Red Cross CEO Out the Back Door

I've given each of my three daughters the same basic talk. I explain that it's normal, indeed essential for the very preservation of any species, for its young to reproduce at every opportunity. In mammals, the male of the specie seems to take the lead here. However, I point out to my daughters, what separates humankind from the cattle that graze the fields below our home is that our young girls can say "No." Indeed, I tell them, the major reason we have art, and hospitals, and literature, and music, is that their forebears said "No."

It seems we can add charitable activities to my list, too. In case this wasn't covered in any of the AFP's nonprofit leadership courses, let's make it clear here: It's hard to govern a nonprofit effectively, much more so the biggest, best-known nonprofit in the world, when you're doing the horizontal mambo with the hired help.

I mean, what's Mark Everson's excuse? That, coming from the IRS, he was a numbers guy, not a wordsmith? How was he to know the difference between 'philanthropy' and 'philandery'? Did he take his office leadership lessons from Bill Clinton?

I do credit the rest of the Red Cross leadership. They dealt with this issue quickly and decisively. It had to pain them to toss their eighth leader in twelve years, after only six months on the job. How tempting it would be to cover it up or belittle the problem.

But let me address my fellow male mammals in the business: We are NOT going to help solve the great problems of the world if we can't keep it zipped at the office. We need to respect our colleagues enough to treat them with the respect due them as human beings and fellow laborers in our vineyards. Even the really pretty ones. It's really that simple.

-Rick Christ...
P.S. I don't put all the responsibility for society's advances on young women. I give the boys who call on my daughters a slightly different, more short-term-focused talk. If you want to know what it is, ask.

Great email copy criteria

Herschell Gordon Lewis nails it, as he so often does, in the Nov. 15 issue of NonProfit Times. He lists ten criteria for online fundraising, pointing out that if political candidates are raising tons of money online, why can't the rest of us? His answer: out copy stinks.

1. Establish rapport
2. Explain rationale for contacting
3. Offer heroism
4. Provide logic
5. Create urgency
6. don't accept pledges
7. offer recognition
8. create guilt
9. provide satisfaction
10. maintain verisimilitude

If you can get these points right in your next email, you'll raise more money.

Where are you supporters - right now?

The new "Loopt" application, currently available on some Sprint and Boost phones, uses phone's GPS abilities to display your position graphically on a map on the cell phone's display -- and on the displays of your friends who use the application. Sure, you can now find out "who else is at the mall" as Loopt pitches the service ($2.99 per month), but think of the applications in the nonprofit world:

Locate potential visitors to your museum, church, etc. and guide them to you;
Attract fellow activists to the rally;
Encourage supporters to meet the candidate;
Pinpoint the location of today's blood drive;
Follow your teammates on the bike-a-thon;

Cell phone companies, according to an article in the Washington Post, are eager to recoup some of the money they've invested in meeting federal requirements to provide precise positioning along with 911 calls. So they're finding fun ways to package the information and sell it to subscribers.

The result is potential for nonprofits beyond the obvious. It also provides a real-time authenticity to web activism and fundraising. And it's new, hip and cool. So who's using it? Let us know.

Convio isn't the only one "opening" their system

I really wanted to make a joke about the security breach at GetActive this week. I wanted to say that it appears some hacker has done for GetActive what no one at Convio or Kintera seems to be able to do -- let users export their donor data.

However, it's no laughing matter. CARE is one of 92 organizations whose contact email file was breached. They had to send an email to their list on Tuesday telling them about the breach. That can't help online donations.

It's important to understand how hackers pick their targets. No doubt they were working on Kintera and Convio platforms, too, and couldn't figure out how to get inside. They're working on the big platforms because that's where the largest files of email addresses are. I'd be surprised if they're not trying to get into the Obama, Hillary, and now even Ron Paul sites. Not only would they be able to harvest hundreds of thousands of emails addresses, but they'd be able to embarass a public figure.

Internet security is something to be taken seriously. As much as expose the flaws in the major online fundraising platforms, they're probably safer than something your staff cooked up alone. Yes, they also higher profile targets, but they probably have more staff just working on security than you have working on your whole site.

It's also worth commending CARE and others like them who swallowed hard and did the right thing -- telling their most valuable online contacts that there was a serious breach, and giving them hints on how to protect themselves from any phishing that may result.

Rick...