Kids in Need Teachers Grant

The Kids in Need Foundation’s annual teachers grant is now available through September 30, 2011. The grant provides K-12 educators with funding to support creative classroom projects. Awards range from $100 to $500 each and typically 200-300 grants are awarded each year. All certified teachers working in public, private, charter, or parochial schools are eligible.

There are three sponsorship applications to choose from, which can be found here. All teachers that apply will receive a package of poster making and bulletin board supplies (worth $25).

What The Foundation is Looking For

• Innovativeness and merit (40% of evaluation)
• Clarity of objectives (20% of evaluation)
• Replication feasibility (20% of evaluation)
• Suitability of evaluation methods (10% of evaluation)
• Cost effectiveness (10% of evaluation)

A Hypothetical Project

Let’s say a teacher wants to integrate as part of their classroom curriculum NW Public Television’s Dr. Universe, a public television and online series, currently in production, that provides scientific education to youth. That teacher could apply for this grant requesting funding to purchase DVDs for their classroom to support an established learning outcome. Because the DVDs can be used in future classrooms, the project’s replication is feasible, which is a quality sought after by the Foundation.

To see what projects have been funded in the past, visit The Guide to Award Winning Projects. However, remember that they are looking for new and different ideas.

Important Things to Remember

• The grant funds projects, not programs. Projects are usually not more than a few weeks long at most.

• The grant awards are based on innovativeness and educational value, not need.

• Only one application per project is allowed; however, you may submit applications for as many different projects as you want.

• Take your time and read the guidelines. The Managing Director, Peggy Hawk, has encouraged applicants to contact her if they’d like her to review their project.

Nonprofit Community Offline Event: From Start-up to Sustainable, June 28th, 5 p.m.

Please join us for the inaugural LaunchPad Nonprofit Community offline event on Tuesday, June 28, 2011, at 5 p.m. in the LaunchPad Training and Coworking Center at 120 N. Stevens in downtown Spokane.

Leaders from local nonprofits will share stories around the topic “From Start-up to Sustainable.” Together, we will explore successes and lessons learned as nonprofit leaders built their programs and organizations. Fundraising, volunteerism, program development, donor relations, marketing, and community engagement are just a few of the topics that panelists will discuss. Participants will also have a chance to ask questions or share their own stories. The event will begin with the panel discussion and will end with an opportunity for attendees to share their opinions on how to make the LaunchPad Nonprofit Community’s online and offline content dynamic and resourceful!

Light refreshments will be provided. Cost: Free to members, $10 for non-members.

We look forward to meeting you in person at this inaugural offline event!

Amusing Quotes on Nonprofit Governance

This subject matter isn’t our forte nor are we qualified to provide legal advice, but we found the following quotes taken from the Nonprofit Law Blog’s “Quotes from Glee and Nonprofit Governance” highly informative and most importantly, quite entertaining (laughs are necessary to get through Mondays).

"When my mom applied to college, she put being popular as her main extracurricular activity." - Quinn. Too often, nonprofits recruit board members because of their social status or popularity. They justify this because of the funds and connections they may bring with them. We criticize colleges for accepting students for the same reasons. Shouldn’t nonprofits also recruit and elect board members for their abilities and desire to govern the organization?

“It takes years to build a good reputation, and only seconds to destroy it.” - Will. Doesn’t this apply almost everywhere? There are so many ways to ruin an organization’s reputation. Some bad fact patterns: board members using organizational resources to benefit themselves, unprofessional conduct of staff and other representatives, negligent management of organizational resources, and failure to control the organization’s communications (including through social media vehicles). Make sure the board is attentive to the need to protect the organization’s reputation. Use Will’s statement as a talking point at one board meeting.

“You're lashing out at me is fantastically compelling and inappropriate.” - Kurt. A good lashing out can make for great television. But it generally would not be appropriate at a board meeting, where divergent ideas and perspectives should be encouraged, but only if they are delivered respectfully and within an agreed upon framework. Chairs of the board or board committees should be instructed on how to effectively preside at meetings consistent with the organization’s values.

“People just don't like me.” - Rachel. “You might wanna work on that.” - Finn. If your organization goes through a multi-year decline in donations, donors, and volunteers, you might wanna work on that … at the board level.

“I have no idea what's going on in this script, and it's not in a cool Inception kind of way." - Finn. It’s important that instructions given by the board to the executive and staff through policies and directives are clear. Be careful of informal directions given by individual board members who have no inherent authority to act and conflicting directions. Make sure your policies are regularly updated and staff trained on understanding them. For example, it may be critical to educate and receive feedback from your development staff about the organization’s gift acceptance policy.

“Status is like currency. When your bank account is full, you can get away with doing just about anything. But right now, we're, like, toxic assets.” - Quinn. When your organization is riding on a wave of strong support, financial health, and programmatic achievements, it may seem like you can do just about anything – expand, pay more, leverage your status in collaborations. But waves eventually break and your organization’s status will also go through valleys as well as peaks. Make sure your plans account for these fluctuations.

“At what age are you allowed to look back on your life with nothing but regret?” - Emma. At certain times, your organization may need to cut a program, reduce the scope of its services or the number of people it serves, lay off staff, or even dissolve. Yet, there may not be a need to look back with regret. Sometimes, admitting failure is a sign of strength – that the organization was able to take a chance on something new that turned out not to work but would stand as a learning tool for others, or that the organization recognized its mission could be advanced more effectively and/or efficiently by another organization or another way.

On a side note, this legal blog is actually based in California and often covers California issues only. Does anyone know of any great nonprofit legal blogs that are Washington focused?

AE offers Constant Contact services!

