#courses for nonprofit fundraising

[heyfundraiser]

Major Gift Fundraising Coaching - Hey Fundraiser

How do you fundraise for major gifts?

Fundraising for major gifts involves building strong relationships with potential donors who have the capacity to make significant contributions to your organization. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to fundraise for major gifts:

Identify Prospective Donors: Research and identify individuals or organizations that have the capacity and affinity to make major gifts to your cause. Look into their philanthropic history, interests, and connections.

Segmentation: Divide your potential major donors into segments based on factors such as giving capacity, interests, previous engagement, and personal connections to your organization.

Build Relationships: Major gift fundraising is all about building strong and meaningful relationships. Engage with potential donors through personalized communication, meetings, events, and networking opportunities. Understand their motivations and align your fundraising message with their values.

Create a Compelling Case for Support: Develop a strong and compelling case for why your organization's mission is important and how major gifts will make a significant impact. Clearly communicate the outcomes and benefits of their contributions.

Customize Your Approach: Tailor your fundraising approach to each potential donor's preferences. Some may prefer face-to-face meetings, while others might prefer written materials or virtual presentations.

Offer Recognition and Stewardship: Ensure that major donors receive appropriate recognition and appreciation for their contributions. This could include naming opportunities, invitations to special events, and regular updates on the impact of their gifts.

Set Realistic Goals: Define specific fundraising goals for major gifts and communicate these goals to potential donors. Show how their contributions fit into the larger picture of your organization's mission.

Cultivation Events: Organize events that allow potential major donors to interact with your organization's leadership, beneficiaries, and other supporters. These events provide opportunities for deeper engagement and relationship-building.

Craft Personalized Proposals: Create personalized proposals that clearly outline how a major gift will be used and the impact it will have. Tailor these proposals to the individual donor's interests and philanthropic goals.

Engage Board Members and Leadership: Leverage the influence and networks of your organization's board members and leadership to help cultivate and steward potential major donors. Their involvement can lend credibility and open doors.

Demonstrate Impact: Regularly update major donors on the impact of their gifts. Provide reports, stories, and data that showcase the positive outcomes made possible by their contributions.

Follow Up and Persistence: Fundraising for major gifts often involves a longer cultivation process. Be persistent but respectful in your follow-up efforts. Don't be discouraged by initial rejections; continue to build relationships.

Respect Donor Preferences: Always respect the donor's wishes and preferences, whether they choose to contribute or not. A positive experience, even if they don't donate immediately, can lead to future engagement.

Measurement and Evaluation: Continuously evaluate your major gift fundraising efforts. Measure the success of different strategies and adjust your approach based on results.

Maintain Long-Term Relationships: Even after receiving a major gift, continue to steward and cultivate the relationship. Show donors the ongoing impact of their contributions and make them feel valued and connected to your organization's mission.

Remember that major gift fundraising requires patience, persistence, and a genuine commitment to building meaningful connections with your donors. Every relationship you build can have a significant impact on your organization's success.

[getdatabasey]

Mary Hackett - Get Data Basey

Hey there, I'm Mary Hackett. I've worked with Raiser’s Edge™ for 25+ years. I spent 15 years as a major gift officer and 10 years in fundraising operations, so I speak both languages and know both sides of the house. I know how difficult it can be to see gaps and issues in your database and how frustrating it is to not have the time to fix your operations. That's why Databasey exists -- to help fundraising operations professionals and fundraisers work together to automate and fix their systems and give donors the best experience possible. https://www.getdatabasey.com/

[brewscoop]

Discover the remarkable story behind Tennessee Brew Works' dedication to local communities and Tennessee State Parks. From their hit State Park Blonde Ale to a new variety pack, see how they blend craft beer with a cause. Learn about their inspiring contributions and find out how you can support the Tennessee State Parks Conservancy. Cheers to making a difference!

[foundationsearch]

Elevate Your Online Fundraising Experience with Foundation Search 

Discover a transformative odyssey into the realm of online fundraising through Foundation Search's array of educational resources. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to this field, our online courses equip you with essential strategies and insights to amplify your impact. From delving into advanced fundraising techniques to navigating the complexities of effective campaigns, our platform empowers you with the latest knowledge and vital skills crucial for philanthropic success.

Foundation Search provides a diverse selection of meticulously crafted online fundraising courses designed to meet the evolving needs of fundraisers. Recognizing the significance of

specialized training in this domain, we offer a variety of courses tailored to enhance your expertise. Our aim is to provide a seamless learning experience, blending industry expertise with innovative educational tools and resources.

Embark on your educational journey with Foundation Search today by exploring our comprehensive course catalog. Let us join forces to drive positive change and usher in a brighter future for all.

Are you ready to embark on your path to fundraising success? Dive into our course offerings today and ignite your learning journey with Foundation Search. Together, let's lead impactful transformations and contribute to creating a better world. Read More to know who should take meta soft online education

#fundraisingcourse #fundraisingonlinecourse #fundraisingtechniques

[brehaaorgana]

A reasonable take: You should actually be independently verifying all charities and charity fundraisers before donating unless you know the recipient personally.

