The NonProfit Times - Jewish National Fund

advertisement
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
1 of 7
HOME
SUBSCRIPTIONS
RESOURCE DIRECTORY
BACK ISSUES
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
JOBS
GUIDES
CONTACT US
i
j
k
l
m
n
QUICK LINKS: SUBSCRIBE | BLOG | RSS | AUDIO
Search
www.nptimes.com
HOME
eNEWSLETTERS
January 15, 2008
EXEMPT MAGAZINE
WEB EXLUSIVES
NPT TOP 100
NPTimes Blog - A place to view articles never
before posted, comment on our most popular
stories and learn about what's new in Nonprofit.
EXEC OF THE YEAR
NPT 2007 - TOP 50
POWER & INFLUENCE
SALARY SURVEY
ADVERTISING INFO
BOOKSTORE
Seeing the big picture generates dollars today and tomorrow
Fundraisers raise funds. It's in the title. But great fundraisers are more than human automated
teller machines.
Raising the most money really isn't the only measure of a great fundraiser. Overcoming
obstacles and still breaking new ground for the future is just as important to an organization's
bottom line as today's dollar.
Editors of The NonProfit Times asked readers in multiple emails to more than 90,000
subscribers to NPT Weekly to nominate great fundraisers. Industry leaders were solicited and
editors checked their own notebooks to find the nation's unique development executives. In
some cases, local programs were doing work that would be the envy of national programs. In
other instances, some of the tried and true national industry giants were true to form.
Will there be an argument regarding who made it and who didn't? Absolutely. All of these types
of illuminations are conversation starters. That's the point. It's the exchange of ideas that raises
the level of everyone's game.
Younger Than 40 - Sarah Tanner
Younger Than 40 - Brian Cowart
Online - Greenpeace International
Living Legend - Larry Jones
Cause Marketing - Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Direct Mail - Susan Loth
International - FINCA
Trendsetter - Jewish National Fund
NPTimes Rss Feed - Stay up to date on our latest
articles and news through our RSS web feed.
NPTimes Audio - Listen to what nonprofit sector
leaders have to say exclusively to The NonProfit
Times. The Latest - New Red Cross CEO Pushes
Change
NPTimes Subscription Center - From Mobile
Phone Alerts to Email Updates. Our subscription
center will keep you in contact with all things
nonprofit.
Nonprofit Webinars
6
NPTimes Suggested Reading
Buy and save 15%
Cause Marketing for Nonprofits
by Jocelyne Daw
This book captures the exciting potential for
business and nonprofits to partner for
mutual benefit and discovery.
Younger Than 40
Sarah Tanner
Getting Cash Free And Clear
In some smaller communities, the local United Way functions as
the community chest -- the fundraising arm of that town. But for
United Way of Pioneer Valley, located in urban Springfield,
Mass., being just a pass-through organization could very well
mean obsolescence.
"If you look at the United Way story, designations (gifts) don't
help us," said Sarah Tanner, vice president of resource
development at United Way of Pioneer Valley (UWPV). "And for
many of (our donors), they don't really understand how
designating a gift was hurting...the longevity of United Way in our
community."
Tanner, who joined UWPV during 2005, has since helped the
charity reduce its designations from 36 percent to 32 percent, a significant drop for an
organization and community that had long been familiar with directing dollars. "Anything we can
do to get more unrestricted (gifts) is wonderful, and so, yes, it's a very big drop for us," said the
35-year-old. "We'd like to see it dropping further. Obviously, if we could be somewhere around
25 percent, that would be great."
Prior to joining UWPV, Tanner held positions with United Way chapters in Denver, New York
City and nearby Hampshire County, first in marketing and later in campaigns. Tanner said she
left UW of Hampshire County, located right up the road in Northampton, Mass., because of the
growth opportunities available at UWPV. "I also saw a challenge here," said Tanner.
