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Fund Accounting Software 

Donor Management Software

Membership Rosters and Billing

Service Statistics Recordkeeping and Reports 

State and National Statistics and Reports

Fund-Raising 

    Grant Writing 

       Community Needs and Your Impact 

       Use a Logic Model to Get Organized

       Hire a Grant Writer

    Donation Development

       Touch Well and Touch Often by Email

       Direct Donation or Payment for Fundraising Item Online

       Employer Donation Matching

       Individual Supporter Social Media Fundraising

    Branded Items for Donors, Clients, Volunteers, Special Events 

    Barn Sales, Silent Auctions Online Auctions
    Recycling and Other Passive Giving Fundraising Opportunities 

Books to Sell to Raise Both Funds and Public Awareness

Public Speaking

Special Events Event Planning 

Passive Giving Online or Instore Donations by Retailers for Shopping or Searching

Charity Validation Sites

Payroll Deduction Giving Programs

Major Private Donors

Corporate and Other Partnerships

Other Resources 

TOPICS ON OTHER PAGES:

Equine Non-Profit Agency Resources 

HORSE NON-PROFIT SECTION MAIN PAGE

HORSE NON-PROFIT RESOURCES - CREDENTIALS & PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

HORSE NON-PROFIT VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT

HORSE NON-PROFIT RESOURCES - ADVERTISING & MARKETING

NEWS FLASH-OUR 2008 Best Humane Business Innovation Award went to the National Black Farmers Association for Project Wanted Horse

Del Camino helps non-profit horse facilities and services find timely information that benefits their program and success.  We want to see horse sanctuaries and retirement stables grow and prosper. We would like horse rescues to be well-operated and fully supported by their local communities.  The benefits of horseback riding to humans is a well-established fact, and the therapeutic benefits to individuals, and cultural benefits to the wider society, mean every effort should be expended to develop viable humane businesses that use well-trained, good tempered, well-seasoned horses. It can be done.

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Fund Accounting Software                                                                          (Top of Page)

Excellent accounting for your non-profit is a necessity from the very beginning.  In order to apply for many grant and loan opportunities, audited books for one or two of your most recent years of operation are often required.  If you can't pass an audit that confirms your claims of donations, expenses, and community participation, you are going to miss the boat on countless funding opportunities that require the granting company, foundation, or government agency to do "due diligence."  Since you are going to keep good books from the outset, then, you should choose software that enables you to do "grant tracking" from the beginning, rather than have to change systems at a later date.

Accounting software for non-profits that receive grants for specific projects becomes a necessity.  The donor makes a condition of the grant that you provide a final report of how it's money was spent and whether that achieved the expected outcome or not.  Accountants and bookkeepers accustomed to private sector accounting would refer to this as "job tracking", so that income and expenses can be assigned to a particular "job" as well as rolled up into the regular profit centers and general ledger. 

Sage Software has been a leader in small to medium sized business accounting software for decades.  They acquired Peachtree Accounting about five years ago.  Sage's Fund Accounting software is a good choice for non-profits with several grants to administer, or that receives funding from public schools and other government agencies. and it integrates seamlessly with their Fundraising software that tracks special events, donors, and volunteers. 

Spectra Software offers an integrated accounting package that you can use online or purchase to use offline. 

Donor Management Software

With so many donor-management software packages out there, it can be difficult to keep track of the tools offered by each. To help you stay organized, TechSoup has created a comparison chart, which lays out side-by-side the key features of eleven popular donor-management systems, including:

Use TechSoup's downloadable spreadsheet — last updated in October of 2007 — to compare the features of these and other donor-management products you may be considering for your organization. Tech Soup added additional columns to give you space to assess applications not included in this comparison.

Here is the link to Tech Soup's website to download the Excel spreadsheet comparison chart:

Matchmaker Fundraising software is not included in the list above, but is a comprehensive program to track and work with donors, sponsors, special events, volunteers.

Sage Software has been a leader in small to medium sized business accounting software for decades.  They acquired Peachtree Accounting about five years ago.  Sage's Fund Accounting software is a good choice for non-profits with several grants to administer, or that receives funding from public schools and other government agencies. and it integrates seamlessly with their Fundraising software that tracks special events, donors, and volunteers. 

Membership Rosters and Billing                                                    (Top of Page)

Advertise for volunteers with a free basic listing on VolunteerMatch (see Recruiting section) then keep track of their training, availability, schedule them and track their hours for service awards.

GiftWorks Volunteer Management Software  enables you to track Volunteer Rosters, Participation, Training completed, and Assignments and match volunteer availability with job and schedule requirements.  Even if your non-profit rescue, retirement, or therapeutic riding center is starting very small, with just a few horses and volunteers, the sooner you learn to take advantage of a database and scheduling package, the more time you will have to take care of other tasks that cannot be automated.

Service Statistics Recordkeeping and Reports

As you apply for donations, grants, and sponsorships from foundations and corporations and government agencies, you will immediately notice that being able to show a track record of service, and a demand for more service, as well as volunteer involvement in factual, statistical, measurable form is necessary.  If you are overwhelmed with calls from people who want to take therapeutic riding lessons, but cannot give a precise count of how many you turned away, you have missed the boat.  If you believe there is a huge demand for family horses to be rescued during difficult economic times and a rise in the unemployment rate, but have no call records to back that up, you are going to lose credibility as well as have difficulty showing what the per dollar impact of a grant or donation or sponsorship might have.  The person or committee that reviews grant requests needs to get "the most bang for the buck".  If they give you more money to serve more riders with disabilities, or more abused horses, can you show there are more in your geographical area to be served that know about your service and want to take advantage of it?  Once the donor gives you the money, can you show you served more, as expected, and met the goal of the grant?  If the program is new, can you document pent up demand?

Presently, this is the area where horse rescues can learn a great deal from established pet shelters, and in so doing, help move the entire horse rescue problem from manipulated estimates that fire up emotions,  to facts that thoughtful people can tackle to actually help horses. 

National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy  This is an excellent resource for how to keep logs and statistics of calls from surrenderers, understanding how the bond is broken, the top ten reasons people relinquish their animals, the bias that almost always enters the conversation between the volunteer who is receiving the animal and the person who is relinquishing it.

State and National Statistics and Reports                                                   (Top of Page)

At some point your figures from call logs and volunteer hours and website visits and clients served get compared with similar charities in your state, region, or nationally.  If you do not do it to show that a donation dollar given to you is well-spent by comparison, the person or committee reviewing your grant or sponsorship request probably will. 

You should make it your business to track whatever statistics are available in your field, so that you can use them in your marketing and grant writing materials.  Be sure to compare apples to apples - your weekly figures do not compare to an annual report unless you add up 52 weeks!  Don't leave it to your reader to do the math.  If your equine charity does not have good state or national statistics collected by a good state or national professional association or government agency, such as the livestock board, or NARHA or EAGALA, write letters to urge the right people to take action so your tax dollars or association dues are being used to produce this valuable information.  Be a squeaky wheel.  If we need more livestock officers to respond to abuse complaints, there should be a matrix of statistics as to what type of abuse, which counties, during what seasons, at what kinds of properties, for what breed, age, sex, and level of training of horses, donkeys, or mules, and this information should be made public.

Neither the hysterical claims of the American Horse Council that at least 100,000 horses annually will need to be rescued, nor the claims of the Humane Society of the United States that hardly any would be, if equine slaughter were outlawed, could rely on facts concerning the actual sources of the horses so destroyed.  The AHC says they are mostly family pets that people cannot afford to keep and cannot afford to euthanize, and the HSUS claims they are mostly the discards of racetracks, rodeos, breeding programs and PMU factory farms.  Since no reliable records exist, and the USDA and US Customs simply count heads of stallions, mares and geldings, the matter can be argued indefinitely.  So long as it is up for debate where the "unwanted" horses come from, it is also debatable where to focus rescue efforts, where to focus education, or change commercial practices concerning horses, or stop breeding and racing subsidies, to most effectively staunch the tide of "unwanted" horses.  When the problem cannot be defined, neither can the solution be defined.   Of all industries, the horse industry seems to have the most murky and least reliable statistics, with projections made on top of faulty estimates from small samples of previous decades, then circulated as facts.  The other kinds of businesses from whom you are likely to seek donations simply don't function that way, and are not comfortable with it.   For them, lack of "actionable information" can mean ruin, by overproducing a product for too small a market, or overpricing, etc.  For them, sitting with excess inventory, or running out of product, or not training enough call center staff to meet demand, can cost entire departments their jobs.

