Charity Spring Patch Digest: Nominate Your Charity's Local Heroes

Patch Tips!

Is your charity in the Patch Directory? Did you know that The Patch is owned by AOL, which also owns Mapquest? Being in the Patch Directory not only makes it easier for people to find you, it also makes it easier for the Patch editors to link to your location and profile when your cause is either the focus of a Patch story or named within a story.

Fairfield County Funding Opportunities

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development is awarding grants ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 to Connecticut municipalities and non-profits for the restoration, preservation, stabilization, or acquisition of historic properties including buildings, monuments, sculptures, and much more. This involves a number of steps as is typical for government grants. You can begin here and see the application here to learn more. (Deadline 10/26/12)

Variety is awarding grants of $25,000 for visual and performing arts that "transform the lives of children through the arts." Examples include dance, theater, improvisation, music, spoken word, hip-hop, DJing, radio, film, step, and even circus. (Deadline 11/2/12)

The School Garden Grant Program is a collaboration between Whole Kids Foundation and FoodCorps, offering $2,000 School Garden Grants (application deadline is 11/15/12) to K-12 schools (public, private or charter - elementary, middle, or secondary) and/or a 501(c)(3) organizations that are developing or currently maintaining a garden project on school grounds that will engage children with fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Liberty Mutual Insurance sponsored Responsible Sports Community Grants of $2,500 are awarded to any non-profit youth sports organization or educational athletic program, but an organization can only receive a grant once. (Deadline 11/30/12)

Scholastic’s Lexus Echo Challenge awards prizes of $10,000 to middle school and high school teams including homeschoolers, consisting of 5-10 students and a teacher adviser, for environmental projects that address an issue in their community. (Deadline 10/29/12)

Breaking Fairfield County Charity News

The Patch reports that Darien's Person-to-Person and Norwalk-based Christian Community Action (CCA) intend to merge effective Nov. 1.

Charities expect giving to remain flat in 2012. See the analysis here. 

Donor Relations

Nominate your charity’s local heroes (e.g., major donors and/or volunteers) for the Association of Fundraising Professionals international awards announced at their 2013 International Conference on Fundraising in San Diego. The nomination period for the 2013 awards will began on October 15 and ends November 30. What an amazing gift to give your key people -- and remember that for anyone for any award, including the Oscar Academy Awards, it's always the nominating that matters! 

Charities are at best breaking even! It pays to care for the donors you have. This new study conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Urban Institute found that for every $100 charities raised in 2011, $100 was lost as donors stopped giving or donated less. Another dreadful finding: for every 100 donors that nonprofits recruited in 2011, they lost 107. Those charities that raise $500,000 or more each year lost only $90 for every $100 gained, compared with organizations that raise less than $100,000, which lost about $110 for every $100 raised. Those raising $100,000 to $500,000 annually lost nearly $100 for every $100 raised.

But there is still hope for your cause! Individuals still give 73% of all charitable giving. Nationally, total giving in 2011 by individuals was $218 billion — up nearly 4% from 2010, according to Giving USA, the research arm of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Elite wealthy give far more to charity than to political campaigns. See the analysis here. 

Corporate Social Responsibility 

Carol Cone is a thought leader in the realm of "cause Marketing." Here she discusses the rise of this partnership between for-profits and nonprofits and how PURPOSE is now the fifth “p” of marketing. After price and quality, the next trigger for consumers in purchasing a product or service is purpose, soundly trumping design, innovation and even brand loyalty. This global trend has grown 26% over the past five years. 

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) is the only international forum of business CEOs and chairpersons focused exclusively on corporate philanthropy. Developed by CECP in association with The Conference Board, their new Giving in Numbers: 2012 Edition reports on corporate giving data from 214 companies, including 62 of the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500. There are many other good reports and tools at this site as well. Here are some of the findings in this report: 

Median total giving in CECP's sample was $21.02 million. 60% of companies gave more in 2011 than in 2009. 83% of companies offered at least one matching gift program. 85% of companies had a formal domestic employee volunteer program; 47% had a formal international volunteer program. 82% of companies reported having a corporate foundation. Health, education, and community and economic development were top priorities for the typical company. 46% of total giving was through direct cash.

Media Tips

Experts are becoming the new journalists in the rise of digital media. The Patch is a perfect example of how you, an expert in your own discipline, can break the news either by submitting it directly to The Patch editorial teams and/or by creating your own blog. 

Social Media Tips

How to use Twitter for your special and PR events. 

Five essentials for your content marketing. 

Thought for the Day

Stories surprise your own dullness. Stories make fundraising an opportunity to proclaim what you believe, what you still hope for. Stories make charity into something bold, precisely the opposite to begging. Stories make fundraising an act of standing up, not bowing down. Without apology the story invites the listener to join a vision. The listener of the story becomes the hero, if she merely cares. Stories repel the sin of puffery. Stories help people understand and live the truth.

Charity Spring

This is our second post for Fairfield County charities! See what nearly 2,300 people around the world are reading at Charity Spring (live since October 4th). For many additional links to help you build financial support and awareness for your Fairfield County cause see the Charity Spring Patch Digest homepage.

Please comment here to let us know what news and opportunities you want us to find for you or to simply let us know what you think.