One-fifth of the U.S. population will be 65 or older in 15 years. NPR’s Ina Jaffe talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about the aging of the population worldwide and the challenges it presents.
SIMON: The U.S. population is aging, but it’s not just the U.S., is it?
JAFFE: Oh, no, not at all. In fact, some other countries are ahead of us. Japan, for example, a quarter of the population there is already 65 years of age or more, and the populations of some Western European countries are already at that 1-in-5 level that the U.S. is headed for.
SIMON: Whatever else happens in this discussion, should we remind ourselves it’s the result of some good news – that people are living longer?
JAFFE: Well, it is a result of people living longer, but only in part. In North America and Western Europe, people are living longer. But there’s a bigger reason for the aging of populations and that’s that people are having fewer children. That’s what you see in Eastern Europe and Russia and Turkey. And sub-Saharan Africa is not aging as quickly as other places because reproduction rates are higher there.
By Chris Mennel, audit manager, Alerding CPA Group |
Millions of people have tuned into ABC’s “Shark Tank” to see whether amateur and experienced entrepreneurs can land a deal with one of the millionaire or billionaire sharks. We may watch for the entertainment value; but after seven seasons, there are real-life lessons to be learned.
In fact, selling ownership in a company isn’t much different than pitching an idea to a new program partner, potential donor or board of directors. To be effective, you have to know your numbers, be direct and exude passion.
Here are six important lessons that Shark Tank negotiations have taught:
Singapore, one of the world’s fastest-aging countries, has announced a massive, multipronged plan to help its citizens age successfully — one that advocates say leaves the United States in the dust.
The $2.1 billion plan announced by the Ministry of Health, “A Nation for All Ages,” comprises initiatives on topics such as health and wellness, education, volunteerism, housing, transportation and social inclusion. A new “National Silver Academy” will offer post-secondary education to older people, and up to $142 million will go toward innovations in research to transform the experience of aging. The initiative also includes housing (with) elder-care and child-care centers in the same facilities to promote intergenerational bonding and piloting therapeutic gardens for dementia and stroke patients.
Singapore, an island city-state of 5.5 million, is one of the fastest aging populations in the world, with the number of residents aged 65 and over projected to hit 19 percent in 2030, up from 9.3 percent in 2011. Its plan is striking in that it focuses heavily on empowerment rather than just tending to the frail.
LONDON — WHY do we have such punitive attitudes toward old people? Granted, the ancients did hideous things to elders who were unable to work but still needed food and care, but in more recent times, that had changed: In 18th-century New England, it was common for people to make themselves seem older by adding years to their real age, rather than subtracting them.
Yet today, the language used to describe the changing age composition of the population is little short of apocalyptic. We’re told that the “graying of America” is an “agequake” or a “demographic time bomb.”
In 2050, Americans age 65 and over are predicted to almost double in number to 83.7 million, one-fifth of the population. An aging population does pose real challenges, but increasing numbers of people of working age (as traditionally defined) are unemployed today, while growing numbers continue to work beyond pensionable age.
In reality, age can no longer be neatly correlated with economic activity. In particular, old people are themselves significant providers of care, notably the childcare provided by grandparents.
By John Beard, Alana Officer and Andrew Cassels for the World Health Organization |
Comprehensive public health action on population ageing is urgently needed. This will require fundamental shifts, not just in the things we do, but in how we think about ageing itself.
The World report on ageing and health outlines a framework for action to foster Healthy Ageing built around the new concept of functional ability. Making these investments will have valuable social and economic returns, both in terms of health and wellbeing of older people and in enabling their on-going participation in society.
Laura S. Quinn, executive director Idealware for Tech Soup |
What tools can help you raise money and rally support for your cause through an online auction? We take a look at the software tools that are widely used in the nonprofit sector.
An online charity auction can be a good way to raise money, rally support for your cause, and hopefully, to have some fun. Like any special event, an online auction requires solid planning and a fair amount of staff time. What it won’t require, however, is substantial technical expertise. Several good online platforms will host and help you manage your online auction.
What should you be thinking about as you consider an online auction? What tools might work well? We asked a number of nonprofit professionals with experience in auctions for their software recommendations and condensed their advice here.
The American Cancer Society, which held nearly 5,000 Relay for Life events in 2014, raised $335 million during that time to lead the way in the annual Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Top 30 listing.
The charities on the list, compiled by the Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Forum, raised more than $1.6 million and featured more than 8.3 million participants.
