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Gordon Gekko may believe “greed is good,” but in the nonprofit sector we know that “FREE is good!”  When it comes to working or volunteering in the nonprofit sector, we tend to be under-resourced, over-worked and busy as all get out.

That’s where the Greenlights Online Resource Library comes in. Did you know we have almost a hundred different articles and tools available for your FREE viewing and downloading pleasure?

Let’s take a quick tour of what’s “hot” these days.

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By far the most popular category in our Resource Library is Board Development, with 3504 views in the past year.

What’s the most popular board resource? Check out the sample board fundraising commitment form, which has been downloaded more than 1000 times since February 2011, or the Board Member Matrix if you want to look at your current board makeup and think about top priority recruitment needs.

Another oft-visited section of the library is Financial Management, where a compilation of resources on the IRS 990 Form is downloaded quite a bit, and another favorite tool is a sample set of nonprofit financial policies.

But what about managing staff and volunteers, you say?  If you want to learn how to conduct background checks, evaluate your Executive Director, or assess the performance of staff, we’ve got you covered.  Tools for all of the above and more can be found in the Human Resources section of the library.

All this, plus resources for raising more money, communicating your story, planning for growth and more are just a mouse-click away.  And the low price of FREE is hard to beat.

Guest post by Sharon Reece, Member of Greenlights’ Interim Executive Director Pool

In these times of funding limitations and budget cutting measures for ALL nonprofits, one of the tempting targets for the “budget cutting ax” is always the staff development line items. After all, they might not be the items that show IMMEDIATE results like buying food for our clients or paying the utility bills. However, if we as Executive Directors or CFOs analyze our budgets, what is usually the biggest chunk of the expense? The staffing, of course.

While we all search diligently for those staff that come to us with really top level skills (and there are lots of those folks out there job hunting today!) those skills can fast become outdated. In addition, our need to “do more with less” has a tendency to place more and more responsibility on ourselves and our top level managers, leaving them in positions of constantly putting aside the important work of calm, reflective time needed to truly strategize, problem solve for the long term, and give adequate time to our direct reports to keep them functioning at a high level.

I recently worked with the finance and accounting group of a good sized nonprofit. During a two-day retreat, they wanted to focus on team building. Applause to them for still finding resources to actually do the retreat when the dreaded dailies were still waiting for them on their return to the office! In working with the CFO in preparation and during the retreat, one of the issues that came out loud and clear was that she, while being a very capable and talented CFO, struggled daily with the issue of managing her very diverse group and all their “quirks” and issues. “Why,” she lamented, “couldn’t they all just do their jobs without the drama and the constant need for her time and attention.” She felt that she could barely keep up with her high level work, much less supervise the staff and help them be more productive.

Sound familiar? Unless you have a Chief of Staff or Chief Operating Officer, a luxury many smaller nonprofits feel they cannot afford or justify, who among us has not felt that the line outside our door often keeps us from focusing on what we really need to be doing—the high level work and thought that we are so capable of and were hired to accomplish?

I would propose that these scenarios are exactly why Executive Coaching is a crucial investment for EVERY Executive Director and probably for every Senior Manager too.

Benefits of Executive Coaching:

• Builds in dedicated time for the busy executive to take a full stop away from the demands and stresses of the everyday office
• Gives the executive personalized “me” time to discuss and focus on very specific management problems that they may not be able to safely discuss with anyone else in the organization
• Provides an experienced, non-judgmental, non-threatening outsider view to help the executive discuss and consider new, customized management tools and possible solutions to everyday complex management issues
• Provides a regular forum (perhaps at monthly or 6 week intervals) to review progress in use of new techniques and to set new priorities for problem solving

Participants in Executive Coaching usually find that the time and money spent in this very personal type of development is much more beneficial and much more likely to have an immediate impact on their own performance and professional growth than equal time and money spent on group seminars, classes, management publications, etc.

Greenlights’ consultants and members of our Interim Executive Director pool are often able to provide coaching and support. If you are interested in learning more about this, please contact Tara Levy.

Today, on Valentine’s Day, heart-shaped chocolates, bundles of pink tulips and singing telegrams abound, but Greenlights’ Business Partners have something sweet to share all year-round…  deals for our members!

Last year, Greenlights launched its Business Partner Program in an effort to help lower costs and increase access to the products and services nonprofits need. We’re happy to report that the list of partners and services keeps growing! Before you make your next purchase, be sure to check out the special deals and discounts offered by our partners as they often have just what you need, for less!

No matter what’s on your shopping list, our Business Partners have you covered:

Event Services

Benefit auctioneer (FUNauctions)

Financial Services

Financial planning, audit and tax expertise (Allman & Associates, Maxwell Locke & Ritter, Padgett Stratemann & Co., PMB Helin Donovan LLP, and Raymond James & Associates)

Online credit card and ACH payment processing (AffiniPay)

Fund accounting software (Sage)

Bookkeeping and back-office support (Easy Office)

Banking (University Federal Credit Union)

HR, Insurance & Legal

HR systems, payroll processing and background checks (ADP)

Talent recruitment (campus2careers)

Retirement and cafeteria plans (Benefit Systems, Inc.)

