Raising Money Online - Fact or Fiction?

A recent study by a large tech research organization indicated, of the 180,000 "Causes" on Facebook, the average funds raised through this online method for each charity over the course of a year, was only $ 1000.

Really?

This seems slightly outrageous given the excitement and passion circulating about using Facebook by nonprofits for online fundraising. It seems everywhere you turn we have charities urging us to "like" them, to support their efforts. Daily my social networking news feed blows up with requests from friends to give to the> insert cause here <organization to help them cure, fight, win, save, grow or change.

Before I get angry comments by those who might find these remarks slightly antagonist, I am NOT disparaging the nonprofits for trying. Good things do come from visibility and advocacy in this way.

It just does not look like any of those good things include money, and I wanted to know why.

To be clear on this subject I recently underook a (very unscientific) research project of online fundraising by United States based nonprofits. I searched Web 2.0 portals designed to help nonprofits raise funds online. Here is a list of those I identified and used in this study:

Causevox.com (Beta)

Changingthepresent.org

Connecttocharities.com

Crowdrise.com

Donorschoose.org

Firstgiving.com

Fundrzr.com

Give2gether.com

Giveo.com (Beta)

Globalgiving.com

Independentcharities.org (givenirect.org)

Jolkona.org

Jumo.com (Beta)

Justgive.org

Mtdn.com (MakeTheDifferenceNetwork)

Networkforgood.org

Pledgie.com

Razoo.com

Sixdegrees.org

Tuttidare.com (Beta)

Yourcause.com

In addition to these, I discovered four more sites currently in beta to be launched this year (2011), including one called 'Supporter Wall' - I presume to model itself after Facebook Causes.

This list is in no way exhaustive, nor as I said scientific, so all you data wonks, do not get all geeky on me.

Some observations

Most of these vendor developed online fundraising sites have a short life history, from 2000 to the present. One site started and closed within a few years (Make the difference network). Firstgiving.org, which also has a UK version called Justgiving.org, and Network For Good have the longest history with the years 2000 and 2001 claimed as launch dates on their sites.

When a gift is made through one of these fundraising portal sites to your charity, the gift is held in a donor advised fund owned by the company. Despite the web address extension of.com on some of them, most of these vendors have a 501C3 status organization as an affiliate, which handles the contributions, for tax relief purposes. When a gift is made to your charity, the tax receipt is from the vendor's 501C3 organization, not from your charity. Of course you are encouraged to send a thank you, but the receipt is not from you to your donor, it is from Network for Good. This may mean something to some donors who want to be 'counted' as having given to your cause, but for most they may not notice. The distribution of your gift from this donor advised fund is not instantaneous-most are scheduled as a once or twice per month distribution. These donor advised funds are usually managed by investment firms. No information could have found on where the interest from these temporarily held funds goes. I would imagine they might be part of the revenue stream for the portal vendor. In one interesting case, the corporate officers of a certain portal vendor were found to also be the principals of the investment firm that manages that particular ports donor advised fund.

The big gorilla, based on longevity and reach with nonprofits is Network for Good. They have an interesting B2B model that probably helps with their revenue stream for operations. Many of the newer and beta sites listed above, indicate that they use Network For Good to process and manage their contributions (as the 501C3 donor advised fund), for which a "grant" of 4.75% is paid to Network For Good, usually by the charity receiving the donation. It raised the question, "Then how are these particular portal vendors earning money?" Probably through data analytics marketing, like Facebook, and through ad sales. If you are not paying for a service, you are not the customer, you are the product.

One interesting site is the Independent Charities of America (ICA) site at givenirect.org, which offers individuals the ability to create a personal foundation, to which they can invest an initial low amount of $ 250, all contributions being tax deductible and dividends can be made at the donors convenience with only 5% of the money in your donor advised fund needing to be distributed annually. The site does not have a social networking capacity or connections with charities, although it links to an outside source for charity information. Beside ICA, the other vendors reviewed are set up to offer multi-cause, multi-organizational opportunities, most of which (but not all) require a charity to be a registered IRS entity, with a position on Guidestar or BBB. Only two that I reviewed allowed anyone to raise money for anything - personal causes (a new boat ??), medical bills, weddings, etc.

