Christina Yoon's blog

Last week I was a speaker at the Boston Fundraising Summit, sponsored by the Center for Nonprofit Success. My session was focused on how to conduct successful research in the search for funders. Here is a listing of resources I prepared for the summit that may be helpful in your own work. Good luck!
Provided Free of Charge:
Guidestar (www.guidestar.org) - obtain IRS 990 forms for every nonprofit, including foundations; also lists board members
Grants Management Associates (www.grantsmanagement.com) - manages many local foundations and provides application guidelines
Bank of America Philanthropic Services (www.bankofamerica.com/philanthropic/grantmaking.action) - provides a searchable database of about 70 foundations for whom Bank of America is the trustee, co-trustee or agent.
Philanthropy News Digest (www.foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/) - sends weekly updates on new RFP's and has a searchable online database of RFP's
Association of Small Foundations (www.smallfoundations.org) - has a list of members organized by state, many with direct links to the foundation website.
Council on Foundations (www.cof.org) - has many useful links to databases and resources available online for grantseekers.
Cooperating Collections (http://foundationcenter.org/collections/) - free funding information centers in libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers that provide materials and services in areas useful to grantseekers, such as access to Foundation Center's Directory.

I recently came across two articles that caught my attention, both having to do with utilizing the internet for fund raising.  We all have questions like, "How effective is that online donation button we have on our website?"  "Are the elderly, often the target population of a giving program, comfortable with going online to make their charitable gifts?"  "What are some innovative approaches to raising money online?"

We've all seen it: donors are holding off on making charitable gifts, smaller gifts are being given, there are fewer new donors and campaigns are slowing down. Smaller returns on investments are squeezing individual donors and foundations alike. During such difficult times, what should organizations do to maintain their fundraising operations? Last week I attended a forum sponsored by Citizens Bank entitled, "Fundraising in a difficult economic environment" which featured keynote speaker Ruben Orduña, VP Development at the Boston Foundation. He offered up some practical suggestions of what you can do to weather the economic storm.

A recent trend in corporate philanthropy has been for a company to be more strategic with its foundation giving by aligning it with the company’s brand and goals. Wal-Mart, one of the nation’s largest corporate donors has taken a big step in this direction. The company’s local giving has traditionally been managed by local stores, who have doled out small grants to local organizations and schools. However, in an effort to leverage its funds to achieve greater long-term impact, the foundation has set up new state-level funding pools to make gifts of $25,000 or more and has hired program officers to assess opportunities and the effectiveness of its grants.