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8 Reasons Why AFP is The Professional Organization of Your Dreams


January 16, 2020


Sometimes deciding where to spend your organization's professional development dollars can be hard - there are SO MANY options out there! However, we're admittedly biased, but we know that AFP is a great "bang for the buck" place to invest your professional development dollars. So today, we're sharing our top 8 reasons WHY we think that AFP is the professional organization of your dreams, and is absolutely worth your professional development dollars!


1. Networking: Being a fundraiser can be lonely. Your friends and family may not understand what you do.
Your local chapter of AFP gives you monthly opportunities to meet other people who understand your work,
who can provide advice and support.

2. We’re also a place to learn: we have monthly trainings on a wide range of subjects, suggested by our members.

3. We have an annual all-day Symposium: where we bring in a nationally renowned speaker.

4. We also have National Philanthropy Day: a time to celebrate with our donors and volunteers,
and our annual holiday party to have fun!

5. Access: As a member, you’ll have access to a ton of information, such as our annual salary info,
including both compensation and benefits.

6. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project: You can also use AFP software to run 100 reports on your database,
so you can have information on everything from your rate of growth in giving to your attrition rate.

7. Blog: There’s a daily blog to ask questions of fundraising professionals worldwide,
and a monthly magazine filled with interesting and relevant articles.

8. Saves you Time and Money: There are also templates you can use for your own organization,
whether it’s a donor privacy statement or a budget worksheet. Saving you time is saving your organization money.


If you haven’t looked at becoming a member in the past year, there are exciting new developments:

1. One is AFP 360°. It’s a partnership with recruiting firm Korn Ferry to help you in guiding your career and includes a way to use artificial intelligence to practice your speaking skills for everything from a tough donor visit to a tough conversation with a colleague.

2. There’s also a new partnership with AAUW – The American Association of University Women, to help you learn negotiating skills, particularly around your salary, but also helpful in negotiating a major gift with a donor.

Of course, being a member gets you discounts on LOTS of things, including: monthly trainings, the annual Symposium, the AFP ICON International Conference, taking the CFRE exams, and more. We’ve posted almost all our trainings for this year on our website at www.afpsbv.org. You can see now how many you’d like to attend and decide whether becoming a member now will save you money on trainings throughout the year.

We look forward to welcoming YOU as our newest member!



For more information on membership, go to https://community.afpglobal.org/afpsbv/aboutus/join689685.

For information on scholarships to reduce the cost of membership or trainings, go to https://community.afpglobal.org/afpsbv/career/scholarships.

A Self-Care Call to Action


January 16, 2020
By Molly Kemper, President


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The Association of Fundraising Professionals empowers individuals and organizations to practice ethical fundraising through professional education, networking, research, and advocacy. This is the official mission statement of AFP. In my professional journey thus far, AFP has fulfilled its mission: I have learned so much from the incredible examples set by AFP colleagues and I am grateful and honored to accept the position of our Santa Barbara/ Ventura Counties Chapter President for 2020.

I also know that so many incredible leaders throughout our chapter live the vision of AFP every day. They sacrifice and struggle to “stimulate a world of generosity and positive social good through fundraising best practice.”
Our profession is demanding, and I know each one of you is all too familiar with the stress and challenges of wearing multiple hats, being pulled in different directions by diverse stakeholders and competing priorities and navigating your own personal lives and career goals. I have been thinking about this a lot as we welcome the New Year: how can we invest in each other? Raise each other up to make ourselves and our organizations more resilient? And in turn strengthen the region’s nonprofit sector and the communities we serve?


The answers to these BIG questions may reside in a current AFP initiative called IDEA. IDEA stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility.

The official statement of principles for IDEA is: AFP is committed to promoting an inclusive, equitable and accessible organization where every member, volunteer, staff and board member can realize their potential and have their contributions valued.

