Portland, December 26th. It’s time to focus on year-end charitable donations! On the right-hand side of our PortlandSocietyPage.com website there are links to many worthy local charities. Please explore! The website, Charity Navigator is a research tool for donors and evaluates how charities use money. The organization also offers these tips for smart giving:
Be Proactive In Your Giving
Smart givers generally don’t give reactively in a knee-jerk fashion. They don’t respond to the first organization that appeals for help. They take the time to identify which causes are most important to their families and they are specific about the change they want to affect. For example, they don’t just support generic cancer charities, but instead have targeted goals for their giving, such as providing mammograms to at-risk women in their community.
Hang Up The Phone / Eliminate The Middleman
Informed donors recognize that for-profit fundraisers, those often used in charitable telemarketing campaigns, keep a large portion (in some cases all) of each dollar they collect (read our report about telemarketing for more specifics on the costs affiliated with this form of fundraising). Wise donors never give out their personal information – like credit card accounts, social security numbers – over the phone. If they like what they hear in the pitch, they’ll hang up, investigate the charity on-line and send their contribution directly to the charity, thereby cutting out the middleman and ensuring 100% of their donation reaches the charity. Taking it a step further, donors may want to reconsider supporting a charity that uses an inefficient telemarketing approach and instead identify a charity that does not use telemarketing to raise funds.
Be Careful Of Sound-Alike Names
Uninformed donors are easily confused by charities that have strikingly similar names to others. How many of us could tell the difference between an appeal from the Children’s Charity Fund and the Children’s Defense Fund? Their names sound the same, but their performances are vastly different. Would you be surprised to learn that the Children’s Charity Fund is a 0-star charity while the Children’s Defense Fund is a 3-star charity? Informed donors take the time to uncover the difference.
Confirm 501(c) (3) Status
Wise donors don’t drop money into canisters at the checkout counter or hand over cash to solicitors outside the supermarket. Situations like these are irresistible to scam artists who wish to take advantage of your goodwill. Smart givers only support groups granted tax-exempt status under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All of the charities evaluated by Charity Navigator meet this basic requirement.
Check The Charity’s Commitment To Accountability & Transparency
In 2011, Charity Navigator added an Accountability & Transparency dimension to its rating system. It tracks metrics such as whether the charity used an objective process to determine their CEO’s salary, whether it has an effective governance structure, and whether it has a whistleblower policy. This data is critical because charities that follow good governance and transparency practices are less likely to engage in unethical or irresponsible activities. So, the risk that such charities would misuse donations is lower than for charities that don’t adopt such practices.
Obtain Copies Of Its Financial Records
Savvy donors know that the financial health of a charity is a strong indicator of the charity’s programmatic performance. They know that in most cause areas, the most efficient charities spend 75% or more of their budget on their programs and services and less than 25% on fundraising and administrative fees. However, they also understand that mid-to-large sized charities do require a strong infrastructure therefore a claim of zero fundraising and/or administrative fees is unlikely at best. They understand that a charity’s ability to sustain its programs over time is just as important as its short-term day-to-day spending practices. Therefore, savvy donors also seek out charities that are able to grow their revenue at least at the rate of inflation, that continue to invest in their programs and that have some money saved for a rainy day. All of this analysis is provided on Charity Navigator’s website for free, but when considering groups not found here, savvy donors ask the charity for copies of its three most recent Forms 990. Not only can the donor examine the charity’s finances, but the charity’s willingness to send the documents is a good way to assess its commitment to transparency.
Review Executive Compensation
Sophisticated donors realize that charities need to pay their top leaders a competitive salary in order to attract and retain the kind of talent needed to run a multi-million dollar organization and produce results. But they also don’t just take the CEO’s compensation at face value; they benchmark it against similar-sized organizations engaged in similar work and located in the same region of the country. To help you make your own decision, Charity Navigator’s analysis reveals that the average CEO’s compensation of the charities we evaluate is almost $150,000. In general, salaries tend to be higher in the northeast and at arts and education charities. Sophisticated donors also put the CEO’s salary into context by examining the overall performance of the organization. They know it is better to contribute to a charity with a well-paid CEO that is meeting its goals than to support a charity with an underpaid CEO that fails to deliver on its promises. (Check out our CEO Compensation Study for more benchmarking data.)
Start A Dialogue To Investigate Its Programmatic Results
Although it takes some effort on their part to assess a charity’s programmatic impact, donors who are committed to advancing real change believe that it is worth their time. Before they make a contribution, they talk with the charity to learn about its accomplishments, goals and challenges. These donors are prepared to walk away from any charity that is unable or unwilling to participate in this type of conversation.
