Saundra commented on my post about her anti-TOMS Shoes video from Friday: “I may occasionally put things too harshly, but it’s often because I’m one of the few people out there making noise. I’ve seen some extremely questionable donor advice out there and myths and misconceptions are commonly reinforced by the people that donors turn […]
Category Archives: Fundraising
Does Cause Marketing Reduce Charitable Giving?
April 6, 2011 – 9:49 am
A new study has just been published that provides evidence that cause marketing results in lower charitable giving and lower happiness. Lucy Bernholz has long discussed the problems with “embedded giving” – consumer transactions which conflate purchases and charity in various ways – but this is the first study I’ve seen to demonstrate the danger. […]
Billionaire Philanthropists in Their Own Words
February 17, 2011 – 10:37 am
Clay Holtzman writes about the social sector for the Puget Sound Business Journal. He’s the reporter who broke the story about Unitus abruptly shutting down. He’s active on Twitter and is one of my favorite social sector reporters. Yesterday, Clay posted this fascinating article about his effort to run the Giving Pledge letters through Wordle, […]
Philanthropic Equity Performance Report
February 16, 2011 – 10:45 am
Last year, Nonprofit Finance Fund released a report looking at the performance of the philanthropic equity deals they have done over the past four years. I was remiss in not writing about it at the time and I thought doing so today would be a good follow up to my last post about “crowding out” […]
Governmental “Crowding Out” in Philanthropy
February 14, 2011 – 10:08 am
In economics, “crowding out” describes the way that increases in government spending may lead to a reduction in private spending. The theory suggests that government spending does not have as large an effect on the economy as might be expected because the impact is offset due to the crowding out of private spending. It turns […]
The Best Charity No One Has Heard Of
December 13, 2010 – 9:41 am
The GiveWell team has issued a challenge to the smart giving movement. Their top rated charity, Village Reach, consults on health system logistics in high-poverty, remote areas to help life-saving supplies get to those who need them. According to GiveWell’s analysis, Village Reach is able to do the most with donated dollars to demonstrably improve […]
Impact Focused Fundraising
December 7, 2010 – 5:40 am
This is a guest post by Tom Ralser. Tom is a principal of Convergent Nonprofit Solutions, which focuses on “outcome driven” fundraising and the author of ROI for Nonprofits. (Sean: I invited Tom to write this post because while I believe that donors want to support effective nonprofits, there is evidence that they respond better […]
SoCap Coverage: Decriminalizing Fundraising
October 5, 2010 – 7:28 am
This is a guest post by Adin Miller, owner of Adin Miller Consulting, who is providing coverage of the Tactical Philanthropy track at the Social Capital Markets conference. Follow him on Twitter: @adincmiller The opening session of the Tactical Philanthropy track at the 2010 Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP10) began with a discussion on changing […]
Raising Money v. Moving Money
February 24, 2010 – 8:18 am
This is a guest post from Steve Goldberg. Steve is a consultant to Charity Navigator and the author of Billions of Drops in Millions of Buckets: Why Philanthropy Doesn’t Advance Social Progress. By Steve Goldberg I’m struck by the inherent futility of fundraising. Like Sisyphus endlessly rolling that rock up the mountain, a fundraiser’s job […]
Social Impact Exchange
December 4, 2009 – 7:39 am
The Social Impact Exchange is a new effort from Growth Philanthropy Network and Duke University with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Exchange is designed as a focal point for studying, funding and implementing large expansions of proven social purpose organizations. To that end the Exchange offers an “investment clearinghouse” (free registration needed) […]
