Month: January 2012

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Recording Year-End Checks/Gifts to Nonprofits

A non-profit with his year-end gift box

A reader asked:
If my 501 (c) 3 organization receives a check/donation in January 2012 (postmark is also for January 2012), but the check has a December 2011 date, is it correct that we are to record that donation as 2012 income … even though the intent of the donor may be for the gift to be considered a 2011 donation?

Christine responds:
Here is what the IRS has to say about the timing of contributions, in Publication 526 Charitable Contributions (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf):

If the envelope is postmarked 2012, the contribution is for 2012. If the envelope is postmarked 2011, the contribution is for 2011. This is called “constructive receipt.”

The organization is deemed to have constructively received a gift the moment the promise is made or when the money leaves the control of the donor, i.e. placed in the mail. Back-dating a check does not prove that the gift was made in the prior year.

It is possible, however, that an envelope placed in a post office box may not be picked up for a day or two during the holidays!!

Even if you do not normally make copies of donation checks during the year, be sure to do so when you are depositing December donation checks in January.

Many organizations try to stretch the year when individual donors fail to mail their gifts before the actual end of the year. Many others play it safe by adhering to a strict policy of dating a gift by the date of receipt. Some judgment on the part of the organization may well be needed in a few cases. The safe and conservative approach is to attribute the gift to the later date when there is confusion.

The reader also asked:
If a check used to make a donation has two names on it, do we write the tax receipt only to the person who signed the check or to both people whose names are on the check?

Hank responded:
Assuming you didn’t get a note with the check indicating that it came from one (not both) of the people named on the check, and assuming that you have no record of prior giving from one-or-both of those named, the acknowledgment/receipt/thank you should be addressed to both.

How they use that receipt is up to them. If you’ve gotten prior gifts from one of the people named on the check, but not the other, then you can use your judgment as to whether to thank just the prior donor. It never hurts to thank someone !!

BTW, you are not sending them a “tax receipt,” you are sending them a receipt they can use for tax purposes … an important distinction !! For the purposes of donor relations, it would also be best for the receipt to be in letter format, with some warm words of thanks.

See IRS Publication 1771 (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1771.pdf) for guidance on providing acknowledgement of a donation.

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Christine L. Manor, CPA, wrote QuickBooks for Not-for-Profit Organizations, available from The Sleeter Group … at www.sleeterstore.com. Christine can be reached at clm@clmanor.com

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? Contact Hank at Hank@Major-Capital-Giving.com With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, he’ll be pleased to answer your questions.

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B is for Brilliant

Man shows his thumbs up while smiling

We have begun to explore the qualities of great presenters, starting with A and going all the way to Z. In each post I will list one or several attributes of great presenters and communicators, and suggest some ways you can build that characteristic in your own speaking.

If you want to play along, suggest your own great words starting with the letter for that week. Better yet, help me out by suggesting a word for the next letter of the alphabet! And let me know how you are using these ideas to build your own habits and characteristics for great speaking.

B is for

Brilliant. Brilliance is original thought, fresh ideas, spoken clearly and uniquely. It is not canned, not wooden, not predictable. It does not rely on canned phrases or routines. Maybe you start with a compelling question, instead of starting with “I am happy to be here.” Maybe you draw on a flip chart instead of showing a slide. Maybe you get the whole room laughing instead of being bored to tears. That’s brilliant!

Beautiful. Beautiful slides and graphics, that is. We all know the dreaded bullet-pointed, over stuffed, predictable slides are just plain ugly. Clean them up. Simplify them. Add a few beautiful photos. If you don’t know how to do this, read Garr Reynold’s terrific book Presentation Zen. Or ask someone with a good eye to help you reinvent yours. There is just no excuse for ugly, boring slides and this is one area where you can succeed where so many speakers fail.

