These articles by Michele Alperin and Carole Price were prepared for the January 24, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
People feel that the worst part of starting or running a nonprofit is asking for money," says Anne Seltzer, director of development at the Peddie School. But without significant donors, the existence of a nonprofit with even the most impeccable mission will always be in peril. Based on her own experience, Seltzer offers a straightforward process that she hopes will demystify the process of cultivating donors for nonprofit organizations.
Seltzer speaks at Community Works' Workshops for Volunteer Development at the Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School on Thursday, February 1, 5 to 9:15 p.m. Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Princeton, the $25 cost includes a box supper and two workshops. DeForest B. "Buster" Soaries Jr., New Jersey secretary of state, is the keynote speaker. Call 609-924-8652.
Linda Meisel, executive director of Jewish Family Services, will teach "Non-Profit Dynamics: Building the Team," and Karen Woodbridge of Princeton University will moderate a press panel on publicity. Dana George of ETTC will talk about using the Internet as a tool. Marge Smith, who chairs this event, will do a workshop on leadership for volunteers and staff, and Marty Johnson, executive director of Isles, will discuss "Partnerships: Networking and Collaboration," with particular interest on trust issues and turf issues. Claire Schiff-Kohn, Princeton's new superintendent of schools, will cover "Strategic Planning." Other workshops will be on the basics of volunteering, making grant requests, conflict resolution, and finance and budgeting.
An organization must build a strong constituency, using focus groups and public talks, before it can start to fundraise. Focus groups can provide a sense of how the organization is perceived, what may keep people from supporting it, and what "hooks" can help get people involved. Public talks might focus on what the organization does to fulfill a particular need, who it is serving, and how the listeners can help.
Another necessary early step is to develop a board. Seltzer suggests, "Start with people who have an interest in your mission and support what you're doing." The board can be fine-tuned later, by either broadening or narrowing its scope.
Later on, fundraising events-galas, tennis and golf outings, auctions -- become important in developing a base of potential donors. The amount of money these events raise is not of primary importance. Rather, it is how these events connect people to the organization and create a sense of community. "For the amount of time and effort it takes for the development office to run the event," says Seltzer, "it could have cultivated one large donor. But," she continues, "all those people get involved!"
Cultivating donors is not a one-time event, but a process that continues over many years. In 1993 Walter Annenberg contributed $100 million to the Peddie School, the largest donation ever given to a secondary school. But he had given his first gift in 1927, when he graduated from the school. "We've always had a special relationship with the Ambassador," says Seltzer. The lesson of the gift, she continues, is that it was the result of "successful stewarding over many years." When reaching out to an organization's base of support, she continues, "You must reach out often -- imaginatively and authentically. Make sure you think with some imagination about how to get people involved."
Once the organization has a constituency of people who identify with it and support its mission, the process of converting a supporter into a donor is fairly straightforward:
After taking a year off from Peddie to work as Adult Program Director at the Princeton YWCA, she returned to Peddie as director of development in 1993 -- at about the time of the large Annenberg gift. During her tenure, Peddie's endowment has increased from $16 to $212 million.
Seltzer enjoys the process of bringing people together with a worthy cause. "By and large, people like to help people," muses Seltzer. "If you've created a strong need for the organization, you are allowing the person to make a wonderful gift. It is a chance to enrich their lives. If you have done your job, you're not asking people who don't want to support and help you; you're just making that possible."
-- Michele Alperin
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Life Science Capital
Senior citizens have attracted recent publicity for crossing the border by bus to Canada for prescription medicine originally produced here, but available in Canada at a lower cost. Randall Sunberg, of Morgan Lewis & Bockius at the Carnegie Center, will discuss the complex interplay of factors affecting pharmaceutical pricing in the United States in a talk for Equity Research Group's Private Healthcare Company Conference on Thursday, January 25, at the Nassau Club.
An alumnus of Yale (Class of 1977) and New York University Law School, Sunberg was a partner at Shook Hardy & Bacon before joining Morgan Lewis & Bockius last year. "Upcoming Regulatory Issues Likely to Affect Life Science Companies," is the title of his workshop.
"Financing Outlook for Private and Public Biotechnology Companies" by Samuel D. Isaly of OrbiMed Advisors will be the keynote topic at this conference for venture capitalists and accredited investors. Other presenters are Steven M. Cohen of Morgan Lewis & Bockius and Thomas Nagle of Valuation Counselors. Conference admission: $150. Reservations are required; call 609-737-0267. Equity Research Group (www.equityresearchgroup.com) raises money for early stage companies and does convertible preferred equity placements dealing with the institutional market or accredited qualified investors.
Though senior citizens are now legal purveyors of drugs across borders, that may change. An enormous amount of pharmaceutical legislation and litigation is still undecided. Re-importation is just one of the issues waiting for President George W. Bush, Congress, and the state legislatures. Also watching closely: drug purchasing officials in managed care facilities. Government entities like the Veterans Administration and private anti-trust litigants are also concerned with drug pricing.
"A lot of groups not likely to give up are focusing on the pharmaceuticals. New Jersey has cases pending before the Department of Justice where soon there will be settlements regarding health care fraud and abuse," says Sunberg. "The decisions will affect pricing, promotion and reimbursement. What if citizens can get drugs from other countries which are the same product that we have here?" He cites these issues:
"This political atmosphere and environment affects biotech companies that are essentially innovators working on research projects affected by these legislative, regulatory and pricing environments," says Sunberg. "This is what makes Big Pharm say yes or no to them."
-- Carole Price
A two-day land use planning seminar, "Preserving This Place Called Home," is set for Monday and Tuesday, January 29 and 30 at Princeton University, Robertson Hall. The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association has planned this seminar for town officials, planners, and citizen groups. For information, call 609-818-9211.
