Resources / Research

If you’re a board member, ask if your organization subscribes to a code of ethics in fundraising. Your board should talk about the ethical code and be familiar with the general content and areas of compliance. All your staff should know, too, that your organization follows such codes.

Your fundraising staff and board fund development committee could present an annual report on your organization’s compliance with the code. (And, of course, your board should adopt the fundraising code of ethics as a policy – just like your board should adopt the Donor Bill of Rights as a policy.)

Review this Code of Ethical Standards. The code includes things like: Public trust, transparent and conflicts of interest. Solicitation and stewardship. Treatment of confidential and proprietary information. Compensation, bonuses, and finders fees.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the AFP Code of Ethical Standards for Fundraising:

#14: Ensure that contributions are used in accordance with donors’ intentions.

#16: Obtain explicit consent by donors before altering the conditions of financial transactions.

#21: Not accept compensation or enter into a contract that is based on a percentage of contributions; nor…accept finder’s fees or contingent fees.

#22: Be permitted to accept performance-based compensation, such as bonuses, only if such bonuses are in accord with prevailing practices within the..organization and are not based on a percentage of contributions.

Unethical performance harms all other NGOs and harms the nonprofit sector. Beware! Hold your own organization and its people accountable. And demand that other NGOs do the same. Call them out if need be.

Has your organization adopted the Donor Bill of Rights as a policy? I hope so. It’s policies like these that help hold your fundraising accountable.

Have you engaged your board in a conversation about elements of the Donor Bill of Rights? I hope so. The most effective boards talk about this stuff.

So what are some of your favorite elements in the Donor Bill of Rights? Which ones do you think might surprise your CEO? Or surprise your program staff?

Which parts of the Donor Bill of Rights might be particularly difficult for your board to understand? For example:

#2: To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization’s governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.

#3: To have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements.

#9: To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.

Talk about all this with your board. Make sure every single board member – and the board as the collective – understand why and how your organization applies the Donor Bill of Rights.

An interesting piece of research from Michigan State University, my alma mater…

“Does Social Status Affect Generosity?” Nicholas Hays, assistant professor of management at MSU – and Steven Blader at NYU – conducted a series of six scientific studies. And here’s the finding:

• “Prominent people who don’t feel their status is fair and equitable become more generous with others to alleviate that sense of inequity.”

Check out the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology for more.

Do you know that there’s a 12-item GRIT SCALE?

I didn’t know that. But I know now, thanks to some colleagues in Cohort 25 at SMU. Was it you, Jordan, who mentioned the grit scale?

Here’s another version of a Grit Scale. Check out Dr. Angela Duckworth’s info about grit scales.

There’s even a grit scale for kids, too. True grit: check your kid’s resilience…

Do you have grit? Am I gritty? Hmmmm…… What is grit anyway? 

All about remaining committed to goals – so you can actually achieve those goals. In one article, grit is defined as “passion and perseverance for long-term goals.” And Woody Allen kinda defined grit when he said, “80% of success is showing up.”

Check out this article in Frontiers in Psychology… “The grit effect: predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school and marriage.”

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution.

By journalist Jonathan Eig.

Wow. So very very very good. This book tells “the extraordinary story of one of the most far-reaching scientific breakthroughs known to mankind…. This is a grand story of radical feminist politics, scientific ingenuity, establishment opposition, and, ultimately, a sea change in social attitudes.”

Other books by Eig:

• Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season
• Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster
• Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

WOW! Some good stuff…….

Check out MarketSmart. That’s Gregory Warner. Greg talks with Dr. Russell James III! And – for free – you can hear the webinar that MarketSmart offered with planned giving research guru Dr. James.

Spend some time on Dr. James’ website to learn more. Visit the resources. Read an ebook and some research and…

Check out the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy in the U.K. Research that is critical to fundraisers everywhere…to nonprofits who aspire to better fundraising in order to raise more money.

What’s your job? What’s my job? What’s the fundraiser’s job? To learn. To change. To facilitate learning and change in NGOs. And that can raise more money.

Ready. Set. Go.

What a great title for a conference!

Give Long and Prosper: Making fundraising fit for the future.

Summer school in Ireland. With lots of very very very cool people presenting: Alan Clayton. Ken Burnett. Sean Triner. Beate Sorum. Rory Green. Mark Phillips. Jen Love. Kiki Koutmeridou. Tom Ahern. Niamh Ferris. Simon Scriver. Damian O’Broin. Caoileann Appleby.

Thanks to Damian O’Broin at Ask Direct for doing this.

And we’ll be at Trinity College. So you can bop over and see the Book of Kells, I do believe.

Step #1: Read this issue of The Agitator about giving across generations. Read my response, posted at the Agitator.

Step #2: Study the infographic.

Step #3: Review the original report from Blackbaud.

Step #4: Share the infographic with your boss, the program staff, and the board. Explain the implications. Offer insights. And, of course, make sure your development staff understands, acknowledges, accepts, and performs accordingly!!!

Step #5: Stop the crap. (“Oh my gosh, we need to focus on millennials and get gifts from them.”)

Step #6: Pay attention to research. You know: FACTS. SCIENCE. Destroy ill-informed personal opinion as soon as it rears its silly, ugly head.

Step #7: Please please please. Could we please build a profession? Could we please behave like professionals?

Thank you.

Nonprofit Sector Leadership Report, 2016. From Concord Leadership Group, Marc Pitman

How do you and your organization compare? Leadership isn’t so good with findings like these: Insecure CEOs. Confused boards. Decreased donor trust. Regulatory threats. Compare your organization to this report.

Beyond Fundraising: What Does It Mean to Build a Culture of Philanthropy. From Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund

Make sure you read the original UnderDeveloped Report from CompassPoint. And my response. Check out my handout about the culture of philanthropy. I first wrote about this back in 1997, in the first edition of my book Strategic Fund Development. You’ll find the same topic in the 3rd edition of Strategic Fund Development.

Visit Pamela Grow and the Grow Report. Check out her newest course, an A – Z step-by-step stewardship plan. And start out with “The Power of Thank-You” with Pam and Claire Axelrad.

May 12, 2016: Simone and Tom, Ahern and Joyaux – Keynotes & workshops for AFP Detroit.

                     May 16, 2016: Simone with AFP Cincinnati.

June 1 & 2, 2016: Simone at the first ever Western Canada Fundraising Conference.