All posts by Tony Martignetti

Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for October 29, 2010

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Compliance. Board relations. Fundraising. Technology. Volunteer management. Accounting. Finance. Marketing. Social media. Investments.

Every nonprofit faces these issues and big nonprofits have experts in each. Small and medium size nonprofits have Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Trusted experts throughout the country join Tony to take on the tough issues facing your organization.

Episode 15 of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for October 29, 2010

Tony’s Guests:

Paula Marks

I’m Looking: Savvy Strategies for Your Search: A nonprofit job-seeker, Leonora Scala, gets advice from our expert recruiter, Paula Marks, Managing Director with Gilbert Tweed International, on spiffing-up the resume; emphasizing strengths; where to look; networking; interviewing; and using social media for search. Paula’s tips will help you in your own search, whether it’s today or in the future.

  • Here’s the current resume for Leonora Scala. It’s all corporate. After she and Paula revise it to appeal to nonprofits, we’ll post the revision so you can compare the two.

Robert Sharpe

How To Cripple Your Career In 5 Easy Steps, Part 1: In partnership with The Chronicle of Philanthropy, I interviewed Robert at the National Conference on Philanthropic Planning. He shares how Planned Giving fundraisers can shoot their career in the foot. Robert has decades of experience witnessing the shooting matches fundraisers have with themselves. Maybe you should forward this to someone you know? (Part 2 will be broadcast on a future show.)

Here is the link to the podcast: 016: Savvy Strategies for Your Search & How To Cripple Your Career In 5 Easy Steps

When and where: Talking Alternative Radio, Friday, 1-2pm Eastern.

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Here is the link to the podcast: 011: How to Make-or Ruin-Your Nonprofit Career
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Fundraisers Should Not Piss Off Women

Women outlive men. Unmarried women give more generously than unmarried men. These two facts have big implications for nonprofit fundraisers.

Before looking at the implications, I should substantiate the facts. I think it’s well known that women live longer than men, but the gap is considerably narrower than it was a hundred years ago. This charming 1912 New York Times article put the gap at 20 years. About.com puts it between 3 and 4 years today.

Earlier this month, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported unmarried women, irrespective of why they’re unmarried, give more to charity than similarly situated men.

Interesting to me, the article quotes the director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute to say, “The conventional wisdom is that women do not give a lot of money.” I must be uninformed, because I’ve never heard that and don’t believe it’s true. The director continues, saying the conventional wisdom is wrong. Sometimes it pays to be uninformed. I save myself a lot of back-and-forth.

The implication for fundraisers: don’t piss off women. If that colloquialism offends your sensibilities, and you prefer my admonition more genteelly, don’t evoke the ire of women. Especially if you do planned gift fundraising.

Where the principal relationship to your charity is with the male, and there’s a female he’s close to, involve her. Send invitations to the couple, if appropriate. Do the same with gift acknowledgements. You are snubbing someone important when the gift is from a married, or partnered, couple and you address your thank-you letter to the man. You’ll probably never hear the objection. It has been quietly noted by the one who will likely live longer.

Angry Young Woman

At events, do you engage the wife or female significant other? Are you introducing her to your CEO, or asking for a moment of her man’s time while you pull him away?

Making (off color) inside jokes that marginalize women is a sure way to shoot your long-term fundraising in the foot. (You’ll hurt yourself in other ways, too, but I’m sticking to fundraising.)

Wives outliving their husbands, on average, means significant wealth will transfer to wives from their husbands’ estates. If you’re in Planned Giving, you’d like the best shot at having the wife remember you in her estate plan. So be good to her while her husband is living.

Where the husband is the primary donor to a nonprofit, I’ve always thought it a mistake to presume, upon his death, the widow has no interest in continuing the relationship. She may very well have her own charitable interests that don’t coincide with her husband’s, but nothing is lost in inquiring by polite letter–after many months have passed since the death–whether she would like to be kept on the mailing list. If you get no response, or a negative one, you know where you stand.

You have the best chance of maintaining a relationship with a woman–including a widow–if you treat her courteously at all times, according her the same respect, professionalism and friendship you show a man, whether she’s attached to one or not.

Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for October 22, 2010

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Compliance. Board relations. Fundraising. Technology. Volunteer management. Accounting. Finance. Marketing. Social media. Investments.

