A Discussion of Gleaning, Leveraging and Multiplying Talents

More than 90% of wealth in the U.S. is in stuff—things like stocks and bonds, land, houses, boats and trailers, business inventories, and many-many other “in-kind things.” Additionally, 92.7% of all giving is in-kind gifts. In other words, most giving starts with in-kind gifts and only a small percentage of giving is in cash awards—if you are not stewarding the stuff and in-kind giving and can show and demonstrate that gleaning and leveraging, you will never be considered for a cash gift. This includes volunteer hours. . .

Glean Definition: Verb: glean-ed, glean-ing, gleans. 1. To gather grain left behind by reapers. 2. To collect bit by bit the excess and give for use. Noun 1. Gleaner: someone who picks up grain left in the field by the harvesters for use (farm worker, farmhand, field hand, a hired hand on a farm). 2. Gleaner: someone who gathers something and redistributes for use of others. Leverage Definition: the effective use of information, systems, and technology (or anything) to increase means and synergy in accomplishing a strategy. lev•er•age (lvr-j, lvr-) n. To get more out of little. 1. The action of a lever. The mechanical advantage of a lever. 2. Positional advantage; power to act effectively: "started his . . . career with far more social leverage than his father had enjoyed." tr.v. lev•er•aged, lev•er•ag•ing, lev•er•ag•es 1. a. To provide with leverage. b. To supplement with leverage. 2. To improve or enhance: "It makes more sense to be able to leverage what we do in a more effective way."

Gleaning and Leveraging Sites: This document stays in process as a starting place in the discussion of understanding the power of gleaners and leveragers combined with the internet. . . If questions, contact Bob Vickers at Artful Askers, bob@ArtfulAskers.com. If you find have suggestions to include, please send them in an e-mail. Remember, don’t simply visit one of these sites and go on—websites have residual value: Check out each site, their partner links, and glean something of value. When you find something of value, pass it on to others in your community, too. Work together and something incredible happens!

Some of the BEST gleaning sites:

www.Good360.org or www.giftsinkind.org Is membership association +-$125 annual fee, receive weekly lists of products available, coupons, and discounts, and info on free product distribution to members. Computers, printers, toys, women’s clothing, and in-kind philanthropic management for more than 250 corporations in America distributing more than $3.5 billion annually.

www.TECHmd.org Technical Exchange for Christian Healthcare is a membership association focused on Health Clinics and related products. Join for +-$125 annual and receive weekly lists of products available and information on product distribution to members.

www.techsoup.com Greatly reduced prices on refurbished computers, computer-related items, word-processing packages, hardware, software, and so much more.

www.NAEIR.org Website of the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources hundreds of millions of in-kind giving including office supplies, hardware, software, and so much more.

www.GoodSearch.com Provides residual income as you/your constituents search online--search engine by Yahoo! and make money as you do--one to three cents every click from everyone designating you as recipient! Ask others to use it: your church, school, or charity, community, listing you as the recipient! www.GoodShop.com Similar to GoodSearch only a shopping site with retailers when you/your constituency buys, you get 8 to 20% of sale! Give info to your mailing list, students, clients, on e-mails, website, etc.

www.FoundationCenter.org Leading publisher of philanthropic materials including Foundations and Corporation Research Guides.

www.ChristianFoundationGrants.com Largest assembly of Christian funders to interact, scan, and search files and 990’s. Fee of $125 is a "fair" price. More than 4,400 entries not common in other lists of funders. An excellent online investment. Site is content rich, too. Sister sites are www.NationalChristian.com and www.ServantChristian.com. Also, www.iDonate.com facilitates you to accept cars, stocks, and in-kind contributions for a small annual membership fee and small transaction fee. Remember, 90% of wealth in this country is in "stuff" NOT cash and 92.7% of all giving is in stuff. Be ready to receive the stuff through this "white site."

Google your State name, county location name, and the words, "Food Bank" and find out what it takes to join, distribute food, etc.