The total revenue raised, however, is a 2.47 percent decline from 2013.
Second on the list is the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk, which raised $110 million, an increase of 4.92 percent.
Among the charities making a significant gain was the Alzheimer’s Association. It held 650 walks across the country and raised $67 million, an increase of 18.6 percent.
By Stefanie Krievins, coach and founder, Radiancy Coaching Partners |
Nonprofit employees are a mission-driven bunch and sometimes help until it hurts, often doing this work at the expense of our families, health and mental wellbeing.
In a 2011 study, Opportunity Knocks, a national nonprofit job and career services group, found that over 50 percent of the nonprofit employees they surveyed were burned out or were in danger of becoming burned out. In part, the survey found that when an individual leaves a nonprofit, the organization often redistributes the duties.
As positions are eliminated or people leave, according to this study, the nonprofit sector is extremely unlikely to refill those positions, even with temporary help or consultants. We simply spread the work out among the existing employees. The cliché, “Do more with less” is a truism in our work.
Burnout is most often related to how organizations are staffed. The marketing manager is a one-person department in charge of social media, print material, public relations, appeals, volunteer projects, working with the Board’s marketing committee, website technology, planning special events, and marketing for new clients, volunteers, and donors. This is done in the name of those the mission serves. In other sectors, this would be at least four people’s jobs (minus the volunteer management, of course).
It’s time that these practices stop.
We need (and deserve) a resource to avoid burnout, to teach those of us serving the hungry, homeless, refugees and abandoned children how to also take care of ourselves. As the studies show, and we’ve experienced, we can’t be great professionals and continue to serve otherwise.
Radiancy Coaching Partners is that resource. Coaching and group workshops are available for nonprofit staff, boards and volunteers. These services can help with advancing the mission through one-on-one consultations, team trainings, and retreats:
Managing time and productivity: saying “No” more often and “Yes” to the right things that advance the plan
Understanding communication and work styles individually and as a team
Training staff to implement strategic plans
Managing for accountability and follow thru
Reducing stress
An Indianapolis nonprofit program director and client shared the power of coaching. She said: “I’d always assumed that coaching was for high-powered executives, not regular people. Boy, was I wrong. I began working with Stefanie at a time when I was facing some daunting personal and professional challenges.
“I felt overwhelmed by the choices, and was becoming increasingly unhappy. She derailed my path of unhappiness, helping me to stop and look at things in a new way. I came away from the experience feeling more relaxed and much more flexible about my life. The challenges didn’t go away. It’s just that I have more tools available to meet them.”
I faced this same burnout on more than one occasion in the 10+ years I worked for charities. This is how I found coaching and a new way to contribute to organizations’ missions. Radiancy Coaching Partners provides coaching and consulting exclusively for nonprofits. Learn more about how this resource can help you and your organization at radiancycoaching.com.
Stefanie Krievins is the founder, coach and trainer at Radiancy Coaching Partners. She has a master’s degree in nonprofit management from SPEA at Indiana University, completed credentialed coaching training from Erickson International, and has more than a decade of employment and volunteering in the charitable sector in Central and Southern Indiana and nationwide. She lives in a low-income neighborhood in Indianapolis as a way to stay connected to the causes she’s most passionate about: homelessness, food insecurity and helping each person get the resources he/she needs to be their best self.
Bob Karnak isn’t the type to back down from a challenge or a chance to get in a little exercise. The retired quality assurance consultant at Elanco recently made a trip from Indianapolis to Cleveland to visit family. For some, that would mean flying; for most, it would be a five-hour car trip. For Karnak, it was just an extra-long bicycle ride.
Dr. Robert Pascuzzi, a physician in the department of Neurology, kicks off the Ice Bucket Challenge at the I.U. Neuro Science Center in August. The ALS Certified Center is at the I.U. Neuro Science Center and where patients go to be diagnosed and evaluated using a multi-disciplinary approach for their ALS journey.
The 68-year-old Indianapolis man doesn’t make a habit out of going out for 300-mile spins, but it is in his fabric to stay active. Karnak averages about 3,000 miles a year on his bike, mostly for pleasure, but there’s often a deeper, more important goal.
Karnak’s two-wheeler isn’t just a vehicle to get from Point A to Point B. It’s a vehicle to raise money for charity – for causes that are important to him. Causes that can make the world a better place.
“Is altruism the right word?” Karnak asked. “It’s really doing something for somebody else. I’m healthy, my kids are healthy, my wife for the most part is healthy. I don’t have any life threatening diseases. I think it’s incumbent upon those who are healthy to help others.”
