HOW TO ARTICLES

GOOD PROPOSAL FOLLOW UP WILL INCREASE THE NUMBER OF
PROPOSALS YOUR NONPROFIT GETS FUNDED
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

Many nonprofit organizations simply submit their proposals to grant
making organization then simply sit back and hope for the best. If
this is what you currently do this is indeed a very big mistake. If
you don’t have time to effectively follow up on your proposals you
probably shouldn’t submit them in the first place.

Whereas with good proposal follow up methods you’ll not only increase
the number of proposals that you get approved, you’ll also build those
all important relationships with many kinds of funding sources that
will provide your organization with funds both today and tomorrow.
Here are some steps you can take to effectively follow up on your
development proposals, and build relationships with grantors:

1. Start by calling each grantor before you submit your proposal and
ask them a few questions about the application process. Even if you
don’t have any questions and have to make a few up. By doing this
you’re already ahead in the game even before you submit your proposal,
because your proposal will have that human connection to this person,
that all those proposals that where simply submitted without this
prior contact won’t have.

2. Submit your proposal and be sure to personalize it by sending it to
a specific person, that is the contact person who’s name you’ll find
in the information packages that each grantors sends you, and who
you’ve already talked to. This is a very important person from the
standpoint of getting your proposal approved and you’ll be in contact
with this person many times before, during and after the proposal
approval process has ran its course.

3. Call your contact person about 7 to 10 days after your proposal is
submitted to simply "verify" that your proposal was received by them.
And tell them if they have any questions to please call or write you,
and you’ll be more than happy to answer them. Then write them a short
note, saying that you enjoyed talking with them, and if they have any
questions to call or write you.

4. After a reasonable time you should call your contact person again
to check on the current funding status of your proposal. If the
grantor has a specific review date, of course, you wouldn’t call
until after that date. If the funder has no specific review date

give them about 60 to 90 days before you call. If they say they
haven’t reached a decision on your proposals yet, simply thank them
for their time. Then write them another little sweet thank you note,
and continue this process every 60 to 90 days or so until you get a
decision.

5. Seek to build long term relationships with as many grantors as you
can, and this is exactly what you’re doing with your many follow up
phone calls and thank you notes. Also put them on your mailing list
whether they funded you or not, and send them your newsletters,
published articles about your work and etc. The more times they hear
your name the better, and each time they do hear your name you’re
marketing your proposal and organization.

6. If your proposal was rejected call your contact person, and ask
them specifically just why your proposal was turned down. Then listen
and learn being sure to take notes, yes, even rejection can be a
positive learning experience. What they tell you will be exactly what
you need to know to get your proposal approved the next time, and
there should always be a next time. What’s more, next time you’ll be
competing with a new group of applicants unknown to the grantor,
unlike you, because most of the others will have dropped out of the
race.

Good development proposal follow will most certainly do your
organization more good, than merely mailing off your proposals and
hoping for the best. Such follow up will provide you access to those
grantors who will fund your organization today, and to all those many
other grantors who will fund you tomorrow. And your grantor networks
connections will also give you access to all those other sources of
funds known to your grantors but not to you.

So start developing relationships with as many grantors as you
possibly can, the process starts with good follow up. And be sure to
stay in touch with your network of grantors. Put them on your mailing
list and send them your annual reports, newsletters, published
articles on your work, Christmas cards, and etc. Truly having such a
list of grantors is a valuable asset to your nonprofit organization,
so start building yours now.

Berwyn J. Kemp is a fundraising consultant who helps nonprofit
organizations obtain funding. For full details on his funding
products, or to read more of his re-printable articles you can visit:
http://www.berwynkemp55.tripod.com

CAREFULLY DEFINING YOUR NONPROFIT’S MARKET AREA CAN
OPEN UP NEW SOURCES OF FUNDING
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

Has your nonprofit organization carefully and fully defined your
service marketing area? That is, the areas from which you draw any
significant number of your clients or patrons. If your organization
hasn’t carefully defined your market area it may not be reaching its
full fundraising potential. And many thousands of dollars in funding
each year could very well be slipping right past your hands, when all
you need to do is reach out to obtain those funds.

While the vast majority of the funding raised in this country is
raised from local sources of funding for local community based
projects and programs. And if your organization is one of these many
organizations who do only really serve a specific area or community
which is very clearly defined, then the vast majority of your funding
will come from your local area. With the exception of funding for
major capital needs items, and projects with a clear demonstration
projects, where the funding for these can come from anywhere in the
country.

