Cheryl J. Weissman

What's Your Dream?

2012-01-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

I was 10 years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. It's tempting to be able to say that it had a huge impact on me, that my life changed that day. It didn't. I was a socially inept, painfully shy, awkward kid with the weight problem and next to no self-esteem. I stayed that way for a long time.

But as I got older and started coming out of myself from time to time, I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on -- newspapers, magazines, tons of books, fiction and biographies. And at some point I read Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech, before I heard it or saw it on television.

Words mean more, I think, when you can see them. I realize that hearing words is a valuable and profound experience, but as a lifelong reading lover, seeing words makes them tangible and permanent.

I was able to find a copy of the transcribed speech at usconstitution.net. I've included it here. I believe we should read it, listen to it, watch it, ingest it in the way most meaningful for each of us.

Dr. King had a dream that, had he lived to see it come fully true, he would have made a significant change to our world, made it a better place.

This is what nonprofits, and the people who choose to work with them and support them, try to accomplish every day.

What's your dream?

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

Today I prepared my final global email for 2011 and I took the opportunity to wish my readers Happy Holidays.

I do this every year, in one form or another. I have always been carefully non-sectarian, not wishing to offend anyone. However, as I was searching for images to include in the email, I found one showing a dreidel and some "gelt". These are representations of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday, which begins at sundown on December 20th this year, and ends on December 28th.

Initially I bypassed the image and went on looking for something with snowflakes or trees or a globe or just the words "Happy Holidays". But I ended up returning to the Hanukkah image and including it in the email, along with one that says Happy Holidays but also shows a decorated Christmas tree. I love Christmas trees!

I included the Hanukkah image because of the meaning of the dreidel and the "gelt." A dreidel is a 4-sided spinning top. Each of the 4 sides has a Hebrew letter on it, and the 4 letters represent the words "nes gadol haya sham" -- "A great miracle happened there." The miracle involved an oil lamp with enough oil to burn for one day that actually burned for 8 days and allowed the Jewish people to cleanse and rededicate the temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV.

"Gelt" is a Yiddish word that means money. It's been a tradition since the 17th century to give children small sums of money (coins) during Hanukkah. Apparently this started in Poland and was approved by the rabbis because it publicized the story of the oil.

So one reason I included the Hanukkah image is that these are still uncertain times, so the reminder that miracles happen every day somewhere seems important to remember. And as all of our work is with nonprofits -- well, who could not use more money to advance their mission and achieve their goals? Perhaps my gelt can bring you some of your own in 2012!

The other reason is purely personal. CJW is my company -- I created it and it literally has my name attached to it. The more time goes by, the harder it becomes for me to separate who I am from what CJW is. I'm a Jewish woman. Judiasm is part of who I am and by extension, it's part of CJW as well.

Someone once told me that to them, a Jewish person is someone who tries to do good; tries to be the best person they can be; treats people as they would be treated; and respects others as they would be respected by others. While I know well that these attributes are not limited to the Jewish people, I do strive to live by them.

I've lived with these precepts all my life. I manage CJW based on the principles I learned growing up in a Jewish family.

This is the foundation for CJW. I have enormous respect and admiration for the nonprofit community. For over 18 years now, I've worked to show this by providing affordable, high-quality services. For as long as CJW exists, this will not change, nor will my commitment to nonprofits and their work.

For everyone reading this, let me wish you happy holidays, whether you have or will be celebrating St. Nicholas Day, the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucia Day, Hannukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa or Omisoka; or you have recently observed Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr or Eid'ul-Adha.

And my very best wishes for a happy, healthy 2012!

Should Volunteers Do Data Entry?

2011-10-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

This issue comes up a lot, particularly in Development. So many Development offices are understaffed and overworked, and the availability of volunteers is a temptation that many organizations can't withstand. I realize that most volunteers are dedicated, reliable and entirely trustworthy, so it's easy to understand that if they are willing to do data entry, they should be asked to do data entry.

Yet when I am asked this question, my answer is almost invariably a definitive "No." The reason is simple. When it comes to fundraising software, data entry is something that should be done by someone with a sense of ownership over the information, and more importantly, a thorough recognition of the needs of the development operation that the data must support.

Without a true understanding of how the data will be used, it is unlikely that it will be entered in a way that will best meet the organization's needs.

No matter how dedicated and long-serving the volunteer, in nearly all cases volunteers have limited knowledge about any given department and its functions. Development is a highly personal, pretty intricate process involving myriad facets that combine to make people not only willing to give you money, but anxious to do so.

Whatever fundraising software you are using must be maintained in the most effective manner possible for your needs. Data entry is a great deal more than many people think. For example:

What information is needed to enter a gift?

Common misconception: Donor name, date, amount, payment information
Closer to the truth: Donor name, date, amount, payment information, designation for use of the gift, appeal to which the donor responded, type of donor who made the gift, name of letter to be sent in acknowledgment, any soft credits to be applied to other donors, will the gift be matched and if so, by whom and by what factor

What information is needed to enter a new constituent record?

Common misconception: Name and address information
Closer to the truth: Name and address information, gender, marital status, spouse name, phone number(s), email address(es), exceptions to the ways you can ask for money or to contact people, addressees and salutations to be used when contacting people, coding defining way(s) in which the constituent is connected to your organization, etc.

Obviously these parameters vary by organization and database, but the fact remains that data entry for fundraising use is, to say the very least, complex. Therefore, it should be undertaken only by people who truly understand fundraising and other Development functions thoroughly.

Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know! Click on "Post a Comment" below.

Webinar Transition

2011-09-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

As we have been reporting recently, CJW Consulting is transitioning our General Webinar Series to a new environment. We will be hosting a Tuesday afternoon webinar series, titled Tech Tuesdays, through the website Nonprofit Webinars. All sessions provided by Nonprofit Webinars are free of charge.

The Tech Tuesday series will include sessions that are at least tangentially connected to software and technology. The general categories the sessions will cover include:

Social Media
Online Fundraising
Human Performance Technology
Software As A Service
Documentation
Selecting Software
Maximizing Software Effectiveness
Data Enhancement

All sessions will be 60 minutes in length. Because the sessions are frequently attended by 100+ registrants, the registrants are muted so that everyone can see and hear the full session. Questions can be submitted by registrants throughout the session and are monitored, with an associate interjecting your questions at intervals for the presenter to answer.

While I will continue to deliver some of the sessions, I am also in the process of screening proposals from a variety of people who have expertise in these areas. We will keep you posted via the Blog, but you can also view upcoming sessions at Nonprofit Webinars.

The Tech Tuesday series will kick off in mid-October. In the meantime, I will be presenting a session this Wednesday as part of the Wednesday Webinar series hosted by Sam Frank of Synthesis Partnership. The session will cover Effective Segmentation for Fundraising. I hope you will join me!

For Raiser's Edge users: The Raiser's Edge webinars will continue to be offered periodically throughout the year, remaining at a cost of $45 per registrant. For people who need more detailed content, we also offer online training sessions for individual organizations in which we connect to your computer so that we can provide you with hands-on time and train you using your own data. Please see Web Training on our website for more information.

To Sir, With Love

2011-09-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

As I pondered the news I wanted to share with you today, the lyrics of the song "To Sir, With Love" inserted themselves in my head and refused to vacate the premises.

Those of you that worked with CJW Consulting between the end of 1999 and March of 2008 likely met, or at least knew of, Larry Muffett. Larry left a highly successful career in Economic Development to join me at CJW, where he spent the next nine years conducting onsite Raiser's Edge training classes, assisting clients with data cleanup, report generation, and more.

That was not actually the plan when I asked him to work with me. My plan was that Larry would take over the administration of CJW and grow the company, make us better, while I delivered services to our clients. As it turned out, having run CJW alone for over 6 years before I met Larry, I could not make myself feel comfortable about anyone else making decisions about how CJW should be managed. So I held on to the reins.

The other reason things stayed as they were is that Larry was so successful as a trainer that he literally increased our training bottom line by more than 50%, due to the number of happy clients who recommended CJW training to their colleagues.

Because Larry is not only a superior trainer with a truly brilliant mind, but also brought with him an MBA and his never-ending spirit of generosity and a finely honed business sense, I got very much the best of both worlds.

It was Larry who encouraged me to implement email contact with our mailing list. It was Larry who joined me on the road to exhibit at various AFP, ALDE and other conferences for nonprofits, which allowed us to expand our contact list. It was Larry who willingly drove to places like Texas, Tennessee and Iowa to conduct onsite Raiser's Edge training, making us seem like a much larger company than we are. It was Larry I consulted when I wanted to get CJW into Social Media, begin offering online training, webinars, etc. There is not a successful decision made during the past 12 years that Larry did not have a hand in.

Larry left CJW in 2008 during an economic climate that required me to scale back. He returned in 2010, having earned a second Master's degree in the interim, this one a Master's in Human Resource Development. And now he is moving on once again.

Larry is joining the Hadley School for the Blind, located in Winnetka, Illinois, as an Instructional Technologist. He will be designing various in-person and online classes for Hadley students. I am so happy that Larry has found a position that will allow him to follow his bliss -- he love training and learning, and this position will allow him to use everything he has learned from his work experience and education. It will also, I know, make every Hadley student he touches through his work there a better person.

Larry gave a great deal to CJW and to me through all these years. "But how can I thank someone who has taken me from crayons to perfume? It isn't easy but I'll try. If you wanted the sky I would write across the sky in letters that would soar 1000 feet high, To Larry, With Love."

If you would like to send Larry your good wishes as he moves on to his next challenge, please feel free to contact him at ldmuffett@gmail.com

CJW Taking Action

2011-08-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

Before I became an independent consultant, I worked as an account manager for a software company that sold a fundraising application. As the account manager, I visited or communicated with all users in Illinois and Wisconsin. As it happened, we had a number of users working with Catholic organizations, many of whom were nuns.

During the time I was there, my grandfather passed away. He had not left much in the way of mementos or jewelry. My aunt took his watch, another relative the cane he used at the end of his life, etc. I asked my grandmother if I could take his pins. My grandfather had been a loyal member of a Jewish organization, B'nai Brith, and in that capacity had been awarded a number of tie pins to recognize his service.

When I returned to work after the funeral, I was wearing the pins on my shirt. My manager noticed, asked what they were and when I told her, she told me not to wear them to see customers. While it was not in my nature at that time to be stubborn or argumentative (I still try to avoid those attributes) I quietly said that I would wear them to honor my grandfather, and that was the end of the discussion.

I relate this story because it was the first time that I put my feelings about something ahead of my desire to be the perfect employee or the perfect account manager. It was the first time that I allowed something personal to show through my work.

Thanks to the internet and sites like Facebook, we all have access to information and we all hear about various causes, issues or disasters with which we are asked to get involved. As there are so many issues raised that relate in some way to the nonprofit community, I have been increasing my participation in these issues. Sometimes this involves signing an online petition, sometimes contributing to a cause, writing to a politician, or volunteering other resources. I also started one petition, which is nearing its full complement of signers, to ask the Chicago White Sox to make an "It Gets Better" video.