Pet Rescue Management software that helps create these kinds of statistics for you, and generates reports, is offered by ShelterPro.  As they describe their product, "Shelter Pro Software is designed for Animal Control and Animal Shelter records management. It is used by Animal Shelters, Animal Control and Law Enforcement, Humane Societies, SPCAs, and private Kennels. Great software for a great price. Try the free demo and call with any questions.

For rescues and sanctuaries the need to track horses being supported by donors, out on trial periods, and a variety of special considerations, as well as statistics means you may need to adapt to Pet Rescue Management Software, such as is offered by Shelter Pro .  Avoid buying a closing shelter's PetWhere software, as the developer has discontinued it.  If you have this software and need support, try this fellow who used to work for the developer: http://www.jassing.com/PetWhere/.

NEW! 01/09/09 The Unwanted Horse Veterinary Relief Campaign  is a partnership of Intervet/Shering-Plough pharmaceuticals and the American Association of Equine Practitioners to provide equine vaccines to 501(c)(3) Non-Profit horse rescues, retirement and rehabilitation facilities and sanctuaries for their Spring or Fall vaccinations.  There is no limit to the number of horses the agency can receive vaccines for.  The agency must be following the AAEP Guidelines for a rescue or sanctuary, and work with an AAEP member veterinarian who jointly applies with the non-profit for the vaccines.  Here is the FAQ Brochure .PDF:

Intervet AAEP Rescue Vaccines 2009 FAQSheet.pdf

Event Planning                                                                                 (Top of Page)

Event Planning supplies are here, conveniently collected in one place.

DoJiggy is easy, affordable online event and fund-raising software to help non-profits and community organizations hold auctions, silent auctions, golf tournaments, walk-a-thons, luncheons, conferences, and other fund-raising or awareness-raising events.  It includes scheduling, marketing, reservations, payment processing, reports, lists - everything you need to plan, market, manage and succeed with a first-class event.

EasyWare also includes an interface to PrintTix for integrating easy online at-home ticket purchase and print technology into your non-profit accounting software and website.

Cvent handles all aspects of a conference including: Online Registration Event Email Marketing Payment Processing
Travel, Housing & Budgeting Strategic Meetings Management.  Major non-profits such as Goodwill, Salvation Army and NARHA use cvent services.

Fund-Raising                     (Top of Page)                       

Here in Arizona alone, in 2006 there were 13,266 501(c)(3) public charities, of which 8,150 were IRS Non-Reporting (with less than $25,000 per year in gross receipts, and another 5,314 501(c) non-profit organizations such as clubs, associations, business leagues, etc. that raised funds through membership dues and member events. [Source: National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCSS)} If you want to be heard above the clamoring crowd, especially in difficult economic times, you will need to learn to interpret statistics about your target donor audience and fund raise accordingly.

An excellent resource for learning about all types of fund-raising, grant writing, donation development is the Free Management Library website page for non-profits, with many excellent links.   Management Help.org Non-Profit Fundraising

Another great site if you like doing all your research about fundraising online is Fund Raising and Fund Raisers

Better yet, buy either of these books and read it cover-to-cover.  You will refer to it many, many, times over the years, and can read a chapter when you have to hurry up and wait, but don't have a computer with internet access to check out online resources.

The price of the Fundraiser's Phrase Book by Gail Hamilton is book is a major investment, but one that every non-profit should make.  Whether you are writing for the Donation Page of your website, a Direct Mail letter, a Powerpoint Presentation to corporate sponsors, or crafting a Grant Request, you can use its advice.  You have, on average, six seconds to capture a reader's attention.   You know how important your mission is.  Use powerful phrases that tie together your reader's heartfelt interest and your organization's need.  This book is the "bible" for non-profit copywriters.

HORSE RESCUES & ADOPTION AGENCIES - INQUIRE ABOUT HOW TO RESELL THIS BOOK FOR PROFIT "How to Adopt a Horse"

Click on image to inquire

Grant Writing                                                              (Top of Page)

Many equine-related non-profits have heard about grants, and are anxious to apply for them.  There is a difference between a donation, a scholarship, and a grant.  In order to write a grant request that will be read, much less approved, your organization typically must meet several basic criteria:

This means that all the business things you do to start and run your horse non-profit for success and longevity come together in the grant writing effort.  From recruiting a truly effective Board of Directors, to keeping good horse intake/placement records, to filing your 990's on time, the welfare of your mission depends on being a good non-profit business, as well as equine-assisted mental health therapist or barn manager.

Write well.  If you have not written a business proposal in your past, read several grant proposals that were addressed to appropriate philanthropic or government entities that were accepted.  If you do not think you can write a clear, compelling, business-like proposal, get professional help.    Hire a freelance consultant, or recruit a volunteer with experience. 

Devote some real attention to the quality of your website and brochures and volunteer and donor materials.  All of these will be evaluated for their appearance, coordination, timeliness and effectiveness as part of the "due diligence" of a group considering granting your proposal.  So you should have these "ducks in a row" first.  If there is no way for a donor to "buy" smoothly and conveniently when visiting your website, or after reading your brochure, it appears to the grantor that the benefactor will be throwing their money away.  Also, if you practice writing good brief clear compelling copy for web pages and tri-fold brochures and press releases, you are gaining the experience and skills you need to write grant proposals.  Once you have honed a "perfect paragraph" for your mission statement and your donor web page, you will reuse these paragraphs in many other written materials.

Community Needs and Your Impact                     (Top of Page)

From the very beginning, collect and keep verifiable statistics on the equine community, and larger local community that you serve.  As your equine non-profit grows, and you become eligible to apply for grants and participation on government and civic committees and boards that impact your mission, you need to clearly and briefly articulate the impact of your organization on the equine, special needs, and larger community. 

For example, let us say you have a therapeutic riding center that wants to assist wounded warriors who are amputees from Afghanistan and Iraq.  How many are there in your geographic area?  Nationally, as of mid-2007 there were 803.  What if you open your vision to include Vietnam veterans?  Nationally, there are 75,000 disabled Vietnam veterans.  Perhaps a reasonable client base live within a half hour drive of your center, and have conditions you are well equipped to serve.  This knowledge directs your grant requests toward a slightly different audience.

Questions to ask during problem analysis:

1. What is the problem?
2. Why is this a problem? (What causes the problem?)
3. For whom (individual, household, group, community, society in general) does this problem exist?
4. Who is involved in the problem?
5. Who has a stake in the problem? (Who cares whether it is resolved or not?)
6. What do existing research and experience say? What do we know about the problem?

It is worthwhile to develop a collection of abstracts of academic research that supports your work, so that you can cite relevant excerpts.  Here is an example: Self-Esteem Assessment of Adolescents Involved in Horsemanship Activities, Saunders-Ferguson, K.E., Barnett, R.V., Culen, G. & TenBroeck, S.  from the website of the University of Florida Family, Youth and Community Science department.

If you are writing a grant request for a horse rescue, and make the case that horses are at risk of abandonment, what information can you cite from state, county, and local livestock officers, or BLM or USFS range managers, or private land owners concerning horse abandonments in your area?  What have been the historical experience trends?  Are there more or fewer documented cases over the last five years?  Are the cases specific to a time of year, or concentrated in particular counties?  What are the breeds, sexes, ages, level of training and conditions of those horses?  You may find that no such statistics are available, once you make contact with and develop positive working relationships with local agencies.  Perhaps your first grant will actually be to set up a system for collecting and analyzing this data.  Perhaps you simply need to make telephone calls once monthly to complete a questionnaire you design to collect the data.  But make no mistake.  This data is valuable.

Use a Logic Model to Get Organized                                 (Top of Page)
 

A  logic model is a graphic representation — a flowchart — of the important elements of your program or project.  It answers in a clear visual the questions every funder or contributor has. Whether simple or complex, a basic logic model looks like this.

Why should you use the logic model? How will it help you?
The logic model:
 

For more information about grant writing for start-up non-profits, visit the website of this professional consultant The Write Source - Grant Writing Consultancy and Clinics

But first, buy this book and read it cover-to-cover.  You will refer to it many, many, times over the years!

Need a lead to get started?  Petsmart Charities offers grants to horse rescues that promote adoption. Watch their webinar and learn.

Hire a Grant Writer                         (Top of Page)

Most small equine-related non-profits do not have a skilled and equipped grant writer on their staff or volunteer team.  Often, when they explore hiring a professional the cost is more than they can manage, which can be discouraging.  Sometimes the time and effort required for the staff to orient the grant writer to the unique aspects of equine assisted activities or equine rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming is the deterrent to finding a good match.  Yet, winning a grant or two could make all the difference for the clients and the horses they serve; it is sorely needed.

