Frank McKinney’s BIG journey began with a newspaper picture of a needy man. A successful real estate “artist” and creator of some of the most magnificent oceanfront homes on speculation (he just finished Acqua Liana the world’s largest and most expensive certified green home at $24.3 million!), McKinney was reading a profile about himself in his local newspaper in 1998. The article next to that profile included a photo of a homeless man being fed by soup kitchen volunteers out of a beat up old van.

McKinney felt what he now describes as The Tap.

“I saw that picture, and I thought ‘That could have been me. I could have ended up living under a bridge,’” said McKinney who was kicked out of three high schools before graduating with a 1.8 GPA from his fourth. McKinney had turned his life around. By 1998, he was established as one of the world’s most bold and innovative real estate investors. McKinney specializes in high-risk, speculative real estate deals, building multi-million dollar luxury estates without advance buyers. Since 1992, he has created 36 oceanfront homes with an average selling price of $14 million.

But on that day in 1998, while the newspaper celebrated his business success, McKinney was discovering a BIG calling, “I thought, ‘I need to be doing something other than filling my garage with more cars and my closet with more clothes.’” Soon after his “tap moment,” McKinney was volunteering every week, serving food out of the back of that van to homeless people.

It was a small step on a journey that quickly grew BIGger. “As I started sharing my time, I started realizing I had a responsibility.”

A deeply religious man, McKinney now cites the Gospel of Luke, 12:48, as his guiding principle: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Soon after he began to serve meals, McKinney began organizing crews to fix homes in impoverished neighborhoods.

“Then I took it to another level,” McKinney said.

He founded the Caring House Project Foundation months after his epiphanous tap moment. The Foundation started by providing housing for $1 per month to elderly homeless people. CHPF has evolved to focus most of its energies overseas, building self-sufficient villages in some of the world’s neediest places – primarily in Haiti, as well as Honduras, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Africa.

CHPF was on track by the end of 2010 to have built 14 sustaining villages in the Haitian cities of Gonaives(2), Port au Prince (Cite Soleil), Testasse,  Ft. San Michael, Los Cacaos, Cap Haitian (Blue Hills), Paroty, Terre Rouge, Fond Rouge Torbek, Chameua, Mannual and Mahotiere/Rampa, all at no cost to the beneficiaries.

The Jan. 12 earthquake has changed CHPF’s focus, but has reinforced McKinney’s commitment to Haiti. McKinney was at his home in Florida when the quake hit. He didn’t stay there for long. “I was watching CNN coverage and thought, ‘I can sit here and watch Anderson Cooper or I can get proactive.”

He organized a recovery team and on was the ground in Haiti less than 48 hours after the quake. His team helped rescue four people from the rubble. (Here’s a video clip of news coverage about the team’s work). Now McKinney is working through CHPF to rebuild Haiti.

Everyone who saw images from Haiti felt compassion for those who suffered, McKinney said. “But compassion without action is a waste of emotion.”

That’s a BIG way to look at the world.

BIG Inspiration from Frank McKinney:

Bold: In every facet of his life, Frank McKinney is bold. He constantly strives to maximize the impact of the work he’s doing. When he chooses to play his hand, he’s all in. 

Innovative: McKinney has applied lessons learned in business to the operations of his foundation. “I’m not a philanthropist; I’m a PhilanthroCapitalist,” he said. “I’m in the business of dealing in human capital, as well as financial capital. It is a business…When we first started, we focused on the USA, but then we saw we could make the greatest impact overseas. I feel a huge responsibility to maximize the ‘return on donation.’ We are out of the charity business, and in the self-sufficiency business.”

Generous: The results of his work speak for themselves. But don’t assume McKinney does this for the personal benefit or to enhance his real estate business. “If you are involved in charity just for an increase in your business, you’ve got the wrong idea. You’re not sharing, your lending. The altruism has to be pure,” he said.

Must Read: In his latest book, The Tap, www.The-Tap.com, McKinney shares his story and reveals how you can recognize and act on life’s great tap moments that you experience. It’s a fantastic call to action for you to recognize when the generous seed in your heart is ready to blossom. It’s a great read with a BIG message. And don’t get me wrong, this is not pulpit pounding sermon of a book. It teaches a masterful lesson on succeeding in the business we are all in, the business of life!

