Governance
Membership
Governance
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Strategic Philanthropy:
You hear about corporations engaged in
strategic philanthropy or "cause-related marketing" (checkout
The Charity Cafe) or about how today's philanthropists can best engage
in charitable giving with a "modest $10,000" (see
Satisfaction's Magazine Sept/Oct 2005 article on Strategic Philanthropy).
However, those of us who seek to have an impact with even more modest
giving, such as is found more typically among Giving Circles (on the order
of $35 - $350 per person), strategic philanthropy is still quite possible
and even essential if we seek to have maximum impact with our charitable
giving. The means to strategic philanthropy can be simple:
Focus on an issue and develop a coherent strategy (with a clear mission and
defined goals that correspond to objectives), assign attainable targets and
measures, and track your progress as you implement. You might be
surprised how easy it is to be strategic in your philanthropy and to have a
lasting impact.
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Conformance to
Federal/State Regulations
(if you want to become a tax exempt organization) - Below are general list
of documents that you should file to become a tax exempt organization and
thereby conform to government rules and regulations (Note that this list
is still under construction so should not be considered comprehensive):
G State Level
- Step #1 -
File as a Non-stock corporation
- Step #2 - File for the Right to Solicit for Funding
- Step #3 - Reporting Employees & Earnings
- Step #4 - Filing of Annual Reports
G Federal Level
- Step #1 - File a 1023 (Apply
to be come 501c3)
- Step #2 - File Reporting on Employees & Earnings
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Efficient Board Management
- Coming Soon
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Employing a Staff - When Can or
Should You Start? The litmus test for when you should employ a staff
is: Are your GC services (and hence expenses) broader than
grant-making services covered by either your membership donations and/or your GC's host or sponsor? If so,
then you need to determine whether your volunteers can cover all the
additional services required. If not, then it's time to get
established as a tax exempt organization and set up a staff.
Simple Spreadsheet Tools - Existing GCs
recommend that new GCs start to develop and use simple spreadsheets to
manage a variety of administrative activities. These spreadsheets
will help to manage, plan and strategize for the future. They
include ones for:
P
Membership Tracking...including:
- how a person was recruited, by whom,
and through which event;
- to which events were members invited,
who accepted and who attended;
- all pertinent contact information;
- pledging or membership fee levels; and
- areas of conflict of interest.
P
Contact Management...not just
for members but all partners, grantees, sponsors, etc.
P
Programs/Event Management
- Dates, Topics, Committees and Service
Providers
P
Grant Management - Whether or
not you have a host or sponsor, make sure that you keep track of all
your Grantees and Grants and that you have all the
necessary Grant Tracking Tools.
Database Management Tools
Eventually, if your giving Circle
grows to large numbers -- of members, contacts or donations -- you may
want to use a more robust management tool such via a database.
Here are a few suggested by Giving Circles to track members, donations,
interests and volunteer activities, and generate letters, labels, etc.:
Salesforce: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool
Foundation Power:
Customizable Suite of Management Tools
E-tapestry: Donor/Member Management Software -
Free if you have fewer than 500 members.
Grant Tracking
- If your GC has a host or sponsor, they will probably provide a significant
amount of grant management on your behalf. However, whether or not you
have a host, make sure that you are tracking all of the following at a
minimum so that you can effectively manage your grantees but also
assess their performance and impact:
- Committee Members
- Inquiries/Expressions of Interest
- Organization Names & Contact Info
(Candidates, Applicants and Grantees)
- Date Tracking (date application received,
date of award, period of grant performance, dates that progress and other
reports are due, date of disbursement of grant funds).
- Program/Project Tracking (programs,
projects, grantee reports promised and delivered, grantees proposed targets
and measures and the extent to which they met them).
- Financial Tracking (amount requested by
grantee, amount funded by your GC, and amounts received by grantee).
Join a Grant-maker Association:
About
Regional Associations of Grantmakers
Resources:
GrantCraft, funded by the Ford Foundation, offers a series of guides,
cases, videos and more for grantmakers on techniques for strategy
development, grant-making, evaluation, and promoting change.
Grant Makers Quick Guides:
Charity Village
Membership
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Recruitment
- As is typical for voluntary organizations, most Giving Circles recruit via
word-of-mouth and member referrals. Some
also leverage local media for every event to get more community attention. You
can leverage these techniques through the "social" appeal of giving circles
by hosting one-time or regular social events where you invite
potential members and also engage in fundraising. Such events include
dinners (see Dining for Women), potlucks as is the tradition with
Washington Womenade teas, and even musical events with a social element. As noted, you can also
use other techniques, such as partnering with the media -- we
particularly recommend local public radio (see summary of what
the media can do for you via
National Center for Outreach).