We understand.  Fortunately, we can help.  Del Camino has expertise in the four critical areas for successful equine-related grant writing:

We can help with part or all of your project, and have special affordable fees for horse-related non-profits.  For information about our research and grant writing services, Contact Us.

Donation Development                                          (Top of Page)

Whatever accounting and fundraising management software you use, ensure you can generate reports that provide this information about your donors:

Last Year But Unfortunately Not This Year (LYBUNT)

AND

Some Year But Unfortunately Not This Year (SYBUNT)

People and organizations who have been touched by your message and mission in the past can be touched again.  Your goal is to make their relationship with your equine non-profit more rewarding and develop them as regular givers; for commercial businesses they are the regular customers with brand loyalty. 

Companies and non-profits devote oceans of effort and money to developing buyers or supporters.  It is much easier to contact people who have given in the past, than to recruit new donors who do not know about your organization and the work it does.  Reports that sort your database of past gifts to identify people you have reached before, but not recently, such as LYBUNT and SYBUNT are critical so you can determine how to bring them back into the fold.

The three books shown here, Finder's Keepers, Fundraising Analytics, and The 11 Questions Every Donor Asks are absolute necessities for anyone who wants their mission to succeed.

Online Fundraising Campaigns - here's an excellent small study by Tech Soup to determine what strategies work, which raise the most money, etc.

Touch Well and Touch Often by Email

When sending email and eNewsletters became commonplace business communication, "best practices" were to contact your supporters once a month, or every other month.  Today, most marketing research shows that twice per month is not only acceptable to those who view your agency and its mission favorably, it is necessary.  Even with social media contact through FaceBook and Twitter, your email containing news and a "Donate Now" button reaches your largest audience.  Remember, most people need three contacts to take action.  That means invitations to your event, or a special campaign, work best on a six to eight week timescale.

If you don't have time to develop 24 eNewsletters for the year, and can barely update your addresses lists, why not give the job to someone else?  We can work with your calendar and past efforts to create a portfolio of ready to send items you can easily "tweak" by changing dates and times, fees, or details of events, and plug in timely client, volunteer, horse, or sponsor news. We can work with any of the major bulk email services such as Vertical Response, iContact, and Constant Contact.  Losing touch with or contacting your constituents too infrequently is a situation you can't afford.  Email us for more information.   

Direct Donation or Payment for Fundraising Item Online          (Top of Page)

The 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study shows that while 2008 certainly wasn’t a red-letter year for fundraising in general, even in today’s tight economic times, nonprofit organizations experienced a 43% increase in online gifts.  In fact, the total amount of money raised online increased 26% from 2007 to 2008.  Additional studies report that about half of those who receive your appeal for funds in the mail will go first to your website (as will the program officer reviewing your grant proposal.)

PayPal.com  You must ask for the order!  When people visit your compelling website page or blog post, they come from various searches.  The "landing page" may be the ad for a particular adoptable horse.  It may be your "home" page, our the story of a recent event you held.  There should be an appropriate PayPal button on that page.  Do you want a regular monthly donation to support a particular horse that you are rehabilitating?  There should be a 100% support, a 50% support, and a one-time only fill-in-the-amount button on that horse's page.  Once someone navigates away from the one page where you have placed clickable donation buttons or links, there is a 80% likelihood they will not return to it.  Put the links next to the topic.  If you are trying to raise funds for a capital improvement, the page describing the project should have donation links. Put a donation payment button on your FaceBook wall.

If your individual donor historically gives small amounts, consider offering an inexpensive  small item to purchase in support of your cause.  It may only contribute a couple of dollars toward the program, but it enables the donor to become a champion who spreads the word.  Supporter lapel pins, wrist bands, lapel ribbons, and similar items are easy to buy with a PayPal or other online purchase button.

PayPal enables people to immediately make a contribution while the spirit moves them.  It is safe, since they don't have to give you their credit card information.  The buttons are easy to build.  The money goes into your PayPal account, from which you can pay vendors directly, or transfer funds to checking or savings accounts.  If you are not using PayPal to its full potential, you are missing the boat!

PayPal may have pioneered online secure payments, but there are many more ways besides PayPal to take donations online and confirm their legitimacy. Here are four alternatives specifically catering to charitable donations:

American Express Giving Express Online connects cardholders to more than one million charities with a variety of donation options. Besides one-time contributions or purchases of fundraising items, cardholders can schedule monthly payments, which is particularly valuable for "support a horse" or "rider scholarships" or "support a program" campaigns. Members can even redeem their Rewards Points to make a donation. 

JustGive.org,

Well-established, well-run rescues and sanctuaries should also be able to accept donations through  

Network for Good, which enables you to build custom donation links easily for your web page and professional solicitation e-newsletters.   Network for Good also offers The Good Card via its own website and Charity Navigator, a charity validation site.  The Good Card is a gift card for charity where the recipient gets to donate to their charity of choice. Everyone has their favorite charities and now a supporter of your non-profit can give them the perfect gift-a donation to their favorite charity.

TIP:  Some professional fundraisers suggest building a donation link on every page, or including it on your navigation bar.  This is perfectly acceptable if you do it tastefully.  Remember the "out of sight, out of mind" adage.

Payroll Deduction Giving Programs                      (Top of Page)

Payroll deduction giving through annual enrollment campaigns was pioneered by The United Way with businesses. This makes donating easy to budget and an efficient way to give for the year to favorite charities. 

Note:  Evaluate the giving policies of the companies, foundations and government agencies that sponsor your programs or give you grants before choosing to participate in The United Way.  Some exclude non-profits funded by The United Way.  You may or may not want to trade one source of funding for another.  You may be able to compromise by enrolling as an affiliated non-profit.  People can choose your organization by United Way identification number to give by payroll deduction, but you will not participate in a percentage of the general campaign.

Today, one in five people work for a government entity in the U.S. and the main program that mirrors the United Way is the Combined Federal Campaign in promoting, managing and distributing payroll deduction contributions.  If your organization has any volunteers or clients that are government employees, the CFC may be a good adjunct or alternative.

    Combined Federal Campaign  which works like the United Way for county, state, and federal (including military) employees to make payroll deduction donations to their choice of thousands of registered charities.  The CFC makes it easier to donate to a specific charity than does the United Way, but does have regional managers who set goals for the year and conduct enrollment promotions.

Passive Giving Online or Instore Donations by Retailers for Shopping or Searching  

iGive Shopping,enables online shoppers to take advantage of promotions and discounts at thousands of businesses, and have a percentage of their purchase donated to their favorite charity.  They also have a donation for searching program similar to GoodSearch, called iSearchiGive.  Presently we use iSearch to support an Arizona therapeutic riding center.  We like the occasional email notices we receive that tell us how much we have raised on behalf of our charity.  Specialized graphical links for your website are easy to create for animal rescues and shelters, schools, and funds.  Like your Network for Good, PayPal or Google "Donate Now" buttons, remember to add them not only to your website in key locations, but also to the templates for your e-Newsletters, and to your blog and Facebook pages.

We have used iSearch to support one horse sanctuary.  Over 8 months those pennies, just from online searches, added up to $6.26.  The total for that sanctuary from all twelve (12) supporters using the search engine during the 8 months was $146.54.  It is a very small rescue tucked away in a corner of our state.  But supporters all over the country who do online "google" searches are helping.

GoodSearch.com enables your supporters to donate pennies to their favorite charity as they search the internet.  This is the modern equivalent of placing a change collection jar on a retail store's checkout counter.  Over time, as more people add your charity to their search tool, these pennies add up. Like iSearchiGive, specialized graphical links are available for your website, e-Newsletters, Facebook page, and blog.

GiveClicks.com is another passive giving opportunity for your supports.  They can take advantage of promotions and discounts through online retailers and enable their purchase to trigger a donation to your charity.  There is no related search engine, but there is a downloadable browser plug in toolbar.

Many stores donate a percentage of shoppers' purchases through their own programs, or through a service that manages the donations for them.  For example, the  Basha's grocery store chain in Arizona has its own program, "Shop and Give."  Shoppers use their "Thank You" card to get discounts and promotions at the checkout counter.  Because their card is also linked to a 501(c)(3) non-profit, a church or a school, 1% of their grocery bill is donated to the charity by Basha's, and the charity is eligible for annual gifts of as much as $5,000.  It takes just a minute online for a shopper, who could be one of your volunteers or a grateful client, to register their card online or at the store customer service counter.  One person, shopping to the tune of $50 per week, earns $26.00 for your equine non-profit in a year. 

eScrip is a conglomerate that includes major chains like Safeway, Macy's, Nordstrom's, and Lands End, and also local businesses.  Bookstores, electronics stores, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants - many kinds of businesses participate.  Shoppers register their store discount cards (like Safeway) or their credit or debit cards, and link to the registered charity of their choice.  Then, whether they shop in the store or online, a percentage of their purchase total is donated to the charity.  Some stores donate as much as 6%, most donate 1% or 2%. 