Today I'm seeking your input. I considering adding a widget to our blog and/or our website that would allow readers/visitors to choose to sign an online petition. I would greatly appreciate you letting me know your thoughts about this. Please send an email with a Subject Line of Widget Yes or Widget No. If you would care to, please feel free to tell me why you think this is or is not a good idea.

Survey, Anyone?

2011-08-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

The email that is going out tomorrow contains a link to a short survey. I hope you will take a few moments to complete the 5 questions and provide any feedback.

One of my prime objectives is to get a handle on which fundraising software products are in use for the population of nonprofits to which we mail. The more responses I collect, the better able I will be to design new services geared towards users of products apart from The Raiser's Edge. If you are not able to complete the survey, please feel free to click the Comment link for this post and let me know which product you are using, along with your name, so I can update your information.

I am also looking for feedback on how you feel about webinars in general, but the CJW webinars in particular. Our webinars tend to be perceived as mini-trainings, which in a sense they are. Attendance is small (we do not allow more than 15 registrants per session and often have less than 10) and participation is encouraged. We feel that these sessions work best when people can interact with the presenter(s) and with each other in real time, addressing questions as they come up.

Recently I conducted a webinar about Documenting Development Office Procedures for Nonprofit Webinars. It appears that I may be asked to provide additional sessions this Fall, perhaps relating to Direct Mail Preparation/Processing and Effective Segmentation. The Nonprofit Webinar series that is hosted by Sam Frank offers 2 FREE webinars each Wednesday afternoon. These sessions have an average of 100-150 attendees. Questions are typed by attendees and answered as the presenter can make time to address them. All attendees are muted and cannot speak to the presenter or each other.

Most people who attend the CJW webinars offer positive feedback, for which we are very thankful. Most of the CJW webinars are priced at $45, with a few priced at $50. Each is 90 minutes long, and all have information available post-webinar, either contacting me directly with any questions (for Raiser's Edge webinars) or receiving copies of any materials presented during the webinar.

Some of our presentation slides are available for download at IdeaEncore. If you type Cheryl Weissman in the box on the left, then click the Search button, you will see a list of all the items I've uploaded there. You can view them online at no cost. If you wish to download anything, there is a cost of $20, which is lowered to $10 if you become a member of CJW Consulting's group. To become a member, click on All Groups in the Connect section of the menu on the home page. Type "CJW Consulting" in the search box under Group Name and click the Submit button. Click the Join box -- that's all there is to it!

Please be aware that you must complete a free registration with IdeaEncore before you can join a group or download any content.

We are continually looking for ways to disseminate information in an affordable, effective way. I hope that you will offer us your input about the various ways in which we reach out to you -- whether it be through the blog, our Facebook page, our Twitter account, our presence on IdeaEncore, our webinars through Nonprofit Webinars, or our web site.

Links Galore!

2011-07-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot going on at CJW during this past month or so, and I wanted to let you know "all the news that's fit to print." (Please don't rat me out to the New York Times for borrowing their tagline.)

We've recently begun an association with Eric Horner, who brings with him 10 years of expertise in online giving and social media. Eric is ready and willing to work with you if you are looking for assistance in these areas, so please feel free to contact him via email.

Last week I presented my first webinar for Nonprofit Webinars. The topic was Documenting Development Office Procedures. If you are interested, you can download the presentation. Once you've viewed it, if you have any questions or need additional information, feel free to contact me.

All Nonprofit Webinars sessions are free of charge. Each session is 60 minutes in length. They offer a wide breadth of topics and the presenters are experts in their field. I am currently in discussions about presenting again in the Fall. The suggested topics are Direct Mail Preparation/Processing and Effective Segmentation. Stay tuned to the blog for more information as things develop.

We are still seeking fans for our Facebook page. The page contains this blog, special pricing for webinars and other services, news and information about CJW Consulting, and more. We would love to have your support of the page and your input. The page is an ideal place to let us know how we're doing, post any questions about our services or your software, etc. If you are a fan of the page already, please tell your colleagues about us!

Not on Facebook? Follow us (@cjwconsult) on Twitter, or check out my profile on LinkedIn.

During the month of August, we will be offering all CJW webinars at the reduced rate of $36.90 per registrant. Our 90-minute sessions are interactive, with attendees encouraged to participate verbally with me and each other. Click here to see the scheduled sessions. General webinars (valuable regardless of the fundraising software your organization is using) are listed first. If you are looking for Raiser's Edge webinars, you will find them listed below the scheduled General sessions.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Technology Bites

2011-07-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

An odd title for a blog post, since, as a provider of software-related services to nonprofits, CJW Consulting relies on technology for its very existence.. Yet it fits today, albeit not relating to software.

Last week, due to some unauthorized activity (made possible by ineffective technology), I found it necessary to switch merchant account providers. For those of you not involved with setting up credit card transactions, a merchant account is a service that collects funds from people who pay or give via credit card and deposits those funds in your bank account.

As soon as I was notified of a possible security breach with my provider, I cancelled my merchant account and contacted another provider. While there is no danger that any credit card information provided by clients registering for webinars or training online was made available (for your protection, CJW does not store this information) I felt I had no choice but to switch to a new provider.

For CJW clients, what this means in the short term is that we will be unable to accept credit card payments on our website this week. We had planned to offer one webinar this week which will have to be postponed in order to allow people time to schedule and register to attend.

In the interim, you might wish to check out the FREE webinars offered by Nonprofit Webinars. There are two sessions offered every Wednesday which are hosted by Sam Frank of Synthesis Partnership. On July 27th, I will be delivering a webinar about Documenting Development Office Procedures.

Within a week, we will have all the CJW webinars posted on the website and credit card payments will again be accepted. I apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to improve security in all our processes for your safety.

Free Webinar Opportunities

2011-07-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

I have been in communication Sam Frank, Principal at Synthesis Partnership, who hosts an ongoing series of free Wednesday Webinars for nonprofit staff and board members. The sessions are offered through Nonprofit Webinars. I have agreed to deliver a webinar for them on July 27, 2011 at 2 PM Central Daylight time. The topic will be Documenting Development Office Procedures.

Each webinar offered through Nonprofit Webinars is an hour in length and is generally attended by 100-150 people. Topics and presenters vary from Strategic Planning and Nonprofit Finances for Trustees to Writing for the Web, Obtaining Auction Items and everything in between.

If my inaugural presentation goes well, I will likely be delivering CJW webinar topics through Nonprofit Webinars as well as CJW Consulting.

I am excited to be able to let you know about this opportunity to attend free webinars that have been receiving rave reviews from other participants. I encourage you to check the schedule and register for any sessions that are of interest to you. I also encourage you to let your colleagues know about this valuable resource for the nonprofit community.

New Training Option for Raiser's Edge Users!

2011-06-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that there is now a viable alternative to Blackbaud's online training pass, which I believe they have priced at $5,000.

CJW Consulting is offering a similar service, with these important differences:

Our cost is just $2,500

We customize each training to meet the needs of your organization

We train staff from your organization using your data - you are not attending a "class" and using sample data

Your staff will be working with the same trainers throughout, adding continuity to the training process

Each annual training pass provides for unlimited online training for staff members at your organization for a period of one year.

During the coming weeks, you will be able to see more about this service on our website. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like further information, please contact me at 866/598-0430 or via email.

Institutional Memory Starts When the Institution Starts

2011-06-06T11:06:00.001-07:00

One of the Social Networking groups I belong to is organized around people who are interested in starting or have recently started a nonprofit. I’ve been wading through some of the comments and questions that have been raised and have been struck by how little content there is about managing information in the early days and months of building an organization.

I am convinced that this phenomenon – or lack thereof -- is what causes nonprofits to be victims of what I am now calling the “It’s All In (Insert Name Here)’s Head” syndrome.

I’ve been consulting with nonprofits on data-related issues for over 20 years. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard, “Oh, we don’t track that in our database. That’s all in the Executive Director’s head,” or, “Those details aren’t important to track. Our Board President knows all that.” Or whatever. I also hear a lot from small or new nonprofits that “We aren’t big enough for a database. We track our donors in Excel.” For all I know, some are still using 3 X 5 cards, which were all the rage in the 1980s and earlier.

For every person who has ever told me that they don’t need a database or fundraising application because they are too small, my reply has been the same: “The fact that you are small means that you are in the best place to start tracking information.”

If you are starting a nonprofit, or working with a small group that has aspirations to grow, here are a few intrinsic truths:

There is no nonprofit without fundraising

There is no fundraising without information

Information can only be of value when it is available to use, share and analyze

I have a good friend who started a nonprofit quilting association about a year ago. She did what most people do – she researched people who she wanted on her board, structured the programs and benefits she wanted to make available to members, created a brand for her organization (logo, website), filed the necessary paperwork with the state, etc.

But here’s what else she did: She located information about every quilt shop owner in the United States and created a database with whatever information that was publicly available. One of the benefits she offers her members is the ability to attend free online seminars (webinars). In order to help her get to know her members and keep them interested and aware that she understands their needs, she is tracking which webinars are attended by which members, which in turn allows her to target her invitations based on sessions that members have attended in the past.

Think about the organization you’re working to get off the ground. It’s likely that you have a core group of people committed to the organization who may provide initial funding to get it going. You will also pull together a Board of Directors, set goals and start considering from where you will draw your ongoing operating revenue.

You may very well know everything there is to know about that core group of dedicated supporters, and when it is a very small group of people whom you know well, you – and ONLY you – can manage the information about them and use it to keep them involved. Remember, though, that no single person or group of people can serve as the institutional memory for your organization.

“Institutional memory” is a term that I use to define what a nonprofit database needs to be. The term distills down to the concept that every piece of information you have about any entity with whom you interact MUST be housed in a location that is easily accessible and available to anyone who needs to know anything about that entity.

Organizations that start tracking information electronically in the early stages of operation position themselves far above those that put off data management “until we’re ready.” If you have information, you need to track it. So the question should not be “Do we need to track information electronically?” Rather, it should be, “What do we need to track?”

The answer: Institutional Memory. There will be some things about your constituents that truly don’t matter (eye color, number of Facebook friends, favorite books/movies, etc.) But stop and think about what you know about your close supporters: Marital status, number and ages/names of their children, the neighborhood in which they live, what they are interested in giving to, what they choose not to support, the organizations they are connected to in some way (houses of worship, other nonprofits, etc.), how much they typically give, how often they typically give, to what type of appeal do they tend to respond (mail, email, phone, in-person).

All of this information can and should be used to allow you to most effectively interact with your supporters, and to let them know that you know who they are.

I recognize that there are budget concerns and potentially other issues as well that might be keeping you from implementing some kind of database solution. Be aware, though, that there are resources available to you.