More than 30 nationally and regionally recognized experts address topics that include sound planning, zoning measures, and ordinances to plan future landscapes, preserve open space and natural resources, revitalize cities, and fight sprawl. Materials are available at www.thewatershed.org.
The Capitol Steps, the troupe of Congressional staffers turned comedians, will entertain at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce's annual Congressional dinner on Thursday, February 1, at 6 p.m. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in the District of Columbia. It is part of the annual walk to Washington, so-named because the Amtrak train to D.C. -- which leaves Newark at 11:27 a.m. and stops at New Brunswick and Trenton -- is so packed with networkers that travelers literally "walk," shaking hands and handing out business cards, most of the way.
For those who prefer a less rambunctious ride, the chamber is running a second train, called the "Chamberliner." Reservations may still be available for the trip; those who are not members pay $575 for the train, reception, and dinner. Go to www.njchamber.com or call 609-989-7888.
About 1,900 people are expected to travel those chartered trains that day, and the return trip leaves Union Station late the following morning. Call 202-328-2900 for hotel reservations with the Omni Shoreham as a second possibility (202-234-0700).
The new edition of the New Jersey Legislative District Data Book is available on disk for $50, in hard copy for $45, or together for $85. It has the most recent election returns for state and federal races, tables of regional school district data, state totals in various demographic categories, and equalized property tax rates. New residential construction, net school budget per pupil, retail sales per capita in 1997, and a new measure of per capital income -- all are included in these statistics.
The data can also be obtained on two different disks, organized by district, that can be sorted by municipality or county. One disk has the demographic and election information, and the other has contacts and addresses. With two disks and one book, the package is $125. Call Joan Buck 732-932-3640, extension 628.
Architects, accountants, financial analysts, investors, asset managers, bank officers, and developers -- those who must deal with real estate problems in their daily work -- Monmouth University has a program for you. The university, based in West Long Branch, offers a five-course Real Estate Certificate program using the case study method to stress practical applications.
Three courses in the program start in February. "Regulation and the Real Estate Development Process" begins Monday, February 5, at 6 p.m., and it will be held in West Long Branch. The instructors are John Giunco, of the law firm of Giordano Halleran & Ciesla, and Peter S. Reinhart of K. Hovnanian Enterprises. Students will examine the phases of a real estate project, step by step, from concept to sale or lease-up.
Also offered in West Long Branch on Monday, February 5, is "Real Estate Appraisal, Valuation, and Income Analysis, taught by Donald M. Moliver, who also directs the institute. He will present neighborhood analysis, appraisal problems and solutions, and valuation of income-producing properties. He will also give an in-depth review of capitalization methods and mortgage equity concepts.
At Two Tower Center in East Brunswick, William T. Kitley, vice president of GMAC Commercial Mortgage, will teach "Real Estate Finance, Investment, and Taxation." Using actual deals, he will analyze finance issues from both the developers' and lenders' perspectives. The course starts Tuesday, February 6, at 6 p.m. Also at Two Tower Center, Steven J. Brodman of Scarinci & Hollenbeck will teach real estate law starting Thursday, February 8.
Qualified applicants will have a minimum of three years of experience in a real estate-related activity, have the support of their current employer, and be approved by Moliver. To apply, send a non-refundable fee of $35. Each course costs $725 including course materials and refreshments. To be taught in the fall is "Lease Negotiations and Analysis." Call 732-571-3660.
Cutting costs is a short term route to success, says Alok Mittra, CEO of a new management consulting and training firm. The way to grow your business is to develop your customers and market, market, market.
Last fall Mittra left a corporate job to start a management consulting and training firm, Asna Worldwide Group LLC, based at Box 358, Princeton Junction 08550. He offers training sessions to show business owners and corporate managers ways to grow sales faster than their competitors. The next one-day workshops are Wednesday, February 28, March 7, and March 14, from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. Cost: $295. Call 609-897-9227 (E-mail: AsnaWorld@aol.com).
A graduate of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan (Class of 1979), he has an MBA in marketing and international business from Central Michigan. His 21-year corporate career has included stints at General Motors, Searle Pharmaceuticals, Unisys, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. His workshop includes eight steps to increase and exceed sales or budget revenue, innovative techniques to win customers, and ways to develop loyalty programs for keeping customers.
The son of an electrical engineer, Mittra says he has always been interested in how to motivate people to buy. "I entered the sales field to understand how people behave; I really wanted to have the first hand experience." His "first first-hand experience" as a boy was with a newspaper route. "I did extremely well; I developed a vacant territory and convinced people to get the newspaper. I was marketing. I showed them the value they would derive from buying the newspaper I was selling and the information they would get." His customers switched from a regional newspaper and even from the statewide Detroit Free Press to get the local newspaper, the Rochester Times.
Developing customer loyalty is much more cost-effective than staging expensive promotions, he maintains. "It is five times more costly to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one," he says. "The costs of attracting a new customer easily exceed the gross margin of the initial order, which means that the company is typically out of pocket at the time of the first purchase."
"The reason I started this company," he says, "is that a lot of businesses, even though they have been running for many years, have been unable to grow their business. I wanted to show the owners and corporate executives how to look at a business, what steps you have to go through to grow a business. Often, they focus on finances. But if you don't sell the products effectively and focus on marketing, you will never have to worry about finances, because you will not bring in revenues."
Commercializing technology, managing customer relationships, and how to hire consultants are several of the two dozen topics that speakers from the Institute of Management Consultants can present for corporations, clubs, and trade associations. The institute, which has its Princeton chapter based in Lawrenceville, certifies consultants and has just announced its Speaker's Bureau service. All topics and speakers are available at no charge. The list can be found at www.imcprinceton.org or call John McCrea at 732-571-1621. For chapter information call Paul Gondek at 609-896-4457.