Once at UWPV, Tanner said she realized one of the challenges with lower- ing the number of
restricted gifts is the notion that while donors want to have an impact, they also want to have a
choice in where they effect that impact. "The key for us in seeing that drop was just creating
more value to our donors in our general fund," said Tanner. "And, explaining to them, providing
more definition of what the general fund truly is and what they're getting in return, and what the
community's getting in return when they support that type of funding."
This resulted in a compromise: the creation of specialized funds targeting specific areas of
concern in the community, to be managed by the United Way. "We're almost creating our own
in-house designation options," said Tanner. By targeting new impact areas, she added, "that
allows us to go after some larger funders and ask for increased giving knowing that they would
have some recognition and some ownership of the program rolling out of United Way."
To market the program, Tanner wanted the message to be positive. "We said, 'Here's what's so
great about our community fund, and this is the core of what United Way's about, and this is
how you can be a part of it,'" she said. UWPV solicited some of its key leadership, donors who
were giving $10,000 or more, to be the champions of that message. "And once we got those
people on board with us, they became our advocates and they went out and they would make
their asks with this message," she said.
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
2 of 7
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
Revenue has remained flat during the last few years, around $7 million, but Tanner said the
charity is headed in the right direction. In addition to reducing the number of restricted
donations, UWPV is making strides in garnering a younger constituency.
"We're not focused on their financial contribution to us at this time," Tanner said of the group's
Young Leaders' Society, which targets those aged 40 and younger. "We're trying to provide
(them with) experiences where they start to feel invested not only with United Way, but with the
community."
With so many young people moving out of Springfield, Tanner also would like to see the Young
Leaders' Society facilitate a stronger connection to the community. "Hopefully it helps them put
some roots down here so they stay here." - Marla E. Nobles
Back to top
Brian Cowart
A Million New Donors,Sometimes One At A Time
When St. Jude Children's Research Hospital gets a new donor,
Brian Cowart can claim that the person is one in a million. That's
because that's how many new donors the hospital is now getting.
The way Cowart describes it, he just sort of stumbled into the
field of nonprofit fundraising and direct mail. "It's not something I
went to school for or had knowledge in," he said. "Very few
people come out and find their way into the direct
mail/fundraising industry."
Cowart, 36, majored in commerce at the University of Virginia but
there were no extensive courses or training in direct marketing.
After some time in sales and marketing, he wound up at
Response Media Products as a list manager.
Before long Cowart joined CARE in Atlanta, primarily because of his direct marketing
experience, but the list management experience didn't hurt. "It just sort of evolved; it happens a
lot in the industry, I think." While he was director of direct marketing for five years at CARE, the
relief agency routinely generated more than $60 million in public support annually before
reaching the $100-million mark in 2003 and 2004.
A native of Atlanta, Cowart relocated to Memphis when he joined St. Jude two years ago. As
senior director of mail acquisition and donor retention, he's responsible for acquiring and
cultivating new donors through traditional direct marketing channels like mail and
telemarketing. That means raising $240 million annually. He's the primary source of new
donors that funnel into the organization, which lately is running about a million new donors
each year.
Cowart is part of St. Jude's national direct marketing division, the largest revenue generator for
the children's research hospital. It raises nearly half of the more than $500 million in total
annual revenue. Cowart's responsibilities include raising about 80 percent of the $250 million
raised by the division.
The hospital last year moved from the third-largest health charity to the second-largest health
charity in terms of private donations, said Lori O'Brien, senior vice president, national direct
marketing. St. Jude has seen public support rise by 17 percent and 9 percent, respectively,
during the past two years, approaching the $500-million mark.
"He has done some interesting work with both the donor file and with creative strategy, to
identify the donors on file who have the capacity to give larger gifts, but who currently give
small gifts," said O'Brien. "By identifying propensity for giving and also a strong affinity for St.
Jude, Brian is zeroing in on donors who don't naturally self-identify as larger givers," she said.