The conversation with Elena Nicklesson at January’s Training struck the perfect notes to support a vision of inclusion and sustainability and care for one another and ourselves. She reminded us to schedule time for ourselves and stick to it, to STOP and BREATHE, and to take a wide-angle view of your organization, asking for what you and your organization need and dreaming big to achieve it. She encouraged us to take the time to get organized, even if you only set out a few minutes per day to clean up databases and physical files, so that you can streamline your processes and HAVE that extra time.

Join me in taking her advice! Time for self-care does not have to be time away from “important” tasks; it is a necessary means to an end. My vision for AFP this year is that attending trainings, happy hours, events, or meetings be a source of renewal and trust, where we can each lean into our strengths, not just attend another meeting or obligation.

This year let us think creatively to find ways to meet all members where they are. I hope this will lead to a surge in membership and participation and will continue to help AFP fulfill its mission to leave our colleagues feeling empowered. To me, this is a call to action to each of us– one that builds the capacity of our chapter through meaningful engagement, shared leadership & buy-in, delivering value to our members and elevating our profession for years to come.

I look forward to all of you joining me on this journey and working together. Here’s to 2020! Cheers!

Molly Kemper

AFP SBV Chapter President
Special Events Coordinator
Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara

Not a Goodbye: End-of-Term Letter from Kathy Wertheim


December 23, 2019
By Kathy Wertheim, CFRE

As the Vice President for Communications for the past two years, I wanted to take a moment to share what I’ve learned during this time. Some lessons:

·       Other people are willing to help if you ask! I think we, as fundraisers, forget that other people would love to help us. Too often, we assume that it’s easier to do something ourselves. Particularly with this e-newsletter and our Facebook page and Instagram, huge amounts of the content are provided by other people, whether it’s the National Philanthropy Day (NPD) team writing about honorees and sending out mailings, or the Symposium Chair writing about their event, or members stepping in to provide pictures and post to social media. Thanks to everyone who has helped with communications these past two years.

·       The AFP Board is great! I’ve been on 12 boards of directors, starting at age 16 in Santa Barbara, and the AFP board has been terrific! People are very caring and giving, and it’s a pleasurable experience. If you think you might like to serve on the board, start on a committee first. I particularly recommend the NPD and Symposium committees, as they meet frequently enough that you get to know everyone, and the tasks are interesting and varied.

·       The best kind of volunteer service is that which suits your personality. For me, chairing communications has been terrific job because I can do it on my own time. No one knows or cares if I’m working on our communications in another time zone or on an airplane. I can schedule a post on Facebook weeks in advance and make it look like I remember to post every Wednesday. 

·       Having a team has been tremendous. What you don’t see is that VISIONALITY, headed by CEO and AFP member Emily Barany, makes the newsletter look terrific. I coordinate copy, but they’re the ones who arrange it in Constant Contact and get it sent out on time. Thanks to their entire team for making it look good. Thanks to the AFP board for deciding to have back-office support to make all of our volunteer jobs easier.

·       There’s no perfection. At some point, it doesn’t matter if the newsletter is perfect or complete, it’s due. I think we as fundraisers want everything to be perfect, and it can delay us. Sometimes we just have to let things go.

It’s been very fulfilling to be in charge of communications. I’m glad, too, to be handing off this work to the next chair, Niki Richardson. I look forward to seeing how she’ll put her own imprint on communications, which includes our Facebook page and Instagram. It’s not a goodbye, as you’ll still see articles and information from me as I go on to become the Vice President for Membership.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a joyous and prosperous new year!



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Kathy Wertheim, CFRE,
is a consultant in fundraising and board development. She is a master trainer with the Association of Fundraising Professionals, one of 11 in California and 232 worldwide. She has taught fundraising and board development in 22 states, Asia and Latin America. Locally, she has consulted for the Alzheimer’s Association, Devereux, the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County, Make-A-Wish Tri Counties, The Salvation Army Southern California Division, the Santa Barbara Symphony, and Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, among others. She is the current Vice President for Communications for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties chapter (to sign up for the bi-weekly newsletter, go to www.afpsbv.org). You can contact her at katherine@werth-it.com.

