The Rundown - January 28, 2022
The latest news and notes from the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors
Thanks for subscribing to the Pinnacle Strategies’ weekly newsletter, The Rundown. Each week, you are getting the latest news and notes from the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors which is designed to get you up to speed and in the know with the latest happenings in this little corner of the world.
This week we are going to dive into the world of cryptocurrency, a webinar that I participated in this week on the often lonely state of fundraising and how federal funding could change the relationships between local nonprofit organization and local governments.
If you have found this to be a helpful piece of information, please feel free to share this with your friends and colleagues. The nonprofit world is a tough space and the more we can help each other, the more we can all benefit!
New Relationships: How Local Government and Non-Profits Can Work Together
This article in the Port Huron Times Herald I think is representing a new trend. Local governments, often strapped for cash and lacking the resources to deal with social problems, now have influxes of cash from the federal government’s responses to the nearly two year old coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic.
I feel like I am somewhat of an authority to speak on the topic since I have feet firmly planted both in interest and vocation in both the nonprofit world and the local government world.
Local governments have often looked at the nonprofit sector as an integral part of a community infrastructure, but often never took critical steps of providing funding for such efforts; there were always pot holes to be filled or new police to hire. Other more pressing needs, that only local government could fill, became more of a priority.
But two years into this pandemic, local governments (and perhaps, more importantly, their citizens) are beginning to understand the real value that these nonprofit organizations are providing to the community. Critical services such as transportation, homeless response, emergency food relief, senior care, are all being provided by a strong, but decentralized patchwork of organizations that are putting the needs of the community first and foremost.
And this is sometimes where local government can’t always understand the nonprofit world. Local government, with their own bureaucratic necessities to follow, often lives in a world of command and control. Many times the perception is that local government is going to demand the terms and conditions in which partnerships are formed. Sometimes nonprofits look behind the potential funding and quickly realize the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze”.
But nonprofits on the other hand, would benefit from additional accountability for the work that they are doing. Many organizations, while doing good work, can sometimes get caught into patterns of doing the same good work in a very constrained fashion; if there is one thing the pandemic has taught nonprofits, it’s that the successful organization pivots, the unsuccessful organization stays the same.
The new influx of federal funding, especially on the local level, can create new opportunities for both local governments and nonprofits to change individually and together as new relationships are formed. I am excited to see what the future brings!
As a fundraiser, is Cryptocurrency in your future?
This article from Forbes discusses something that is going to be a hot topic in philanthropy and nonprofit fiscal circles for a while, what’s up with this crypto stuff?
Cryptocurrency is in a word, weird. It’s a medium of exchange in which your ownership is recorded on a super-encrypted digital ledger. And to add to it’s mysteriousness, you see television advertisements with pop-culture icons like Tom Brady and Matt Damon advertising these cryptocurrencies.
And while we can be fascinated (or confused) by this new way of exchange, it’s going to hit home for fundraisers as donors are going to want to give their favorite causes cryptocurrency.
One of the benefits (or drawbacks) of cryptocurrency is that the donations can be simply anonymous. Your account in the grand digital ledger shows that you have some and there is no good way to track where it came from. This proposes a challenge to fundraisers, since the whole philosophy of fundraising isn’t based on getting a donation as much as it is on building a relationship. If a few bitcoin just show up in our account, who do we know how to thank?
The anonymity of these donations poses a different set of ethical issues. Strong nonprofits should have ethical standards on not only what they accept but who they accept things of value from. Nonprofits need not put themselves in a position where they are there to simply perform rehabilitation on a damaged reputation. An individual may want to see with the times giving a huge cryptocurrency donation, but what’s the catch? How many times has a nonprofit that has accepted a large donation from a well-known donor regretted that decision what the donor (and their reputation) loses favor with the general public? And I often wonder if cryptocurrency is a part of this trend.
Furthermore, if an individual wants to remain anonymous in their giving so much that they have to use a hyper-encrypted means to transfer value, my senses are automatically heightened? Is this individual trying to hide something? Are these gains ill-gotten? Would I be comfortable accepting a donation from a source knowing that it might be part of a scheme that is at best, unethical, or worse, illegal?
And another concern is what to do with the cryptocurrency? The value of these exchange methods can swing widely. These investments seem more speculative rather than safe places to place value. In fact as of the time of this writing, the value of one bitcoin has gone down nearly 30% in one month. The wise method of dealing with bitcoin, might be the same with any other security your nonprofit receives; immediately liquidate the investment to cash and place it in the investments you know and understand (such as those in an endowment fund that your shop has).
All of this to say, it’s wise to take care when you think about cryptocurrencies. Have a conversation with your board of directors, or development committee, and make sure policies are in place on what donations are acceptable and which ones aren’t. Make sure your policies indicate how these donations will be handled. And lastly, make sure these policies are communicated clearly with your donors.