Be there now. This is a key concept often spoken by one of my favorite clients. To them it means to pay attention to customers, and in interactions with colleagues. It also has meaning for us as communicators. It means eliminating the little voice in your head that distracts you. Refusing to think about whether you will make a mistake or not. Not worrying about the outcome. Just being in the presentation, at the present moment.

Brief. At a recent conference, nearly every speaker said they wanted to have an interactive discussion with the audience. But they lectured nearly to the end of their presentation, then lamented not having enough time for questions or discussion. Today, presentations are shorter than ever. I recently heard of a company where most presentations are five minutes long! How brief can you be? Tighten it up, then tighten it up some more. Especially if you tend to “run on.”

What other “B” words come to mind when you think about great presenting? What other words would you like to hear more about starting with any letter?

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The Beloved Community: The Vision of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin-Luther-king-speech-to-his-community

Martin Luther King, Jr. has been a hero of mine since I was a little girl. His commitment to social equality, his passion for improving the lives of those disenfranchised, his deep faith in non-violence as a spiritual force to shift power from oppression to reconciliation, inspired me as a child to find ways to move our country towards a more loving, peaceful place.

King’s Words for Inspiration

When I first visited the King Memorial in Atlanta , GA I was so excited and in awe that I literally trembled. To hear tapes and see videos clips of his talks and work left me breathless. When I later moved to Atlanta, I visited the memorial frequently. It was my pilgrimage for inspiration in my work.

I attended periodic services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, just a block away from the memorial, and soaked up the energy, the spirit. I sat in the pews imagining what it was like to hear King preach from the pulpit with the trumpet Amen choir behind him. This was exciting stuff for a white woman from the Midwest! Let the words of Martin Luther King Jr. inspire and fill your heart.

Through some of those forays to the King Memorial and Ebenezer Church I met an elderly woman who attended the church as a little girl in the 1930’s and 40’s when King’s father was preacher there. She continued to attend in the 50’s and 60’s and heard MLK Jr. as well. I asked her what it was like to hear Dr. King on Sunday mornings. She said, “Marty was good, but oh girl, you should have heard Daddy King.” Wow, that blew my mind! I couldn’t believe that my idol, who’s words seemed to move mountains, paled compared to his father as a preacher.

The Beloved Community

Dr. King’s legacy of social justice can be summed up in his vision of the Beloved Community– a place where no matter their skin color all people would be treated with dignity and respect, would be cherished as God’s children, would have equal opportunity to achieve their own greatness. King believed the Beloved Community was achieved through the alleviation of economic inequity and the achievement of economic justice. I invite you to take some time this week to read some of his speeches and lectures to get a feel for his vision of the Beloved Community.

Many of you have heard that the year 2012 is a year where the world will be made anew, that radical transformation is upon us. I’d like to think that this year the Beloved Community will take hold across the globe. We’ve seen the global rumblings for such a world already in 2011.

To support the global transformation this year, in tribute to King and to keep the vision of a world living in peace and social equality, I am going to write periodic blogs on how we create that Beloved Community in our own lives and in our workplace. Though King addressed social change on a state and national level, his ideas and his writing can be applied to our everyday lives. Indeed if we don’t apply the ideas in our own lives, the Beloved Community cannot be created.

Love, Peace, Compassion, Justice begins with us.

Martin Luther King, Jr. truly was a vessel of Divine Grace. And so are you- in your own unique glorious way, in your own life, in your own work.

Will you help create the Beloved Community this year, today, this week- in your family, at your work, in your world?

Leave a comment below to share how you are working to support the Beloved Community.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Visit Linda’s website www.lindajferguson.com to read more about her spiritual life coaching work, view video clips of her talks, and more blog posts.

“Like” Linda’s FaceBook Fan page– https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson if you want to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.

Also now available- 10th Anniversary edition of “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”.

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Employee Coaching: Get the Results You Want

Two-employees-using-their-laptop-to-search-for-work-tasks

“Managers who coach their people become known as good managers to work for, developers of talent, and achievers of business results. They also become better leaders in the process.” Jack Welch, Former CEO General Electric

Why Is Coaching Important?
Good managers regularly keep their people and team informed about work performance so that they can nip problems in the bud. if you think it’ll get better or you don’t have the time now, then I can assure you down the road you’ll be spending more of your time fixing even big problems.