Concentrate Your Giving
When it comes to financial investments, diversification is the key to reducing risk. The opposite is true for philanthropic investments. If you’ve really taken the time to identify a well-run charity that is engaged in a cause that you are passionate about, you should then feel confident in giving it a donation. Spreading your money among multiple organizations not only results in your mail box filling up with more appeals, it also diminishes the possibility of any of those groups bringing about substantive change as each charity is wasting a percentage of your gift on processing expenses for that gift.
Share Your Intentions And Make A Long-Term Commitment
Smart donors support their favorite charities for the long haul. They see themselves as a partner in the charity’s efforts to bring about change. They know that only with long-term, committed supporters can a charity be successful. And they don’t hesitate to tell the charity of their giving plans so that the organization knows it can rely on the donor and the charity doesn’t have to waste resources and harass the donor by sending numerous solicitations.
Portland, December 20st. The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) announced that $732,440 will be awarded for artistic projects scheduled to take place in 2013 – including 66 grants to organizations and schools, and 94 individual artists in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. This is the largest sum that RACC has ever awarded for project grants.
Keller Auditorium Mural – Una Kim and Students from Portland State University 222 SW Clay; RACC Funding: $3200; 18’H x 108’L
RACC’s funding of project grants is up 5% over last year, thanks to solid public investments from the City of Portland, Clackamas County, Multnomah County, Washington County, and Metro; and continued growth of Work for Art, RACC’s workplace giving program. Demand is up even more: RACC received 352 eligible applications this cycle – up 12% over last year.
Seventy volunteers serving on 18 different panels evaluated the proposals based on artistic merit, audience development and financial accountability. In the end, 160 (45%) of the proposals were recommended for funding and ultimately approved by the RACC Board on December 19th.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Clackamas County received a first-time RACC grant for Stand Up for Mental Health and will present comedy classes to individuals living with chronic mental health issues.
The Hillsboro Farmers’ Market in Washington County will present a series of summer cultural festivals in celebration of the diversity of the Hillsboro community featuring performances and crafts highlighting the Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Indian communities.
Other culturally-specific artistic projects include performances of Lyndee Mah’s memoir piece E-B’an, Damaris Webb’s solo show The Box Marked Black, and Boom Arts’ puppet musical Tunde’s Trumpet. RACC also continues to fund diverse organizations like India Cultural Association, RASIKA, The Obo Addy Legacy Project, Painted Sky, and Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival.
The number of applications to RACC’s Media Arts category continues to grow every year, and Grand Detour received its first RACC award to produce the 2nd annual Experimental Film Fest at venues throughout the city. Other projects funded in this category include Sway of the Knife by Vu N. Pham and Cooped, a hand-drawn animated short film by Mike A. Smith.
RACC also funded a number of multi-discipline projects that included strong media or technology elements, including Water in the Desert’s interdisciplinary performance AMERICAN ME, and Bill Holznagel’s Daisy Shorts using film and puppetry. Kelly Rauer’s Underbelly and Jacob Pander’s Incident Energy are both multi-channel video installations, and Ben Darwish’s Adobe Globe is a long-form musical composition incorporating multimedia elements.
For the first time, RACC convened a visual arts panel focused solely on photography projects, which resulted in several first time project grant recipients including Teresa Christiansen, Anna Daedalus, Loren Nelson and TJ Norris.
RACC-funded projects will continue to engage youth in many ways, ranging from Staged! Portland’s Musical Theatre Series’ professional premiere of “Ablaze: an a cappella musical thriller” written by local playwright and composer Matthew Zrebski, to the Girls Rock Institute at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls, and the Kukatonon Children’s African Dance Troupe program.
In addition, an anonymous donor continues to provide special funding for an annual “Innovation Prize” of $2,500. This year’s award for outstanding, innovative, media-oriented project goes to Orlund Nutt for a short movie based on the James Broughton poem, ‘Bear of Heaven’.
“We were amazed and inspired by the proposals we received this year,” said Eloise Damrosch, executive director of RACC. “It is especially gratifying to see that our outreach to artists and arts organizations is resulting in a significant increase in new applications. These grant awards will bring exciting variety to the region’s artistic offerings next year.”
A complete listing of grants appears below, and summaries of each grant are available at www.racc.org/2013projectgrants.
Note: (*) denotes Clackamas County applicants, and (**) denotes Washington County based applicants. All other applicants are based in Multnomah County.
Organization
Category/Discipline
Amount
Architecture Foundation of Oregon
Arts-in-Schools
$ 6,000
Beaverton Civic Theatre **
Community Participation
$ 3,620
Boom Arts
Theatre
$ 6,000
Bubbaville
Community Participation
$ 5,800
Buckman Arts Focus Elementary
Arts-in-Schools
$ 4,800
Classical Revolution PDX
Music
$ 2,460
Compass Repertory Theatre
Community Participation
$ 5,024
Conduit Dance, Inc.
