Branding Resources

If you need a research resource for ideas on creating an effective brand for your organization, then the website "All About Branding" should be helpful. It contains a number of excellent free articles and other tools that provide insightful guidance.

Although the site is focused on for profits, with a little imagination the resources should be easily adapted for use in a nonprofit organization.

To access the site, just click on the title to this post.

Resources from the United Kingdom- Institute of Fundraising

According to its website:

“the Institute of Fundraising is the professional membership body for UK fundraising. Its mission is to support fundraisers, through leadership, representation, standards-setting and education, and it champions and promotes fundraising as a career choice.”

The Institute’s website contains many practical resources for fundraisers, no matter which country you live in, available for free download. If you live outside the UK, you should be able to adapt the resources for the needs of your organization and compliance with the laws of your country.

In particular, the Institute has assembled a library of best practice codes. Currently, there are 29 codes in the library on various fundraising and related topics, including:

acceptance or refusal of donations,

major gift fundraising,

direct mail,

event fundraising, and

many more.

To access the Institute’s homepage, copy and paste the following link into your address bar: http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/

To access the Institute’s directory of best practices codes, just click on the title to this post.

Resource- Media Plan and News Release Guide

According to its mission statement,

“the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.”

The Foundation has launched a website “with a step-by-step guide to creating a media plan and writing a news release.” Here are just some of their tips for creating an effective news release for a nonprofit which has received a foundation grant:

• “A strong, brief headline.
• A compelling opening sentence (a “lead”) telling the news in a nutshell (the who and the what).
• A second paragraph explaining the grant’s context — major results expected,the big problem it’s trying solve.
• A strong quote from a key player saying why this matters to average people sometimes called “the so-what.”)
• Additional details of grant activities and expected results.
• Brief background on your organization, the funder, as well as other groups involved.
• Key names, numbers or websites leading to further information.”

The guide is an excellent resource. To access, just click on the title to this post.

Resource- Philanthropy Journal

The Philanthropy Journal is a free online publication of the A. J. Fletcher Foundation. According to its website, the Journal-

“delivers news, information, resources and opinion about charitable giving, fundraising, management, leadership, marketing and communications, focusing in particular on organizational effectiveness, donor engagement and collaboration.”

The Journal is an excellent resource for timely articles, information and analysis. If you decide to explore their site by clicking on the title to this post, be sure to access the “Resources” page for more in-depth coverage of subject areas.

Research Resource #3- The Foundation Center

The Foundation Center is an excellent resource for researching foundations, as well as learning the in’s and out’s of preparing grant requests. Here’s a brief glimpse at its mission, history and focus:

"The Foundation Center's mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge about U.S. philanthropy. Established in 1956, and today supported by more than 600 foundations, the Foundation Center is the nation's leading authority on philanthropy, connecting nonprofits and the grantmakers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance philanthropy at every level.”

By clicking on the title to this post, you will find yourself at The Foundation Center’s webpage of free reports. For a more complete perspective on all of its learning opportunities and resources, be sure to explore the entire site.

Research Resource #2- National Center for Charitable Statistics

If you feel like competition has increased in generating revenue from gifts and grants, you are absolutely right. Each year more non-profits are formed and consequently potential donors are receiving an increasing number of gift solicitations from a broadening array of institutions.

For example, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the number of non-profits increased from 1,084,939 in 1996 to 1,478,194 in 2006, and that doesn’t include a vast number of small nonprofits and religious entities that do not have to file with the IRS.

According to its website, “the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is the national repository of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States. Its mission is to develop and disseminate high quality data on nonprofit organizations and their activities for use in research on the relationships between the nonprofit sector, government, the commercial sector, and the broader civil society.

Working closely with the IRS and other government agencies, private sector service organizations, and the scholarly community, NCCS builds compatible national, state, and regional databases and develops uniform standards for reporting on the activities of charitable organizations.”

The NCCS website contains a wealth of information to help us understand the changing landscape that non-profits are facing. It even breaks down statistical information by state.

If you would like to find out more, just click on the title to this post.

Research Resource #1- GuideStar

A nonprofit’s United States Tax Return Form 990 reveals a significant amount of useful information, particularly if you are researching foundations for potential funding. For example, by reviewing the 990, you can find out about a foundation’s assets, amount distributed, to whom distributions were made, and the names of its officers and directors.

An excellent, free resource for finding 990’s is GuideStar. According to their website:

“GuideStar's mission is to revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving.”

For more information, you can access GuideStar's website by clicking on the title to this post.