Making the move to Los Angeles!

My family and I have decided to follow our many-year dream and move to southern California. We will be living in the suburbs east of Los Angeles.

Leaving Urban Peak is tough. This is truly the most remarkable organization I have ever been a part of. On a daily basis we serve youth with nothing, youth who have been discarded and who in many ceases society has simply failed. The successes at Urban Peak to show youth that they are cared about and can rock it in life no matter what has happened to them is truly mind blowing.

I will be at Urban Peak through early July then we will pack up the U-Haul and head west.

I have begun the search for a development position at an agency serving those most people would not like to think about and rocking their mission. There seems to be an endless list of those types of organizations in LA and I am looking forward to getting to know many of them.

After a little beach time and getting to know our new surroundings I will be all set to rock it for those with nothing and hopefully become a part of another truly amazing non-profit.

If you are in the LA area I would love to meet you.

If you know of any amazing opportunities at non-profits in the LA area please let me know. My email is fundraisingdan@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

Corporate giving

As a non-profit that receives a lot of support from local businesses and national companies I have always been grateful for business people who truly care about supporting our mission in serving youth experiencing homelessness. There are a lot of non-profits out there doing amazing work, and when a company chooses us as the recipient of a financial donation, I celebrate them.

As every individual has their own, personal reason for giving, so too do corporations. Some give because it is their community, some give because someone on their staff is on the board, some give because they are having a public relations problem and some give because they have a desire to make positive change. I could add dozens of reasons to this list.

My approach to asking for support from the business community is one of pure relationship. I don't like simply asking for a donation. As I do with individual donors, I want to be in a life-long relationship with the business. That of course looks different for each business.

Aside from an annual donation, what can the relationship look like? For me it starts with a tour of our space and introducing them to our mission. It continues with letting them know the variety of ways they can support us aside from a financial donation.

Then the fun really begins. How can we, as the non-profit, benefit them?

This is a question only the business can answer. I like to get creative. Would their presence at our annual dinner benefit them? Would having our staff speak to their employees be something of interest to them? What about social media? Remember that every business is different and their partnership with you is going to be different than the next business supporter based on why they are supporting you and what they want from a partnership.

For me it's important to be clear and for me to understand exactly what the business would like from us. I recently had a conversation with a potential corporate supporter who has been using the term "strategic partnership" for some time. I still, after many conversations, do not have a clear picture of what that is.

It's also important to know when there is just not a fit. Every business is not going to want to partner with you, regardless of how amazing your mission is. That's OK. Remember that just because there might not be a fit now doesn't mean that there can't be a fit in the future. And remember that a partnership is not only about a donation. We have dozens of businesses that have employees who volunteer with us all of the time. We couldn't be as successful with our mission without these folks. Each one of them is equally important as a financial donation.

I work for this agency because I firmly believe that we completely rock in our mission to serve youth experiencing homelessness. I take that belief and make sure that comes across in every dialogue I have with a potential supporter. That can help. After all, who wants to give to someone who doesn't come across as 100% enthusiastically supportive of the mission they are representing. When I am meeting with potential corporate donors I must remember that I am the voice for those who have had their voice taken away from them.

Thanks for reading!

Unemployed: The Job Search

I decided to keep writing blog posts while I am unemployed. This helps me keep people updated and hopefully it will help others who have recently been laid off.

It is day 6 of being unemployed.

Before I get to the job search part, I want to write about other actions I have taken during my so far brief unemployment.

As soon as I was told I was being laid off I applied for unemployment. I am not sure how this works in other states or if it is the same everywhere. The process to me was easy and took only about ten minutes, online. All the information needed I already knew, so there was no need for paperwork or collecting items needed to fill out the information.

I'm not sure how the process works from here. On Monday I got a PIN number that allowed me to go online and enter bank information so that my unemployment can be put directly into our account. I also got some information about education opportunities. I printed a calendar of reminder dates for when I need to apply for benefits, which is every two weeks. I'm not sure how that works but assume that includes where I have looked for a job, etc. In addition to unemployment, I also signed up on the Colorado work website, which I think is another thing you need to do in the unemployment process.

The day after I was laid off I went to the local job center. This one is the Jefferson County Work Center, in Golden. Easy to find. The woman who greeted me, if you can call it that, had no interest in me at all. She did, however, refer me to a gentleman in the other room who was very friendly and helpful. He pointed me to a list of jobs on the other side of the room and offered the use of a computer to aid in my job search. I checked out the job listing, which is the same as is online.

As the friendly gentleman told me, everything that is at this work center I can see online. The big deal for the center is that it offers online access for those who don't have it at home.

As this is the first time I have been unemployed and been part of this world I had never been to a job center or work center. I honestly was disappointed. My expectations were way too high. If I ran the place everyone who entered would feel honored and supported. I didn't feel that at all, except for the friendly gentleman.

I have now sent in nine resume/job packages and have had two interviews. I do searches on the Colorado Nonprofit website, Andrew Hudson's Job List, LinkedIn job postings and google searches for fundraising jobs around the country. And I have to keep repeating how grateful I am for all of the job leads and calls and emails of support. Thank you.

And thank you for reading.

Getting laid off

At 46, I realize that I have been beyond fortunate in employment. I have loved my jobs, never been unemployed and rarely had to look for a job. Usually I would get a call from an organization interested in me and go from from there.

This past week I was laid off. In my professional life I am a fundraiser, a Director of Development. I had rocked it for almost two years at our local opera company. Loved my job. After a very tough year in fundraising my boss decided that cutting back would begin with me.

I wasn't surprised. Life had become dark at work in the past couple of weeks. A lot of closed door meetings and no communication at all.

When my boss called me down to his office and I walked in to see him and our Human Resources guy, I was honestly relieved. He told me his story of why, my HR guy gave me some paperwork and I headed back to my office. Tears were shed by some of my peers. I was grateful for their kindness and support, and for helping me move out of my office!

So I guess you can take this blog post as a resume, as part of my job search.

In the last couple days I have applied for seven jobs, had one interview and have another interview tomorrow. I keep tweeking my resume and continually working on cover letters that do a great introduction of who I am and what I can bring to an organization.  I have been on LinkedIn, Indeed.com, Colorado Association of Non-Profits, Idealist.org, several arts websites, Andrew Hudson's job list and have followed up on leads from many friends.

I have seen a couple of jobs that excite me. Is this the time to start looking at an Executive Director position? Perhaps it's finally that time and opportunity to move to San Diego? Become a consultant? As my friends and professional colleagues continue to remind me, the possibilities are endless.

It's Sunday so I am going to take the rest of the day off and enjoy my family and friends. Thank you for reading this and I would be grateful for any leads or suggestions. My twitter name is @FundraiserDan and my LinkedIn account under Dan Hanley in the Greater Denver area (I couldn't figure out how to link it here!).