Giulani gives back $9.11 and $911 donations

I gave the Giuliani campaign a hard time when I read that a fundraiser was soliciting checks for $9.11 on his behalf. Despite the fact that the campaign blamed it on "young people," I thought it was a tasteless politicization of a national tragedy.

Late today the Wall Street Journal published a report that the campaign is actively returning eight checks to individual donors for $9.11, and one returned contribution of $911.

Donors received a letter with their returned donations stating, “Unfortunately we must return your contribution. We do not solicit or collect financial support that is indicative of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” It was signed by Giuliani campaign treasurer John Gross.

Lucy's reaction to the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge

From Lucy Berholz's Philanthropy 2173 blog:

A month or so back I was asked to participate in the Bloggers Challenge to raise funds for DonorsChoose. Abiding by my own ethics (as well as those emerging in the blog-world), I opted not to do this. Because I write about philanthropy and nonprofits and technology I don't want to opt in to raise funds for some and not for all. But I will bring the whole thing to your attention, as it is an example of the kind of fundraising and use of technology for giving going on all around organized philanthropy - and rarely - if ever- touching foundations.

First - DonorsChoose (DC) lets individual donors and individual classroom teachers connect to make certain charitable projects happen. Teachers post their wish lists, donors pick the ones they want to fund, donorschoose vets and handles funds transfers, teachers report back, donors go away happey (and - hopefully) donors come back.

Here is how the bloggers challenge works: DC reached out to bloggers with several challenges. Bloggers who encouraged, cajoled, begged, arm-twisted, or otherwise convinced their readers to make charitable donations through DC would be entered into one of several competitions and those who were most successful would be duly rewarded. There is a Google Award for the blogger who sparks the most donations (dollar value); the Yahoo! Award, which includes lunch with CEO Jerry Yang as a prize, for the blogger who gets the most donors involved, the Six Apart Award for the blogger whose activism unleashes help that reaches the greatest number of students, and the Federated Media Award for the "most creative
incentive" offered by a blogger.

By my count, as of October 9, there were 102 blogs that had launched challenges to their readers. These include the blogs of several candidates for President (Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and Jon Stewart/Steven Colbert!?), many tech writers and venture capitalists (Scobleizer, TechCrunch, Fred Wilson), a variety of science and math education supporters (Thus Spake Zuska, Evolgen), several local school supporters (El Paso, San Francisco) and at least one bellydancer.

According to the Leaderboard and my very rough counting, the 100+ blogs have raised well north of $150,000 from somewhere around 1200 individual donors and the dollars will reach classrooms serving at least 20,000 public school children. The leading blog -Tomato Nation - has raised $75000 in ten days. And the challenges continue until October 31, 2007.
You can read her entire post here.

The women behind Obama's money machine

In case you missed it, the Washington Post had a neat story earlier this week profiling the role that Julianna Smoot played in helping raise the $75 million Barrack Obama has raised so far in the campaign. If you read deep enough, it goes past the role played by bundlers and looks at the work done by Meaghan Burdick, the thirty-one year old who coordinated fundraising online and through the mail.

Kintera goes to Open API

If you were impressed when you heard Wednesday's announcement that Sesame Workshop selected Kintera technology to expand the organization's online fundraising presence, wait until you hear this...

This morning, the company announced that Kintera Connect, the company's open application integration platform, is available for clients and partners to integrate directly with Kintera technology.

The loyal reader who tipped me off explains it this way: "it means that they are opening up their platform so you can connect with it from other applications. It's a big step because it means that you can develop your own applications and the data can still be fed through their systems"

You have to wonder if Convio will be pressured to announce the same thing at their conference in Austin next week... albeit with a lot less fanfare now that Kintera beat them to it.

Dodd offers refunds after fundraising gimmick goes awry

It appears one of the most creative presidential fundraising ideas of the campaign has taken a terrible (not to mention embarrassing) turn for the worse.

Earlier this week Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) announced he was going to randomly select a donor to join him at an upcoming Boston Red Sox playoff game.

Unfortunately, it appears no one on the campaign's fundraising team checked with Major League Baseball to see if this gimmick was even legal. Just minutes ago, donors received this email:

We have some bad news.Major League Baseball has asked the campaign to end our contest you entered to get a chance to go to a Red Sox game with Chris Dodd.Apparently, Post-Season tickets are different than regular season tickets -- they are owned by the League and the MLB has their rules. If you made a contribution hoping to win the tickets, we want to provide you the opportunity to get a refund for your entry.If you wish to be refunded, reply to this email asking for a return of your donation and we'll make it happen. If you choose to not to have your contribution refunded, please know that your support will go towards our media and ground campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire, while fighting to restore the Constitution and end the war in Iraq. Once again, we apologize for our error.Sincerely,The team at Chris Dodd for President

Talk about embarrassing... this email is the definition of the kind of thing fundraisers don't want to have to tell their donors.

