Think back to your summers as a young adult what types of things made you stop and take notice? Get out a pad of paper for some neat ideas that will not only get your donors in, it will get their families in too.

• Host an  educational  water safety event.
• Collaborate with MADD or other organization providing a public service.
• Give away tickets to the nearest water park for donations.
• Host a parking lot concert for donor drives.  
• Create a baseball themed contest. Provide give aways for each run scored in addition to points they have earned for their individual donations.
• If Type O blood is in demand, soccer themed events are a big hit.
• Local athlete presentations and sports camp.
• Dance presentation on site.
• Have a luau party during the month of July with food and beach toy give aways. Ask your team to join in on the fun wearing Hawaiian shirts.

For online charity websites:

Create an incentive wall that allows people to post short comments about their experience and invite others.

Add interactive games with gift incentives for their participation.

Short term theme events with interesting facts and online prize awards.

Host live and informative classes on nutrition.

Post your organization’s wish list.

Be sure to keep your website up-to-date and interesting. Stale information will only lead visitors feeling that your organization may be on vacation mode too.

Keep the energy up in your organization by providing employee and volunteer incentives. If they are motivated, they will help your organization reach its goals.

This is the best time of the year to let go of the past
and start anew!

Your “I Will List” is a contract with yourself. It works this way.

Just look at the following list and add or delete as you see fit.

Once you’ve created your “I Will List” print it out!

During 2009 . . .

“I Will” stop . . .

“I Will” start . . .

“I Will” change . . .

“I Will” smile more.

“I Will” exercise my mind and my body.

“I Will” invest $$$ in my self-development.

“I Will” treat my spouse like a King / Queen.

“I Will” plan my work and work my plan every day.

“I Will” rewrite my personal and professional GOALS.

“I Will” continue to work on my attitude of gratitude.

“I Will” write at least one handwritten note every day.

“I Will” commit every thing it takes to win.

Provide the gift of choice to over 4,000+ day spas, hair, nail and tanning salons nationwide. Gift recipients select the location, appointment time, service or treatment.   The recipient books their appointments directly with the location of their choice.

Vacation incentives to 3 star hotels with high perceived values. 

Their choice of location and date for land travel.

They enjoy a free vacation, you enjoy the residual benefit when they return from their vacation sharing their experience with other employees and clients. A great way to enhance your referral business!  Ask us how to give a travel gift of choice to 45 locations for under $50.00 per vacation!

Gift catalogs that get you in front of your customers 3 times!

1)  When the initial incentive is awarded

2)  When they select their gift

3)  When they receive their gift

Strategic Concepts and our partners will work with you to determine the right incentive  for your promotion. We will assist with contest design and kick off meeting planning.      See our store for various theme catalogs. Is what you want not seen on online store?    Ask us, we will provide you with lots more. http://www.giftheadquarters.com/

Branded email that looks and acts like your website

Host an event that they all will want to attend. We will bring an array of luscious   chocolate to you for all to enjoy. Candies, smoothies, yummy chocolate martinis and marvelous mousse.

Contact us at from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard time at               (866) 582-7853 or (949) 709-8328.

Capital campaigns can be particularly successful, said David Speltz, a managing director at the Huron Consulting Group in Chicago who specializes in health consulting. The hospitals that he has worked with tend to be quick to reward generosity with recognition, allowing donors to name facilities or programs.

“We named every room, we named every building,” Mr. Speltz said.

But not every program gets its share of the largess, hospital executives and professional fund-raisers say. Because hospital fund-raising is so reliant on individuals, programs without the popular appeal of cancer or pediatrics can get just a fraction of the donations.

Among the areas that have proven the most resistant to fund-raising is mental health, whether it is psychiatric care within the hospital or substance-abuse counseling for the community.

“The mental health areas, where the needs are just unlimited, have always been difficult,” said Robert G. Kiely, the president and chief executive of Middlesex Hospital, a community hospital in Middletown, Conn. Last year, for example, the hospital raised $416,000 for its hospice program, compared with just $9,000 for its mental health services. “The hospice program is a very strong generator of philanthropic support,” said Mr. Kiely, particularly through memorial donations.

Community hospitals, which might not have as many wealthy patients who are potential donors, also have mixed success in raising money for basic programs like emergency-room care or for poor patients.

Other sources of philanthropy, like foundations and corporations, often look askance at such needs, deeming them inappropriate for their broader philanthropic goals. Foundations particularly shy away from giving money to what are essentially run-of-the-mill services.

“They tend to be typically interested in not just a program, and they’re picky also,” Mr. Speltz said.

As money from foundations and corporations has become harder to find, competition for the grants and gifts from those organizations has increased in recent years. A result is that many community hospitals that need money the most from outside sources have fewer avenues of philanthropy.

“One of the concerns is the dwindling number of foundations that are willing to support hospitals,” said Zahida Noorani, a fund-raising consultant in Chicago. Only 20 or so foundations in Illinois will support hospital giving, while the larger national or regional foundations have little interest in supporting a community hospital.