Every nonprofit faces these issues and big nonprofits have experts in each. Small and medium size nonprofits have Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Trusted experts throughout the country join Tony to take on the tough issues facing your organization.

Episode 14 of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for October 22, 2010

Tony’s Guest:

Larry Sharpe, Director of Neo-Sage: Smart Sales Training Strategies to Kick-Start Your Fundraising

Larry’s bio:

Larry Sharpe has a varied background which began in the United States Marines. He’s worked as an English teacher, an English Coordinator for the Japanese Government, and a marketing rep for the Armed Forces Radio & Television Network. In addition to starting two family businesses, he has also worked with former NYC Police Chief, Bill Bratton, in corporate sales of Pre-employment Screening & Background Investigations, and a multitude of other sales positions. Now, with Neo-Sage, he is passing all that knowledge and experience on.

He’s the Director of Special Projects for the World Energy Forum. He is also a Guest Instructor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Business and the New York Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as the host of The Ivory Tower Internet Radio Program.

Larry has a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from the University of Maryland and a Certification to teach English from the International Center of Language and Culture. He lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.

Click here for a hard copy.

When and where: Talking Alternative Radio, Friday, 1-2pm Eastern.

You can subscribe on iTunes and listen anytime, anyplace on the device of your choosing.

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Here is the link to the podcast: 010: Sales-Based Fundraising Strategies
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NextGen:Charity – November 18th & 19th

Exciting news! I learned last week that I’ll be joining NextGen:Charity in New York, NY. This is a conference on nonprofit innovation to help charities be more efficient and more effective. The goal is to powerfully connect organizations with donors and community.
I’ll be there on Day 1, November 18th, to do interviews for Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio along with sending out updates via this blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

These are some of the people scheduled to speak on day one:

Seth Godin (#1 business blogger & 12-time bestselling author), Nancy Lublin (DoSomething.org & Dress For Success founder), Scott Harrison (charity:water), Peter Thum and Jonathan Greenblatt (Ethos Water), Scott Belsky (Behance), Randi Zuckerberg (Facebook), Joanne Heyman (Urban Zen), as well as Google for Non-Profits, and many others.

On Day 2, November 19th, I’ll lead a two-hour workshop on “Planned Giving & Social Media“. That workshop will be from 11am to 1pm at Columbia University, Lerner Hall (116th Street and Broadway).

This will be an exciting and fun event. Click here or on the picture for a 20% discount to NextGen. You have until November 5th to take advantage of this great speaker’s discount.  I’m really glad I can offer it to my friends.

I hope to see you there.

Reynolds Cafferata Interview at National Conference on Philanthropic Planning

I have left the National Conference on Philanthropic Planning to attend and speak at a seminar in New York City today. NCPP in Lake Buena Vista, Florida continues through today.

Yesterday, I interviewed Reynolds Cafferata, Esq. with the law firm of Rodriguez, Horii, Choi & Cafferata in Los Angeles. That’s a tax firm representing nonprofits and their donors (but not in the same transactions–that’d be a conflict, without a waiver).

He had a great attitude about getting behind the podcast mic. Essentially, “I’m here, I’m ready, let’s go.” Not your typical circumspect, practicing attorney.

Reynolds Cafferata, Esq
Reynolds’ conference seminar is “Creating Effective Legal Structures for Multigenerational Philanthropy.” There’s a mouthful. He parsed it for me. “Multigenerational philanthropy” is charitable giving that brings in the kids, grandkids, great grandkids and other heirs depending how far the donor wants to go. And how willing the family is to participate. Some of these legal structures last a term of years and aren’t truly multigenerational. I wouldn’t have asked him to capture that possibility in his program title.

Donors and their families might do this to pass to heirs the value of philanthropy; or because a certain charity or group of charities has been enormously meaningful; or, simply to give back to society and help those in need.

The “legal structures” we discussed are corporations, foundations and trusts. You’ll have to catch the interview for more on those, but we didn’t go into great detail on these vehicles. I wanted to pursue another line.

His firm represents individuals giving to nonprofits, and I was interested in what he’s seen in nonprofits overreaching with donors. His quick answer was the legally enforceable, or binding, pledge agreement. He sees these too often and holds that they bring little or no value to charities and can be detrimental to donors.

Reynolds’ seminar was yesterday afternoon, but you can hear my interview on Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Sign up for show alerts on the Facebook page and you’ll know which show it’ll play on.