This means:

Every single fundraiser/charity requires research and your own individual verification for your financial safety. Always. Forever! In perpetuity!

VERIFY, then trust.

If you only realized you should be worried about possible scams because foreign brown people are involved then yeah you might have been influenced by racism! That might not have been intentional on your part, but racism influences us in all kinds of ways we might not realize or even actively agree with!

But being wary of scams and fraud as a matter of course is not, in and of itself, racist. Practicing financial safety habits consistently to protect yourself against scams and fraud is not racist on its own. That would be absurd.

If people are saying they're vetted or checked by someone else, you still have to do the research to find out what that person vetted, how they checked, and if they are trustworthy.

You don't need to harass people in order to do this research and verification for yourself. If you decide you're not sure you still don't need to harass people.

Successful fraudsters are successful when you don't take the time to personally verify them before you give money. They may seem just like a bot, OR they might be indistinguishable from an actual person in need. Or both! Fraudsters do all of these things because they only need one thing to work on you.

Yes, it is a known fact that fraudsters try to take advantage of disaster, conflict, and turmoil in order to scam people who want to do good and help others. It's called charity scamming.

"Never pay by cash, gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency. Each of these forms of payment are difficult or impossible to track and reverse." - the FBI. But also me. Just as an fyi don't ever do that.

The United States has a lot of general resources on financial fraud and charity scams. Look at the FBI — IC3, the FTC ftc.gov/charity, the CFPB, FinCen (this page shows recent warnings in Suspicious Activity reports so you know what to look out for to avoid giving money to say Russian Oligarchs!) and the IRS websites.

Also international fraud awareness week. And Prevent Charity Fraud has resources aimed *at* charities, because nonprofits can be scammed too!

[simply-ivanka]

WHO CAN BLAME HIM ? After 2016!

TRUMP IS DOING THIS HIS WAY AND THAT IS THAT! TRUMP 2024!

Trump Campaign May Decline Feds' Transition Help

By Charlie McCarthy    |   Thursday, 29 August 2024 11:28 AM EDT

The Trump campaign reportedly is prepared to pass on receiving transition help from the federal General Services Administration (GSA) in anticipation of President Donald Trump winning the November election.

The GSA normally plays a role in the transition from one administration to the another. It provides office space, technology, and other back-end support that can be crucial to a presidential transition operation.

Trump, the Republican nominee, is opposing Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrat nominee, in the race for the White House.

Politico reported Thursday that with an Aug. 31 deadline looming, sources say the Trump team is poised to reject GSA assistance.

While transitions kick into high gear after Election Day, when a president-elect must begin selecting and vetting about 4,000 federal political appointees, success depends on the infrastructure built during the pre-election period, including identifying agency review teams, and beginning the background check process for national security staff.

GSA is required by law to make available federal office space, IT support, and other resources to transition teams, but only once it has entered into memoranda of understanding with representatives for each nominee, which Congress requires the agency to do "to the maximum extent practicable," by Sept. 1.

A GSA spokesperson confirmed that the agency had made its offer to the two candidates.

The Trump campaign, though, has concerns about working with

GSA.

First, accepting GSA help means adhering to $5,000-per-donor contribution limits in funding overall costs that can exceed $10 million. Trump allies would prefer fewer people cutting bigger checks.

Second, Politico reported that Trump's team does not trust the GSA after what it experienced in 2016, when there were leaks of potential administration hires and widespread dismay with the agency's decision to hand over transition records to special counsel Robert Mueller.

Some Trump allies blamed federal workers for the leaks.

"The GSA presidential transition support model has run its course and either campaign should have the option to operate their transitions independently in order to have the most flexibility for fundraising, information security, and operations," Ken Nahigian, executive director of Trump's 2016 transition, told Politico.

Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes told Politico that no final decision has been made regarding GSA this time around.

"With transition leadership in place, and many talented leaders to work with, President Trump will have what he needs to build a world-class and effective administration starting on day one," Hughes said.

Partnership for Public Service President Max Stier told Politico that GSA could help with quickly arranging security clearances and in preventing cyberattacks.

Stier added that a transition organization without GSA could be set up as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, meaning no public financial disclosures.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

[queerliblib]

Hey I'm sure this is too complex a subject to discuss with a single answer but I felt that sending a DM is probably too forward - how do you start a project like this? An online library people can access through Libby, I mean. What steps are involved and how many people/how much funding did you need to get it off the ground?

hello - yes it’s a bit complex, we can’t get too far into the weeds, but here’s some context! it took a lot of planning and a community of people with the right skillsets (library -specifically collections & digital licensing etc, nonprofit fundraising, social media, business, graphic design, etc) working as a team to bring things together.