UPDATE: Ben Smith at the Politico has more:

Major League Baseball scuttled the plan, Dodd spokesman Hari Sevugan confirms. They'll be offering refunds to contributors who were in it for the baseball, rather than for the face time with Dodd.

"This isn't quite Bucky Dent or Aaron Boone, but we are disappointed nonetheless. Senator Dodd was looking forward to spending a night watching the Red Sox take on the Indians at Fenway Park, but unfortunately Major League Baseball's rules are such that the contest cannot continue. We will still be cheering on the Red Sox every step of the way to the World Series, and look forward to inviting someone to spend a day on the trail with Chris Dodd," Sevugan said in an email.

Isn't quite Bucky Dent? They are right about that... it's more like those Nigerian scammers who tried to swindle me into buying a fake computer on eBay.

Raising money for recipients that don't exist

Everyday I receive no less than 50 news stories emailed to donttellthedonor@gmail.com based on keywords I've set-up, such as: fundraising, donation, development office, charity giving, philanthropy, and nonprofit gossip.

All too often one of these stories is about thieves stealing a donation jar from the counter of a convenience store. Unfortunately, the thefts don't usually rise to the high standards of news we have here on this blog, which is why I loved Trent Stamp's take on one of these stories a couple weeks ago.

But even a cynical jerk like myself was shocked by this bastard who collected $2,000 by placing collection boxes for a patient who didn't exist in 27 California cities saying a family needed help after their son died from orthopedic bone cancer.

...then again, wasn't the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund accused of also raising funds for churches that may not have even existed? They may have done so without knowing it, but you can't say they weren't warned.

Lucy follows the money

I have to admit, when I read Lucy Bernholz's Philanthropy 2173 blog, it can be pretty dense reading and I don't always understand everything she is saying.

But yesterday, she made a point (on one of her favorite topics) that was so clear, it stopped me cold in my online surfing tracks. While trying to answer the sources of funds for public benefit and social good, she makes this observation:

Compare the $295 billion in overall giving in the US in 2006 (Giving USA) to the $2.29 trillion held in accounts managed in accordance with socially responsible practices. Hmm. Suddenly the first number doesn't seem so big anymore.

And the $2.29 trillion is only part of the story. And the value of fair trade. There is $180 million managed by community development venture funds. And $2 billion in foundation mission-related investments (which will grow to $12 billion, if the Meyer, Heron, and Casey Foundations are successful in their recent challenge). And carbon markets. And microfinance investments....

Another way to put the numbers in perspective is to imagine that 40 foundations made a half billion dollars worth of grants to the environment one year. That would be big news. Well, according to VentureOne/PWCMoneyTree, the total value of venture capital deals in Clean Tech (alternative energy, pollution and recycling, power supplies and conservation) was $451 million in Q2 2007. Nearly half a billion dollars in one quarter.

As a nonprofit fundraiser, my first reaction was to think that there is a difference between donors who give money with the sole expectation that society will benefit and socially responsible investors who are looking to increase the public good AND earn a return on their personal investment.

As the focus for evaluating effective philanthrophy shifts toward outcome based measurements and away from simply making the donor feel good... then this line is not only blurred, it may become totally irrelevant.

Sen. Dodd's awesome fundraising pitch

In one of the coolest fundraising solicitations of the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator Chris Dodd is offering to fly a random donor to Boston to see the Red Sox game with him.

"I've got two extra seats -- great seats -- to Game Six of the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians. And I believe they have your name on them.

Next Thursday at 5 P.M. Eastern, we're going to pick one entrant at random, live and online, to attend Game Six with me that Saturday. I'll put up the two tickets, $600 towards airfare for you and your guest, and a hotel room in Boston.

Here's how it works. You make a minimum contribution of $20.04 (in honor of the last time the Red Sox won the World Series, 2004) and you have as good a shot as anyone else to attend the game."

Excuse the pun, but that's one heckuva fundraising pitch (thanks to Atrios for the tip).

Slim pickings for charity from world's richest man

I was running late for work this morning and had a chance to see Diane Sawyer interview Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate, on Good Morning America. You can see a video of the interview here.
Slim is worth a reported $68 billion and was named by Forbes magazine the world's richest man in 2007. However, unlike the philanthropists that occupy second and third place on Forbes list, Slim has been critcized for not donating a large enough portion of his fortune.

Earlier this year, Slim said businessmen can do more good by building solid companies than by "going around like Santa Claus" donating money. Despite the widespread inequality in Mexico, Slim poked fun at Bill Gates and Warren Buffet while telling reporters that "poverty isn't solved with donations."