Individual Supporter Social Media Fundraising            (Top of Page)

Getting the word out to individuals who can provide public support to your non-profit is critical. Today, that is substantially done on the internet via multiple channels, not merely a website or e-mails.  This Web 2.0 method of supporting charitable causes is particularly appealing to:

1. Individuals who do not have the funds to contribute large amounts themselves, especially in difficult economic times, but have large social networks that can contribute small amounts that add up.

2. Younger people, especially in the 20-30 demographic, who are extremely Web 2.0 savvy and involved, and quite adept at using social media like blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, mySpace, and Twitter

TIP:  If you do not have the time to update a social media site at least once per week, recruit  a staff member or virtual volunteer who can do so (see our Volunteer Management Resources page for important guidelines.)  Ensure that you approve the tone and correctness of the content before it is posted.

YourCause enables individuals to select from 1.7 million non-profits to connect with and promote donations to.  The individual can then share the cause through emails, social networks, or a website.  Individuals set fundraising goals and provide widgets on their sites for visitors to donate.  YourCause collects and forwards the funds to the 501(c) 3 and keeps track of the effort with updated reports on the widget and their site.  Individuals can also recruit volunteers.  Membership for individuals and the non-profits is free, and the tools YourCause provides are first-rate in both design and ease of use. Despite the revenue advantages, the drawback for a non-profit can be limited or no control over the message that is being circulated about your charity, the focus of the fundraising campaign, or its continued maintenance.

 givezooks! provides turnkey grassroots fundraising for non-profits via social networking media (blogs, FaceBook  mySpace, Twitter, etc.)  If you want to professionalize your Web 2.0 efforts, control and maintain a consistent message and use of your brand, a givezooks! membership could be a good option. If you are considering entering the realm of social media and have few experts on staff who know how to market effectively in this format, or have little or no time to do so, this is a controlled way to get an education while raising money. Membership is not free, but the price may bring sizable returns. Year-round fundraising, wish lists, special events, and specific campaigns are supported by the program.  See some examples here .

Charity Validation Sites                                               (Top of Page)

Validation sites post your latest IRS Tax Return (Form 990) so that people and foundations can research your legitimacy before committing funds.  Here are three of them to choose from.  Your non-profit should be listed with at least one of them once you have filed your first return.  It is also possible for individuals to donate via credit card securely at these sites after doing their due diligence.  It is a good idea to make it easy for donors to act without having to jump from site to site.

Animal Charities of America  is a nonprofit organization that pre-screens high quality animal related charities and presents them for giving consideration. Individuals can donate on the site.  They are a member of Independent Charities of America (see below) and the Combined Federal Campaign (see Payroll Deduction section above.)  Both ICA and CFC require your IRS 990 tax return.
 

Independent Charities of America,

  Charity Navigator,

GuideStar,

There are also organizations that keep track of complaints or publish standards for reputable charities.  Here are two:

  Better Business Bureau. and  Standards for Excellence Institute Certified Non-Profit

Employer Donation Matching                                            (Top of Page)

When someone donates to your equine non-profit, do you check, or provide an easy means for the donor to check, if his/her employer has a matching gift program?  More than fourteen thousand American companies do have such a program.  You cannot afford to leave this money on the table.  Yet, you say, you are too busy caring for rescued horses, giving therapeutic riding lessons, or answering phone calls to look into it?  Guess what, so are MOST small non-profit organizations.  However, very smart ones subscribe to online databases that not only list these companies, but can provide an online donor with the exact information they need to apply for an employer matching gift for you at the same time they make their PayPal, iGive, or other secure online donation.  A good example is Hep Development's e-match donor link software.  Try out the demonstration online.

Branded Items for Donors, Clients, Volunteers, Special Events via e-Stores     (Top of Page)

Four of these methods are online shopping solutions that enable you to offer logo items without the initial outlay of cash for inventory to stock and resell.  What was formerly only available to larger companies is now accessible, via printing on demand and drop shipping to even the smallest home business and start-up non-profit.

Do not underestimate the value of a coaster, calendar, mug, ball cap, refrigerator magnet, t-shirt, or mouse pad.  Companies worldwide spend millions per year to provide permanent positive reminders to buyers, investors, employees, and, yes, vendors.  Non-profits have even more reasons to recognize staff and volunteers, clients, vendors, donors and sponsors.  It is also important to identify staff as professionals, and volunteers on your property for visitors, at community outreach events, or to new clients.  While you may give a sports bottle or T-shirt as a gift, many people will gladly purchase additional items to enhance their sense of belonging.  Make it easy for them to do that, and put some money in the till at the same time.

Lands' End Business Outfitters E-Store.    Submit your logo, select your items, and receive commissions on purchases made by donors, clients, staff, and special event supporters.

CafePress  provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  CafePress offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can set up your e-Store with logo items from among thousands of products that are printed on demand with your logo, wording, photo or event artwork. You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Fund-net  provides an e-Store that links from your website with logo items you select.  Fund-net specializes in logo items from among 800,000 products for non-profits, schools, clubs, teams, corporate, special events, and medical facilities.  You simply provide the artwork and make your selections and receive commissions on the sales.  No need to collect funds.

Zazzle    provides an e-Store that links from your website with items you select.  Zazzle offers items with artists' work for sale from which you can select, or you can select items to customize with your logo, wording or photos from among thousands of products.  They are printed on demand in the size and color the buyer chooses.  You simply prove the artwork and select the products and receive commissions on the sales.  Here is an equine rescue example.

Your Annual Calendar                                                                   (Top of Page)

One of the most useful tools for fundraising also doubles as a donor, sponsor and volunteer recognition tool.  It is the annual calendar!  Due to modern digital on-demand printing, smaller print runs are more economical than ever.  Your choices of size, number of photos, full or two-color, also enable you to control costs.  Calendars can be large multi-page versions, all twelve months one page, desk or magnetic.  Even your annual special events can be added to the calendar like holidays.

Get your Creative Team busy and make a calendar you can sell available to your entire list of constituents by November so that donors can buy them to give as Christmas and Hannukah gifts.  If you need help to jump start your project, or do not have a creative team, Contact Us.

Recycling and Other Passive Giving Fundraising Opportunities                      (Top of Page)

Whether it is branded items in your online store, or passive giving links to companies that donate a portion of sales proceeds, don't just start signing up for anything and everything that comes your way.  Discuss the range of opportunities with your Board of Directors, and present them with a need for a linking and monetizing policy.  The Board, with its roles of governance and fundraising, approves a website policy to include, for example, how links to other websites will be handled.  This protects the non-profit from establishing links contrary to its mission, or that could be in violation of its non-profit status, or discriminatory and subject to lawsuit.  Even if the director chooses links wisely and consistently, it is the Board's job to back him up with a written publicly published policy. 

Here are some current opportunities to consider:

Project KOPEG provides a system for collecting used electronics and components like cell phones and ink cartridges from supporters, either businesses or individuals, and turning them into cash for your non-profit.

Empties for Cash also offers a turnkey system for collecting used inkjet cartridges from supporters. In return for recycling used printer cartridges, they pay up to $4.00 for each inkjet, provide free supplies and free shipping. There is no cost to participate

Award Keeper allows you to take orders at events such as horse shows, keep your percentage, and forward the balance and orders to them, whereupon they drop ship to the customer.  Or you can set up an affiliate link for online ordering and receive a commission on sales.  Award Keeper sells patterns for turning all those horse show, 4-H, or athletic event ribbons that are gathering dust into decorative pillows and other displayable items.

Gifts for All of Us  has items for fundraising drives for schools, churches, teams, bands, clubs, and other non-profits.  Plus you can link to their website from yours' to earn up to 40% commissions on gift and specialty items.

Sunset Decals, a division of EZ Signs Online, offers beautiful horse (and dog) vinyl window decals as fundraisers for schools and clubs in your choice of quantity.

cMarket Bidding for Good is an online auction service designed specifically to raise money for non-profit agencies.  Visit them to see if an online auction could work for your equine facility.  The Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and other large charities have used them.

Books to Sell to Raise Both Funds and Public Awareness                       (Top of Page)

Selling books about the exceptional relationship of horses and humans is a great fundraising technique that brings in small commissions intermittently. It also carries the added benefit of raising awareness of the value of horses and what you do.  These books also make excellent gifts to recognize donors, sponsors, media who have covered your program, and exceptional volunteers.