Corporations present a similar challenge, Ms. Noorani said, because they are not interested in giving money unless there is an obvious advantage to be gained.

“The corporations are the first to say we are not in the business of charity,” she said.

Hospitals have the most luck in persuading corporations to participate in special events, said Lisa Hillman, a member of the board of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, which estimates that about 13 percent of the money raised by hospitals and the like comes from special events.

Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, for example, has found that its annual golf tournament helps raise money to support the hospital’s charity care to patients without insurance. Because of its vital role in the community serving those patients, the medical center has become increasingly creative in finding ways to raise money for the nearly $100 million it spent last year on such care, said Andrea K. Myers, the hospital’s director of development.

The hospital holds two events to raise money, and the Western Washington Toyota Dealers Association pledged $1 million over 10 years last year at the golf tournament, giving the dealers visibility and helping the hospital defray the cost of providing free or discounted care.

What makes mental health so daunting in raising money is that it does not lend itself easily to traditional fund-raising methods. Many patients who use these services are not able to donate to these programs, and approaching donors can be difficult because of the potential stigma associated with psychiatric care.

“We really don’t have an opportunity in the foundation to work with patients on these issues,” said Cecelia T. Fullam, an executive at the fund-raising foundation for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Even those who are sympathetic may not want their own giving to be connected with the area, she said.

Because some of these programs are also addressing complex problems like substance abuse, they are also less popular, Ms. Hillman said. “Programs like that are difficult to show a more immediate positive response,” she said.

Hospitals have been successful in soliciting money for these services when they are sophisticated about concentrating on potential donors, Mr. Speltz, the consultant, said. The hospitals need to understand that the number of potential donors is limited to those whose relatives have had direct experience with the program or been affected in some way. “It’s sort of a club in some ways,” he said.

At North Shore-Long Island Jewish, a real estate developer, Donald Zucker, and his family gave generously to the psychiatric hospital there, since renamed the Zucker Hillside Hospital. Mr. Zucker, a long-time supporter of the hospital, gave because he recognized what was clearly an unmet need.

But finding donors for even less controversial programs can be difficult. Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Conn., for example, is planning to replace its emergency room for $30 million.

So far, some foundations and corporations have said they are not interested in supporting such a local initiative, said Mr. Kiely, the executive. Foundations often have guidelines that make giving to a community hospital impossible.

“There’s no opportunity for a hospital to approach that entity for high-value, legitimate needs,” he said.

Similarly, the corporations, which are based outside the community, tend to want to donate money to entities where their headquarters are based, even though the emergency room serves their local workers.

“The smaller manufacturing companies and privately held business are being receptive,” Mr. Kiely said.

In both cases, these “stallions” need to be reigned in from hurting themselves when they seek to run before they can walk. It may be difficult for them to see this when they are in the moment, but it’s clear as a bell to an external observer who is an excellent listener.
 
We can only grow to the extent that we envision ourselves. Unless our inner representation grows as fast as our external growth, we will actually hold ourselves back from lasting success.
 
Do you know anyone who has dramatically lost weight with great joy only to revert to his or her old habits and weight?
 
Do you know people who have earned the money they really deserve only to squander it away and regress to their former income?
 
Who do you know that finally met the person of his or her dreams only to dump that loved one because of a list of silly reasons?
 
Leaping from crawling to running sets us up for a painful fall. We don’t achieve true personal growth, and because we find ourselves back at square one we may become disgruntled and distrustful of the process, often blaming anyone and anything but ourselves.
 
If you want to change, you must do the work. Go back to basics. In football, professionals earning millions of dollars annually practice the most basic drills throughout the season. Professional artists go back through the strokes and lighting. If you make millions of dollars consistently, most likely it’s because you go back to the basics of budgeting, saving and investing consistently.
 
Whenever you are seeking to grow – and you have a clear vision of what you wish to do – make sure that who you are being is big enough to consistently be doing what it is you wish to do. Make sure of this so you can consistently achieve your desired results.
 
If you are the “stallion,” then use your power and set yourself up to win with a coach or trainer whom you trust to observe and protect you from your own impetuous eagerness. And let them help train your muscles and harness your power so you can first walk and then run with a purpose.
 
If you are a leader responsible for “stallions,” then you must protect them from themselves as they seek to skyrocket up the corporate ladder. As a mentor, this is very much your charge. The personal damage – an increase of fear and frustrations – can be the result of falling on one’s face too often. This damage can be overcome, but recovery from it can take the wind out of your “stallion’s” sails. So as a leader, help them master the fundamentals so their climb up the ladder of growth and personal betterment is a lasting success.

Having the power of choice, we humans don’t automatically follow all of the rules as the stallions do in nature. We will never see a healthy plant provide fruit out of the natural order. For lasting success we need to consciously be aware that we must: “learn to crawl before we walk, and walk before we run.”