"We continue to see very positive response rates...and a fairly modest increase in donors we're
bringing in year-to-year," Cowart said. The average gift to St. Jude has grown 5 to 6 percent
during the past several years, he said, attributing some of that to pursuing higher-value lists,
but also to some industry-wide evolution. The number of new donors acquired also has grown
by 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in the past two years.
Looking ahead, Cowart expects to "not focus as much on the numbers of new donors, but
equally on the value of those donors long-term. "As we move forward, we'll be looking more to
the value of donors, not the response and how many we acquire," he said.
The hospital is "constantly trying to find new ways to bring in new donors," Cowart said, such as
exploring face-to-face fundraising, and viral marketing over the telephone for donors to reach
out to friends and family. In an effort to bring in new donor audiences, the organization will
reach out to audiences "we may have been under-investing in," he said, such as the
African-American and Hispanic communities.
His favorite part of the job? "Knowing what I'm doing makes a difference in the life of someone
else. Also, what I love about direct marketing is you can instantly, or fairly instantly, measure
the impact of a campaign, and the success of a campaign, and identify opportunities for
improvement through numbers." - Mark Hrywna
Back to top
Online
Greenpeace International
Eight Countries, Six Languages
If you market a campaign as global,
you better show people it's global.
That was the motto brandished by
Greenpeace International during the
planning stages of the nonprofit's
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
3 of 7
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
global "The Great Whale Trail" tagging
campaign. The accompanying Web
site had the same global objective,
with the added and very ambitious
goal of combining activism with
fundraising -online.
"What we're doing, in a sense, is inventing the wheel," said Ryann Miller, fundraising innovation
consultant at Toronto-based HJC New Media, which partnered with Greenpeace to develop the
online peer-to-peer fundraising aspect of The Great Whale Trail campaign. "This is not direct
marketing. This is not direct mail. So, it's a lot harder for us to project what a campaign is going
to end up looking like. We're still seeing what the potential is."
The Web site (http://secure.greenpeace.org/visitor/index.php?event_id=main ), said Miller, is
modifiable by each participating Greenpeace national regional office (NRO), but the main
points remain congruent throughout. The custom-built platform includes a sidebar located on
the right side of the page, which displays three ranking lists, "Latest Donors," "Global Top
Fundraisers," and "Top Fundraisers," each updated automatically. "We built this tool and this
campaign so that it would work in each and every country office," said Miller.
Still in the early stages of the project (it was launched at the beginning of November),
Greenpeace International New Media Fundraiser Alexandra Merory, based in the Netherlands,
said the group is not ready to share how much has been raised. She did speak to the
uniqueness of the effort, and to its sometimes-unexpected successes.
"The Great Whale Trail tagging project has been an important project as through the scientific
research," said Merory by email. "We approached the issue in a new way, and through the
social network fundraising we allowed supporters to engage with the campaign in a different
way."
According to Merory, the nonprofit managed to roll out the peer-to-peer fundraising in eight
countries with very different markets, and in six languages. The participating countries include
places where whaling is a big market, such as Japan and New Zealand, but there were also a
few surprises. "Happy" surprises, said HJC's Miller.
"Hungary is a great example of a smaller regional office that is more nimble, and eager to take
a chance and a risk," Merory said of the landlocked eastern European nation. Greenpeace's
NRO in China also found success with the effort, as evidenced by the reigning "Global Top
Fundraiser," Joe Wu of China, whose individual Web page (all in Chinese except for the dollars
raised) shows that Wu garnered eight sponsors and raised $1,050 (as of Dec. 13).
Traffic to the group's Google Maps Web page, which uses satellite tracking to show the
migration of threatened humpback whales has been impressive, said Merory. (Note: the
posting of the whales' location is delayed to ensure whalers cannot locate them) And as a
not-so-side note side note, a contest to name one of the whales resulted in "a huge viral
explosion," she said, with more than 115,000 votes cast worldwide for the winning name, "Mr.
Splashy Pants."
The contest was cited on several Web sites. People created their own "Vote for Mr. Splashy
Pants" groups on Facebook; and, the "Mr. Splashy Pants" Web site earned the top spot on the
user-generated site Reddit.com.
