Wednesday, May 25, 2011

ST NED Meeting June 16th

Time: June 16, 2011 at 9:00:00 AM
Location: Wellness Center, Bath
Description:

Join other board members

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Finger Lakes AFP Chapter's Annual Conference, Tuesday, June 7th

“Fundraising Communications: from Planning to Doing”
featuring keynote speaker, Kivi Leroux Miller

Kivi Leroux Miller is president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com and the author of "The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause" (Jossey-Bass, 2010).

Through training, coaching and consulting, she helps small nonprofits and communications departments of one make a big impression with smart, savvy marketing and communications. She teaches a weekly webinar series and writes a leading blog on nonprofit communications at Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com. She also presents highly rated in-person workshops on a variety of nonprofit marketing topics around the country. More than 2,500 nonprofits in 50 states, across Canada, and in more than 30 countries have participated in Kivi's webinars.

After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC, she now lives in rural North Carolina with her husband, two young daughters, two cats, a dog, and countless backyard wildlife. She enjoys writing, volunteering, hiking, vegetarian cooking, and teaching her kids how to bake.

When: Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Location: Radisson Hotel, Corning
Time: 8:30am - 4:30pm
Cost: $75 for AFP members/$90 for non-members
- includes breakfast, lunch and snacks!

The conference will include a full-day of workshops and seminars:

"Strategies for Organizing a Twelve-Month Communications Plan" with Julie Waters, Communications Manager for the Public Affairs Office at Cornell University
"Nonprofit Storytelling: The Three Stories Every Nonprofit Should Tell" with keynote speaker Kivi Leroux Miller, president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com
"Nonprofit Writing Skills: How to Bring Your Writing Back to Life" also with Kivi Leroux Miller
"Writing for the Web" with Aidan Makepeace of Ancient Wisdom Productions websites and design
Reserve your space today by emailing sgriffin@foodnet.org.

Friday, May 13, 2011

VAST Meeting

Virtually all nonprofit agencies also rely on volunteers to operate. There's an organization that's purpose is to help agencies recruit and manage people who donate their time.

Volunteer Administrators of the Southern Tier or VAST is holding an open house to encourage new members Thursday. The group's current president is Candace Phelan,Link the Volunteer Coordinator for Southern Tier AIDS Project. STAP volunteers help with office work, outreach, teach and mentor and staff large events like the upcoming Ride-A-Thon.

Candace Phelan says, "All of the volunteer coordinators at VAST know that our agencies couldn't do what we do without our volunteer base that comes in and helps us out of their hearts. They're bringing their skills to us and it's amazing."

Phelan says VAST's membership has suffered because many nonprofits have had to eliminate full time volunteer managers, yet the agencies continue to rely on volunteers. Anyone who has a role in coordinating them can attend Thursday's open house at 11:30 am at the United Way of Broome County on the Vestal Parkway to see if VAST can help you.

Original article

Monday, May 2, 2011

Tax woes troubling future of nonprofit

The Watertown Daily Times reported that a Tompkins County nonprofit land conservation organization is worried it could lose most of its St. Lawrence County property to thousands of dollars due in delinquent taxes because assessors routinely do not recognize its efforts as tax-exempt.

"We try to protect the environment. That's our mission," Common Field Vice President Ibe M. Jonah said. "We're hoping to find a free attorney to impress on the county what we stand for."

Common Field, Lansing, has acquired more than 40 parcels in Central and Northern New York. Most of the property is in Tompkins County, where the organization has run into problems with neighbors, zoning and assessors. In St. Lawrence County, the organization has 16 parcels in 11 locations, many of them purchased at tax sales.

The organization owns 484.45 acres of land in the towns of Brasher, Potsdam, Lawrence, Gouverneur, Fine, Norfolk, Stockholm, Piercefield, Pitcairn and Hammond and the village of Norwood.

Much of the land was acquired by Common Field founder Christopher H. Muka, whose nickname is "Nature Boy," who either sold or donated the land to the nonprofit.

"I know they have applied in towns to be tax-exempt," county Director of Real Property Darren W. Colton said. "That's with the assessor. They have to qualify in the use of the land."

Common Field owes back taxes on most of its properties in St. Lawrence County but isn't in danger of losing them this year, Mr. Colton said. With the exception of one property in the town of Stockholm, all of the other assessors have denied Common Field's annual applications to be tax exempt.

Common Field filed the application for tax-exempt status annually up to two or three years ago, but no longer tries, said Stephen E. Teele, assessor for the town of Hammond, where Common Field owns 16.6 acres off Alamogin Road.

"Most of it, it's under water. It's pretty wet," Mr. Teele said. "There's a little bit of woodland. It's probably worth about $4,000."

To be tax-exempt, the land has to be held for public use, which Common Field says all of its parcels are. The trouble is, the organization does not have signs on many of its St. Lawrence County properties declaring them as public, and many are difficult to reach. The organization does not have a website. Read more here.