On the other hand, if the general marketing area of your nonprofit
organization is not so clearly defined then you must spend some time
clearly defining it. Because the full size and range of your nonprofit
organization’s service area does have a direct relationship on your
ability to raise funds to the fullest potential of your organization.
By opening up the possibility of many more source of funding available
for the needs of your nonprofit organization.

For example, let’s say your nonprofit organizations services is
providing enjoyment through some kind of nature preservation, and a
large percentage of these who use your services comes from many
different parts of your state or region. Then this information could
be very significant because it may very well be possible for your
organization to approach foundations, corporations, and individuals
from many of these other areas, thereby giving your organization a
much larger potential pool of funding sources to work with.

Since most funding sources prefer to fund local projects for local
people, they have clearly defined funding areas so that those
organization which are outside of their funding areas can be easily
excluded from their funding considerations, thus reducing the number
of funding request they need to review and consider. But if you are
actually serving people who are from their areas, then it is your job
to show them that your organization does provide services to the
people of their area, if indeed you do, even though your headquarters
is located somewhere else.

Therefore, your organization should carefully define your marketing
area, and be as innovative and creative as possible in expanding the
scope and reach of your organizations marketing area too. For example,
if your organization provides services to handicapped children you may
decide to provide outreach services to their extended family members s
well, particularly if a good percentage of them live in a surrounding
area or community. You could even decide to set up small satellite
offices in these other areas, thereby expanding your marketing service
area.

True your nonprofit organization may only have a local limited service
market area. And, of course, this is perfectly all right, and most of
your fundraising will indeed be from this local service area. Yet, if
your service area is much broader than you immediate local area or
community your fundraising possibilities will be much broader too. And
the careful defining of your full market service area will open up the
possibility of a lot more funding available from a lot more funding
sources, that your research will reveal.

Thus, giving your organization more money to provide your services
more effectively, and perhaps on a much greater scale. Thereby
allowing your organization to help a lot more people as you achieve
your important social mission. Namely, improving the lives of other
human beings through what it is that you do.

PREPARING EFFECTIVE FUNDRAISING DOCUMENTS STARTS WITH
GOOD RECORD KEEPING
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

In the process of raising funding for your nonprofit organization you
will need, and create a mountain of various documents that detail
information about your organization and your service to your community
either directly or indirectly. Some of the many kinds of documents
you’ll need include: Development proposals, case statements, cover
letters, solicitation letters, public relations materials and numerous
other documents.

The key to preparing these many kinds of written fundraising
communications relatively quickly and easily involves good recording
keeping. That is you will need file folder for each class of
information that you will need to create your development documents,
so that you have right at your finger tips just what you need. The
files that you will need include:

* A File On Your Organizational Successes
* A File On The Problem You Solve
* A File On Your Organizations History
* A File On Your Projects And Programs
* A File On The People Of Your Organization
* A File On Your Past Supporters

Now let’s take a look at each of these files, and what they should
contain.

A File On Your Organizational Successes

Your organizational successes file needs to contain two kinds of
success information on your organization. First, it’s needs to contain
information on the organizational successes of your nonprofit. Such
as, what have you done to make your organization stronger? And second,
you need information on your organization successes programmatically
in terms of your program delivery, placed in context as to the
difference you are making.

A File On The Problem You Solve

Next, the file on the problem your organization solves needs to have
information on the national, regional, and local ramifications of the
problem your organization is in business to solve. Information that
details the full scope of the problem such as, who has this problem,
why solving this problem is important and etc.

A File On Your Organizations History

The history of your organization file, of course, needs the details on
who stated your organization, when your organization was started, and
why your organizations was started. As well as information on how your
organization may have expanded or developed from the founding idea of
it’s existence.

A File On Your Projects And Programs

In your projects and programs file you need to save detailed
information on each of your projects and programs. Including, the
objectives of each program, who was served, how many where served by
each program, and the cost of delivering each program.

A File On The People Of Your Organization

The people file for your organization should have resumes and
biographical information on your executive director, board chairman,
board members, key staff members, project leaders, and program
coordinators. And include information on any articles published or
books written by your people and other relevant data on them.

A File On Your Past Supporters

Your file on past supporters of your organization should contain
detailed information on all institutional contributors to your
organization, including, federal, state, and local government
agencies. And foundations, corporations, civic groups, religious
groups, and other institutions and groups for the last three years.
Also, this file should include information on the total number of
individual donors and the sum total of those donations for the past
three years.

