In this Issue:

•  Idaho Statewide Nonprofit Conference - Registration Now Open!
•  Why Are Nonprofits AWOL in Budget Fight?
•  A Quick Guide to Discounted Software Programs
•  Should Staff Contact with the Board Be Restricted?
•  20 Best Practices for Monthly Giving Programs
•  Why you should hire people who disagree with you
•  Email: More is okay and works well - if it’s good
•  Send in your fundraising information for Treasure Magazine
•  Nonprofit Job Board

Idaho Statewide Nonprofit Conference

Registration Now Open!

It's time to get ready for the largest annual gathering of nonprofits in Idaho. On September 22 and 23, you'll have a chance to meet some fascinating thought leaders from the nonprofit sector, including keynote speaker Robert Egger and authors Larry Johnson, Justin Foster, Kay Sohl and Tom Iselin.

Come for the latest ideas, research and information that matters to nonprofit leaders in Idaho. It's the best training investment you can make for the future of your nonprofit organization!

Click here to visit the Conference website for details on workshops and deals on lodging and registration. See you in September!
Why Are Nonprofits AWOL in Budget Fight?
Bob Boisture, The Chronicle of Philantrhopy, July 20, 2011

The budget crisis is an existential threat to the American dream. It is also an existential threat to the nation’s nonprofit organizations. But the nonprofit world has gone AWOL.

Nonprofits have a powerful self-interest in the debate and a clear duty to jump in. It may well be impossible to resolve the crisis without them.

Nonprofits are understandably and appropriately fighting to preserve the money that finances their work, both in direct payments and through appropriate charitable-giving incentives, but it is dangerously myopic for them not also to be working for a broader and more fundamental budget overhaul.

No partisan plan can solve the budget crisis. The only way out is...click here to read more

Several manufacturers provide nonprofit organizations with donated software if you're willing to jump through a few hoops, and several discount software programs provide substantial savings to nonprofit organizations on many popular applications. For examples, click here!

Looking for more tips for smart technology buying decisions?

You'll find them in our next webinar! Kizmet Beasley, IT Infrastructure Consultant at Intermountain Technology Group will help you assess your options and stretch your IT budget. Don't miss out! Tuesday, July 26

Should board members have contact with staff independent of the executive director? For many executive directors, this issue raises blood pressure faster than almost any other.

Opinion is sharply divided about whether and how other staff should interact with board members. Executive directors often feel that independent board-staff contact undermines their authority and creates the potential for staff to give misleading and undermining information to the board. They can also worry that board members will give inappropriate information to staff, perhaps about a lawsuit settlement, a financial problem, or about what's in the budget for staff raises (or cuts).

Board members want to respect the authority of their executive director, but they also often feel that it's more efficient to meet separately with staff on some matters and that doing so spares the executive from too many meetings. Board members also value the independent viewpoint they develop when not all their information is filtered through the executive director. And when staff-board contact is prohibited, the board is often the last to know about...click here to read more

Do you want a fundraising strategy that creates ongoing predictable cash flow? One that is low cost, and returns a high RIO? That creates a wonderful prospect pool for planned and major gifts? That gets donors to quadruple (or more) their gifts?

Then welcome to monthly giving! Monthly giving can be your pot of gold! I’ve pulled the best practices for monthly giving together here. Use these guidelines – from all the experts – to launch this highly profitable program and enjoy its benefits. There are three stages to a successful MG program:

#1 Get Ready, #2 Market Your Program, and #3 Customer Service.

Even if you already have a monthly giving program in place, this list has some great reminders - click here!

In her book Bossypants, Tina Fey recounts the biggest lessons she learned while working for Lorne Michaels. One is “Don’t hire anyone you wouldn’t want to run into in the hallway at three in the morning.”

Your office is probably not like the soundstages of Saturday Night Live. Maybe your rules for hiring are different. But it’s pretty natural to want to hire people who aren’t, in Fey’s words, “too talkative or needy or angry to deal with in the middle of the night by the printer.” It’s really nice to work with people you genuinely like spending time with.

But that doesn’t mean they should be like you.

Healthy skepticism is the building block to making your organization even better. As part of my research on how to get more good ideas into the brains of more people, I’ve been reading a lot about innovation. And over and over again, the one word the keeps popping up as a crucial component to innovation is...click here to read more

A common question I get is: “How often should I email my supporters?”

It’s hard to answer, because it depends on the quality of what you’re sending - and to whom you’re sending it. If you send wonderful messages to a highly engaged community, many messages can be a good thing. If you send awful, endless spam to people who don’t really value you, that’s another story.

Some new data from M+R shows the first scenario shows great fundraising results, even at high volumes of messages. The latter doesn’t work so well. According to the eBenchmarks extras they’ve released, a study of forty nonprofits shows: click here to read more

Get your fundraising event (luncheon, gala, auction, etc.) listed in the August 27th issue of the Idaho Statesman’s Treasure magazine. Send event information to treasure@idahostatesman.com before July 28th.

Include the name, date, time and place (full street address) of the event, some information about the event, the ticket cost or entry fees, a contact telephone number, contact e-mail address and group website address. No attachments please. Events must benefit a nonprofit cause and should be happening between August 27th and November 26th.

To have your event appear in the States man’s calendars as well, you must enter the information online at http://events.idahostatesman.com.

Nonprofit Job Opportunities

Is your nonprofit offering summer internship positions? Get the word out - post them to our Nonprofit Career Center Job Board!  Here are some of the current job listings:

• Development Manager - Trey McIntyre Project, Boise (7/19/2011)

• Development Director - The Advocates, Hailey (7/18/2011)

• Marketing Director - Ballet Idaho, Boise (7/5/2011)