I then reviewed the number of nonprofits each fundraising portal vendor had reported as 'registered' on their site or the number of charities which they had distributed funds to in the year 2009, as well as the total amount of money raised through their portal. As expected those vendors who were.org or had listed the.org affiliates who managed their funds, were easier to find data on, getting it directly from their 990's off of Guidestar. The few corporate sites had limited data available for review. Of those portals where data on number of charities served and amount raised could be found, the avg raised per year / per charity through their online portal revealed the highest amt was just about $ 30K per charity on avg. and the lowest was $ 470. In going back a few years, spikes can be seen that I can only absorb correlated with global disaster funding, for which online giving seems the go to measure.

Let's pause for a moment here.

If the Network for Good is eleven years old, has a breadth of experience and professional technicians leading its efforts, has a global reach, and it can not help the nonprofit to raise more than $ 30K per year on avg ... what's wrong with this picture? A good annual appeal direct mail campaign would be more successful.

Ruminate on this for a minute and we will review the fees charged to charities for this privilege.

In the list reviewed, fees range from a low of 3% per transaction to a high of 15%. One site took no fees but required a $ 9.oo per project fee from the charity. Some sites also required credit card processing fees on top of transaction fees. Some sites asked the donor to consider covering these costs for the charity. All told, the fees charged are, as with everything, buyer beware for charities when it comes to choosing to engage in online fundraising using these portals.

I do not know about you, but if I had to pay $ 199 per month for my charity to be listed and an additional 3% per donation, plus credit card transaction fees, not to mention the back office costs of staffing for management, gift processing, stewardship etc. I would want evidence of a significant return on my investment. * Side note- now on these portals did I find any pitch to support the financial value proposition of charities using such a site for fundraising.

Back to our review. Given the advent of Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, LinkedIn and other social networking sites into our culture, I expected to see a lot of these vendors offering a social networking aspect to their services. And they did not fail me, although they are not as advanced as I would expect, nor as would be beneficial. While 1/3 have no social networking aspects, 1/3 have what I would term a simple or basic social networking component to their sites, while 1/3 use existing Facebook links and - yes - Causes, exclusively. Some include a game of collecting or placing badges on current social networking sites like Facebook, twitter etc.

All of those vendors reviewed offer or require a pitch page that charities use to highlight their organization or their project or, in two cases, requests for funding for very, very specific needs: pencils, books, etc. This allows the donor to get most of the info right on the vendors portal without having to bounce off to the charities site, although most offer the option of placing a link to your organizations homepage on your pitch page.

Donorcentric? Many of the sites offer intent options to the donor during gift processing, but not the majority. This is, in my humble opinion, a great defect in these portals. It undermines what we in the industry know about donor giving- that it is specific to the interest of the donor, NOT the need of the organization. I guess they rationalize this, by considering the potential for massive volume of possible donors- like throwing **** against a wall and knowing some of it will stick. Some limit the gift intention choice for the donor by project as defined by the charity. The newest contender Jumo.com (by Chris Hughes the co-founder of Facebook) does not currently offer donor intention option, but it is in beta and soon could.

One other * missed * opportunity by these portals in being donor-centric, is in offering to the donor (or requiring of the charity) gift use reports for each donation. Very few offer this option, although some do require charities to show evidence of their project completion as defined on their pitch page. Donor intention is a very hot topic and something that quite often will keep donors from contributing, out of fear that their gift will not be used as intended. Currently, there is no system to screen for that through the checks and balances surrounding nonprofits in the US. The annual tax audit nonprofits are required to have only ensure that accounting methods are followed accurately and that the gift intention was followed when depositing and allocating the money, not necessarily that the gift was then used to purchase the product or build the building. Would the benefit and value of required gift reports bring more donors to the online system of giving?

Conclusions? These vendors are well intentioned and I applaud them for trying. Most of these portals are built on direction from nonprofit industry experts, but they fall short of being technologically cutting edge. Others are developed by tech rock stars, who may have no personal experience or inside knowledge of how a donor thinks, feet or acts, or what best practices exist in raising money from individuals for a charitable group. All portals are directed toward the relationship between the portal vendor and the charity - and all but ignore the needs of the donor!

