What's this?

[gvmom]

Whatever part was paid for by FARE, I'm just glad you posted about it.  That along with the info in the Aimmune thread is very interesting.  Helpful to me for evaluating contributions.

We actually don't represent stakeholders as far as I can see either.  We represent dollar signs.  Adelman left FARE for Aimmune, which just got $145 million from Nestle. 

How does someone leave FARE to go into business with Aimmune?  Someone like me, and my FA kids, couldn't.  They are counting on us being customers though. 

I'm guessing I could figure Nestle didn't invest that chunk of change out of the goodness of their heart after getting an invite for FARE's gala. 




 

[Mr. Barlow]

Stakeholder is anyone who has skin in the game whether they want to or not.  It doesn't represent your financial contribution or imply membership.  None of the aforementioned is to dissuade you from healthy skepticism.  Right now I don't have enough facts, only ignorance and supposition.  I seek wisdom, facts, and that which can help me form a reasonable initial assessment. 

[Mr. Barlow]

And I should add this is why I prefer message boards to newer forms of social media.  Even for-credit college courses use this medium more often for the class to engage in dialogue.  There is a higher element for sociological discourse.  At least that's how I justify it to myself where I experience cognitive dissonance.

[Macabre]

If it is more convenient for the donor to meet at their office or house or at the org, that's what you do. Sometimes it's not. I do not do major gifts because of my food allergies (and animal allergies). But I do meet with donors sometimes. And I do that over coffee where I know I won't have a reaction. It is easier for them to talk in a space like that very often. It's makes for a more natural conversation.

So one gala that I did plan we had BBQ. Folks wore cowboy boots. Tickets were $50.

I am not a fan of event fundraising. I never have been. It's fundraising and not development. I do development. But there is a place for it. It might be difficult to see that unless you work in the field or spend a lot of time with a nonprofit.


You don't necessarily raise more money not having them.  In fact you often raised less.

[Macabre]

So I would need to read the thread, but I would assume nestle is a corporate sponsor. Sponsors get be endure (like X number of tables, certain publicity). It's likely not that they were invited to the gala and so have money but they were asked to be a sponsor and with that comes a donation.

Of course,whether they should have hopped in bed with nestle is another question. I mean if we care about childhood nutrition, we would distance ourselves from nestle. I often do, anyway.

[Macabre]

I would add this: one of the things I really hate about galas is the amount of time getting ready for one eats up that you could be doing real development work. I was in a small shop once where as the development director I was the only development staff. I was the only one to send appeals, research and write grant proposals, steward donors, send acknowledgments---and plan the gala we had for 25th anniversary.  I had a volunteer committee, but they took time.

It was so hard to do it all.

I started to get migraines as an adult getting ready for that. I was still expected to get everything else done. And I had a clueless board of directors who expected everything and wasn't good Scout learning their role--or mine. The chair said that the day after the gala we should launch a capital campaign. Dude. I have been trying to tell you the years in prep and fundraising before you go public with a campaign. The feasibility study where we hire fundraising counsel to interview key stakeholders, where we create a gift pyramid that will show us how many gifts at each Level we will need. Where we raise 60% of the goal before we go public.


They didn't listen to me. They asked a donor for a gift of $500 for the campsin when they should have asked her for $500,000. Crazy little agency. 

Anyway my small org wanted to be like the big kids but a gala wasn't not a good idea.

Later I worked for an org that had special event staff and it worked much better. We had a New Years Eve gala--and an overnight event for the kids of guests at the science museum next door. It was cool. But it was calendar year end and a busy time for me doing development work and a bit of distance toon from that.

Anyway---yeah. I don't like galas from a development point of view.