Some of the big steps we took were: 1. make a website & socials 2. figure out non-profit status 3. build a following 4. decide on vendor/platform/tech needs 4. pay someone to build us a better website 5. fundraise! (our opening, minimum-viable-product, fundraising goal was 15k in summer ’23)- of course that’s evolved a lot since then 6. set up membership process & policies, set up vendor contracts 7. buy books & launch library! 8. continue buying books, dealing with holds, handling media inquiries, keep socials and website up & accurate, continued fundraising etc….

it’s been one whole year!!!* since we opened as a fully functional digital lending library and closer to three since we started planning

[rebirthgarments]

Mohammed Hammad increased his goal for evacuation to $25k so that he can bring his 6 younger siblings with him!

I was informed by my comrade Brenda that the first goal was originally $10k to evacuate Mohammed Hammad and his mother because since he is under 18, he can only evacuate with a parent or legal guardian. But in this case, his 6 younger siblings would have to be left behind on their own, so @fedup4palestine raised the goal to $25k so that Mohammed’s whole immediate family can all evacuate together. Since you all have been so amazing and we have raised $9k in just 24 hours, I think we can do it!

[Image description: an amazing colored pencil drawing by my 12 year old student Mos @NicoCavalu made of Mohammed Hammad laying down with his leg propped up with the metal fixator on his knee. Hand drawn block text in red, black, white and green reads “Disabled 17yo Mohammed needs medical Evacuation immediately”. Red typed text in red reads “Goal increased to $25k so that his 6 younger siblings are not left behind alone in Rafah

givebutter.com/mogaza

There is a QR code that goes to the Give Butter Link.]

Caption continues:

I’ve had some questions from people asking about my vetting process and about @fedup4palestine and if @moh.2090727 is able to access the money for sure, so here are some short answers:

I or a trusted comrade have personally vetted all of the fuhnd-raizers that are under the heading labeled “Pal-eh-stienian Fundraisers Sky of Rebirth Garments is helping with” in my AllMyLinks. Half of them we vetted through video chat, and the other half were already friends of my friends from before the “escalation”. Mohammed Hammad’s campaign was already vetted through @fedup4palestine , and over the course of the last 36 hours I have messaged with him extensively. I talk to every one of the people that I have been working on helping every day (unless they lose access to the internet).

Pretty much all of the families I am working for are more than down to be connected with anyone and answer questions, so don’t be shy, if you are not supporting fuhn-raisers because you are not fully sure about them, just DM me and I can get you directly connected with a family so you can see how real they are!

Note: I am currently not able to add on any more fuhnd-raisers for me to personally work on (until more of them have been totally met)

@fedup4palestine is a very new nonprofit, they have been too swamped with making the fuhnd-raizer pages to finish and launch their website yet. They have their nonprofit status, and they use it to create the GiveButter campaign pages. I just went through the process with my other fuhnd-raizer with Seraj to make a GiveButter, and you have to be a nonprofit in order to make any campaigns there (I ended up using my fiscal sponsor Allied Media Projects’ GiveButter in order to make the auction for Seraj, which will go live in the next couple days!). GiveButter is now the recommended alternative to GFM, since GFM keeps shutting down Pal-eh-stinian fuhnd-raizers. This does not mean you shouldn’t give to GFM’s that you know are vetted, but it means that you should also work to help folks get GiveButter campaigns as well!

Mohammed Hammad has a bank account with Bank of Pal-eh-stein , and I have confirmed with both him and @fedup4palestine that he has access to withdraw the money from his fundraising money anytime he needs. He is currently waiting to withdraw until he now has the full amount for him + his siblings’ evacuation because he doees not want to leave them behind.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jack Jenkins at RNS:

(RNS) — A diverse group of Christians is throwing support behind Vice President Kamala Harris’ White House bid, organizing fundraisers and Zoom calls in hopes of helping catapult the Democrat to victory in November — and, they say, reclaiming their faith from Republicans in the process. Their efforts come on the heels of similar campaigns aimed at specific constituency groups, such as the recent “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call that featured celebrities and grabbed headlines. John Pavlovitz, a liberal-leaning Christian author and activist, was on that call when he hatched the idea for a Christian-centric version and texted his friend Malynda Hale, a singer, actress and fellow activist. “We had a conversation about how, specifically on the Democratic side of the political spectrum, you don’t hear a lot of people talking about their faith,” Hale told Religion News Service in an interview. “We wanted people to know that there are progressive Christians, there are Christians on the Democratic, left-leaning side, so that they didn’t feel alone.”

