...Ora Stewart OD/MG650 Personal Action Plan June 25, 2012 Introduction This paper is a personal action plan. It’s an inventory of skills including my strengths and weaknesses in relation to the requirements of my short and long term goals. I am therefore, making an action plan on how to correct my deficiencies and to improve on my weaknesses’. This will allow me to take advantage of my strengths to obtain the skills that I want to have and quality of a person that I want to be. When this semester first started I set a goal for myself to improve my writing skills. Through- out this semester I have struggled to advance my goal. Now, as the semester comes to an end, I must look at what progress I have made towards this goal. By re-examining the work that I have done this semester I can evaluate where I have made improvements, what areas still need work and whether my participation in this class has been effective in achieving this goal. I have expanded my knowledge of different writing styles and punctuations. Both have had a positive effect on my essays by strengthening my writing skills. While my knowledge of grammar and active voice still needs improvement, my class participation has given me practice and prepared me for writing essays and speaking. The ways in which my writing skills have been enhanced by my work in this course are as followed; (a) I communicate my feelings and emotions...
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...RE-Fundraising.com Fundraising + Relationship Building Home Consulting Speaking Bio of Author Disclosures Analyzing Fundraising Strategies through the 80/20 Principle Knowing what produces our greatest results can make a real difference. When I speak to nonprofit and education professionals involved with fundraising the discussion inevitably turns to the ROI of funding strategies currently in place and ways to improve. I think many nonprofits have explored various types of funding sources and to some extent have a diversified fund development plan in place. Where many fundraisers go wrong is in identifying which of these strategies has become too time consuming and less productive to their organization. To help dissect this problem I utilized the principles of an economist born over 150 years ago- enter Mr. Vilfredo Pareto. In the business world most are familiar with the term the “80/20 Principle” or Pareto’s Law. Quick history lesson; Pareto was a controversial economist (who isn’t these days) that lived from 1848 to 1923 and he wrote a book where he included a law about income distribution. The mathematical formula he used to demonstrate a grossly uneven but predictable distribution of wealth in society where- 80% of the wealth and income was produced and possessed by 20% of the population. Pareto’s Law can be summarized as follows: 80% of the outputs results from 20% of the inputs. Now let’s make this relevant to the fundraising world: •80%...
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...MANAGING THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING FOR EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES: EXPLORING OPTIONS ISTANBUL, 17-18 FEBRUARY 2006 CASE STUDY: UNIVERSITY OF BREMEN INTRODUCING A FUNDRAISING CULTURE: A DEMANDING AND ON-GOING PROCESS Winnie Abraham Spokesperson for the President, Head of Fundraising University of Bremen, Germany The case of Bremen will illustrate how important it is to have a clear understanding of the consequences of introducing fundraising activities on behalf of a public university BEFORE embarking on this trail. The process has a large impact on your university and - at least in the short run - no definitive results. The case will demonstrate the challenges, pitfalls and successes experienced while developing a fundraising concept and implementing it, starting with a change of mindset, which is needed from the people involved: Philanthropy is a philosophical attitude towards the world and not just another way of acquiring funds. You have to master the principles and techniques involved as well as being able to answer the question: Why does your university exist, what is your mission, why should somebody become a donor of your university? On the one hand you will realize how difficult it is to give a convincing answer and on the other hand, how many other organizations compete with you for people's wallets. While taking good advice from a US partner, the University of Bremen adapted it to its specific needs, objectives and culture. The case will pay particular...