Public Speaking                                                                          (Top of Page)

Is one of your board members, officers, or volunteers a dynamic speaker with a story to tell?  Has your organization implemented a successful program?  Have you overcome adversity?  Is your mission important?  Perhaps you can package that enthusiasm, knowledge and message into a half hour or fifty minute presentation.  While many opportunities to speak are not paid, others are.  It is appropriate to receive an honorarium for speaking, in addition to travel expenses.  The same presentation that you give as a guest speaker at a corporate event for $1,000 plus expenses might be delivered gratis to a non-profit association.  Why make the non-profit presentation?  In many cases, members in the audience are decision makers at for-profit or government agencies that would be able to pay for the same presentation to be given to their employees or customers.

Visit idealist.org and search their database of 3,668 speakers for some ideas of how presentations are marketed to non-profits, a friendly venue in which to get your feet wet and hone your topics that sell.

Special Events                                                                               (Top of Page)

If you like to throw a party, or put together other social events, this form of fund raising may be an annual event that brings in a substantial portion of your operating expenses or capital improvement dollars, and enables you to publicly recognize your major contributors. A special event, whether a silent auction, horse show, trail ride or a party, is an opportunity to network with people.  Attend the most successful special events you can in your town to learn what attracts individuals as well as businesses before planning your non-profit's event.  Set goals and use a committee of talented people.  Most of the good annual events for equine non-profits in Phoenix require the dedicated work of many people for nine months of the year - but produce as much as 25% or more of their annual funds.  We know a great equine non-profit in Tucson that takes such pains over its annual black tie event that they even care how the napkins are folded.  Don't laugh - they are highly successful at capturing the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of attendees!

Here's one aspect of special events where tables are sold as food for thought: Who will be your table captains?  Perhaps you just assumed people will come from the company that purchased a table, and one person in particular  will play "host" and fire up your dinner guests to participate in the Silent Auction or learn more about your charity.  Just because a local bank sponsors a table does not mean there will be people sitting in those chairs who bid on your items.  If you are satisfied with selling all the seats and do not care how much the auction items raise, this is fine.  If not, it is much better to recruit and educate someone from the bank to be the "table captain" and bring its employees or guests and then engage them as participants during the party to get them interested in your mission and projects.

 This book by Janell Amos is full of ideas for different types of fundraisers and the step-by-step instructions you need for how to organize and market them successfully.

After your special event, follow up!  Use e-mail and survey software to get attendee satisfaction with their experience.  Zoomerang offers a free version of their service for simple surveys, and there are templates you can easily customize, so this is not time-consuming and no programming is required.  Want some help?  Contact us.

Barn Sales, Silent Auctions Online Auctions                     (Top of Page)

Mission Fish enables fundraising on e-Bay by several means: 

1. Sellers denote a percentage of their sale will go to a charity from among those listed with e-Bay. They select your non-profit agency.  When the item sells, MissionFish collects your donation for you.  The seller benefits by generating goodwill with buyers, but also receives a credit for the listing fees up relative to the percentage of the donation (100% donation equates to a free listing.)
2. Your agency sell items on e-Bay that were donated to your non-profit agency that you cannot directly use.
3. Buyers denote a donation through PayPal to one of the listed e-Bay charities when they check out after buying an item on e-Bay via "Donate Now" tabs.  They can also shop eBay selecting ONLY those sellers who donate a portion of their proceeds to charity through http://www.ebaygivingworks.com/ .
4. Hold your own online auction event.

To date, some 14,889 charities have raised $90 million through e-Bay's Giving Works Program .  Mission Fish administers the non-profit end of the process.  Of those charities, last time we checked in December of 2008, 237 had to do with horses, from therapeutic riding centers, to horse rescues, to breed associations.

Here's an example of how you also receive a descriptive paragraph on eBay and a link to your website:

cMarket Do you hold an annual barn sale or silent auction?  E-bay is a good way to get started selling the leftovers and becoming familiar with online auctions.  Once you get organized, take a look at cMarket.  Your customized online auction could include great items like travel and luxuries like jewelry, concert and sports tickets for your bidders to draw attendance, most at no cost to you. In fact, their sister site, BiddingforGood.com has over 100,000 registered users who are bidding on items to benefit their favorite charities every day of the year.

Major Private Donors                                                        (Top of Page)

Whatever course you take, you must be able to articulate your impact and ask the right questions, the answers to which you listen to carefully, when you have that golden moment in the presence of a large donor.  Read the book Leading with Questions before venturing out into the world of the big.

Just as foundations and corporations can make large grants to your non-profit, but want to see that you receive plenty of small grassroots community donations from a variety of other sources, and do your accounts and proposals in a professional way,  individual philanthropists do not wish to be the only or major revenue source on which you depend.  Likewise, if you are a founder who has passionately given your time, energy, and a great deal of your own money to launch an equine non-profit, you probably yearn for a handful of people you can rely upon annually for significant contributions.  But, if you are stuck in jeans caring for rescued horses forty miles from town working for next to nothing, or spending your own savings, you probably don't rub elbows with potential wealthy contributors in the stadium skyboxes every weekend of football season, or don your finery on weekend evenings to hobnob with the swells at the symphony who have season tickets.  Without a full-time staffer who can identify VIP donors interested in equine projects for you, qualify these prospects, and package a presentation that appeals appropriately, you have to start somewhere.

Begin by getting all your other ducks in a row.  Everything you need to present your non-profit with a professional image to your community, the press, foundations, companies, and potential high-quality volunteers, you also need to woo major private contributors.   Then, and only then, should you prospect among strangers, so that you do not "burn" opportunities.  When you are ready it should not surprise you to learn that major non-profits use lead services for this just like other sales forces do.  A good service that saves you a great deal of time, and can access data on income, past charitable contributions, and other relevant public records is worth its fees.  Otherwise, the cost of subscribing to even one or two "Who's Who" kind of publications would be prohibitive, and you would need to know in advance how current the listings are.  Also, the public records databases that show who has given large donations are time-consuming to learn to use.  It can take days to screen just a few names and get usable telephone numbers and addresses.  When you are ready, these specialized "data miners" can also help you find gold and diamonds in your own records.  That's right, if you have decent records of current and past visitors, small donors, special event attendees, and volunteers, those names can be compared to the VIP databases to discover people who have already given you a little of their time or money who are actually potential major donors.  If you don't capture good information about the people who contact your equine non-profit from the very beginning, you could be leaving many sources of support behind.  You owe it to yourself and the horses to do it right from the start.

Here's one called Wealth Engine, that helps non-profits find philanthropists interested in their field:

Become expert at thanking your supporters!  The book, 1001 Ways to Say Thank You by Gail Hamilton should be part of every non-profit's library, and become dog-earred from use over time.

Once you have a program to recognize volunteers and small donors and corporate sponsors, and have hosted a few fund raisers, you will be able to capitalize on major VIP donors, and recognize them in meaningful ways, so that they form a special group of supporters.  Once you can report successful outcomes of your projects in newsletters, grant conclusion summaries, and press releases, you will know how to approach VIPs you have not yet received donations from, and how to keep those who have contributed coming back.  Just as turnover in volunteers is costly, having to find new VIP donors takes time and money, so keeping a smaller group happy is worthwhile.

Board of Directors                                                       (Top of Page)

Having a Board of Directors is critical to the success of an organization.  For a start-up or a busy horse rescue or adoption agency or retirement sanctuary, it is imperative.  You must differentiate yourself from hoarders and horse brokers.   

For all equine related businesses, profit and non-profit alike, that seek grants or loans from government agencies, or foundations,  having a board of directors speaks volumes about your ability to grow your business and step out of the statistics of overwhelming failure of entrepreneurial one-man-bands that have short lives and poor business practices because one horse trainer or one horse rescuer or one equine mental health therapists is trying to run a complex business single-handedly.

Speaking of being a one-man band, or mom-and-pop team, without a board of directors to provide support and a perspective one step emotionally removed from the day-to-day issues, sooner or later you will burn out.  If you are a riding instructor or retirement boarding stable operator who wants to do this until the day you can comfortably retire and just ride your own horses, or you are a horse rescuer, or run a hippotherapy center you need a group of supporters with whom you can share confidential business planning,  issues, and choices, including personnel management.  It is a big mistake to vent to volunteers or clients or employees.  Many horse business operators are tempted to do so because with the long hours they work at the farm, the temptation is extreme.  Unlike other industries, there are few professional clubs with local chapters where they can talk business without customers present.  You are, however, in contact with employees,  some of your volunteers, and clients every day,  The urge to discuss farm affairs is strong, and in no time, concerned customers or well-meaning volunteers who have differing goals are running your operation by ad hoc committee or developing conflicts among themselves that causes key employees, volunteers, or customers to pack up and take their skills, passions, or business elsewhere.

