December: End of Year Philanthropy

At the end of October, we marked a milestone in the life of FLiP. For the first of what we hope will be many times, FLiP brought together a group of readers - young fundraisers and grantmakers - at the Summit onPhilanthropy.

The Summit onPhilanthropy is organized by our parent philanthropy news site onphilanthropy.com. This annual invitation-only conference gathers approximately 200 of the philanthropic sector’s leading CEOs and other executives. This year FLiP was given the opportunity to extend five “scholarships” to FLiP readers. After the conference was over, the five FLiPs in attendance met with our editorial team to talk about the future of FLiP.

As many of you know (because I say it every month), the founding goal of FLiP was two-fold. The first purpose was to create an outreach program to encourage students in college and grad school to work in the philanthropic sector, and the second was to build a community and a network for young fundraisers and grantmakers.

But to be honest, that was just a plan; we knew people were reading, but we didn’t know if the plan had truly started to work. It was an exciting affirmation, then, for us to see five FLiPs in a room together, talking about the sector we all share. Among other things, the conversation confirmed what we hypothesized when we first sat down to create FLiP: this sector is crying out for a network. We benefited greatly from the insights of these FLiPs, as well as from the FLiP community at large, and have begun to make some adjustments to the site.

In short: the FLiP plan is working, and we love it. The subscriber list (now in excess of 300 people) is growing every day, and as more community-building offerings begin to come online, we expect our numbers to soar. Stay tuned for updates about new features, and in the meantime, keep your comments coming.

Now on to the monthly topic: As 2006 comes to a close, we thought it appropriate for FLiP to dedicate an issue to year-end giving. In this issue we’ll share what every good development office and grantmaking program should think about at the end of the year, as well as what they can do to prepare for a successful 2007.

In particular, we have found that fourth quarter fundraising can be the most challenging and exciting of the year. Many organizations scramble to reach their annual goals; hundreds of others send (and receive) their biggest annual direct mail appeal. As donors minds turn to thought of tax breaks, will your nonprofit be the one on their minds?

If you’re a grantmaker, is your head still in 2006, or have you moved on to the first quarter of 2007? Are you scrambling to pay out those December commitments? Do you have a plan to work with last-minute grant requests?

These questions, and many more, will be explored this month. As you wrap up your holiday gifts, join us as we wrap up 2006 with our 5th issue: End of Year Philanthropy. Happy reading and happy holidays!