Online fundraising needs to continue to be examined and iterated. How are we currently using social media to raise funds as part of an overall revenue budget and to what end results? How can online fundraising better mimic and support our real world relationship building efforts with our donors? Is there a niche for online fundraising that we have not even yet? I do not believe we are there yet with any of this - online giving results we are currently seeing are unremarkable. We need to keep shaking it up, iterating and evolving to determine what 'IT' is that might make this a productive and supportive tool in our arsenal as fundraisers.

How to Understand Microphone Preamps

Looking at a mixer you notice there are several strips known as input channels with identical buttons on each strip. A microphone preamplifier is basically a stand alone input strip and when you buy a recording console you are pretty much committed to the sound quality of each strip because they are all the same. That is where a microphone preamp comes in, a microphone preamps main duty is to boost a microphones low signal to a line level that is more usable for any device you are recording too. There are plenty of variety, design, features and sound quality that allow you to mix and match different preamps for your recordings.

The common features you will find on a microphone preamp is gain control, which allows you to adjust the strength of the signal being picked up by the microphone, be careful because too much gain can cause distortion and not enough gain can bring noise into the recording . Some microphone preamplifier's come equipped with EQ (equalizer), which can cut or boost certain frequencies. A helpful side note when mixing, try to cut frequencies that you do not need first before boosting frequencies.

A compressor is another feature found on some microphone preamplifier's. Compression squishes the dynamic rage of a signal, then boosts that signal so that the quiet parts of a recording is louder, for example, during a loud part of a song you can still hear the quiet acoustic guitar that you compressed. Be careful because once you use compression on your records you are committed to that compression because It is very hard to remove compression once you are editing.

Microphone preamps are also a great choice for systems based around a digital audio workstation which does not require a big console but can use a few quality preamps, which can be connected directly into an audio interface or sound card. When thinking about purchasing a microphone preamp remember that it is purely a personal choice on what you choose just make sure they come with the features you require. Microphone preamps are a very cost effective way of experimenting with your recordings, so have fun.

Sometimes you will find yourself in a critical situation and a microphone preamp can offer low distortion specs, a special sound, or use of tube and integrated circuit technology, which is why microphone preamps are used. When it comes to the selection of a microphone preamp it is purely a personal choice. The days where there was only a few ways to get a great recording is gone, now you can choose from an abundance of equipment, so it is important to try and test microphone preamps to find the one that will do the job you want.

Monetary Inflation

Monetary inflation is simply an increase in the money supply. It is not measured by the Consumer Price Index but rather by the money supply. "Quantitative easing" is government speak for it. Inflating the money supply usually encourages spending and most government economists see increased spending as a way to keep the economy rolling. A currency that is defined in terms of a tangible substance (like gold or silver) is less likely to experience inflation. Although a rapid increase in supply of gold is possible, such as when Columbus opened up the importation of gold from the new world, it is extremely undesirable in the modern age.

"Monetary inflation" can result in price inflation, but the two terms are not synonymous. The most widely recognized effect of an increase in the money supply is a reduction of the value of each individual unit of money. As each unit decreases in value it results in the destruction of the purchasing power of your money. But while almost everyone sees price inflation when it happens, few people notice the monetary inflation that causes it.

Inflation of the US dollar supply has been an economic reality ever since 1913 when the US Congress created the Federal Reserve. This is because when the Federal Reserve buys US Treasuries it injects newly created money into the financial system. Another way of creating money out of thin air is through the fractional reserve system which allows banks to multiply the amount of money in circulation by only holding a fraction of what their actual liabilities are.

Central banks consider it the cure-all for combating all sorts of economic woes. If there is too much debt, just print more money, this allows the debtor to repay the debt with "cheaper dollars" ie dollars that are worth less than the original debt. This is a form of hidden theft from the creditor and benefits primarily the government as it is by far the nations largest debtor. Money creation is a debtor's greatest ally, making the debt easier to repay.

As the currency supply inflates, you would think, the price of all goods and services should appreciate proportionally, or at least roughly proportionally, as the value of the dollar decreases. But that is not always the case because the flow of money is not distributed evenly through the economy. Thus those who receive the money first get to spend it at the old perceived value while those at the bottom of the food chain receive the dollars later and suffer the most. Then once again, since the government created the new money it gets the most advantage, since it spends it first.

