Category: Finance

For over three-and-one-half years, we’ve been writing/posting about Fundraising/Development — The Basics and the more Advanced.

We’ve written on (in alphabetical order) Board & Staff Relations, Capital Campaigns, Certification, Corporate Fundraising, Development Staff, Donor Categories, Donor Recognition, Donor Relations, Effective Grantsmanship – Foundation and Government, Fundraising Accounting Practices, Fundraising Constituencies, Fundraising Consultants, Fundraising Ethics, Fundraising Leadership, Fundraising Planning, Hiring Consultants, Major Gifts, The Mature Non-Profit, The New Nonprofit, Nonprofit Leadership, Planned Giving (including Bequest Programs), Planning Studies, Special Events, Social Media, Workplace Fundraising and even a couple of book reviews.

We’ll keep ’em coming, but we’d like to write about what you’d like to read about.

What do you say ??

Let us know.

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Have a comment or a question about starting,
evaluating or expanding your fundraising program?
AskHank
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Have you heard about
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99-$3.99) 🙂

When hikers get together, many of them talk about their boots. When chefs gather, they swap recipes.

What do grant proposal professionals do? Many of us talk about the proposal-generating work environments at our nonprofits.

What Good Companies Have in Common:
Grant proposal professionals can learn how to create good work environments by looking at Fortune magazine’s the “2013 Best Companies to Work For.” These companies vary in their size, products, and services, but they have three things in common:
• Employees trust each other in the workplace.
• Employees have pride in their work.
• Employees enjoy their colleagues.

Salaries, benefits, and perks are important, but nonprofit employees also need to feel that they are appreciated. No holiday bonus or annual picnic can replace the feeling that their day-to-day work is valued and that they like working with their colleagues, whom they trust. It is difficult to develop good grant proposals when there is a deficit in trust, pride or conviviality among the members of the grant team.

Improve your Grant Proposal Environment
If your nonprofit has a good work environment for proposal preparation, you are very fortunate indeed. But if you believe that your work environment leaves much to be desired, short of moving on there are steps you can take to make positive changes:
• Don’t work in a “war room.” These places are awful. They have
no privacy, no opportunities for thinking and solitude, and no
opportunities to build social capital with your colleagues. By
definition, a “war room” is a demeaning and unprofessional
environment.
• Find out what the best companies do to foster/create great work
environments and copy them.
• Start small. Make small changes at first because they are easier
to implement and may have big consequences.
• Suggest policies to senior management that make for happier, more
productive work teams. Provide evidence to support your argument.
Expect skepticism and resistance, but be quietly persistent.
• Become the change you advocate. This worked for Gandhi, and it’s
still good advice. You will have no credibility if you do not model
the changes you want to see in your proposal environment.
• Lead the charge – offer to help make the changes by taking a
leadership role.
• Get social. A bowling night or a pot-luck lunch with a prize for
the best dish will help employees build trust and friendships … as
long as this carries over into the workplace. This is foundation for
making changes, not a substitute for them.

Your goal should be to create a proposal preparation work environment where people feel appreciated, trust each other, like each other, and take pride in their work. If you can improve the quality of your work environment, you are likely to improve the quality of your grant proposals.

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We’re taking a short break for the long Columbus Day weekend.
See you next Thursday.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop
successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $3.99) ☺
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

A participant on a listserve raised the question: “What skills or personal qualities make one competent to ‘make the ask’ when meeting with a) an individual and b) a corporate representative?”

Because I have some very strong feelings/opinions about the issue, and didn’t want to be angered/frustrated/annoyed by that discussion, I didn’t read the rest of the posting or any of the responses.

Not having read the referenced exchange, I can write what I will without concern that I might be stealing someone else’s thoughts/words.

So, to answer the question, I’ll start with a question.

Could a stranger walk into your home/business and ask you for a “significant” gift to a nonprofit organization … and get it ??

Chances are, if you admitted that stranger into your home/business, that all you’d give (if anything) would be “go-away” money – an amount you could spare, just to get that person to go away.

On the other hand, if that person was not a stranger, but someone with whom you had a relationship, chances are that the check you write would be bigger than the “go-away” amount.