 

41 Things to Negotiate Other Than a Salary


December 23, 2019
By Kathy Wertheim, CFRE


Let’s say that you know that an organization has to stand firm on salary. What are other things you could negotiate for that aren’t about money?
Here are some suggestions. You can ask for:

  1. A better job title, or one you prefer.
  2. An extra week’s vacation.
  3. Every other Friday off in summer (perhaps in trade for working extra on other days).
  4. A parking pass.
  5. A monthly pass for public transportation.
  6. A company cell phone so you don’t have to use your personal phone.
  7. Training for your database system.
  8. The week off after New Year’s Eve, or around Passover/Easter.
  9. To be sent to the Karass class on negotiating.
  10. To go to one industry conference a year.
  11. A personal AFP membership at $300 a year. (There’s a November discount of $50 off.)
  12. To pay for and time to attend one industry training a month. AFP monthly trainings are two hours plus travel and about $35 for members.
  13. To pay for the annual AFP ICON registration, hotel and travel, plus time to go.
  14. To pay for a Courage to Lead retreat series, and time to go.
  15. To pay for applying for your CFRE and time to take the exam. It’s $700 initially and $408 every three years to re-certify, if you’re an AFP member.
  16. Pay for and time to attend your local city or county leadership series. These are usually a year long and give you the chance to get to know local leaders in business, government, education and nonprofits. Leadership Santa Barbara covers the county. Ventura County Leadership Academy covers Ventura County.
  17. Flex time.
  18. Work from home days.
  19. Child care.
  20. A non-traditional work schedule, such as four ten-hour days or nine days to equal 80 hours.
  21. A four-day workweek of eight-hour days, perhaps so you can have a sideline consulting business or pursue other interests (I did this for six years).
  22. Time each afternoon to pick up your kids from school and take them home.
  23. Paid continuing education.
  24. Tuition reimbursement.
  25. The ability to choose which holidays you’ll take off. For example, you may not care about working on Christmas Day (and it may be required in some places), but you want Eid or Rosh Hashanah off. Or perhaps you want to trade the day after Thanksgiving for Veterans Day.
  26. Gym membership.
  27. Fitness reimbursement, where you get reimbursed for any fitness-related activity.
  28. Comp time after events. Some places require that comp time has to be taken in the same workweek, which can be a problem if your work week starts on Monday and the event is on Saturday. In that case, suggest changing your workweek to start Friday at noon. Then there are plenty of days after a Saturday event.
  29. Bring your dog to work.
  30. An hour in the middle of the day to work out. (My sister had someone negotiate for this and was happy to do it.)
  31. Paid mileage.
  32. Paying a car lease each month.
  33. A paid hotspot for your phone.
  34. A laptop.
  35. Corporate credit card.
  36. A budget for taking donors out for coffee or lunch.
  37. Membership in a service organization like Rotary or Kiwanis, and time to attend a weekly meeting.
  38. Time to attend and paid membership in Toastmasters to improve speaking, listening and leadership skills.
  39. Membership and time to attend Chamber of Commerce meetings on behalf of your organization.
  40. Time off once a month to serve on a board of directors. You learn a lot when you’re on the other side of the volunteer table.
  41. Maternity or paternity leave.

 

Remember, even if you don’t get it, they’ll respect you for negotiating!






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Kathy Wertheim, CFRE,
is a consultant in fundraising and board development. She is a master trainer with the Association of Fundraising Professionals, one of 11 in California and 232 worldwide. She has taught fundraising and board development in 22 states, Asia and Latin America. Locally, she has consulted for the Alzheimer’s Association, Devereux, the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County, Make-A-Wish Tri Counties, The Salvation Army Southern California Division, the Santa Barbara Symphony, and Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, among others. She is the current Vice President for Communications for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties chapter (to sign up for the bi-weekly newsletter, go to www.afpsbv.org). You can contact her at katherine@werth-it.com.