The Development Plan — The Foundation of Success
GiftWorks Presents a Free Webinar for Nonprofit Organizations
by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE, and CEO of Capital Venture
Thursday, December 10, 2009
12:00 p.m. — 1:30 p.m. EST

Reserve your Webinar seat now at: www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694495584

You are invited to a free GiftWorks Webinar to learn from a pro how to make sure your Development Plan gets created, excites leadership, and leads to measurable fundraising success.

Join author and fundraising expert, Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE, and start the new year committed to fundraising beyond special events and grants.

Through the webinar, participants will learn the components of a successful plan: What makes a good plan, Why do it, Who to involve, and How to get started. The session closes with a lesson on how to evaluate the success of your plan — and do it better next year.

The reason for a webinar on the Development Plan? Linda says: "So many nonprofits don't have a written development as part of their organization's strategic plan. I was recently giving a class in Atlantic City and asked participants how many had a strategic plan about 20 hands went up. I then asked how many had a development plan only 3 hands rose. Especially in small to medium sized organizations, either there is no written development plan or the plan that exists is very focused on one thing like special events or grant-writing. It's not a plan for the overall picture of the total fundraising effort."

In sixteen years as a philanthropic consultant, Linda Lysakowski has managed capital campaigns; helped dozens of nonprofits achieve their development goals; and trained more than 15,000 professionals in North America and Egypt in all aspects of development. Linda is one of fewer than one hundred professionals worldwide to hold the Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive designation.

Linda Lysakowski is the author of Recruiting and Training Fundraising Volunteers (2005), The Development Plan (2007), contributor to The Fundraising Feasibility Study (2007) and co-author of The Essential Nonprofit Fundraising Handbook (2009).

Linda's business, Capital Venture, provides fundraising counsel, specializing in innovative training and consulting services for nonprofit organizations of focuses on capital campaigns, in particular for smaller organizations without a large development staff. "Our goal at CAPITAL VENTURE is to help organizations determine how much time, effort and personnel they should risk ('venture') in order to build their wealth ('capital'). We focus on training and education and help nonprofits access the tools of the trade. Ultimately, we want to help nonprofits reach a state of excellence in their fundraising efforts," Linda concludes. Read more about Linda on her website: http://www.cvfundraising.com/company/associates/lysakowski.

Webinar details:
The Development Plan — the Foundation of Success presented by GiftWorks
Thursday, December 10, 12:00 PM-1:30 PM EST.
Register now! Space is limited.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at: www1.gotomeeting.com/register/694495584
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email detailing how to access the webinar.

GiftWorks Nonprofit of the Month
Housing Opportunities, Inc., serving Northwest Indiana.

McDonalds isn't hiring!

For Caroline Shock, CEO of Housing Opportunities, that's her barometer of how bad the economy is in Northwest Indiana.

In the Steel Mill Belt, unemployment is well over 10%. The steel workers no longer work 70 hour weeks with overtime pay, shift differentials, and incentives; if they are lucky enough to be still working, it may be a 30 hour workweek — families have lost half of their income. Workers in the commercial building trades had no work this summer. So there are a lot of foreclosures and lots of people losing their housing.

Fortunately, there's been a lot of money available for housing stimulus money, state grants, etc. "We have to apply; we have to show a detailed plan; we have to get the money into the community quickly; and we are closely monitored but we've gotten all the grants we've applied for." (She notes that current grantors demand a high degree of accountability and transparency in the use of funds they provide.)

What has happened is that the number of people facing foreclosure has gone through the roof. "We used to handle about 20 cases per month; now we are handling 300-400 in the same time period. Our counselors work closely with families, helping them to improve their 'spending choices.' We've added two full-time staffers and one 'full-time' volunteer."

"We've been able to negotiate a 75% success rate against foreclosures. That means we prevent those foreclosures, and we help the homeowners stay in their homes."

Even in tough times, the traditional fundraising has not fallen. While other nonprofits talk of their donations being down 25%, Housing Opportunities' fall fundraiser made 30% more in 2009 than the previous year.

"Creating a bridge from homeless to home is a hands-on, community-wide effort," reports Caroline. On the support services side of the equation, HO supports families with mentoring, outings, budgeting/money management, and tutoring. Their volunteers raise funds, of course, but also do yardwork, cleaning, and repairs.

When Housing Opportunities started with GiftWorks last year, they were happy to learn how easy it is to track donors and donations. "We now have detailed data on every donor. But the most helpful part is the precision of the GiftWorks reports that we run monthly," continues Caroline. "We're able to drill down to detail such as what donations were brought in by a particular staff member and the variety of giving vehicles cash, check, in-kind donations, volunteer hours. Our Board can see in black and white how people donate to us."

A year ago, when all the economic news began to turn bad, Caroline and her staff knew that they faced hard work ahead. "What no one anticipated, though, was that we are handling foreclosures for professionals doctors, teachers, lawyers. Anyone can be affected by this economic crisis!"

GiftWorks is gratified to be able to help Housing Opportunities in their important work.

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What's So Smart about the SmartPlan?

Does having unlimited phone and email support, training, and all future GiftWorks Standard or Premium upgrades* sound like a good plan to you? Wouldn't it be great never having to think about what services to purchase? Wouldn't it be great to have this luxury and save money too? It's not only a good plan; it's SmartPlan.

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The GiftWorks™ SmartPlan includes:

• Phone and email support for your entire organization. Contact our expert support team on business days from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST for timely help with your GiftWorks questions.
• Five (5) GiftWorks University Courses. Brush up your skills or train a new staff member with our webinar-based GiftWorks University sessions. Less time spent training, more time spent on your mission!
• All future upgrades* to GiftWorks Standard and GiftWorks Premium while the plan is in place.

SmartPlan rates bring you a nearly 50% savings over the costs of buying each item separately. Prices are:

• $39.99/month for organizations with 1-3 GiftWorks licenses
• $59.99/month for organizations with 4+ GiftWorks licenses

Payment for SmartPlan is by credit card or EFT and requires a 2-year commitment to start, then goes on a monthly basis.

(If you are a customer who already has an annual support plan, the unused balance can be applied to your SmartPlan.)

To start your SmartPlan enrollment, complete the form here and we will be in touch to officially enroll you!

*All future upgrades after GiftWorks 2010 already released.