But, if the gift that’s being sought is considered (by you, the solicitor and the NPO) to be significant/major, it’s not likely to be solicited by someone who has just “showed up” at your door.

Before you can ASK for the major gift, there would have had to be created in the mind of the potential donor a reason, a motivation, why s/he would want to make that gift.

The idea is ludicrous that someone could just read an article or a book and become an effective solicitor. Asking for a significant gift has little-or-nothing to do with scripts, formulas, handouts or training.

I always ask my classes who they think would be the best person to ask me for a major gift … to get me to want to make a major gift. Then, after getting knee jerk answers (like a board member or the executive director), I ask who would know me well enough to know my hot buttons, my interests, my commitments and my ability to give.

Eventually, someone suggests that it might be my wife. Of course!

Now, obviously, my wife is not associated with every nonprofit that wants me to make a gift, but there are many other people who know me well enough to participate in my evaluation, cultivation and Ask. Certainly the people who know me can have a lot greater impact on my giving than could a stranger.

I can’t understand how people could think that reading a book on How To Make The Ask will make them more effective than someone who knows and/or is close to the prospect.

In case you’ve forgotten, Development is about relationships. If the book on how to ask doesn’t emphasize that building a relationship comes first, then the rest of the book can’t be worth very much.

So, back to the original question: “What skills or personal qualities make one competent to ‘make the ask’ when meeting with a) an individual and b) a corporate representative?”

The necessary skills are: the ability to build and maintain substantial relationships; the ability to read/understand people so that you’ll know when it’s time to Ask; and, the understanding that Asking means asking for a specific dollar amount. The personal quality most needed is the willingness to Ask.

When and where to do the Ask, and deciding what the Ask amount will be, come directly from the depth of the relationship between the solicitor and the prospect.

Without the relationship, without the knowledge and understanding, all you’re going to get is go-away money. Is that what you want??

I refer you to this blog’s series of postings on Major Gifts ….

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Have you heard about
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap !! ($1.99-$3.99) 🙂
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program?
[email protected]
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

My two previous postings included the nuts and bolts of preparing financials for grant proposals to private and corporate foundations.

This post will focus solely on a significant issue facing NPO’s seeking grant funding: namely that many foundations don’t provide general operating support. Instead, they prefer to fund specific programs or projects, and often something new or innovative.

Some specific examples from Missouri based foundations:

• “Repetitive requests for operating support are discouraged,” Dana Brown Charitable Trust;
• Grants requesting, “Unspecified general funds will probably not be approved. Innovative developmental and educational programs for children are preferred,” Allen P. and Josephine B. Green Foundation; and,
• “Non-profit organizations with budgets of $1 million dollars or more may not apply for general operating support grants. Such organizations may only apply for project or capital grants.” William R. Orthwein, Jr. and Laura Rand Orthwein Foundation.

This issue has been discussed and debated in the nonprofit sector, and there are good arguments on both sides. Being on the grant-seeking side of the issue, I appreciate the perspective offered by Kevin Starr in the August 2011 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “unrestricted money makes an organization work smoothly, enables innovation, and provides fuel for growth.”

Nevertheless, most foundations don’t provide general operating support, so we grant seekers need strategies for how to procure funds to support our NPO’s general operations from these foundation grant makers.

A strategy that I have used successfully involves rethinking how to describe what your NPO does, and breaking down your services into individually fundable “programs.”

For example, if you are a school with a mission to provide a holistic education to underserved children, think about all that this entails. Do you serve breakfast and lunch to your students? Do you provide counseling services for your students? Do you provide after-school athletic or enrichment programs? If any answers are yes, then you can submit each of these programs as stand-alone proposals to foundation that only provide program support.

This strategy is not a quick fix. It entails all the work you will need to do, with the help of others at your NPO, in fleshing out these programs. You will need to develop all of the following for these individual programs (described in detail in my previous post on Proposal Development – Part 2): Needs Statement; Target Population; Program Goals & Objectives; Program Activities & Timeline; Program Evaluation (what are the specific metrics your NPO will use to determine the effectives of this specific program); Personnel; Collaboration; and Program Budget and Budget Narrative. Your NPO will also need to commit the program resources to collecting the evaluation data – if your grant proposal is funded, you will need to provide report(s) to the foundation, including data on program effectiveness.