Dance
$ 6,000
Dill Pickle Club
Community Participation
$ 5,691
Dill Pickle Club
Literature
$ 3,720
Estacada Arts Commission *
Community Participation
$ 5,058
Experimental Half-Hour
Media Arts
$ 4,800
FearNoMusic
Music
$ 5,400
Friends of Marquam Nature Park
Community Participation
$ 4,800
Grand Detour
Media Arts
$ 3,731
Hand2Mouth Theatre
Theatre
$ 5,700
Hillsboro Farmers’ Markets, INC. **
Community Participation
$ 4,800
Impact NW
Arts-in-Schools
$ 5,998
India Cultural Association **
Community Participation
$ 3,655
Irvington School PTA
Arts-in-Schools
$ 3,542
Kukatonon
Arts-in-Schools
$ 5,700
Lewis & Clark College Hoffman Gallery
Visual Arts
$ 5,100
Living Stages
Community Participation
$ 4,720
Media, Arts & Technology Institute
Arts-in-Schools
$ 4,304
MetroArts Inc
Music
$ 4,316
Museum of Contemporary Craft
Folk Arts
$ 6,000
Music Access Project of Portland
Arts-in-Schools
$ 4,800
My Voice Music
Community Participation
$ 5,307
National Alliance on Mental Illness of Clackamas County *
Portland, November 9th. The 4th Annual Sip, Serve & Celebrate raised $116,000 for the Portland After-School Tennis & Education which helps at-risk students achieve academic and athletic success. Matt Felton got a big thank you hug from a scholar athlete in the ‘Felton Factor’ program while Executive Director Danice Brown looked on. Matt and his wife Jasmine generously funded the $23k annual costs of the program. (Photo credit, Team Photogenic)
PAST&E Scholar Athletes anxiously wait to make their debut and performance for the guests and patrons.
Organizers say, “This year past board member Matt Felton was honored for all his work and contributions to the program by the creation of ‘The Felton Factor’ which focuses on strengthening participants’ fundamental tennis skills, preparing them for competitive play, and encouraging sportsmanship. The program also strives to improve competitiveness against private-club players who generally have greater resources and training opportunities.
Shawn Menashe raises his auction number to support the PAST&E fund-a-need.
PAST&E Volunteer Wendy Nakatani and Board Member Judy Ma congratulate Kana Wakamatsu for placing the winning bid for the US Open Tennis package. Kana and her husband Jason will get to experience US Open 2013 from the Nike box!
Matt and Jasmine Felton arrive to enjoy the festivities of Sip, Serve & Celebrate!
The event was held at Castaway Portland and emcees were Kelley Day and Mike Chase.
About Portland After School Tennis & Education:
“Our program is located in the heart of one of the most socio-economically challenged areas of Portland and is changing the lives of these wonderful students,” says Danice Brown, Executive Director of PAST&E. “Portland After-School Tennis & Education operates almost entirely on the generosity of our volunteers and individual donors and the money raised from this event is paramount in being able to keep our program going.”
Portland After School Tennis & Education (PAST&E) is a nonprofit whose mission is to create partnerships with families, schools, and volunteers to help at-risk K-12 students achieve academic and athletic success. We accomplish this through one-on-one academic tutoring, tennis lessons, a nutrition/fitness curriculum, parent education, and a “Best in Class” development program serving junior players who excel at tennis. Located at North Portland’s St. Johns Racquet Center, PAST&E impacts the lives of more than 1,000 at-risk children and families every year. For more information, visit www.pastande.org.
Portland, December 2nd. Mothers and daughters from the National Charity League, Inc. Portland Chapter supported the Red Sweater Project at their annual holiday tea at the Portland Golf Club. It creates educational opportunities for children in rural Tanzania and was founded by a former Portland NCL member, Ashley Holmer. Former National Charity League Portland Chapter class of 2013 Presidents Mariel Klein and Courtney Hall were among the seniors who also sold baked goods to raise money – both attend Jesuit High School.
Ticktockers like Madeleine and Bess collect school supplies for The Red Sweater Project.
Red Sweater cookies were popular, as were handmade bracelets.
Seniors and their mothers served as hosts for the formal receiving line.
The class of 2013 has been participating in nonprofit work since 7th grade.
Chapter President Debby Murphy with Holiday Tea Chair Carol Alexander
Former National Charity League Portland Chapter class of 2013 Presidents Mariel Klein and Courtney Hall – both attend Jesuit High School
A fashion show featured ensembles from “Free People”, a boutique on Northwest 23rd. Freshman, Claire Jacobsen, opened the show.
