that do have such minimal existence because they are worn out. You have to ask do you really want to last that long?
As you get older you begin to understand that you have either learned from your past or are continuing to make the same mistakes that you are so accustom to making.
Likewise, you quickly find that you are either bogged down with the “have to” or “should” lists in life or somehow you have realized the pointlessness of it all and have drifted to doing more of the things you really want to do, if you can figure out what that might be. While the movie is an older one, how many of us have our “Bucket List” and how many things have we really marked off that list? As easy as this might sound, figuring out what you might enjoy doing with your time and energy often can be a foreign concept in many respects.
A reality we all have to face is that the longer you live life the more you have numbed yourself as a natural means of protection. Broken hopes, dreams, missed opportunities and failures cause some of us to never wake up fully from the anesthetic because we ultimately fear the pain we might feel would destroy us.
Everyone I am sure at some point in their life takes an introspective look. However, after that first glance do we as individuals chart a new course? For many our imagined level of comfort that is derived from operating within our known boundaries keeps us firmly affixed, as if we were a train, that only had one set of tracks to run on.
Life, however, involves more than one direction and is made up of multiple layers of experiences and feelings. Unlike that of an onion you can never peel it all away but many times you find yourself realizing honestly how meaningless so much of what we spend our time doing actually can become.
After all we had no say in our conception. Likewise, for the vast majority of us we will have no say in our time of death. Most of us would like to believe that all that happens in between has some overall purpose. As individuals finding out that purpose can take a lifetime and for some the answer is never revealed.
As you get older you begin to understand that you have either learned from your past or are continuing to make the same mistakes that you are so accustom to making.
Likewise, you quickly find that you are either bogged down with the “have to” or “should” lists in life or somehow you have realized the pointlessness of it all and have drifted to doing more of the things you really want to do, if you can figure out what that might be. While the movie is an older one, how many of us have our “Bucket List” and how many things have we really marked off that list? As easy as this might sound, figuring out what you might enjoy doing with your time and energy often can be a foreign concept in many respects.
A reality we all have to face is that the longer you live life the more you have numbed yourself as a natural means of protection. Broken hopes, dreams, missed opportunities and failures cause some of us to never wake up fully from the anesthetic because we ultimately fear the pain we might feel would destroy us.
Everyone I am sure at some point in their life takes an introspective look. However, after that first glance do we as individuals chart a new course? For many our imagined level of comfort that is derived from operating within our known boundaries keeps us firmly affixed, as if we were a train, that only had one set of tracks to run on.
Life, however, involves more than one direction and is made up of multiple layers of experiences and feelings. Unlike that of an onion you can never peel it all away but many times you find yourself realizing honestly how meaningless so much of what we spend our time doing actually can become.
After all we had no say in our conception. Likewise, for the vast majority of us we will have no say in our time of death. Most of us would like to believe that all that happens in between has some overall purpose. As individuals finding out that purpose can take a lifetime and for some the answer is never revealed.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Author J.K Rowling on the Fringe Benefits of Failure
While this address was given in 2008 the words spoken are timeless.
http://vimeo.com/1711302
http://vimeo.com/1711302
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