Community 2.0

I just had a call from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. They are convening a group of young nonprofit practitioners who are engaged in all these different activities to promote young people in the nonprofits sector - Community Capital Alliance, Twin Cities Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, LEAD, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, etc. They have asked me to join the group - called Community 2.0 - on behalf of our giving circle. How exciting! We're already famous. I'm attending their first meeting tomorrow and I'll let you know what happens.

Names by Sean

Here is the list that went to Doof (and a few more):

Twin Cities Giving Circle (TCGC)
Metropolitan Philanthropic Team
PhilanthroPals
Twin Cities Munificent Citizens Posse
Intergalactic Charitable Giving Squadron 100%
Charitable Civilian Crew (CCC)
Benevolent Society of Friends
Twin Cities Altruist Force

Or you can just cut and paste any of those words together and make your own.

I personally like Metropolitan Altruist Posse (MAP).

Or I could be persuaded to vote for Twin Cities Benevolent Citizens Assemblage.

REVISED: Questions for nomination

I think we should keep the questions for the nominations process short and sweet to encourage everyone to participate (we can change this process when we grow and learn more about what works and doesn't work). Here are my suggestions:

1) Organization name

2) Organization mission

3) How does this organization contribute to building a vibrant Twin Cities that respects both people and the environment?

4) Why do you think this organization deserves funding (including any personal connection to the organization)?

Online Nominations Through SurveyMonkey

We can use survey monkey for the nomination process. A basic membership is free and would allow us to repeatedly create 15 question surveys and allows up to 100 responses per survey. We could also use it for the voting process. I would be happy to create and manage the nomination surveys and voting surveys.

You can find more info on SurveyMonkey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Default.aspx

Four Steps to Finding the Right Name

From Network for Good's Nonprofit Marketing newsletter:

Selecting the right name for your organization, campaign or program can go a long way toward differentiating you from other nonprofits, making an emotional connection with your audience, and finding a fresh way into the hearts and minds of your audience. Here are four steps to finding the right name:

1. Competitive Analysis: Begin your naming project with a thorough analysis in order to help quantify the tone and strength of other nonprofit names.

2. Positioning: The next step is to define your positioning. Your positioning is not your mission statement; more specifically, it's how your supporters view your organization (and your mission) relative to the position of other nonprofits. The more specific and nuanced your positioning is, the more effective the name will be. All great nonprofit names work in concert with the positioning of the organizations they speak for.

3. Name Development: Name development begins by applying the positioning strategy to figure out what you want your new name to do for your marketing and fundraising efforts.

4. Creative/Testing: Finally, before deciding on a name, you should test your final choices in the context of a mock fundraising appeals. For example, email yourself an old fundraising letter with the new campaign name; print out a mock advertisement with the new name. Where appropriate, pick up the phone and test the new name with a donor, volunteer, and board member.
When complete, final names and a well defined positioning strategy should be the outcome of your process.

Minnesota Council on Foundations research

The Minnesota Council on Foundations just released a whole slew of info on giving circles. Could be useful.

http://www.mcf.org/givingcircles/

I'll also post in the sidebar for future generations' use.

Giving in September?

I was thinking about the giving circle and how we've been working so hard on it but haven't actually GIVEN anything yet.

What do you guys think about going through the process - just the six of us - in August and September. For this first round, we could all nominate organizations (or whoever wants to could) and then we could go through the noms process and try it out. That would help us learn what things should go into the bylaws and whatnot.

And for this first round, we could just write out individual checks.

Wikis!

Here's a link to a website that allows you to create a "wikispace" or a webpage that allows mulitple users to create and edit content. They have several pricing options, including free.

http://www.wikispaces.com/

Nominate your organization name here!

Sample documents

Articles of Incorporation (Luke and Tracy)
http://www.mncn.org/info/samplearticles.pdf

Bylaws for organizations with members (Kristen and Heidi)
(Let us know if you'd like to swap...)
http://www.mncn.org/info/samplebylawswithmembers.pdf

Notes from 7/2 meeting

The giving circle met on 7/2 to discuss operations.

Goals for 2007
We decided that our goal size would be 25 members raise $5,000.

Volunteering
We discussed what our goal would be in terms of what groups we organized volunteer outings for. Options were 1) groups we might give to
2) groups we have already given to
3) any group

This issue was not resolved. There was some concern that volunteering for a group we were considering giving to would unfairly sway the group to vote for funding for that organization. We did decide that we'd like to have quarterly volunteer outings.

Giving strategies
We decded tht we would begin by making semiannual gifts.
Nominations will be due one month before the end of the quarter.
Voting will take place in the final week of the quarter (likely via some online method such as Survey Monkey)
The membership will be asked to give $200/year. This may be done in quarterly installments.
We will distribute the nominations online for people to view, but we will also have social outings where people can get together for fun and also learn about the organizations we might give to.

Administrative costs
To begin with, we would like all of our money to go to donations - administrative costs will be paid for out of pocket.

Fiscal agent/community foundations
This was offered as an alternative to incorporating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Research will be presented by Tracy at the next meeting.

Pros/Cons to incorporating
The group discussed incorporating vs. not incorporating (under the assumption that having a fiscal agent or donor advised fund at a community foundation was not on the table at the time).

Pros: Ease of giving, tax deductibel, legitimacy, financial statements/giving history, accountability, can seek larger gifts, earn interest, encourage longevity, control.