"This goes back to the psychology of it all," said Miller. "If you tell me that a campaign is global,
I want to see that it's global. It fosters a much greater sense of connection and interaction with
people around the world, united for this one single cause." - Marla E. Nobles
Back to top
Living Legend
Larry Jones
DRTV, Mail Feed Kids Around The World
If they made a movie about Larry Jones' life, it
might be a little like the film Forrest Gump.
That's not to say Jones is dim-witted or spends
his time at bus stops holding a box of
chocolates. But like Gump, Jones has found
himself at interesting locations in history.
He was in Oklahoma City in 1995 when the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed
and in New York City the day the World Trade
Center towers fell. His organization, Feed The Children (FTC), responded to both tragedies, as
well as numerous disasters over the years, from the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina.
He gets his message out through every possible means. Just try to flip around the television
without seeing a FTC infomercial.
Jones started FTC in 1979, after meeting a boy in Haiti who asked him for a nickel at about 9
p.m. so he could buy a roll, his only meal that day. He then asked for three pennies, so he
could get the roll buttered. Jones said he also gave him another 12 cents for a soda. "This is
tragic," he thought, as he knew there was tons of wheat just sitting in silos back in Oklahoma.
When he returned home, Jones presented his case on the air (when Larry Jones Ministries was
only on about a dozen stations). Donating the surplus wheat would help those in Haiti, but also
the farmers who were stuck with it, and the federal government, which was subsidizing farmers
to grow it.
Within two months, Jones had 50 farmers giving him two million pounds of wheat. "I was just
going to do that and that was the extent of it," Jones said. But then he received another 16 tons
of black-eyed peas from another farmer. "We had a product in hand. We just had to raise the
money to ship it."
Jones hasn't stopped since, as FTC marks its 29th anniversary this month. In its infancy, FTC
raised less than $2 million its first year. Today, it's a $650-million-a-year operation based in
Oklahoma City, Okla., with a fleet of 55 semi-tractor-trailers ready to transport food where it's
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
4 of 7
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
needed. FTC shipped nearly 130 million pounds of food and essentials last year within the U.S.
and to 43 nations, in addition to supplementing 730,000 meals a day around the world. Since
its inception, FTC has served children and families in 118 countries worldwide.
FTC is perhaps best known for its child sponsorship efforts and pioneering Direct Response
Television (DRTV). During its first 10 years, the child sponsorship program had 30,000
children.
"I really didn't plan to start something," Jones said. "There were no focus groups, none of that,
just farmers that said that'd be a great idea. Nobody's more shocked about what's taken place
than my wife and I. It's nothing that we planned out, or thought about."
Last year, Jones published his biography, "Keep Walking," that describes his lifelong efforts to
feed children. "You keep walking simply because there are hungry children around the next
bend, or the next mile. You can't let anyone or anything stop you. The need is so great."
Today, Larry Jones Ministries is on 75 television stations. FTC has used television, direct mail
and magazine advertising to reach out to the public. "If we can get the word out to people -Americans are a very compassionate people -- we can move the product," he said.
Jones and his wife, Frances, recently adopted a boy from Kenya who was abandoned and near
death. "We have a constant reminder in my home of who we are and what our purpose in life
is," he said.
"The potential is out there for children; all they want is a chance. To see these kids come and
be able to feed these kids, I would do this even if you didn't pay me," Jones said. "The world
could be a better place if everybody could do something, even a little." - Mark Hrywna
Back to top
Cause Marketing
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Getting Sponsors To Go To Bat For Kids
When you have 96 percent name
recognition, you must be doing
something right.
"In New England, we're such a
household name. We've been able to
capitalize on the strength of that," said
David Giagrando, director of corporate
partnerships at Dana Farber Cancer
Institute in Boston, an official charity of
the Boston Red Sox.