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...preparation for the plan, starts with assessment of the situation and clarification of the mission, values, and vision. All management and operational facets must be aligned with the mission, values and vision, as they are the essence of the organization. The next step is to identify the issues, questions and obstacles that may occur. Once these are known, strategies, goals and objectives can be developed, written and communicated. The plan is ready to be implemented. The final step of strategic planning is to evaluate the results in order to ensure effectiveness and to make improvements as necessary (Worth, 2012). Since capacity building involves strengthening the organization in order to realize its mission, both marketing and fundraising are used to accomplish this feat. The focus of marketing is to influence behavior (Worth, 2012). Marketing is key because it must link the organization to the community. Through strategic planning, marketing can gain commitment from staff, volunteers and the community; acquire resources, such as information, technology and funding; and, set objectives which will be beneficial to a nonprofit organization. Marketing can measure performance and strategic planning will determine if the organization is on track or if changes need to be made (Riley, 2012). Strategies are needed to market and raise funds for nonprofit organizations; therefore, planning must take place. Hoffman (2010)...
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...Back in 2002, arts communities across the United States were experiencing financial hardships due to the weakening economy and declines in public and private support resources. Two art organizations in Salt Lake City, Utah; the Utah Opera and Utah Symphony, are just two examples that experienced these hardships. In order to alleviate the effects of those hardships, the two company boards and Anne Ewers (general director of the Utah Opera) are convening in meetings to discuss merger of the 2 organizations. Anne Ewers was approached whether she would be interested in becoming the CEO of the merged organization. Anne Ewers has a good reputation for being energetic, enthusiastic, and fully capable of assuming this position. Her reputation also entails retiring a $450,000 debt at a previous company and growing the Utah Opera’s annual budget from $1.5 million to $5 million. A merger of the two companies will bring about different reactions and emotions from both sides and the community. We will analyze motivations of various constituents to better understand their positions for or against the merger and assist Anne Ewers in identifying issues she may experience. A1. Bill Bailey Bill Bailey is the chairman of the board of trustees at the Utah Opera. Mr. Bailey and the board will have direct a direct say in the merger by voting yes or no. When Mr. Bailey was made aware of the proposal for merger, he had concerns and showed opposition towards the merger. To motivate the rest of the...
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...INTRUDUCTION We have a good number of various types of disabled people in our society. If they are properly trained, they can substantially contribute instead of becoming burden to others. In developed and developing countries, Government takes the responsibility for training and rehabilitating these people. In Bangladesh, our Government has also taken many measures of this kind but those are not enough. To multiply the effort, like many other countries, there are some organizations established and run by the parents and guardians of disabled people. Autism is a kind of disability usually identified in children at the age between 18 months to 3 years. The affected children suffer from mainly 3 difficulties. These are: Verbal or non verbal communication, Impaired social inter-action and limited activities/interest with rigidity in thinking and repetitive behaviour. These children may improve and live a close to normal life if appropriate intervention and proper training is imparted in time. Though we have many organizations in Bangladesh working with various fields of disability but there is hardly any quality institute developed exclusively for the autistic children. The problem further aggravated with the unavailability of any training centre to train trainers or teachers to work with autistic children. Similarly, there is no facility available for the training or motivation of parents or caregivers of autistic children. We neither have any centre for caring a child for the...
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...adopting, and implementing a statement that fits Covenant Partners’s unique characteristics. Going through this process with the board and staff also begins to infuse into the culture of Covenant Partners a recognition of how important it is to address issues of values and ethics on an ongoing basis. We encourage all organizations to set aside time in your board meeting or at a retreat to discuss in detail all aspects of an ethical code—and be sure that new board members have the appropriate orientation to understand and embrace your code of ethics and practices. For more information, please visit www.IndependentSector.org. Statement of Values and Code of Ethics for Covenant Partners, Inc. Introduction As a matter of fundamental principle, the nonprofit and philanthropic community should adhere to the highest ethical...