Build your own website--Website gleaners: most have online training for you to do your own website! 1. www.UPCsites.org Get website for only hosting fee and learn via tutorials to do YOUR website yourself! 2. www.E-zekiel.com Website builder with choices including online streaming, etc. yet still inexpensive. 3. www.ventureCD.org Another website gleaner provides some start-up help for reasonable fee to get you started then $10 per hour afterward for consulting. 4. www.nonprofitwebsitesolution.com.

www.independentsector.org/volunteer_time Find the value of a volunteer hour by State, year, occupation, and more. Lots of help!

www.RAConline.org Rural Assistance Center has an abundance of resources available to help rural communities and many links. . .

www.nationalservice.org Corporation for National and Public Service has many community-building resources, too.

www.ShareNetworkMO.org Easy to use Resource Directory is a "One Stop Shop" for links to community resources developed and accessed state-by-state. Each state has their own Share Network so google something similar for your state. Each State Governor's office has a Faith-Based and Community Initiative office, too. www.FaithLinksOK.org is the one for Oklahoma BUT google your State with "Faith-Based and Community" and get on their mailing lists and/or list serves.

www.CapacityAlliance.org and www.ChristianCapacity.org and www.HelpSmart.org Great websites to build your capacity!

www.ConvoyofHope.org  Gleans and redistributes more than $100,000,000 annually mostly for disaster relief.

www.gftw.org Gleaning for the World gleans furniture, food, clothing, and more.

www.TMAincIntl.com Architect company with Christian connections all over the United States and world. Ask them to recommend a kindred spirit architect in your city or area. Also, www.Arks.org Architect, supplier, builder, financer, fundraiser consultant all in one company. www.OurFirstChurch.org Company helps people obtain, build, finance, and pay for their first church building.

www.MercyTree.org Notebooks, how-to guides, and turn-key implementable operations to set-up childcare, housing, single-parent, car, and/or a welfare to work ministry within 30 days! Notebooks contain video and guide at only $65 per notebook/topic.

www.OurCommunityMakeover.com Organization of professional architects, builders, financers, capital campaign consultants, and others that help cities, municipalities, communities, and neighborhoods with restoration/refurbishing access.

www.SendJoyToday.com Online greeting card system to say “thank you” in powerful way with everyone! Use to give appreciation to your volunteers, staff, or family! Use for residual income has over 12,000 cards to choose from online (Wal-Mart carries 3,000 cards) OR upload your digital photos and design your own cards. After typing in your message, click send and the company prints beautiful card (valued at about $4 in store) stuffs them, addresses them in blue ink, stamps them (a real stamp) and mails them for you. The cards are $1.50 or less plus postage. Try sending sample free card at: www.sendjoytoday.com or call Darryl Manning at (405) 413-5447. He'll answer your questions, coach you to get started, and help you build residual income.

www.LifeStewardMinistries.org Excellent resources specifically for Pregnancy Resource Centers BUT the information and process gleaned is great across the board for everyone!

www.MultiplyingTalents.com Information and consulting at a reasonable price to help you incorporate your nonprofit and access a 501(c)(3) at a fair price! The more you do for yourself, the less you pay for the help. www.BestGuideforNonprofits.com.

www.Grants.gov Clearing house for federal grants. Even if you don't qualify OR apply, get on their list-serves as it will provide you great newly-released information, updates, and statistics AND will give you latest information in your field.

www.gsa.gov Learn about government auctions of cars, products, materials, etc. . .

www.modestneeds.org Simple, compassionate way to help working poor get back on their feet. A little change makes a difference.

www.GrantStation.org  Access to tens of thousands of grant-making sources for a price (watch for quarterly discounts).

www.vistaprint.com and www.overnightprint.com Free business cards and other items.

www.ebay.com Learn to peruse and purchase using this online site and others like it!

www.Overstock.com Excess product gleaned and gathered by for-profit company.

www.craigslist.com Find products/items in your city, area, state, region, or nationally at incredibly cheap/reduced pricing. Be careful!

MANY retail stores donate their returned merchandise to nonprofits in their communities if you register with them in advance.

The electronic summary list of the largest 999 In-Kind Donors AND the detailed entries for the largest 200 of those are BOTH available for the asking. This contains MANY independent gleaners and companies, too.  Many major corporations in America match dollar for dollar up to $5,000 or so what their employees give to nonprofits (yes, most include churches). Also, stockholders, retired employees, and more. Many lists can be found on the internet but a “Matched Giver” list is available for the asking electronically of bob@ArtfulAskers.com  of more than 500 companies OR download these lists and more for FREE at www.ArtfulAskers.com  Learn to peruse and purchase using this online site and others like it!

Updated list and more on www.ArtfulAskers.com