The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008 - (Page 4)

Who When Where How WHAT? Winners Getting Message Out • Gift To Hall Of Fame • Betsy Johnson To Retire • Man Who Helped Found NOW Dies MDA Telethon Breaks Mark Again, Adds Auction Legendary entertainer Jerry Lewis did it again this year for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), raising another record total in his annual Labor Day telethon. The 43rd annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day telethon raised $65 million, besting last year’s total by $1.2 million, or about 2 percent. About $61 million was raised two years ago. This year’s telethon also included an online auction, which kicked off Aug. 21 and ran for two weeks until bidding closed on Sept. 4. There were more than 3,800 items available for bidding, including tickets to next year’s telethon, VIP packages to various other television shows and autographed entertainment and sports memorabilia, among other things. During last year’s telethon, MDA had auctions in about a half-dozen test markets before this year’s national auction, which is actually nine regional auctions rolled into one. The auctions raised nearly $600,000, with 203,000 visits to the auction Web sites, according to Bob Mackle, MDA’s vice president of public information. Mackle said the organization was pleased with the auction’s results considering Hurricane Gustav hit that weekend, and some television stations were not broadcasting and people were displaced.“Under the circumstances, we thought we actually did very well,” he said, adding that sponsors that provided the items in general were pleased with the results and the interest in items and exposure. The auction’s biggest draws, Mackle said, were two Harley-Davidson items and a package to go to next year’s telethon and meet Lewis, which went for $7,525. Harley-Davidson donated 105 items for its 105th anniversary. A Fender special edition Harley-Davidson 105th anniversary Stratocaster guitar, autographed by musician Tim McGraw, was the highest-selling item. It generated 61 bids before finally ending at $35,088 – after bidding was extended past the deadline as two bidders battled for it. A motorcycle, customized over the weekend at the 105th anniversary celebration in Milwaukee garnered a winning bid of $30,000. The item with the most bids was a 2007 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon celebrity autographed poster, which had 76 bids and ultimately sold for $1,810. More than 19,000 bids were received from 3,200-plus total bidders. The top five categories in terms of number of bids were: getaways, dining, sports memorabilia, gift certificates and $5 opening bids, according to a spokesperson for cMarket, the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm that handleD the auctions. For the third year, the 211⁄2-hour event originated from the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas. The show was broadcast to nearly 40 million viewers by some 180 television stations that comprise MDA’s “Love Network.” Millions more worldwide had access to the telethon at www.mda.org via RealNetworks. —MARK HRYWNA Baltimore Has The Aquarium, The Orioles … If you want a nonprofit job, think about moving to Maryland. The Maryland nonprofit sector created more than 50,000 new jobs between 1998 and 2006. Nonprofit employees account for 9.5 percent of the state’s employment force and 20 percent of the state’s overall job growth, according to a new report, which uses the latest data from 2006. The nonprofit growth isn’t a surprise to Nancy Hall, senior advisor at the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations in Baltimore.“We’ve seen the trends. What it does is really help us make the case of what a strong economic engine nonprofits Nancy Hall really are,” said Hall. Hall said several trends across the state contributed to the nonprofit growth, including a surge of charter schools that Hall called “letting a genie out of a bottle,” which by Maryland legislation the schools must be run by a nonprofit. The growth could also be credited to increased money spent on health services, since a majority of the hospitals are nonprofits, according to Hall. “The real growth is coming from larger organizations.The big are getting bigger,” said Hall. More than 243,000 nonprofit employees in more than 25,000 nonprofits worked in the state during 2006.The payroll for these employees banked in at more than $10.5 billion. Nonprofits By the Numbers 2008: Analysis of Maryland’s Nonprofit Sector is a part of The John Hopkins University’s Nonprofit Economic Data Project. —MICHELE DONOHUE New Name,Leadership For NCNA With a new executive director in place and new leadership amidst its board members, the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA) will change its name to the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN) by next year. The new moniker aims to show that the national group represents its more than 22,000 members and nonprofits, avoiding confusion about what exactly it is as an association.“It’s for people to see, this is a movement,”said Doug Sauer, chair of the organization’s board and chief executive officer of the Council of Community Services of New York State. The change also aims to get away from the stigma and confusion about what exactly nonprofit associations are, he said, and have members feel more Tim Delaney connected to the local network. The name change is partly about membership, whether the organization is viewed as a true nonprofit or more of a trade association. It will be left up to the new leadership as to how and when the new name will be implemented.The organization’s 41 members approved a new executive director, Tim Delaney, in addition to the name change. There also are some new, younger leadership on the group’s board, Sauer said, who haven’t been around since the NCNA’s inception in 1990. Sauer said four of the roughly 41 member states voted against the name change,largely the same ones who had concerns about moving to a federated model. —MARK HRYWNA What’s In A Name? Two nonprofits dedicated to helping veterans are still battling over their names. Omaha-based Wounded Warriors, Inc. was given a preliminary injunction by the Federal District Court of Nebraska to close down its Web site, www.woundedwarriors.org after Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) based in Jacksonville, Fla., filed a lawsuit against Wounded Warriors, Inc. in September 2007, citing donor confusion. “I don’t think charities should be suing each other. I think it’s morally offensive. That money going to lawyers is money that should be going to combat-wounded or killed in action,”said Matt Butler, volunteer and board member for Wounded Warriors, Inc. Col. John Folsom, founder and president of Wounded Warriors, Inc., is currently deployed in Iraq with the Marine Corp Reserves. “It was a case about honoring donor intent,” said Errol Copilevitz, legal counsel for WWP from the Copilevitz & Cantor, LLC, in Kansas City, Mo. Copilevitz said that some people using Web database searches mistakenly donated money to Wounded Warriors, Inc. after WWP was featured in the national media. Wounded Warriors, Inc. has a new Web site, renamed Wounded Warriors Family Support, which carries a disclaimer explaining that there is no affiliation with WWP. WWP legal counsel will have to decide whether to present evidence on secondary meaning, which would give the generic “wounded warrior” term maximum trademark rights for WWP. “This isn’t a dispute about whether the other organization is worthy or are or are not doing program services,” said Copilevitz.“The dispute over them capturing confused donors that think they are going to our client and requiring them to take steps to differentiate themselves. We would like them to change their name, the court has ordered them to change the Web site – so we think we’re on the right road.” Both organizations benefit those people who served in the United States armed forces. Wounded Warriors, Inc. provides free resort vacations to families with a wounded, injured or killed family member during service.WWP hosts a variety of advocacy and outreach programs, including the WWP Soldier Ride, a series of cycling programs for wounded veterans across the nation. “Do we want to settle? Absolutely,” said Butler.“We don’t want to be burning up our donors’ precious, hard-earned money to feed the lawyers. John did not go raise this money for that.” —MICHELE DONOHUE OCTOBER 1, 2008 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com http://www.mda.org http://woundedwarriorsfamilysupport.org/ http://woundedwarriorsfamilysupport.org/ http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008 Near Miss & Direct Hit Donor Intent The Focus Of Suit North Dakota AG Investigating The Grant Institute Contents Who...When...Where...How...What? Calendar Kumbaya Tying The Knot Filing Changes Philanthropy Caucus Big Bucks For Capital Campaigns 5 Things NOT To Do In A Capital Campaign Acquisition: Staying The Course ServiceNation Summit Fundraising Guide NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - October 1, 2008

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