• Invest your time to advance an organization’s mission;
• Invest in a future leader by mentoring;
• Invest some money to meet a community need;
• Invest a smile to brighten another’s day;
• Invest your professional skills to complete a critical task;
• Invest your voice to cheer and celebrate;
• Invest a meal to help feed another;
• Invest a little sweat to set up an event;
• Invest an idea to create innovative change;
• Invest compassion to help others;
• Invest an invitation to encourage others to join you;
• Invest a jacket to warm another;
• Invest hands to change the world;

Some of these investments can be measured, others provide intangible results. In all cases, the ROI generated is life changing…for the “investor” and each beneficiary.

If you’re curious or interested or ready to make a charitable investment, give us a call at 775-333-9444 or email us at info@npcatalyst.com. Your friends at NPcatalyst can help you or your company create an empowering charitable investment strategy.

Non-profit organizations (regardless of size, scope, sector, or location) are invited to participate in the innovative campaign, but need to enlist with NPcatalyst prior to November 1st. Through a small participation fee, each organization will receive:

• an organizational assessment (charity rating) and best practices solutions guide;
• invitation to participate in up to three fundraising-driven webinar training sessions;
• inclusion in NPcatalyst’s social media and traditional media messaging;
• direct positioning with NPcatalyst’s expanding roster of corporate, foundation, and philanthropic influencers;
• an online profile, featured on the NPcatalyst website; and,
• a special contributions-tailored profile on a soon-to-be-announced Campaign website.

Signing up well in advance enables the participating organizations to address areas deemed as weak or needing improvement, based on the charity rating score determined by NPcatalyst’s HealthCheck tool. It’s an organization assessment (or charity rating) tool, which analyzes each organization in five different categories, then provides a best practices solutions guide for improvement in each area. Click the following link – www.npcatalyst.com/healthcheck/ – and learn more about the HealthCheck tool which the NPcatalyst team created. Best of all, it’s a great revenue-generating tool. In fact, here’s a testimonial:
“What I’m coming to understand about the value of this HealthCheck process is not necessarily the rating itself (though that’s important), but the best-practices it ends up prompting. To that end NPcatalyst is doing great work ensuring that we’re adhering to those best practices.” – Jonathan Mueller, executive director of Sierra Nevada Journeys

NPcatalyst was founded to provide philanthropic solutions to both donors and the charitable organizations they support. Pete Parker, managing partner of the firm, has helped non-profit organizations raise over $30,000,000 through appealing and innovative annual, major, capital, and online giving campaigns. Most recently, the firm create a corporate engagement campaign which connected community residents in throughout northern Nevada with over 15,000 volunteer opportunities.

The year-end giving campaign is an opportunity non-profit organizations should seriously consider. To sweeten the invitation, NPcatalyst is offering the charity rating, best practices guide, public relations messaging, and year-end fundraising campaign at $375, a heavily-discounted rate from the $450 base price. With a targeted fundraising goal of $5,000 per organization, it’s an incredible opportunity. Taking advantage of this two-week offer, which ends on August 31st, requires each organization to send an email to info@npcatalyst.com or call 775-333-9444.

Businesses, large and small, have made financial contributions to non-profit, or community-benefit organizations, for many years. It wasn’t until recently that they began to increase their engagement…through volunteerism. Employee volunteer programs are becoming increasingly popular not just with large corporations, but small-to-mid-sized businesses seeking to enhance local communities and embark upon innovative business development initiatives.

Recognizing the trend, particularly through the number of inquiries we’re receiving to facilitate employee volunteer programs, here are simple suggestions to consider when developing a volunteer program at your business.

• Have a sincere interest in creating change and making a difference as a company;
• Solicit buy-in and support from executive leaders;
• Hire an employee and/or select a consultant to create community connections as well as design and manage the program;
• Set goals and objectives;
• Consider offering special incentives, such as financial compensation, internal and public recognition, gift-for-hour donations;
• Map existing employee connections, involvement, and interests;
• Qualify organizations to ensure appropriate connections and validate purposes;
• Track volunteer involvement;
• Promote corporate to community engagement;
• Evaluate employee volunteer program.

One task that’s not included, but is quite important, is to determine your expectations. Businesses which have identified and, more importantly, endorsed key expectations, such as those listed below, have developed successful employee volunteer programs.

