Federal Express

The National Conference on Citizenship and Points of Light, experts on civic engagement, in partnership with Bloomberg LP, announced the results of The Civic 50. IBM, Citi and AT&T Inc. take top honors in the first comprehensive ranking of S&P 500 companies that best use their time, talent and resources to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business.

Three fundraising professionals shared some statistics on year-end giving and provided ways to make your end-of-year fundraising campaigns stand out from the crowd in the session "Taking Your End of Year Campaign … Outside the Box."

For your nonprofit staff thinking about developing or expanding corporate relationships, it is critical to understand a few concepts.

The Great Recession failed to destroy the strong fabric of nonprofit organizations in America. We buckled but did not break. But now our own government is threatening to do what even the disastrous economy couldn't: undermine the financial viability of nonprofits in America.

The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service said Monday it is seeking to move quickly to close 252 mail processing centers and slow first-class delivery next spring, citing steadily declining mail volume. The cuts are part of $3 billion in reductions aimed at helping the agency avert bankruptcy next year. It would virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day, a change in first-class delivery standards that have been in place since 1971.

If you haven't gotten your year-end fundraising plans finalized yet, all hope is not lost. Yes, you are behind. And yes, you need to make some serious changes for 2012 (we'll get to that later).

If your fundraising hasn't been going well, you might have been telling yourself it's not your fault — it's the economy. But it's not. At least not entirely. Here are five much more likely reasons your fundraising doesn’t work.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) presented its 2011 International ECHO Awards at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center during the DMA2011 Conference & Exhibition, which concludes Oct. 6.

Nonprofit winners include Ministry of Health, Heart of the City/Auckland Council, Doctors Without Borders, SickKids Foundation / Winning Charities International, Outreach International, World Jewish Congress Foundation, World Vision U.S. and The Salvation Army in Canada.

Nordstrom is opening a full-priced store in Manhattan called Treasure&Bond, with all profits of the store committed to charity.

Nordstrom says its charity efforts will go further than competitors who team up with nonprofit groups for campaigns. And all proceeds from the rather expensive merchandise go to children’s charities, Nordstrom says.

In addition, there are no plans to make it a for-profit store, said Peter E. Nordstrom, executive vice president and president of merchandising at Nordstrom. But he added that the company remained committed to opening a department store in New York City.

With the drumbeat of bad economic news in the United States and around the world threatening the nation’s fragile recovery, fundraisers are wearily bracing themselves for a possible double-dip recession and the likelihood of a slowdown in giving in coming months.

Many charities have yet to raise as much as they did before the recession started in December 2007. And now, just as some organizations thought the fundraising climate was getting better, the stock market has just fallen by its steepest drop since the crash of 2008.