The result was Christians for Kamala, a part-fundraiser, part-virtual roundtable livestreamed event on Monday (Aug. 12). Featured speakers cited their faith as they praised liberal policies and personally endorsed Harris — who recently entered the presidential race after President Joe Biden bowed out — and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Over the course of the nearly three-hour event, the group raised more than $150,000 for the Harris campaign, a number that has climbed to just shy of $200,000 in the days since. “It’s been really difficult to keep up with the flood of comments and connections that have been coming in,” said Pavlovitz, who said the only formal help he received from the Harris campaign was in setting up a donation system for fundraising. A number of Christian groups — including evangelicals, a constituency key to former President Donald Trump’s base — have assembled similar calls in the lead up to next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Most have had little to no assistance from the official Harris-Walz campaign, which, barely a month old, has yet to announced a dedicated faith outreach director. The emerging grassroots coalition vies not only to bolster Harris but also to push back on what organizers say is a false assumption that to be Christian is to be a Republican — or a supporter of former President Donald Trump.

[...] That diversity was on display during the Christians for Kamala call, which included a mix of faith leaders such as the Rev. Jacqui Lewis, of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, and the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., head of the nonprofit Hip Hop Caucus; activists like environmentalist Bill McKibben and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Charlotte Clymer; commentators such as CNN’s Van Jones; and politicians, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Texas State Rep. James Talarico. The speakers linked their support for specific policies, such as working to blunt the impacts of climate change or passing immigration reform, to their faith and Christian Scripture. Some rebuked conservative Christianity’s ties to the GOP, calling it a form of Christian nationalism. “My faith in Jesus leads me to reject Christian nationalism and commit myself to the project of a multiracial, multicultural democracy where we can all freely love God and fully love our neighbors,” said Talarico, a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminarian who has been vocal in his condemnation of Christian nationalism in his state. “That same faith leads me to support Vice President Harris to be the next president of the United States.”

Although a member of a mainline denomination, Talarico was also a speaker on a separate “Evangelicals for Harris” Zoom call assembled on Wednesday evening. Organized by Faith Voters, a 501(c)4 organization, the effort was geared toward conservative Christians who have disproportionately sided with Trump. The call struck a different tone than Christians for Kamala: some speakers noted they had never endorsed a candidate before, and at least one pastor suggested he was risking friendships and relationships with his congregation by participating.

[...] The calls add to a slate of organizing efforts launched in recent days aimed at specific religious groups. Nearly 500 faith leaders have signed on to a letter endorsing Harris, a “Latter-day Saints for Harris” call was convened last week and multiple separate calls have been organized for Jewish Americans — including one on Thursday that targeted Jewish women and featured singer Barbra Streisand. A separate “Catholics for Kamala” call, facilitated in part by the Harris campaign, was also slated for this week but organizers rescheduled it until after the Democratic National Convention, citing scheduling conflicts. According to Pavlovitz, his group is already partnering with others, such as Catholics for Kamala, Christian Democrats of America and Vote Common Good. What form their collaborations take remains to be seen, but Pavlovitz said he is hopeful for whatever comes next.

Christians fed up with the religious right’s monopolization of what it means to be a Christian rallied to support Kamala Harris on multiple recent calls, such as Christians For Harris and Evangelicals For Harris. Christians need to vote for the REAL Christian in the race, and that’s Harris (and not antichrist Trump). #HarrisWalz2024

[the-cimmerians]

a storytime story. Not my story, it's my friend's, but she doesn't go here so I'm sharing for her. We'll call her Mara. Mara is a high-femme, lovely queer girl from a wealthy family in the southern US, but when I met her she'd been living in California for many years, chugging through her postgraduate education in Women's Studies. She rarely went home, because being at home was always a bit of a fraught experience: not unendurable (because to most heteronormative casual viewers the radiant queerness of a high-femme is pretty much indistinguishable from a quirky beauty queen waiting for the right football quarterback to sweep her off her feet), but still--not the most fun. Yet every once in a while, Mara would have a fit of 'dutiful daughter'-itis, and go home to mend some fences and keep some peace.

Mara's mother had often asked her to come with her to philanthropic events, but Mara had always said no. On this trip, however, Mara's mother had purchased a full table as an event sponsor, and she cajoled Mara into going with her. For those of you who haven't ever attended such an event, they are all different, and yet terrifyingly all the same (and I say this not as an attendee, but as an event-runner for various nonprofits; an event-runner who, fair warning, hates everything about these events, and this part of nonprofit work). There is some form of lower-calorie food (chicken or fish on greens with a very light citrus-fruit dressing is de rigeur, along with some sort of fruit-based airy parfait served in the smallest and most elegant glasses imaginable for dessert), usually an emcee (occasionally entertaining, but always inoffensive to the assembled guests), sometimes speakers (high-profile or famous women on a local or national level depending on the 'get' of the organization in question, or extremely well-spoken young people or teens for youth-serving organizations--with the youth in question being very carefully coached), and an 'ask'--the fundraising portion of the event, where the wealthy attendees compete with the rest of their friends and enemies in the social scene to be the most gracious and beneficent person in the room.

And there is gossip. So much gossip.