• Incorporate with core business and  corporate giving strategies
• Create a healthier workforce
• Deep understanding of employees;  strong relationships
• Improve employee and job satisfaction; improved employee communication
• Network by interfacing with community leaders
• Show company and community pride
• Enhance employee recruitment and retention
• Recognize and address community needs; improve quality of life
• Positively impact profitability – 81% of corporations focus their employee volunteer programs on core business functions

Community leadership goes far beyond simply making financial contributions. When businesses become actively engaged with community needs, causes, and organizations, incredible synergy is created and becomes contagious. End results include stronger workforces, community connections, and business-to-business alliances.

Think again if you find it strange that NPcatalyst, as a corporate giving consultant, is giving away the “secret sauce” to volunteer programming. It’s possible, but successful programs possess commitment, attention, and organization. This is precisely what volunteer program consultants, like NPcatalyst, provide to its corporate clients.

To learn more about creating a strong employee volunteer program at your business, contact NPcatalyst at info@NPcatalyst.com and 775-333-9444.

In daily conversations with donor and non-profit organizations, we frequently receive two questions. First, donors ask how and where the should contribute their money. At the same time, charities ask how they can raise more money from existing and new donors. The answers to both questions have commonalities, such understanding community needs and how donors and charities work together to meet them.

The strategies NPcatalyst creates for both donors and charities involve transparency and greater knowledge of funding and the organizations which receive them. It’s important, for many reasons, to have a keen understanding of how the organization is meeting community needs, how the organization is managing and performing, and precisely how the funds are allocated.

Providing this type of information to donors and, at the same time, leveraging it for greater public awareness, is why NPcatalyst created its HealthCheck system. Through an review of the Form 990 and answers from a 60-question survey, organizations receive a ratings analysis and a best practices tool in five areas. Beyond its ability to promote an organization’s strength and raise funds by ensuring their proper usage, it’s a great way to build upon the weak areas by implementing the recommended best practices. Here’s a close look at the five areas being analyzed.

Like in business, non-profit (or community-benefit) organizations need revenue to not only exist, but to provide support, growth, and opportunity to the beneficiaries they serve.

Billions of dollars are contributed to organizations each year. Some donors may question is this enough or is their contribution needed? However, the more appropriate questions might be “Am I giving to the right organization” and “How effective is my donation”? The answers lie within each donor’s personal path to philanthropy.

For the most part, when donors make a charitable donation, they want to know that they are giving to a good thing and that the money will be used the right way. But, how do donors know this? How can they be assured or satisfied that their donations will be well spent? In our opinion, effectiveness equals donor satisfaction combined with impact and utilization of each gift.

No matter the size of the donation or from whom it is being contributed (business, foundation or community resident), here are our habits of highly effective giving.

Identify the ideal organization

When looking for the right organization to support, start by taking a good look at your interests, connections, goals, and influences. These will help narrow the list of local, national, or global organizations from which to select the one(s) you’ll eventually support. If you need help, contact a nearby leader (such as NPcatalyst), who has access to multiple directories.

Understand the organization’s needs

When you have narrowed the search, take a good look at each organization’s reason for existence, mission, programs, and goals. As you do this, you’ll become more familiar with the organization and, more importantly, identify and understand their needs. If you’re having a difficult time identifying their need for donor and volunteer support, give them a phone call or send an email.

Assess the organization

A critical step of the process is analyzing each organization’s operations and performance. This is where you determine the soundness of their best practices. Be sure to assess the percentage of funds being allocated to programs or services; take a look at the strength of their leadership; and check to see if their policies, procedures, and management practices are up to par. If you would like assistance, contact companies like NPcatalyst, which analyze and rate charities on a regular basis.

Establish a relationship

There’s no finer way to understand an organization than by direct contact. This can be accomplished by sending an email or calling a staff or board member to ask questions, request a meeting, register for a special event, or offer to volunteer. As in business sales, the ideal “transactions” take place as a result of mutually-beneficial relationships. It is a great way to watch the effect of your donation.

Leverage the contribution

Once you have made the donation(s), the fun does not need to end there. No matter the size of the gift, sharing your goodwill should help compel others to duplicate your act of kindness, as well as create greater awareness of the organization. For businesses, it is a great way to illustrate a business’s role in community growth, not to mention its effect in generating new business. By simply updating your “status” via social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or sending a press release to media or mailing a letter to friends, there is a good chance your gift will keep giving.

Measure the contribution

Similar to assessing the organization (Habit #3), be sure to confirm how the money was allocated within the organization. Whether the contribution was unrestricted or restricted (given for a specific purpose), it is vital that you recognize that the donation was distributed toward its intended purpose.

The significance of each charitable donation is escalated when a donor has a deep understanding of the cause, the organization, and the program(s) being supported. In a very similar approach to building personal relationships, the more familiar a donor is to the beneficiary of the contribution, the more significant and rewarding the gift.