Here are three strategies and 25 tips on how to give corrective feedback that will be heard and most important acted on.

1. Prepare – Don’t “Wing It”

  • View coaching as tool for improvement not criticism
  • Don’t garbage dump. Decide on the key areas to cover.
  • Be sure you have documented facts not just impressions.
  • Assume positive intentions that your employees want to improve.
  • Know the target and how that person would best receive your feedback.
  • Avoid the let alone, then zap. Don’t let marginal performance build into a crisis.

2. See Coaching As a Discussion Not a Lecture

  • Coaching needs to be regular, useful, timely and two way.
  • Always look at the problems from the employee’s perspective.
  • Start with the specific situation: timeliness, error rate, lateness.
  • Explain why this situation concerns you or its impact on the team.
  • Invite the person’s response, listen attentively, and be supportive.
  • Discuss the possible reasons for the poor or marginal performance.
  • Move into problem solving emphasizing the person’s responsibility
  • Decide on specific actions and get commitment to the new actions.
  • Focus on performance, avoid getting tangled up in personality issues.
  • Summarize what was agreed upon and set-up specific follow-up date.
  • Keep it private. Public criticism will generally demotivate rather than motivate the person.
  • Go for “quick wins”. Don’t try to solve all the problems at once but ones that can be solved quickly.

3. Don’t Stop Now, Follow Up

  • Don’t let out of sight out of mind happen.
  • Praise the employee when performance improves.
  • Be specific. Tell exactly what was done right so he can do more of it.
  • Keep the message ‘clean’. Don’t mix negatives feedbakcwith positives.
  • Express your personal appreciation. Encourage them to keep up good work
  • Resume corrective coaching, or possible discipline, if improvement begins to slip.
  • Remember, feedback needs to be regular, useful, timely, two-way, focused on behavior.

Management Success Tip:

Regular employee feedback is a communication tool that keeps employees informed about their performance and their progress. Feedback should compare a person’s actual performance with an objective standard so the worker will know whether he or she is below, at or above standard. Also see Employee Coaching: Guidelines to Make it Work.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

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Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You

Meeting-between-a-board-member-and-a-trustee

When Does A Foundation Really Mean “No”?

Unfortunately, the answer is most of the time. Let’s go through a couple of scenarios from my recent real-world encounters to see how this can play out.

Scenario A: You’ve done your prospecting homework and have identified a foundation that’s a good fit with your organization. Unfortunately, you don’t have a connection between one of your board members and one of their trustees, but the foundation does accept unsolicited proposals.

So you go ahead and submit a well-written proposal, following all of their guidelines. Several months go by and you’re wondering when you will receive notification. Probably still too soon. So you wait until six months go by and still nothing. You call the contact number listed in the foundation’s 990 (or in the Foundation Directory) and leave a message, asking about the proposal that you submitted six months ago. They don’t call back. This is a, “No.”

If you’re absolutely, 100% sure that this foundation is a perfect fit for your organization, then go ahead and submit another proposal. If you get the same result this time, then cross them off your list!

Variation on Scenario A: You do get in touch with the foundation manager after submittal and they indicate that your proposal was not accepted. Although this news is disappointing, feedback from the foundation manager is valuable for your grant program.

Ask them if they can share any reasons why your proposal was denied: were there too many other submission this grant cycle and you just didn’t make the cut; did you leave something critical out of your submission; or, is your organization just not a good fit with their foundation? And, thank them for taking the time to discuss your proposal!

Scenario B: Again, you’ve done your homework. This time you’ve identified a foundation that doesn’t accept unsolicited proposals. So you submit a letter describing a little about your organization and asking about the possibility of applying for grant funding. You indicate that you will follow up by phone. You do, and you leave a message. They don’t call back.