A Webinar I Won’t Soon Forget
Earlier this week, I was on a webinar with dozens (if not hundreds) of fundraisers across the country that was sponsored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. I’ll be the first to admit, I like webinars, but the topic of “Thank You For Being A Friend: Forming Communities of Support for Fundraisers” didn’t exactly ring my bell. However, I knew one of the presenters and I have this tendency to always join a lecture/talk/webinar when someone I know is presenting.
Well, I was on this hour webinar and I was quickly reminded of why this work (fundraising, nonprofit management) is really hard. It’s difficult work because it’s lonely and we often feel unprepared to do our work.
Let’s face it, this work is lonely. We often don’t have individuals that we can open and share our experiences with in this line of work. Some of that comes from the mysteriousness of our line of work; in many ways, it’s hard to imagine that it takes learned skills to try to secure donations for the work we are doing or it takes a different skillset to run a nonprofit agency, but it does.
And our work comes with a lot of pitfalls. Relational conflicts, financial struggles, even just the despair on the faces of the people we see can have a real and detrimental effect on our physical and emotional health. This work can wear you down. And where do we turn? We aren’t always in a position to talk about this stuff with our board or fellow staff members (maybe they won’t think we are good at these jobs) and we certainly can’t tell our spouses or significant others (they just don’t get it!).
Our work is also one that isn’t easily learned. As I have said before, there are very few people in this line of work who went through high school thinking, “I want to be a fundraiser!” or “I want to run a nonprofit when I grow up!” The facts are that most of us ended up in these positions through callings, happy accidents or some other circumstance that took us down a career path that few people have gone down. During the presentation, I learned that most fundraisers didn’t learn through classical training as much as they learned by getting thrown in the deep end.
And all of this has lead to a profession that is nervous, anxious and worn. And that really makes me sad. As I sat there during the webinar watching the faces on the screen, I didn’t see people that were nervous, anxious and worn; I saw people that we were doing amazing things and accomplishing huge goals for the benefit of others. Truly amazing and noble work.
If you are reading this, you are in a profession (and maybe even you!) that is on edge. Do me a favor, please? Reach out to a friend and colleague in this line of work and remind them of the amazing work they are doing. We are in a world that is low on encouragement — and that is an essential ingredient we all need to push through. And the beautiful aspect to encouragement is that people actually don’t need a lot, but they need some. And maybe you are just the person to do it!
Want to be a Board Member?
If you live in Western Ohio (particularly Van Wert, Auglaize, Logan, Shelby, Darke, Miami, Champaign, Preble or Greene Counties) and would like to serve as a board member for a youth-based non-profit, please let me know by emailing me at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com! Council on Rural Services (CORS) is looking for board members in the region. CORS is best known for being the Early Head Start and Head Start service provider for pre-school children in Western Ohio.
Is your New Year Resolution to Learn Something New?
If your New Year Resolution was to sharpen your skills and meet new professionals in the field, I would encourage you to look at some of the offerings of The Fund Raising School at the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University’s campus in Indianapolis. The professional development school has great programming both on-line and in-person both in Indianapolis and at other sites across the country. Take a look at their course offerings here!
An Excerpt from the “Tools, Tips and Tricks” Newsletter
The Pinnacle Solutions, “Tips, Tools and Tricks” newsletter comes out every Tuesday and is available for a paid subscription for as little as $7/month. Here is an excerpt from our last version: Don’t forget, those that sign up for a paid subscription will receive a free gift that you will enjoy!
This week our paid newsletter dived into the topic of what are the different voices we need to have around the table when we are looking at our programs and missions and whether we can determine whether or not our work and our teams are operating at a good clip.
One of the skills that is not often discussed (and often assumed) in the nonprofit world is our ability to listen to multiple voices about the work we are doing. We are always balancing the voices of clients, funders, donors, the public, etc. as we craft and hone our programs to meet the needs of the community that we are set to serve.
It’s one of the most challenging parts of running an effective nonprofit. I often joke with my for-profit friends that they have it much easier. I tell them that their sales relationships are much less complex. Basically, they have a product that someone else buys; they give you money, you give them product. Pretty simple.
Our nonprofit world is much more complex. I have people that are buying a product for people that they don’t know and that they themselves will never use. The benefit for the purchaser is a heck of a lot more intangible than those that are benefitting from the product or service.
But, as we think about the nonprofit world and how we keep our constituent bases happy, there are a few critical voices we need to keep in mind as we administer those programs in front of us.
A Quick Note of Thanks!
Thank you readers! I am not sure how it happened, but ever since the first of the year, this newsletter has taken off, subscriber growth has more than doubled this past month! And many of you have reached out to me and it’s amazing to see that this newsletter has readers in Canada, Italy, Kenya and all over the United States. To say that we have an international newsletter, is not an exaggeration!
I know many of you have shared this with your friends and colleagues and I am very grateful. Thank you!
Other Ways to Connect
Our coaching practice has openings starting here in 2022. If you are interested in working with me to get your nonprofit organization on a track to achieve the big missions you have for your organization, please reach out to me at pinnaclestrategiesltd@gmail.com.
Here are some other ways you can keep in contact with Pinnacle Strategies!
Check us out on our LinkedIn Page
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