Capacity Building Needs Survey

Want to help CRC and our nonprofit partners learn about your organization’s capacity building needs and enter to win an iPod Shuffle, Tattered Cover gift card, a CRC class, or a subscription to the CRC Colorado Grants Guide?

 

Take our survey now!

Dear nonprofit colleague:

 

The Community Resource Center and our nonprofit partners are interested in learning more about your needs for training, consulting, and other nonprofit capacity building services.  Therefore, we are conducting a survey to learn how we and our partners can improve the services we provide to help nonprofits become more effective, strong, and sustainable.

 

We request your participation in this survey, which will take about 10 to 15 minutes of your time.  In return, you will be able to enter a drawing to win an iPod Shuffle, a Tattered Cover Gift Card, one of three free CRC class registrations (valued at $60), or one of three free subscriptions to the CRC Colorado Grants Guide (valued at $150).  

 

We encourage participation from anyone with perceptions about capacity building needs within the nonprofit sector.  To take the survey, please click here.  Please complete the survey by Monday, November 3, 2008.

 

Because we need broad participation from across the state to gather useful information, you are welcome to pass this information and survey onto your nonprofit colleagues within Colorado. 

If you would like to learn more about this survey or the results, please contact me at 303-623-1540 or fischler@crcamerica.org.  

 

Thank you for your willingness to help us in achieving our mission of creating opportunities, tools and strategies to develop nonprofits and community groups to strengthen Colorado.  Your participation in this survey will help us in achieving this mission.

 

Sincerely,

Sarah Fischler

CRC Director of Consulting

The Community Resource Center provides a variety of services to help nonprofit organizations and community groups achieve their missions, including trainings, consulting, leadership development, technology services, and other programs.  

 

To learn more about our services, please visit www.crcamerica.org. 

Rising Poverty and Nonprofit Organizations

In Colorado, the number of children, families, and individuals living in poverty continues to grow.  The Colorado Children’s Campaign recently released data showing that, in 2006, about 180,000 children in Colorado lived below the federal poverty level.  Even more people live below self sufficiency standards, making too much to qualify for government assistance programs and too little to cover the rising costs of food, fuel, housing, and childcare without drastically cutting corners.  Many of these families have already cut out the extras, and are squeezed from all sides.  At the end of the month, some have to decide if they can keep the electricity running or stock their pantry or pay for after school care. 

 As our economy treads on shaky ground, more and more folks turn to nonprofits that provide much-needed services, from food assistance to high-quality affordable childcare.  Many of The Denver Foundation’s grantees provide services to low-income families, and we’ve heard that they’re seeing rising demand.  Denver Urban Ministries reports serving an average of 931 families per month in 2008, versus 667 per month in 2007.  The JeffCo Action Center and Growing Home both report that more people are coming for services,  including some who used to be donors coming in to access the food bank for the first time. 

 These nonprofits and others are stretching to meet increased demand on the same, or fewer, resources.  At the same time, organizations are hit by rising costs – the increase in fuel prices make it more challenging to transport students to field trips, the rise in costs of food makes mealtime more expensive at senior centers. 

 These three factors – rising costs, rising demand, and possibly lower revenues – mean that the important work of nonprofit organizations can be even harder.  For some organizations, this can result in cash flow issues.  Organizations respond to cash flow challenges in a variety of ways: some do a special appeal, or change the timing of their direct mail campaign.  Others turn to board members for support.  Still others apply to the Colorado Nonprofit Loan Fund to help bridge cash flow timing problems.   Technical assistance can help build fundraising capacity. 

 

Now, more than ever, nonprofits need support from generous donors and volunteers, so that they can alleviate the immediate effects of poverty and promote long-term solutions.   

 

What impacts has your organization seen during the economic downturn?  How have you responded?

 

 

 

Bringing in the Bucks

In challenging economic times, many nonprofits find it’s even more difficult to do one of their toughest, but most important jobs: raise money.   Corporations that have provided generous support in the past may have cut their philanthropy.  Some individual contributors might have lost their jobs and, for human services agencies in particular, gone from donor to client.   A nonprofit’s investments may be down, and thus their financial cushion may have diminished. 

Nonprofits looking to boost their fundraising capacity might bring in experts to provide training or guidance.  Several kinds of technical assistance can help: creating a detailed fundraising plan, participating in fundraising training, or bringing in outsiders to guide you through developing a new revenue stream, such as an annual event. 

When creating a fundraising plan, organizations look at current sources of revenue, assess strengths and weaknesses, and lay out goals and specific action steps to raise new funds.  As a part of their plan, an organization could articulate how they will cultivate, approach, and thank new donor prospects.  Other organizations might bring in a consultant to train board members on one of their most important roles: raising funds to support the organization’s mission. 

How about you?  What strategies have you employed to raise funds in tough times? 

Resources related to fundraising plans and raising funds in tough economic times:
http://www.coloradononprofits.org/documents/HowToDevelopAFundRaisingPlan.pdf

http://www.richardmale.com/articleelementsofafundraisingplan.htm

http://www.afpnet.org/ka/ka-3.cfm?folder_id=2545&content_item_id=24662