A couple of weeks go by and you leave another message. They still don’t call back.

This is a, “No,” and until you can make a connection through a board member, staff member, involved donor or volunteer, then better to delete this foundation from your list.

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Lynn deLearie, owner of Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grant programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. She can be contacted at lynn.delearie@gmail.com..

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Career Change Without Leaving Your Organization

A-businesswoman-unpacking-her-belongings-after-being-called-back-to-work

You love the company, the culture and the people. The problem is that you’re bored in your current job. Things are too predictable and you’re no longer challenged. But you’re not ready to chuck it all. You have too much invested.

Many of us will change our career a number of times in our working lives. But that doesn’t mean we have to move to a different company. Rather, we first should look to change careers within our current organization. For example, an IT manager, with great people skills, might decide that her future lies in business development; or a health care professional with her new MBA might want to make a move into the finance department.

Here are seven guidelines to help you get ready for a career change to get greater career satisfaction:

1. Assess your career goals.
Before you rush into any decision, spend time thinking about your personal interests, values and skills. This helps ensure that you’ll make a move that’s aligned with those goals. See Career Anchors and Career Personalities.
2. Carefully consider the risks of this decision.
You might think that the new career will be a perfect fit for you, but what if it’s not? Do information interviewing, do a cost-benefit analysis, investigate alternatives. It’s better to know now the risks than later.
3. Create a transition plan.
Write down the new responsibilities you’ll have in your new career. Identify the qualifications or skills that you’ll need, and create a plan to start acquiring them, Look for assignments or projects that will expand your skills and help you make the move.
4. Talk to human resources.
It’s a good idea to sit down with someone in HR to find out what opportunities are available. They can also advise on training and other development opportunities as well as possible openings.
5. Keep your boss in the loop.
Explain to him diplomatically and honestly, why you want to change careers or move to another department. Offer to be a mentor for your replacement. If you can get your manager’s support, your transition will be easier.
6. Expand your network company wide.
You never know what opportunities will open up in the future. The larger your network, the more chances you’ll have to hear about interesting opportunities.
7. Rewrite your resume that markets you for the new career.
Include past successes that relate to the new career you want. For instance, if you currently work in human resources and want to move to marketing, then talk about your successful pitch to the executive team to change the hiring process to get more qualified staff.

Career Success Tip:

There are many benefits to changing career within your organization, rather than looking for opportunities elsewhere. You already know the company and you don’t have to leave a workplace that you already like. The company benefits as well. You have a proven track record and you know the people to hit the ground running. But realize, changing careers may take time and it helps to prepare beforehand. Also see Make Career Change Work for You and Changing Jobs: Don’t Have Buyer’s Remorse.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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What Will Training Look Like in 2050?

Person reaching out to robot

Here’s your question–just for the fun of it. What will training be like in the future? Have you thought that far out? What will companies look like that far in the future? We know what they were like in the past. We know who they bankrupt and “ages of misery” they spawned. We know how they affected laws, immigration and the world’s economy. How they left us scratching our heads, desperately seeking solutions. We’ve seen corporations and faceless conglomerates turn Third-World countries into booming economies we fear will rival ours–all for the sake of greed–ours.

Since training isn’t perceived to be very important in big business, let’s think small. Training doesn’t need to be a big cog in wheel of business, economy and society…or does it? What do you think.

We’ve seen what small and big thinkers can think. Stick to the topic. Are any of us thinking that far ahead? What if we don’t? Could what’s wrong with our economy today have anything to do with our lack of foresight or just plain greed? You tell me. Does a company or corporation, or especially the non-profit corporation, or any other organization have a responsibility to society besides making money? I’m sure courses are taught on it every day.

And, don’t get me started on ethical business practices…

Now, I leave it in your hands to think about, comment on, and ask other questions. A good place to start the week, wouldn’t you say?

I look forward to your comments and playing along with you. Who knows? We may just save the world.