Poor Mara knew enough to expect some of this (mostly due to listening to me complain bitterly about how awful these events are), but there were aspects for which she was completely unprepared. Her mother had filled her sponsorship table with all of her closest friends, and the 'social hour' before the event started in earnest was a haze of white wine and a constant stream of excessively perfumed women dressed in full southern socialite chic, coming by the table to air-kiss cheeks and say how it's been ages since they've seen each other and what a darling ensemble, where on earth did you get it? and who does your hair now?--you must tell me, it's simply scrumptious--you look incredible, we really must do lunch some time soon--

...and the moment the woman or women in question moved on, the table, as a whole, in excited, urgent-whispered voices, would drag the everloving fuck out of every single lady they'd just been gushing over.

"Did you see how botched her last lift was? I hardly recognized her--I'm surprised she recognized me, with her eyes yanked back like that--" "so terrible, but she did go to the cheapest surgeon in town--husband has money troubles, you know--"

"Didn't expect to see her here, but I suppose you have to go somewhere to show off that large a collection of paste jewels--" "oh, stop, you wicked girl! But you're right, of course--and she gives herself such airs, like we don't all know--"

"Poor dear looks exhausted--apparently keeping up with her pool boy isn't easy at her age--" "Can't say that I blame her; that Carlos, have you seen him? Of course, she's hardly his only client. I've been dying for a pool, but my Henry just won't--"

"Quite a plucky little attitude for someone whose husband just left her for his twenty-two year old secretary--" "And after she put him through college and law school--I heard she's not even going to get to keep the house. She really should have sprung for a better lawyer--"

"I can't believe she still thinks she can fit into that dress, with all the weight she's packed on--" "Truly grotesque--just ghastly! Seems like last summer at the fat farm didn't do her as much good as one would have hoped--"

::giggle:: ::giggle:: ::giggle::

Mara was horrified, sitting there with a bland, polite smile frozen on her face, with her white gloves and vintage pillbox hat and charming little clutch bag, her seamed stockings and her kitten heels and her classic red lipstick and pin-curls (because in true unquenchable femme spirit, she had taken this occasion as an opportunity for dress-up, an opportunity for fun and play and sexy whimsy--a Gene-Tierney-does-pin-up-girl kind of vibe), utterly unable to see how to extricate herself from this terrible situation.

Another woman glided away from the table, coyly waving heavily-beringed fingers. "Yes, Darling," Mara's mother said, coyly waving back. "See you soon! Kiss-kiss! Love to Laurent!" She sat down and hissed to the cabal at the table: "Ha! Her husband just gave her an STD."

The woman to Mara's left leaned forward excitedly. "Really? Two-door or four-door?--wait, if it was the latest Aston Martin, I'm going to literally perish of envy--"

And that was the tipping point--Mara fled. Walked until she found a suitably divey coffee shop. Had a coffee and a slice of peach pie, and flirted with a soft Butch waitress until the world seemed less dire.

[turnways]

The "The fundraisers are fake block and report!!" from omgthatdress, badjokesbyjeff, and others really boils down to wanting to remove any personal investment in stopping the genocide.

"The fundraisers are scams because they're messaging big accounts but also because they message small accounts and they're just there to guilt trip you. It's about making you feel bad. Instead don't feel bad and donate to this charity. Don't look into whether or not they directly help Palestinians escape genocide. Phew doesn't it feel nice to *really* help?"

Its the same mindset as "don't give that homeless guy money, what if he's just pretending to be homeless? Just donate to anti-homeless non-profits because that's the only *good* way to help the homelsss"

And that's not to say all charity organizations are evil money laundering schemes of course, many are at least trying to do good in the world. Or that nobody would even pretend to be in need to trick caring people out of their money because that does happen.

But I am saying it's weird to trust a nonprofit youve barely looked into how or if they directly help people any more than a gofundme with someone's full legal name and face attached because it "feels" suspicious to you

[neonphoenix]

Check out some of these stone cold takes:

Bestie I hate to tell you this but 100k is nothing

Feel like these comments get to the crux of the matter quite neatly: individual budgets and organization budgets are vastly different. 100k could cover all of my college tuition, but for an organization it means they might just be able to pay two salaries for a year.

I don't know a ton about how ao3 specifically is run but I suspect they consist of more than two people, and that they incur all sorts of costs completely unrelated to anyone they might be paying.

This comment in particular is in such bad faith. "Hi i'm aware that this organization is trying to be transparent and publish their budget but I've been so conditioned to view corporations as corrupt that I won't even consider a group might not be." You're playing guilty until proven innocent my dude.

Other people have already explained it better than I can but ao3 is a massive website hosting a massive amount of information with a massive amount of traffic. They need stupid amounts of money just to maintain what they do have.

And again, I'd like to reiterate: they definitely need more than 100k a year to run. I expect them to hold multiple donation drives and receive outside grants. That's how nonprofits run.

I don't really care what your stance is on ao3 as an organization but a lot of y'all criticizing them simply do not understand how fundraising works.

[taraljc]

Hey folks, if you can help signal boost (or either, find people who have the means to help) Callisto is in dire need of donations to keep their doors open.