These various files will contain the essential data and information
about your organization that you need to prepare effective development
documents to raise funding for your nonprofit. Moreover, these files
will help your organization to prepare clear, concise, and persuasive
fundraising documents in a lot less time, and with a lot less effort.
And of course it goes without saying that these files should be
updated on a regular and ongoing basis.

AN ENDOWMENT FUND WILL HELP INSURE YOUR NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATIONS FUTURE
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

Your nonprofit organization, as most do, may fully understand the need
for setting up an endowment fund. Yet, you may also feel that the
immediate pressing funding needs of your organization makes such a
course of action not very practical from your perspective. This is
indeed a big mistake since such a fund is absolutely critical to the
long-term financial stability and future of your nonprofit
organization. Whether your organization is small or large.

The endowment fund idea is really rather very simple in concept. It is
the setting aside or saving of a certain amount of money by your
organization on a regular basis over a long period of years, will
allow that money to grow to a very considerable amount, with the help
of compound interest.

For example, if your organization set aside $3,000 per year and put
this money into an endowment fund account that compounded at a 10%
rate of interest over a 30 year period. At the end of that 30 year
period your endowment fund would have an amount of well over one and a
half million dollars in it by that time.

About $3,000 per year is the lowest amount of money you should put
into your endowment account each year. If your organization has over
$100,000 per year in operating costs, you should consider making as
your goals to set aside a minimum of at least $5,000 per year into
your endowment fund account each year, and of course you can always
save more than this amount of you decide.

What’s more, this endowment fund money that’s set aside for this
purpose each year, as a rule, can not be raise from foundations or
corporations. Since the vast majority of these institutions strictly
prohibit this, and will not make gifts to endowment funds in any way
shape or form.

Therefore, the money that you put into your endowment account will
have to come from your operating revenues. For example, if your
organization has yearly operating costs of $50,000, and you would like
to put $5,000 a year into your endowment account, then you would need
to set as your operating fundraising objective the sum of $55,000.

The handling of your endowment fund portfolio, as a rule, is done by
your Finance Committee when this fund has a balance of $50,000 or less
in it. Once this endowment fund reaches an amount of over $50,000 most
nonprofit organizations, as perhaps you should too, retain the
assistance of a professional endowment fund manager to handle their
endowment fund portfolio. And there has came into being over the past
several years a number of professional investment firms that
specialize in endowment fund portfolio management.

Yes, the need for starting and regularly investing a set amount of
money each year into an endowment fund for your nonprofit organization
is critical to the long term financial stability, and future of your
nonprofit organization. Any board of directors or trustees that does
not fully understand this reality, or does not fully act on this fact
is a board that is not living up to its responsibility as governors of
their organization. Which can have very serious long-term consequences
for the future of their organizations.

GOOD DONOR RECOGNITION POLICIES WILL HELP YOUR
NONPROFIT GET MORE FUNDS
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

Those who financially support your nonprofit organization are the
lifeline to the very existence of agency. If their support is not
adequately recognized, or if you treat them in any other way than that
which says, they are special and you fully appreciate their support.
Then you have a very serious problem brewing in your donor bases. That
may cause many of your donor funding sources of support to dry up.

Far too many organizations focus too much of their time on the asking
for money part of fundraising. And spend far too little of their time
on effective donor recognition, and good donor relations. But your
donors and qualified prospects are the essence of your nonprofit
organization’s continued financial success. Thus, it’s of the up most
importance that you treat these people well, if for no other reason
than to help insure their first gift, and their next gifts year after
year.

Effective donor recognition should be considered by you as only one
part of your relationship with your donors. One part, that is of a
long term relationship you must have to ask for your next gift, and
the one after that, and so on. Moreover, your donor recognition system
is your way of telling your donors and donor prospects that their
gifts are, or will be greatly appreciated and fully recognized.

Of the many kinds donor recognition there are, or that you can
creatively come up with, will of course depend on their level of the
gift. Yet each and everyone who supports your agency with a gift
should always receive some kind of recognition. From your personal
letter of thank you to every one who makes any kind of gift at all no
matter how small. To your thank you phone call in addition to your
thank you letter to all moderate and major donors, which should be
standard.

There are numerous other kinds of recognition you can give to your
donors as well, such as: publishing their gift in your newsletter;
publishing their gift in newspapers; certificates and awards; plaques
with their names listed for a set period; bricks with their names
listed on walkways; donor walls with their pictures or portraits; the
naming of walkways and special areas after them; the naming of wings
and other areas after them; the naming of buildings after them, and
dedication events of many kind to honor them.

