November 2008 Newsletter
Nonprofit Neighborhood
Happy 10 Year Anniversary to thedatabank!
Over the past 11 months, Chris Hanson, CEO, has been reflecting on the first 9 years of thedatabank. November is thedatabank's official 10 year anniversary. Thank you to all of our clients and partners who have made our founders' dream of helping nonprofits carry out their mission a reality. We hope to be a part of your efforts to make the world a better place for a long time to come!
Recent Product Enhancements:
Donor Recognition Report
Clients with our Fundraising Software Module are now able to see a report of their top donors. You can access this by clicking Report on your Databank menu. You must have permission to see contribution data in order to run the report. Look for the report called "Donor Recognition Report." The report ranks members in order of total donations given, highest to lowest, in a selected date range. You can also choose to group the donors based on intervals of how much they have given.
Congrats to our Clients Involved in the 2008 Election
Here are some highlights:
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Strong Schools Strong City (Minneapolis School District) passed their referendum 71% to 29%.
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Yes 281 (Robbinsdale School District) passed their referendum 55% to 45%.
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New York League of Conservation Voters endorsed Tom Foley, who was elected to the 3rd State Senate District on Long Island.
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9-5 Association of Working Women's Milwaukee Paid Sick Leave referendum won 69% to 39%, requiring all private employers to provide full time employees at least 72 hours of paid sick leave per year.
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Washington Conservation Voters helped re-elect governer Chris Gregoire (D), pass the Mass Transit Now bill, and defeat the anti-environment I-985.
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Education Voters saw success from many of their state chapters including pro-education candidates elected in OH, PA, and NY and the defeat of an anti-education ballot question in MA.
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Oregon League of Conservation Voters saw success in 6 of the 8 Legislative races they supported, pro-enviroment candidates elected to City Councils, County Commissions, and they are still waiting to hear the results of a couple close races.
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Maryland League of Conservation Voters is celebrating Frank Kratovil's win of a seat in the House in Maryland's First Congressional District, which came after a very close race.
New Clients
Hunger Solutions Minnesota - Hunger Solutions Minnesota (HSM) is a comprehensive hunger relief organization that works to end hunger in Minnesota. The Databank will allow HSM to fully launch and grow their Voice of Hunger Network. The Voice of Hunger Network is the grass-roots advocacy arm of HSM. It is a network of people who work to end hunger in MN by motivating decision-makers to take supportive action on state and national hunger policy issues via special events and targeted communications. The goal is to grow the network to 3,000 members that represent 1% of the 300,000 Minnesotans that struggle with hunger.
Opening Minds Through the Arts - OMA is a nationally recognized research-based program that integrates the arts into teaching reading, writing, math and science in public elementary and middle schools. Currently, over 19,000 students and 700 teachers in 44 schools in the Tucson Unified School District are participating in the OMA program working with 53 Teaching Artists.
Meet the Staff
Kim Hansen, Sales and Account Representative
At thedatabank since: October 2008
What she likes best about her job: The chance to help nonprofit organizations operate more efficiently. Knowing our products give them the chance to raise more money, raise awareness through advocacy, manage volunteers easily and effectively communicate with their current audience/members/constituents as well as gaining new audiences using the Databank makes me very excited to be here. Having worked with and for many nonprofits, I know how hard it is sometimes just to keep the lights on - let alone do all the things I just mentioned. I also have to admit I like the laid-back atmosphere of the office - I know there's a ton of work getting done around here, but so far, no headless chickens running around going berserk.
What she does in her spare time: Define spare? Seriously, I enjoy hanging around with and listening to my 17 year old daughter, Andrea talk about life, what a great perspective she has and what hope I have for her future. That said, I also like hanging around with and listening to my husband who also has an interesting perspective on life and mainly because he helps ground me. He's an introvert and I'm an extrovert - it's a nice balance. Andrea falls somewhere in between. We all enjoy sports, reading, walking the dog, staying active, though sometimes we watch entirely too much television.
Famous person she would like to have lunch with: Stephen King
Tip du Jour
Mail Merge Using the Databank and Word 2003
We recently added a new tutorial to our YouTube page on Mail Merge Using the Databank and Word 2003. This tutorial takes you through the process of downloading contacts from your Databank, merging them with a Word document (thank you letter) and printing labels from your Databank. You can also find the sample thank you letter used in this tutorial here.
Karen's Blog
Proud
Last week, for the first and probably the last time in my life, I cried over the election results. And they were not tears of sadness.
Even the most conservative people I know, who certainly did not vote for Obama, are proud that America has elected a black president. The significance of this did not sink in for me until election day. (After all, I did not consciously consider race when I made up my mind about whom to vote for.) Last Tuesday, I listened to a fellow GOTV volunteer, an African America grandmother, talk with great emotion about how inspired she was just to see a black person's name on the ballot. She thought she would never see this in her lifetime . It gave me goosebumps.
So I'm proud to be an American today. And I'm proud to be associated with so many nonprofit clients that saw success in this election, whether that success is defined as getting an endorsed candidate elected, passing a ballot measure, registering and turning out voters, or continuing to provide food and education and art while the rest of us were focused on the election.
Karen
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