วันอังคารที่ 22 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2551

Evaluating Your Company's Philanthropy Improves Business Giving

How do you know if your giving is making a difference? We hear those 3 words a lot and we also hear the term maximizing your giving impact. Well, it's easy to say if we've made a difference, if we volunteered time or written a check to a cause. Chances are you did in some way. Organizations also use those 3 words in their fund raising campaigns to encourage people to volunteer and give. After all, who wouldn’t want to make a difference?
However, in the field of philanthropy, we take those 3 little words, Making a Difference, and we make a big deal about it. As a philanthropy consultant, I want to ensure that clients are making an impact with their charitable giving. There are two measurements to consider for evaluation. There's the mission-related measurement which tells you where your contributions went and if they made a difference in lives. And the marketing related measurement let's you know if your investment made a return on your business.

With giving, the only way to know if you are really making an impact is to evaluate your charitable giving. The problem with evaluation is it takes time to do it and most companies simply don't do it. They have the expectation that volunteer time, employees' time, products and/or dollars are doing good. Someone once said, “Supposing is good, but finding out is much better.” I think that was Mark Twain. I am encouraging you to start an evaluation process of your giving today even if it's on a small scale. Surely you evaluate or track your marketing efforts and campaigns, right? Well, the same notion applies to charitable giving. And December is an ideal month to do this. Now keep in mind if your company giving is directed to a nonprofits general operating (unrestricted) then you have to have the pre-ordained assumption that the organization is doing good and your evaluation can only go as so far as to find out if the organization is fiscally sound, in compliance with their charitable status and has overall outcome successes. However, if you have given directly to a nonprofit program, event or project then evaluation lets you know if your contributions were a good investment. Evaluation sounds like a big project, but here is a partial list of questions you can use to begin a mission-related evaluation your company giving:

Ask the Organization: 1. Did the program achieve its intended goals? 2. Was the program an efficient use of resources? 3. What were the benefits to those served?

Ask your Company: 1. Did the program meet your business rationale for supporting it? 2. Did the program reflect the values you promote in your company? 3. If employees volunteered time, was the program/project a valuable/good experience for them? 4. Were the funds given, adequate to achieve program objectives?

Evaluation is really about learning, improvement and progress. You simply will never know if you are making a difference, if you don’t have some measure of success. If for example you give “X” amount of dollars in a year and this is your measure of success (just the $ amount), then you’ll never really know if you made a difference in your community or helped improve lives. Giving is as much about the quest for quality.

© 2007. Maggie F. Keenan, Ed. D. All rights reserved.




About the Author
Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D. is the Owner & Principal of givingadvice and has authored numerous articles on strategic approaches to giving. She is an expert on philanthropy for small business, corporations. Maggie creates charitable giving programs clients that impact their bottom-line and the causes they give to. www.givingadvice.com

Loans can lend you a hand

What do you do when you look at your household paperwork one day and realise you're up to your eyeballs in plastic? Credit cards, debit cards, store cards...It's just all too confusing!
A loan could be the answer to your problem. Taking out a loan is an easy way to get all your different card debts under control and into a single monthly payment.

Go through all your most recent statements and add up the balances of all the cards you owe money on. Include any overdrafts too, as these can be just as potent as your cards.

Once you have your total debt amount, you know how much you'll need to borrow, and you can start looking at different loans. The type of loan you go for will depend on a couple of things. If you are a tenant, or the amount owed is under £5000, you may want to apply for a personal loan. These tend to be available mainly to people with good credit ratings, so it may be worth obtaining your credit file from Experian or Equifax first.

For homeowners who need to borrow more than £5000, secured loans could be the answer. These take your home as collateral, meaning if you default on payments the lender is legally entitled to take your house to cover the amount you borrowed. It stands to reason that if you get a secured loan, you really need to make sure you can afford the payments!

Once you've decided on the type of loan you need, shop around. If you have bad credit, try not to make too many applications for loans as each one will show up on your file as a refusal.

Once you have your loan and paid off your cards, cut them up! Leave one if you wish for emergencies, but don't be tempted to keep them all 'just in case'. Keep a closer eye on future finances so 'just in case' never arises.

