Smaller Charities Need Creativity and Care When Recognizing Donors
Phil Schumacher still recalls his first day on the job at the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, in La Crosse, Wis. During a meeting with his board’s chairman that day in 1987, an elderly woman came into the group’s lobby and handed the receptionist a $2 donation. When the chairman -- a…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor
Small Charities Find Online Giving Full of Rewards and Challenges
IN THE TRENCHES By Kimberlee Roth Street-Level Youth Media, a Chicago charity that provides free computer and ALSO SEE:Tips for Creating an Online Fund-Raising System video technology to local inner-city young people, has maintained a Web site for its entire seven-year history. But two years ago,…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor
Two Theaters Find That Innovative Child-Care Programs Help Attract Busy Patrons
BRAINSTORMS By Kimberlee Roth Ten years ago, administrators at Center Stage in Baltimore were considering ways to increase season subscriptions. “We had been hearing for quite a while that our subscribers were struggling to manage a full season of theater around their busy lives, especially when…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor
How a Careful Orientation Can Help New Trustees Get On Board
VOLUNTEERISM By Kimberlee Roth By the end of next year, all the founding board members of Covenant House Washington, a shelter for homeless and runaway youths, will leave their posts due to term limits. But when the new trustees start their tours of duty, the executive director, Vincent Gray, will…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor
How Boards Meet the Challenge of Growing Beyond Start-Up Organizations
IN THE TRENCHES By Kimberlee Roth Nobody at the Bensalem Rescue Squad will ever forget the time when the organization had to be resuscitated by the township it serves. Founded in Bensalem, Pa., in 1980 by five volunteers, the nonprofit ambulance squad hired its first three employees three years…
By Kimberlee Roth
Contributor