TechSoup, for example, maintains a wealth of information about technology-related products and services available to nonprofits. Their site includes listings of various software applications that are available to nonprofits for free or at a discount.

IdeaEncore is a great online sharing resource. You can become a member at no charge and be able to search through their reference library for information about pretty much any topic relevant to nonprofits. There are also resources available for download. Some are free, some not.

Search engines are an option as well, if you want to get a sense of what’s out there in terms of tracking your data. Googling “low-cost fundraising software” will return tens of thousands of hits, but by going through the first few pages of search results, you should get some ideas, learn some product names, get some information about what these products can do and how they feel to you.

Remember, you can only use information that can be accessible and available to everyone who needs it. You simply cannot afford the option of counting on one person’s history with your organization and that person’s knowledge about your constituents. Getting through the “brain dump” to turn this valuable information into data can be painful, but the benefits returned will make it well worth your while.

Eighteen Years and Counting

2011-05-15T08:32:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of CJW Consulting's 19th year serving the nonprofit community. It's my 28th year working with or for nonprofits, so you will perhaps understand why, when people ask about my background and how I came to do what I do, I frequently tell them that I got a job in a Development office in 1984, and that I was 6 at the time.

Most people know I'm joking right away -- occasionally there's an awkward pause while, I presume, child labor laws are being thought about.

If you follow the blog, you know that I talk a lot about memory. So as I reflect today over the last 18 years, I'm stunned by how quickly it has gone. It seems impossible that all the memories I have stored have taken so many years -- I still remember, so clearly, setting up my office in the corner of my bedroom in my apartment.

I quit my job in 1993, without having another lined up. Having worked for other people for a long time by then, I decided that if I was ever going to try to work for myself, that was the time.

Adding up all my money, I determined that I could live for 6 weeks while I tried to generate enough work to keep me housed and my cats in kibble. When I ran out of money, I decided, I would go on unemployment and look for a "real job." So here I am all these years later, doing what is, apparently, my real job.

I realized the other day that I should acknowledge some of the people who gave me opportunities that have allowed me to pursue my passion for so long. There are so many people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, I can't possibly name them all.

I have to start with Joyce Keane, who was my manager for 6 years as well as my mentor. Joyce taught me so much of what I know about working with clients, providing high-quality services and how to treat people in training or consulting situations.

Rosalie Cyrier literally saved my business. In July of 1993, I brought home a box of index cards on which were recorded 30 years of giving history for a nonprofit. I had been hired to create gift data with the information on the cards. An hour after I got home that night, my apartment building caught fire. I was briefly trapped in my third floor apartment and was taken to the hospital for the night with smoke inhalation. Rosalie spent that night walking up and down my three flights of stairs, removing my computer, printer -- and the box of index cards. She carried everything that looked important to her apartment nearby and saved me from having to tell me client that their giving history was lost forever.

Izolda Snarskis was hired by the Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange after I had been hired to do some data entry and data cleanup for them. She was a seasoned marketing professional at the time, and I was able to talk with her about Development and how using data effectively could improve fundraising for them. Izolda was a huge factor in my making my business work during the first few years.

Ted Rodgers hired me to convert his organization's data to a new software application. A few months later, he lost his primary data entry person during a hiring freeze. Because he could not pay a staff person, he asked me to perform that role, which turned out to be a 4 year commitment. Moreoever, I was working with Ted during the time I met and fell in love with Larry Muffett, the man who is now my husband. Ted is a very easy person to talk with, and I found myself confiding in him some of my concerns about the future I was beginning to want with Larry. His counsel and caring were amazing.

Speaking of Larry -- Larry agreed to give up his career path in Economic Development and come to work with me at CJW. He became a provider of Raiser's Edge training and was so skilled as a trainer that he continued with CJW for 9 years, during which time he NEVER got a negative response to any training or consulting work he provided. I would not have trusted anyone else to be a representative of CJW, and I am forever grateful for the enormous contribution he made -- and still makes -- to our success.

To name just a few more: Molly Carrane, Lisa Howe, Lorri Nagle, Bob Testore, Madeline Nelson, Rhonda Eisenberg, Terry Bush, Criss Henderson, Heather Klein Olson, Gus Noble, Kris Torkelson, Sarah Sarchet Butter, Patty Offer, Michelle Sherbun, Donna Weiss, Carolyn Saxton, Tricia Hendricks, Sheila O'Donnell, Deb Popely, Cheryl Davis, Janie Petersen, Kelly Myers, Rhonda Brown, John Puotinen, Char Wrlak, Linda Lopez, Mary Lou Diebold, Sue Craanen, Joan Bolewski, Celeste Hencken, Melanie Frazier, and so many more.

To all of you with whom I have worked during these past 18 years, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for allowing me to pursue my bliss, and allowing me to play a small part in your organization's work. I look forward to the upcoming years with renewed vigor and commitment to preserving and protecting your organizations' memories.

How Much Is Too Much?

2011-01-30T12:11:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a data conversion for a client, who is moving their data from a variety of Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, Outlook contact lists and Email contact lists.

It just so happened that one of the lists contained a population with which I am very familiar, and as I was working with that list I noticed that probably at least half of the information it contained was out of date, in some cases years out of date.

When we are asked about data conversion protocol, one question comes up almost every time: Can I convert everything?

My answer to that is that you should convert all reliable, accurate data.

Data conversion is not magic -- there is nothing in a conversion that will inherently make your data suddenly better than it was before. This is particularly true if you are getting what is known as a field-to-field conversion, where the vendor takes every piece of information stored in each field in your old software and moves it to a single field in your new software.

As we are not a software vendor, we don't provide that type of conversion. Rather, we spend time evaluating data in each field from each source, and we work to get information converted to the new software in a way that is more consistent with the needs of the organization. However, one thing we can't do anything about is data that is old, sometimes so old that nobody currently working at the organization knows what it means.

Data that you cannot work with is nothing more than electronic clutter. While I encourage our clients to allow us to convert as much historical data as they have (to preserve their institutional memories), we also encourage them to rid themselves of the clutter.

If there's a conversion in your future, please keep this in mind. Before you start conversations with a vendor or other provider, it is important that you first create your "must-have" list and your "dump it" list. Your must-have items are the things that MUST convert accurately. Your dump-it items are pieces of information that no one can interpret or use.

I always say that there really is no such thing as a successful data conversion. This is true because, let's face it -- if your data was in good shape you might not need a data conversion at all. It's virtually impossible to eliminate all duplication, all misspellings and other errors, etc. But you owe it to yourself to make the conversion process as simple and streamlined as possible.

In this case, converting data that is old, inaccurate or not being used is definitely too much.

Spreading the Word

2011-01-13T10:47:00.000-08:00

The second in our series of blog posts about service providers to the nonprofit community is about Melissa Data, a company headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.

One of the things we work on frequently with our clients is getting their addresses updated in whatever software they're using.

As you probably know, when the United States Postal Service (USPS) conceived of Zip+4 it also created a huge database of addresses called the National Change of Address database, or NCOA. Initially, the USPS offered NCOA updates at no charge to any nonprofit that wanted them. After a while, apparently the work load got to be too much and they made the database available to other companies that wanted to offer the service.

Since then, I have had occasion to work with a number of these companies as our clients have requested our assistance. For several years, one company has stood head and shoulders above the rest of those with whom I have interacted.

Melissa Data provides numerous services related to data updating, including NCOA updates, phone appends to home addresses, email appends and much more. Not only do they have a wide variety of services available, but I have consistently found their staff professional, knowledgeable, friendly and efficient.

When I first started working with them, I was told that there was a 2-day turnaround on getting updated data returned, but at no time have I waited more than 24 hours, usually far less than that. On one occasion, a client inadvertently neglected to include a segment that needed updating, and Melissa Data graciously ran the segment separately at no additional charge.

I'm not a person prone to effusive praise of vendors, but I really can't say enough good things about Melissa Data. If you are looking for a this type of service, I don't think you'll find a better price, easier solution or more seamless process anywhere else.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or contact Melissa Data at 800/635-4772. Their web address is www.melissadata.com.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

Today I prepared my final global email for 2010. As such, I took the opportunity to wish my readers Happy Holidays.

I do this every year, in one form or another. I have always been carefully non-sectarian, not wishing to offend anyone. However, as I was searching for images to include in the email, I found one showing a dreidel and some "gelt". These are representations of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday, which begins at sundown on December 11th this year, and ends on December 19th.

Initially I bypassed the image and went on looking for something with snowflakes or trees or a globe or just the words "Happy Holidays". But I ended up returning to the Hanukkah image and including it in the email, along with one that says Happy Holidays but also shows a decorated Christmas tree. I love Christmas trees!

I included the Hanukkah image because of the meaning of the dreidel and the "gelt." A dreidel is a 4-sided spinning top. Each of the 4 sides has a Hebrew letter on it, and the 4 letters represent the words "nes gadol haya sham" -- "A great miracle happened there." The miracle involved an oil lamp with enough oil to burn for one day that actually burned for 8 days and allowed the Jewish people to cleanse and rededicate the temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV.

"Gelt" is a Yiddish word that means money. It's been a tradition since the 17th century to give children small sums of money (coins) during Hanukkah. Apparently this started in Poland and was approved by the rabbis because it publicized the story of the oil.

So one reason I included the Hanukkah image is that these are still uncertain times, so the reminder that miracles happen every day somewhere seems important to remember. And as all of our work is with nonprofits -- well, who could not use more money to advance their mission and achieve their goals? Perhaps my gelt can bring you some of your own in 2010!

The other reason is purely personal. CJW is my company -- I created it and it literally has my name attached to it. The more time goes by, the harder it becomes for me to separate who I am from what CJW is. I'm a Jewish woman. Judiasm is part of who I am and by extension, it's part of CJW as well.

Someone once told me that to them, a Jewish person is someone who tries to do good; tries to be the best person they can be; treats people as they would be treated; and respects others as they would be respected by others. While I know well that these attributes are not limited to the Jewish people, I do strive to live by them.

I've lived with these precepts all my life. I manage CJW based on the principles I learned growing up in a Jewish family.

This is the foundation for CJW. I have enormous respect and admiration for the nonprofit community. For over 17 years now, I've worked to show this by providing affordable, high-quality services. For as long as CJW exists, this will not change, nor will my commitment to nonprofits and their work.

For everyone reading this, let me wish you happy holidays, whether you have or will be celebrating St. Nicholas Day, the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucia Day, Hannukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa or Omisoka; or you have recently observed Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr or Eid'ul-Adha.

And my very best wishes for a happy, healthy 2011!

Spreading the Word

2010-11-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

In the past, I have generally made it a practice not to use our website or the blog to make "plugs" for any product, company or provider. However, I want the blog (when I'm not using it to trumpet my personal feelings to the world at large) to be of use to the nonprofit community, and in that spirit, I've decided to periodically post information about people or organizations that I think may be able to help you.

