Greetings!

It's the "Salsa Weekly Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program. As always, you can find plenty more news, updates, and conversation throughout the week on SalsaCommons.org.

We've recently tweaked the database to capture more information when your donors submit recurring donations -- those all-important automated, ongoing donations.

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The Washington Times ran an illuminating piece today on CIVIC, the Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflict and one of our favorite Salsa users.  It's not only a heart-gladdening story to see CIVIC keep on keeping on, but underscores the perilous situation many small nonprofits are or soon may be facing.

CIVIC had nothing to do with crooked financier Bernard Madoff, but the relief organization was supported by the JEHT Foundation, a strongly progressive funder whose donor unfortunately fell prey to the Madoff Ponzi scheme.

That blow ultimately fell on CIVIC (and scores of other progressive nonprofits), and "illustrates how devastating the Madoff case has been for smaller charities" and has already resulted in one layoff on its four-person staff and the closure of its office.

CIVIC relies totally on grants from foundations and private donations, and that $50,000 grant [from the JEHT Foundation] was the only guaranteed money it had coming in for 2009. ...

The organization has a $350,000 budget. Compounding the problems is that donations are down about 40 percent, according to [Executive Director Sarah] Holewinski. She said CIVIC still needs about $200,000. Until a supporter in Europe gave a large donation last month, Ms. Holewinski said there was a real prospect that the organization would have to close entirely.

What a relief that CIVIC didn't close.

In this case, the Madoff-to-layoff chain is visibly apparent.  But the systematic pressure of depressed donations, an implacable statistical inevitability fed by a thousand minute tributaries -- that's the thing to watch out for.

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In this week's edition, we circle back to donations analysis to explore an oft-asked question.

A Word From Our Attorneys This entry is meant to aid ROI calculations for marketing, not for purchasing e-mail addresses. DIA users in particular should be aware that our opt-in policy prohibits mailing a purchased list from a DIA account.

Last month, the Tipsheet's three-part series (I, II, III) explored timing the release of your donations appeal. Today, we're getting a little bit more abstract. Using the entire year's collection of gift data from throughout the DIA universe, we're going to try to get at what a supporter might be expected to contribute ... and as a result, what they're worth to obtain in the first place. Numbers on the flip.

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We'll be delving into a lot more figures -- fundraising and otherwise -- from the DIA network in the weeks ahead, but a champagne (okay, okay ... vodka) hangover on New Year's allows time enough for a quick follow-up to last week's suggested push for donations: The last five days of 2006 were the five givingest days in DIA's history.

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Someone said to me yesterday that they'd noticed Amnesty International put out a fundraising pitch in this idle week between Christmas and New Year's, and thought they were nuts. No way. (click for a larger version) Katya Andresen this week urged people to ask for money before the end of the year with a dramatic chart of Network for Good's daily contributions for the month of December. For a fundraiser, the right time to give is always "now" ... but for donors with an eye on their IRS returns, it's 81 hours and counting to apply their gifts as '06 tax deductions.

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"And all you have to do is get in touch with it, stop thinking, let things happen, and be the ball your donor." In the mood for a bit of dress-up, Katya Andresen declares today "Be Your Donor" Day.

-Call your switchboard and see what happens when you ask for help or information -Call your 800 number, if you have one, and ask some average questions and make a donation -Send an email to your nonprofit’s donor services department (if you have one) and see if you get a cordial response

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