Whether we invest time, money, other capital, or any combination of them, we want to see some results come from the investment. For nonprofits in particular, time – often given by volunteers or interns – is especially valuable, as these organizations want to leverage the good-will effort into new donors, rising contributions, and good work […]
#Fundraising: How To Apply For A Grant From Apple (Sort Of)
This story is the first in a periodic series of research projects to give you the quickest onramp to begin developing programs and relationships with some major foundations. We begin with the most valuable company in the world, whose recently deceased CEO inspired and infuriated many millions. The passing of Steve Jobs last week has […]
#Fundraising: Online/Mobile Donations Still Need The Personal Touch
First and foremost, we must mark the death of Steve Jobs, former CEO at Apple, who died of pancreatic cancer yesterday at the age of 56. He helped build a great computing tool. He reconfigured the way movies are made. He revitalized a music industry about to die on the reef of file-sharing, and he […]
#Interview: Rob Wu, Founder of CauseVox, On Building Online Tools For Nonprofits (Part 2 of 2)
Last week, we introduced one of the founders of CauseVox, Rob Wu, who told us about the integrated platform he and Jefferson Chang developed after their experience working with nonprofits in Uganda in 2008. The young men saw the need to bring together online tools like website customization, social-media outreach, and donor tracking for smaller […]
#Fundraising: Smaller Donations Can Bring Bigger Change During Recession
The definition of a ‘microdonation’ can be tricky, or at least scalable. For many of us, a $50 donation to our favorite cause is no micro-gift. To the CEO of a bank, a $1 million gift might be small price to pay for some good PR. To the nonprofits that receive these gifts, the term […]
#Philanthropy: Could Text Messages Circumvent Apple’s Restrictions On Donation Apps?
Apple Inc. has been unwilling to allow fundraising/donation-soliciting software for the iPhone to be developed and sold through The App Store because Apple’s contract expects a cut of the profit and expects some control of the money flow. Apple claims (not without cause) that its iTunes/iPhone success is built on consistent user experience and unified expectations […]
#Philanthropy: How to Find and Solicit the Biggest Corporate Donors
In the midst of the present economic crisis, the debate about whether corporations should have social responsibility to give to philanthropic causes has grown heated. Some argue that CR (Corporate Responsibility) departments actually diffuse problems rather than solve them and corporations should put their resources to better, profit-driven, uses for the betterment of all. Others counter […]
#Philanthropy: As Steve Jobs The CEO Retires, Will Steve Jobs The Philanthropist Step Forward?
The Carnegies, the Mellons, the Rockafellers, the Buffetts… They all made scads of money in their chosen careers. They all founded foundations and gave away scads of money in their later years. Nowadays, Carnegie (to pick one example) is probably better known for his libraries and university endowments than he is for how he made […]