Rob Leighton's Posts - GNH Community2024-03-29T05:44:32ZRob Leightonhttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/RobLeightonartnerhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2808583722?profile=original&xn_version=202403260758&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1&xj_user_default=1https://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2ew99cvgbum7g&xn_auth=noTop 5 Reasons Why Donors Stop Givingtag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2014-08-28:3365802:BlogPost:652782014-08-28T16:59:46.000ZRob Leightonhttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/RobLeightonartner
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<div class="entry-content"><p>Thirty percent of wealthy donors stop giving to an organization that they supported in the previous year, a<a href="http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/press-release/global-wealth-and-investment-management/2012-bank-america-study-high-net-worth-philant">Bank of America report</a> found. Here are the five top reason:</p>
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<li>The donor received too many solicitations or the nonprofit asked for an inappropriate amount (38%),</li>
<li>The organization…</li>
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<div class="entry-content"><p>Thirty percent of wealthy donors stop giving to an organization that they supported in the previous year, a<a href="http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/press-release/global-wealth-and-investment-management/2012-bank-america-study-high-net-worth-philant">Bank of America report</a> found. Here are the five top reason:</p>
<ol>
<li>The donor received too many solicitations or the nonprofit asked for an inappropriate amount (38%),</li>
<li>The organization changed leadership or its activities (29%).</li>
<li>The donor changed philanthropic focus to support other causes (27%).</li>
<li>The donor’s personal situation changed (financial, relocation, employment) (22%).</li>
<li>The donor no longer was personally involved in the organization (<span id="tlvans_12">12</span>%).</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, these are interesting facts, but here’s my view: don’t spend too much time worrying about these numbers. Stay focused on why people are giving and look for ways to keep people engaged.</p>
<h2>Why The Rich Give</h2>
<p><em>Feeling moved about how a gift can make a difference</em> remained a top motivation for high net worth donors in 2011, with 74 percent citing this as a reason to give that year (relative to 72.<span id="tlvans_4">4</span> percent in 2009).</p>
<p><em>Annually supporting the same causes</em> and <em>giving to an efficient organization</em> held steady as motivations for high net worth donors between 2009 and 2011, with between 66 percent and 71 percent of donors citing these motivations for giving in those years.</p>
<p><a href="http://imissionpartners.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/cross-the-maze.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1362" src="http://imissionpartners.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/cross-the-maze-300x201.jpg" alt="Why Donors Stop Giving" width="300" height="201"/></a></p>
<p>The report also highlights a s<em>trengthening relationship between volunteering and giving</em>. High net worth donors gave the highest average amount in contributions to organizations both where they volunteered and believed their gift would have the largest impact ($102,642). By comparison, in 2009, high net worth donors gave the highest average amount to organizations where they served on the board or had an oversight role ($84,551, adjusted to 2011 dollars).</p>
<p>Most high net worth donors derive great satisfaction and fulfillment from their charitable giving. In this context, satisfaction relates to the perception that these donors have about the outcomes and effects of their charitable activity, while fulfillment relates to the feelings that their charitable activity engenders.</p>
<p>Wealthy donors are becoming much more strategic in terms of giving both their time and money. “The majority of these donors relied on a strategy to guide their giving and focused their giving on particular causes or geographical areas,” the research found. “In addition, compared with 2009, fewer high net worth donors gave spontaneously in response to a need and a greater proportion funded nonprofit general operations.”</p>
<p>The 2012 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy examines the giving patterns, priorities, and attitudes of America’s wealthiest households for the year 2011. This study, the fourth in a series written and researched by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. <a href="http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/files/press_kit/additional/2012_BAC_Study_of_High_Net_Worth_Philanthropy_0.pdf">Click here</a> to review the full report.</p>
<h2>Getting Strategic About Why Donors Stop Giving</h2>
<p>Here’s is another important fact. The rate of growth in online giving is growing much faster than overall philanthropy. What’s even more important is that a well developed online relationship marketing strategy – integrated with the right offline engagement tools – can sharply increasing donor retention, and drive down the reasons why donors stop giving — and move many more stakeholders to engage in your organization passionately. Learn more in “<em>Unleash the Power of Relationship Marketing”</em> (see right column for download).</p>