People might be familiar with The Jimmy
Fund, a fundraising arm of the cancer center, and the logo on Fenway Park's famed 37-foot left
field wall, the Green Monster, visible during nationally-televised baseball games.
"The greatest strength with our brand is in New England, but we work nationally, with national
companies and with companies that want to work with this region. We're creative with how we
position the brand in a national program, focusing more on cause than brand. The brand
speaks for itself locally," said Giagrando.
The program's aim is to create "long-term sustainable relationships with growth opportunity."
The longest cause marketing partner is Stop & Shop supermarkets, which has been involved
for 16 years. Other cause- marketing partners include BJ's Wholsesale Club, Blockbuster,
Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, Hyundai, HomeGoods, Jiffy Lube, Model's Sporting Goods and
Taco Bell.
Programs range from sharing proceeds of products to point-of-sale collections of contributions
from cust- omers and sweepstakes. "We've found the greatest successes are ones that
engage the customer at the point of sale because it capitalizes on traffic," Giagrando said.
The cause marketing effort was in its infant stages when Giagrando joined Dana Farber in
1999, raising about $1.5 million a year. Today, cause marketing and sponsorships raise $10
million annually.
"It's a lot of work to implement these partnerships, because we don't just sit back and take
money. We work from concept to implementation to fulfillment with whatever partnership or
promotion it is," he said.
There are about a dozen major partnerships a year, some of which repeat, but Dana Farber
gets as many as 50 inquiries a year from businesses interested in partnering. Giagrando and
his staff of six review each proposal for its potential, examining the company, its history and
reputation. "What's important is to maintain the only thing we have which is our brand image,"
he said.
"It's hard to say no because we want to raise significant dollars but you have to balance
workload and the value of the name and not undersell ourselves," Giagrando said. "What we
want to do is maintain the value of our name so that we can put the highest price on it, so we
can raise the maximum amount of money."
What distinguishes Dana-Farber/ The Jimmy Fund from other cause marketing efforts,
Giagrando said, "is the amount of service to our partners and the amount of counsel and the
proactive nature of our strategies. Most of the programs are ideas we came up with to
implement. It's not enough to sit back and say, 'We're a good cause, do something with our
name.'
"We want to be strategic with who we work with, how we work, and what the yield is for both
parties," Giagrando said, "but also never forgetting to raise money to conquer cancer." - Mark
Hrywna
Back to top
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
5 of 7
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
Direct Mail
Susan Loth
Mailing Less And Making More
Susan Loth has seen the direct mail program at Disabled
American Veterans (DAV) more than double in revenue during
the past 16 years. Its database of active donors has grown to
more than seven million names, no small feat even for the
direct-mail behemoth that is DAV. The head of fundraising at the
Cincinnati-based nonprofit, Loth has played a starring role in that
growth.
During her tenure, the last five as director of fundraising, DAV's
mail program has weathered increased competition, enjoyed
drool-worthy response rates in an industry plagued by numbers
going in the opposite direction, and maintained a reputation as a
leader in the direct-mail industry. And while it's never been an
easy trail, Loth has done her share of blazing.
And she has no plans to stop. During the next five years, DAV will expand its fundraising
program to include cause marketing and corporate sponsorships. For other nonprofits, this
might seem like an organic move. But for DAV, which since its founding in 1920 has relied
solely on direct mail, it's more along the lines of entering uncharted territory.
These days, though, the biggest changes at DAV are in the fundraising costs. From 2005 to
2006, DAV reduced costs by almost 4 percent, a significant drop, said Loth, since it all came
from the direct mail program. The trend continued this year, she added.
"We've been mailing 55 million to 60 million pieces (of mail) a year, and what we've been doing
is trying to get the quantity down, trying to mail smarter," said Loth. "Who should we be mailing
and what is the strategy? Get in there and slice and dice our data a little bit and figure out
where are we mailing and are we dropping off."