Board members not only have experience in areas you lack, and can thus help develop resources that would take you forever to "get up to speed on", but board members know people in your community.  Every person knows 250 people - whether it is a customer who can refer business, a volunteer who can refer more volunteers, or a donor who knows other people who might donate.  The same is true for your board of directors.  They know other people in their field, and they know other successful people generally, and key people, like suppliers, in your industry.  While a veterinarian on your horse lay-up and retirement facility board should not be expected to donate unlimited free veterinary care to rescued retirees, he is probably called upon by manufacturers and wholesalers who have a marketing and sales budget.  The sales departments of these companies routinely give away samples, purchases raffle tickets, buy advertising in community events, etc. as normal ordinary sales expenses.  Your veterinary board member can funnel their largess to your outfit.  It is easy for him to ask the salesman during a regular quarterly delivery/sales call if XYZ company would like to buy a full page ad in ABC Sanctuary's upcoming Barn Sale promotional catalog going out to all the local horsepeople, or a sponsorship that underwrites their full page ad in the State Horse Monthly Magazine.   

But how to recruit a board, who to recruit for your board, and what their function should be, is what you need to master.  The two most important jobs of board members to keep in mind when recruiting and focusing this talent are:

1. Governance.  Setting the mission, goals, and values of the organization and ensuring that legal, insurance, and financial housekeeping and management is in order and transparent at all times.  They are the compliance watchdogs of a non-profit and can be held personally liable if the corporate veil is pierced due to sloppy cash handling, improper use of donor contributions, or management of staff or volunteers.  Though recruited by the founder or executive director, they are not there to "rubber stamp" everything you decide to do, passively accepting your decisions and explanations in exchange for something that looks good on their resumes.  The board members have real fiduciary responsibility and besides technical expertise, such as a horse training, special needs education, or veterinary background, genuine management skills.  Consequently, most non-profits have corporate managers with experience hiring staff, supervising projects or product launches, marketing and purchasing goods and services, as well as an attorney and a CPA on their boards.

It is the responsibility of your Board of Directors to ensure you have policies and procedures for employee and volunteer travel expense reimbursement, reimbursement of business expenses purchasing supplies or services for your non-profit's special events, fundraisers, or operations.  Your Board writes and approves human resources policies and procedures concerning recruiting, hiring, performance and salary reviews, disciplinary action and termination.  Failure to do so can jeopardize your ability to be awarded grants or government contracts.  It is also unfair to the Executive Director to have to either do all this alone, or worse, arbitrarily make decisions on the spur of the moment when presented with the need for a management determination. 

The Board, with its roles of governance and fundraising, takes the time to devise a website policy to include, for example, how links to other websites will be handled.  This protects the non-profit from establishing links contrary to its mission, or that could be in violation of its non-profit status, or discriminatory and subject to lawsuit.  Even if the director chooses links wisely and consistently, it is the Board's job to back him up with a written publicly published policy. 

It helps to have a Board of Directors Handbook, just as you have an Employee and Volunteer Handbook.  These 33 Principles from The Non-Profit Panel make an excellent start.

Principles of Non_Profits for Boards Executive Summary.pdf

Full Guide of 33 Principles for Non_Profits.pdf

Who you attracted to your board, and their activities tells companies, foundations, government agencies, and individual donors and volunteers a great deal about your non-profit and helps them decide whether or not to get involved.  These are the people who would have to recruit and evaluate candidates, and help a new Executive Director, should you decide to retire, or become ill and unable to continue as the primary manager of your non-profit, or merge it with another to find new homes and jobs for horses and staff.  Your website, media kit, and newsletters should make their names and brief biographies readily available. 

If you look at the boards of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the last decade, both are populated with attorneys who held political appointments throughout their careers with no business management, banking, or economics experience under their belts, such as Jamie Goerlick, Deputy Atttorney General for Bill Clinton [famous for writing the FBI-CIA "Wall of Separation" rule that contributed to the 9-11 intelligence failure], and were "paid off" with prestigious and lucrative seats on these boards by their outgoing administrations, or for political support, such as Knoxville well-meaning Mayor Victor Ashe, appointed by President Bush.  In addition to failing to respond to concerns raised by whistleblower employees, Vice Chairman Goerlick and other members of the board were paid substantial bonuses themselves under the unacceptable accounting practices beginning in 1998.  Ashe, who did not receive the bonuses since he was not appointed until 2001,  described himself as qualified because he understood the need for affordable home ownership in his town. In October of 2004 stakeholders sued the entire board of directors for malfeasance leading to Fannie Mae's first bankruptcy, and in 2006 a process began of completely replacing the board.  {Compare to credentials of the current board. and their connections.) It is the incompetent board from 1997 to 2006 who were oblivious to the multi-billion dollar scandal of cooked books by management to award themselves bonuses, and approved grotesque compensation packages for the officers such as Franklin Raines for developing and re-selling high-risk mortgages.  It is a clear example of why one of the two most important jobs of board members is governance with transparency, and how the ability to identify and oversee good management is just as critical as bringing in money - the two roles must be kept in balance.  

They are the perfect example of why a good corporate giving department or foundation that approves grants, or an experienced philanthropist,  will take a careful took at the transparency and makeup of your board as part of their due diligence before writing you a check.  You may never know that the composition of your board was the reason a different non-profit won the grant you were seeking, but it is an extremely common reason.  You may never know the talented volunteers and small donors who represent 70-80% of your free labor and your income who choose to place their time and money elsewhere if you do not disclose who is on your board, make them accessible, and choose them carefully for their non-profit business acumen and management skills.  High-profile bungling of such corporations as Enron, quasi-government agencies as Fannie Mae, and embezzlement at non-profit icons like the American Red Cross have made many more people aware and careful not to be taken advantage of. 

2. Fundraising.  People who like to raise money for non-profits and are good at it belong on your board.  A person who cannot or will not help you raise money or develop new revenue sources or vendor discounts belongs on a committee of their interest, but not on your board.  Money must come in to a commercial entity through sales, a government entity through taxes, or a non-profit through donations or dues continuously.  It has to come in during booms and recessions, and in enough quantity at the right time to cover the monthly "nut" - the bills you must pay just to exist and care for your horses if you don't give a single billable therapeutic riding lesson or grief counseling session or eco-tour. 

Without the peace of mind that minimal payroll is met and the mortgage is paid and the horses are fed, you as a manager are distracted from the daily operation of the mission, are in deep stress, and the horses are in actual danger. Most non-profit employees, including the Executive Directors, receive little or no compensation and are tempted in tough times to "donate" operating expenses.  If you can afford to personally fund your non-profit, fine, but a board that expects you or your core staff and volunteers to do that also does not care if everyone quits when they are tapped out and just cannot afford to live and support the non-profit simultaneously anymore.  The board is responsible for making sure that does not happen, as individuals and as a group. 

When it comes to a seat on the board, caring deeply about horses, veterans, at-risk youth, adults with disabilities, or children with special needs is not qualification enough.  Those are critical valid reasons to donate or volunteer at the ranch or on a marketing or special event committee, or with virtual office work such as website maintenance, but not to serve on a board of directors.

These two crucial and fundamental roles, governance and fundraising, are why major corporate and foundation donors are entitled to, and frequently demand and get, a seat on a non-profit's board of directors. 

There are over one million non-profit agencies in the U.S.A., competing for the best, brightest, most capable board members to guide and enhance their organizations.  Before you begin recruiting, learn a little bit about how to identify the right people for your start-up or next-stage equine non-profit, and how best to attract them and make the experience a win-win for both of you.                                                                     (Top of Page)

These books offers some very practical advice.  Don't just buy one and skim it once.  Read it and keep it near your desk as a reminder, just as handy as a phone book.

Once you are ready to recruit a board, it is possible to reach out beyond your small circle of friends, acquaintances, volunteers and business contacts to find experienced non-profit board members interested in your field.  As important as it is to involve your local community influencers, it is also important to enlarge your horizons. 

Keep your board energized and effective with the quick newsletter from CompassPoint, called Board Cafe.   Here's an example of one containing a succinct discussion of how to handle contact between staff/volunteers and your board to prevent undermining you as CEO, but enable positive communication to flow for committees, programs, and, if they arise, complaints. http://www.compasspoint.org/boardcafe/details.php?id=85  Here's another on ways to improve board meetings, with links to other sites of value to board members: http://www.compasspoint.org/boardcafe/details.php?id=16

Another excellent resource for board members is Board Source with links to information and helpful articles specifically for those with oversight and mission responsibility.