God can be a very vengeful donor

Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
According to Justin Juozapavicius at the Associated Press:

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."

I'll tell you what, if you think God told you to become a fundraiser, I say go ahead and raise the money, but be careful how you spend it... because God subscribes to some charity watchdog blogs and he's gonna come get you if you don't spend it responsibly.

Guiliani email links to dead website

The Washington Post today ran a story about how the Republican presidential candidates are lagging behind their Democratic counterparts when it comes to fund-raising.

Overall, Republican presidential candidates trailed Democrats in fundraising by nearly $100 million -- a gap that is unprecedented in 30 years.

Some Republican leaders said yesterday they are trying to determine whether the drought is merely a short-term setback -- the result of an unpopular president and a field of presidential candidates that has failed to capture the party's imagination -- or whether the Democrats' mastery of the Internet has changed the fundraising landscape.

Perhaps one of the reasons can be found in this funny blog post from Sarah Lai Stirland at Wired's Threat Level who points out that the Guiliani sent out a fundraising email today with a donation link to a dead website.

Ouch. It's hard to raise money when you make your donors jump through hoops.

How much do you think Peyton Manning's name is worth?

Rookie fundraisers make the mistake of thinking it is vanity that motivates hospitals to name a building after a major donor.

The truth is that when a living donor allows a hospital to name a building after them, it could be viewed as part of the donation and not just a reward for the ego.

For example, when St. Vincent Health in Indianapolis recently renamed its pediatric facility after Peyton Manning, it did so because of the money the football star's name would attract.

"By Peyton lending his name to our organization, he'll take a much more active role to help us raise additional funds," said St. Vincent Health Chief Executive Vince Caponi shortly before the name change. "As you can imagine, Peyton knows a lot of people I don't know."

Daniel Lee reported today at the Indianapolis Star that St. Vincent has said only that Manning and his wife, Ashley, made an unspecified donation, but the couple requested that the nature of the gift remain private.

St. Vincent seems to be wasting little time preparing to reach all of those people.

Since the Sept. 5 unveiling of the new name, St. Vincent has appointed a director of development, Michele Rodger Spencer, for the children's hospital. It is the first time St. Vincent will have a fundraising chief dedicated to its children's facility.

St. Vincent will set specific fundraising goals in the next month or two, said Kevin Speer, chief strategy officer. He added, "Putting Peyton's name on the building, it thrust us into a national spotlight overnight."

Kim Gattle, director of development and communications for the Center on Philanthropy at IU, called it "a gift of his social capital." So how much do I think Peyton's name is worth?

...oh wait! Before you answer, maybe it would be helpful to remember some other recent use of social capital on January 1, 2007. Britney Spears was paid $240,000 for her now-classic fainting performance at PURE on New Year's Eve. To count down from 10 to one and wish the crowd a Happy New Year, she was paid $16,000 a syllable.

Nonprofit pounces on SCHIP veto with Blogads campaign

It was no surprise that President Bush planned to veto the $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program today, but as soon as he did, the healthcare advocacy group, FamiliesUSA launched a well planned and well coordinated online response.

The group plans has been preparing to run an estimated 8 million impressions in the first week of the campaign on 14 blogs including Crooks and Liars, Democratic Underground, Firedoglake, Political Wire and Talking Points Memo.

Kate Kaye at The ClickZ Network published an excellent article today on the campaign:

Two ads mimicking streaming video units each display still photos of a child. The first ad to run features accompanying text that pushes viewers to visit the Families USA site, watch the :30 video ad, sign a petition and contact their congressional representatives about the veto. The petition encourages Congress to override the veto or send the bill back to President Bush.

In addition to building a database of supporters, the landing page (which is hosted on Convio) includes a fundraising call to action by asking supporters to help them run the online video on television. The campaign also received a virtual wave of media attention and even a blog post from Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Kaye's article also describes how another grassroots group called Results is running paid search ads targeted to the keyword "SCHIP" on Google. I've also heard that the conservative Heritage Foundation is also running paid search ads on the SCHIP search words.. but I haven't been able to locate it.. then again, ever since I asked Google to block evil liars from my search results, I haven't been able to find much on the Heritage Foundation.

Shakira gives $45 million to charity

Shakira announced an enormous $45 million charity donation yesterday in New York.

The Colombian superstar revealed that the charity she co-founded, Latin America for Solidarity Foundation, will donate $40 million to help earthquake stricken Peru and damage caused by a hurricane in Nicaragua.

She gave the news at a summit on global climate change yesterday, organised by Bill Clinton, says Reuters.

The singer also revealed a $5 million effort to help children in area who live in poverty.

Kids fundraising at liquor store?

