With recession warnings routinely flashing, Steve Zimmerman offers a cautionary tale from the last downturn. The co-author of a book on nonprofit sustainability, the Milwaukee-based consultant says he works with a group that launched a capital campaign in 2007, before the Great Recession hit in force. Construction began in 2008, but then the stock market crashed, unemployment soared, and donors backed out of their pledges. “It really almost killed the organization,” he says.

His advice today: Set realistic fundraising goals. “And don’t put shovels in the ground until you know you can do it.”

Zimmerman is one of several nonprofit veterans and experts the Chronicle asked to consider how charities can prepare for the recession that some economists are predicting is likely this year or next. Most echoed Nonprofit Finance Fund CEO Antony Bugg-Levine, who said: “The best time to prepare for a recession was five years ago.”

Bugg-Levine and others stress that the key to weathering an economic downturn is sound financial planning and work that should happen during good times — things like building up surplus funds, diversifying sources of revenue, and strengthening relationships with key donors and foundations.

Still, the experts offer a few suggestions as to what groups can do even now, when the wolf seems to be at the door.

Identify what economic conditions affect your donor. David King, head of the Alexander Haas fundraising consultancy, says organizations sometimes worry over “the economy with a capital ‘E’ ” — the global or national economic outlook. He advises instead to “go micro” and look at how key industries or regions are faring.

For instance, if key donors work in the tech industry, that’s where you should focus. Or if you draw from a particular region, study the economics of that area. The Pittsburgh economy, he notes, is booming, thanks to a soaring natural-gas industry. Nonprofits in Austin and Dallas, meanwhile, are reckoning with a contraction in the oil industry.

The stock market and the Dow Jones index are not always the best economic indicators, King notes. “If the Dow is not your economy, don’t get sucked into” a panic over it.

Read the full article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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The news any given day is filled with warnings of “doom loops,” inverted yield rates, and other wonky predictors of a recession. A downturn is likely for 2019, economic cognoscenti say, if not inevitable by 2020, particularly given the drag of the monthlong federal-government shutdown.

Such warnings aren’t generating much alarm or action among charities, however. A decade after the Great Recession beat down nonprofit finances and charitable giving, many groups are wringing their hands but doing little else.

“I don’t think people are thinking about it yet that much,” says Jerry Hauser, CEO of the Management Center, a consultant for social-justice advocacy organizations.

Pundits may be harping on a recession, but “I’m not hearing much from nonprofits themselves,” says Tim Delaney, head of the National Council of Nonprofits. “They’re dealing with the emergencies in front of them. Those are front and center in people’s minds, and that’s crowding out thinking about long-term issues.”

The emergencies Delaney cites include demand on social services that’s been increasing in recent years and was made more acute by the effects of the federal-government shutdown as they ripple through the country.   

Others say anxieties of the past few months — about a volatile stock market and almost daily political upheaval, among other things — mean talk of recession blends into the white noise buffeting many groups. Antony Bugg-Levine, head of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, notes that the disruption on so many fronts makes it hard for nonprofit leaders to prioritize something as wonky as scenario-based budgeting in preparation for a recession.

“The milieu for people right now is a sense of disorientation,” he says. 

Short-Term Memories

At least some nonprofits aren’t focusing on future dangers because the present remains relatively rosy. More than 2,200 organizations across the country pay into the Unemployment Services Trust to help manage unemployment claims filed by their workers — claims that can grow when the economy flags and layoffs follow. Yet Donna Groh, executive director of the organization, says many members balked this fall at their 2019 payment rates, unconvinced that the years of low unemployment claims are likely to end soon. They argued: “Well, gosh, my claims have been so good for the past two or three years. Why do you want us to put money into our reserve?” 

“Memories,” she says, “are very short-term.”

No Retreat

Some groups, while concerned about a downturn, are sanguine about how they will ride out any rocky times. The stock market’s swings and the economy were big topics at a retreat for the Defenders of Wildlife development staff — “I’ve never in my life spent so much time reading about the stock market,” says Nina Fascione, vice president for philanthropy — but the organization is not retreating from fundraising goals or program aims. Fascione says the organization’s development team is fully staffed, and the program side is hiring for new positions.

“Even if the worst should come, I have a lot of confidence that we’ll be fine,” Fascione says. “We are mindful of turbulent times, but we’re not only staying the course, we’re looking at how we can move initiatives forward.”

The University at Buffalo’s $650 million campaign, which launched publicly last year, is running hot and shows no signs of cooling, says Rodney Grabowski, vice president for university advancement. After raising $56 million last fiscal year, his team is on pace to top its 2019 fiscal-year goal of $70 million. Based on its gift pipeline, the university aims to reach at least $100 million in 2021.