How To Increase Income During Rough Economic Times

The most recent news about the economy has forced businesses across the U.S. to face harsh realities. Less expenditures, delayed projects, weaker consumer confidence by businesses, and consumers make running a small Internet business even more challenging.
How you strategically plan to survive in such an economic climate means focusing on customer retention and revenue growth through referral and repeat customers. And this is where small Internet businesses can sustain and grow relationships better with their customers.

Most small Internet business owners make huge mistakes by looking at where they can cut operating expenses, rather than grow existing customer relationships. Controlling expenses is certainly a necessity, but sustaining profitability requires more than internal cost controls.

The question you must ask yourself, if you operate a Internet business, how do you increase profits once all your costs are minimized? It's done by stimulating demand, getting more from your existing customer base. This is where greater profits can be found.

But, if you are planning to start a business online, now is the time to begin thinking like a marketing minded entrepreneur. You see, there are two reasons why you don't have as much money today as you desire: a) You didn?t think about it or b) plan for today before it arrived.

Had you been more aware then, you would always need money and acted on that awareness in the past, you would be wealthier today than you are right now. Why? Because, you would have intentionally saved money, perhaps even by making small sacrifices over the years, or invested money, even small amounts, and would therefore have more money today than you currently have.

Make a list of your expenses for one month. You'll quickly discover how many unnecessary things you buy and how much you could, therefore, set aside for tomorrow. If you want to free yourself from financial troubles, then start putting a portion of your money into a special account. The work you have now isn't bringing in enough money.

There are many ways to increase, even maximize, the financial and non-monetary rewards you earn from your business. If you want to get more money, consider the following:

Change Work Habits

Money isn't everything. Financial gain isn't the only consideration when evaluating your current business. Work that you enjoy doing will give you greater satisfaction, a feeling that no amount of money can provide. You've probably heard the saying, "Do what you love and the money will follow." Successful people concentrate on their work, the business, while unsuccessful people focus solely on the money.

Take On an Extra Business

Perhaps your primary business gives you great satisfaction, but doesn't yet provide a sufficient income. Taking on additional work may be a better solution than changing business concepts. Like everything else, it depends on the individual. You know best. You have to consider the consequences; working two businesses means there will be less time for everything else and added pressure. Ask yourself if the increase in income is worth the additional taxes you'll pay, time you will spend, etc.

Invest More Time in Your Present Business

Another possibility is to put in more time into your present business. Since you are probably paid according to time or efficiency, your income will probably rise with more time invested. This alternative is similar to the one above, that of increasing your workload, except it doesn't require acclimating yourself to a new business, and therefore, you don't need to concentrate on two, or multiple businesses. However, the work may be monotonous where adding an extra business might allow combining mental and physical work, a possible advantage or less rewarding.

Be More Efficient in Your Present Business

One good variation is to be more efficient at your present business, which often results in higher earnings. Think about how you can save time and money. Search for bottlenecks and fix them. Consider the Pareto Principle, 80 percent of your income comes from 20 percent of the work done. Concentrate more on effective tasks and less on auxiliary ones that don't bring in money directly.

Learn To Enjoy Your Present Business

You'll move towards your goals faster if you organize your present business so you enjoy it more. Make a list of things that make you happy or bring you satisfaction from your business. The list might include: what you have, what you have always wanted, where your advantages are, how tasks can be done in a pleasant and fun way, and so on. You'll find the business itself probably isn't so bad, it's just that you have been focusing more on the negative, rather than the positive aspects.

Be optimistic and start to take an interest in your field of expertise. Associate with people who do similar work and enjoy doing it, allow them to pass their enthusiasm on to you. Maybe you won't raise your income at first, but you'll be much happier. If I asked you, which you would prefer, money or happiness, what would you say?

Over time, you will be noticed, if not by your competition, customers, and business associates or partners, but by others. There are always plenty of work for a business who is conscientious and an expert in his or her field. Those who are the best in the business have doors opened everywhere, regardless of whether the economy looks bad or not.



About the Author
Abe Cherian is an online marketing pioneer, founder and CEO of Multiple Stream Media, LLC. The MSMedia Network helps Webmasters and Affiliates Worldwide to Instantly earn ad-revenue from their existing traffic the easy way.

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