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Greetings!
 As I was saying in the last newsletter, I'm not good with holidays. The end of the year is particularly hard for me. I want to look back at the year and be proud of all I accomplished, but I think I am too much of a die-in-the wood New Yorker (despite almost 40 years on the west coast) who tends to find a black cloud for every silver lining. Consequently, I find year-end reviews melancholy. I focus too much on what I coulda done; shoulda done; might have if only....(too busy to and all that).
Fighting my melancholy, I sent out a call, asking for people to reflect on last year and talk about the upcoming year. I got lots of positive response and promises of short articles within a few days. They, too, must be too busy because in fact, I only got a few. But they are a good, thought provoking few. As you read them, think about your 2010 and your plans for 2011 and please do share.
And do have a wonderful holiday season, full of good-tidings and joy.
Fundraising capacity not where you want it to be? Need help in making Board members comfortable with fundraising? Contact Janet Levine Consulting for a free 30-minute meeting to see how you can broaden your base, increase your capacity and raise more money.
Contact janet@janetlevineconsulting.com to schedule an appointment
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Year-end Reflection for Leaders
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5 Simple Questions to Ask Yourself about 2010
Janet McIntyre, M.A. is a non-profit executive coach and consultant. Find out more about Janet at www.janetmcintyreconsulting.com
Reflection is an important part of our journey as  leaders. We develop our own personal leadership by taking the time out of our busy schedules to pause, think critically and honestly about what we learned, what we unlearned, and what we want to apply going forward.
The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect on the past twelve months. Take time to be in a quieter, more reflective state of mind and contemplate your answers to the five questions below. Write in a journal and/or share your discoveries with a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor. Be kind to yourself as you look back at 2010 and acknowledge all of your growth, accomplishments, and experiences. Most importantly, celebrate yourself!
1. What were your greatest successes and breakthroughs in 2010?
2. What risks did you take this year that you are proud of, regardless of the outcome?
3. What was your biggest "failure" this year? What did you learn from it?
4. Overall, what was this year about for you? What's the title of this chapter in the book of your life?
5. What lessons have you learned this past year that you want to carry into 2011?
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Creative and Innovative Ways of
Approaching a Problem
Gregory Pierre Cox, CFRE is the Vice President for Advancement at Claremont Graduate University
Our field of fundraising is going through a series of  events that are leading to a dramatic and irreversible change. This change is motivated and rooted in the source of all of our efforts: our donors.
The time of economic duress we as a nation have experienced has been well documented through studies, research and popular notice. Its impact has greatly motivated many donors to re-evaluate their giving. Speaking to my peers at major universities and research institutions, the theme that comes forth is that while the major gifts are slowing coming back to their pre-2008 levels, the pledges have not. This has huge implications for campaigns.
Not-for-profit organizations benefit from taking their organizations through capital or comprehensive fundraising campaigns. A large number of existing campaigns have had to re-visit their total goal and in some instances their expected year of closing.
Pledges since the early 1990's had become the foundation from which so much of our work as fundraisers has been structured and motivated. Setting aside uncertainty about a the real economy and its outlook, our field needs to adjust to a new generation of philanthropists. While a great numbers of donors and trustees to our organizations are baby-boomers, we have to place a special emphasis on the generation of emerging donors.
Baby-boomers are reaching a stage in their "spending life span" as referred to by economists, that focuses less on spending and more on saving for approaching retirement and years of fixed income. Planned and Legacy giving aside, one needs to take into consideration that baby-boomers have reached their peak in giving. A new generation of donors is one that often has acquired wealth differently than their parents.
Forty years ago, 50%of great wealth in the United States was inherited; today that figure is at 7%. These new fortunes are often acquired very quickly and in most cases through a combination of hard work and luck. The one commonality one always finds is that these fortunes came to be through creative and innovative ways of approaching a problem. In the world of non-for-profit giving that means that individual donors as well as their foundation and the ones on which they serve on Boards as trustees find themselves giving more and more "through" institution rather than "to" institution. (READ MORE)
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Marketing, Finally, Takes Center Stage
Julie Damon is the CEO/Marketing Director, Branded4Good
In 2010, marketing really came to the forefront - with many new marketing books, webinars and information specific to nonprofits and we saw many savvy nonprofits increase their marketing efforts to bolster their fundraising campaigns. This year we finally saw a toning down of the social media craziness after the previous year of overblown expectations and overabundance of social media "experts" that flooded the scene. This year, nonprofits heard the message "social media is just ONE tool in your marketing mix", reevaluated their time vs. benefits, and redefined their social media goals. We also saw an increase in nonprofits rebranding (like the Volunteer Center of Orange County - now One OC), and will see even more as they gear up for an even more competitive environment in the upcoming year.
In the year ahead we expect to see nonprofits getting more assertive with their email list building, more coordinated with their regular communications and more focused on accountability, transparency and credibility than ever before. Larger nonprofits are already dedicating sections of their websites to accountability, showing their financials, listing internal controls, featuring videos of their CFOs, all to increase the comfort-level and gain the trust of potential donors. We will also see more nonprofits create separate branding and websites for specific campaigns, events, programs and ecommerce sales as they attempt to stand out from the crowd and get creative with their fundraising.
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A Troubling Sea Change
Joseph M. Zanetta, J.D. is president of the Providence Little Company of Mary Foundation
My grandmother-Mary Martinelli-was born in 1903  and lived through the entire 20th century. In the spring of 1929, she became a widow with two young children. A few months later, the Great Depression hit the country and Mary Martinelli lost most of her savings.
Many times she told me how painful and difficult it was for her to recover from that economic cataclysm. She often said, "You are so lucky that you will never live to see banks close and your hard-earned money 'go poof.'"
Guess what? My grandmother was wrong. I did live to see banks fail! In 2008, as I was driving to my office I saw a huge crowd gathering outside the Pasadena headquarters of Indy Mac. That was the day the bank failed-and I was witness to history repeating itself.
It seems no one was immune from the crisis. People saw a rapid decline in the value of their hard-earned retirement funds, saving accounts, and home values. In my view, the financial market crash has served as a defining moment for our generation, much as the Great Depression did for our grandparents.
What does this have to do with charitable giving? Most of the charitable giving in this country is provided by individuals. Why do individuals give? Loyal to an alma mater. Gratitude toward a local hospital for care received or a life saved. A desire to honor the memory of a loved one. Our social contract has always stated that we give to those less fortunate.
What is the impact on philanthropy? Many of us were taught that if you worked hard, went to college, got a good job and saved money, you would be able to meet your family obligations with enough left to give back to society. But those pension that you counted on could be evaporated by a court procedure.
Insolvency, liquidation, foreclosure, dissolution, and bankruptcy have become daily news headlines.
So the first impact on philanthropy is obvious-people are not feeling like they have achieved economic security, causing them to reconsider their generosity toward non-profits. Individual donors seem less inclined to make a multi-year commitment due to the turmoil in their balance statement. (READ MORE)
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Have Your Say
 Inquiring minds do want to know--what is on your mind?
Send me your article (200-800 words) on any topic of interest to those who work for or with nonprofit organizations.
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Are your fundraising results down? Janet Levine Consulting can help. Email or give me a call at 310-990-9151 to schedule a free 30-minute consultation.
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