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<h2 class="orange_text article_title"><span class="font-size-3"><span class="font-size-2">**The article is from <a href="http://imissionpartners.com/news-ideas/" target="_blank">iMissionPartners</a></span><br/></span></h2>
<p></p>A Supply Chain Overhaul To Boost Coffee Farmers' Income 400%tag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2014-08-20:3365802:BlogPost:652322014-08-20T16:36:08.000ZRob Leightonhttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/RobLeightonartner
<p>This is about a <span id="tlvans_social">social</span> enterprise on a mission to reinvent the coffee supply chain, giving farmers a bigger and more equitable piece of the action.</p>
<p>Aimed at growers producing specialty-grade, premium, Fair Trade certified coffee, <a href="http://www.thinkvega.com/" title="Vega">Vega</a> hopes to enable farmers to roast and package their beans and connect to customers directly via an online subscription marketplace. As a result, they can make a lot…</p>
<p>This is about a <span id="tlvans_social">social</span> enterprise on a mission to reinvent the coffee supply chain, giving farmers a bigger and more equitable piece of the action.</p>
<p>Aimed at growers producing specialty-grade, premium, Fair Trade certified coffee, <a title="Vega" href="http://www.thinkvega.com/">Vega</a> hopes to enable farmers to roast and package their beans and connect to customers directly via an online subscription marketplace. As a result, they can make a lot more money than they normally do.</p>
<p>The company, which is based in Leon, Nicaragua, is launching a <a title="Kickstarter" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/">Kickstarter</a><a title="Kickstarter Vega coffee" href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vegacoffee/vega-one-of-a-kind-coffee-that-changes-lives?ref=nav_search">campaign</a> today.</p>
<p>Eighty percent of coffee farmers- -or 20 million people– are trapped in a cycle of subsistence farming, according to co-founder Noushin Ketabi. Often in remote areas, they have little access to markets and tend to rely on middlemen for exporting. (The situation is similar to peanut farmers in Haiti. I recently<a title="Anne Field Forbes" href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/annefield/2014/07/05/social-enterprise-in-haiti-transforms-the-lives-" class="exit_trigger_set">wrote about </a>a supply-chain <span id="tlvans_social">social</span> enterprise aimed at them).</p>
<p>And we’re not talking about just a few middlemen. As many as 20 may be involved in the coffee supply chain, according to Vega. In many cases, the farmers grow the beans, then sort, grade and polish them , among other steps. Then they take the stuff to a cooperative, which sends it to a larger entity that’s an aggregation of cooperatives. It goes next to an exporter, various certification groups, coffee traders, and labelers, among many others. It takes six months to get coffee from the farm to the consumer.</p>
<p>So, even though advocates of Fair Trade and organic coffee are trying their best, because they work within the usual supply chain, small-scale farmers end up with a paltry share of the pie, according to Ketabi. Each small scale farmer produces about 500 pounds of Fair Trade organic coffee a year and gets around $1.30 a pound, or $700 a year. The upshot: Farmers of specialty grade coffee beans earn $1 a pound for a product costing U .S. consumers maybe $20.</p>
<p>Vega’s aim is to cut out most of those other players. To that end, it would set up a processing, packaging and distribution center located 20 to 30 minutes from farmers. There the coffee would be loaded in pallets, shipped overseas via a U.S. carrier, then broken down and mailed to consumers. Farmers would be paid when the processing is done, so it’s not contingent on supply and demand fluctuations. The founders are still working out the details, but, ”We’ll match the Fair Trade price and pay for the value of the processing on top of that,” says Ketabi. The result would allow farmers to earn up to four times what they typically receive.</p>
<p>The plan also is to train the first group of farmers in how to do the roasting using special equipment designed by Vega and engineers at a local NGO that uses 90% less fuel than the usual roaster, according to Ketabi. Then that first wave would train the next group.</p>
<p>The online site will allow consumers to drill down and get <span id="tlvans_all">all</span> sorts of information about the product, searching, for example, for a region or even specific farmers. Customers can curate the coffee themselves, receiving two eight-ounce bags a month, or leave that to Vega, since two of its founders also are certified coffee roasters.</p>
<p>How did this <span id="tlvans_all">all</span> get started? In 2005, co-founder Rob Terenzi (who is also married to Ketabi) spent two years in Nicaragua working with a women’s coffee cooperative to develop roasting capacity and build a national market for their coffee. Then he came back to the U.S. and studied law and international development at <a href="http://www.forbes.com/colleges/fordham-university/" class="exit_trigger_set">Fordham University</a>. There he met Ketabi, who was studying the same thing. He also started a group that took trips to Nicaragua to see the coffee world there. Ketabi got involved and, in 2011, won a Fulbright scholarship to work in renewable energy policy in Nicaragua, focusing on the lack of electricity and potential for solar energy. After that she came back to the U .S., getting a job with the state of California in energy policy. In the meantime, Terenzi went to work for <a title="Wilson Sonsini" href="http://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/Default.aspx">Wilson, Sonsini</a>, the famed San Francisco law firm to startup tech stars, where he ended up gaining a lot of helpful insights into how to found a company.</p>
