Tapping thinner wallets

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By Ann Geracimos

In these uncertain economic times, nonprofit groups are coming up with a new slate of strategies for coaxing dollars from donors. The theme of Hope Through Health's recent happy-hour fundraiser, for example — Drink to Your Health While Giving Hope to Others — was unusual, given the nonprofit's goals, but it worked. About 50 members of the under-40 set jammed the Vinoteca Wine Bar in Northwest and contributed nearly $600 to the cause.

The organization (www.hthglobal.org), begun four years ago by Peace Corps volunteers, supports community-based health initiatives in underdeveloped countries such as Togo in West Africa, where 58 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Participants at the D.C. chapter's quarterly fundraiser were asked to donate $10 each, and in return they received a hand-beaded red ribbon — a symbol of the fight against HIV/AIDS — made by Togolese women living on anti-retroviral drugs. A drop in the bucket, perhaps, but HTH, a grass-roots organization, boasts that it has virtually no administrative costs and so can support social services helping nearly 1,400 people living with HIV in Togo.

The occasion — and the inventive slogan, plus the use of Facebook to tally names — is just one example of the work done by nonprofits of all sizes to rally old and new funding sources to their side. The smaller and less well-known the nonprofit, the more difficult the task will be.

According to Giving USA Foundation, publisher of an annual yearbook on the state of American philanthropy, corporations give just 13 percent of their total charitable funds to arts groups; it remains to be seen how mergers and acquisitions in the current downturn will affect future sums.

"Hopefully what we will see is greater collaboration among small agencies in their back offices," says Edith Falk, vice president of the Illinois-based foundation.

"Then, too, there is need to look for ways to drive traffic to a Web site as more cost-effective — less paper — and to stay in touch with donors more quickly with the kinds of messages tailored to their particular interest," she says. "Money spent on newsletters may go to something else."

Barbara Witten, partner in the consulting and event-planning firm Hayes & Associates, was a scheduled panelist at Tuesday's nonprofit business forum on fundraising strategies, hosted by the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce.

Expanding the notion of in-kind donations of goods beyond simply wine, as often is done, is one way, she said — a cattlemen's trade association once donated an entire main course — as is creating atypical events for clients, such as the poker tournament with Ben Affleck the chairman for a Paralyzed Veterans of America event is planning for February in Las Vegas.

The power of celebrity as a lure is stronger than ever, especially when organizations can attract showbiz and athletic luminaries to attend for a cause and not just lend their names as "honorary hosts."