From Maureen Ryan's blog:

Countless times, when people in the entertainment industry needed help, I’ve answered the call. 

I’ve done things behind the scenes and helped however I could more times than I can count. I’ve listened to folks’ stories and told them they weren’t wrong to feel the way they did after they experienced terrible things. For decades, as a critic and reporter, I’ve highlighted not just what I love about what Hollywood makes, but what can be harmful about the way its stories get told and who gets to tell them. 

And of course, I’ve repeatedly answered a very urgent call by writing many, many tough stories about unfairness, exclusion, misconduct and abuse. Then I wrote a whole book about all those things and how to further the process of fixing them. 

Now, for the first time, I’m asking for your help. I’m sending up the Batsignal.

Not for me, but for an organization that really, really needs help — major help, and fast. 

I know it’s the worst time for an ask. A lot of people I know are tapped out, mentally, physically, spiritually and financially. Half my timelines are mutual aid requests and people doing fundraising for themselves, for their communities and for politicians that may help us (narrowly) avoid a Fascist takeover in a few weeks. 

Knowing all that, I’m asking anyway. That’s the kind of urgency the situation demands. 

I’ll outline the request right here at the top, and then explain why I think Callisto deserves help. 

Callisto, a nonprofit devoted to empowering assault survivors and finding serial perpetrators, may close its doors within days if it does not get major funding. If you know of organizations, foundations or individuals that could write big checks very soon, please pass this on or connect them to the Callisto team as soon as possible (development@projectcallisto.org)

Many good things came from the publication of Burn It Down, and one of the best unexpected benefits was getting to know Callisto’s work better. 

In Burn It Down, I mentioned Callisto as a worthy example of how an organization can not only help survivors but also take on a problem that has become, in terms of my Hollywood reporting, my white whale: The repeat offender. 

In most spheres of life, a small number of people commit most abuses (9 out of 10 assaults are committed by serial offenders). It would be transformational to focus more consistently on those people, and that’s a large part of what Callisto does. Callisto was founded in 2011 and at this point, accounts have been created at more than 300 colleges and universities in 46 states. 

Through Callisto, survivors can document their assault, find out of their assailant has hurt others, and even potentially find a way of holding that person accountable. 

Callisto does not report anyone to an HR department, to law enforcement, or to a Title IX office on campus. What it does do is allow a survivor to use Callisto’s confidential online portal to document what happened to them, put information about their assailant into the secure system, and find out whether others have reported that person.  

If there is a match, those survivors then get the assistance of a Legal Options Counselor, who helps people figure out the next steps that are right for them. That might involve going to the press, legal action or criminal charges, a restorative justice process, or simply being in community with others who’d understand what they’ve been through. As a survivor, I know that connecting with others who’ve been through experiences like mine can be transformational.

Here’s the mind * blown part: I learned recently that Callisto is not just a college tool anymore. It’s available right now, to 21 million people in the US and its territories. Those who use it do not have to be on campus or in a scholastic environment. Anyone who still has access to their college email account, even if they’ve left school or graduated, can use Callisto. 

Folks on the lowest rungs of any profession — especially in creative industries, where power diffentials are massive and abuse of power is still too often regarded as “creativity” or “passion” — are most likely to need something like Callisto. And those are the people the most likely to still have access to their college email account (if they ever had one, and of course, that's not true of everyone). But like I said, anyone at any stage in their career with a .edu address can use it.

These days, in Hollywood, there are more resources for those who’ve been abused or assaulted than there used to be. That’s a good thing. There can’t be too many attempts to level that very skewed playing field, in my opinion. If people in Hollywood use Callisto — and if it’s able to expand its services beyond the 21 million with access to it now — what a miracle that would be. I think what it does is revolutionary, and, without question, helpful to survivors. 

If nothing else, if Callisto ends up being one of the tools that reduces Hollywood’s reliance on the old “move the abusive priest from parish to parish” dynamic*, the chances of more people working more of the time in respectful, appropriate and enjoyable environments would increase greatly. I really believe that.

(*Not Fun Fact: If I had a dollar for every time a Hollywood worker had used that analogy in a conversation with me, I could fund Callisto for a year all by myself.)

Callisto hands some autonomy back to survivors and sometimes connects them to each other. I've witnessed and facilitated those kinds of dynamics as a journalist, and being part of those moments – movements, really – can be awe-inspiring. But as I've noted many times, in the main, those stories are grindingly hard to do, and the answer to the massive problems surrounding grave misconduct, abuse and assault in our society can't be "some terrified sources and a dwindling number of reporters burn out their brains and souls in order to hold a small number of abusers and enablers to account, possibly temporarily, if at all." There have to be sturdy, reliable systems that truly help. The need for those kinds of systems and resources is as acute as ever.

