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Fundraising Forum Newsletter Date: 03/11/2009   Time: 6:00 PM

November 2009

Newsletter #3

 

 

Lotto application training dates

The National Lotteries Board has called for applications from the charity sector.

 

The deadline is 11 December 2009

 

This year the focus is on:

 

  • Social welfare developmental programmes;
  • Adult basic education
  • After-school care programmes; and
  • Government schools in the Inner City, Informal Areas, Townships and Rural Areas (e.g. classrooms, toilets, fencing, school social work, psychologist, school nurse)

 

Sandra Millar, Asna Bhana and Frances Boshoff have years of experience in dealing with lotto applications and will present workshops in the following venues on these dates:

 

  • 4 November 2006               Middelburg
  • 12 November 2009             Ermelo
  • 18 November 2009             Nelspruit
  • 6November 2009.               Pretoria
  • 9 November 2009.              Johannesburg
  • 9 November 2009.              Bloemfontein
  • 13November 2009.             KZN
  • 16 November 2009.            Polokwane.

 

Our courses are normally R450 per session. This course will be over 2 sessions, but being mindful of the economic conditions the cost will be only R650 for the day.

 

This cost includes morning tea and sandwiches, a light lunch and comprehensive course notes.

 

We urge you to download the application from www.nlb.org.za beforehand to familiarise yourself with the contents.

 

Seating is limited to 30 people per workshop. Book now to avoid disappointment as some of the workshops are already fully booked.

 

To book click here or contact Linda van Breda on +27 (0) 12 430 7037 | +27 (0) 72 325 2472 or email info@fundraisingform.co.za

 

Grants                                                                                                                       by Sandra Millar

Old Age Grant                                                   R1 010.00

The applicant:

  • Must be a South African citizen/permanent resident
  • Must be resident in South Africa
  • Males must be 61 years or older
  • Females must be 65 years or older
  • Must not be cared for or maintained in a State Institution

 

NB: As from April 2010 males over the age of 60 will qualify for Grant for Older Persons.

 

Disability Grant                                                                R1 010.00

The applicant:

  • Must be a South African citizen/permanent resident or refugee
  • Must be resident in South Africa
  • Males 18-59 years of age
  • Females 18-62 years of age
  • Must submit a medical/assessment report confirming disability
  • Medical assessment must not be older than 3 months at date of application
  • Must not be maintained or cared for in a State Institution
  • Must not be in receipt of another social grant in respect of him or herself

 

War veterans’ grant                                       R1 030.00

The applicant:

  • Must be a South African citizen/permanent resident
  • Must be 60 years and over or must be disabled
  • Must have fought in the Second World War or the Korean War
  • Must not be maintained or cared for in a State Institution
  • Must not be in receipt of another Social grant in respect to him or herself.

 

Institution                                                          R252.50

  • This is the grant made by the State to each person in an Institution

 

Child support grant                                         R240.00

  • The primary care giver must be a South African citizen or permanent resident
  • Both the applicant and the child must reside in South Africa
  • Applicant must be the primary care giver of the child/children concerned
  • The child/children must be under the age of 15 years
  • Cannot apply for more than six non-biological children
  • Child/children can not be cared for in a State Institution

 

Foster care grant                                              R680.00

  • The foster parent must be a South African citizen, permanent resident or refugee
  • The applicant and child must be resident in South Africa
  • Court order indicating foster care status
  • Child must remain in the care of the foster parent(s)

 

Care dependency grant                                                R1 010.00

  • The applicant must be a South African citizen or permanent resident
  • The applicant and child must be resident in South Africa
  • Child must be under 18 years of age
  • Must submit a medical/assessment report confirming permanent, severe disability
  • The care-dependent child must not ne permanently cared for in a State Institution

 

Grant-in-aid                                       R240.00

  • The applicant must be in receipt of a grant for Older Persons, Disability or a War Veterans; grant and require full-time attendance by another person.
  • Owing to his/her physical or mental disabilities
  • Must not be cared for in an Institution that receives subsidy from the State for the care/housing of the beneficiary

 

Source: www.sassa.gov.za

 

10 Tips for event planning                                                                     By Frances Boshoff

Did you notice all the Christmas decorations in the shops? Yes, silly season has started and many companies and organizations are starting to plan their year-end functions and other events. Here are 10 tips for planning conferences and other events:

1.       Identify possible dates

When identifying dates for your event, it will be helpful to have several possible dates in mind. This is because sometimes your preferred venue is not available and you will have to change dates. Also remember South Africans are sport crazy … find a date that does not conflict with any major sport event.

