The NonProfit Times - February 15, 2008 - (Page 1)

The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management • www.nptimes.com • $6.00 U.S. February 15, 2008 Making The Pitch Involving your board in planned giving By Mike Patterson Raising $1 Billion Bear market doesn’t scare higher-ed fundraisers By Jeff Jones I nvolving board members in planned giving is an ongoing challenge for many nonprofit organizations. This entails struggling to make the board understand the importance of gift planning to the charity’s financial future, as well as involving the board in the process of cultivating and soliciting gifts themselves. Philip M. Purcell, vice president for planned giving and endowment stewardship at the Ball State University Foundation in Muncie, Ind., believes that a key to capturing their attention and involvement is “to state a case for planned giving” almost like a planned giving officer would to a donor. “Think of encouraging planned giving as part of (the board’s) duty,” Purcell said at the recent National Conference on Planned Giving in Grapevine,Texas. “As with creating the case for any fundraising program, the case for planned giving must be effectively made -- and accepted -- by the board of directors,” he stated in a paper submitted with his presentation.“Hopefully,acceptance of this case will lay the groundwork for support for the planned giving program by the board such as in the budget, with fundraising assistance by board members.” To lay the groundwork for support of a planned giving program, Purcell said the governing board, and ultimately donors, must “connect the dots” between the documented needs of the local community or broader scope; the service to those needs “S Governing board, and ultimately donors, must “connect the dots” Making The Pitch, page 4 ubprime crisis” and “liquidity crunch” are a few phrases that were missing from the general lexicon of early 2006 when the University of Maryland System launched a $1.7-billion fundraising campaign. A few other phrases come to mind for Leonard Raley, vice chancellor for advancement at the University System of Maryland in Adelphi, Md.“There were two words that weren’t in our vocabulary -- credit crisis,” said Raley, also president and chief executive officer of University of Maryland System Foundation. “That has impacted the thinking for a lot of people.The good news for us is we have not seen any real decline in terms of giving or interest in any of our campaigns. It’s fair to say that for some people, especially among our major donors and donor prospects, what’s going on in the economy gives some people pause.” The stock market can affect the timing and size of gifts, said Ann E. Kaplan, director,Voluntary Support of Education Survey at the Council for Aid to Education in New York City. Personal giving isn’t as volatile as the stock market, she said. Perhaps that’s The $55.7 million, 140,000-square-foot Simon Hall at Indiana University-Bloomingone reason universities in the midst of $1 ton opened its doors to scientists and support staff in February 2007. It’s part of a $1 billion campaigns or considering one aren’t billion campaign that started in July 2003. sweating a down market. Ohio State University president for development and alumni relations at (OSU) in Columbus, Ohio, and University of Georgia State College, Pa.-based Penn State University, which in Athens, Ga., both are in the early planning stages recently finished a seven-year, $1.3 billion campaign. OSU picked Weiler because they’re planning a of $1 billion campaigns. OSU hired Peter Weiler to head its development large campaign, and he’s “the best in the nation,” said organization and fundraising efforts.Weiler is sched- Jeff Kaplan, vice president and special assistant to Raising $1 Billion, page 6 uled to begin this March. He’ll leave his post as vice Rebranding A Tradition March of Dimes updates its premiere event and image By Tim O’Reiley s he sat in the lobby of his largest corporate sponsor in mid-2007, the March of Dimes’ Doug Staples braced himself for a rough ride. In previous months, he had mentioned to community relations managers at retailer Kmart that a major A change might be in the works.But this time, he traveled to the company’s headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates to formally inform them that the March of Dimes would rename its iconic WalkAmerica fundraiser as the March for Babies. Since its 1970 launch as the first large-scale walkathon, the event had raised more than $1.8 billion, with Kmart, as the top corporate contributor, accounting for $63 million during a span of 24 years. “We were nervous about it,” said Staples, the White Plains, N.Y.-based March of Dimes senior vice president of strategic marketing and communications, about discarding a name that had become so widely known. “But when I explained why we are doing it, they just said,‘Great. It makes perfect sense.’ I just about fell out of my chair.” March of Dimes officials are hoping to win similar acceptance at the grass-roots level, after making the name change public on Jan. 16 as part of a much broader strategic shift and concurrent rebranding program. It includes a changed logo and a new Web site. How well it works will play a large role in whether the March of Dimes can hit its ambitious goal of growing revenues by at least 10 perMarch Of Dimes, page 4 http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - February 15, 2008 Raising $1 Billion Rebranding A Tradition Making The Pitch Contents Message Matters Consolidation Continues Coordinating Your Message All About The Money Ho-Ho-Hoping At Christmas Best Practices It’s A New Year NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - February 15, 2008

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