Today I'm writing about Blue Hat Design (http://www.bluehatdesign.com/). I decided to start with Jack Wheeler, the owner, as I was typing a glowing reference for him in yet another email. I'm often asked by clients and on listservs if I know of a good web service provider, and I defnitely do.

Several years ago, I decided I needed some outside help to improve and maintain the CJW website. I Googled Chicago-area web providers and Jack's name came up. (For some reason I thought I needed a local person so I could meet with them when necessary, ignoring the fact that I'm usually too busy with client work to break away for meetings.) I called Jack's toll-free number and we had a great conversation about what I needed, what he could do, what it would cost, etc.

At some point during the conversation, I learned that Jack had recently left the Chicago area and was now operating in Oregon, two time zones away. By that time, though, I had already decided that he was the right person for me to be working with. (This is how I make important decisions -- when it feels right to me, I go with it.) So I had a very remote "web guy", who has never felt remote.

From day one, Jack showed me his ability to listen to my needs, be sensitive to my budget, be a sounding board for my ideas, let me know when I was envisioning something impractical or not worth the financial investment, interpret and help complete my not-infrequently-partially formed ideas, and most important, working to make the website better and better.

As we add service offerings, I talk to Jack. As we change or enhance our training offerings, I talk to Jack. When I started doing regular emails, I talked to Jack. When I wanted to add a blog... well, you get the idea.

Because CJW is small, I often end up doing things at the last minute. One of the things that I value so much about Jack is his willingness to try to meet my deadlines, even when they are extremely tight. I recognize that when I ask him on a Thursday late in the day to have something done for me at 7 AM his time the following Monday, it's not always going to be possible. When it's not, he'll tell me that immediately and we'll work out some kind of compromise. More often than not, though, he comes through for me.

One more thing -- because Jack has nonprofit clients, he understands the nonprofit community and respects it.

I think Blue Hat Design is a great option for nonprofits. Again -- they will listen to your needs, be sensitive to your budget, be a sounding board for your ideas, and help you make your web environment better for your constituents.

Nonprofit Salaries: Are We Being Robbed?

2010-11-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've become a member of a number of message boards designed for nonprofits and/or people working in the nonprofit community. Some of the other members are very vocal about their feelings that nonprofits do themselves and their employees a huge disservice by choosing to pay them less than they could expect in a for-profit environment, offering fewer perks and benefits, etc.

I’ve been working for or with nonprofits since 1984, the last 17+ years as a consultant offering software-related consulting, training and various other services to nonprofits.

I’ve worked with all levels of nonprofits, from one or two person operations (including one organization fully “staffed” by volunteers) to small to mid-range associations, to larger organizations with 3-5 Development staff members, up to organizations with over 500 employees and Developments staffs of up to 30 people.
One of these organizations was told at the final board meeting of 2008 to fire the entire (small) staff. All that was left was the ED and the accountant. 4-6 people were dismissed without cause because the board reacted badly to numbers on a spreadsheet. Within a few months the ED was hiring new staff, since he of course could not raise money and run the organization alone.
When I was working for a nonprofit in the mid-eighties, the accountant and her assistant were terminated because they had been embezzling from the nonprofit, after which it took more than a year for the organization to find solid footing again.

Bottom line: Bad things happen, in for-profit and not-for-profit. Organizations/companies can be run well, or they can be run poorly. Compensation and benefits can be generous, appropriate or miserably unfair. This is true everywhere, whether people are working toward a mission or to put money in a CEO’s pocket.

All of us have to determine our needs, evaluate our worth, assess our strengths and weaknesses and take that information out to the job market. It’s our responsibility to do our best to ensure that we are asking the questions that need to be asked to try to make the most informed decision possible about whether or not to accept a position.

For all that effort, things can, of course, still go horribly wrong. But I don’t think it’s reasonable to abandon the idea of working in nonprofits because of a few horror stories. There’s certainly no shortage of similar stories in the for-profit world.

I worked in the for-profit world for 12 years. During that time I was fired 4 times, 3 times from the same company and always because of budget cuts that had nothing to do with me or the quality of my work or even the amount of revenue my work generated. Each time I was part of an across the board cost-cutting measure and twice my manager was able to preserve my position (although not my salary) by eliminating other people instead of me. The third time I reminded the CEO of an agreement we had made that guaranteed my position if certain conditions were met, and I reminded him that those conditions had been met. He rescinded the termination, after which I immediately resigned and started my consulting work 2 weeks later.

Like most of us, I was raised with the notion that “if you’re going to do something, take the time to do it right.” So for 12 years I worked as well and as effectively as I could for people who did not acknowledge me, did not appreciate my worth and did not value me, because the people pocketing the profits didn’t know me from a chair in the lunchroom.

I happened into a Development position and from there, there was no going back for me. It was an organization in whose mission I believed, but I still was not happy to have to take a 33% salary cut over my previous position. In that time and space, there was not another choice, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me.

I was recognized for my work, promoted twice and it started me on the path that ultimately led me to start my business in 1993. I chose then and choose daily to work with the nonprofit community exclusively. While it’s not a perfect community, and certainly has its share of bad management and other problems, at the end of the day there IS a mission, a desire to help others, to fill in gaps, to enrich the world.

I’m not trying to convert anyone. I’m just saying that there is value in the nonprofit community and there are nonprofit organizations who do value the worth of the people they bring in.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue -- please feel free to add a comment below.

I Should Have Known Better

2010-10-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

As you will know if you read the blog, I talk a lot about memory. The older I get, the more I value memory, work to preserve it in all phases of my life, and treasure it.

I talk to nonprofits a lot about memory, about using software effectively to preserve their institutional memory. I tell them to use software for several reasons, among them:

Everything that is important for your organization to know about the people and organizations with whom they interact should be available in one central location to anyone in the organization who needs to see it;

Institutional memory has to outlive us -- we will all be gone at some point, but data, if protected, remains;

Perhaps most importantly, people forget. Computers don't.

I have what has been described by others as a great memory, a scary memory, a photographic memory and a few other adjectives here and there. For the most part, this is true. I remember the phone number of the house we moved into when I was five years old. I remember the date and time of day when I realized that I was in love with the man who is now my husband. I remember the day my parents' divorce was finalized in 1976. I also remember things like the name of Ann Marie's boyfriend on "That Girl". I remember my first grade teacher leaning over my shoulder one day watching me write and saying, "You have the worst handwriting I've ever seen." Not every memory is a blessing... But my handwriting is much better now.

When I was in my twenties, I worked for a time at an answering service which had about 150 clients. During times when I was working alone and it was quiet, I would amuse myself by silently rattling off the phone numbers of every client -- in the order in which they were arranged on the switchboard.

The interesting thing, though, is that despite my memory -- I forget. And I forget for the least excusable of reasons. I forget because I can't hold everything in my brain, and I don't take the time to record things I need to remember.

A few days ago, I was relaxing with my husband and telling him that I was planning to spend the afternoon and evening with my mother the following Wednesday, seeing two plays in downtown Chicago. A little while later, I mentioned that I had a meeting with a client, involving about a dozen people, on Wednesday afternoon. Both those things were true.

The tickets my mother had purchased for a matinee were in her house, and the event was not recorded on my calendar. I value my time with my mother. I know how lucky I am to have her as a mom and a friend and someone I can always count on. I strive to be that for her as well. Yet because of my oversight, she'll be heading into the city alone on Wednesday afternoon and seeing the matinee alone.

I realize that this is not the end of the world, but I REALLY should have known better.

So -- remember this lesson. Protect your memory and your memories. Record everything. Don't rely on your memory, however stellar it may be. And again -- protect your institutional memory. A mom will forgive and move on. An organization who does not demonstrate that they know their donors, value their support and remember their history is much less likely to be forgiven.

Memories (Digital and Otherwise)

2010-04-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

I visited with a new client this morning and met with about a dozen people around a conference table, talking with them about work I'm going to be doing with their data. Throughout the meeting, I stressed (as I so often do) the importance of understanding that your fundraising management software really needs to be considered your organization's institutional memory. Everything your organization has learned, every interaction your organization has had, every gift your organization has received -- every everything -- should be recorded in your database, so that anyone looking at information about any person or organization can rely on the data to preserve the organization's memories.

I have been helping nonprofits make effective use of their software resources for over 25 years (let's be charitable and say that I was six when I started doing this work, okay?) When I started, and for many years thereafter, I thought of the work as a way to marry the very personal work of fundraising with the very impersonal functionality of computers and software. It wasn't until a few years ago that I had that lightbulb moment and realized that my work is about preserving memories.

More and more recently, I find myself realizing that my commitment to memory is not just connected to my work. While I don't feel that I live in the past, I do like to recall it and keep it alive. I happen to have a very good (perhaps near photographic) memory, so I have the blessing/curse of being able to remember a lot of things as though they just happened.

I'm telling you all of this so that it will make perfect sense to you when I tell that I've just published a book, called An Ordinary Man, and it's a memoir about my friendship with Edward Mellish and the many gifts I received as a result of that friendship. I started writing this book about 14 years ago, jotting down memories in a Word document. Some recent events caused me to pull back from my business a little and focus on finishing the book and getting it published. I wanted to honor Edward, I wanted to give something to his two daughters, who were not quite two years old when he died in 1994, and I wanted to do it for Edward's wife Rosalie, who is my dearest friend and has been for nearly as long as I have been working with nonprofits.

But mostly, I want to remember. I know that one day the memories will not be so readily available in my brain, and I don't want them lost forever.

Memories can be so many different things, can't they? Digital memories can be knowledge and understanding, history and recognition. Printed memories can be literal reminders to help us prevent bad things from happening again, or to help us understand how to repeat good thoughts or deeds. Visual and other sensory memories can shock our systems and bring back feelings we thought overcome or forgotten.

There is no future without the past. Memories preserve our past and allow us to grow and move forward. Hearing or reading other people's memories, or protecting an organization's institutional memory -- these are building blocks for the future, and they connect us to one another. They are part of our common humanity.

We cannot forget.

If you are interested in "An Ordinary Man" it is available at Amazon.com -- search for Cheryl J. Weissman and you will see the book along with (and I have no idea how this found its way to Amazon) an article I wrote in 1991 for a now-defunct fundraising magazine.

Help Us Help You

2010-01-24T09:39:00.000-08:00

If you are reading this, there's a decent chance that you were routed to it via an email we sent you, letting you know that there's a new blog entry.

CJW has been serving the nonprofit community for nearly 18 years. Through all of that time, we have remained a very small company, dedicated to keeping our costs and therefore the cost of our services as low as possible.

One of the tradeoffs that we've made to keep our costs down is that we don't do a lot of marketing. Recently we have ventured more into low- or no-cost marketing options such as social networking (CJW has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and a few other sites). We've made some calls to nonprofits requesting permission to add contacts to our mailing list. However, we have relied primarly on word of mouth to keep CJW the successful firm it has been since 1993.