2.       Create a conference budget

The budget is the most important part of your event planning process. The budget should be specific and should include all expenses (printing, venue, food, supplies, security, etc).

3.       Find a venue for your event

The venue for your event is important for your attendees and speakers and also for the success of your event. If you are inviting guests from out of town, an ideal venue will be close to the airport.

4.       Agenda and speaker

Besides networking, topics and speakers are the main reason people attend conferences and / or events. Before advertising your event, your agenda should at least be

5.       Pre-sell  / online registrations

Registrations are the main revenue for an event and thus registration and payment handling is crucial. In addition

roughly determined. You can use registration information to marketing future events to attendees.

6.       Early bird fees

Early bird fees are the perfect instrument to increase sales for your conference. You can also give discounts to companies for every additional person attending the event.

7.       Promotion

A good event planner defines a guest list and potential attendees prior to promotion. Promotion of your event is to get ‘new’ attendees to your event. Make use of printed media, radio, websites, etc.

8.       Inventory and participant list and badges

Ensure in advance if you need technical equipment for speakers and ensure that you someone is available to assist with the technical aspects. Make sure you have name badges for your attendees.

9.       Onsite registration and entry management

Onsite registration and entry management should be well organized and efficient. You don’t want attendees to stand in long queues. A printed participant list is the slowest option and should be rather be avoided – try and use an electronic registration system.

10.   After the event

After the event you should leave the venue clean and tidy. Return all rented equipment, pay all bills and then you can start to evaluation if your event was a success.

 

 

Thank you

Thanks for the wonderful feedback to our last newsletter

 

I’m very heartened by the fact that so many of you wanted more info about the 20 thank you letter tips, I have put them under a separate heading on our website: www.fundraisingforum.co.za

 

Dear Sandra, Thank you for the lecture, it was meant for my benefit. I will acknowledge whatever I receive from now onwards.

Farther Taylor Nyanhete, Chief Executive Officer, Zimbabwe Nation Council for the Welfare of Children.

Nice newsletter! Interesting. Adds value!

 

W David Fox, Director, Association for the Physically Disabled – Greater Johannesburg

 

 

As long as you are going to think anyway, you may as well think big.

~ Donald Trump ~

 

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PO Box 12769| Queenswood | 0121 | Pretoria | South Africa

T: +27 (0) 12 430 2630 | F: +27 (0) 12 430 7037 | C: +27 (0) 72 325 2472

info@fundraisingforum.co.za | www.fundraisingforum.co.za

 

 

 


Fundraising Forum - October 2009 Date: 05/10/2009   Time: 8:14 PM

 

October 2009

Newsletter #2

 

The importance of “Thank you” letters                                                        by Sandra Millar

In our last newsletter we gave you the first 10 of your 20 tips.

Could you use any of them and do you have any feedback?

 

The last 10 tips are:

 

11.    Do you need to thank them for something specific i.e.:

                Membership renewal

                Winter or Christmas appeal

                An appeal for an individual - a child, elderly person or abandoned pet

 

12.    Do you let them know how their money will be spent?

 

13.    Please include a receipt

 

14.    Send the 18A Income Tax Exemption certificate

 

15.    Provide a contact name in the thank you letter. Include your name and telephone number. In some cases, the contact details of the social worker involved with a particular matter can be included – in case the donor has any questions.

 

16.    Include a reply envelope with your thank you letter

You don’t need to ask for a donation in the thank you letter. Just including the envelope will remind the donor that future donations are welcome. Many donors keep these envelopes and use them for a donation later or even right away. Many people are very divided on this issue. But reply envelopes have always worked for me.

 

17.    Make sure your donation thank you letter does NOT include:

An additional ‘ask’

An upgrade to monthly giving

 

18.    Use the thank you letter to invite more engagement

Provide an invitation in the thank you letter to connect with your organisation by inviting the donor to visit you. Not many will actually do it, but they will appreciate the offer. For those who do take up your invitation, it will be a great opportunity to see how your organisation makes a difference.