<p><span id="tlvans_all">All</span> the while, the two pondered how to make an impact on coffee farming in a way that would have a long-term effect. They decided, whatever the answer was, the best, most sustainable route was a for-profit, one that “could serve as a model for the whole coffee industry,” says Ketabi. Finally, they pinpointed an overhaul of the supply chain as the key and, with their own savings and relying on their many contacts, moved to Nicaragua to start Vega early this year, also enlisting another co-founder, friend Will Deluca, to design and run the web site and technology side of the operation.</p>
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<p>The effort is now in what Ketabi calls a “pre-pilot phase”, focused on Nicaragua, where the co-founders have deep ties; the pilot also will be in Nicaragua. In its current ultra-early phase, the co-founders are working at 20 or so individual farms, where farmers sort the beans, then Vega packages them, and sends out samples. The hope for the Kickstarter campaign is to raise $20,000 to buy coffee, install roasters, train farmers, and deliver a limited batch to customers—that is, test out the model to see what works and needs to be improved in preparation for a <span id="tlvans_full">full</span>-fledged launch.</p>
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<p><strong>**The article is original from <a href="http://www.forbes.com/" target="_blank">Forbes</a>. Here is the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/annefield/2014/07/16/a-supply-chain-overhaul-to-boost-coffee-farmers-income-400/" target="_blank">link</a></strong></p>Nonprofits can learn from social enterprise accountability metricstag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2014-08-14:3365802:BlogPost:652082014-08-14T16:22:54.000ZRob Leightonhttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/RobLeightonartner
<h1><span class="font-size-4">4 Ways to Supercharge Your Social Enterprise Through Accountability</span></h1>
<p>The social <a class="exit_trigger_set" href="http://www.forbes.com/enterprise/">enterprise</a> sector is hot—it may be worth well over <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-thornley/social-enterprise_b_2090144.html">$500 billion in the US alone</a>. But if social <a class="exit_trigger_set" href="http://www.forbes.com/business/">business</a> is to solve many of the world’s most…</p>
<h1><span class="font-size-4">4 Ways to Supercharge Your Social Enterprise Through Accountability</span></h1>
<p>The social <a href="http://www.forbes.com/enterprise/" class="exit_trigger_set">enterprise</a> sector is hot—it may be worth well over <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-thornley/social-enterprise_b_2090144.html">$500 billion in the US alone</a>. But if social <a href="http://www.forbes.com/business/" class="exit_trigger_set">business</a> is to solve many of the world’s most pressing problems, we have to make sure it has both internal and external accountability systems in place to do so. What does that mean? It means, at its heart, getting the accountability relationships right between the people who make decisions — in governments, businesses, and all other relevant organizations — in order to ensure the outcomes are fair, inclusive, and sustainable.</p>
<p>Think of how we can best support governments in this, for example. At the<a href="http://www.accountabilitylab.org/">Accountability Lab</a> we are working with the government of Liberia to improve transparency through the simple tool of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMgBmd6__r8">chalk billboards</a> to convey critical information to its citizens (for example, how to register a business or get a passport). We’re also helping to build more effective justice systems through<a href="http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/design_thinking_for_accountability">community mediation programs</a>.</p>
<p>If people have information they can use to ask the right questions, and appropriate feedback mechanisms are in place, this process of external accountability of the government can unleash social, political and economic change to transform societies.</p>
<p>Read more: <a href="http://ow.ly/2KRx5z" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://ow.ly/2KRx5z</a></p>Surfing the social impact bond wavetag:gnhcommunity.ning.com,2014-07-29:3365802:BlogPost:646562014-07-29T12:11:12.000ZRob Leightonhttps://gnhcommunity.ning.com/profile/RobLeightonartner
<p><span>A social impact bond WAVE is building. Both sides of the political aisle are exploring. It's all about pay-for-performance funding. Like them or not, nonprofits need to surf this billion$ experiment.</span> <a href="http://onforb.es/1lRmStP">http://onforb.es/1lRmStP</a></p>
<p><span>A social impact bond WAVE is building. Both sides of the political aisle are exploring. It's all about pay-for-performance funding. Like them or not, nonprofits need to surf this billion$ experiment.</span> <a href="http://onforb.es/1lRmStP">http://onforb.es/1lRmStP</a></p>