All monetary inflation is political andpetrated by the government (or more precisely the Central Bank). It is unsound for both economic and ethical reasons. All that newly created money has to go somewhere and it often flows toward the next bubble in the making. Monetary inflation is the seed inside all asset bubbles. Thus it wrecks the economy through booms and busts and creates disincentives for savers and creditors. It also causes misallocation of funds by businesses and individuals who perceive their income as growing when in actuality their real purchasing power may be staying the same or even declining. So it brings about wasteful and shortsighted economic decisions.

Getting Into Project Management Within Your Current Organization

If you read blogs and online posts from current Project Managers you will see that most began their career after falling into the job role within a company or moved into a position that was backed up by project management courses. The key strengths a PM are the ability to self motivate, organize and most importantly - lead a team. Natural leaders often find themselves leaning towards management positions and 'accidentally' fall or are encouraged into the PM role.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you do not automatically start looking for PM work outside of the company you currently work for. There are (near) always opportunities to develop your PM skills within the company you work for which is the easiest and simplest option if you're looking to make a change.

Here are some different ways you can utilize your current employer:

- Find the department that deals with projects and think about how you can network with that department. Taking an active role in gaining information about the department and how it relates to the job role you currently have.
- Network across the whole business, speaking to employees in other departments and finding out about other opportunities throughout the company.
- Arrange a meeting with your manager or team leader to discuss if you could be considered for departmental projects coming up. Make yourself available to help and discuss the skills you have that render you suitable.
- Speak to your HR department to see if it's possible for you to find out about up and coming job opportunities through the company.
- Take on extra work - this is the general rule through organizations if you want to prove yourself - look to be proactive and create noticeable change.
- Are you already project managing? A lot of job roles involve project management skills, something you could use to your advantage if you recognize those skills. If you can recognize these skills and develop them, you are then in a position to make informed suggestions on the way projects are managed within your department (make sure you do this within your job role boundaries!).
- Start to think like a project manager reading up on strategy and implementation. Talk to your colleagues and managers with PM terminology in reference to the work you currently do, discussing risk management, time management, resource management and financial management.

Whilst you truly integrate yourself into your company, nurturing your new love for project-management, why not consider some additional education? It's never too late to learn and some companies offer training within the company or subsidized training with a contractual obligation to stay with the company for a set period of time.

If your company does not offer any PM training why not think about asking to shadow a project manager within the company, or look into financing a PM training course for yourself. If you're determined to become a project manager in the company you are in, seeing you invest in a course will no doubt improve your chances of bagging that dream project managers job. The key to becoming a PM is the ability to explore all possible avenues and at all times, have your eye on the end result.

Best Debt Program - How to Find the Best Debt Company to Help You

Finding the best debt program can be quite a complex process, as it partially depends on your particular situation, as well as where you live. The best debt program for one person may not be the best debt program for someone else. In this article I will try to explain how debt programs work and help you understand which type of program will be most suitable for you. I will then explain what you can do to narrow down your search for a good company to work with, and how to ensure that you get the best value program available.

In broad terms, there are two main types of debt program available. The most common option for dealing with fairly large amounts of unsecured debt is a debt management plan. These are known by various other names and the process is also known as consolidating your debts. For more serious situations there is a completely different option which is known as debt settlement or debt negotiation. The only variation on this is that for UK residents, there is a scheme called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement, which achieves the same result for UK residents as debt settlement does for US residents.

A debt management plan is likely to be the best debt program for you if you have a fairly large amount of unsecured debt and a steady income that leaves you some money spare each month to put towards your debts. You will need to approach a debt management company, who will go through your financial situation with your to see whether or not this type of debt program is likely to work for you. If you do go ahead, they will then contact everyone you owe money to, in order to negotiate new arrangements for paying back your debt.

The end result of such negotiation should be that new arrangements are put in place, which make it more affordable for you to repay the debt. When this is done for all your creditors, all future payments are made by the debt company, so you just have to make one single payment to them each month. They then have to share the money out amongst your creditors, and any questions or problems the creditors have will be deal with by the company.

As mentioned earlier, debt management plans are only possible if you can afford to make and keep up with the regular monthly payments required. If your income and debts are such that you could not manage this, that is when you would need to consider debt settlement, or for UK residents, an IVA. The difference between these and a debt management plan is that they are a more radical approach, which usually depends on actually writing off at least half of the debt.