 

19.    Keep the thank you letter short – only one page

 

20.    Get that thank you letter out of the door.

Within 24 hours of receipt of the donation is ideal for getting that thank you letter in the mail. If that is impossible, aim for under a week. The sooner, the more impressed the donor will be, not to speak of being reassured that the donation got to you safely

 

Attributes of a Good Cover Letter                                                                  by Asna Bahna

1.       Should be brief –  pay attention to the salutation must be personalised Dear Sir/Madam – OUT signed by the Executive Director of your Organisation

2.       Get to the point quickly

3.       You should not simply repeat the information that is in the proposal

4.       Tell the reader how well you understand the funder and how your grant fulfils the funder's requirements Say precisely how much you are asking & for what

5.       Limit your letter to one page

6.       Provide the human interest angle it is a powerful way to engage the reader

 

 

Why did you choose to work in the non-profit sector?                           By Sandra Millar

I hope it’s because you believe that you do have a contribution to make. That the work you do matters – that the lives of your beneficiaries do change

As fundraisers we have a duty to work towards the enlistment of all South Africans. We also need to protect our environment, animals and promote the arts.

Together, as a powerful group of people, we need to speak out and lobby against all forms of social injustice.  It’s not enough that we have a narrow view of the needs of our organisation; we must care about all the social injustices around us.

 

Which brings me to my ‘rant’ for this month …

 

I have the privilege of training, mentoring and coaching many NPO’s around South Africa. And too often I am told the most shocking tales of waste, theft and mismanagement of funds. Sometimes this happens at the organisation’s delegate who is attending a workshop or about another NPO.

 

You and I both know that charities too often make headlines – and for the wrong reasons. The theft of donor money, broken promises, neglect of beneficiaries, lavish offices, cars and laptops. Blatant waste and extravagance. Planning workshops that include visits to the spa, expensive meals … the list goes on and on.

 

Is this really what you want? To work for a charity that is far more interested in material trappings or a charity that keeps the promises it made to its beneficiaries.

Go back to your mission statement and vision. Why does the charity exist?

It is your duty to stop this! Report these matters to Board Members, to the Department of Social Development. For the sake of all the good charities out there … Speak up! It’s no good telling me and your friends and your donors unless you are prepared to do something concrete about the rot. I want you be proud of not only the NPO you work for, but of every NPO in Southern Africa.

And the waste and mismanagement goes further – staff who are not trained, do not empathise with their donors. Directors’ who will not empower their staff. ‘Absent’ board members. When you plan and budget, do you ever consider the needs of your beneficiaries? Are they given what you want them to have, or are they given the things that will truly make a difference to their lives?

 

The truly wonderful charities in our  country …

 

I have also meet directors, board members, volunteers, social workers and fundraisers who do truly remarkable things under very difficult circumstances. I salute you. I hope you will always serve as a beacon to the rest of us. You understand social injustice and every day your work makes a difference!

 

Books of the month                                                                     Recommended by Asna Bahna

Mim Carlsons Third Edition of Winning Grants, Step by Step

Developed by The Alliance for Nonprofit Management. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008, ISBN:0-7879-5876-X)

 

This book provides exactly that; a step by step guide through proposal writing. It takes you from development of your idea to putting the final package together. Along the way, it provides an overview of the grant seeking process, and advice on developing and sustaining relationships with funders.

 

Each chapter tackles the details of preparing each section of the proposal with lots of examples and hints. The special resources include a CD-ROM with form, worksheets and review questions at the end of each chapter.

Grant Proposal Makeover: Transform Your Request from No to Yes

Cheryl A. Clarke and Susan P. Fox. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007, ISBN:0-7879-8055-2)

Since a bad proposal not only excludes you from the funding possibility it also can sour your future relationship with a funder (and their peers at other organizations--yes, they do talk to each other), it is imperative that you analyze your proposal with a discerning eye before you submit it.

And that is exactly what Clarke and Fox help you to do. They take proposals that are badly flawed in some way and then critique and rewrite them.

The chapters, engagingly titled (The Case of the Missing Needs Statement for instance), take you through a number of fatal flaws and then correct them. So, you get an actual proposal and then a corrected one.

But Clarke and Fox don't stop there. They have talked to and surveyed grant makers to find out their pet peeves. The text is peppered with quotes from real funders and spiced with their hints.

 

 

 

Asna’s tip of the month

Some of us have proposal writing down to an art.

Writing the proposal is the most important task a grant writer has right; wrong.

The cover letter is the most important piece of the package. It is first thing that the reader sees & sets the tone for the rest of the proposal.

Paying attention to the finer points of putting together the proposal package, like the cover letter, can make or break funding proposals.

 

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PO Box 12769| Queenswood | 0121 | Pretoria | South Africa

T: +27 (0) 12 430 2630 | F: +27 (0) 12 430 7037 | C: +27 (0) 72 325 2472

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Fundraising Date: 21/06/2009   Time: 6:54 PM

 

B is for beneficiary

D is for donor

F is for focus

 

June 2009

Newsletter #2

You came and we shared

 

Glen McQuirk – founder of Map 4 Life says: “You have 86 400 seconds each day to fulfill your purpose. What did you use them for today?”

