Eat lunch, raise dough for CARITAS

In the spirit of Goodwill stores and Junior League resale shops, CARITAS just opened it “Do Good Deli,” a downtown, delivery-only sandwich shop. It’s a for-profit buisness that CARITAS hopes will help maintain the bottom line of the nonprofit CARITAS.
Here’s how it works: You choose a sandwich or salad from the menu, with prices ranging [...]

Did you donate your Taco Bell taco?

This I love. From The Chronicle of Philanthropy blog, Give and Take:
“The fast-food company Taco Bell is giving away free tacos to any person who stops into one of its restaurants this afternoon as part of a promotion tied to the World Series. But instead of encouraging consumers to stuff themselves with free food, an [...]

Let’s hear from the donors and volunteers

It was great to read this blog entry, “Paul Brest Needs a Blog,” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review email I got last week. (Paul Brest runs the Hewlett Foundation, the famous, 50-year-old, $7 billion foundation that makes huge awards to nonprofits of all kinds.)
The author, Sean Stannard-Stockton who wrote a book (Edit! Per Sean’s [...]

What CARITAS is about – Plus a video interview!

To be a development professional at an Austin nonprofit seems to require a diverse array of skills. The more I learn about their job, the more impressed I become.
On the one hand, it seems to take the persistence and professionalism of a seasoned salesman. You have to know your product inside and out, and be [...]

Touring CARITAS tomorrow

A few weeks ago I met Sarah Michel, part of the brilliant CARITAS development team, at an AFP lunch. She was very supportive of the idea behind GoodCause, and invited me to take a tour of CARITAS. Of course, I’m taking her up on the offer.
Now that the organizations hugest fundraiser of the year is [...]

Should Austin’s charitable efforts join forces?

In her blog entry today, Andrea Ball asks, “Does Austin have too many nonprofits?” And I think that’s a totally fair question. Not just because of the ratio of nonprofits to people, but also because of redundancy of efforts.
A school supply drive is a good example of how redundancies of efforts don’t alway make for [...]

Mando in The Chronicle of Philanthropy

There is no one in Central Texas nonprofitland who does not know Mando Rayo. If you don’t know Mando Rayo, you’re probably not doing a very good job at fulfilling your mission.
I’m new to this world, I know. But I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t know this guy. His name is on everyone’s Rolodex because [...]

The missing step in getting Austin to give?

I’m glad Andrea Ball wrote today about Austin’s lagging charitable donations. What’s the takeaway from a story like that? I hope readers don’t just throw up their hands in rhetorical “What’s to be done?” defeat. I think I’m going to make this my next task: Finding stories that answer that question.
It’s really the main idea [...]

The first-person donation request works, at least it does on me

Yesterday I got an email from someone named Bruce. The subject line read, “Hello from Bruce,” and remarkably – considering I have made a living in the past by devising spam subject lines (I know… there’s a special place in hell for people like me) so I know spam when I see it – I [...]

More interesting findings from Austin’s campaign for philanthropy

I attended a lunch meeting today of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Austin chapter, at Green Pastures. The speaker was Patsy Woods Martin, executive director of the I Live Here, I Give Here campaign that aims to increase local donations and gifts to to Austin charities.
Patsy presented the findings of the campaign’s initial survey. What [...]