Officers                                                                                               (Top of Page)

For recruiting paid officer and staff core position employees consider idealist.org.  A job positing normally costs $60, but occasionally there are free trial promotions.

It is the responsibility of your Board of Directors to ensure you have policies and procedures for employee and volunteer travel expense reimbursement, reimbursement of business expenses purchasing supplies or services for your non-profit's special events, fundraisers, or operations.  Your Board writes and approves human resources policies and procedures concerning recruiting, hiring, performance and salary reviews, disciplinary action and termination.  Failure to do so can jeopardize your ability to be awarded grants or government contracts.  It is also unfair to the Executive Director to have to either do all this alone, or worse, arbitrarily make decisions on the spur of the moment when presented with the need for a management determination.

Your Executive Director and other management staff carry out the policies and vision of the Board of Directors and run daily operations.  They should have written policies to enforce fairly that comply with state and federal labor laws, certification association requirements, insurance policy requirements, and accepted accounting practices that pass scrutiny with the I.R.S. and public auditors.

Volunteers, Paid Contractors                                (Top of Page)

Unless you are a Medusa and able to work a 24 hour day 7 days per week, 365 days per year, you need help.  If you have ever been a supervisor, manager, or small business owner, you know that staff turnover is costly in time and money and that training and supervising staff is a major part of running a successful enterprise of any kind. 

From Day One you need to recruit, identify skills and interests, train, and keep energized a group of volunteers.  Whether a volunteer feeds horses and mucks stalls, drives the truck and horse trailer to pick up horses, or maintains your mission critical website, he or she is a valuable asset.

Almost one third of the U.S. population volunteers. Approximately 28.8 percent of Americans over the age of 16 volunteered through or for an organization in 2005. [Source: National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCSS)}

Image

One of the most important influences on the caliber of volunteer you can recruit is your non-profit's public image.  No recruiting advertisements, no volunteer recognition program, no training, no job perks will do more to help you attract the best qualified and most committed volunteers than a quality well-recognized public image in the community you serve. 

Succession Planning and Founder/Executive Director Retirement   (Top of Page)

If you are the main manager of a small non-profit that expects to continue in the event you decide to retire, your board of directors needs to manage the process to achieve three objectives:

1. A retirement income for you in keeping with your years of service that were probably at low or no pay to create and run the non-profit.

2. The recruitment, selection, training and support of a qualified replacement for you.

3. The assurance of a home for your horses and transition assistance for your staff should the board decide to dissolve the non-profit instead of continuing without you.

This is an important governance duty for the members of the Board of Directors.  According to David Hinsley, Cheng a Managing Partner of DRG, "nonprofit organizations are not planning well for succession.  A national survey in 2006 asked Executive Directors in nonprofit organizations if they are planning to leave and if so, has there been a succession plan developed. The results stated:
- 40% had a succession plan and were planning to leave within two years or less
- 60% have engaged in no communication regarding succession planning

The numbers appear to be about the same for unplanned transitions. 

Here is an excellent brief outline of how to go about succession planning for non-profits:

Succession Planning Report-1.pdf

It is important for a board of directors that is not exclusively recruited by the Executive Director or Founder to address human resources, including employee benefits plans, and to look to your future retirement and that of other key staff.  This helps make your non-profit attractive to future employees, all of whom are probably going to be working for much lower wages than they would earn in the private or government sectors.  This is a governance role that fulfills one of their fiduciary responsibilities to the Executive Director/Founder and employee stakeholders.  You are entitled to a secure future when you are too old or infirm to continue to run your non-profit, and it is the proper place of the Board of Directors, not yourself or your successor, to properly compensate you or provide for your retirement.

The most typical retirement plans offered by non-profits are:

403(b) Plans / Tax-Sheltered Accounts (TSAs)                                (Top of Page)

If you are an employee of a school district or other non-profit organization, a Tax Sheltered Account (TSA), more commonly known as a 403(b) plan, is your primary retirement planning vehicle. A 403(b) plan allows you to save pre-tax earnings for your retirement, which effectively lowers your income tax burden.  By investing those savings on a tax-deferred basis, you effectively enhance the compounding effect to your savings over time.

Additional employer contributions are also permitted, although understandably, this tends to be much less common than 401k matching in the corporate world.

403B contributions are then invested in either annuity contracts or mutual fund investments. While no specific pension benefit is guaranteed, the tax deferred status of these investments translates to dramatically more retirement income than other forms of investing.

For the non-profit, costs are limited to the price of setting up and administering the fund. These costs can be fairly modest with a standard plan; in fact, some non-profits actually can save money after factoring in lower state or local payroll taxes. However, more complex plans can be as costly as a 401k.
 

Roth 403(b) Plans

Effective January 1, 2006, employees of public school districts, community colleges and other non-profit organizations have an additional way to fund their retirement: the Roth 403(b). The addition of the Roth 403(b) account option provides you with greater flexibility to save for retirement using either pre-tax dollars, after-tax dollars or a combination of the two.

Roth 403(b)s work just like a traditional 403(b) with one important difference: Roth 403(b) contributions are made using after-tax dollars. Although Roth 403(b) contributions won't reduce your current income tax liability, they will provide a tax-free income source at retirement (monies must be withdrawn after age 59½ and the account must have been in existence for at least five years).

You have the option of funding your retirement using either pre-tax [Traditional 403(b)] or after-tax [Roth 403(b)] contributions or a combination of the two, depending on your situation.

Total annual contribution to all 403(b) accounts (Roth and Traditional) cannot exceed the maximum annual contribution limits for the year in which they are made.

Deferred Compensation Plan                                                (Top of Page)
Under the current tax codes, Section 457 allows a tax-exempt employer to establish a deferred compensation plan by which a portion of an employee's compensation can be deferred to some future date.  Rules apply, so your board must work with investment and tax professionals to set up and fund a plan that will pass muster.

Split Dollar Life Insurance
The purchase of whole life insurance under a split-dollar arrangement has also become a popular method for recruiting and retaining key employees. In many cases in which a key employee wants to have the tax advantages of a deferred compensation plan but does not want to rely on the employer's unsecured promise to pay the deferred compensation, split-dollar arrangements can be advantageous.

If you have left it too late, and have not saved for your own future, your board needs to work with financial planners and insurance companies that specialize in non-profit executive compensation, to devise an appropriate honorarium in keeping with tax laws and non-profit governance.

Employee morale and retention is important to non-profit organizations as well as other sectors dependent upon high quality human resources.  Do not overlook them in managing your non-profit.  Do not assume a person who chooses to work for a non-profit should forego employee benefits.
 

Public Relations and Publicity                        (Top of Page)

Where's your Media Kit?  You need one downloadable from your website in standard formats, and a print version to hand out in person or mail.  It must include a backgrounder about your organization, a few excellent reproducible photos, and a current press release.  Everything must have current contact information, including a knowledgeable spokesperson contact who can be reached after normal business hours.  The media does not develop stories during banker's hours.  (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Where's your Sponsor Packet?  You need one downloadable from your website in standard formats, and a print version to hand out in person or mail.

The annual marketing campaign, and the campaign for special projects, plus general news, must include press releases, and other publicity venues. 

Free Publicity                                                                          (Top of Page)

Master the art of the one-page press release!  Put together a media database to email press releases and newsletters to.  Then actually do it in a timely fashion!  Remember that "news" by definition is fresh.  What to put in your database, and how to keep it up-to-date with the actual names of contacts, deadlines, special issue themes, special interest sections, is practically an art form of research and organization.  If possible, you should have a volunteer with publicity or public relations experience spend several hours on this aspect of marketing your non-profit every month.  You do not need to be putting on Celebrity Events all the time to warrant publicity.  Every organization should plan to distribute at least eight press releases per year. (See also Advertising and Marketing, Print Media)

Do you have partnerships with local businesses?  Can you put a banner up at a local horse show?  Will a regional equine event or state fair donate a booth in the concessions/vendors area?  What if you have a card table with brochures and water for people and horses at a trail head when a local club arrives for a planned trail ride?

Crisis Management                                                  (Top of Page)

Sooner or later something negative or sad happens and you may be asked to comment about it or even be interviewed for television, radio, or print coverage.  It could be something directly involving your non-profit, such as a fire, flood, or current hay prices.  Or it could be something more general, even politically charged, like a proposed city ordinance or the national debate over horse slaughter.

Some points to remember, at all times:

1. The reporter, news producer, or editor is NOT your friend.  Even if this individual is a personal friend, or has supported your charity personally in the past, in this context, he or she has a single goal:  to get a juicy "sound bite" from you that draws viewers, listeners, or readers so that the station or newspaper can sell advertising.  If making you, your mission, or your efforts appear fruitless, hopeless, overwhelmed, disorganized, or over emotional will help "sell" the story, whatever the story's supposed "angle", that is the slant your contact will use.  If your contact doesn't, by the time the editor or producer gets finished with it, you may not recognize the story as having anything to do with what the reporter claimed to be covering.