In many respects, Karnak, and others like him, are a charities’ best friends. They do the heavy lifting. They ask and the charity receives. In the nonprofit world, it’s called peer-to-peer fundraising, and while the concept has always been around in one form or another, it has grown to new heights over the past decade.
Over the years, Karnak has raised money locally through various biking events for charities such as Habitat for Humanity, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and most recently, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The total is north of $160,000 and still rising.
Ways to get up, get involved
Looking for an event to participate in to raise money for a charity dear to you? There are many opportunities in Indiana, in the Midwest and nationally.
Most organizations have already held their 2015 events, but will be setting dates soon for 2016.
“If I’m out on a training ride, and somebody says, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ and I get a chance to talk to them for more than five minutes, they are probably gonna get a letter from me asking for a donation,” Karnak said. “If you can bend someone’s ear, you’ll find everybody has a connection. Everybody. There’s not one person on this green earth anymore that doesn’t know someone who’s afflicted with something.”
Nonprofits rely on contributions to stay afloat, and under the peer-to-peer philosophy, rely on their supporters to play major roles. Who hasn’t been asked by your neighborhood Girl Scout or their parent to buy cookies? Or candy bars, wrapping paper, or poinsettias? We buy these things because someone we know asked us.
In today’s world, nonprofits that ignore the power of peer-to-peer fundraising do so at their own risk.
“It’s actually very simple in its core,” said Taylor Shanklin, the director of marketing and “peer-to-peer boss lady” at raisemore.com, a fundraising consulting firm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “It’s just people asking people to support them in what they are doing and support a cause they care about.”
In most cases, peer-to-peer fundraising revolves around an event: a run, a walk, a bike ride, a triathlon, a swim-a-thon. Participants sign up, agree to raise money and ask their friends and family to donate.
The Indiana chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society receives 88 percent of its funding through events such as its Man and Woman of the Year programs, its Light the Night walk and Team in Training, said Executive Director Amy Kwas. The challenging TNT program, where participants are trained to run marathons, compete in triathlons or 100-mile bike rides, was among the pioneers in this respect, having started in 1988.
“There’s the old adage – that people give to people, and that’s why it works in our case,” said Kwas. “Most people are affected directly, and it’s a way of showing support, perhaps for someone who’s going through treatment.”
Today, just about every nonprofit has gotten into the act. If you have a favorite charity, chances are there’s a specific event lined up to raise money for it. The figures may vary slightly, but there’s no doubt that the response rate from one donor asking another far exceeds that of traditional email or snail-mail solicitations from the charity itself.
Kimbia, a Texas-based fundraising consulting firm, estimates that 1 in 4 peer-to-peer emails will result in a donation, as compared to 1 in 1,250 appeals directly from a charity.
“In peer-to-peer, it’s a friend asking a friend,” said Shanklin. “I’m more inclined to give to my friend than some random organization. Peer-to-peer is always going to win in terms of (return on investment).”
Despite its effectiveness, not all charities have jumped on the bandwagon with both feet. In Indianapolis, Gleaners, which operates multiple local food banks, sends out solicitations frequently and still gets the majority – as much as 60 percent – of its donations from individuals. The charity has a donor database of more than 60,000, said Debbie Russell, the director of donor engagement.
“We’ve talked about it, but we’re not doing a lot in that regard,” said Russell, of peer-to-peer.
Gleaners did have a recent golf outing, however, that raised $7,500, and is putting in place a Building Hope initiative that is moving in the peer-to-peer direction, Russell said.
Gleaners is looking for key donors to become “ambassadors.” Russell said the ambassadors will spread the Gleaners’ message and bring others into the circle with the hope of creating a steady revenue stream.
For those charities wanting to enter the peer-to-peer world, there are no shortage of advisers. A simple Google search turns up page after page of companies marketing their services. Fundraising professionals can attend national conferences on the subject and there are numerous blogs devoted to the topic, mostly focused on the power of social media.
There are some red flags, however. According to the Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum, the top 30 peer-to-peer fundraising events in the country raised more than $1.6 billion in 2014, but that is a 2.47 percent decline from the previous year. The biggest player, the American Cancer Society’s ubiquitous Relay for Life program, brought in $335 million, but was down nearly 12 percent, or $45 million from 2013. The traditional Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure was down 10.78 percent, and its sister event, the Komen 3-Day walk, was down 38 percent or about $16 million.
