Accountability

In the nonprofit fundraising world, here are some of the trends we’ll be watching for and responding to in 2015.

St. Joseph's Indian School responds to CNN's claims that the school used fundraising letters "signed by fictitious kids." It's a lesson in responding to negative press.

How do you handle donor requests to be removed from your list? This may surprise some of you, but, "Duh! We remove them!" isn't always the right answer. Given that your donor file is so valuable, a well-thought-out strategy is needed for responding in a way that both honors the donor's intent and safeguards your asset.

When we cave in and take shortcuts, we truly shortchange the project at hand, the mission of our organization, those we serve, ourselves and our noble profession!

It’s time for us to help donors more accurately evaluate nonprofits as they choose organizations to support. Enter the DMA Nonprofit Federation's Nonprofit Dashboard.

While you work for one charity, remember that your actions affect all charities and our profession as a whole. There must be zero tolerance for any perceived act of unethical behavior.

Fundraising isn't painless — but the joy it brings makes our profession amazing.

Privacy concerns could be preventing you from getting donor feedback.

Last month, the American Red Cross was under the microscope again, this time for questions surrounding how it raised funds for Hurricane Sandy relief and, subsequently, how it spent those funds. I did an admittedly unscientific poll of more than a dozen people, asking simply, "What are your thoughts on the Red Cross?" Here's a sampling of their responses: "All we ever hear about anymore is how they're not using the money they raise the right way." "What are they trying to hide?" The word "suspicious" came up a lot. And save for a few folks who had positive associations with the organization and three others who were ambivalent, the majority of responses were negative.

At the 2014 Bridge Conference, Wounded Warrior Project's Steve Nardizzi took on the charity watchdogs and media, saying nonprofits should manage to their missions, not to misguided assumptions about overhead ratios.