Tags: New York Times Silk Soymilk Energy Star Campbell's Labels for Education Bonneville Environmental Foundation WhiteWave Foods Thomas Friedman General Mills BoxTops for Education Green Tag Wind-Powered Cause MarketingAs I write this, I don’t know exactly where the electricity that powers my computer comes from. I

A little over a year ago, the Case Foundation , together with partners Network for Good , Causes on Facebook and Global Giving , and corporate partner Parade Magazine, encouraged thousands of individuals to compete online for donors, donations, and matching awards for their favorite charitable causes as part of the Foundation’s first-ever Giving Challenge. Now the Foundation, together with two venerable social media gurus Allison Fine and Beth Kanter , have put out a report summarizing what they learned. Nearly $2 million was raised for charities. It was one of the

But, some foundations and nonprofits have started to understand the value of this tool to visually simplify information that’s difficult to convey in text. Check out the infographics page on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation site. Foundations especially have struggled for years to find ways of making their knowledge bases more accessible and understandable…and actionable! I’ve read many articles and posts over the past few years about the nonprofit sector’s inability to manage and share information effectively. (Gee, Gee, I’ve even written

That may be an odd way to launch a series of articles on the top technology tools for communicators at nonprofits and foundations. There are several innovative ways to use a blog to enhance communications for your nonprofit or foundation. This chart, which is specific to the use of technology within the nonprofit sector, comes from the excellent study, "Nonprofit Technology Survey 2008" from the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management. There is a lot of room for growth in terms of blogging, social networking, and Web interactivity. THIS ARTICLE IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES

In baseball, a bunt is a small hit that goes no farther than the infield.And bunt is what the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) did with this ad that I’ve seen recently in Newsweek and BusinessWeek magazines.The ad’s call to action is that you go online and pledge “as little as” $1 for each home run hit during Major League Baseball play between Thursday, June 11 and Father’s Day, a holiday ...Tags: Tags: Prostate Cancer Foundation BusinessWeek Newsweek Major League Baseball Go Red for Women Breast Cancer Awareness Mont

It is an interesting fact that more and more I see foundations have either completely switched to only accepting grant proposals online, or they have a hard date set when they will no longer accept paper grant proposals (applications), and it's often sooner than later. The foundation staff probably reads through applications at a faster pace because the web application prompts can be programmed to send received information to the proper staff, and can even be written to read the documents itself (though, I do not know of any foundations doing this, yet). It is a new shiny era.

In order to look for foundations who will give to your organization, you must know your own organization in detail. Know what projects and programs you will be looking for grants for (foundations generally do not fund past projects, programs, or debt; they like to fund new programs/projects). You and I have decided that we're going to ask as many pertinent national and larger local foundations as possible for support for the capital campaign at high grant request The search for possible grant donors for your organization is called "prospecting" in the grant writing jargon lexicon.

The Foundation Center , without a doubt, is one of the most professionally well regarded, current, and informed nonprofit resources that exists. It may seem, from its name, that it is a resource for foundations (those entities who donate grants), but it is a resource for the entire nonprofit sector (nonprofit organizations and all). The Foundation Center is an excellent resource to learn best practices from (which provides much Again, and again, in this blog I reiterate that it's imperative (especially in today's difficult economy, more than ever) that nonprofit volunteers, leaders, and staff require themselves to know professional nonprofit best practices so that the organizations that they work for have a better chance of raising more, growing, and without reinventing the wheel (or expending more money or time than need be).

Today, grant donors such as foundations (community, public, and private) are equally effected by our slowed economy. As such, they are attempting different survival tactics designed to either keep their foundation operating or to be able to pay debts after it folds. Some foundations have become programs of other foundations. Other foundations have merged, and still others closed. One tactic that is unfortunately more prevalent right now among foundations (perhaps more than ever before) is foundations that use to accept funding inquiries from any nonprofit

This PDF course provides the small philanthropic foundation or nonprofit with a clear explanation of what branding really means in the nonprofit sector. This course is written from the perspective of foundations and nonprofits in the social services, human services and education sectors. To help you start the New Year and make some effective resolutions, I am providing a free (only for my blog readers) download of my 30-page PDF tutorial on nonprofit branding. Don't come looking for another discussion of the importance of a consistent logo, etc.