Cons: Cost, the idea is unproven, paperwork, hassle, redundancy, less motivation to raise more money.

We did a five finger voting exercise and determined the group was slightly in favor of incorporating (a weighted score of 16.75 vs. 14.5) but still preferred to look into the option of a fiscal agent before making a decision.

Northern Environmental Support Trust

Here is the web site for NEST. Although NEST is an environmentally focused community foundation, we would not be limited to giving solely to the environment if we take this route.

http://www.nestfdn.org/

Next meeting

Heidi just sent me an email inquiring about our next meeting date. How do people feel about July 16 or 23?

Sorry if this is not an effective way to communicate with you. I'm trying to cut down on the number of emails I send you during the work week. :)

Information on donor advised funds

Sean sent me an email last week suggesting we put our mission, vision, etc. on this site so we can send people here to learn more about us. I think that's a great idea. In the meantime, I'll continue to use this as a way to communicate with you so I don't inundate you with emails.

I have received emails from the Minneapolis Foundation, the Saint Paul Foundation and the Headwaters Foundation. It sounds like Mpls and Headwaters are the only real options, and both require a $10k minimum to start a fund. Here are the responses I received:

Minneapolis Foundation
Thanks for considering the Foundation as an option for setting up a Donor Advised Fund.

I will send you a packet of information about Donor Advised Funds (DAF) and The Minneapolis Foundation. The packet should provide you some background information as well as details that should respond to your questions. A DAF is a great way to optimize your giving because we provide administrative services, freeing you and your giving circle to focus on the charities to which you want to provide gifts. We also invest the gifts and the income is untaxed. Our investment pool, the Master Fund, has returned approximately a 10% yield per year on average during the last 10 years.

However, I want to answer your questions specifically, and I’ve done so below:

1.You don’t need to be a legal entity to set up a DAF (DAFs are typically established by individuals or families). You could set up a DAF and designate an advisory committee as a core group of advisors for the fund. The committee would designate one person to serve as the fund’s contact person. The fund agreement would declare the contact person as the designated liaison who alone would represent the gift decisions of your giving circle by making grant recommendations from the fund. The agreement would also stipulate that any gifts to the DAF would become the Foundation’s assets (as do gifts to any DAF) and that only the contact person would have the right to make grant recommendations. This latter provision helps to avoid the potential problem of a member who decides to withdraw from the giving circle and wants to regain control of his/her share of the assets. This person would have no ownership claim over the assets. (I’m aware this description could be a little confusing. So please feel free to call me and I can explain it in more depth.)

2.The Foundation requires a minimum gift of $10,000 to establish a fund. However, we allow the latitude for your fund to remain active if it drops below the minimum if you plan to add more funds that will carry it above the minimum in the not-to-distant future (we don’t have specific guidelines about this and arrange it, usually, on a case-by-case basis).

3.Your tax deduction for contributing to a DAF depends on the type of contribution, but the full amount is generally deductible given the following limits: The full amount of a cash gift is deductible. But you can only deduct up to 50% of your adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year. You can, however, carry any portion of the deduction that exceeds 50% of your AGI for up to five years. The full fair market value of a gift of publicly traded securities is deductible. But you can only deduct up to 30% of your AGI for the year. Again, however, you can carry over any unused portion that exceeds 30%of your AGI for up to five years. We also accept other contribution types, such as privately held securities and real estate. However, our Gift Acceptance Committee must approve these gifts. The full cash amount gifted to a fund is deductible, given several limitations similar to those listed above.

Tracy, I hope this responds sufficiently to your questions. If you have any more questions or comments, please feel free to reach me. My contact information is below.

As I mentioned I’ll be sending you a packet of information. I would like to have an opportunity to talk to you before you choose to set up a fund (if you should decide to do so). Establishing one for a giving circle adds some complexity to the arrangement, and I’d like to be clear we have a full understanding of your group and that your group has a full understanding of our fund policy.

Saint Paul Foundation
I will send some materials explaining donor advised funds to you in the mail. However, our donor advised fund model does not adapt well when there are a 'community' of donors such as in a giving circle. I'd love to talk further with you about your goals, and how we might be able to help. We try to be as flexible as possible within the confines of what is legally appropriate. Once you have had a chance to review the materials, please give me a call and we can talk further.

Headwaters Foundation for Justice
Tracy, we’ve done this a couple of times, though we don’t have any written or formal policies about this. I think its time for us to create more formal policies, and your inquiry puts it back on my “plate” for this summer...

For our Partnership Funds (donor advised funds) our minimum to start a fund is $10,000. The only real limitations on grants from the fund is that it can’t go to something that is contradictory to the Headwaters mission. I’ve attached a copy of our Partnership Fund policies and agreement, fyi. Please let me know if you have questions. If you’d like to explore this further, let me know. We could get together to talk, or talk via phone.

I’d love to hear more about your giving circle, whether or not you want to explore doing it through Headwaters. They are a great way to do thoughtful giving!

Welcome to the giving circle!

Hi all -

I started this blog today as a way for giving circle members to keep in touch between meetings. I will post notes and updates here as they are available. Eventually this blog can serve as our main web site.

Please add yourselves as contributors so you can post relevant information, too. Or whatever. I don't understand blogs.

Thanks,
Tracy