NonProfit Pro

It's that time of year again … time to honor the best and brightest in the nonprofit sector. So get your submissions in today for the NonProfit PRO Nonprofit Professionals of the Year Awards. The deadline is April 17—just two weeks away!

In order to take a look at the current fundraising landscape, nonprofit software provider Blackbaud recently released its latest study, Diversity in Giving: The Changing Landscape of American Philanthropy. The study, conducted in October 2014, surveyed 1,096 U.S. adults who say they have donated to a nonprofit in the past 12 months. What it found is that "nearly three-fourths of donors today are non-Hispanic whites, despite the fact that whites make up only 64 percent of the population. Conversely the study finds that both African-Americans and Hispanics are under-represented in the donor universe. Asian donor participation appears congruent with the Asian population size."

How are you sharing your stories? Through words, through photographs, through video? Think about the stories that inspire your donors and how you can share them more effectively.

The nonprofit world is rife with educational and networking opportunities. And with our industry growing and changing so much, at such incredible speed, how can one keep up? When planning our events this year, our short list to work around was 36 events. Thirty-six! And those were only the easily identifiable ones from less than a handful of major associations.

There are lots and lots of very good, very worthy nonprofit organizations out there. But how many truly "great" charities are there? You know, nonprofits that run efficient programs, maximize fundraising and operate as a unified, holistic organization?

Improved technology resources rank high on many nonprofits’ wish lists, but digital projects can be especially difficult to finance through grants and donations. Starting April 9, the new company HashtagCharity hopes to forge connections between organizations that need assistance and technology professionals eager to use their skills to do good.

"We would love to see a world in which, every day, technologists can make a tangible and direct impact on causes they care about most," said Franziska Becker, who manages business development and marketing for HashtagCharity.

As both a fundraiser and awareness piece for the SAAGNY Foundation, Rhonda Blum created and sold custom-decorated tumblers from Gordon Sinclair for $10 apiece. The mugs carried 12 co-sponsor decorations on them, each sold for between $75 and $100, and were sold at various SAAGNY and SAAGNY Foundation events.

A Brooklyn con man posed as an ex-Delta Force member and used convincing online sites to dupe desperate parents into believing he could rescue their abducted children, authorities said Tuesday. Peter Senese, 49, allegedly lied to his victims that his “I CARE Foundation” had military and legal resources to help the parents reunite with their missing children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI.

His sites StopChildAbduction.org and PeterSenese.com are still up and running.

Trust is a fine and valuable part of any nonprofit relationship, but when it comes to product safety, the old adage of "trust, but verify" has never been more applicable. A misstep on safety or compliance could potentially cost your organization thousands—if not much, much more—and untold brand damage, all over something you could have caught in the verification process had you known what to look or ask for.

Since the recession, the rich have benefited most from financial gains, but interestingly, at the same time, it's the poor who upped their giving during that period while higher-income people gave less, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Using IRS data, the Chronicle found that between 2006 and 2012, the lowest-income Americans bumped up the share of their incomes that they gave to charity, but as they went up the income ladder, the charitable giving grew smaller and smaller.