Callisto could continue to help survivors in all kinds of places — but only if it continues to exist. So I’ll repeat the call: If you know of any person, organization or foundation that might be able to help Callisto, please send them what I’ve written here, or this post from the Callisto leadership team. If you can’t donate or you don’t know any deep-pocketed types, you could share this call or the Callisto post on your social media, if you care to. 

For free, Callisto has assisted and empowered survivors — and taken on the issue of serial perpetrators — for more than a decade. Heroes aren’t always where you expect them to be, and I didn’t even know this organization existed until I was doing research for my book. 

Having trawled the sewers of Gotham for a long time, I can absolutely say that what Callisto does is heroic. 

I hope that together, this time we can all save the day.

[copperbadge]

I don't know if you watch HBO, but have you heard of their new documentary about charity telemarketing scams?

NGL, Anon, my first instinct when I saw this was to put my head down on my desk and sigh :D (For those curious, there's an article about it here, it's called "Telemarketers").

Now, once I'd resisted that urge and given it a thought, I decided it might be a good thing. Part of the swirl of misinformation and pervasive mythology around nonprofits is that "bad nonprofits" that are only out to rip you off are super common and you have to be extremely careful in where you give. There are certainly bad nonprofits, but they're a vanishingly small percentage, and when you see those listicles like "30 nonprofits you shouldn't support" or whatnot, almost all of the ones listed are engaged with this kind of telemarketing company, which is scamming them as much as it is the donor.

I haven't seen the show so this could be tangential to what they talk about, but there are nonprofits, generally smaller ones, who get targeted by predatory telemarketing companies promising them a huge rise in donations if they contract for their solicitation services. Of course, the cost of the telemarketing service turns out to be much, much higher than advertised, and the nonprofit sees very little in the way of increased revenue because all the money's going to the telemarketers (which also skews their books and makes it look like all their money is going to fundraising -- which it is, but not in the way we imagine). Often the contracts are impossible to get out of so even if the nonprofit realizes what's going on, the company still has the right to solicit on their behalf.

What I worry about with documentaries like this is that people will watch it and conflate predators who target nonprofits with the nonprofits themselves, something the listicles do a lot of.

I struggle sometimes to watch documentaries about things I know a lot about, so the odds I'll watch this are slim, but I appreciate knowing about it -- if it gets a lot of attention we're bound to get questions about it from donors eventually.

[galax-dragon]

hey guys just a friendly reminder to not donate to ao3! it recently had a donation drive and reached its goal in like a day so they do not need any more money + the people running the site are zionists that you shouldn't be giving money to. I don't have any evidence on me at the moment, please reblog with some if you do.

if you have donated to ao3 in the past and weren't aware that otw were zionists, that is okay. of course you shouldn't be giving money to zionists but if you were genuinely unaware, please don't beat yourself up now. also ao3 is a nonprofit organization so reading/writing on it does not give them money and is okay!! i myself am an avid ao3 reader/writer so yeah!

instead of donating to ao3, here is a fundraiser that needs help!! there are a lot of vetted fundraisers on tumblr so you can donate to any one of them!!

[jazzhandsmcleg]

how to deal with door-to-door canvassers during political campaign season (and any other time of year)

hello, fellow USAmericans. as you may know (mild sarcasm), the presidential election is now slightly over one month away. political canvassers of all stripes began ramping up their campaigns last month, and this month things will get even more hectic.

I worked as a door-to-door canvasser for a political nonprofit for a few weeks last month! while that certainly doesn't make me an expert, I haven't seen anyone more knowledgeable about how canvassing works make a post like this, so...I'm here to do what I can.

bear in mind that this is mostly geared toward nonprofit and political door-to-door canvassing in the USA, but some of it applies to general canvassers and probably to some other countries too.

before we get into it: for those who just want to know the fastest way to get rid of a canvasser at your door without going into a readmore: it's either a) don't answer your door (even if we can see you through your window! you are under no obligation) or b) say "no thank you" and then close your door. we don't consider it rude and will in fact thank you for saving us both time and energy. that being said, please be polite!

and now, the full guide, beginning with:

the walkup.

first of all, be aware that canvassing can happen across a wide range of days and times. where I live, canvassing is allowed until 9pm if you can believe that. we only went til 8pm, but that's still very late in this part of the country. usually we were a M-F enterprise, but weekends are now on the table as the election nears, and of course religious canvassers and business canvassers will have their own models for when they come to your place.

canvassers will assess your house for loose dogs in the yard, "no trespassing" signs, "no soliciting" signs, locked gates, and the like.

generally canvassers will open simple latches. canvassers generally-to-always will NOT remove locks even if they are not fastened.

non-profit, political, and religious canvassers are allowed to ignore "no soliciting" signs because they are not asking for your money (assuming the political canvassers aren't fundraising, anyhow); people who want you to pay them to trim your trees or mow your lawn or whatever are not allowed to ignore these.