Free People Fashion show
Junior Cece Alexander helped organize the show as did emcee from Free People, Megan Dorick
8th Grade student, Shannon Kehoe
Isabel Klein, Adele English, and Megan Gooding
National Charity League History:
In 1925, a small group of women interested in philanthropic work founded the Charity League in Los Angeles. They worked quietly, doing Red Cross work, making layettes and assembling and delivering baskets of food to the hungry at holiday times. Sometimes they brought their daughters with them. By 1938, so many daughters had become involved that they decided to form their own group. They called themselves the Ticktockers.
In 1947, these groups united to become the first mother-daughter charity and took their present name, National Charity League. At that time, the mothers also took their name, Patronesses. The newly formed group decided to expand its program beyond philanthropic work to include educational and cultural activities.
NCL was reorganized and incorporated as National Charity League, Inc. in 1958. The first “Chapter Day” was held in 1959; the first NCL Convention was held the following year. These meetings brought the growing membership together for an exchange of ideas and support.
National Charity League Today:
National Charity League, Inc. has a National Board of Directors, which represents the organization’s eight Regions and more than one hundred forty local Chapters throughout the United States. NCL continues to carry out its Mission — to provide service to its communities while fostering the mother-daughter relationship. Through our volunteer work today, we hope to make the world a better place tomorrow.
Portland, October 30th. Nearly 1,000 corporate and business leaders joined the crowed at this year’s Governors’ Gold Awards where athletes were honored. (Photo credit Andie Petkus) This year’s Governor Gold Awardees include: Orville Roth from Roth’s Fresh Markets. Joe Weston, Wally Rhines from Mentor Graphics, Governor Victor Atiyeh, Governor Barbara Roberts, Governor John Kitzhaber, Governor Theodore Kulongoski, Tamara Lundgren from Schnitzer Steel Industries, Chip Terhune from Schnitzer Steel Industries, Gary Fish from Deschutes Brewery, Leesa Cobb and Aaron Longton from Port Orford Ocean Resource Team.
This year’s Governor Gold Awardees listed from left to right – Orville Roth from Roth’s Fresh Markets. Joe Weston, Wally Rhines from Mentor Graphics, Governor Victor Atiyeh, Governor Barbara Roberts, Governor John Kitzhaber, Governor Theodore Kulongoski, Tamara Lundgren from Schnitzer Steel Industries, Chip Terhune from Schnitzer Steel Industries, Gary Fish from Deschutes Brewery, Leesa Cobb and Aaron Longton from Port Orford Ocean Resource Team.
This year’s Governor Gold Awardees included Orville Roth from Roth’s Fresh Markets
Gerry Frank and Gov. John Kitzaber
This year’s Governor Gold Awardees included Joe Weston.
The benefit luncheon raised $230,000 at the event. One of Special Olympics Oregon supporters was also there, Mariel Zagunis; two time World Championship and a stunning two Olympic Gold medal winner.
Special Olympics Oregon athlete, Travis Koski, address the audience and thanks everyone for their support of Special Olympics Oregon programs and services. Travis is a gold medal winner in the pentathlon, enjoys public speaking and hanging out with his friends.
Nearly 1,000 corporate and business leaders joined the crowed at this year’s Governors’ Gold Awards. One of Special Olympics Oregon supporters was also there, Mariel Zagunis; two time World Championship and a stunning two Olympic Gold medal winner.
Governor John Kitzhaber, awards a Special Olympics Oregon athlete with this year’s Gert Boyle Greatness Award.
From Special Olympics Oregon: Here in Oregon, while Special Olympics Oregon serves more than 10,000 participants throughout the state, nearly 70,000 people with intellectual disabilities could benefit from participating in Special Olympics. Still growing, Special Olympics Oregon is efficiently expanding programs to get closer and closer to serving every individual with intellectual disabilities that qualifies to participate in Special Olympics.
Special Olympics Oregon offers training and competition opportunities in 14 different Olympic-style sports. There are three sports seasons throughout the year, with statewide competitions and training in winter, summer and fall.
Special Olympics Oregon holds events in every region of the state, every month of the year, providing athletes the opportunity to be competing and training as often as they choose.
Special Olympics athletes train intensely for eight weeks prior to each State Games event. Volunteer coaches are responsible for training the athletes. Volunteers must complete a certification program prior to becoming Special Olympics coaches and must attend training schools before each season.
Special Olympics Oregon (SOOR) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization incorporated in the state of Oregon to provide sports training and athletic competition for persons with mental disabilities. SOOR is accredited by Special Olympics, Inc. (SOI) and responsible for following the policies and rules established by SOI in the delivery of services in Oregon. It is known as a Program of SOI. A volunteer Board of Directors provides policy decisions and long-range planning for SOOR. The Board employs a staff of people to implement the day-to-day operations.
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