Nonprofit News by Soft Trac

I just finished a Sage Fundraising Online training class and was especially intrigued with the peer to peer fundraising option. What a great way to empower those who are passionate about your cause and turn them into fundraisers for your organization. It’s definitely had an influence on my own giving in recent years.

In the past I’ve had multiple friends reach out to me to support the organizations with which they are involved. Sometimes it’s been to support them in a fundraising walk or 5K; other times it has been to respond to an e-mail campaign or a personal letter. A few of them had deep personal connections to the organizations they were supporting because of a significant life event. For others, the connection may have been more casual for example someone close to them had been impacted by the organization and they too wanted to support a friend. Whatever the connection, I wanted to support not only the organization they were raising funds for but my friends themselves. Everybody wins.

As I write this, the lake has finally thawed and it’s raining not snowing outside my window so I know the warm days will start outnumbering the cold ones. And with spring comes opportunities to move fundraising events outside. It has never been more important for nonprofit organizations to have multiple tools in their fundraising arsenal and it’s critical to go beyond the “donate now” button and reach donors in new and creative ways. Organizations that reach out to donors through events and campaigns have considerably greater success in generating support. I’m curious as to what types of outdoor events your organization hosts. My brother is always looking for a reason to head to the golf course.

Check out www.google.com/grants where you will find an invitation from Google to apply for up to $10,000 per month in Google AdWords advertising. When a search is entered on Google based on the keyed words Sponsored Links appear running down the right-hand column. The internet user then clicks your ad and connects to your nonprofit. Now, constituents are finding you rather than you finding them.

Be sure to review the eligibility requirements as Google supports certain nonprofits in other ways http://www.google.com/nonprofits/eligibility.html

How it works in a nutshell – think of your $10,000 AdWords grant money as “Monopoly Money” that you use to bid on (or purchase) key words. Most nonprofit recipients of the grant do not use more than $300.00 of the $10,000 award per month. Remember, this is FREE, there are no click thru fees and no real money exchanges between Google and the nonprofit. Google also provides valuable tracking information regarding your ad campaign on clicks, resulting donations, etc.

Should you receive a Google Grant please let us know the impact it has on your organizations outreach and bottom line.

Jeron Comeau

Nonprofit Consultant

Soft Trac LLC

We have all heard a horror story (or two) about a nonprofit that became embroiled in a financial scandal. In addition to the public relations nightmare such things engender, organizations caught up in a scandal are forced to turn their attentions toward the crisis and away from the real work they are meant to be doing.
Here are a few simple procedures you can put in place in your fundraising office to help prevent fraud.
The Maryland Association of CPA’s recommends the following simple steps to help prevent fraud.
1. Spread financial duties, such as processing payments, making deposits, reconciling bank statements and handling petty cash out among several people in your department. If possible, you should rotate these duties between people.
2. Make sure that employees take a vacation of at least one week of consecutive days. This may heighten your chances of discovering irregular activities.

http://www.macpa.org/Content/23704.aspx

Tracy Coenen, CPA, recommends some of the following tips on her website:
• Safeguard physical assets, including data and money
• Implement an anonymous reporting mechanism to allow employees to participate in the reporting suspicious activity
• Monitor access to assets and data
www.fraudessentials.com

This article by The Associated Press appeared in the Kennebec Journal June 29, 2011.

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage says he’ll sign a bill to allow charter schools, putting Maine among the 40 other states that allow them.

The state Senate on Tuesday evening sent the bill to the governor’s desk after voting to give it final approval.

Charter schools were an issue during last fall’s election. Then running as the Republican candidate for governor, LePage made repeated promises to push for charter schools if elected.

The bill he’s signing, LD 1553, would allow no more than 10 public charter schools in the first decade. It would also limit the number of students who can attend them in the first three years to protect smaller non-charter public schools.

Charter schools are voluntary public schools that cannot teach religious practices and cannot discriminate against students or teachers.

Members of Community Action Agencies in Massachusetts and Connecticut attended this years annual conference on Cape Cod to learn about “Helping People in Turbulent Times”.

The 12th annual conference was presented by MASSCAP and CAFCA.

