Just about everybody knows that the postal rates went up recently, but it was only last week that I noticed that there’s a new 78-cent stamp featuring Mary Lasker, the pioneering philanthropist.  Last month, we used the 76-cent Edward Trudeau.  He was a phthisiologist, which I’m sure you all know is a physician who specializes in phthisiology.  (ok, ok, phthisiology is the care and treatment of tuberculoisis.  Sorry, Edward.)

But seriously, it’s good to see Mary Lasker on a stamp, and a nice coincidence that it’s the exact stamp we at Firstgiving use to send out welcome packets to our new NPO clients.  If that’s you and you haven’t received our little bundle of valuable info, tips, event planning worksheet, and success stories, get in touch with your account manager pronto.

But why, you ask, are we sending out paper packages when we’re the online fundraising company?  The simple answer is that when information is important, you might need to send it more than once or in more than one format.  Plus, different people digest information in different ways, so it’s always best to choose the right medium for each message and audience.

That said, with the price of postage going up and looking like it will keep doing so, we have to wonder what postal projects smart nonprofit fundraisers will put off or take online.  Can email fundraising ever completely replace paper fundraising, or will it just become the only cost-effective way?  Are you cutting back on postage by mailing less or mailing smarter?

We’re hosting another free fundraising webinar one week from right now, on Wednesday, June 17 at 3:30pm East coast time (12:30 West) all about fundraising with Facebook. Every time we talk about social media fundraising, there are always Facebook fundraising questions, so we decided to put together a whole session on using Facebook to build your communities and fundraise online.  We hope you can join us.

As you can see, we’ll talk about the basics a bit and then get right to the meat of how to raise money and build community on Facebook.  Since about 75% of our usual webinar audience already has at least a personal presence on Facebook, we’ll be sure to leave some time for your questions.  You can register now here: http://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/694448243 All are welcome but space will be limited.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but these days on the web, it seems that a little knowledge is all you really need.  One of the big challenges for any nonprofit organization, but especially for smaller ones, is managing a good website.  It used to be that a website meant expensive consultants, but more and more nonprofit organizations seem to be making it on their own, with the help of some smart volunteers or interns and a raft of free software and services.  Specifically, we’ve been seeing more and more nonprofit organizations building their website with blogging tools like WordPress.  In fact, we might even be a little behind the times on this one, as the Non-Profit Tech Blog broke the WordPress for NPO story back in December.

Last month, we did a survey of the participants in our webinar, SEO for the NPO, and found that over half are making their website go with staff they already have who also do other jobs.  Add to that the 14% running on intern or volunteer power and you get over two thirds doing it their way.  Additionally, 19% are outsourcing their websites and a mere 13% have dedicated web staff in their organizations.

We’re curious, have you taken the WordPress plunge?  Besides this very blog, Firstgiving is also using WordPress for our new help and support site.  Take our poll below and see the results.

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News has quietly trickled out about a hush-hush meeting on May 5 of some of the richest and most philanthropic people in the world, the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, George Soros.  Apparently, Gates and Warren Buffet invited this elite group together to talk about “need” and what this group could do in light of the current economic crisis.

Nobody knows exactly what they talked about or what plan, if any, they might be cooking up.  Perhaps they talked about the Obama administration’s (as yet unimplemented) plan to cut the tax benefit of charitable contributions (and other deductions) for households earning more than $250, 000.  A quarter million sounds like a lot of income to most of us, but in fact, it’s less than many of the attendees of this mysterious group actually give in a typical year.  For example, Oprah reportedly gave $50 million in 2007, some 2% of her $2.7 billion net worth.

It seems likely that this group will continue to give and give big even if the government makes it less deductible for them, so they probably spent their five hour meeting figuring out how they can join forces (as Buffet and Gates did) to do more good more efficiently, one hopes for more people and more organizations.

But what does this mean to local and regional organizations, organizations benefitting small or little-known groups and situations, organization with budgets in the five or six figures total per year with maybe a handful of major donors, where “major” means a thousand or a few thousand dollars a year?

I fear not too much for many.  Major donors, just like the rest of us, like to see results and impact for their dollars, so it seems logical to expect that this group will focus their energies on a smallish group of problems and causes, and put much of their effort behind a smallish group of organizations, or possibly even start their own.  That’s not to say those causes and problems are unworthy, and it would certainly be exhilarating to see this group decisively eradicate a big social problem or drive to a cure or treatment for a disease.  But for all the worthy causes outside that one, it will be business as usual.

But it’s not all gloom.  Regular everyday gift size is down for many, but the number of gifts continues to grow.  Foundation support trickles down to smaller organizations in the form of grants.  The Obama adminstration’s interest in some kind of service corps could lead to an infusion of volunteer power and maybe funds too for lots of community organizations.

I look forward to the secret meeting bearing public fruit with cautious optimism.  What do you think the future holds for these mega-philanthropists and the mass of micro-and medium-sized nonprofit organizations?

We’re in the midst of a bumper crop of free online fundraising webinars.  This afternoon, we’re honored to have Mike Hennessy from the Special Operations Warrior Foundation as our featured guest in the webinar called “Smart fundraising programs for surviving the summer slump” with our own James Campbell.  There’s still time to register for the 3:30pm (ET) event.

Last week’s session, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) basics for the Non-Profit Organization, was a great success, and we’ve posted the slides, recording, resource links and Q&A right here on the blog.  And in June, we’ll deliver another of our popular social media fundraising webinars, this time focusing exclusively on Facebook.

We hope you’ll be able to join us at one of these events, or that you’ll check out our full archive of past and future fundraising and social media webinars.

Last week, the Boston Foundation released a report that included some dire-sounding news for Massachusetts nonprofits.  I’m pretty sure these figures are not so very different in other communities, but here are some sobering factoids:

• 42 percent of Massachusetts nonprofits have reduced staff or salaries.
• 42 percent have frozen hires and current salaries.
• 23 percent have reduced benefits.
• 7 percent have met with another organization to reduce administrative costs.

This looks like conclusive proof that nonprofit organizations squeezed by the economic crisis are long done with cutting fat - if they ever had any - and are now cutting meat and bone.  Freezing pay and hiring is bad, but cutting salaries and benefits and having layoffs is far worse.  Even in this job market, some organizations will lose quality people who can’t afford to work for even less than the usual nonprofit pay scale, and some of those organizations might not make it back.

Donors who fret about high administrative overhead when donating to nonprofit organizations should take heed. While nobody wants to donate money that will be wasted, this news reminds us that competitive staff salaries and basic adminstrative tools like office space, supplies and equipment are what makes it possible for NPOs to deliver their outcomes.

For organizations feeling the pinch or the squeeze, now is the time to be blunt and honest with supporters about the need for unrestricted funds to support the organization’s mission and its survival.

Do you have a tale of cutbacks or difficult belt-tightening? Or maybe a success story raising money for the not-so-exciting necessities of NPO life?  We’re all ears.

We’re proud to report that ClickZ has recognized Firstgiving with a finalist position in the social media marketing platform category of their marketing excellence awards.  We’re honored to be in such good company, sharing the category with co-finalists from  Omniture, Pluck and Wildfire.

If we win, it will be a testament to all our fundraisers who have put the power of their social networks to good use, raising money for great nonprofit causes.  So watch ClickZ’s site for the announcement on June 2…