photo by omar omar

In the April issue of Los Angeles Magazine, Mark Lacter shines a light on a dirty little secret that may shock out-of-towners but isn’t really news to the nonprofit community here: Despite the phenomenal individual and corporate wealth to be found in Southern California, very little of it finds its way through philanthropy into the coffers of nonprofit social service organizations.

Lacter details the “embarrassingly unfair” nature of charitable giving among L.A.’s wealthy, which goes mostly to hospitals, higher education, and arts and culture. Somewhere near the end of the line you’ll find human services. So while hospital donor walls boast a roll call of Southern California’s wealthy elite, homeless shelters and soup kitchens struggle to keep their doors open in a region that has more homeless residents than any other urban area in the country.

One reason you may not hear much about this disparity is that the nonprofit community doesn’t want to bite the hand they wish would feed them better. Pissing off potential donors is in no one’s best interests, but I wish we as a community could have a more open and candid conversation about the philanthropic gaps that I believe hold us back as a region. The state and local fiscal crises we hear about every day are absolutely decimating what little safety net still exists to serve the poor and others struggling to survive in a brutal economy.

I understand the sincere desire among some to put their charitable dollars in service to worthy educational institutions such as UCLA (where I’m an alumnus) and USC, or cultural institutions such as Walt Disney Concert Hall. But UCLA’s highly sophisticated “friend-raising” operation consistently rakes in around $400 million per year in contributions. I’m sure USC’s numbers are equally impressive.

Meanwhile, social service organizations are struggling to keep the lights on. If you have money to spare and a desire to make a profound impact, there are incredible opportunities to do so in Southern California. Many of my friends work for nonprofits striving to shelter L.A.’s homeless, protect its abused children from further harm and ensure a decent standard of living for low-income seniors. If I took a poll, I wager I’d find corporate support for those organizations numbering somewhere between one hand and 10 fingers.

If you want to make a name for yourself as a benefactor, consider the many human service organizations that desperately need your support. If you sincerely want to make a difference in the lives of those who need help most, same answer. Somehow I think UCLA and Disney Hall will survive without you for awhile. Others will not.

photo by fotodawg

I don’t remember who I first borrowed the idea from, but I really love reviewing my top 20 tweets each month. My approach to twitter is as editor/curator: I look for posts I think will appeal to those who follow me in the areas of marketing, communications, social media, journalism and related subjects, especially as they relate to nonprofits and small business. I of course liberally tweet my own posts since those happen to be the subjects I tend to write about.

What is particularly interesting is what my highest-performing tweets tell me about my followers on Twitter: they’re a fairly discerning bunch interested in real substance, not fluff. I can always tell when I’ve missed the mark, and it helps me quite a bit when considering what to blog about.

Here’s what was most popular in October. I encourage you to check out any you may have missed when first we tweeted. It’s all good stuff. Even my stuff (I think).

No More Excuses for Crap Communications

If Marketers Today Created the Stop Sign

Social Media and the Paradox of Choice

Why Every Communicator Should Blog

The Dangers of No Content Strategy

Your Communications Plan: What It’s Really For

Small Business: Get in the Social Media Pool

Why Nonprofits Are So Good at Social Media

All You Need is the Story

Results of the Fourth Annoying PowerPoint Survey

Build a Social Network for Your Business

Why Uncensored Blogging is the Future of Corporate Communications

Blogging is Dead, Long LIve Journalism

A Tagline is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Is Philanthropy Ready for the New Consumer?

Five Reasons Corporations are Failing at Social Media

My Five-Year-Old’s Future in Marketing

Hyatt: Managing the Boston Aftermath

Debating Seth Godin’s “Non” Slam

Small Business, Social Media Not Mixing

In case you missed any of them, here are my 20 most popular links (in order of popularity) tweeted during the previous month. I think I post somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 or more links via Twitter each month, and these garnered the greatest response. They serve as my monthly reminder that there is some truly superior content out there to assist you in your own communication efforts; you have only to surf (or follow me).

Letting Nonprofits Act Like Businesses: One Foundation’s Brave Act of Leadership

Social, Global, Ubiquitous, and Cheap

50 Content Ideas That Create Buzz

Katya Andresen on the Six Most Miserable Mistakes of Social Marketing

Are We Breeding Social Media Ne’er-do-wells?

Social Media and the Paradox of Choice

Are You Antisocial in Your Social Media Efforts?

In Advertising, Stupidity Can Win You Awards

Communicate as You Wish Others Would Communicate With You

Five Steps to Building a Successful Social Media Strategy for Your Nonprofit

Your Story Doesn’t Move Me

The Basics of Social Media for Nonprofits

Sometimes It’s Best to Kill the Ones They Love

70 Percent of Journalists Use Social Networks to Assist in Reporting

Social Media Listening for Nonprofits

Shredding Some Misconceptions About Social Media (Part I)

Your Communications Plan: What It’s For

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Writers

Why Seth Godin Is Wrong

Tips, Tricks & Tools From 140 | The Twitter Conference

photo by freeparking

A recent article in the Washington Post about the perceived ineffectiveness of Facebook’s Causes application to raise money has kicked up a lot of upset among fund raisers and other nonprofit pros.

You’ll find excellent responses to the article out there from Allison Fine, Beth Kanter and Jeff Brooks. The main takeaway is that, unless you’re running for president, social media is a far more effective friend raiser than fund raiser.

That really shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s worked in the nonprofit world for any length of time. Every institutional advancement professional I’ve ever worked with understands that relationship-building precedes the ask. Unless the ask is for pocket change.

Real money comes with time. Fund raiser gets to know the donor, what motivates. Donor develops an understanding of the organization’s mission, its potential to make an impact and how a gift actualizes that potential. Successful fund raising is the matchmaking process of the right donor to the right cause. Social media at this point can facilitate and accelerate that process, but it doesn’t replace it.

Serious money is raised by people, not direct mail and Facebook pages. I seriously doubt anything will replace the slow, methodical getting-to-know-you process that great fund raisers do so well.

So while the Post article wasn’t particularly revelatory about its subject, it did serve as a pointed reminder that most media outlets do a lousy job of covering the nonprofit sector. It’s ironic given all the debate about the nonprofit model as a potential savior of journalism.