This post is different, I admit, but what do you expect from the “Cave Man of Training”–a man who looks to the beginning and the future at the same time. I’m not a mentalist, a futurist, prophet–just a person who cares. I hope my ideas prompt other ideas. I wrote a book about the Cave Man. I wrote it deliberately that way “Cave Man” instead of “caveman” because I’m not just talking about the prehistoric man, but a primitive man, a basic man. A man who thinks about his needs with his brains and his heart. He builds his society based on those needs. Shouldn’t we? Maybe corporations and business shouldn’t be about profit (different prophet) but about the “growth of a nation.” I’ve heard that said once or twice. Have you?

I challenge you to give us your best ideas. I’m no genius. Maybe I’m just an idea man–a creative man. Still, I expect to lose if this were a competition (It’s not), but let’s hear from you and the others who know what it takes to run a company, build a vision, build a workforce capable of building a nation. Let’s not spend our time looking for the easy way. Let’s banter some ideas. Let’s argue and stir some visceral responses, and with that some ideas that have merit for a possibly uncertain future. Let’s change some rules and see if they do it for us.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

My book, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, has some interesting ideas you may totally disagree with today but not tomorrow. I’m told it is a different take on the world of training and development. For a piddling investment, you could have a few extra ideas.

My novel, Harry’s Reality–another creative side of me speaks–is available now though Amazon books. You’ve heard of Steve Martin’s film, “The Man with Two Brains?” I may be the man with two right brains…if you agree with that theory. Harry’s Reality is all about what happens when people stop talking to each other and let their devices control what the world becomes based on facts, proven and tested. By the way, the world is doomed. At first a fantasy, then doomed? That’s a “visceral” question if I ever heard one. Better check it out, too, before it is too late.

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What are the Responsibilities of a Facilitator?

A-group-of-people-having-a-meeting-in-an-office

In the case study that started this chapter, we indicated that there are a number of different roles for a facilitator:

Meeting Adviser – The facilitator helps the leader plan the meeting, but during the session, he primarily sits on the sidelines, stepping in only when asked or if a situation occurs which the participants cannot handle themselves.

Meeting Manager – The facilitator sets the agenda, establishes ground rules, initiates the discussion, and allows the session to flow, stepping in only when needed.

Meeting Leader – The facilitator sets the agenda, establishes ground rules and initiates the discussion just as the meeting manager does. In addition, however, he is active in getting participants excited about participating. The facilitator describes the purpose of the session in terms that gives the participants a much bigger picture of the importance of the session. In addition, he is active in ensuring that all participants engage in the discussion. The facilitator challenges the participants when the discussion appears to remain at a high level. And, from time to time, the facilitator offers insights that may be otherwise overlooked.

Participating Facilitator – The facilitator starts out much like a meeting manager, setting the agenda, establishing ground rules, and initiating the discussion. But the facilitator also actively engages as a participant in the discussion, frequently offering his own views, giving opinions on topics, and expressing disagreement with various comments.

Each of these roles is valid for support of a meeting. However, in our organization we focus on the facilitator as Meeting Leader. When you serve as the facilitator in this role, we believe you have seven specific responsibilities:

Guide You must know the steps of the process the group will execute from beginning to end. You must carefully guide the participants through each of the step.

Motivator From the rousing opening statement to the closing words of cheer, you must ignite a fire within the group and keep it well lit. You must establish momentum and keep the pace.

Visionary You must create a vision for the group of why the meeting is important.

Bridge Builder You must create and maintain a safe and open environment for sharing ideas. Where other people see differences, you must find and use similarities to establish a foundation for building bridges to consensus.

Clairvoyant Throughout the session, you must watch carefully for signs of potential strain, weariness, aggravation and dis-empowerment — and respond in advance to avoid dysfunctional behavior.

Peacemaker While it is almost always better to avoid a direct confrontation between participants, should such an event occur, you must quickly step in, re-establish order and direct the group toward a constructive resolution.