I saw this letter to the editor in the Nashua Telegraph:

Am I the only person in New Hampshire who sees something terribly wrong with allowing our children to solicit funds outside the state-run liquor store?

On two different Saturdays in the month of September, I saw teenage cheerleaders standing outside the door of the liquor store on Coliseum Avenue. They were doing cheers to attract attention.I have to seriously question the logic behind having our children raising funds at the local liquor store.

What is the manager of the store thinking? How about the coach/director of these impressionable children?Most importantly, however, is what are these parents thinking?

Linette Lukawitz
Nashua

Good call Linette. Your powers of observation would make you a great guest blogger at Don't Tell the Donor.

Hockey team waxes their hair for fundraiser

Douglas Reid coaches the Central Cobra-Mavericks hockey team in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, it costs $18,000 each year for the team to compete in the New Zealand Hockey League and Reid doesn't like to charge his players more than $500 each.

When the coach started looking for a fundraising idea instead of the usual "sausage sizzle" the team usually throws he thought of a very painful idea. The players would eventually raise $5,000 by having their body hair waxed in the shape of sponsors.

Seventeen year old Nick Wilson had his legs waxed. Charles Jenkins got a strawberry flavour chest and armpit wax. Coach Reid had the letters "UR" waxed into his chest for IT company Unlimited Realities, who sponsored him $500 for the sacrifice.

Jody O'Callaghan at the Manawatu Standard reports that Reid then had a chest and back wax, which his wife in Scotland knew nothing about, for a further $1,000 worth of sponsorship.

I'm not sure if it's financial despair or male bravado, but either way I would hope stories like this make your fundraising responsibilities a little easier today.

Who are you calling small?

Anyone who has ever acted in a school play has heard the saying, "There are no small parts, only small actors." Milan Kundera is credited with the wise advice.

Well... someone should tell the Politico that the term "small donors" is offensive and insulting... I think the politically correct term is "low dollar donors."

Giuliani Party Seeks $9.11 Per Person

Rudy Giuliani's campaign is asking backers to participate in a national house party night on Wednesday.

A State Department adviser under President Reagan named Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, California - but unfortunately for Guiliani the donor caused a controversy today when the Associated Press reported that the party aims to raise $9.11 per person.

Sofaer told the AP he had nothing to do with the "$9.11 for Rudy" theme and instead he blamed it on the kids by saying, "there are some young people who came up with it."

The International Association of Fire Fighters accused Republican Rudy Giuliani of exploiting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and called the fundraiser an abuse of the image and symbols of the 2001 attacks. Others called the event "shameless."

A friend of the devil is a friend of mine... as they say

Newt Gingrich made news on Sunday by telling Fox News host Chris Wallace that he is planning to let potential donors decide whether he should run for President. He said he would run for President only if he could raise $30 million in pledges.

The former politician turned talking head announced that his longtime adviser Randy Evans would "spend the next three weeks checking with people around the country. If he reports back that, in fact, we think the resources are there for a real race.... then close to that we'll face a very big decision in late October."

Jonathan Stein at MoJo Blog was giddy at the possibility that one of Mother Jones Magazine's biggest targets will enter the presidential race. Stein seems almost itching for a fight against the polarizing conservative figure:

People say Hillary would fare poorly in a general election because she would energize Republicans. Newt Gingrich would do the same to Democrats, except times a thousand. So everyone get out your checkbooks and start mailing money to this Randy Evans fellow.

So, who is this Randy Evans fellow and why is the Presidential hopeful placing all his eggs in Evan's basket?

Evans works at McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP where he has served as as outside counsel to both Newt Gingrich and J. Dennis Hastert, Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, as well as to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt and former Representative from Oklahoma and House GOP Chairman J.C. Watts.

In 1996, when Gringrich was facing ethics complaints made with the Committee on Standards in the United States House of Representatives he tapped Evans to represent him. Evans eventually negotiated an agreement that permitted Mr. Gingrich to remain as Speaker.

So I guess you could say Gringrich owes this fundraiser his job.

House Subcommittee schedules hearing on nonprofits

The House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee will hold a hearing to review whether tax-exempt charitable organizations are serving the needs of diverse communities.

Chairman John Lewis (D-GA) announced last week that the hearing will take place on Tuesday, September 25, 2007, in the main Committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 2:00 p.m.

This hearing will focus on whether charitable organizations are serving diverse populations and communities. The hearing will discuss: the extent to which philanthropic dollars are being directed toward diverse communities; the actions tax-exempt organizations are taking to deal with issues and challenges that have arisen in identifying the needs of diverse communities; and the partnerships between governments and charitable organizations that are needed to reach and serve diverse populations. The Subcommittee will hear testimony on why developing a plan to serve diverse communities is important and beneficial.

If you would like to submit a comment, go here.