“My biggest issue? I need more staff,” Grabowski says. “I’m asking for more staff this budget go-around.”

David King, president of the Alexander Haas fundraising consultancy, says he’s hearing similar reports from his clients in campaigns, many of whom are racing to raise as much money as they can before any slowdown. “Everybody is going full speed ahead,” he says. “We haven’t seen anybody backing off campaign planning or execution.”

Read the full article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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Hamm Brings 30 Years of Senior Development Experience from 

Country’s Top Museums and Fine Arts Organizations

ATLANTA (January 29, 2018) – Alexander Haas, a national fundraising consulting firm, is pleased to welcome Carl G. Hamm to its team of experts. Hamm has nearly 30 years of senior management experience in the nonprofit sector, the majority of which is in senior development roles in the museum field. 

“Carl has a history of exceptional fundraising performance and will be a valuable asset to our firm, as well as to our museum and fine arts clients,” said David H. King, President and CEO of Alexander Haas.

Prior to joining Alexander Haas, Hamm served as Deputy Director for Development and External Affairs for the Saint Louis Art Museum. Hamm also has a career history serving as Senior Vice President for Development & Marketing for the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and as Associate Director of Development for the Dallas Museum of Art. A Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 1998, Carl is a past president of the Art Museum Development Association (AMDA), past chair of the American Alliance of Museums’ Standing Professional Committee on Development and Membership (DAM), and a former chair of AAM’s Council of Standing Professional Committees. 

“The Alexander Haas team has long been highly respected in the cultural community for their expertise and integrity, and I am excited for the opportunity to join the firm. It’s the ideal environment for me to apply my experience with organizations across every discipline of the arts – from museums to theater and ballet companies, public radio and classical music,” said Hamm, “I look forward to assisting institutions throughout the country strengthen their communities by reaching their ambitious goals.”

About Alexander Haas, Inc.

Alexander Haas is widely recognized as one of the leading fundraising consulting firms in the nation. We partner with organizations to secure the philanthropic resources to advance their missions by creating customized, actionable strategies that produce sustainable results. Our firm has provided fundraising counsel and conducted successful campaigns for over 2,000 organizations whose campaign goals have ranged from $1 million to more than $1 billion. From our headquarters in Atlanta, we work across the country with organizations of all types and sizes, including colleges and universities, independent schools, churches, human and animal welfare organizations, museums and performing arts organizations. Our services include counsel on: capital campaigns, endowment campaigns, campaign strategy studies, development assessments, annual funds, leadership annual giving, major gifts and planned giving. More about the firm is available at https://fundraisingcounsel.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Cynthia Hayes

PR Counsel
804-221-3486
cynthia@ligerpartners.com

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Casting vision for your nonprofit can be tricky. Your staff, board, and volunteers believe in the mission but can get burnt out from the day-to-day challenges of serving with a nonprofit. 

Show Gratitude

The New Year is a great opportunity to remind each of your board members what you appreciate about the unique gifts they bring to the table – and not just the financial ones. Whether it’s their organizational skills, relational skills, financial prowess, or technological proficiency, each of your board members was brought on for a specific reason.

The same goes for your staff and other volunteers. They are likely going above and beyond because they believe in the mission of your organization. Yet, they are probably being given very few resources to make everything happen. That can be the exhausting reality in the nonprofit world. Simple gifts, handwritten thank you notes, or a festive party they don’t have to organize or clean up after can go a long way in boosting morale, reconnecting the team, and demonstrate your gratitude.

Paint a Bigger Picture

People give to charities for emotional reasons, not rational ones. But even the most devoted donors can lose sight of the reasons they choose your organization over another. Be diligent in painting a vivid picture for them of their impact. For example, don’t just ask donors to sponsor a child, tell them what life will be like for a child in the future compared to their current situation because of the generous gift. Don’t just show a drawing of a building, tell a story of someone walking into the new, modern facility with updated equipment and staff that can meet their healthcare needs right around the corner so they don’t have to wait for their nephew to pick them up and drive them 45 minutes to the nearest doctor. Your fundraising goals matter for a reason – life change – remember to share stories to reignite the emotional fire within your community of donors, staff, and volunteers.