Health benefits plan (TexHealth Central Texas)

Directors and Officers Liability Insurance (Wortham Insurance & Risk Management)

Legal advise (Texas Legal Protection Plan)

Information Technology

Technology consultant (IT Freedom, KELL Partners, and Nonprofit R+D)

Database and web application expertise (Prelude Interactive)

Marketing & Communications

Email marketing software (Emma)

Marketing/PR services (Morris Ink Advertising Agency)

Video production (One Story Productions)

Professional Development

Professional Seminars (UT Austin’s Program in the Human Dimensions of Organizations)

Special discounts and deals offered by our Business Partners are just some of the great benefits organizations and individuals gain access to when they become a Greenlights member. Check out all the benefits of membership and join or renew membership in the month of February and we’ll enter you for a chance to win a free ticket to the Texas Nonprofit Summit (scheduled for September 20-21, 2012)!

Could your organization benefit from other special deals? Tell us what you’re shopping for in the comments below!

Here are the top blog posts and documents from our resource library in 2011, determined by the pageviews reported by Google Analytics.

Top 10 blog posts:

1. Free Nonprofit Technology Tools!

2. 5 Characteristics of great nonprofit Executive Directors

3. Thank you for an exceptional year at Greenlights!

4. The Parable of the Rich Nonprofiteer: How High is Too High for Nonprofit Salaries?

5. The Board Giving Fallacy – Stop Asking the Wrong Questions

6. Free nonprofit resources: templates, how-to’s, research and tips on best practices

7. Start the Year with a Professional Development Plan

8. The 2 biggest opportunities boards are missing in Executive Director transitions

9. The Young and the Restless? Emerging Leaders Talk Nonprofits.

10. Bloom Where You are Planted

Top 10 resources:

1. The Boards Role in Financial Oversight

2. Nonprofit Financial Policies

3. Board Member Matrix

4. Nonprofit Bylaws

5. Board Job Descriptions

6. Starting a Nonprofit in Central Texas

7. Discussion Questions for Board Self-Assessment

8. Sample Internal Controls

9. Sample Board Member Manual

10. Sample Project Budget

There are few tools as powerful for enhancing a nonprofit’s fundraising than an analysis of donation and donor data. By taking an objective look at the numbers behind your fundraising efforts, an enlightening picture can emerge of how loyal your donors are, what approaches provide the biggest ROI and which supporters might be ready to be asked to increase their involvement. Having real answers to key questions can make a big difference in how much money you raise and how much time and money you put into raising it.

For many large nonprofits, analyzing donor data is a regular part of annual planning. For many smaller organizations or those that don’t have many donors, an analysis of donors’ giving patterns may seem overly formal or perhaps not needed at all. But just in case you suspect you don’t understand your donors as well as you should, here are a few guidelines to follow for a simple “Do-It-Yourself” donor data analysis:

The Data:

Most relevant data can be reviewed in a couple of worksheets within an Excel spreadsheet. Here are some of the types of information you’ll want collect and use to do your analysis:

• Donor names/some other identifier
• The type of entity each donor is (an individual, foundation, business, etc.)
• Gift amount for each gift given by each donor, the date on which each gift was given, and the appeal/campaign/event through which each was given. It’s great if you can look at all gifts over a three year span of time or more, but examining two year’s worth of donations and donors can tell you a lot.
• Any special restrictions or special purposes for gifts, especially if the purpose of the gift isn’t repeatable (like a one-time gift from an estate).
• Any other information you have about your donors or their behavior that would be helpful to consider when planning for next year, such as the city in which donors live or their attendance at events.

The Analysis:

Analyzing your donor data at this level is all about asking key questions and trying to find the answer by sorting the data in different ways. Here are some of questions to ask yourself:

• How well do we retain donors from year-to-year? The old adage is true: it’s a lot cheaper to keep a current customer (or donor) than it is to find a new one. If many of your donors only give once and then don’t give again, you’re probably not spending enough time staying connected to them.
• Which types of appeals or strategies are most successful? Which are least successful? There are many ways to define a successful fundraising strategy and you can decide what success means to you. For most organizations, “success” is a combination of money raised and the number of donors who give. Don’t forget to consider the staff, board and volunteer time and the money that went into each appeal! Would it have been easier to secure 10 gifts of $1,000 through in-person asks to individuals instead of burning out your volunteers with a special event that netted the same $10,000?
• Who are your top donors in terms of gift amounts? Who are the most loyal, even if they aren’t giving big gifts? Both groups deserve special attention and would likely do more if you show them how much you value their involvement. A “big” gift to your organization could be $200 or $2,000 or you could simply choose to focus on a certain percentage of donors who give the most and/or most frequently.
• What type and level of donors are giving the most/the least amount of money? Are you giving enough (or perhaps too much) attention to a certain type of level of donor?
• What natural “groups” of donors emerge from looking at the data? Could you develop targeted messages to reach a certain group more effectively?

There are many more questions that you could explore – these are just a few of the most common that we ask at Greenlights when helping our clients with an analysis. If you can’t answer these questions because you don’t have enough data to ask them, then consider using them as a guide to outline plans for starting to collect needed information over the next year.

Whether doing a quick analysis now or putting together a plan to be able to do it in the future, your organization’s fundraising is sure to be more strategic and efficient in the year ahead. If you have some donor analysis advice, please share it here.  Happy Analyzing!