Today, I'm asking for your help, to better enable CJW to help you when you need us. If you've attended one of our webinars, online or on-site trainings; if a CJW staff person has provided consulting or data cleanup or other services for your organization; if you believe that CJW offers high-quality services at reasonable rates, please let someone know.

You can do this is a number of ways. You can post a comment below this blog entry; forward one of our emails to a colleague at another nonprofit organization; go to our website and complete a referral form for an organization that might be in need of our services, or you can give me a call at 866/598-0430 if you think a colleague needs to hear from us.

I'm happy to be able to say that CJW is healthy and I'm optimistic that we will remain healthy as we all navigate the current economy. We are proud to be able to serve nonprofits and hope to continue to do so. I'm committed to continuing to keep our rates as low as possible. Anything you can do to spread the word about CJW will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Happy Holidays

2009-11-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

Today I prepared what should be my final global email for 2009. As such, I took the opportunity to wish my readers Happy Holidays.

I do this every year, in one form or another. I have always been carefully non-sectarian, not wishing to offend anyone. However, as I was searching for images to include in the email, I found one showing a dreidel and some "gelt". These are representations of the Jewish Hannukkah holiday, which begins at sundown on December 11th this year, and ends on December 19th.

Initially I bypassed the image and went on looking for something with snowflakes or trees or a globe or just the words "Happy Holidays". But I ended up returning to the Hannukkah image and including it in the email, along with one that says Happy Holidays but also shows a decorated Christmas tree. I love Christmas trees!

I included the Hannukkah image because of the meaning of the dreidel and the "gelt." A dreidel is a 4-sided spinning top. Each of the 4 sides has a Hebrew letter on it, and the 4 letters represent the words "nes gadol haya sham" -- "A great miracle happened there." The miracle involved an oil lamp with enough oil to burn for one day that actually burned for 8 days and allowed the Jewish people to cleanse and rededicate the temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV.

"Gelt" is a Yiddish word that means money. It's been a tradition since the 17th century to give children small sums of money (coins) during Hannukkah. Apparently this started in Poland and was approved by the rabbis because it publicized the story of the oil.

So one reason I included the Hannukkah image is that these are uncertain times, so the reminder that miracles happen every day somewhere seems important to remember. And as all of our work is with nonprofits -- well, who could not use more money to advance their mission and achieve their goals? Perhaps my gelt can bring you some of your own in 2010!

The other reason is purely personal. CJW is my company -- I created it and it literally has my name attached to it. The more time goes by, the harder it becomes for me to separate who I am from what CJW is. I'm a Jewish woman. Judiasm is part of who I am and by extension, it's part of CJW as well.

Someone once told me that to them, a Jewish person is someone who tries to do good; tries to be the best person they can be; treats people as they would be treated; and respects others as they would be respected by others. While I know well that these attributes are not limited to the Jewish people, I do strive to live by them.

I've lived with these precepts all my life. I manage CJW based on the principles I learned growing up in a Jewish family.

This is the foundation for CJW. I have enormous respect and admiration for the nonprofit community. For over 16 years now, I've striven to show this by providing affordable, high-quality services. For as long as CJW exists, this will not change, nor will my commitment to nonprofits and their work.

For everyone reading this, let me wish you happy holidays, whether you will be celebrating St. Nicholas Day, the Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucia Day, Hannukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa or Omisoka; or you have recently observed Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr or Eid'ul-Adha.

And my very best wishes for a happy, healthy 2010!

Please Shine A Light on CJW Consulting!

2009-09-09T10:45:00.001-07:00

CJW Consulting & Services has been nominated in the Shine A Light contest from American Express and NBC Universal. In order to be considered for an award, we need a minimum of 50 endorsements.

Please go to:

http://www.ivillage.com/shinealight?ice=iv:mini:amex:emailpromo

and read our story. If you feel that you can, please take a few moments to endorse CJW -- should we be fortunate enough to win, we will receive funding for marketing and business development that will make an enormous difference to us.

If you can, please also forward this to anyone that knows of CJW and can offer an endorsement.

And please let me know if you do find yourself able to endorse us, so I can thank you!

I've Got Wiki Fever

2009-08-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

And the only prescription is... More cowbell!

I've been looking for a way to bring "more cowbell" into the blog for a long time, so thank you for letting me get that out of my system (and apologies to those unfamiliar with the SNL sketch in which Christopher Walken plays a music producer demanding that Blue Oyster Cult record "Don't Fear The Reaper" with more cowbell.)

And now to our business for the day, which is the answer the question "What the heck is a wiki?"

"Wiki" is a Hawaiian word for fast, and it is an apt name, because a wiki is "a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, and for note taking." (definition from wikipedia.org)

Wiki software is defined as "a type of collaborative software program that typically allows web pages to be created and collaboratively edited using a common web browser." (definition from wikipedia.org)

In simpler terms, a wiki is an easy-to-create web space where you can share information with others, whether they be classmates, business associates, co-workers, friends, etc.

There are of dozens of wiki-creation sites available (there are over 60 included in a comparison at Wikipedia.org.) I chose www.wikispaces.com, as it was recommended to me by an associate. I think it was a great choice. In less than 10 minutes, I had created an account and created a short page to introduce you to the wiki page.

The CJW wiki page will be collaborative in that you can enter comments and create discussion topics. Other wikis are collaborative in different ways. For example, if you are preparing a proposal or grant request and need input from other staff members or board members, you can post the document on the wiki page and anyone with access to that page would be able to view the document and edit it.

Wikipedia itself is a wiki, and probably the ultimate collaborative website. As you may be aware, Wikipedia allows readers to update, edit and add content -- that's the whole point on Wikipedia.

You might be curious about the cost -- wikispaces.com has several options available, one of which is free. For a basic (free) account, you can have one wiki with an unlimited number of pages, users and messages. You can store content up to 2 GB, with each individual file restricted to a maximum of 10 MB. Basic accounts will see advertising on their wiki -- paid accounts do not use ads.

Paid accounts start at $5 a month or $50 for a year. You can check all this out at www.wikispaces.com. And please check out our wiki (and leave a comment!) at http://cjwconsulting.wikispaces.com/.

Tweeting on Twitter

2009-04-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

Twitter is my most recent venture into the online world of social networking. I avoided Twitter assiduously for many months, because the idea of stopping in my tracks to tell the online world what I'm doing (in 140 letters or less) seemed... I don't know -- wacky, maybe?

In case you think I'm kidding, here is what you are greeted with when you go to www.twitter.com:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

But I forged ahead, because more and more people are asking questions about Twitter and whether or not it can help them with fundraising and donor management. In fact, I set up two accounts, one a personal one and one for CJW Consulting. And here's what I am finding:

Twitter is a great way to stay in touch.

I work a lot, so I don't think that my personal posts (referred to as "tweets") are that interesting. However, Twitter keeps my husband and me in much closer touch with very dear friends that live in Florida. We rarely see them and as we are four extremely busy people, it's not easy to be in touch by phone or even email -- but Twitter keeps us up to date with their daily lives.

After a few weeks of personal Twittering, I set up a new Twitter account for CJW Consulting (the account name is cjwconsult, if you're already Twittering and would like to follow us). I wanted to get a feel for how I might use the (free) service to let nonprofits know about our services. Once the account was set up, I searched on various keywords (nonprofit, non-profit, fundraising, etc.) to find existing Twitter accounts that belonged to people connected to the nonprofit community.

I located about 50 accounts and opted to "follow" them. This means that I get sent copies of all of their posts. Many Twitter users, when you choose to follow them, will then begin to follow you in return. The cjwconsult account currently has 21 users following it, with one or two more signing on every day.

To date, we are using the Twitter account to make available discounts on web services to people who see our tweets and sign up for a webinar or web training. We can also, if we choose, use Twitter to advertise our presence at conferences, participation in seminars or webinars (we've been asked to serve on a panel at the Chicago Fundraising Summit later this month, although the timing may not work out for that.)

I can see Twitter being a great tool for nonprofits. In a few seconds, you can send information about an event or a special need. You can drive traffic to your website by including a URL in a Twitter post. You can reinforce your message on a regular basis.

We've really just scratched the surface of what Twitter can do and how it works. If you are interested in more information, perhaps even a webinar about getting started and learning some of the tricks of the Twitter trade, please click on "comments" below and let me know.

Let's Link Up!

2009-02-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

Social networking is all the rage online these days. Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and MySpace are some of the more popular among the literally hundreds of sites designed for this purpose. A Google search for "social networking nonprofits" returns over 22 million hits.

There are links to articles and blogs that will help you understand how social networking can benefit your organization. There are links to newspaper articles talking about how nonprofits are using social networks to raise money. Heck, you can even find people writing or blogging about how the death knell has already sounded for nonprofits and social networks.

I started small and am working my way up a bit. About a year ago, I created an account on LinkedIn, which was recommended to me. Over the course of a few months, I built up a profile and added a great deal of work experience and some personal information. Eventually I got into the habit of actively looking for clients to connect to, and reviewing my contacts' contacts to see if there are other people I should be connecting to. I now belong to a number of LinkedIn groups, all related to nonprofits. I receive regular emails listing discussion points and questions that group members have posted, and when I feel I have something to contribute, I post responses.

When people come to me to talk about changing jobs, I encourage them to use LinkedIn or something like it to begin building a network that can help lead them to jobs that might be a good fit for them. LinkedIn has its own job source and also connects its members to another, larger job source for additional opportunities.

When I joined LinkedIn I thought I had done what I needed to do in the social networking arena. But then I started getting requests to join people's networks on Plaxo, which sends me reminders when my contacts are having a birthday, leaving me no excuse to forget to call or send a card. A young woman that I used to babysit for now has a baby of her own and the only way to see his picture is to view her Facebook page, so I have just spent the last hour setting up my Facebook page. I'm completely sick of me, having just typed up all my interests, activities, favorite things, etc. But eight people have already added me as a friend, so I felt somewhat validated until I noticed that my friend David has 571 friends. He must have a huge postage bill when it comes time to send holiday cards.

I get the sense that it could easily become a full-time job to maintain a presence on a variety of networks. I'm also considering creating a webinar about social networks to help those unfamiliar with them get started. I'd like your help.

Please click on the word Comments below this post and let me know which online networks you belong to or are considering. If you have thoughts about the viability of a social networking webinar, I would welcome your thoughts about that as well.

In the meantime, if you're on LinkedIn or Facebook or Plaxo -- let's link up!

Drop.io

2009-02-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

Not long ago, I asked a friend and colleague to help me convert some data from one format to another. It was a weekend, I was up against a deadline and it really wasn't possible for me to bring her the data and then go pick it up when she was done with it.