This sounds like a lot of work, because it is, but I encourage you and your NPO to consider the statistics on fundraising that I quoted in my first post on this blog from a 2010 WealthEngine white paper, “Measuring Fundraising Return On Investment and the Impact of Prospect Research:” The average cost-per-dollar-raised for grants is 20 cents; this compares to over a dollar for direct mail donor acquisition, and fifty-cents-per-dollar-raised for special events.

So, a lot of work, yes, but still a good return on your investment!

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Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop,
enhance and expand grants programs, and helps them
secure funding from foundations and corporations.
Contact Lynn deLearie.
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Look for Lynn’s ebook on Grants & Grantsmanship.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap 🙂
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

I take the strong and unwavering position that members of the board of trustees and other volunteers are the people who must raise all or most of the money for a non-profit organization.

These days far too many boards and eager-to-please development professionals are starting down the slippery slope of relying on staff to be the gift solicitors of first resort.

Following is an overview of how I would see the effectiveness of staff solicitations vs. solicitations made by volunteers.

•  When a volunteer solicitor’s relationship to a prospect, relative to the solicitor’s level of giving, is the same or more than the prospect, the following qualities are shared:

1. Career Status

2. Economic Status

3. Social Position

4. Interest In The Organization

5. Mutual Respect

•  When a staff member-solicitor is compared to a prospective donor, only the following qualities are usually shared:

1. Interest In The Organization

2. Mutual Respect

What do you say? Wouldn’t you rather have five out of five of the best chances for major gifts working for your organization – or only the two a staff member brings to the asking table?

The best solicitor is a member of the prospect’s peer group or the peer group to which the prospect aspires. The CEO of a company is far more likely to share career status, economic status, and social position with another business leader than the development director or even the executive director of a non-profit organization.

Ideally, prospective donors should be asked to give by someone likely to have a high degree of influence with them. Qualities to look for in a solicitor for a specific prospect include:

1.  Past association with the prospect: The solicitor could be someone a prospect knows professionally, shares the same neighborhood with, or has in some other way had positive and meaningful contact.

2.  Charisma: People who have a compelling presence and an infectious personality can influence both the willingness to give and the size of the gift.

3  Stature: People are flattered when someone they consider important asks them for a contribution.

4.  Commitment: The higher the degree of devotion and dedication to an organization and its programs that a volunteer solicitor manifests, the more successful he or she will be in convincing others.

I have heard the argument made that a staff member’s commitment to an organization and the respect that he or she has earned in the community or in the eyes of the prospect is enough to overcome an absence of shared social, economic, and career points. Don’t you believe it!

Peer group influence and leverage are and always will be two of the best solicitation tools of fund-raising.

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Have a question or comment about the above posting?
You can Ask Tony.
There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website:
Raise-Funds.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $3.99) ☺
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

CFC Special Events & Resources
In my July 11th post I talked about what a “culture of philanthropy” is, and the value of establishing one in your non-profit. The point is that CFC workplace giving campaigns provide many opportunities that smart non-profits can use as a “practice field” for many aspects of professional development, including planning, organizing, public speaking, and listening.

Team Work
Team work is an essential aspect of all organizational work, and yet we really don’t spend a lot of time practicing the skills that lead to better teamwork. In terms of generating awareness about the fact that your non-profit participates in the Combined Federal Campaign there are multiple opportunities for staff to make contacts and work on relaying what the mission of your non-profit is, and to share your story on how you accomplish this mission.

There are two big categories of outreach techniques: those that you control; and those that you don’t. You must use both, but don’t be lulled into believing “If only there was a feature article about us in the home town paper, all would be golden.” It might very well help (if it’s a positive article) but it does not have a lasting effect.

Outreach Techniques That You Don’t Control
Media coverage – you, a staff person or volunteer who wants to work on press relations can write the media releases. And, if you submit them to some of the free Internet press release sites, you’ll be amazed at how widely the releases may be picked up. I worked with one local non-profit that, because of such a release, got a call, which no one could have predicted, from the Voice of America.