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Retain Existing
Members - If your GC is losing members or concerned that it may,
your GC is probably -- from the perspective of those members -- losing their
interest, taking too much of their time, involving too much bureaucracy,
requiring too much in the way time commitment, or any number of other
issues. Your GC can find ways to keep them involved by making
membership easy and enjoyable. Since the key is giving, allow members
to contribute what they desire, even though they might not be able to be a
"voting member" with a very low commitment level (i.e., have different types
of membership). Also, so long as your members continue to engage in
giving, enable your members not to attend meeting and make the attendance
worthwhile and enjoyable when they do. Send out survey cards to find
out what interests them and what would make their giving exciting and
meaningful. You might be surprised at the response!
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Diversify
- Some Giving circles start with a diverse membership from inception, but
others seek to diversify after establishing themselves. If your GC is
in the latter situation, you will probably need to make a concerted effort
to diversify your GC. Below are some tips based on research as well as
recommendations from our Giving Circles
Advisory Panel:
- Invite the press to events and send
out press releases to appeal to as broad a group of potential members as
possible;
- Reach out to the local religious
community, i.e., faith-based organizations (as well as make it a
formal policy to do so). According to one national survey on
community organizations, close to one-third of respondents used this
method to diversify membership either on an ad-hoc basis or formal
practice basis. For more information, see:
The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy published
"Exploring the Relationships between Community Foundations and
Faith-Based Social Service Providers: A National Survey Assessing
the Policies and Giving Patterns of Community Foundations," by
Scott, Jason D., and Kidder, Christopher D., an independent research
project of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, June 2004, pg. 6;
- Partner
with already diversified organizations;
- Partner with community organizations
established and respected by those groups that you wish to include in your
growing membership;
- Consider hosting events that
might raise the appeal and access to other communities. In those cases, your
GC would probably need to leverage the media if your membership does not
already have contacts, friends, or colleagues whom they could invite or
engage to spread the word directly;
- Gauge the diversity by zip codes to
the areas that your Circle is serving and seek to match that diversity
on your Board and/or in your membership;
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Foster awareness of a common interest
(that transcends cultural, socio-economic and ethnic differences);
- Make a collective action (and
membership) easier and less costly for individuals across socio-economic
circles;
- Recruit persons to the Board from the
ethnic groups that your Circle seeks to target
(when persons of these different ethnic groups see that the board is
diverse, they view the organization as already diversified and may
thereby feel more inclined to join);
- Provide multicultural training to
the board and members. (There are groups specialized to do this);
- Include in your Circle's written
policies its principles about being a diverse organization; and
- Make the objective of diversity a
measurable target and set a deadline!
- As noted above under Recruitment and
Diversify Membership, leverage the local media to the extent
possible to get the word out and grow the membership base by asking them
to partner and inviting the press to your local events;
- Use current members to solicit new
members (have each one invite four or five friends);
- Mail out invitations to events
(you can do it easily online);
- Distribute fliers through
community centers and libraries;
- Present your Circle briefly at the
start of each event to inform potential new members;
- Ask new members to host coffees at
their home and invite 10 friends to hear the Circle's history;
- Hand out commitment cards at
each gathering to find out each person's intentions;
- Dedicate one board member to
"getting the message out", serving as the public relations or
"media" contact.
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How to Deal with
Growth in Membership - At some point, a GC may experience so
much growth or change in focus that the corresponding demands of growth or
change may exceed the Circle's management capability to
provide grant-making services and/or the members' capability (time or
expertise) to provide volunteer services. At that point, the
Giving Circle may need to employ a staff person, if only
on a part-time basis or seek a part-time Executive Director. If
your Circle:
- Is a 501c3, it needs to
incorporate those salaries and wages into its approved budget and financial
reports (including the Form 990), manage and pay salaries and wages as
required by Federal and State law, and file the required Reports on
Employees & Earnings to the IRS and State.
- Is not a 501c3 yet and
is handling its grant-making services through a host foundation,
your Circle will need to either:
1) first apply for and attain 501c3
status (and then follow Federal and State regulations as noted above)
before paying staff directly; or
2) check with your Circle's host
foundation about whether it will and can manage funding (and payment of
salaries or wages) for your Circle's increasing staff demands, either
for general management or special projects.
Note: Some hosts will
only handle funding for grant-making to 501c3 organizations given that
if the host handles funding for the management (i.e., direct staffing or
expenses) of any organization that does not yet have 501c3 status (such
as your Circle), it may by law need to assume financial liability for
your Circle. Hosts may not be willing to assume that liability, so
check with your host's policies and procedures. You can also check
to see if the host has different policies in place for special
charitable projects versus an organization's general management, as the
former may meet your Circle's staffing needs and minimize the host's
liability.
- Is neither a 501c3 yet
nor handling its grant-making services through a host foundation,
your Circle may not be able to hire staff directly under Federal and State
laws. Your Circle in that case may want to consider either
reallocating its Circle's resources and member's volunteer services to avoid
hiring staff or identifying additional donated services from another source
or organization.
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