Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, nonprofits are rethinking the in-person events they had scheduled for the fall. Plus, how nonprofit leaders and donors are interacting on the social audio app Clubhouse.

I’m Eden Stiffman, senior editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write me.

More Uncertainty for Fundraising Events

After a few months of reveling in something close to normalcy and joyful reunions with friends and family, nonprofits started to plan for a return to public gatherings. But now the Delta variant is throwing us another curveball.

On a personal level, it’s an exhausting shift that’s hard to fathom. For charities that resumed in-person events, the fall fundraising season is shaping up to be another chaotic one, my colleague Emily Haynes reports. With Covid-19 case counts skyrocketing, some nonprofits are rethinking how to host their supporters at events.

Hopeful Horizons, a nonprofit that serves domestic-violence survivors in South Carolina, began hosting small in-person events this summer. In June, the organization gathered supporters in major donors’ and board members’ backyards. Erin Hall, the group’s chief development officer, says she’s comfortable keeping those going. “They are smaller events, outside, with people who all know each other.”

But if case counts keep increasing, will donors want to mingle in the fall? Hall is uncertain. Members of the Hopeful Horizons board are in the thick of planning an event for roughly 150 guests in November, ideally at a venue where guests socialize both indoors and outdoors. The trustees asked Hall whether they should press pause.

“I just don’t know what the right answer is,” Hall says. “I felt good about an outdoor in-person event a month ago. Now, I’m not sure.”

Many fundraisers decided to scrap in-person events when mask mandates returned, says fundraising consultant Samantha Swaim. As of this writing, just nine of the 31 events her clients have planned for September and October will be in-person. All of those are parties at board members’ homes where no more than eight guests will watch the charity’s virtual event together. But guests will be carded before they can attend — no vaccine card, no entry. So far, no one’s complained.

Another of her clients is using the same protocol for an outdoor in-person event that is capped at 50 people. Supporters who are not attending in-person can also watch the event online.

“Virtual events are still going strong,” Swaim says.

Many groups that hosted virtual events in 2020 said they were a success and helped them reach overall fundraising goals. (If you’re sticking to the realm of digital events, make sure to read these tips.)

Hall has her eye on the spring when Hopeful Horizons hosts its annual gala. If Covid-19 throws another curveball, the group may not move forward with its plans. She said her peers at other charities have similar worries.

“There’s some comfort in knowing we’re all trying to make these decisions,” she told Emily.

Your Event Plans

How has the Delta variant affected your nonprofit’s event plans? What’s on the calendar for this fall and spring — and how are your donors responding? Send me an email and let me know how you’re making these decisions.

Is Clubhouse Worth Your Time?

The smartphone app Clubhouse launched in early 2020 and lets users communicate with each other in voice chat rooms for live conversation. Clubhouse has gained momentum in the nonprofit world as some charity leaders, philanthropy experts, and foundation officials have joined to host and participate in live discussions and expand their networks.

Charity leaders are using Clubhouse to get the word out about their work and to connect with influential people, but they caution it must be used wisely, my colleague Maria Di Mento writes.

Rahsaan Harris became CEO of the Citizens Committee for New York City last March just as the pandemic was shutting down the city. Harris and his team have been using the app to get the word out about the micro grants the 46-year-old organization makes to small local groups that work to improve the quality of life in low-income neighborhoods. They’re also experimenting with Clubhouse to promote the group’s recent fundraising campaign and connect grantees with nonprofit experts and influential leaders who can offer organizational advice and other support.

“It’s a way to create intimacy at scale because you’re getting into conversation with people that you might not have been able to have a conversation with before, but it’s different than some of the other social media that allows you to broadcast and misinterpret the words that are being typed out in text,” says Harris. “You get a sense of the tone and the pace that a conversation is being presented in, and it’s not edited. It’s straight up like a phone conversation.”

Philanthropy consultant Kris Putnam-Walkerly says she likes using the app to organize panel-like discussions about fundraising and giving practices among nonprofit and philanthropy leaders. She agrees that Clubhouse isn’t a great way to reach individual donors but says it is a good way for charities to make a first contact with foundation leaders and program directors and then follow up with them offline later on.

“It evens the playing field between the funder and the nonprofit. There’s less presentation and more conversation. There’s less ‘Here’s my six talking points’ or ‘I’ve spent 40 hours preparing for this event’ and more ‘Let’s hop on a call and engage in real time about what we’re thinking, learning, experiencing,’” Putnam-Walkerly says. “It’s shifting that mind-set around peer-to-peer interactions.”

Read more about what Harris, Putnam-Walkerly, and a major donor have to say about the utility of the app.

In Case You Missed It

Catching up after some time off? These stories from our recent archives are well worth your time.

• Inflation and Delta Variant Loom in Otherwise Strong Economic Picture for Nonprofits: Economic output is up nationally, major stock indices continue to grow consistently, wages are rising, and consumers spent money. But lingering inflation and the end of pandemic government aid programs are cutting into household incomes, a potential source of worry for fundraisers focused on smaller gifts and for charities that provide services to the poor.
• What to Consider — and What to Avoid — When Reopening Your Nonprofit Office: Nonprofit leaders and human-resource experts share advice to help bring employees back to the office safely and support — and keep — them in the process.
• Value of Charitable Deduction for All Americans Still Unclear: Charitable giving was sluggish in 2020, according to “Giving USA,” making it hard to see a clear benefit from the temporary tax provisions allowing Americans to deduct charitable gifts even if they don’t itemize.

What We’re Reading

• When a donor to the University of Mississippi journalism school made racist comments, the dean remained silent, raising the question for fundraisers: How much moral flexibility is required to raise money? Disclosure of emails between the donor and the dean roiled the school and led one professor to write, “I often get the impression that our university leadership and fundraisers think they are at the mercy of some of these powerful forces because of money.” (Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Dear Member: Don’t you want to keep helping us bring life to art, and art to lives? What if we give you special Leap-Day Views and a suit of armor? The membership renewal emails you may have been tempted to write. (New Yorker)