Web site: http://frank-mckinney.com/caring_project.aspx or http://frank-mckinney.com/index.aspx

Facebook: http://ko-kr.facebook.com/pages/Frank-McKinney/34522737178

Twitter: http://twitter.com/FrankMckinney

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Bold, innovative and generous people like Frank McKinney are in every corner of America. We want to find them, celebrate them, and connect them with you. If you know people who are BIG, please share their stories with us.

I met and connected with a great, BIG person today — entrepreneur Ileana Kane — who turned us on to this video. Turn on your computer’s audio, turn up the volume, and check it out. Wondering what it means to be BIG? Looking for inspiration to look at life through a new lens and make things happen? Watch this — again and again…

Oh, by the way, the video is an example of brilliant, viral business marketing, too. It was produced by Grasshopper.com, a company that sells virtual telephone systems targeted at entrepreneurs. We have no affiliation with Grasshopper, but we gladly distribute this video here because we love it so much. I’m sure we’re not the only ones to do this.

Grasshopper spent about $18,000 to produce the video, according to a post on its blog.  The folks at Nestle loved the video so much that they offered to Grasshopper for the rights to it. Grasshopper told Nestle, instead, to donate $20,000 to charity.

I don’t know much about Grasshopper, but I know it was a bold and innovative move to produce this video. And given the message in the video and the donation to charity, I know Grasshopper is a generous company, too. That’s BIG business in the best sense of the word.

Dan Pallotta's Uncharitable is Required Reading for Any BIG Charity

A few weeks ago, I spoke before a group of nonprofit administrators about how to raise money and market their organizations more effectively. I had recently given a similar presentation to for-profit marketing directors and was using those slides as the foundation for my speech to charities.

The “for-profit” presentation discussed how to move people through the “sales funnel” (from “cold lead,” to “prospect,” to “customer”),  how to “maximize the lifetime value” of customers, and how to increase profits. As I prepared for the nonprofit administrators, I began to change the terms. I knew that many charity administrators don’t like terms like “customer” or “profit.” They run “nonprofits,” after all.

But I chose to keep those terms in the presentation, and when I spoke I emphasized this fact.

“You may hear me discuss some ideas that seem to come from the world of for-profit business. You’ll hear terms like ’sales funnel,’ ‘customer,’ and ‘profit,’” I told them. “I know this makes some of you uncomfortable. But I have to say, with all due respect, please get over it. The point of my presentation today is that you have to apply tried and true business practices to your charity if you intend to survive and thrive in the 21st century.”

I thought about this presentation when reading a great blog post by Dan Pallotta: “Let’s Call it the Humanity Sector.”

Pallotta writes, “…the word ‘profit’ comes from the Latin noun profectus for ‘progress’ and the verb proficere for ‘to advance.’  Thus, ‘nonprofit’ means, etymologically,  nonprogress.”

This is not some ivory-tower word game.  Pallotta notes that nonprofits embrace rules and standards that  hinder progress. They reject the competitive forces and best business practices that allow for-profits to thrive.

What’s in a name? A recipe for unrealized potential when it comes to “nonprofits.”

Rather than call them “nonprofits,” let’s call it the “humanity sector,” Pollotta writes. The blog post makes a great case for the name.

Pollatta has written an outstanding book that describes how nonprofits have created self-imposed barriers to success and what they can do to fix this. It’s called “Uncharitable – How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential.”

Next time I speak to administrators from the humanity sector, I plan to recommend the book. It’s high on Generation BIG’s recommended reading list.

It started with a hand-knit cap that Christine Shively made for her son. One of Shively’s friends, a cancer survivor, said she wished she had a cap like that to cover her bald held when going through chemotherapy. Shively decided to donate that one cap to a charity that distributes caps to people who need them, but she could find no such charity.

“So…I thought, ‘I’ll start my own charity,’” said Shively, of Newport Beach, Ca. The charity Knots of Love was born in 2007. Within weeks of sharing her idea with friends and family, Shively had formed a bold vision.

“When I did my first newspaper interview, I said we would distribute 10,000 caps in our first year,” she said.

Mission accomplished and then some. Knots of Love distributed 12,000 in its first year, and has distributed more than 37,000 caps to date. Knots of Love has partnered with cancer centers in all 50 states and Canada and Mexico, and has established drop-off centers in dozens of locations so volunteers can deliver their creations with ease.