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...Subject title = Corporate Governance Executive Summary Most successful organisations adhere to corporate governance principles, and as their environments change, so should the system in order to adapt and improve. This paper reviews the corporate governance aspects of Scouts Victoria. As an organisation with a hybrid of volunteer and paid staff, Scouts Victoria provides an interesting insight of how corporate governance methodologies can be adopted. The organisation is well advanced in its values and policies, and has established policies around board appointments and organisation management. While recognising this, there are also opportunities for improving processes, giving greater community confidence that one of their iconic volunteer organisations is professionally managed and focused on delivering well-structured programs for the youth of Victoria. Contents Introduction 3 Principles of Good Governance in the Not For Profit Sector 3 Regulatory Framework 3 Role and Responsibilities - The Board's Effectiveness 4 Board Composition – the right people 5 Vision and Strategy 6 Recognition and Management of Risk 6 Volunteer Training 6 Organisational Performance 7 Board Effectiveness 8 Integrity & Accountability 9 Organisation Building 9 Culture & Ethics 9 Engagement 10 Conclusion 10 Recommendations 11 Introduction The idea of Corporate Governance has been in existence since the days of the spice trade and monopolies of...
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...the Atlanta community. AID Atlanta quickly began expanding to offer a broader range of services, and has since grown to be the largest and most comprehensive AIDS Service Organization in the Southeast United States (www.aidatlanta.com, 2011). Role of Board of Directors Nonprofit boards generally have the duties of selecting and working with the Executive Director, amending bylaws, approving the annual budget and long-term strategic plans, and ensuring its own succession. There are 24 members on the Board of Directors, with 6 Department Heads Directors of Aid Atlanta. The Executive Director presently is Cathy Woolard. The Executive Director has executive management responsibility for all aspects of Aid Atlanta including operations, fundraising, financial management, marketing, government and community relations, board relations, and human resources for Aid Atlanta in support of it mission. The board of directors is the governing body of a non-profit organization. Aid Atlanta...
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...organizations account for their revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities on the full accrual basis of accounting. The financial statements are to provide information that meets the common interests of donors, members, creditors and other resource providers. (Ives, Patton, & Patton, 438). The financial statements required for NFPO include a statement of financial position, a statement of activities, and a statement of cash flows. Revenues, expenses, and investments are all received with certain classifications imposed on them. St. Jude’s Children’s research hospital is a not-for-profit organization founded by entertainer Danny Thomas and opened on February 4, 1962. St. Jude is supported primarily by donations raised by its national fundraising organization, ALSAC, which was established by Danny Thomas expressly for the purpose of funding St. Jude. The hospital also receives assistance from federal grants (mainly through the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute), insurance and investments. (Financial Statement, 2013). Operations are overseen by the Boards of Directors and...
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...to a few million to build the company, and then (3) once the company is clearly succeeding, raise one or more later rounds to accelerate growth. Reality can be messier. Some companies raise money twice in phase 2. Others skip phase 1 and go straight to phase 2. And at Y Combinator we get an increasing number of companies that have already raised amounts in the hundreds of thousands. But the three phase path is at least the one about which individual startups' paths oscillate. This essay focuses on phase 2 fundraising. That's the type the startups we fund are doing on Demo Day, and this essay is the advice we give them. Forces Fundraising is hard in both senses: hard like lifting a heavy weight, and hard like solving a puzzle. It's hard like lifting a weight because it's intrinsically hard to convince people to part with large sums of money. That problem is irreducible; it should be hard. But much of the other kind of difficulty can be eliminated. Fundraising only seems a puzzle because it's an alien world to most founders, and I hope to fix that by supplying a map through it. To founders, the behavior of investors is often opaque—partly because their motivations are obscure, but partly because they deliberately mislead you. And the misleading ways of investors combine horribly with the wishful thinking of inexperienced founders. At YC we're always warning founders about this danger, and investors are probably more circumspect with YC startups than with other companies...