Soft Trac was pleased to be able to help the Community Action agencies in MA and CT by being a sponsor and attending this conference. Soft Trac’s staff shared information with attendees on how they can increase productivity across their communities by using solutions such as Sage Fund Accounting, Sage Fundraising, ETO by Social Solutions, and EZContentManager by ACOM.

It was a pleasure to sponsor and attend West Virginia Community Action Partnership’s 2011 Education Conference in Charleston, WV this week. Soft Trac provided information on Sage Fund Accounting, Sage Fundraising, ETO by Social Solutions, and EZContentManager by ACOM.

The WVCAP’s had the opportunity to learn more about Facing the Changes of Poverty through Community Action at the conference. This conference offered a little bit for everyone from Administration and Finance to Weatherization and Program Development.

Although the flight into the small Yeager airport was interesting, Charleston is a beautiful city that makes you feel like you are visiting a small rural community. The 84 degree weather was also a welcome change.

Susan Saadat, a Soft Trac Senior Consultant, went above and beyond all of our expectations when she forwarded a request from a Fundraising 50 prospect to management while in the labor room on medication to induce labor.

It is not uncommon for Soft Trac’s employees to respond to the needs of a customer or prospect while on personal time, but Senior Consultant, Susan Saadat, took this dedication and passion for the customer to an all-time high.

You see, Susan, had been in the labor room for more than two days when she received an email from a prospect. She quickly forwarded the email to Soft Trac’s management for response. How many women do you know who would take time out between contractions to monitor their work email and respond? Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and now Susan Saadat have changed the world forever.

Kidding aside, we are grateful for the dedication that our staff have for our customers.

We are especially pleased to announce that Sarah Saadat, daughter of Ali and Susan Saadat, was born on Saturday, April 16, 2011, at 9:25 am. “Little Peanut” as Susan lovingly referred to her weighed in at 9 lbs 14 oz. Sarah, Ali and Susan are all doing well. Susan says, “We are totally in love with her and look forward to introducing her to all of you soon.”

Wish you were automatically informed of new release versions of your software? Want to talk with other users? Want to help other users? Sign up for the Sage Nonprofit Community Forums to stay up to date with all things Sage Nonprofit.

1. To sign up, go to Sage Forums

2. Once you have created an account, you will need to visit the ‘My Profile’>’Organization Information’ section to edit your profile. In particular, you will need your organization’s account number, which Soft Trac can provide. Call us at 207.512.2709 or e-mail saadat.susan@softtrac.com to get this information if you don’t already have it.

4. Once you have completed this, go to the tab labeled ‘Community’ and choose the subtab ‘Forums’.

5. Click on the icon for e-mail or RSS Feed next to the forum(s) you are interested in to subscribe to an RSS feed or to have e-mails sent to you directly.

This ensures that you will be kept up to date with information relevant to your software products.
Note that if you are a person who is not likely to voluntarily visit the feed on a regular basis, you might be better off signing up for the e-mail subscription, as the e-mails will come directly to your inbox.

I have resolved myself to the fact that I am no longer cool. When I go out, it’s generally with a husband in tow and 10:00 pm is a late night for us. I no longer care if my hair is in style or my clothes are fashionable. All of this would probably explain why I didn’t jump on the Facebook, Twitter or Linked In bandwagons right away.

Over the past few weeks, however, I have discovered what the fascination is all about. Even as I connect with high school and college friends on Facebook, the application of these readily available social media to fundraising become increasingly obvious. In this age of tightening resources, the use of these media as money saving mechanisms is also blindingly obvious, or at least should be.

On Facebook, for example, an organization can create an event and invite their friends. You can upload videos. Download free applications that will allow you to add items like an auction to your page. You can create a discussion board. Add a map to help people find your organization.

Obviously, a resource like Facebook isn’t intended to ferret out donations of large sums of money from relative strangers. But, if the current economic situation has shown us anything, it should be that relying on the few for large sums of money that can be wiped out by a bad run in the market is a risky strategy. Exploring avenues like Facebook and other social media can lead your organization to create new relationships with donors that may have shallower pockets, but who swim in a deep pool of social media, surrounded by friends, acquaintances, and strangers with money to give.

I know there are relatively few of you out there who are taking advantage of this tool. If you’re one of them, tell us why. If you are using Facebook, tell us how.