Last week the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York hosted a conference to learn more from the organizations that have been recognized in the New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards during the past few years. The morning’s keynote focused on fundraising and featured Naomi Levine, Chair and Executive Director of NYU’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising and Reynold Levy, President, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. A few major points:
- board must be involved in fundraising, both personally and in reaching out to potential donors. CEO must lead fundraising efforts
- explain to the donor the difference their gift will make (and thank past donors by reminding them what their contributions have enabled the organization to achieve)
- despite the recent economic events, ‘you get no credit for predicting rain, you get credit for building arks’
- donors don’t give because they aren’t asked
- in response to an audience question, don’t ever feel that your cause isn’t as important as others – constituents will donate to charities they feel an affinity with, regardless of what other nonprofits are requesting assistance
I then attended a session on strong communications practices. A few takeaways:
- Suvasini Patel, Communications Director of Witness described how they train all staff in how to communicate the organization’s message to the public, not just those in the communications department.
- Richard Berlin, Executive Director of Harlem RBI focused on how the fundraising and communications functions in an organization should work together. In whatever communication medium you use, remember what action you want someone to take. Talk about your nonprofit’s successes.
An interesting exercise gave a few participants one minute to highlight their organization to Bill Gates upon leaving an airplane (after realizing that you’ve been sitting next to him during the entire flight). For your organization, can you get across the essentials quickly and show your enthusiasm for the cause?