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...Organizational development and fundraising professionals, as well as board volunteers, have the opportunity to cross boundaries that divide people in other sectors. Whether we view this opportunity with apprehension or enthusiasm depends on our heritage, experiences, beliefs, and vision. Historically, nonprofit boards have offered limited opportunities to develop diverse leadership. 4 Beyond representation: Building diverse board leadership teams Maria Gitin OVER THE YEARS , dialogue on board diversification has evolved from focus on the importance of representing constituents, to “doing the right thing,” which is characterized by opponents as “political correctness,” to the current widely held view that a nondiverse board is missing key potential donors and opinion leaders. Diverse leaders can expand knowledge, create new resources, and open doors to partnerships necessary to fulfill an organization’s mission. Recommended strategies for board diversification must be understood in the context of the deeply divided society of the United States. Although North American cultural issues are the result of a unique history, most elements of diversity planning will apply in other countries as well. By the year 2015 the nonwhite portion of the U.S. population is expected to increase to 30 percent NEW DIRECTIONS FOR PHILANTHROPIC FUNDRAISING, NO. 34, WINTER 2001 © WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. 77 78 DIVERSITY IN THE FUNDRAISING PROFESSION (Changing Our World, 2001). In...
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...1 The American Red Cross The American Red Cross culture is based on compassion and care to those in need. Their main principles consist of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, and unity to list a few. The organization does not only help disaster relief efforts as most assume, but also offers services in five other areas: community services that help the needy; communications services and comfort for military members and their family members; the collection, processing and distribution of blood and blood products; educational programs on preparedness, health, and safety; and international relief and development programs. The organization is a nationwide network of more than 650 chapters and 36 blood services regions dedicated to saving lives and helping people prepare for and respond to medical emergencies. They communicate at the local levels; American Red Cross chapters operate volunteer-staffed Disaster Action Teams that respond to disasters in their communities. The organization also uses a database in order to pull specific volunteers for different situations, such as they made need a volunteer for interpretation or accounting assistance. They also have teamed up with Blue Moon Production to help make a video media library for internal use .This keeps the volunteers updated on certain issues going on in the organization. The Red Cross uses commercials and celebrities to reach out externally to the community to give education and help receive donations....
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...Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52240 ______________________________________________________________________________ Abstract This paper examines how nonprofit organizations respond to incentives to manage their publicly available financial information. Prior research identifies two operating ratios donors commonly use to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of nonprofits (i.e., the program service ratio, defined as the fraction of total expenses committed to advancing the charitable mission of the organization, and the fundraising ratio, defined as the ratio of fundraising expenses to donations revenue). Nonprofit managers have an incentive to over-report the expenses classified as program services and under-report the expenses classified as administrative and fundraising in order to improve these ratios. We examine whether nonprofits respond to these incentives, and we find evidence consistent with opportunistic cost shifting to improve the program service and fundraising ratios. Additional analysis finds that smaller nonprofits that are more reliant on donations revenue manipulate their operating ratios to a greater extent. JEL classification: M4; L3 Key words: Nonprofit organizations, earnings management, disclosure, hospitals. ______________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author. Tel.: (319) 335-0841; fax (319) ; email: robert_yetman@uiowa.edu 1 We thank Ashiq Ali, Ramji Balakrishnan, Leslie Eldenburg, Lil Mills, Shiva Sivaramakrishnan...
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...goal or direction to develop the organization, and put into practice. Strategic planning guides conversations about an organization’s purpose, helps integrate perspectives from multiple stakeholders, and provides the steps to develop goals and objectives that will move the organization’s forward. (b) The specific issues would be various due to different standards and analysis techniques which applied to strategic planning. However, generally it is critical to cover these aspects as follows. Identifying the nonprofit organization's direction and mission. What’s the reason of the organizations exist? What do the organizations try to accomplish? How do the organizations to do to achieve their goals? What are the organization’s guiding principles? Evaluating the Internal and External Environment, Clarifying Critical Issues An assessment of internal environment Strengths and weaknesses An assessment of the external/market environment All organizations are under the operations with complex political, social and macroeconomic changes, so a sensible plan must reflect the assumptions that management people makes about the external environment under their study in various factors, such as economic and demographic trends, policy changes, technical updates, so that enable the management to find the challenges and opportunity nonprofit organization faced. Formulating the nonprofit organization's Strategy and Setting Long-term Objectives Strategy is the method used to achieve...
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