Brag About Your People

Your volunteers, staff, and donors are your biggest fans and best assets, yet they may hardly interact with one another. They need to know they are part of a larger community who is passionate about the same things. Brag about them to one another. Tell your donors how your staff stayed to clean up after the gala and ended up having a dance competition. Share the story with your staff when a donor gives a heart-felt gift that – while not impressive on the balance sheet – is one of the most beautiful gifts you’ve received because of how it was given. You are the connection between all of your people, brag about their goodness.

Even Small Campaigns are a Big Deal

It’s a big deal to ask people for donations. Even if the campaign feels small in size, you’d better have a good reason for launching it. And you’d better know exactly why you need the funds, what they will be used for, and what difference it will make for the organization and in the lives of the people you serve. Make sure you have a strong partnership with your fundraising consultants to ensure your campaign will meet your desired needs. Then own it. Talk about it often and give progress reports. If you want a thriving organization, you need to champion your fundraising campaigns. 

Strong leaders can cast vision to help everyone keep the big picture in mind, but they also take time to show gratitude, brag about their people, and champion their fundraising efforts. The start of a new year is a great time to recast the vision for your nonprofit so that you can reach your fundraising and life-changing potential.

This article originally appeared on npEngage.com.

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ATLANTA (December 4, 2018) – Founded in 1987, Alexander Haas, Inc. celebrated its 31-year anniversary with a banner year in 2018. Named after founder and legendary fundraiser, Mrs. Leonard “Be” Haas, the firm continues to build partnerships with nonprofits that are transforming lives across the country, despite the ups and downs 2018 has brought to the industry.

“Even before New Year’s Day, 2018 was set up to be an interesting year for nonprofits with the implementation of some significant tax law changes including the increase in the standard deduction and anticipated ‘gift bundling’ that may result,” says David H. King, President and CEO of Alexander Haas. 

The team of industry-leading experts at Alexander Haas. remained steady-handed as they planned and executed campaigns with goals over $2.5 billion this year. Clients of the firm span the gamut of sub-sectors including colleges and universities, independent schools, churches, human and animal welfare organizations, museums and performing arts organizations.  

In 2018, the firm partnered with over 70 organizations in 21 states providing campaign planning and execution, annual fund enhancements, major gift program development, staff mentoring and training and helped organizations establish development offices for the first time. Alexander Haas also conducted over 263 campaign strategy study interviews with philanthropists to evaluate their potential support for client projects.  

“Suffice it to say that we have kept busy,” says King, “as have our clients. Here is looking forward to another robust year of philanthropy in 2019!”

About Alexander Haas, Inc.

Alexander Haas was founded in 1987 in Atlanta, Georgia and works with nonprofit organizations of all sizes and shapes including colleges and universities, independent schools, churches, human and animal welfare organizations, museums and performing arts organizations. The has provided fundraising counsel and conducted successful campaigns for nearly 1,000 organizations of virtually every type, from across the country, with goals ranging from $1 million to more than $1 billion. Services include counsel on: capital campaigns, endowment campaigns, campaign strategy studies, development assessments, annual funds, leadership annual giving, major gifts and planned giving. More about the firm is available at https://fundraisingcounsel.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Cynthia Hayes

PR Counsel
804-221-3486
cynthia@ladderingworks.com

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Arthur Criscillis, Ed.D., Managing Partner at Alexander Haas, has been providing fundraising counsel for Wofford College’s “For Wofford” campaign. Through this partnership, the college has already raised $262 million toward the overall campaign goal. Among the campaign’s notable accomplishments are the new Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts, the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium and more than $32 million for endowed scholarships.

Four essential pillars of the Wofford experience serve as the key priorities of the “For Wofford” comprehensive fundraising campaign:

1. Student Opportunity in an Inclusive Community: Recruiting and retaining outstanding students and providing access to a superior liberal arts education through endowed scholarship funding.
2. Excellence in Academics: Attracting and supporting faculty who will engage, educate and mentor students and provide academic program support to enhance the liberal arts experience.
3. Distinctive Student Experiences: Supporting hands-on, experiential learning that occurs across fields, disciplines and programs designed to prepare superior students for meaningful lives as citizens, leaders and scholars. 
4. Our Historic Campus: Improving the physical campus to create dynamic learning and living spaces that encourage discovery and collaboration and that make Wofford College distinctive.

For more information or to participate in “For Wofford,” visit www.wofford.edu.

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Nine … point … six … billion … dollars.

Fundraisers have been rolling that figure around in their heads in the wake of Harvard University’s announcement that its most recent campaign, which concluded July 1, brought in more money than any previous drive by any institution anywhere.

The One Harvard campaign, announced in 2013, originally sought $6.5 billion, which would have bested the record-setting $6.2 billion Stanford achieved in a campaign it ended in 2012. Harvard blew past Stanford’s mark in 2016.

