December 1996
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4 / $5.00
A nonprofit newspaper for the nonprofit community
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Popular strategies
Nonprofits turn to special events
Special events are one of the
hottest fundraising trends in the^
nonprofit world. But experts say
organizations should think care
fully before sponsoring special
events fundraisers.
By Stephanie Greer
As nonprofits get jostled in the
■ increasingly crowded world of
fundraising, they are looking for
ways to attract financial support -
and many are finding them in special
events such as golf tournaments, auc-
The annual Easter Seals telethon
is one of the best-known non
profit special events.
SPECIAL EVENTS
tions and galas.
Special events, in fact, are grow
ing in popularity, even though their
disadvantages can outweigh their
advantages for some organizations,
nonprofit development officers say
“I think one of the biggest
changes we’ve seen is that more and
more agencies and organizations are
doing special events, to where there’s
almost too many of them,” says Mary
Ellen Shuntich, a Charlotte consul
tant and owner of MES Development
Associates. “I don’t think I’d call it a
fad, but it’s a visible effort. And so
agencies see that others are doing it,
so they decide to do it also.”
While holding special events can
be an excellent way to raise money,
simply undertaking a special event
because of their growng popularity
is never a good idea, Shuntich says.
Special events won’t work for
every nonprofit - particularly those
that have not defined a specific audi-
Look for EVENTS, page 22
Success in numbers
Volunteers drive cancer fundraising
This is the final stoiy in a series
about planning for the Red
Sword Ball, an annual fundrais
ing event that was held in
October to benefit the Triangle
Metro American Cancer Society.
By Ashley Peay
Raleigh
For Frances Penick, the inaugural j
Triangle Red Sword Ball has meant a i
seemingly endless round of phone '
calls, meetings and drying around j
town in her car.
“I was on the phone yesterday |
from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.,” she j
quips one morning in October - less
than two weeks before the ball.
Her work began in January with
the formation of a permanent Red
Sword Guild to plan and stage the
ball. It has intensified in the weeks
leading up the event and included the
coordination of more than 100 volun
teers.
But the effort will pay off. The
baU, held Oct. 11 at the Capital City
Club in downtown Raleigh, will help
raise $101,000 for the American
Cancer Society - almost double the
$55,000 raised at last year’s event.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Frances Penick, Red Sword Ball chair, handles last-minute planning the week before the Raleigh event.
Photo by Ashley Peoy
Woodward, executive director of the
Triangle Metro American Cancer
Society was the formation of the
guild - along with a new format for
the event.
So successful has been the
change, says Woodward, that Cancer
The totals include corporate sponsor
ships of $83,000, up from $35,000 last
year.
The difference, says Brant
Society staff members already are
considering raising next year’s goal
to $200,000.
Repeating this year’s success,
however, will depend on the contin-
Look for GUILD, page 15
Work in progress
Museum of Art gears up for new campaign
The state art museum has
launched a year-long 50th
anniversary celebration to set
the stage for a big capital cam
paign.
By Todd Cohen
Raleigh
The North Carolina Museum of
Art has ambitious plans to expand
and renovate its facility in West
Ralei^ and build its programs for
the long-term.
To pay for those plans, museum
officials hope to raise $23.5 million in
state funding and $10 million to $20
million in private dollars.
Larry Wheeler, who became the
museum’s director two years ago,
hopes to cultivate that support in the
coming year through events that will
celebrate the museum’s 50th anniver
sary. Those events, which will include
a series of anniversary events in
AprO, will cost $2.5 million - of which
$1.8 million already has been raised.
“The goal of this 50th anniver
sary,” Wheeler says, “was to create a
higher sense of awareness in the
community for what the museum is
and what it can do to enliven life in
the community but also to make us
more responsive to the entire state
rather than to the immediate commu
nity.”
Wheeler, who took over the muse
um after it had hit major roadblocks
in its fundraising, has reorganized
the development effort under a new
director of external affairs.
Look for MUSEUM, page 20
Reading tea leaves
Elections
bear
mixed
messages
While the Nov. 5 elections may
have changed a few of the faces
in Raleigh and Washington, the
balloting did little to alter the
fundamental challenges facing
nonprofits, sector leaders say.
By Barbara Solow
When asked to analyze the results
of the November elections. North
Carolina nonprofit leaders are more
likely to talk about the status quo
I than they are about bridges to the
21st centurj^.
Unlike the balloting in 1994, which
i was hailed as a mandate for a nev'
brand of Republican fiscal conser-
! vatism, sector leaders say recent
! elections resulted in much less of a
! shakeup.
j While the reelection of President
I Clinton and Gov. Jim Hunt - and the
narrowing of conservative
Republican majorities in both
Congress and the state House - may
shift the political balance on some
issues, the trend toward smaller gov
ernment and more rehance on the pri
vate sector continues.
“I think this is more a time of
maintenance and fine-tuning than
anything else,” says Tom Lambeth,
executive director
of the Z. Smith
Reynolds
Foundation in
Winston-Salem.
“What’s happenel
in the last couple of
years is that a lot of
folks have discov
ered the nonprofit
sector and that’s
positive. But the Lambeth
rest of this century is probably not
going to be a time of great change and
experimentation.”
“Partisan victories
or losses were less
significant in this
election than the
focus of the nation
al poUtical “conver
sation,” says John
Hood, president of
the John Locke
Foundation
John Hood
Look for ELECnONS, page 22
in
In the spotlight: Special events
This special issue examines nonprofit fundraising events. Topics include;
• Special events software. What packages • How has corporate downsizing affected
are available for planning events? Page 3 support of nonprofit special events? Page 12
• How much of the special events industry is • Should nonprofits use consultants when
made up of nonprofit events? Page 4 planning a special event? Page 14
lE———
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• INSIDE
Corporate Giving 12
Foundations 6
Fund Raising 14
Grants and Gifts 16
In December 16
Job Opportunities 20
Nonprofits 4
Opinion 10
People 17
Professional Services...18
Volunteers 8