"no trespassing" signs are a little tougher. I made another post about it here.

that post also covers more ornate signs that say things like "no charities, no religion, no sales, no nothing. go away, my dog hates you and so do I", though those are a bit more of a grey area. suffice to say the more of them there are, the less likely we are to knock on your door.

however, the bottom line is that all of this varies slightly by jurisdiction so be sure to check your local bylaws. canvassers must go by the letter of the law so make sure that what you're putting on your front door will get you the intended effect. yes, this sometimes means ignoring your two dozen "no soliciting" signs.

the knock/the ring.

most canvassers only try a door twice. that can be one doorbell ring and one knock, two knocks, whatever. some try it three times. no one I worked with wanted to waste their time any more than that. we have quotas to hit and if you're not answering, you're not answering.

that being said, sometimes the same canvasser or a different canvasser from the same organization will come back around a few hours or even days later. if we come back on the same day, it's probably because our numbers are low or we finished early and we want to keep trying. if we come back on a different day, it might be a follow-up to the original visit or it might be a completely new topic they want to talk to you about. we always appreciate it a lot when people are willing to entertain repeat visits.

remember that you are under no obligation to answer the door. in fact, if you're just going to be nasty to us because we ignored your "no soliciting" sign, we prefer that you don't open the door. it saves all of us time and energy.

this includes if we made eye contact through the window, if you were actually in your garage or yard or car and you saw us as we walked up, anything like that. some canvassers are going to be more proactive than others in trying to engage with you in these cases. walk deeper into the house; close the garage door; pretend you don't see or hear us; whatever. canvassers don't care and won't hold it against you even if they are one of the more proactive types!

the contact: part 1 (intro).

often canvassers have a little mini speech they have to get through to introduce themselves and what they're doing on your doorstep before they'll actually get around to asking you their questions/offering to sell you whatever/handing you a pamphlet.

we try to keep this as short as possible because we know no one wants to be stuck on a doorstep forever, feel free to ask us to get to the chase if you're busy or what have you. we will usually oblige.

similarly, we try to keep it short because we know that other people from other organizations might have been here recently to ask you the exact same things and you're tired of it. if this is the case, we appreciate your patience and willingness to engage with us even if you've already done this rigmarole three times this week.

don't be surprised if people know your name and some of your information. for example, because they were a nonprofit, the canvassing company I worked for had access to the voter rolls. also don't be surprised if they have the information for the previous resident, especially if you live in an apartment. our information was often out of date by a couple of years.

the contact: part 2 (the sell).

if you don't want to answer the questionnaire, talk religion, or have your gutters cleaned, a polite "no thank you" and the immediate closing of your door will get rid of all but the sleaziest of canvassers.

you don't owe us anything more than that, and we will thank you for not wasting our time!

when I was canvassing, I was instructed to keep talking until I hear three hard "no"s or until I hear the click of a latch, so closing the door on us really is the fastest and easiest way to get rid of us. otherwise we will take your objections seriously (i.e. we will assume you are not lying to us to try and get away) and do our best to overcome them, thus wasting your time and ours.

whether or not you want to engage with the canvasser and whatever they're talking about, please bear in mind that a lot of us have quotas to hit if we want to keep our jobs. your taking two minutes out of your day to answer three questions or hear our our sales pitch or whatever will help us with that, and we appreciate it even if you're brusque or in a hurry or we don't personally agree with your opinions. we're really not there to judge you or throw your day out of whack. we're just there to do our jobs and get paid.

if you really want to go above and beyond for the canvasser and their job, we may have bonuses attached to optional-but-preferred things like signing up a newsletter or what have you. giving out your email address, even if it's a fake one or you unsubscribe immediately upon receiving your first letter, can be very helpful.

granted, there's less at stake for volunteer (some political and most religious) canvassers, but there's not always an easy way to tell those apart. do what you gotta do, really, but be aware that it may matter quite a bit to us.

and that's it! I understand that there can be a lot of distrust for door-to-door salespeople and canvassers, and I also definitely understand why, but it really doesn't have to be painful. again, even if you absolutely hate whatever it is they're trying to get you to do, a simple "no thank you" and closing your door will solve the problem 95% of the time. (2.5% of the rest of the time it may be a predatory canvasser who will continue to bother you, and 2.5% of the time it's a targeted campaign and the canvasser has to confirm your identity before they'll take no as an answer, so they'll be back to try again later.)

other do's and don't's:

do consider offering canvassers something to drink or a snack if you have any to spare, or the use of your bathroom if you really hit it off with someone. canvassing is often hot and sweaty/cold and damp work with unpleasant hours, and individual canvassers aren't always well looked-after (especially if they're volunteers)!

similarly, do consider offering to let a canvasser wait out a storm on your porch.

do remember that canvassers are people just like you, and that you live in a society that requires you to put up with behavior from other people that you don't like from time to time.

if you have a barking dog, do consider stepping outside of your house to speak with us. it'll be faster and easier.

don't ask us to touch or interact with your mailbox for any reason. it's a federal offense.

don't be an ass!

Thanks for reading. :)