The plan is working. According to Loth, during 2004 the group mailed nearly 64 million pieces
of mail and grossed $104 million. Two years later, the group mailed 4 million fewer mail pieces,
and grossed around $108.1 million. "We're systematically working to produce the largest return
while mailing smarter," she said.
When Loth assumed the role of director of fundraising in January 2002, the bar had already
been set - and it was at nose-bleed level. "Most certainly" it was daunting, Loth said of filling the
enormous shoes left behind by legendary former director of fundraising Max Hart. Often
dubbed "The $1.7-Billion Man," Hart had set the gold standard not only at DAV, but in the
nonprofit direct-mail space. His success with DAV's program earned Hart a place in the Direct
Marketing Association's Hall of Fame, which prior to Hart had only included for-profit direct
marketers.
Looking forward, Loth said she'd like to get response rates up and possibly start making money
again on acquisition, something the organization hasn't been able to do for decades. These
days acquisition response hovers around 3 percent, still within the industry average of between
2 and 4 percent.
Loth said she'd also like to see fewer dollars spent on fundraising and more dollars going to
programs and services. "We've made a lot of investments in technology, and even with things
as little as paper (stock), we've lightened that. And when it comes to the postage rate, we
always try to make sure that we're mailing the appropriate audience so that we're not throwing
our dollars away," she said.
Loth attributes the success of DAV's mail program to testing. "The wonderful thing about direct
mail is that it's very scientific, you can get answers to your tests," she said. "We try to be
pragmatic, and we test the heck out of everything. We don't just change our program; we might
tweak it along the way, but we don't automatically just throw in a new piece of copy or
anything." - Marla E. Nobles
Back to top
International
FINCA
Making Microfinance Cool
Most people probably didn't know or hear
about microfinancing much just a few
years ago. That changed when
Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
While many might know of Grameen
Bank because of the Nobel Prize win,
there are others like it that have been
operating in relative obscurity for 20 and
30 years. Even Grameen Bank started
out as a concept as far back as 1976.
The Foundation for International
Community Assistance International
(FINCA) is one of those groups. "After
the Nobel Prize was given, it raised the level of awareness that we couldn't have gotten, and
didn't, for 20 years," said Diane Jones, public relations manager for FINCA International.
In recent months, you might have seen actress Natalie Portman mention FINCA in interviews.
The Oscar-nominated actress is an "Ambassador of Hope" for FINCA, and along with Queen
Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, is co-chair of the Village Banking Campaign.
FINCA launched The Call to Action Village Banking Campaign this past May, with a goal of
operating 100,000 Village Banks by 2010 and reaching 1 million low-income entrepreneurs. In
January 2007, FINCA International for the first time surpassed the 500,000 mark in clients. By
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
6 of 7
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
August, the organization reached another new milestone -- 600,000 clients. Online giving
jumped by 115 percent during 2007 after the Washington, D.C.-based charity revamped its
Web site for the launch.
For 2006, which is a 16-month reporting period (September 2005 to December 2006) because
of a change in the fiscal year calendar, contributions totaled $29.4 million. Just five years ago,
revenues were about $17 million, up from $5 million in 1997. Overall revenues are expected to
be more than $33 million for Fiscal Year 2007. That translates to an increase in revenue of
more than 500 percent compared to 10 years ago.
FINCA has kicked its direct mail program into high gear lately, mailing 3 million prospecting
pieces during 2006, 5 million in 2007, and a plan for 7 million this year. A direct mail program
was instituted during the late 1990s based on an analysis of the demographic makeup of its
donor base, and giving trends of others who fit the same demographic description in general,
Jones said.
"We tailor messages that resonate with this audience, which skews toward those with higher
education levels, higher income levels, between the ages of 35 and 54, and who tend to make
decisions regarding philanthropic giving based on information and outcome, rather than the pull
on the heartstrings."
FINCA distinguishes itself from other microfinance organizations for its methodology of village
banking, said Jones. Village banking brings together a group of 10 to 20 neighbors, focused on
women generally.Since they don't have collateral they take out a group loan for a designated
business. If one person defaults, the others are responsible for paying back the loan, she said.