 

Six months have gone – in a flash! Many of you used your time effectively. You used your 86 400 seconds every day to raise more funds, you took risks and tried “forgotten” methods of fundraising – telephone canvassing, resuscitating lapsed donors, planned events that have been put on hold for far too long. Well done, you have survived and beat the pessimists

 

You came

 

Over the last 6 months I have met many extraordinary CEO’s, Directors, Board members, social workers, volunteers, members of office staff, fundraisers, consultants as well as funders. (All 575 of you!)

 

I met you in Tzaneen, Nelspruit, Heidelberg, Cape Town, Bronkhorstspruit, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Some of you I meet at my training sessions and others while doing in-house training, consulting and mentoring for your NPO.

 

Please contact me if you need these services at sandra@sandramillar.co.za

 

Many of you change lives – the lives of cancer patients, people living with HIV/Aids, children at risk and school children with special needs. The elderly and destitute are also cared for by you as are animals, the environment and the arts.

 

You represented such diverse NPO’s as the Vervet Monkey Foundation, Africa Institute for South Africa and an NPO working extremely hard to educate our population about the very real danger posed by Satanism.

 

… and we shared

 

We argued, debated, shared experiences and helped each other solve problems such as dealing with government departments, the lotto and writing effective funding proposals, ethics and economics. We discussed the merits of undertaking a proper fundraising audit – (not the auditing that deals with figures – the auditing that force us to look at where our donors come from – are they corporate donors, individuals, government departments etc and which areas of the donor pool have we not yet tapped into).

 

Workshops

 

 

Of all the workshops I facilitated, An introduction to fundraising and Writing effective proposals remain the most popular. These were followed by Recruiting and retaining donors, Monitoring and evaluation, Strategic planning, Marketing and communication, Best practices in direct marketing and bequests. Please let me know which topics you would like me to add. Email me on sandra@sandramillar.co.za

 

 

Government funding

 

Judging by your evaluations the workshop facilitated by Asna Bhana, Securing government funding gave you valuable insight to the workings of government departments and how you can tap into the available funding. Your only gripe was that the workshop should be held over a full day as opposed to the current half day session.

 

Asna has been fighting and lobbying various government departments for more than a decade and she has vast amounts of experience and passion. She is an independent consultant and can be contacted at asna.bhana@optimisingcsi.co.za

 

 

 

National Lotteries Board

 

I become wary just typing this heading – the mention of the name makes me want to tear my hair out! I do not know when they will call for the charities lotto, but I will inform you as soon as I know and we will do as many workshops (on how to complete the forms) as we can. (Let me know if you spot it before I do)

 

 

My tip of the month – Strategic Plans

 

When I’m asked to “Write a Strategic Plan” I’m not always sure what is expected of me. I have drawn up a few guidelines that I’ve useful:

 

·         Who are my donors and prospects?

·         What is our unique benefit?

·         What are our core values?

·         Why are we doing this?

·         What are we hoping to accomplish?

·         What will the strategic plan cause the reader to think, feel or do?

 

I’m sure you have your own set of effective guidelines – please share them with us – by email sandra@sandramillar.co.za or on my blog www.sandramillar.co.za

 

My book of the month

 

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

 

This is the third book written by Malcolm Gladwell.

 

Many of you enjoyed The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference. - which explains how years of well-intentioned intervention may have no impact at all, yet the right intervention – at just the right time – can start a cascade of change.

 

Then there was Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking – Intuition is not some magical property that arises unbidden from the depths of our mind. It is a product of long hours and intelligent design, of meaningful work environments and particular rules and principles.

 

But his latest book Outliers: The Story of Success is by far my favourite. It deals with – Why are people successful? The book will take you on an invigorating intellectual journey to show us what makes an extreme overachiever.

 

I loved the stories and the way he tells them. I loved the interesting facts and figures and the places the book took me to.

 

This is a book to read and reread often – just because it is such a joy!

 

Let us know what you are reading – sandra@sandramillar.co.za

 

Good luck, remember to have fun and laugh. Remember to congratulate yourself for the work you do.

And keep in touch

 

Sandra Millar

Ke nako

 

PO Box 12769

Queenswood

0121

South Africa

(T) +27 (0) 12 430 2630

(F) +27 (0) 12 430 7037

sandra@sandramillar.co.za

www.sandramillar.co.za

 

 


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