Because I don't often have the need for this type of assistance, I don't have FTP capabilities set up on our web site. The files were too large to send via email, even when they were compressed. I was settling in to an impressive feeling of despair when my friend suggested that I upload the files to drop.io.

Drop.io is a website that allows visitors to privately and securely share files by web, email, and other methods. Information "dropped" at the site is protected from search engines, and you can password protect your "drops", so the information is secure and accessible to those who need it and are given access to get it.

Within 5 minutes, I had created a space for my incoming and outgoing drops and within 20 minutes my friend had my data files on her computer. She returned the converted data files to the same secure private location, where I was able to quickly download them back to my own computer.

Best of all, the service is free!

I was thrilled to find drop.io and I plan on making it available to clients when we need to transfer data back and forth.

There are many services like this on the web, including archive.org, which I wrote about in my last post. If you know of web sites that can be helpful to your colleagues in the nonprofit community, please let us know. Click on the word "comments" below this post and tell us about the site(s) you've found to be of value.

What a Difference a Decade Makes

2009-01-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

My husband Larry is working toward a Master's degree from Clemson University. As we live in Chicago and Clemson is in South Carolina, he's enrolled in the online program. This will be Larry's second Master's degree, as he earned an MBA in 1998. He's finding the process quite a bit different this time around.

Part of the reason for the difference is undoubtedly just the online versus standard classroom format. The rest of it is the technology.

Ten years ago, Larry was assigned papers which he typed up in Word, printed and handed in, literally, to the professors. He presented those papers to his classmates by standing up in the classroom and sharing his findings. He took tests in that same classroom, all essay questions that required a solid block of time to complete.

Last semester, his first at Clemson, was a completely different experience. The classroom has been replaced by a virtual chat room. Tests are multiple choice and are taken online by students at any time the student wishes. Students are given the opportunity to take practice tests to ensure the best possible grade.

As seems to be case with most of us, Larry was already familiar with chat rooms and online communication (that's how we met, actually, but that's a story for another day, perhaps), so he took those things in stride. Then he got to the assignment of the paper.

The students were told initially that they would be writing a paper and presenting it to their classmates. Nothing unusual in that for a Master's program, right? Then it was revealed that they would be putting together a PowerPoint presentation to use to present their paper. Next they were given instructions to record a narration for the presentation and synch it to the slide show. Finally, it was explained that the presentations would all be uploaded and viewed in a virtual reality environment.

To do all of this, the following pieces of software and/or websites were required: Word (to type the paper), PowerPoint (for the slide demonstration), Audacity (to record the narration), Archive.org (to upload the narration file to a public location from where it could be streamed to play along with the slides), SlideShare (to upload the presentation to a public location from where it could be displayed in the virtual reality space), an application within Slideshare (to synch the audio with the slides), and the software for the virtual reality space that was downloaded to Larry's computer.

Larry is without question the smartest person I have ever known, and he was more than capable of doing all of this. He wasn't particularly excited about it, though. I, on the other hand, with the "geek" part of my brain in overdrive, loved it all. I asked for permission to help with the preparation.

Sure, there was some frustration with the fact that it took me 3 days to get the audio synched to the presentation, but that turned out to be a problem in the synch tool, a fact we learned after MANY students emailed the professor in total frustration.

On the day the presentations were supposed to be viewed, Larry got stuck in traffic due to the lovely winter weather here in Chicago, so he called and asked me to log him in to the virtual reality space. While I was waiting for him to get home, I hacked around in the space, looking for the "treehouse" the professor had said he was "standing next to." I also learned how to make Larry's avatar fly, dance and walk, noting that he could fly and dance at the same time.

While I have to admit I can come up with no real practical use for the virtual reality space, I will be using the rest of what I learned last semester to see if I can use the technology to record webinar content with audio that can be viewed online and/or purchased. I've already started taking advantage of the SlideShare capabilities by uploading some presentations there and linking them to my LinkedIn account online.

Technology will always, I think, change and develop so quickly that we'll never be able to completely keep up. I've never been big on trying things when they're brand new -- working with nonprofits, I don't like to see my clients spend their resources serving as guinea pigs for software developers. I do, however, love finding technology that's been around for a relatively short time, long enough to have proven itself viable and useful, but new to me and able to help me -- and help me help our clients -- move in new directions.

It's Your Turn!

2008-08-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Today's post will be atypically (and perhaps mercifully?) brief, because really, I want to hear from you.

If you have attended one of our webinars during the past year and found it helpful, please take a moment to post your comments on the blog. If you have suggestions for ways to make them better, I'd welcome those as well.

To sweeten the pot and signal our appreciation for your time, we'll be randomly selecting five people for a free 2008 webinar of their choice.

I hope while you're here you'll read through the blog and visit the rest of our site.

Thank you so much for your time!

Paradoxical Juxtaposition

2008-08-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Paradox is defined as "one (as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases" and juxtaposition is defined as "the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side." Therefore, paradoxical juxtaposition is the act or an instance of placing two or more seemingly contradictory things side by side.

Welcome to my world.

My husband Larry and I were married by a rabbi and a Presbyterian minister, standing together under a chuppah in a chapel. At the reception Larry began his toast by talking about mixed marriages and how many people think they can't work. He ended by saying that he and I are living proof that a relationship between a Cubs fan and White Sox fan can work and does work. We've also found that a marriage works between a democrat and a republican; a conservative and a liberal; a north suburban Chicagoan and a northwest Indianan; a soap opera fan and a wrestling fan...

I've spent the last 24 years (since I was 6) working with or for nonprofits, helping them find effective ways to use software -- seemingly a most impersonal tool -- to make them more effective at raising money, a very personal process. I find that many people think of me as something of a geek, and that's probably true, although I do not converse in techno-speak.

Because I "get" software, it's generally assumed that I like all things technical, and it's true that I'm intrigued by new toys. Most recently, I have been looking at the Kindle. This is a product being sold by Amazon.com. It's a wireless device that allows you to instantly download books, newspapers or magazines into the device. It never has to be connected to a computer -- apparently the technology is like that of a cellular phone. Once the text is downloaded into the Kindle, you can read it.

I read a number of reviews of the Kindle and every one talked about how easy it is to read the "pages", how the screen is lit in a way that does not produce glare, even when used outside in the sunlight. I believe it holds about 200 books. It's about the size of a paperback book and is very lightweight.

The Kindle has become my latest technical obsession.

When I travel, I usually take 3-6 books with me. This is kind of a pain, particularly on a plane when I finish one book and need to select another one. They add weight to the luggage, take up space, etc. So a Kindle would be great, since I could have all my reading material in it.

Between Larry and I, there are probably well over 1000 books in our house. And they are pretty much all over the house. There are books in every room in our house, including the kitchen. With the Kindle, you buy the book texts from Amazon and they get downloaded to the device. Even if you remove a book from the device, Amazon maintains your "library" so you can download a book you've purchased at any time -- forever. Of course I understand that I would not have a way to get all my existing books into a Kindle library unless I bought them again, but at least this could stop the madness.

I'm presuming that I could buy new books as soon as they come out in hardcover without having to pay as much as a newly-released hardcover book would cost. There are a few authors that I like a lot and I always pre-order their new releases.

This device could save me money, help me avoid more clutter in my home, get me new books faster, and of course it would be a very cool thing to have and play with. So why, you ask, do I not already have one?

I learned to read when I was three. From the time I could read "Sad Mrs. Sam Sack" (She was sad because she had 10 children and a husband and they lived in a small house. Every night she went to bed sad. She went to see a wise man and he had her bring lots of animals into her house; first 10 rabbits, then 10 cats and 10 dogs, etc. Finally one night she went to bed sad but got up MAD. The next day she kicked all the extra animals out and the house seemed much bigger.) I have luxuriated in books the way other people luxuriate in a bubble bath or some other indulgence.

Somehow I feel that part of the experience is actually holding the book: turning the pages, going back and rereading something particularly interesting or beautiful, truly getting lost in a book. It's hard for me to imagine that the Kindle would provide the same experience.

It's also possible that the $350 price tag has something to do with my hesitation.

Still, despite all this, I will likely have a Kindle before the year is out. I will buy it for the convenience, portability and the fact that it's a cool new toy to have. It will live in the house, next to my well-worn copies of To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone With The Wind, all of Shakespeare's works, all of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories, all the Harry Potter books, my Civil War books, the Wizard of Oz books that were my mother's when she was a girl and are now mine, and many more.

I love a good paradox.

Milestones

2008-04-14T02:53:00.000-07:00

As we inch ever closer to the 15th anniversary of the day this firm began, I find myself thinking again about how it began. I wish it was an impressive story, filled with detail about how I wrote a detailed business plan, did many hours of research, painstakingly created a list of potential clients, prepared eloquent marketing material, etc. In fact, I did none of those things.

I had been working as an account manager for a company that sells fundraising software. The company, like most companies, had gone through some ups and downs during the 5 1/2 years that I was there, and my fortunes there had also gone through some ups and downs. The last "down" came at the end of 1992, when my manager left to take another position and they closed the Chicago-area office and moved me to a sales position. Four months later... well, to be blunt, I quit in a huff after a conversation with the company president to which I took exception.

I gave two weeks notice and used that time to decide what to do next. I loved working with nonprofits, so I thought about ways that I could continue to do that. Work for a consulting firm? Go back to fundraising? Find another software company? Nothing felt quite right, but some tiny part of my brain was saying that I could do what I had been doing, on my own.

Work for myself? Set rates that did not have to cover a lot of overhead? Choose to work with clients in whose missions I believed? Be able to set standards for service that I felt clients deserved?

It sounded better and better...

So I took a look at my financial situation. No savings, and if I included my final paycheck, vacation pay, a little bit from a 401(K), I figured that I had enough to live on for six weeks. Ideal for a business venture, right?

Okay, I thought, I'll give myself six weeks to generate enough work to support myself. When I run out of money, I'll get a "real job".

I was very lucky. I got a few contracts right away and I had a built-in base of prospective clients, people who had worked with me over the last 5 years who knew me and liked the way I worked.

And so, incredibly, on May 15th CJW will celebrate its 15th anniversary. And I will celebrate the fact that I still don't have a "real job".

This is not a job. It's a labor of love.

Clarity

2007-12-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

I will always remember 2007 as the year of absolute clarity.

In the late-1980s, I attended a workshop put together by the customer service manager at the software company for which I was working. He based the workshop on a book called "The Strategy of the Dolphin", which is one of those "Who Moved My Cheese" kind of books that was advocating dolphin-like behavior as the way to succeed in business. I still remember the quintessential quote: "The dolphin says, 'I want us both to win, and to win elegantly and resoundingly, no matter the difficulty or the time it takes.'" Or something like that.

More importantly, the manager talked about part of the dolphin strategy being to "find your bliss" -- find work you truly love and believe in.

