Health costs are making the cost of an employee much harder for an organization to support.

Make sure employees know the total costs of all insurance benefits, taxes, unemployment and workers compensation paid out by your organization in addition to their individual salary. By showing the increased costs that the organization is incurring each year, it provides for a clearer understanding of why raises are harder to obtain.

Organizations that provide staff with a clarity on costs and a compensation bonuses pool Create a pool of funds as a one time expenditure), makes it easier to control costs. Further, staff whom have the knowledge of what it truely costs to employee staff are more engaged with the organization.  An organization where staff have an understanding where the money is being spent are more committed to that organization when spending is viewed as being distributed fairly.

Having the pulse of donors is always a challenge.  Questions to ask yourself in dealing with donors are:

How does the purpose for the funds interest the donor?

How does the campaign for the funds match the means for which the donor wishes to be recognized?

How does the campaign clearly describe whom will be served?

How does the organization plan to convey the outcomes for the funds donors have given?

Automated response vs a formal response with hand written thank you note.

How often does the organization let people know what it is doing, what it has accomplished or what its needs are? What is the organization’s rate of reoccurring donors? How committed do donors feel to the organization?

Is donor pool increasing?  Positive outcome

What is the organization doing to keep its base and increase the amount of giving by current donors and increasing donor base?

Is donor pool stagnated?  Cause of concern

Time to review if percent of donors is replacing old donors. Why is organization losing donors?

Is donor pool decreasing? Need to take action 

Time to change what organization is doing.

The key to any level of success in raising money is communication with an organization’s donor base.  The use of email and newsletters are cheap and fast.

How many times have you heard someone say: “Let’s reach out and talk to these kids.” “Let’s reach out and make a difference in these kids lives.” Let’s get some money and run a group for these kids.” STOP

If you listen to kids, they want activities in their neighborhood. Period !!!!!! No talking, no wasting their time on a message. The main categories are MUSIC, ARTS, and SPORTS.

Here is a list of the kids demands:

Structure,

Scheduled activities,

Materials,

Direction,

Leadership

Mentors (coaches, artists, musicians, athletes)

Government, community and business leaders can reduce many root causes to youth issues by providing equitable access to all youth art, music and sport activities.

The services dramatically reduced over the years in the education system are the after-school and extra-curricular activities.

Youth are everyone’s future.

How is your organization incorporating youth into its mission?

High Schools for homeless youth has become an important need. Schools who have the ability to house students are the best options for these youth. Urban schools should think about dorms similar to private schools. Private schools should link themselves to communities and offer their services for students in need as part of their mission. If you’re a donor looking to give to your prep school, why not place a restriction on your donation to fund a homeless youth for their junior and/or senior year?

As a person who has had many youth intern under my supervision, there was one consistent message - You can change where I sleep but please do not change my school.

The number of homeless youth who need support for high school is 5,000 in Massachusetts alone. If you know what the need is in your state let me know?

Those thinking of starting a Charter High School may want to think about targeting this group of students. You will be unique and the service can be documented as needed.

Thanksgiving, the largest celebrated holiday where people come together. For more each year it has become harder and harder to interact.

Technology: Cell phones, PDA’s, email, Online Video, and other internet features have expanded the reach for people.  It is great that it is becoming easy for folks to reach out and communicate. However, it is creating too many youth and adults who do not know how to interact in person with people.

The level of anxiety being created in youth who proceed to become adults come to depend on the Internet to be their buffer to interact with people.

Avoidance by turning off the computer or stating anything and not feeling there are any consequences does not resolve conflict. It just builds until it ends usually with a bad outcome. An action of violence and hate being the majority of the results.

The Internet does not create an environment where positive role models can be observed by an individual. Conflict resolution and socialization skills go hand in hand. Maybe it is time to create a balance between the Internet and people interacting in person.

Let’s start with our youth. Maybe we can get the violence they are experiencing among them to lessen.