The group guarantee "creates a wonderful support network among the group; peer pressure
but in a positive way," Jones said.
While most microfinance programs focus on one country or region, FINCA has programs in 21
countries. About 60 percent of its programs are self-sustaining, which takes about three to five
years to accomplish. Up to that point, contributions are needed to move toward the
self-sufficiency milestone.
John Hatch founded FINCA in 1984 and created the Village Banking method. In his work with
the rural poor while with the Peace Corps, Hatch found that most credit programs were
administered by outside experts, which resulted in poor repayment rates and low morale
among borrowers.
Hatch retired as director of research in 2006 and continues as a FINCA board member, as well
as a researcher on the impact of Village Banking. - Mark Hrywna
Back to top
Trendsetter
Jewish National Fund
Reversing The Donor Aging Process
Ah, Spring Break. The sun, the beach,
the "What happens in BLANK stays in
BLANK" memories.
Enter Alternative Spring Break (ASB),
where the days of a wasted youth are no
more, and where memories are lasting
and, well, memorable. Where the
purpose is to create a connection to the
past and form a vision for the future.
While Jewish charities often are viewed
as for older donors. Linda Wenger at the
Jewish National Fund (JNF) is changing that thinking.
"It's a really great opportunity for young people to get involved with our organization and with
our cause, which is and has always been for the State of Israel," said Wenger, executive
director of marketing and communications for JNF.
From its pilot season in 2005, ASB trips to Israel have grown explosively -- from 25 young
adults ages 18-35 the first year, to last year more than 300 young adults. The trips were
profiled by MTV, and aired as one of the cable channel's "Spring Break 2007" specials.
But as the State of Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary this May, Wenger fears the story of its
creation has become less important to a younger Jewish audience. And since her arrival at JNF
little more than four years earlier, it's been Wenger's mission to reverse that trend.
"When I first came here, I'd go to events and board meetings and everybody was 65 or older,"
said Wenger. Today, the New York board, for instance, is comprised mainly of people in their
40s and early 50s, she said. JNF boards throughout the country are also transforming. "Our
leadership is getting younger," she said. "The change really is remarkable."
The group's latest campaign, "Go Neutral," targets those people who want to offset their carbon
footprint, and is "very aimed at young people," said Wenger, who heads the campaign. "We
know that a way to bring young people into our organization is to emphasize the fact that we do
great environmental work in Israel."
The message of Go Neutral: "If you're going to plant a tree, why not plant a tree in Israel," said
Wenger. The accompanying Web site is fresher and edgier than JNF's main site, and the
campaign is featured on social networks.
JNF raised $2.5 million online during 2007 (as of Dec. 13). It's astonishing, said Wenger, since
the bulk of the money was from the purchase of $18 trees. But trendsetting is nothing new for
JNF. After the launch of its online store seven years ago, JNF became the first Jewish nonprofit
to raise $1 million online.
Other positive changes at JNF include annual revenue that has increased during the last
decade from around $17 million to more than $57 million. The group also is among the small
percentage of nonprofits to garner four stars two years in a row from Charity Navigator.
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit...
7 of 7
http://www.nptimes.com/08Jan/npt-080115-1.html#Story8
Without forgetting the base of their donors, which skew upwards of age 60, the group is looking
to increase the "unacceptable" 2 percent of its donors that are between the ages of 18 and 35.
Whether it be by launching innovative online campaigns, hosting themed events that appeal to
younger donors, or adopting an overall policy of a lower price of entry (e.g., instead of paying
$1,000 to join JNF's legal society, young adults can pay $350), JNF is making strides to grow
its younger donors. And Wenger is leading the way. - Marla E. Nobles
Back to top
HOME | SUBSCRIPTIONS | RESOURCE DIRECTORY | BACK ISSUES | JOBS | GUIDES | CONTACT US
© 2007 The NonProfit Times Privacy Policy
1/18/2008 12:38 PM
Download