Outreach Techniques That You Control

Website – your website should have the CFC logo and your CFC ID number on the homepage. This will answer 90% of the questions that a potential CFC donor may have.
The entire staff and especially the front-desk person should know the answer to the question: “Are you in the CFC, and what is your code number?”
Email signatures – especially during the solicitation period, include in all staff e-mails the fact that you participate in workplace giving campaigns, and your CFC number, and thank them in advance for considering your non-profit.
Signage – Depending upon your physical location, you may be able to put up signs in a storefront type window, if you have land with a fence, hang a sign on the fence.
Sandwich boards – CFC charities that don’t have visible office space often use sandwich board signs that have their name, their CFC code and are put up in road medians (where legal) during the fall solicitation periods.
Outside banners – the American Red Cross hangs a 5 x 15 foot banner from the roof of its headquarters in Washington, D.C. during the CFC solicitation period.
Relationship building – talk to your neighbors, others that you come in contact with, and if someone mentions that they’re a Federal employee, ask them, by the way, did you know that we’re now in the Combined Federal Campaign?
Social Media – if your non-profit is on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. make appropriate remarks there and on blogs related to your mission about your non-profit, and include the fact that you’re now participating in the CFC.
Vehicles – If your non-profit has vehicles with your name on it, add magnetic signs with the CFC logo and your CFC ID during the campaign season and you get a rolling billboard that potentially thousands of potential CFC donors will see.

What’s next?
In my October post I will discuss how you might leverage Special Events to increase your visibility and “productivity” for the CFC.

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During his 25-year career in the Federal sector, Bill Huddleston, The CFC Coach,
served in many CFC roles. If you want to participate in the Combined Federal
Campaign, maximize your nonprofit’s CFC revenues, or just ask a few questions,
contact Bill Huddleston
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $3.99) ☺
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Unlike all of the other planned giving mechanisms, a bequest program doesn’t require major technical expertise and specific financial instruments. It’s easy, it’s fast, it can pay off substantially, and the dollars from bequests comprise close to 90% of all planned gifts.

Many non-profit organizations refuse to get into planned giving because of the perception that it’s all about technical wording and/or complicated financial instruments. That’s a misperception.

Most planned gifts mechanisms do require some degree of technical expertise, possible registration/approval by States, and a legal contract between the donor and the non-profit organization, BUT NOT BEQUESTS!!

Bequests are simple, and should be a standard item in every organization’s development tool box. Simply worded, a bequest is a gift left to you in someone’s will.

Your job is to get those who might namAnother Approach to Getting Bequestse you in their wills to want to do that.

What do you have to do?

1. Reach out to folks and get them involved with you and what you do.
2. Involvement means working on committees, being asked for advice, helping to provide service
3. Be creative, think of how to get people so excited about being part of who you are and what you do that they’d want to help continue that work, even after they’re gone.
4. Let them know how easy it is to leave you a bequest.
5. Let them know of the recognition they’ll get — the appreciation they’ll be shown — while they’re still here.
6. Create a named “society” just to honor those who name you in their wills.

Recent figures show over $16 billion in bequests given to non-profit organizations in just one year. Do you want some of that !?

The most effective way of launching/expanding a bequest program is to have a number of trained volunteers cultivating and educating your potential legators. And, the most effective program for involving volunteers with those potential donors doesn’t even involve an Ask. That’s right, no one will have to ask the prospect to make a bequest.

I’d be happy to send to you a description of a program to involve volunteers in the bequest generation process – just write to me at [email protected].

Consider, those who (first) name you in their wills are more likely to make major and planned gifts to you while they’re still with us. And, many Board Members find it easier to ask someone to name an organization in their will than they do to ask someone to write a check.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program?
AskHank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you heard about
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99-$3.99) 🙂
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

There comes a time when some non-profit development professionals begin thinking about saying goodbye to their organizations and hello to the world of fundraising consulting. They want to know what it takes to be a consultant, and how to find clients.

Although the consulting profession may seem attractive, the leap into this hazardous arena requires serious thought and honest assessment of your knowledge, temperament and motivation.

Consultants must respond to a wide range of challenges, so they need to have a wide range of experience.

I know from hard-earned experience what it takes to provide sound, reliable counsel to non-profits facing the challenges of recruiting volunteers, identifying prospects, managing campaigns, and asking for money. No one should expect to be hired as a fundraising consultant without having behind them a broad base of experience in meeting and overcoming these challenges. Reading books and attending seminars are valuable learning experiences, but nothing trumps real-life experience.

