SWEET Online Fundraising Blog

Habitat for Humanity Chapters Collaborate to Save on Build-athon Software

Habitat for Humanity in East King County, Washington and Seattle/South King County collaborated on an a-thon http://habitatbuildathon.org.

Pooling their resources resulted in:

1. increased participation for both chapters
2. more revenue for both chapters
3. lower costs for both chapters

No sacrifices with their a-thon web site

Neither chapter had to make special arrangements with their online fundraising site.  Participants and registrants were able to designate which chapter they were supporting.  Each chapter had its own payment processors connected to the SWEET Pledge Fundraising site.  Money raised by participants was routed DIRECTLY to the corresponding chapter - no middle men, no transfers, no skimming off the top.

Both chapters received all the benefits of having their own site at a significantly lower price. 

The nonprofit sector is highly fragmented.  Collaboration like this is good for everyone including the orgs who are trying to save money and the donors who are inundated by invitations and solicitations.

Collaborating is something more nonprofits should do, especially orgs with regional donor bases that won't be competing against each other.  It makes sense and is a proven technique. 

Stay Away From Gimmicks

All too often, orgs look for the gimmicks and use tools that are "FREE" but charge 10% transaction fees (see fundable.com).  If it sounds to good to be true, then it is.

Why not just work together?  The Habitat folks in Seattle proved that it works.  Soon I will share a story about 300 (!!!) different orgs sharing a SWEET site.  Extreme collaboration.

Association of Fundraising Professionals Code of Ethics Should Apply to Fundraising Software Companies

The Association of Fundraising Professionals mandates that its members abide by an extensive code of ethical principles and standards http://www.afpnet.org/Ethics/EnforcementDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=3261.

These guidelines were adopted in 1964 and have been updated many times since then.  AFP is a good organization that protects nonprofits and their donors from unethical fundraising practices. 

Recently (2007) AFP expanded their guidelines to apply to business in the fundraising industry.  http://www.afpnet.org/Audiences/NewsReleaseDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=3799

Kudos to AFP.  I've always believed that AFP's ethical guidelines should apply to fundraising software businesses (my industry) as well.  Now that AFP has expanded its guidelines, the next challenge is to get the leadership at these fundraising companies to actually give a crap.

There are two clauses in particular, that fundraising software vendors absolutely need to adhere to.

The first,

"Members shall not engage in activities that conflict with their fiduciary, ethical and legal obligations to their organizations, clients or profession."

Replace "Members" with "Vendors" and we would be all set.  Software vendors that are publicly traded companies would inherently violate this clause.  Their fiduciary obligation is to their shareholders.  That's the law.  Period. 

The second,

"Members shall not accept compensation or enter into a contract that is based on a percentage of contributions; nor shall members accept finder’s fees or contingent fees."

All vendors that charge based on a percentage of contributions would fail to meet this standard.  And there are a lot of them.  Some good, well-intentioned companies fall in this category of offenders and they need to change their practices.

For decades, AFP's code of ethics has protected nonprofits and donors from unfair fundraising practices.  Now that these guidelines to the technology companies that are in the fundraising industry, its time to get the vendors and customers to care.