The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 - (Page 11)

Best Fundraisers Continued from page 10 “The final goal is really creating change,” said Pittelman.“And it’s starting to happen, and the conversations are starting to happen.” her own family’s foundation to promote social justice, are leading the way with a rare look inside the world of the “next generation” of family philanthropy. According to the Foundation Center, only 7.6 percent of family foundation funding during 2004 went to support communities of color. Even less went to low-income communities; to immigrants; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people; and women and girls’ programs. According to Alison Goldberg, the next generation of family foundation members is poised to change all that. Alison Goldberg “A couple years back, we started to notice more and more young people who were getting involved, who were asking questions about how to get engaged in their family funds in a way that made sense to them,” said Goldberg. “There’s definitely a conversation happening,” added Karen Pittelman.“And it’s not just through the lens of next generation, but in other areas, about how family philanthropy can be an elitist institution, and how oftentimes those funds have not been set up with social change in mind.” Through their book, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation, authors Pittelman,31,and Goldberg,32,provide the next generation of leaders with the tools to begin that conversation, and possibly transform the field of family philanthropy.The book includes interviews with 40 next generation leaders,each involved with Resource Generation (RG), a New York City-based group of wealthy young people working for social justice. The pair, who wrote the book for RG, met while working in program development at the nonprofit. “The idea (for the book) was germinating back then,”said Pittelman, who said she and Goldberg noticed a scarcity of resources available to young people looking to impact their family foundations. “So we’re trying to give them the tools and analysis they need to try and do that.” Pittelman authored another book for RG in January 2006, Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change, which she calls a “useful companion tool” to this latest one. “It focuses more on helping young people with wealth move through their guilt to take action,” said Pittelman, who moved through her own unease by using her inheritance to co-found in 1999 the Chahara Foundation, a fund run by and for lowincome women activists in Boston. At 28, Goldberg was selected to Worth Magazine’s list of “25 Most Karen Pittelman Generous Young Americans.” The Tufts graduate’s philanthropy includes a year with AmeriCorps, establishing Foundations for Change (which has since merged with RG to become the program Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy), and her tireless dedication to social change philanthropy. She also sits on the board of the Robert P. & Judith Goldberg Foundation and is an outside consultant for RG. YOUNGER THAN 40 ■ Jean Simmons Investing long-term in donors By Mark Hrywna It’s been almost two years since Jean Simmons visited Africa, seeing first hand the work that Catholic Relief Services (CRS) does in almost 100 countries around the globe. As director of direct-response fundraising, Simmons,35,spends her days at the Baltimore,Md.-based humanitarian relief agency directing efforts to raise $60 million annually. The trip back to Africa in 2005 proved to be “a real life-changing experience,” she said, providing a glimpse of what all that money can do and seeing “how grateful the people we help are.” The trip reinforced “all the positive things,” Simmons said, of “why I chose the career path I did, and why I enjoy coming to CRS every day.” A 1994 graduate of the University of MarylandCollege Park with a degree in consumer economics, Simmons also has worked for the Direct Marketing Association.“I’ve always been in direct marketing,” she said. Simmons initiated a mid-level donor program two years ago to serve as a bridge between direct response, major gifts and planned giving. It was set up as a distinctive cultivation and solicitation program, for donors who originated in direct response and have “a hisJean Simmons tory that called for a higher degree of investment,” Simmons said. It also identified major gifts prospects to the major giving department. The hybrid program – because it combines traditional direct response with a cultivation approach, said Simmons – has approximately 4,500 donors, slightly more than 1 percent of the total CRS file.One full-time development officer coordinates six parttime development associates, each with portfolios of about 750 donors. Associates develop ongoing relationships with donors through telephone, e-mail, personal contact or special mailings. “The key aspect of that is that the development associate is not a solicitor.They’re charged purely with cultivation and the direct response program makes the asks,” said Kristin McCurry, principal of MINDset Direct, which counts CRS as a client.“Their value is going up because they are being nurtured and cared for -- not because they’re asked more often, for larger gifts, or even through this personal contact.” That nurturing seems to be paying off.According to analysis by CRS, donors contacted by a development associate were worth twice as much as those who were not, with an average gift of $1,978, compared to $996. Revenue from the mid-level donor program has grown steadily,from $7.3 million in Fiscal Year 2004, spiking at $13.5 million in FY05 (thanks in part to increased giving across the board related to the Asian tsunami), and $12.1 million in FY06. Revenue per donor from the mid-level also has climbed, from $1,900 in FY04, again spiking in FY05 at $3,152, and $2,910 in FY06. Double-digit growth was seen for average gift per donors ($939 to $1,1047; 11 percent), and number of gifts per donor (2.55 to 2.83, 11 percent). THE NONPROFIT TIMES Before joining CRS five years ago, Simmons spent four years at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, where she worked for McCurry. “The fact that she holds her donors’ wishes and their best interests above all else,” McCurry said, is consistent from Simmons and that comes through in the message from CRS to its donors,particularly highvalue donors.“She’s willing to make the long-term investments in a donor because she understands the bond between the donor and the organization and knows how to feed it and nurture it.” LIVING LEGEND ■ Kay P. Lautman She wrote the book, literally By Mark Hrywna The memorials that Kay P. Lautman has helped to build might pay tribute to people and history,but they also could be considered a testament of sorts to her nearly four decades of fund-raising for some of the most prominent and important causes. As president of Lautman & Co., she’s helped raise money for a number of memorials around Washington, D.C., including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of the Marine Corps, National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism and the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. People say Lautman wrote the book on direct mail fundraising -- and they’re not kidding: Dear Friend: Mastering The Art of Direct Mail Fund Raising, with Henry Goldstein, was first published in 1984. Judy Maneval, president of Sanky Communications in New York City, formerly Sanky Perlowin Associates, said it’s required reading for new employees who need to learn about direct mail.Anyone who’s been in the business any length of time has a copy of it, she said, even though it’s no longer in print. “It’s a practical, hands-on, sensible book…and we all thank her for it.” Lautman said that she sort of stumbled into a fundraising career 35 years ago. When she started out, there were no schools or any places to learn direct mail. She answered an ad in the help wanted-female section of The New York Times to work at Oram Group Marketing. Despite being young and Kay P. Lautman not knowing what she wanted to do, Lautman said, it was “a job made in heaven for me. I got to do all these wonderful things and get paid for it… I did everything,I did it badly but I did it, and I got to learn a lot from that,” she said. Founded some 15 years ago, Lautman & Co. helped start the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s donor file before the monument was built.“That was one of the proudest moments of my career,” she said, adding that the first dozen years were extraordinary, seeing it built and being there for the opening of the museum.After 17 years working with the museum, it was time for some new perspective and Lautman’s firm took the unusual step of declining to bid on another contract.“We really felt that it was time to go.” Lautman also has helped to develop fundraising campaigns for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.“People are more important than animals, but like most people I can’t stand to see an animal or small child suffer,” she said.“In many ways that motivates me, being able to help Best Fundraisers, page 13 DECEMBER 15, 2007 www.nptimes.com http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007 Say Hello To 2008, Kissin’ Cousin of 2007 Scandal Ensnares Red Cross CEO Contents Nonprofits Getting A Second Lease On Life Hot Nonprofit Auctions Is It $10, $25 or $100? The World’s Best Fundraisers Turbo-Charged Web Use Help Wanted: 640,000 Open Positions Focus On Community Impact Has United Ways Changing Donor Migration - North Putting That Spark In Your Script NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - December 15, 2007

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