Debt settlement is only appropriate for people who are in a serious situation and really struggling to keep up with payments. Many people who are considering bankingruptcy turn to debt settlement as a less drastic alternative. The process depends on a skilled negotiator getting agreement from your creditors to write off a large portion of your debts, often well over half of the original debt. Creditors are unquestionably agreeing to this if they have reason to think that you could actually afford to repay more than that, but if they think the alternative may be to get nothing at all, they are more likely to agree. This is why it is only suitable for genuinely serious situations.

If you join this type of debt program you will stop making any payments to your creditors and start putting money away into a holding account instead. You keep doing this while the negotiators are working at your creditors, which can take anything from a few weeks up to three years. Your money builds up and can be used to pay off each credit when a settlement agreement is reached.

If you think that either a debt management plan or debt settlement could be the best debt program for you, the first step is to find a reliable and trustworthy company to work on your behalf. Choosing a debt company is no different to making any other kind of purchase, in that you can only be sure you are getting good value if you shop around. The best companies all have simple online forms to get started and you are not committing to anything by applying. You should there before apply to a few and see who makes the best proposal. You can easily avoid disputable companies by following recommendations and reviews for trusted and well established organizations.

Small Business Phone Service

Even with telecommunications revolutionizing the entire manner in which businesses communicate and with the advent of the Internet too, the telephone still remains the most reliable and the quickest mode of communication. The business phone system should be equipped well enough to handle a large volume of incoming as well as outgoing calls apart from directing and re-directing calls appropriately and accurately without mystifying or disconnecting the customers. Any Business Phone Service is the life line of its productivity as well as its functionality. The choice of the most appropriate service provider would go a long way in heralding new clients for the businesses as well as augmenting their businesses.

OPTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS PHONE SERVICES FOR BUSINESSES

Small and medium enterprises are over the year's increasingly making use of small business phone service as they are comparatively more cost-effective than other services. These services are capable enough to look after the communication needs of their businesses and they are increasingly cost-effective as they could be used for businesses of every genre and size that demand small Business phone service.

With the passage of time, telecommunication has revolutionized and incredibly advanced its services technologically. The fact of the matter is that the services of the small telephone phones have been installed in most companies globally. It is far less expensive when compared to other telephone services, especially by those being used by major organizations. A small business phone service could still be useful for small business enterprises because of its reliable and accepted functions and other specialized features. Realizing the fact that top-notch telephone services would be rather expensive, small business services continue to go in for and settle down with small business telephone services.

There have been new components that have been developed in the recent past in the realm of communication and this was what service companies have been making use of in their own services. Some suppliers offer small business phone service that comes with extra services incorporated. A small business would definitely vouch for these services as they come with extra capabilities which would later prove to be priceless assets to the organizations. And it is because of the phone service coming at cost-effective prices, the services of small business phones have not been difficult to obtain.

SMALL BUSINESS PHONES FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Every business needs telecommunication lines to communicate efficiently and effectively. Over the years, business enterprises have been using analogue systems for telecommunications. But ever since telecommunications have metamorphosed the way in which businesses operate and communicate, business has taken giant leap forward too. Installing a phone system would not only ease the work flow but also increase the productivity of the company per se.

Call forwarding facility could be another facility that could be considered by companies when they sign up for a new service provider. This would be useful for small business enterprises as the number of telephone connections as well as the extensions would not create problems for them.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER BEFORE GOING IN FOR A SMALL BUSINESS PHONE SERVICE:

• Whether the company could afford the service.
• The present employee strength of the organization
• The competency of the business
• Would it be the service that your business really needs

It would be better that these questions be evaluated, analyzed and estimated before any company would desire to go in for a business phone provider.

As most service providers come with free customer service toll-free number, service hotlines where they can get round the clock customer support that would help them get their questions speedily redressed.

BENEFITS OF SMALL BUSINESS PHONES:

• BUSINESS OPERATIONAL FROM ANYWHERE

It simply does not matter where you are and from where your business operates out of. An answering phone gives you the convenience as well as the feasibility as of conducting your business from where you are your business takes you. As the service is so programmed as to function as per the operational schedules of the business per se, the calls automatically get forwarded on to the business owner's phones even though they might not be in their offices.

