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May 20202020 1/2 In the Time of the Virus, Ten Trends for Significant Survival
Essay By Jim Toscano with additions by Dania Miwa. As we typically do, we released our 2020 predictions in December of last year. Then, in March all bets were suddenly off, as the infection and death rates started climbing and we began to realize the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for nonprofits. This is our attempt to re-forecast based on what we are telling clients, experiencing first hand and as we are seeing some national trends emerge. Leap Year 2020 did occur in February as did so many more events. We celebrated many of the anniversaries:100 years of women having…
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Jan 2020Board Transformation for Nonprofit Organizations
By Jim Toscano & Dania Toscano Miwa Board members have many responsibilities: decision-making, planning, hiring and overseeing the executive, making their own generous gifts, bringing peers to the table, serving as ambassadors to the community with some members actively serving on the development committee helping to raise funds. Many nonprofits do not have such board helping to raise funds and it is at their peril not to. The ideal situation is to gradually move to an organizational culture of philanthropy, a culture of constituent development. This starts with the Board leadership but envelops all in the organization, including staff, volunteers…
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Jan 2020The Blog is Back
Essay by Dania Toscano Miwa & Jim Toscano As many of you know as supporters, clients, friends and colleagues of Toscano Advisors, Jim and I moved our business to Portland, Oregon last year. Since that time we have been busy meeting new people and new Nonprofits. We’ve also been creating new relationships, networks, and learning as much as we can about NGO’s working in the Pacific Northwest. In that time, we took a hiatus from writing and updating the blog regularly.
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Aug 2018Ten Behaviors: Creating a Culture of Philanthropy
The idea of creating a culture of philanthropy is hot right now, either a fad or a real commitment by nonprofits to envelop boards, staff, volunteers and constituency (visitors, members, clients, patients, volunteers, staff, committee members, board members, donors, legacy leavers, etc.) in deep recognition of the overall importance of philanthropy in the life of the organization. (See my earlier posting on the Culture of Philanthropy) There are many websites talking about it, listing what to do in training, offering training, listing qualities to be achieved, selling packages, offering consulting and on and on. We know it takes years, often,…
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Jan 2018Building a Robust Volunteer Force
An Essay by Dania Toscano Miwa and Jim Toscano Fourth in a Series Volunteers are among the leading potential sources for new growth and new resources in nonprofit organizations. Volunteers and donors share many of the same values. This is seen when they express the reasons why they donate to and/or volunteer for a nonprofit organization. New volunteers become new donors. Many of the ways we prospect for new donors are the same strategies used in the recruitment of volunteers. Given that over 60 million American adults volunteer – which is approximately one-third of the total adult population – nonprofits…
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Sep 2017Ten Ways to Find New Donors
The third essay in a series by Dania Toscano Miwa and Jim Toscano We all want new donors—as many as possible!!! We all need new donors—as many as possible to replace those who didn’t renew and more. We all hope for new donors—as many as possible to help us finance new, important projects. In the last essay we talked about retention. Now we will focuson recruitment. How then do we go about finding donors? That often depends on how sophisticated your existing donor program is, how much resource and time you can devote to discovery, cultivation and solicitation, and how…
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Apr 2017Eleven Ways to Increase Nonprofit Revenue
Dania Toscano Miwa and Jim Toscano For many nonprofits the current revenue situation is undergoing change, especially those seeking growth. With increasing numbers of nonprofits, higher competition, changes in individual giving, more narrow focusing of many foundations and corporations and impending loss of some government funding, where do we look for stability and growth of revenue? Here are eleven options. Many work together. Not all, or any, may fit specific nonprofit organizations. Hopefully, out of these possibilities, will come some opportunity for increased revenue or a stimulus for creative new options. Overall, the first step is to build a culture…
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Sep 2015What Should We Look For When Hiring a Nonprofit CEO?
Now that the 401Ks have bounced back, the stresses of running nonprofits are at record highs and many CEOs are in their sixties, we are witnessing a rather disproportionate CEO vacancy rate in nonprofit-land. Clearly the headhunters are doing well running high-paid searches. Their stock in trade is experience, wide networks, skill in interviewing and negotiating, finding out what is really needed and socio-metrics. The last item involves asking around about people who are potential candidates. We’ve all gotten those calls. The real question for the pros and for those agencies that are doing searches themselves is what should we look…
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Apr 2015Guest Post – A Nickel Sent Was A Nickel Wasted (Almost)
By Jim Thalhuber I received a solicitation in the mail today from a well-known national nonprofit organization and there it was, peeping through the small, round window on the front of the envelope — a shiny, brand new 2015 “Return to Monticello” nickel, minted in Denver, bearing an image of President Thomas Jefferson (based on the Rembrandt Peal painting of 1800) on the obverse and the 1938 restored design of Jefferson’s Virginia home of Monticello on the reverse. I trust/hope that the soliciting nonprofit organization has done its homework and can prove that the nickel gambit is effective in securing new…
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Feb 2015A New, Old Fear
Since the great recession of 2007-2010, gifts to charities have changed in subtle ways. Not only was there a temporary reduction in overall totals, but the mix has also changed. The interior and shape of the gift pyramid have changed. Donor behavior has changed. There are many bright spots as we emerge from the crisis. We hear many accounts of increases in digital giving, often in small amounts, although in larger numbers. Certain “days” resound with increasing totals, such as the Give to the Max and Giving Tuesday. Crowd-funding may be a new avenue, or a temporary fad. We also…