AR 2009: Fund Raising

We were live-blogging AR 2009. We brought our laptops to the sessions, took notes, and published those notes for you right here.

For details about Animal Rights 2009, please take a look at arconference.org.

These are my notes about:
“Fund Raising”

Speaker 1 – Lorri Houston from Animal Acres

a) Administrative operations – this is the key to organizational development, database, office, etc
database is HUGE, it is lifeblood of organization- members provide majority of funding (I remember this to be true from another nonprofit I worked with)
etapestry = free for new nonprofits if membership is under 500 (I use meetup to organize database, listserv, etc.)
b) Bequest program, remind members to remember the animals in their will
c) Personal touch: get to know the members, calls, handwritten notes, thank yous
do what you can yourself (because you can’t afford to pay others)
schedule mailings – 3-4 appeals to members per year, 2-3 appeals to nonmembers
e) email alerts/ newsletter monthly
f) Monthly giving – easy for members, regular income for org
sponship of animals at animal acres provides half of thenecessary funds to care for the animals. It’s a huge success
g) Special events – annual gala, opportunity to highlight the organization and have fun, make it fancy
celebs, gourmet vegan food, etc.
takes 6 months of planning, events planning skills
h) Volunteering – helps ease funding need, keep good volunteer database, motivation is key

Speaker 2 – Joshua Levine

Continuum of fund rasing from disorganized, haphazard fund raising to immaculate, planned fund raising and funds management
Examples of the two kinds and how the donor is more compfortable giving to the organized org
Make sure all financial records and budgets are clear and up-to-date
If our org receives a large pool of money/ endowment it should last. We need to protect it, we have a duty to protect it
Investments need to be “mission aligned” (not invested in orgs working against our org)
Brand your group’s name – internet, networking, etc
Partnerships with other orgs that can help fund raising or funds management
Partnerships with industry, too – restaurants, culinary schools, etc

Speaker 3 – Alex Hershaft of FARM

Think of resources as more than just money, for example, volunteers
Other resources: facilities like homes and warehouses, trade and bartering
Look into payroll deduction campaigns where employees can automatically donate to you
Resource management – think of ways to save resources, too
Conservation – refurbished computers, used furniture, telecommuting (logmein.com), use freeware etc, printers use “house paper”,
Regular schedules for volunteers encourages them to come back regularly,
Planning can save a lot of money – get the media mail rate, etc.
Advertising your org on a budget: barter, remainders
Postage – plan ahead and use bulk mail or media mail
Phone – skype!
Emailing – mailermailer.com is current, cheap bulk email provider of choice for FARM
FARM’s budget – $400,000/ year

Questions

Q: What is the Animal Acres gala budget?
A: Around $25,000. It’s low because they use volunteers, get donated goods, put it on at home base instead of rent a space. Other galas cost around $60-70,000. In order to raise big bucks, it has to be very fancy
Q: In this economy, should continue the same events?
A: YES, sadly sometimes spending money makes the org seem more successful and thus people are more willing to donate and make it a self-fulfilling prophesy. Long-term special events are a big deal
Q: How to get new members/ donations?
A: It’s a huge struggle, just keep working at it, highlight the organization
Q: I’m starting a new nonprofit. I have big ideas/ big goals but little funds?
A: Can be difficult to get grants in our movement because of controversy; work through an existing nonprofit and use a flow-through for funding
Q: Should we allow family members on our nonprofit board?
A: No, it’s not avisable; try to get a relatively neutral board

These are just my notes and are not official transcripts or anything like that.

Vegan Soapbox