AE is now a Constant Contact partner! Constant Contact is a service offering email marketing, event marketing, and online surveying. We like it because as a partner of Constant Contact, we now can provide these services to our clients! Here’s the scoop:

Email marketing is a quick and efficient way to communicate to your audience by email. With email newsletters, there’s no more stamp licking and you save on the print and postage costs of regular snail mail. You can send E-newsletters more frequently than newsletters without making such a large dent in your wallet.

E-newsletters have the potential to reach a larger audience because they can be forwarded with the click of a button. In contrast, the only audience a paper newsletter is going to catch is someone snooping through the recipient’s mail.

AE starts by choosing a template for your email newsletter. Constant Contact offers a variety of templates to choose from and for those who dare, Constant Contact allows for HTML editing. Luckily, AE knows how to tread the murky waters of HTML coding, so we can custom fit your E-newsletter to match your brand. AE can also assist in researching and writing content for your newsletter.

We then import your email contacts into the Constant Contact database, which can be saved for future use. These contacts can be grouped based on demographics or interests so specialized E-newsletters can be sent out targeting a particular audience. Need more contacts? AE can add a “join mailing list” button to your website or social media page.

In one click, we can send your E-newsletter to your chosen email contacts. We can also schedule the delivery of your email newsletter to target recipients during times when they are most likely to check their email.

Constant Contact provides tracking and reporting so you can see who read, clicked, and forwarded your E-newsletter as well as who shared it via social media. You can see which links had the most click-throughs giving you an idea of what types of content your contacts are interested in. You can also learn who unsubscribed to your email list and why. Constant Contact’s tracking and reporting features help you measure the success of your email marketing campaign and improve future E-newsletters. See an example email report here.

Another useful tool is event marketing. Constant Contact is a great way to spread the word about your organization’s upcoming events. For example, AE used this service to market our annual Nonprofit Conference this last February. We were able to solicit potential attendees, update existing ones, and offer a way for our attendees to register early just by sending out simple E-newsletters. This was especially handy when we needed to send out last minute reminders the night before, which would have been impossible by regular mail.

Constant Contact also provides an online surveying feature, which allows you to distribute an online survey by linking from your blog, website, Facebook page, or email newsletter. Online surveys have a better response rate compared to direct mailings and responses are received sooner. Also, there is no need to spend all that time compiling survey responses because Constant Contact does that for you, providing detailed reports of your survey data.

To learn more about AE’s services through Constant Contact, please contact us.

2011 North Idaho Nonprofit Forum

This forum, presented by the Idaho Nonprofit Center, will feature local and regional grantmakers for round table discussions. These funders will represent private foundations and corporations.

There will be three 20-minute opportunities to hear funders discuss giving priorities, deadlines, application processes, contact information, and all the basic facts relevant to their grant programs!

The forum will offer:

• Unique access to prominent funders;
• Unique Thought-provoking panel and breakout sessions;
• Roundtables with regional and local grantmakers; and
• Networking with your peers.

When: Wednesday, May 4, 2011, 8 am - 4 pm

Where: Coeur d’Alene Inn at 506 W. Appleway Ave., Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814

Cost: $89/Person; $59/Member or

Early Bird Special: $75/Person; $49/Member (Deadline April 20)

Registration: Idaho Nonprofit Center website

Check out what funders are attending so far by visiting the Idaho Nonprofit Center website.

Free Charity and Nonprofit Education Symposium on May 4th in Spokane

The first regional full-day Charity and Nonprofit Educational Symposium, presented by the Office of the Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities Division, is open to anyone involved in the administration of charities and nonprofits. This is an opportunity for those who work in nonprofits to learn more about what they must do to be in compliance with state and federal law.

The presenters will be Washington Secretary of State, Washington Department of Revenue, Washington Liquor Control Board, Washington State Gambling Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and WAACO (Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations).

The agenda is as follows:

• Registration requirements of Washington state
• IRS requirements for charities and nonprofits
• Washington state tax requirements
• Bingo, raffles and adult beverages – How to do it all legally
• Maintaining nonprofit status & legal obligations of boards

Lunch will be provided free of charge. Registration is limited, so sign up today!

When: May 4, 2011, 8:30 am – 4 pm

Where: Spokane Falls Community College

Cost: Free!

Registration: http://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/

Contact: Teresa Glidden, (360) 725-0373

Tenacity. Don’t pursue grant funding without it!

According to Webster, tenacity is defined as “holding firmly; strongly cohesive or adhesive; persistent or stubborn.” Each of these phrases can be applied to the strategies and tactics of obtaining grant funding.

There’s temptation to expect immediate results from seeking funding support for the organization you’re in support of or working for. The need you serve to your constituent base always seems unfulfilled when funds were needed yesterday, which is why when you ask for a year-end donation you expect it relatively soon after the email or mail campaign or when you request sponsorship support for your upcoming event it should at the very latest come to you post-event. But when it comes to grants, dig your heels in and approach it like a marathon, training and all.

I was just informed that a recent grant proposal for one of our long-time clients was declined for the request of $75,000, but was instead allocated a $25,000 contribution. This same funder gave us $80,000 three years ago, declined us the next year, and then gave us $25,000 this year. Fickle? Yes. Frustrating? Sure. Worth the effort? Of course.

This long-haul funder relationship and funding pursuit has ultimately provided our organization the much needed support of $105,000 over three years, or $35,000 a year. How this breaks down:

• Over 1000% return on investment of time and resources from the organization;
• Approximately 455 constituents served; and
• Imperative operational support, particularly post-recession.

The value is apparent. However, let’s take it one more step: Had we not continued our relationship and tenacious pursuit of this funder’s support, we could have missed an opportunity to receive support that was much needed in our current economic state and whose fallout effects were largely unpredictable. Remain tenacious in pursuit of grant funding. Otherwise, stick to the short sprints, but be weary of burnout for you and your organization.