In fact one of the best kinds of donor recognition are dedication
events of some kind, where those who have made gifts to your
organization are publicly recognized. This allows your donors to
invite their family and friends to come and bask in the light of their
good and noble deeds. Almost everyone enjoys this kind of public
recognition and appreciation for what they have done to help those you
serve and their communities.

In addition, these dedication events have an excellent chance of being
covered by the media, so be sure to prepare a good media release and
distribute it to your local media. Yet, a few words of caution are in
order here about publishing information about your donors. Many donors
don’t really want information about their gifts made public for a
variety of reasons. So before you publish or have published any
information on any of your donor’s gifts, be sure to discuss the
matter with them beforehand.

What’s the right kind of donor recognition for the level of gift a
donors has made? This is indeed a very good question, which does
require a great deal of very careful thought can consideration on your
part. So that you can come up with clear written guidelines and
policies concerning this subject. Since this subject is much too
important to approach it in a piece-meal, shoot from the hip fashion.

And it’s important that you stick to your written guidelines and
policies in deciding how much, and what kind of recognition each donor
will receive in relationship to their gift level. For you to do
otherwise may put off other donors who could rightfully feel that
they’re not being treated fairly when it comes to donor recognition
issues. And all of your donors must be treated equally and fairly.

Yes, your donors, those who support your nonprofit organization
financially are the bread and butter of your agencies very existence.
And they must be treated as what they are to your organization,
indeed, very special. When treated this way they will continue to
provide their support wholeheartedly, and they will get others to
support your organization as well.

KICKING OFF YOUR ANNUAL NONPROFIT FUNDRAISING DRIVE
RIGHT WILL HELP INSURE ITS SUCCESS
By: Berwyn J. Kemp

Your organization has set its yearly fundraising goals and objectives,
your committees have been selected and fully staffed, and all of the
various documents you need have been prepared for your annual
fundraising drive. Now it’s time to kick off your annual fundraising
campaign. Your annual fundraising campaign kick off is a very
important moment in your fundraising efforts to secure the funds you
need for the operation of your nonprofit organization.

It is very important because when you kick off your annual campaign
right it will allow you to set the right tone for your entire
fundraising efforts. It’s been said that nothing worthwhile has ever
been achieve without enthusiasm, and you want to send your volunteers
on their mission with that fired eyed enthusiasm that will help to
insure that your drive is the success that you want it to be. Here are
some steps you can take to help you do this:

1. Select an appropriate time and place for your campaign kick off
meeting. Your meeting should last about two hours and can best be held
on a weekday evening or a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. If your
headquarters has a suitable space it can be held there, if not, you
can hold it at a rented facility or local hotel meeting room. It’s
also a very good idea to have some kind of refreshments available for
your annual campaign kick off.

2. Decide who will be your meeting’s motivational speaker, usually
this person is your board chairman. But if your board chairman is not
the greatest motivational speaker in the world you could also decide
to use another board member, a past board member, prominent community
leaders, or some other highly respected and capable person.

3. Start your meeting off by having your keynote motivational speaker
deliver their motivational message. This message should stress the
overall importance of your fundraising drive, the importance of your
organizations mission to those you serve, and to the betterment of
your community as a whole.

4. Provide a question and answer period of during your meeting after
your meeting in which you answer any and all questions your volunteers
might have concerning the technical aspects of your annual fundraising
drive. This role can be handled by your
executive director who should have a clear understanding of all the
technical aspects of your campaign, and be able to answer any such
questions from your committee workers, and other connected to your
campaign.

5. Before concluding your campaign kick off meeting be sure that all
your people have all the various documents that they will need to do
their jobs effectively. Including such items as development proposals,
case statements, training manuals, sample solicitation letters, donor
solicitation reports forms, and any another related and relevant
documents and materials.

6. End your kick off meeting by having your keynote motivational
speaker provide a brief summary of the overall fundraising drive. And
with a final positive uplifting motivational message that will spur
your volunteer committee solicitors to enthusiastic action. This
enthusiastic motivational component of your annual campaign kick off
is critical to getting your drive off on the right foot, and can help
set the right tone for your entire annual fundraising campaign.

Much work, preparation, and planning have already gone into your
annual fundraising drive by the time to get to your campaign kick off
that sets everything you’ve done so far into motion. Yes, this is a
very important time for your organization indeed. So be sure to kick
off your annual fundraising drive right to help insure that your
investment of time and effort pays off, by getting your nonprofit
organization the funding you need to fight the good fight for those
you serve.