If you have not applied these habits to past contributions, imagine how your giving could have been different. By applying these habits, your future donations will have far greater impact, making your community, country, and world a better place.

For more information about the habits of effective giving, contact Pete Parker at NPcatalyst, or visit www.NPcatalyst.com.

Whether it boldly hits national news or barely hits the local press, stories of improper use of donated funds is never good. Non-profit or “community-benefit” organizations exist to meet community needs while, at the same time, enhance quality of life.  Unfortunately, these situations continue to occur and these stories circulate throughout the media.

So, how can donors prevent their funds from being improperly used or allocated?

It’s simple…thorough knowledge of the organization you’re supporting should do the trick. This can be done through different avenues of organization understanding. The best possible way is by creating a direct relationship with the organization by calling, volunteering, and/or attending events.

If developing a personal relationship isn’t an option, then check to see if the organization has been rated on its finances, management, or performance. A non-profit organization named Charity Navigator is a good resource as they rate select organizations (those with $500,000+ budgets) based on financial efficiencies.

NPcatalyst, also rates charities; but, scoring is taken steps further. The belief is that management and leadership are just as important as financial oversight. Through their HealthCheck tool, the company scores charitable organizations of all budget sizes, locations, and service areas on five areas:

• Data & Efficiency
• Finance & Fund Development
• Governance
• Human Resources
• Public Information

Transparency is key. Scoring in multiple areas is to paint a clear picture of each organization’s best practices.

Regardless of which resource you use, your best bet is to have a strong understanding of the charity you’re about to support to ensure that your hard-earned donation will be put to the best possible, or your pre-determined, use.

For more information or to learn more about a particular organization contact NPcatalyst at 775-333-9444 or info@npcatalyst.com.

Every community organization approaching our company for assistance has the same issue – the need for funding support. While each organization’s situation is different, the common theme has been the search for revenue using new vehicles and/or from new target audiences. We’ve noticed, however, that very few utilize robust or even strategic online giving models.

“Studies have shown that online giving increased 35% in 2010”, says Pete Parker, managing partner of NPcatalyst. “Rather than allow non-profit organizations to stand on the sidelines hoping for new contributors to magically visit their websites to make donations, our strategies are tailored to proactively reach out to prospective donors.”

NPcatalyst works with non-profit organizations to design online giving campaigns directly aligned with their annual giving, major campaign, and special event goals. Using an infusion of e-communications capacities, social media tools and mobile giving, the online giving strategies increase public awareness and direct giving successes. The design of each strategy is rooted in a campaign model featuring measurable benchmarks, network connections, and appealing promotional messages.

For a minimal investment, a tailor-made online giving campaign can be designed and generating contributions within one week.

The NPcatalyst online giving solution works for all organizations, regardless of their online giving and social media readiness or that they’ve had a “donate now” button featured on their website for some time. The firm offers solutions for every non-profit organization seeking to generate online gifts and expand their internet-based presence and reach.

To learn more about the NPcatalyst online giving solution, call 775-333-9444 or email info@npcatalyst.com.

Deeply rooted in service and community, the contributions we craft as a company and individuals provide incredible reward and excitement. Just as valuable are the experiences, friendships and ideas shared through our active engagement with community pursuits.

It’s with the same level of enthusiasm and pride that we give recognition to the organizations we supported throughout 2010. Though we can easily talk for hours about each experience and organization, we’d prefer to tell you in person. As such, the organizations we, now NPcatalyst, directly affected this past year are:
Association of Fundraising Professionals (Sierra Nevada)
Community Foundation of Western Nevada
Great Basin Outdoor School
Junior Achievement of Northern Nevada
Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful
Nevada EcoNet
Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation
Northern Nevada Immunization Coalition
Obesity Prevention Foundation
Reno Little Theater
Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network
Sierra Arts Foundation
Sierra Nevada Journeys
SNCAT
SPCA of Northern Nevada
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
The First Tee of Northern Nevada
Tour de Nez Outreach
University of Arizona Alumni Association’s Sierra Nevada Chapter
University of Arizona – Race Track Industry Program Alumni Association
Wooster HS International Baccalaureate Program
Young Non-profit Professionals Network (Northern Nevada)

In addition to supporting these outstanding charities, we continually promote many other community organizations in the hopes of increasing donor and volunteer involvement. This list of organizations is featured on our website at www.npcatalyst.com/charity-profiles.

We’re excited at what 2011 will bring to communities and we intend on being an even stronger catalyst of leadership and engagement!