• A BIGGER AND A LARGER CORPORATE IMAGE

A novel business telephone interfaces of small business telephone answering service that offers' efficient customer care, to gain the attraction of the potential customers into your businesses which would mean that all the incoming calls that land on your telephone would be answered and gifted with utmost professionalism. These calls could also be customized to business hours and post business hours greetings. The callers get to listen to melodious and soothing music while their calls get connected. The phones could also be auto programmed to an auto attendant so as to provide additional information about the features and benefits and services to the callers.

• COST EFFECTIVE AND TIME SAVING

Small business phone services could be obtained at extremely cost-effective and affordable prices. As all operations are controlled by the service providers, the service that the client receives is devoid of installation, repair as well as maintenance charges. All that it would need is a dedicated phone line and an Internet connection to have your business be provided with multiple phone line connections within the office network which would otherwise incur huge expenses for each individual phone connection.

A hosted PBX service gives your business the attention and promotion that it so immensely describes. This could happen if the service providers offer a superior level customer support that could not only enhance your company's productivity but also its revenues and client base.

CONCLUSION

For businesses to operate and function efficiently and for the communications to flow smoothly and effortlessly, Small Business Phone Services is the answer as put simply, it would only help increase your profits and your revenues as well as client base in the market even more.

Online Music Course Reviews and Buying Considerations

Sonic Producer

The Sonic Producer online beat machine software is a new kind of music generator that exports MP3s as well as a membership only site with tutorials, loop libraries and videos. It is packaged as an application and course for learning music production in a keyboard and mixing studio environment. It is online software and training that allows non-professional music lovers to create very high quality beats quickly. The lessons provide education for music production using sequencers, instruments, keyboards and multi-track software.

The online classes show you how to make and produce beats for instrumentals, rap and hip hop. It is made for students of all ages and for anyone who wants to learn the craft of making beats. The courses and software work on any computer system including PC and Mac. Technical support is offered with the membership.

Product Specifications:

- Online beat maker with large royalty free library of sounds you can use.
- Export professional sounding instrumental beats online to MP3.
- Learn music production with user friendly software and courses.
- Easy to use and made for any computer and operating system.
- Unlimited beats in all styles available for exporting.
- Contests for members with cash and prize awards.

Buying Considerations:

One of the top alternatives for novices but does not offer the advanced features of more expensive desktop software. You do not automatically make beats with the software, this takes a bit of training.

Music maker software requires gaining an understanding of loop technology and a sense of rhythm. This course makes it much easier, but it will take some effort on the student's part.

Music Master Pro

Music Master Pro is an online music school where you learn how to play music online. Jay Dynasty, a musician with major label credits, is the founder and main teacher. The site's mission to provide musicians world-wide with high quality instruction in musical instruments and audio production. The web-based music institute also provides career support in the way of networking forums and industry listings.

The courses are available for beginning through advanced musicians in guitar, bass and drums. Methods cover multiple styles including jazz, pop, rock and hip hop in a variety of tempos and feels. No prior music experience is required for the courses. Various other tools are included such as instrumental jam tracks, an online beat maker and private forums.

The program includes resources that teach music basics, improvisation, transcribing and reading music. The training is delivered primarily via video and audio download and new lessons are added to the library on a regular basis. Students have access to the entire lesson library at once so lessons start at every level of skill and can be revisited until techniques are mastered.

Product Specifications:

- 200 lessons in audio and video for guitar, bass and drums in all styles.
- 1000 instrumental audio tracks that you can practice improvement with.
- Several thousand scale and chord references for licks, patterns and progressions.
- Additional video courses on music production including scoring and beat making.
- Includes add on lessons in piano and violin in MP3 format.
- Web-based beat generator software for online hip hop and techno styles.
- Industry networking and listings in the private member forum.
- Accessible from Windows PC and Mac OS via an Internet connection.

Buying Considerations:

While this may be the most extensive and acclaimed library of video lessons, keep in mind that learning independently is not for everyone. If you have never even picked up an instrument, consider taking a few lessons with a teacher first before diving into self-learning.

Learning to hold an instrument and getting a sense of the basics from a professional in person can get you off to a solid start. After that a course like Music Master Pro can take you to a level that weekly lessons may not be able to.