Taskmaster You are ultimately responsible for keeping the session on track; this means tactfully cutting short irrelevant discussions, preventing detours and maintaining a consistent level of detail throughout the session.

Praiser At every opportunity, you should praise the effort put forth, the progress made, and the results achieved. Praise well, praise often, praise specifically.

After playing so many roles, is there any wonder why a facilitator is typically exhausted after even a relatively short facilitated session?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Facilitation.

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Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., “The Facilitation Company” and author of Amazon best-seller “The Secrets of Facilitation”, “The Secrets to Masterful Meetings”, and the brand new “The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy.” Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. They are also a leading provider of facilitation trainingin the United States.

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NY Times Pays for Errant Email

A-person-reading-an-email-on-his-phone

Oops!

The New York Times thought it was sending an email to a few hundred people who had recently canceled subscriptions, offering them a 50 percent discount for 16 weeks to lure them back.

Instead, Wednesday’s offer went to 8.6 million email addresses of people who had given them to the Times.

That was the first mistake. The second came when the Times tweeted this: “If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It’s not from us.”

But the Times did send the original email, Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said.

This quote, from an AP article, published by MSN Money, describes the trouble The New York Times found itself in at the tail end of December.

What was probably a simple mechanical mistake, one person selecting the wrong list when preparing the email campaign, led to an undisclosed loss for The New York Times, not to mention some reputation damage.

As far as the initial email goes, it was an honest mistake, and choosing to honor the offer for the better part of the day was a smart PR move. The Tweet though, is inexcusable. There is little doubt that whoever authors the NY Times Twitter account was well aware of the situation when they made that post, and whether it was a genuine attempt at deflection or humor gone terribly flat, it looked like a lie. People don’t want to get their news from an organization that lies, and that’s where the Times took an unhealthy amount of reputation damage.

Will this break the Times? Obviously not. Was it damage that could easily have been avoided? Absolutely. Especially in markets as competitive as that of bringing news to the public has become, opponents will take advantage of every slip you make. Stay honest, double (triple, quadruple, whatever it takes!) check before sending important messages, and hold on to every advantage you’ve got.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

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How to handle the do-it-all founder?

Help written on a grey surface

Herman has been invited to join the board of a not-for-profit organisation that provides specialist education and training for the non-profit sector. The invitation was extended to him by the CEO who is also the founder and the principal deliverer of services.

Due diligence shows that the company is profitable (making a small but comfortable surplus every year) and has some funds banked to tide it through any tough times that may arise. The staff are paid reasonable salaries and the CEO earns well but is not over-rewarded. Clients appreciate the CEO’s expertise and the forward bookings are healthy.

On the down side – there is nobody apart from the CEO with any real profile or expertise and most clients specifically request the CEO deliver their programs. Staff seem to join for the experience of working with the CEO and leave after a few years. Board members also seem to churn rather more than normal for a healthy company. A former board member told Herman that she felt her time on the board was un productive as there was nothing to do since the CEO had it all under control.

The CEO is 67 and Herman is concerned that there is no succession plan or viable business without her.

What should Herman do?

If you would like to publish your advice on this topic in a global company directors’ newsletter please respond to the dilemma above with approximately 250 words of advice for Herman. Back issues of the newsletter are available at http://www.mclellan.com.au/newsletter.html (see link below) where you can check out the format and quality.
The newsletters will be compiled into a book. If your advice relates to a legal jurisdiction, the readers will be sophisticated enough to extract the underlying principles and seek detailed legal advice in their own jurisdiction.

The first volume of newsletters is published and available athttp://www.amazon.com/Dilemmas-Practical-Studies-Company-Directors/dp/1449921965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321912637&sr=8-1

What would you advise?

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Julie Garland-McLellan has been internationally acclaimed as a leading expert on board governance. See her website atwww.mclellan.com.au or visit her author page athttp://www.amazon.com/Julie-Garland-McLellan/e/B003A3KPUO