I found my bliss in 1984 when I went to work for a nonprofit in Chicago, in the Development office. When I left there in 1987, it was to work for a company who provided fundraising software to nonprofits. In 1993 I left that company to start my consulting firm, offering software-related services to nonprofit organizations.

So -- for nearly 24 years I have been helping nonprofits make effective use of software resources. I hope to continue to do this until I retire to the California wine country in my dotage (because somehow I know that I will still love sparkling wine in my dotage.)

Fast-forwarding a couple of decades, I entered 2007 knowing that near the end of it, I would turn 50. The first time this occurred to me, I shrugged my shoulders and had another sip of champagne. But the thought would not go away and seemed to demand some kind of action on my part. From there, something else took over.

I thought perhaps I'd have a party and ask friends and family to make gifts to a nonprofit instead of getting me anything. Then I had to decide on a nonprofit for which to request contributions. I knew it should not be one of our clients, so I was weighing other options when more powerful forces took over.

I had an opportunity to discuss a work project with an organization in Washington DC. I flew there for a day and arranged my travel schedule so that I would have a little free time to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The previous blog entry will tell you what I found at the Museum and how I left there having decided to ask for gifts for the Museum, and to make my 50th birthday a celebration of memory.

I spent much of the summer and fall planning a party -- space was offered to me, I found a caterer, prepared invitations, compiled a list of invitees, tried to explain to my family what I was trying to do. The usual stuff. The invitations went out at the end of October, with the party scheduled for December 1, 2007.

My available time in November was spent thinking about this party and how to celebrate and honor memory. One of the ways I wanted to do this was the prepare some presentations that would run throughout the evening.

Ultimately, I prepared three presentations. One was about the US Holocaust Memorial Museum; one was about my family and friends, many of whom attended the party; and the third was about our clients.

It was as I was writing the client presentation that everything fell together in one of those moments of clarity.

At the Holocaust Museum, I had listened as Elie Wiesel spoke about the importance of memory; about how forgetting means the end of everything. And I had been moved to tears by his words, because I thought about how nonprofits preserve and protect culture, civilization, humanity -- all that Elie Wiesel said would be lost if we are allowed to forget.

Writing the client presentation, seeing the names of all the organizations we've worked with since 1993, and thinking about my conversations with people at these organizations, I remembered myself saying these words again and again: Institutional Memory.

Software is an organization's memory.

And so I found myself writing these words:

Our work is about memory: We help organizations create,maintain and use data as institutional memory.

Elie Wiesel is a truly amazing man who found a way to survive the holocuast and dedicate his life to protecting humanity from the dangers of indifference. Forgetting leads to indifference, and we cannot allow people to forget. Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor, a Nobel prize winning author, a scholar, a professor.

I am none of those things. Yet in my own very small way I contribute to the preservation of the collective memory.

I have always understood that this is important. I have always valued knowledge, memories and information for their own sake.

Now, poised to turn 50 in a few hours, I know why.

Clarity.

If you are interested, the presentations are available for viewing on our website. If you return to the home back and follow the link for the Accidents and Inspiration Benefit, there are links to all three presentations at the bottom of that page.

If you feel inspired to make a gift to the Holocaust Museum, please make your check out to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and send it to me at CJW Consulting & Services, Inc, 8331 Central Avenue, Morton Grove, IL 60053.

I will happily send you a personal thank you along with wristbands saying "Never Again" and "Celebrate Memory" -- and I will pass your gift along to the Museum who will send you an acknowledgment for tax purposes.

Indifference and Remembrance

2007-09-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I flew to Washington DC for a meeting. I had a couple of free hours, and I spent them visiting the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. As I was wandering around, I was drawn to a small bank of personal computers.

I found a link to a podcast on the Museum's website, a portion of an interview with holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize recipient Elie Wiesel. Mr. Wiesel was speaking about an incident in San Francisco not long ago when he was accosted by a holocaust denier. The man rode in an elevator with Mr. Weisel, followed him off the elevator and grabbed him in the hallway.

While the attack left him physically unharmed, the incident led Wiesel to reflect on a recurring theme in his work, which he calls "the perils of indifference." Here's an excerpt of what he had to say:

"That person attacked me—okay?—and we were already outside the elevator and he tried to pull me into his room. And I began shouting, literally howling. I've never heard myself howl like that—"Help, help, help." I must have shouted for three minutes. Not one door opened. Then when I went down to the security people, and they said, "Maybe three people called us that they heard your shouts." Three—there must have been 20, 30, because it was 6 in the evening—6, 7 in the evening—but not one door opened. So how can you not feel discouraged?"

"What I make of that? Indifference, you know. I fought all my life against indifference. Yes, at least three of them called, but even they didn't open a door. That is painful. That means, what have I done with all of my work? Trying to wake people up."

"Even in moral terms, morality means concern for the other, not for oneself—the other."

"In order to feel empathy and compassion for and with a person who is alone, suffering, in desperation, it's only because we remember others who were alone, suffering, and in despair. It happens that not only one person, but the group may forget."

"Forgetting means the end of civilization, the end of culture, the end of generosity, the end of compassion, the end of humanity."

"And therefore I celebrate memory, and I try to strengthen it. And I believe—I still do, in spite of everything—that memory is a shield. If we remember what people can do to each other, then we can help those who tomorrow may be threatened by the same enemy."

Mr. Wiesel's words struck a deep chord in me. I have spent nearly half my life working for and with nonprofits: organizations who work ceaselessly to protect civilization, culture, compassion and humanity; organizations who depend on the lack of indifference and the generosity of others.

Then and there, I decided that I wanted to use the occasion of an upcoming "big" birthday to ask for gifts to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, located in Washington, DC. In case you're not familiar with it, here's a short blurb from their website (http://www.ushmm.org/):

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy.

This organization embodies Elie Wiesel's work, which is dedicated to protecting your work.

Between now and December 9th, I will be collecting gifts for the Museum, with a goal of raising $10,000 to support their education, remembrance and conscience program areas. If you would like to contribute, please make your check payable to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and send it to:

CJW Consulting & Services, Inc.
8331 Central Avenue
Morton Grove, IL 60053

If you prefer not to be acknowledged by the Museum, please indicate on the reference line of your check that you'd like to remain anonymous.

If you prefer, you may send your gift directly to the local museum office:

US Holocaust Memorial Museum
PO Box 1852
Highland Park, IL 60035

If you choose this option, please indicate that this is a gift for Cheryl Weissman's Accidents and Inspiration Campaign.

Thank you for your support!

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How Much Is Not Enough?

2007-07-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I was trying to figure out an affordable way to help a group of interested professionals get an introduction to The Raiser's Edge, a software product for which training is available only if you work for an organization that uses it.

While I was not able to offer a free session, as I initially hoped to do, I did find that I could offer an online seminar for a very reasonable $40 per person, and the CJW webinar series was born.

Since that first session at the end of May, we have led three webinars: Interfacing and reconciliation between Development and Accounting offices; Raiser's Edge Export Functions; and one about what it takes to get a job as a support person in a Development office. There are 6 more scheduled during the month of July, and we will be adding others to be held in August and September within a couple of weeks. Each session is 90 minutes long. Registrants are given a web link to view the webinar and a toll-free number to call in order to hear it and be able to participate.

I thought long and hard about the price for these sessions. I get emails inviting me to webinars frequently, including those from Blackbaud, who is offering 3-hour sessions priced at about $240 per person. My sessions are half as long as those Blackbaud is offering, so at half their price I'd be charging $120 per person, which is pretty much in line with what I'm seeing from other companies offering such services.

I know that it can be dangerous to price services too low. There's all that "if it seems to good to be true it probably is" and "you get what you pay for" stuff hanging in the air around a low-priced opportunity. But as this firm is very small and our overhead is kept as low as possible, our rates have consistently been lower across the board, although I'm confident that the quality of our services meets or exceeds our competitors. I've never liked the idea of charging more than I felt I needed just because I could.

What do you think? Would you invest $40 and 90 minutes? Would the low price be off-putting to you? If $40 is too low, what do you think an online seminar is worth?

I'd like to ask that you go to the Events/Webinars page of this web site and review our offerings. Then come back here and tell me what you think about the webinars and the prices.

In Loving Memory

2007-05-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

Today is Memorial Day. Like many of us, I have had many reflective moments during this long weekend. I’ve read lists of fallen soldiers in the newspaper and thought of all the men and women still in harm’s way, and I’ve prayed for them and their families.

I’ve also thought a lot of people closer to me that I keep close in memory. My grandfather, Nathan, who died in 1989. My grandfather’s namesake, my nephew Nathan, who was born in 1990 and died less than two years later. My grandmother, who died in 2001 at age 87.

And Edward.

I first saw Edward in April of 1984. He was kicking a photocopy machine. I had just started a new job in the Development office of a Chicago social service agency. Edward was the Executive Director’s assistant and was in the midst of preparing materials for a board meeting. The copier was not cooperating.

Over the next few months, we became friends, eventually the closest of friends. He became a surrogate brother to me, and Rosalie, who was his fiancée when I met her and became his wife a few months later, and is still my dearest friend.

Edward left our agency about a year after I arrived, and went to work for Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois. He started in the Development office as staff liaison for the Women’s Auxiliary and ended his career there in 1993 as the Director of Development. He left because he was not able to work any longer, and he died a year later, after a three and a half year battle with brain cancer. He was 41 years old. He left behind a loving and beloved wife, two beautiful daughters who were just shy of their second birthday, a mother and many treasured friends.

Edward was a lot things, and among those things he was the best of the best of fundraisers. Although I know that he was successful and met or exceeded his goals, I don’t have facts and figures to tell you about – I don’t know how many dollars he raised, how many donors increased their giving, how many new donors he acquired. But I know these things:

He genuinely loved his work and understood its importance

He saw the importance of the organization’s mission at all times

He respected everyone with whom he interacted

He truly wanted to help make the world a better place – and he did

It was not because of Edward that I followed the path that I took. I fell in love with fundraising and nonprofits when I went to work for one, when I finally found that my work could be about more than putting money in other people’s pockets.

But it is in part because of Edward that I have continued on the path. Like every job, mine has its ups and downs. I work very hard and very long hours, and I frequently sacrifice time with my husband, my family and friends to “take care of business.”

For all this time, even today, nearly 13 years after his death, I think of Edward and feel a renewed commitment to my work.

Our work at CJW helps fundraisers do their work – it’s a small part in helping them be what Edward was to CHASI. I often say that I feel privileged to have been able to serve the nonprofit community for such a long time. This is why.

I honor Edward with my work. I remember him, today and always.l

Failure To Launch

2007-05-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

Although we are a consulting firm, it’s not uncommon for us to do real work at client sites. Today I arrived early at a Chicago university where I replaced a staff position 8 years ago – I’m actually the senior person in the Development office here now.

For the past 11 months, in addition to managing the software used for Development and Alumni Affairs, I have been filling in for the gift entry operator who retired at the end of May, 2006. I had two free hours this morning, and I was on a mission -- I came in do some gift entry and acknowledgments.