The drive made America’s richest university, with a $37.1 billion endowment, even richer. But its success reveals new possibilities for other nonprofits running high-octane campaigns, say campaign leaders and experts.

“It’s kind of like breaking the four-minute mile,” says Trent Ricker, chief executive of Pursuant, a fundraising consulting company.

The breakthrough might spark a new phase of competition among America’s biggest universities, says David King, president of the fundraising consulting firm Alexander Haas.

“It would not surprise me in the not-too-distant future to see Stanford come out and say, We’re going to raise $12 billion,” King says. (A spokeswoman for Stanford said the university declined to comment.)

The campaign, the first to involve every school at Harvard, also served as a capstone to the careers of Drew Gilpin Faust, who retired as the university’s president on July 1, and Tamara Rogers, vice president for alumni affairs and development. Faust, still a history professor at Harvard, has been succeeded by Lawrence Bacow.

Rogers, who began her Harvard career in 1976, moving into development work in 1990, announced plans in January to step down. She will be succeeded in November by Brian Lee of the California Institute of Technology, which is in the midst of a $2 billion campaign of its own.

Susan Feagin, president of the consulting firm John Brown Limited and a former top fundraiser at Columbia University, served as campaign counsel.

Secrets of Success

The success of the One Harvard campaign came from a global fundraising push that made an aggressive effort to bring every part of the institution together in a search for new support,, Rogers says.

But some of the success was the result of something the university didn’t have control over. “The stock market was booming. I recommend that to everyone,” she says.

The university also hadn’t run a comprehensive campaign since one that ended in 1999 and raised $2.65 billion.

“In a funny way, there was almost pent-up demand,” Rogers says. “Volunteers certainly weren’t feeling exhausted or fatigued in any way.”

Among the other factors that led to success:

Engaged leadership. Faust, who assumed the Harvard presidency in 2007, was key to connecting with donors, Rogers says.

“We had a great president, and we had got her out from the very beginning so that she had the relationships, meeting the deans and presidents,” Rogers says. “We made sure that people met the academic leadership, so there was that level of trust.”

Digital-communication needs. “We didn’t labor over a case statement,” Rogers says. “That, in the end, didn’t really matter much. Many institutions are wondering about the value of case statements in a time when digital communications are very mutable and changeable as one goes along.”

An inclusive and decentralized structure. The campaign was the first to involve every school on campus.

“Every school had a goal. Each dean pitched in to figure out what was needed for that particular school and to identify priorities and donors in advance,” Rogers says. “We could include some of these people in the campaign executive committee and in other voluntary groups. It looked like a matrix of people involved in the campaign across the university.”

Every school met its campaign goal. Among the transformative gifts the campaign secured were a $350 million unrestricted donation in 2014 to the School of Public Health from the Morningside Foundation to rename the school in memory of the late T.H. Chan., a Hong Kong real-estate businessman, which Rogers calls “a surprise and a delight.” A $100 million pledge from David Rockefeller, made early in Faust’s tenure with the understanding that it would count in a subsequent campaign, was the drive’s first nine-figure contribution.

Smaller donations mattered, too. Near the end of the campaign, Rogers says, there was “a surge of giving for undergraduate scholarships and a lot of people encouraging each other to give. That was real momentum.”

A well-staffed development team. Harvard trimmed the size of its development staff after its endowment took a hit during the financial downturn. By the time the campaign’s public phase began, Rogers says, the staff ranks returned to pre-recession size, plus the university hired additional fundraisers to focus on gifts of $10 million or more and to solicit donations to benefit the entire university or projects that covered more than one school, such as stem-cell research or behavioral-economics scholarship.

In a hot job market, and a market full of big hospitals and colleges, attrition proved a constant challenge. “We lost people all along the way,” Rogers says.

Some of those who stayed at Harvard will probably get snapped up by other institutions now. “You tend to lose a lot of talent immediately after the close of a campaign,” says King, the consultant. “They all have this nice, shiny new thing to put on their résumés.”

Keeping the Harvard development staff relatively intact will soon be her successor’s challenge. But Rogers, who first moved into major-gifts fundraising from a position in Harvard’s admission office and worked as a recruiter in the 1990s, thinks casting the net wide when making new hires will help fill any gaps.

“Sometimes people in our field undervalue other experience,” she says. “Hiring people who come from admission, from finance, or consulting, from a range of different backgrounds, can be very, very successful. They can also bring new thinking, they can be imaginative. And so I strongly endorse that.”