The caps give comfort and joy to people suffering from cancer and other life-threatening diseases, and they instill hope by reminding patients that people care about them.

“Patients never really realize how traumatic it is to lose their hair until it really starts coming out in clumps and they have to go and get their head shaved. They go into their doctor’s office and see a basket full of colorful caps made with wonderful, soft yarn. And they say, this is a wonderful alternative and they immediately feel elated.  They know that someone is out there making a cap for them. It’s a great gift,” Shively said.

Shively relies on an army of volunteers who knit or crochet the caps. She has discovered that Knots of Love works because it engages and serves these passionate volunteers.

“It helps the people who are making the caps so much. Many of our volunteers know someone with cancer or have been patients themselves. One of our members was in tears the other day because she recently lost her boyfriend to cancer. And now she feels she can give back,” Shively said.

Shively understands that to be a BIG charity, she must engage and nurture these passionate supporters.

“One of the successes of Knots of Love is that I take the time to meet the members, and talk to the members. I personally call every one who donates the caps, and I tell them where their caps are donated. That brings it to a very personal level. And they’re thrilled to know. They really love that. The people that are in the charity need to feel a part of it. They need to feel like it’s their own,” she said. “I send a hand-written thank you note to everyone who donates $20 or more. And I don’t ever want to stop taking the time to personally call the people who make the caps.”

BIG Inspiration from Knots of Love:

Bold: Chistine Shively declared she would distribute 10,000 caps before she had any idea how she would do it. ”After I donated the first cap, and I saw how big the need was, I knew it was going to be big. You could just feel it,” she said.

Innovative: While other charities chase transactions and send impersonal thank you form letters, Shively knows it takes a personal touch to engage passionate volunteers and donors. She personally calls all of her volunteers to thank them, and she writes personal, hand-written notes to donors.

Generous: Knots of Love has donated more than 37,000 caps since is founding in June 2007, and it’s just getting started. “The sky is the limit!” Shively said.

Web site: http://www.knots-of-love.org/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Knots-of-Love/216026630143?ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Knots_of_love

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Bold, innovative and generous people like Christine Shively are in every corner of America. We want to find them, celebrate them, and connect them with you. We plan to connect with and honor BIG people in every corner of America.

If you know people who are BIG, please share their stories with us.

How many fund-raising appeals have you read that cite countless statistics to prove the effectiveness of the charity? I could wallpaper my house with them.

No offense to the statisticians and numbers-crunchers, but charities that build their campaigns on such logical appeals may be undermining their efforts. In an important and provocative article published this month on his blog and in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sean Stannard-Stockton argues that charities must connect with donor’s hearts — their emotions — to raise money.

“Ignoring the role of emotions in decision making is a mistake in all fields, but doing so in philanthropy is especially dangerous,” he writes.

His article cites a a 2007 paper that describes how appealing to donors’ logic can actually suppress giving.

“The study found that potential donors gave more money if they were asked to give to support a 7-year-old girl named Rokia facing starvation in Mali, Africa, than if they were asked to support the three million children facing starvation in the country. Worse, the study found that if the fund-raising appeal showcased Rokia but included statistical information about overall need in the country, donors gave less than they did when the statistical data were left out,” he writes.

What does this mean for your organization? It means you have to be a better story-teller. You have to weave stories about those you serve into your appeals so you can connect with prospective donors’ and volunteers’ hearts.

Jeremy Courtney (profiled in our book) does this beautifully to promote The Preemptive Love Coalition. Check out his Facebook page where he constantly links to photos and stories about the kids his charity saves.

Brian Mullaney (also profiled in our book) is a master of connecting donors’ hearts to his cause, Smile Train. In fact, Smile Train helped produce a short documentary called Smile Pinki that tells the story of one girl the charity helped. The film won the Academy Award for best documentary short in 2008. Now, the charity is giving away the movie for free on on the Smile Train site. That’s a BIG idea.

In December 2008,  I wrote a year-end fund-raising appeal for a charity I serve. The letter included a handful of stories and no data. I write about the letter and the need to spread passion (to connect with donors’ hearts) in this post on this site.

Your communications plan must focus on telling stories, spreading passion, and connecting donors’ hearts with your cause. Ask yourself: Why are you passionate about this? Somewhere in your answer, you’ll find the stories that you can spread to attract donors and volunteers.