Large or small, young or seasoned, experienced or novice, clients expect consultants to deliver the detailed plans and proven tools the organization needs to attract the funds it seeks. This is a demanding profession where the consultant cannot say to a client, “I don’t know,” or “I’m not sure,” or “What do you want to do next?”

It can be intimidating when all heads turn and all eyes focus on the professional consultant seated alone at the end of the meeting table, the one charged with answering any and all questions, and the one on the receiving end of sometimes harsh criticism.

You Definitely Are On Your Own
As a fundraising consultant, you must stand ready to answer the inevitable questions:

• Why isn’t the money coming in?
• Why isn’t the money coming in faster?
• What do we do now that the Campaign Chairperson is no longer available?
• Why isn’t the solicitation committee doing its job?
• What do we do now that our biggest and most promising prospect has said, “No”?
• Should we put the campaign on hold until the economy gets better?
• Should we lower the goal since it seems we can’t reach it?
• I know we still need a million dollars to reach our goal, but shouldn’t we start going to the general community for $50 and $100 gifts?
• What do we do since our own Trustees are not giving at levels we counted on?
• You’re a consultant, supposed to be experienced in fundraising. Since we’re not as experienced in soliciting as you are, and with our campaign lagging behind, why can’t you make some solicitation calls for us?
• What are we paying you for, anyway?

And so they go. Would you be able to answer these questions? Equally significant, would you be able to act on them?

Make sure you can, and do. Your next contract depends on it.

Fundraising consulting is deeply rewarding and fulfilling. It’s also a highly precarious profession, definitely not for everyone. Before you take the plunge, make certain you have more than adequate experience, that you possess superior judgment, that you have very thick skin—and more often than not, that “luck” seems to favor you.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have a question or comment about the above posting?
You can Ask Tony.
There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website:
Raise-Funds.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Although everyone knows that benefits are extremely important in a government grant proposal, I am constantly astonished at how many proposals are all features and few, if any, benefits. This is a serious omission because the lack of explicit benefits almost always means that the proposal will be unpersuasive to reviewers.

Everything in your proposal has to answer a simple question – “So what?” Features are an important part of proposals but they cannot answer this important question. You need benefits to provide a compelling answer.

A feature relates directly to your services, for example:
• We have been a nonprofit organization for 15 years.
• We will allocate ten key personnel in the first year of the grant period.

In contrast, benefits are some aspect of your service that addresses an issue or problem of your funder. It provides some sort of value.

Creating Benefits
The first step in creating benefits in a proposal is to identify the government agency’s most pressing issues and needs. Next, you must reach a common understanding about these issues and needs. Why is the funder concerned about them? What parts of our services address these issues and needs? And how can we make our benefits compelling and persuasive to the funder?

Then you must clearly link the features and benefits in your proposal’s text and graphics. A great place to begin would be the Executive Summary.

Below is an example of how you would link a feature to a funder’s benefit (efficiency) in family planning.

Bad: We have provided family planning services for 15 years.
Marginal: Our family planning services are very efficient.
Better: Through our social marketing programs, our family planning services recover approximately 70 percent of their costs.
Great: Through our social marketing programs, our family planning services recover approximately 70 percent of their costs. Of all major family planning organizations, we have the lowest average cost per Couple Year of Protection (CYP) – less than $1.00.

Emphasize the Benefits Again and Again
Government grant proposals are 10,000 details, and so it is understandable why they often become little more than laundry lists of features. But features in and of themselves are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.

Your end is what benefits the funder and only what benefits the funder. It does not matter what you offer, only how you can address a funder’s issues and needs. After all, if there were no issues and needs you would not be reading grant guidelines from a government agency.

Focus on the benefits at the beginning of the proposal and tailor your most important features to address the government agency’s issues and needs. This will make your proposal more persuasive and more likely to be funded.

Remember – features tell, benefits sell. Benefits are very important because they tell reviewers why you should receive a grant.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop
successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap 🙂
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We take a break, here, for the Labor Day Weekend,
and we’ll resume our twice-per-week posting schedule
on Tuesday, September 3rd.
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.