I taxied out of the house on time, got my engines started by booting up my computer, and then…. Failure to launch.

As Murphy’s Law dictates, there has been a power outage in the server room, and the server on which my application resides is down. There is a delicious irony in the fact that when the server has no power, I also am powerless – I can figure out most any software issue that comes my way, but hardware… not my department.

In a university setting, there are generally larger issues that create hardware problems, because there is so much more hardware. But for smaller nonprofits, hardware problems tend to come from lack of planning and budgeting.

When we talk to nonprofit professionals about implementing software solutions, one thing we always encourage them to think about it the issue of ongoing budgeting for technology. When you buy fundraising software, for example, it’s very likely that you will pay annual maintenance in the amount of 20-25% of the purchase price of the software (unless you license software or use an on-line solution, in which case you will pay monthly for the life of the application.)

There is more to consider than just software support, though. It’s the job of software vendors to continue to develop and improve their products. Because it’s likely that this development is taking place using current technology, you need plan to keep up.

The older your hardware gets, the more likely it is that your software performance will be affected. And many nonprofits are just not in a position to suddenly have to replace their entire network of computers.

To avoid this scenario, plan ahead: budget to replace some percentage of your hardware every year. Try to budget to replace your server at least every 3 years.

We work with many software applications, and many of them work perfectly well on older technology. But I don’t think that many of us can afford to count on that, because if we do, when the day arrives that our technology does not support our software, we’re as powerless to be productive as I am with my downed server this morning.

Living Memory

2007-05-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

I told myself that I would not post to this blog more than once or twice a month, but I had an experience tonight that changed my mind. I went to see a special performance of The Diary of Anne Frank at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Tonight’s event was a collaboration between Steppenwolf (www.steppenwolf.org), the Ravinia Festival (www.ravinia.org) and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (www.ushmm.org). In the playbill, the artistic director’s story of the decision to produce this play included these words:

The people who hold the event of the holocaust in living memory are passing. It becomes attendant upon all of us to remember and to educate our next generation to the memory.

Theater can keep memory alive in a very personal way, and that is invaluable. Having seen tonight’s performance, I want everyone to see it because I don’t know how anyone could see it and not be moved, not be changed by it. But I was struck anew with the little piece of preservation of which I am a very small part.

The living memory of the holocaust will pass, as will the living memory of 9/11… of Apartheid… of every human tragedy. The living memory will pass, inevitably, yet we will remember.

Nonprofits understand the importance of remembering. Here in Chicago, for example, a few weeks after Anne Frank leaves the Steppenwolf stage, James Conlon will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this summer in the works of Alexander Zemlinsky as part of the “Breaking the Silence” series highlighting music that was suppressed by the Third Reich.

It’s been said that those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Nearly every Jewish temple I pass has a large sign in front – “Never Again”. We cannot afford to forget.

For those who do not have access to theater or museums or concerts, there is another way.

Technology – seemingly the most impersonal of tools – keeps memory alive.

For many people, software is boring or geeky; technology is alien or geeky; the internet is frightening or… okay, geeky. I’m willing to stipulate that there is a geek component here. I’m even willing to stipulate that there’s really nothing “sexy” about software, unless of course you are a self-described geek. Software is nuts and bolts. And we need nuts and bolts to build on. CJW Consulting is really about making sure you have the right nuts and bolts to do your building.

Building on the nuts and bolts allows you to do so much more. Every web site begins with nuts and bolts. Tonight, a director from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum spoke before the performance, and she mentioned a recent exhibit at the museum about the writings of Anne Frank. And she mentioned that you can still see the exhibit – online.

The internet will keep alive the memory of the horror that was the holocaust, and so much more. Software archives will keep alive Anne Frank’s writings, and allow millions worldwide to see it and be touched… and remember. Imaging software will allow people to see these historical documents and photographs. All from nuts and bolts made up of 1s and 0s.

It’s a lot to take in. I believe that if there is to be an end to the insanities that humans inflict upon one another, it will come about largely from the work of the nonprofit community. And I believe that it will come with the help of technology, bringing us all closer to one another.

By the way – software also allows you to buy tickets or books online. Go to the Amazon.com website for a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank, or find a production to see. Do both, if you can.

Never again!

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2007-05-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

May tends to be a period of looking forward and back for me, as it is a month marked by anniversaries. Saturday was my 7th wedding anniversary, and May 15th, 2007 marks the 14th anniversary of the founding of CJW Consulting & Services and the beginning of our 15th year serving the nonprofit community. And it was somewhere around May 1, 1984 that I began working at a nonprofit in Chicago, where I was asked to investigate fundraising software and the journey that led me here began. (I’d love to say I was six years old at that time, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t fly.)

When I started working in a Development office, our fundraising data was maintained on a Texas Instruments mini-computer which had removable 5 megabyte hard drives. It was a common occurrence to have to change drives before you could save a record or document, as the removable drives were forever filling up. We were also using a dot-matrix printer and an Accounts Receivable software application – not exactly custom-made for the needs of fundraisers.

While it was challenging and rewarding for me to make this software do things it was not designed to do, it was far from an ideal situation.

It felt like a dream come true, 18 months later, to have a personal computer with a 10 megabyte hard drive and a daisy wheel printer, along with software that had been designed for fundraisers. Sure, reality occasionally intruded. The daisy wheel printer, for example, was not quite all it could have been.

(Daisy wheel printers were similar to electric typewriters. Instead of the metal ball containing letters and symbols found in typewriters, the printers had a plastic “wheel” – a small circle with spokes attached to it. It used continuous-feed paper which we would load into the printer and arrange so that it would fold neatly as letters were printing.)

I will forever remember the day that I was processing nearly 700 letters to people who had been invited to an event and did not attend. The first sentence of the letter began “We are so sorry that you were not able to attend…”

I queued up the paper, edited the letter text for typos, got the print job started and as soon as I verified that the paper was folding properly as the letters were fed through, I left the room knowing that the printing would take several hours, so I could take care of other things elsewhere.

When I went back to check the print progress 2 hours later, I found that the spoke containing the lower case letter “T” had broken off the daisy wheel, so I had several hundred letters which began, “We are so sorry ha …”

The fundraising software also had a few quirks that I needed to learn as I went along. For example, in my training, I learned that you could assign shortcuts to values for Prefix and Suffix. To save time, I assigned a shortcut value of “1” to the Prefix “Mr. and Mrs.” and manually added that value to over 2000 records. Then I realized that the software had built values for salutation that used the shortcut instead of the translation: “1 Weissman, instead of Mr. and Mrs. Weissman.”

Ah, those were the days…

After all the months I had spent longing for a fundraising software application and a better, faster printer with nicer-looking output, I was thrilled when we got those things… That is, of course, until I wanted more and better, which happened almost immediately.

It’s the technical equivalent of the American Dream.

As soon as you can do more than you could before, you’re going to want to do more than you can now. That’s a given. The only real question is whether or not your software can keep up.

We’d love to hear from you about this issue. Is your software keeping up with your needs? Are there things you’d like to be able to do that seem impossible with your current technology? Things you need to do but can’t, due to software or cost limitations? Do you have software stories – good or bad – that you’d like to share?

To leave your thoughts, click on the “comments” link at the bottom of this post. We’ll publish as many as we can.

Beginning the Blog

2007-04-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

Before deciding to start a blog on the CJW website, I did some research – I went to the Wikipedia site (www.wikipedia.com). After reading the “blog” entry, I determined that a CJW blog would be a good thing, but I knew I didn't want a vlog, a linklog, a Phlog, a moblog, and I especially didn't want a Splog.

A visit to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, will tell you what all those things are. When you get to the reference to “phlog”, there will be a link to take you to the definition of Gopher Protocol so that you'll not only know that “phlog” is a type of blog hosted on the gopher protocol, you'll also know what the Gopher Protocol is.

Wikipedia is a great resource. For those who haven't already visited this site, I'll let them introduce themselves:

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. With rare exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by clicking the edit this page link. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative website) and encyclopedia. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites on the Internet.

Here's the part I like best:

Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which has created an entire family of free content projects. On all these projects, you are welcome to be bold and edit articles yourself, contributing knowledge as you see fit in a collaborative way.

This incredible resource, which is increasingly becoming the go-to reference point for millions of people all over the world, one of the top 5 visited websites anywhere, is supported by a non-profit organization.

The Wikimedia Foundation (www.wikimedia.org) website home page begins this way:

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment.

Is there a better example of the concept of Philanthropy as Community?

I recently joined the board of AFP Chicago, the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Our vision statement embraces the idea that philanthropy builds community:

The Association of Fundraising Professionals—Chicago Chapter will be valued as the indispensable professional development resource for fundraisers, and by the broader public as Chicagoland's leading champion of philanthropy as a force for building community.

Lest you think that this is a concept unique to AFP, a Wikipedia article on Philanthropy contains this paragraph:

Some believe that philanthropy can be a means to build community by growing community funds and giving vehicles. When communities see themselves as being resource rich instead of asset poor, the community is in a better position to solve community problems.

Nonprofits build, strengthen and support communities large and small, and philanthropy provides the resources for them to do it. Philanthropy as community? Definitely!

Software as community? Maybe not so much. But software is a hugely valuable tool. You can't build a house without a hammer, and you can't build a development program without information about donors and prospective donors. I've always contended that there is a natural marriage between software and fundraisers, despite the reality that fundraising is extremely personal and the perception that software is completely impersonal.

And again – software runs Wikipedia, a website operated by a nonprofit that wants every single human to be able to share in the sum of all knowledge.

If you haven't already, take a spin through Wikipedia. Type in pretty much anything in the search box and see what comes up. As I have been writing this, I've looked up the name of the town in which I grew up (Skokie, Illinois), my high school (Evanston Township High School), the Chicago neighborhood which contained the hospital in which I was born (Edgewater), the name of Agatha Christie's first book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles), and Matthew Garber, the 8-year-old who played Michael Banks in the film version of Mary Poppins in 1964 (sadly, I learned that he died at age 21 of hepatitis.)

Here are some things that I couldn't find in Wikipedia:

DonorPerfect or the company that sells it, Softerware
Results/plus or the company that sells it, Metafile Information Systems Exceed or the company that sells it, Telosa Software, eTapestry, Tessitura (there is a listing for Tessitura, which is a musical term, but it does not reference the software), Donor2, … any listings for fundraising software or the companies that provide them except Blackbaud.

The information is out there, of course. You can Google fundraising software and get 4,150,000 hits (I just did that). You can visit sites like TechSoup and see if there is a forum for whatever product you are interested in. If not, you can start one.

Or you can come here.

Your comments will direct this blog to a large extent. Let us know what you’d like to find here, and as long as it relates in some way to software and nonprofits, we’ll do our best to get it to you.