2. Whatever you say WILL be taken out of context.  That is the definition of a "sound bite."  Make sure every sentence can stand alone if it could be used by itself.  Now don't you wish you had a media kit with a one-page backgrounder handy?  Don't you wish you kept a database of call logs, or service records, not just a monthly income statement from the accountant?  Then you could refer to facts about clients served, clients turned away due to lack of resources, costs to maintain a horse or deliver a hippotherapy session, the actual percentage increase in feed costs year-to-date, or, if the figures are not available, have a prepared answer that sounds responsive, organized, but not speculative, other than "I don't know." 

3. For obvious political issues, such as zoning, animal cruelty laws, feed cost increases, horse slaughter, horse identification, government subsidies, disaster relief, livestock waster pollution, the unique relationship of horses to man in history, etc. your rescue should have a brief one paragraph position statement followed by supporting bullet-style single sentence facts citing reliable sources, such as the USDA, your state or county extension service, the actual law or ordinance, or proposed bill.  If you don't follow political issues that impact your operation, you are shooting yourselves in the foot.  Discuss these matters with your Board of Directors periodically or when they arise, develop a position paper, contact your city, county, state, and federal representatives and give them your position as a concerned local business, and keep those positions updated in an accessible manner.

4. If there are celebrities, academics, renowned professionals, or politicians who support your position, you should be able to name them.  Especially if you are a relative "nobody" in town, or your organization is not a well-established pivotal member of the community, cite someone famous or authoritative with credentials on the topic, with whom you generally agree, rather than being sucked into stating your own opinion badly. 

CASE STUDY:  Presently, reporters around the country are "localizing" a pro-horse slaughter "news" piece at the behest of the American Horse Council's marketing firm are interviewing breeders, auctioneers, livestock officers, and horse rescues.  The article states that the only solution to the extra hundred thousand horses produced and mostly not trained annually is slaughter, because all the horse rescues are receiving quadruple the inquiries from surrenderers that they must turn away.  They assert that those amateur horse owners, impoverished by the high gas prices, are abandoning their family recreational and companion horses in state, tribal, and federal lands.  While only some of the horse rescues are experiencing a flood of calls, none of them quoted in these articles cited statistics from call logs about the reasons for the surrender requests, the socio-economic background of the callers, the age of the horse, etc.  In the articles, the livestock official was induced to speculate about the future possibility of abandonments, or recounted a rumor of a single abandonment that he/she could not confirm - and that eventually was tracked down to be a false rumor.  The headlines all say "Old Horses Being Abandoned on Public Lands Direct Result of Closure of Slaughter Plants."  The rescuer speculated that the closure MIGHT be contributing indirectly to the increase in calls, and only said calls had "probably doubled," or gave some other vague increase.  The rescuer did not say they were all "old" horses, and relied on a "gut" feel during the call that came while they were busy.  The horse rescuer was under the impression he/she was getting positive free publicity that would bring in donations, not that he/she was going to be characterized as believing that the only solution to horse overpopulation was slaughter.  The rescuer did not refer to a prepared and researched position paper that could cite the USDA statistics that as recently as 2004 there were only 47,000 horses slaughtered in the USA, and some of those were imported from Canada to supply the remaining 3 struggling plants.  The rescuer was not given an opportunity to note that while rescues are getting many more calls in some areas, much of it is due to increased publicity and the efforts of the Unwanted Horse Coalition subsidiary of the AHC widely distributing pamphlets to horse owners urging them to surrender their horses instead of attempting to sell them or rehome the animals themselves. Traditionally, people advertise and sell their horse, and many are skipping that process. This is not factually proven to be due to actual financial hardship, but due to a newfound awareness of the rescue option, promoted by the AHC as a first, rather than last, resort, and disingenuously characterized as "Owning Responsibly.".  The rescuer did not have at his/her fingertips in a file or binder the fact that supporters of solutions other than slaughter include: Willy Nelson, Mary Tyler Moore, Doris Day (deceased, but a pioneer), Paul Sorvino, to name a few, and all of this year's Presidential nominees of both parties, along with 69.5% of the American public.  The pro-slaughter AAEP position statement is provided to the reporters by the AHC marketing firm with the "article suggestion."  The rescuer could have cited and sourced the opposite view given in the excellent white paper by the Veterinarians for Equine Welfare which is NOT the radical American Veterinary Medical Association that is allied with the HSUS, but a dissenting group of sober, practical, AAEP members.  The rescuer did not even think, in the "ambush" interview, to mention that donations can be made to their non-profit securely via a service like "Network for Good" from their website.  You do not get the "plug" if you don't provide "how to buy" information!

Corporate and Other Partnerships                         (Top of Page)

 Take advantage of opportunities offered by horse suppliers to link to their products and services enabling people to donate.   Some companies provide matching funds.  Of course, your website needs to receive high volume traffic for this to produce significant funds.  All the more reason to have a great website with useful, attractive, compelling content, and be easily located with a few keywords via any major search engine!  A link sitting on a never-visited site isn't going to put hay in the mangers.

Corporate events can be staged at your facility to bring you the benefits of their professional paid publicity.  Even a department picnic that is covered in the company employee newsletter can help you. This is called "co-branding."  They get the benefit of getting their name in front of people interested in your service, and creating community goodwill.  You get money, or the ability to do events you could not afford to do otherwise.

Can you partner with a for-profit boarding stable, riding school or horse trainer?  For example, many horses that are not sellable or suitable for a regular lesson program, hippotherapy, mounted police unit, or adoptable simply lack training or need to be desensitized to a new environment.  Most of these organizations are willing to work with a horse that is well trained to be ridden English or Western by an experienced rider, but only have a few days to acclimate the horse to their stable routine, and thirty or fewer days to introduce their special activities and evaluate the horse's ability to adapt to novice and volunteer handling, special equipment, mounting, and environmental conditions.  Many horses that have been show competitors, or backyard pets simply need more than 90 days of professional humane training to qualify.  What if you partnered with a trainer who likes training more than showing and enjoys "tuning up" and "rehabilitating" horses?  Breeders complain to the news media that a primary reason why most of their unsold stock must be sent to auction is that those horses are not trained, and there are not enough trainers in their area to send these surplus horses to for training.  Can you capitalize on this hot job market that is not being properly reported?  Just think, well-bred, young fit horses, that just need training, and seasoned, trained horses that just need ground manners and desensitization, could all be sold if trainers could be recruited and compensated for working with them!  Plus, someone needs to "train the trainer."  Another partnering opportunity, if you have horses to train, a trainer could use your "string" of horses to train his/her trainer-in-training students. .

Cost-Savings

 Visit our Quarterly Tips, Forums, Blog, or Products for Horse Businesses for ways to save money.

Encouragement and Motivation

 Sponsorahorse.org is a network of Equine Rescues with members only forums.

Management Skills                                             (Top of Page)

Horse rescues and sanctuaries need to be well-managed, just like for-profit businesses to survive and benefit the rescued animals.

Other Resources                                             (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Horse Owner Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses, and horses being retrained or rehabilitated.

The Del Camino Stable Manager's Product and Services catalog offers products and services of interest to those operating a horse facility.

  Mounting ramps and blocks for persons with disabilities, waler and gait belts, breakaway stirrups, bareback pads, therapeutic riding surcingles, reinbow loops, instructional aids for therapeutic riding programs.

The Del Camino forums provide a place to network with other horse non-profits, and the blog covers related timely topics.

Charity Advantage is an online source for deeply discounted computers and software for non-profits.

Horse Welfare Statistics -

EqRescQ101: Equine Rescue Yahoo Forum and Message Board.  Network with other Horse Rescues about rescue specific concerns.

National Equine Rescue Coalition

Equine Rescue News and Resources

Equine Rescue Webring

Save a Forgotten Equine Forum

Horse Rescue and Information Network Forum

Society of Animal Welfare Administrators

National Animal Control Association Excellent links to state, county and municipal animal control groups and law enforcement agencies, and timely information affecting them.

National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy This is an excellent resource for how to keep logs and statistics of calls from surrenderers, understanding how the bond is broken, the top ten reasons people relinquish their animals, the bias that almost always enters the conversation between the volunteer who is receiving the animal and the person who is relinquishing it.

Ehorseeducation - teleseminars assisting therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted activities non-profit centers in management and professionalism areas. 

Product or Service Providers                                         (Top of Page)

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