Most readers that responded to the Thanksgiving question of sharing what they did, spoke about their travel experience.  The theme was about how their travel experience was the best they have had in years.  It provided for a less stressful sharing of a time with family.

Being thankful for having the time for sharing moments with family and friends.

May next year be the same.

The reduction of hunger needs a multi level approach. I would suggest eight skill sets be offered to all individuals in conjunction with food distribution.

1. Teach skills on maximizing the purchasing power of money for food.

2. Teach skills on unit of measures.

3. Teach skills on food preservation.

4. Teach skills on preparing food.

5. Teach skills in the presentation of food.

6. Teach skills on canning foods.

7. Teach skills on cooking foods: salads, desserts, ingredient substitution and timing.

8. Teach skills on customer services.

The degree to which these eight skills are achieve will decrease hunger, increase self esteem and increase an individuals credentials for multiple job opportunities.

Four colleges have decided that loans are creating a problem for future generations and have eliminate them from the student aid packages. This move provides for a great opportunity for nonprofits to create partnerships with the colleges for the development of their current employees work force and recruiting future employees.

Williams College: Is a located in Williamstown in an area known as the Berkshires in northwestern Massachusetts. This community is 135 miles from Boston and 165 miles from New York City. It has three academic divisions (humanities, sciences, social sciences), 24 departments, 33 majors, plus concentrations and special programs. The student:faculty ratio is 7:1. Check them out at: http://www.williams.edu/

Amherst College: Located in Amherst Massachusetts in a town of 35,000 people in the western part of the state. Amherst offers the B.A. degree in 33 fields of study. With a faculty-student ratio of 1 to 8. Amherst is a member of the Five Colleges, a consortium with nearby Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Check out the College web site at: http://www.amherst.edu/

Davidson College: Is located in the small town of Davidson, North Carolina. As a Christian liberal arts college, it emphasizes concentrates in the study of history, literature and languages, philosophy and religion, music, drama and the visual arts, the natural and social sciences, and mathematics. Classes limited to 20 students. Check out the College web site at: http://www.davidson.edu

Princeton University: Located in Princeton, New Jersey in a community of 30,000 people, the campus is approximately one hour by train to New York City or Philadelphia. Students in undergraduate studies may choose a concentration from among 34 departments in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. Check out the University web site for more information: http://www.princeton.edu

Reducing Loans:

Tufts University: Located in Somerville, Massachusetts Tufts University has implemented a loan forgiveness program for individuals whom work in the nonprofit sector. http://www.tufts.edu

For information on lowering your college costs check out: http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/2007/11/06/cutting-college-debt/

For information on college loans check out:

http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/2007/10/15/college-loans-whom-can-you-trust/

I am a little puzzled that the US government can send a person to the moon, land an aircraft on Mars and send its military overseas to rebuild nations but can not complete its mission to rebuild after Katrina.

The USA has the largest military activity in the world. It builds bridges, roads, hospitals and cities in weeks. It rebuilds power plants and water filtration systems in months. Logistics is number one in the world.

Why then are people still in mobile homes? Why are people still displaced? In Iraq if the Iraqis can not get it done the USA just does it. Congress needs to take control and get the task done with the nonprofit sector delivering on outcomes in conjunction with the national guard.

Start with putting the operation thorough the local national guard. There is all the command structure necessary to make things local. A core focus of the individuals working on the problem will also be those who know others that have been affected. There is nothing like motivation to getting things done.

This will be a great way to reestablish the resources of the national guard that have been sent overseas when USA citizens could use the help now. I would suggest that organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army work under this umbrella to better have result driven measurable objectives which are equitable to all individuals. Assistance should not be base on the luck of the draw of who helps you but should be base on the response meeting the individuals need.

Clear command and control resolves the ability to overcome barriers. Congress, should use the nonprofit nature of the National Guard.  It is one of the greatest assets the government has at its disposal.   The using of the National Guard to complete the heavy lifting and have them work with the nonnprofits, especially the hundreds of faith base groups to rebuild housing stock would be a good start. Bring people home and lower the suffering still being incurred.