Other events, such as LLS’ Team in Training program and the JDRF One Walk also took major hits.
Shanklin, of raisemore.com, thinks part of the decline is because the market is simply overcrowded.
“There are so many events now. Sometimes I feel that everybody is doing a walk,” Shanklin said. “I think that donors and participants are looking for something more interesting. Quite frankly, walks don’t bring in a lot of money, and they can be kind of boring. Although the walk thing is something everybody can do.”
Shanklin says charities must be more innovative, and many are, she said.
“Some organizations are trying different things, like animal shelters doing a dog walk,” she said.
The Alzheimer’s Association, which has a traditional walk that raised nearly $68 million across the country last year, has branched out with an event called the Longest Day. The initiative is on June 21, the summer solstice. On that day, participants pick an activity to take part in from sunrise to sunset, a reminder of the daily challenge facing those with Alzheimer’s.
“One of my friends had a daylong karaoke party,” Shanklin said. “They are doing a lot of do-it-yourself campaigns.”
Another popular event is the Movember movement where men grow mustaches in November and raise awareness (and money) for prostate cancer research.
“Movember is something that’s new. It’s fun, it’s quirky, it’s interesting. I think people are shifting their giving around because there are so many options out there,” Shanklin said.
The target for most charities is to catch lightning in a bottle similar to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that swept the nation a year ago. The ALS Association, which works to fight Lou Gehrig’s Disease, raised $115 million in 2014 after donations of just $23 million in 2013. In contrast, the movement has brought in barely a half million dollars in 2015.
“The Ice Bucket Challenge took off in the peer-to-peer world like nothing else,” Shanklin said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever see something like that again. It wasn’t even a fundraising campaign, just a way to raise awareness, but people got involved and interested, and it became a fun thing.”
“We broke the glass ceiling when it comes to awareness,” said Cindy Wise, executive director of the Indiana chapter of the ALS Associated. “Now if I mention “Ice Bucket Challenge,” everybody knows what I’m talking about.”
Shanklin doesn’t believe traditional fundraising is dead, but charities that continue to send out solicitations must be mindful of their audiences. While older donors may still like letters, younger people may prefer emails or to be contacted strictly through social media.
“Knowing the analytics of your audience is really important, and that’s something charities can really, really mess up,” Shanklin said. “When I feel they aren’t listening, and they bombard me – like if they send something to my 4-year-old son and me – I’m thinking, ‘If you are misusing your resources, I actually don’t want to give you my money. I might want to give it to someone else.’
“I want to see organizations do a better job of tailoring their communications,” Shanklin continued. “Nonprofits must look at generations and generational-giving trends and reports and how they are connecting to those generations.”
Knowing your audience carries over to the peer-to-peer world. Much attention has been focused on the innovative fundraising techniques of Charity: Water, which provides wells and drinking water for Third World countries. The 8-year-old nonprofit has become overwhelmingly popular with millennials and has drawn raves for its videos, vivid graphics, compelling stories, its social media presence and its revenue model in which 100 percent of all donations go to its programming. Charity: Water’s operating costs are paid for privately.
Charity: Water’s September campaign asked that people born in that month forgo any birthday gifts and ask friends to donate to the charity instead.
Even Charity: Water’s approach, however, goes back to the core of peer-to-peer fundraising. Friends asking friends. Neighbors asking neighbors.
Karnak, the bicycle veteran who has been raising funds this way for more than two decades, is a believer.
“I think a lot of people give because I’m coming out with a request and a valid reason,” he said. “And I make a case for it. I’m not doing it for myself. People are willing to give if you ask.”
By Kathleen Kelly Janus for Stanford Social Innovation Review |
For many nonprofit organizations, getting young people to support their work seems an insurmountable challenge. Millennials are a mystery to them. As the stereotype goes, what is the use of involving the lazy, unemployed, social media-addicted generation, anyway? Even so, it’s widely understood that millennial engagement is vital to cultivating a pipeline of support for the years to come.
The good news is that engaging millennials does not have to be such mystery. In fact millennial supporters can become an organization’s most avid champions. At Spark, an organization I co-founded, which is now the largest network of millennial donors in the world, we’ve proven that while they may not have as much to give, collectively their impact can be powerful. In nearly 10 years, we have raised more than $1.5 million to support women’s issues, mostly in contributions of less than $100, and probably even more importantly, we have inspired a large group of young people to support gender equality issues who will likely continue to contribute to women’s organizations for decades.