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Skills-based volunteerism has been around for ages, beginning primarily with pro bono work within the legal sector. In recent years, it has played an increasingly key role throughout the corporate sector.

According to the 2009 Deloitte IMPACT Study, skills-based volunteerism can best be described as:

• Volunteerism which uses skills, experience, talents or education. Impacts corporations, organizations and individuals. Uses existing skills and develops new ones
• Volunteerism which finds the intersection of high impact skills that match with characteristics needed by local nonprofits.
• Individuals who volunteer their skills or talents or experience to support a nonprofit project or organization.

Non-profit organizations are highly driven in realizing their social missions, but they are often faced with business issues that hands-on volunteering cannot address and that financial contributions often cannot meet.

Skills-based volunteering is rapidly gaining recognition as a powerful driver of social impact and business value. “Skills-based volunteer programs provide valuable experiential learning opportunities for employees that build business and leadership skills without the expense often associated with traditional corporate training programs,” said Evan Hochberg, Deloitte Services LP national director of community involvement, in a press release.

The benefits of SBV (Skills-Based Volunteerism) count many and affect both the corporation providing the human capital, as well as the causes and organizations receiving the expertise. Below are just a handful of the benefits:

Corporate benefits of skills-based volunteerism:

• Enhances existing and develops new employee skills
• Expands corporate in-kind opportunity
• Permits more in-depth relationships with non-profit organizations
• Enhances reputation of company and its values

Benefits to non-profit organizations:

• Access to needed management skills/expertise
• An outside perspective on strategic issues
• Helps solve organizational issues that staff are not able to take on
• Volunteers = ambassadors, supporters
• May lead to new donors

According to the Taproot Foundation, a nonprofit organization that makes business talent available to organizations working to improve society, pro bono service deepens your reputation as a good corporate citizen. The Foundation also states that:

• Surveys show that corporate citizenship is now the top driver of reputation;
• Companies engaged in corporate social responsibility had a 10-year return on equity that was 10% higher than their counterparts and a 10 year relative return to shareholders that was 65% higher;
• Most Americans regard the donation of products and employee time more favorably than financial support; and,
• The dollar valuation of an hour of pro bono service is nearly 10x that of traditional volunteer activities, adding significantly to your annual total community giving and impact.

Corporate leaders are just now beginning to recognize the value of skills-based volunteerism. Whether they hire executive leaders or local service brokers to manage these programs, they are recognizing positive benefits within their companies. “Corporate America has yet to fully tap the benefits of integrating skills-based volunteerism into talent development strategies and programs,” said Susan Burnett, Deloitte Services LP national director of talent development.

The Points of Light Institute, which strives to inspire, equip and mobilize people to take action that changes the world, is a leader in the volunteer-service movement. The organization believes that more agencies must seize the opportunity to leverage talent and that more businesses are eager to activate around their brand and core business.

Don’t hesitate to learn more about skills-based volunteerism and designing effective corporate-community investment programs, by contacting Pete Parker (petep@parkerdevelopment.com; 775-333-9444).

There are countless benefits associated with community volunteerism. From improving one’s health to positioning organizations for growth, the impact of “giving back” or “making a difference” can have is significant.

There’s one dilemna, however, how does someone start volunteering and where does he/she go for direction? Nevada’s very low rate (ranked 50th in the US) of 20.6% volunteerism is embarassing. When compared to the national average (26.8%) or even our next door neighbors (California 24.6%, Oregon 33.9%, Idaho 35.7%, Utah 45.4%, and Arizona 24.8%), we provide far less voluntary support to our local communities. The time is now to roll up our sleeves and lend our hands, passions, and ideas to local charitable efforts.

For many, taking the first step is very difficult. Determining which organization to select, how to approach it, how much time to offer and in what capacity, and when to make the initial contact…can be stressful, uneasy, intimidating and, to a degree, frightening.

Northern Nevada has lacked resources to identify volunteers, link them with organizations, train for easy adjustments, and provide mentoring services. Recent opportunities are starting to meet our community needs. For starters, those looking to volunteer can simply log on to www.volunteermatch.org to find a “volunteer bank” of opportunities. They may also contact Nevada Volunteers and attend classes and ask questions. For those under the age of 40, the Reno-Tahoe Young Professional Network’s engagement initiative, The Pebble Project, educates and connects young professionals with volunteer leadership positions at local non-profit organizations.

And finally, a roster containing profiles of 54 local non-profit organizations looking for volunteers can be found on the Parker Development Services website.

The most difficult part of volunteering is taking the initial step. Once you get past that fear, your involvement in the community can (and should) be an incredible experience!