The Curtis Group | Planning - Fundraising - Marketing
Focus on Philanthropy
A blog by the staff of The Curtis Group
From the Funder’s Mouth: Red Flags When Approaching Foundations
Posted May 17, 2012 by Wesley Stanley, Marketing Director.
As a follow-up to last week’s post in which we offered some general advice from “real world” funders on how nonprofits should operate, this week we’d like to share with you some red flags that funders see when it comes to requests. The following are a list of no-no’s when it comes to putting together a request for foundation funding. According to the funders at VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads’ Funders Forum last week, a nonprofit request receives an immediate red flag when they see any of the following.
Funders Agree: Nonprofits Must Operate Like a Business
Posted May 17, 2012 by Wendy McGrady, Vice President.
Today, for the fourth year in a row, Keith moderated VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads’ Annual Funders Forum. This event, which brings together funders from across Hampton Roads, always produces a variety of interesting takeaways. An underlying theme of the funder’s comments from this year’s forum was the importance of a nonprofit operating like a business. The following is their advice.
Tracking the True Cost of Fundraising
Posted May 11, 2012 by Natalie McGaughey, Development Coordinator.
Earlier this spring, The Giving Institute hosted an interesting webinar on “The Cost of Fundraising” presented by fellow Giving Institute member, Melissa Brown of Melissa Brown and Associates. Melissa began by pointing out the fact that there are a lot of gaps that exist in fundraising costs today. In fact, the majority of organizations only track revenue as a cost of fundraising, failing to account for things like staff time which technically should be a considered a cost as well. She also emphasized that in order to determine an accurate cost of fundraising for your organization, it’s important to examine the whole development program, dividing the total amount raised by your total fundraising budget.
U.S. Economy Shows Considerable Progress in Recovering From the Great Recession
Posted May 02, 2012 by Keith Curtis, President.
I attended a luncheon today hosted by the Economics Club of Hampton Roads and Old Dominion University, which featured an interesting presentation by Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank and voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. Lacker addressed the “considerable progress of the U.S. economy in recovering from the great recession” and noted three key areas that have kept the economy from recovering more quickly: the lingering depression in new home construction, the labor market, and uncertainty over the federal budget and tax policy. He also mentioned that as the labor market continues to grow, consumer confidence will continue to increase which should nudge GDP growth higher. In our opinion this is positive news, as it should of course help philanthropic giving.