A broad range of volunteers. Volunteers were essential, Rogers says, and the campaign found roles for many of them at all levels. More than 40 committees, staffed by more than 1,400 volunteers, helped drive the effort.

Each school’s campaign committee had at least one co-chair who was not an alumnus of that school and was not married to one, Rogers says. This helped create cross-campus interest from donors; most of the gifts of $10 million or more, she says, supported more than one school at the university. Ten percent of giving over all came from donors who weren’t Harvard alumni.

A strong international fundraising game. People from 173 countries donated to the campaign, reflecting the institution’s global profile. The university identified campaign volunteers in many countries and organized Your Harvard events for alumni across America and the world featuring panels of speakers and messages from Faust. The events were not explicitly fundraising but a way to make far-flung alumni feel connected to the university and alert them to the campaign. Also, “we have Harvard Clubs all over the world,” Rogers says, which run programs and sometimes help dispatch alumni to interview prospective students at the university’s behest when travel to the Massachusetts campus is not practical.

Rogers’s team also sought the advice of philanthropists in some nations where charitable giving is new. “We were able to bring in those philanthropists and discuss the campaign and take their advice about how to work in their setting in order to bring people close to Harvard.”

A Winning Strategy

The campaign affirms a strategic advantage for research universities, in particular, in making their case to donors, says Daniel Diermeier, provost of the University of Chicago, which is in the home stretch of a five-year campaign aimed at raising $5 billion. (The drive winds up in June, with $4.5 billion raised so far.) The $5 billion is a reach from the original goal of $4.5 billion.

Research universities generate society-changing discoveries and solutions, he says, and donors craving impact are responding to that case for support.

“You’re seeing this at Harvard, at a bunch of our peers, where they’re resetting their campaign goals,” Diermeier says. “If they’re giving to the University of Chicago, those gifts have the possibility to be transformational. You’re utilizing the entire capacity of the university for impact. Donors are increasingly realizing that.”

The University of Chicago’s campaign is called Inquiry and Impact. Other current campaigns framed similarly include:

• The MIT Campaign for a Better World, launched in May 2016 and aiming to raise $5 billion, reported $4.3 billion as of the end of its 2018 fiscal year.
• Rising to the Challenge: The Campaign for Johns Hopkins University has raised $5.87 billion. It has extended its original goal of $4.5 billion and also the length of the drive, now scheduled to end October 10, with more than 820 gifts of $1 million or more so far.
• The University of North Carolina’s For All Kind campaign, aiming for $4.25 billion by 2022, has already raised $2.23 billion. Forty-one percent of gifts have come from nonalumni.

For other organizations that are in or planning campaigns, Harvard’s example “just shows what is possible,” says John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. The service organization, which works on eradicating polio worldwide, is seeking to raise $2.025 billion for its endowment by 2025.

“Harvard has a big alumni base. We have a big member base,” says Hewko, whose organization has 1.2 million members worldwide. “It encourages us.”

Audacious Inspiration

Whether Harvard’s record-breaking campaign will intensify the “arms race” among colleges for ever-higher fundraising goals remains to be seen, experts say.

Certainly grumbling about rich institutions getting richer is fair, Ricker says. But regardless of what happens next, he adds, “it should inspire nonprofits of all sizes — even if you’re about to go out with a $50 million vision campaign. We’ve known for a long time that there’s great generosity. I think we can all look at it and benefit from it.”

Not the least of the lessons is the boldness of Harvard’s faith in its donors. “The $6.5 billion goal is audacious enough,” Ricker says. “They didn’t know how they were going to do it. At some point, Faust just drew a line through it and said, ‘We’re gonna rock ’n’ roll.”

This article originally appeared in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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Should you hire someone who has a strong background in development or someone who already has relationships in the community? This is a question we hear often from nonprofit leadership. The answer is simple. I believe a proven history of successful fundraising trumps existing relationships 100% of the time, and here are four reasons why:

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Atlanta – (October 1, 2018) — Jerry W. Henry, Partner at Alexander Haas, Inc., a national fundraising consulting firm located in Atlanta, GA, exemplifies a life of professional service, particularly when it comes to serving his alma mater, Yale University. Henry has served Yale in a number of volunteer positions beginning with the Yale Divinity School (YDS) where he has served for the past 38 years as a class secretary and class agent. He is a past chair of the YDS Alumni Board, and currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council. As an Atlantan, Henry has volunteered with the Yale Alumni Schools Committee as an interviewer for Yale College applicants in the Atlanta area, and is an enthusiastic member of the Yale Club of Georgia.

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