Should you stop collecting data to prove your case? Of course not. Many foundations and other funding sources demand it, and, despite this study, there is much debate on whether left-brain appeals actually undermine development efforts. But this much is certain: If you are not appealing to prospects emotions, you need to start.

People who volunteer time to charities donate on average 10-times more money to charity than people who don’t volunteer, according to a new study

The lesson: Engaging volunteers should be a strategic priority if you want your organization to become BIG or get BIGger.

Here are some of the key findings from the study, released on Dec. 3 by the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund (”Gift Fund”) and VolunteerMatch:

• People who volunteered in the last 12 months donate ten times more money to charities than non-volunteers ($2,593/yr vs. $230/yr).
• Two-thirds (67%) of those who have volunteered in the last 12 months say they donate to the same charities they volunteer at.
• These volunteers also say they are more likely to increase their charitable donations in 2010 (32%) vs. 26% of non-volunteers.
• Two-thirds of those surveyed (66%) agree that “true philanthropy” includes the giving of both time and money.
• Many (63%) agree that within their network of friends and family there is a renewed sense of the value and importance of community service. This is consistent across all age groups.
• One in five (19%) agree that every American should be required to give a certain percentage of their time and money each year to non-profits.
• 84% think volunteering should NOT include some sort of reward or incentive.

All of this reinforces the idea that there is a rising tide of generous people who are getting more engaged with charities. To survive and thrive in this new age, organizations must find ways to attract engaged donors. Organizations that don’t have active volunteer programs — with measurable goals to increase engagement — will find it harder than ever to raise money and support their missions.

In Chapter 10 of the Generation BIG book, we note that “Every BIG person in this book dared to dream and chose to act. That is the essence of the BIG journey — dreams to action.”

I just read a great blog post by social media advisor Chris Brogan that frames dreams to action as “Tiny Revolutions.”

He writes, “Every step towards success requires a tiny revolution. Evolution is too subtle. Revolution is too drastic. In between, let’s add ‘tiny revolutions.’”

Here are some of the BIG ideas in Brogan’s article:

• You have to resist the temptation to settle for the status quo. In the book, we put it this way: “BIG people don’t let perceived limitations cloud their vision. They devise ways to think and work outside the box.”
• Continuous planning is essential. As we note in the book, “Where small people see a brick wall, BIG people envision a spiral staircase. They know, however, that they must have a plan to build it. That plan is not a static thing. It’s dynamic and evolving, and BIG people continuously refine it. They plan, revise, and plan again.”
• Tiny revolutions require commitment. Brogan writes, “You can’t dip your toe in a revolution. And at some point, there’s a line that you cross.” We couldn’t agree more. As we’ve connected with BIG people, we’ve seen this commitment rooted in deep passion for a cause. BIG people are on a mission, driven by passion. They feel called to what they are doing. This passion gives them the fuel to act.

Check out the Tiny Revolutions post and add it to your BIG playbook.

In spite of economic upheaval, inspired people are joining…The Rising Tide of Dreams to Action

They are…
Defining their BOLD vision.
Discovering INNOVATIVE ways to move forward.
And making their GENEROUS mark on a world in need.
They are Generation BIG.™

Throughout history inspired individuals have risen to the call. That was true with the Greatest Generation who endured the Great Depression and the ravages of World War II. Now it’s coming true for our generation.

The last 50 years was a time of tremendous growth and prosperity, the likes of which the world had never seen before. But now we are faced with the challenges of the global economic upheaval and the emergence of entirely new financial systems and business models. The old ones are crumbling and new ones are taking their place.

Inspired people are reinventing themselves for this new era. They are recalibrating and retooling their lives with a new mind set. They represent the rising tide of a new generation of empowered individuals who are determined to achieve their dreams and make a difference in the world no matter what.

Your organization can be BIG. We’re here to help you recalibrate for today.

It’s tougher than ever to raise money. Things have changed. Your donor base has changed, too. No longer can you rely on a semi-engaged board to ask friends and relatives for year-end donations and expect such transactional giving to be enough.

You need to find and connect with bold, innovative, and generous people who are passionate about what you do, who will engage with your cause. To survive and thrive in the 21st century, you have to connect with BIG people…you have to have a BIG vision.

We’re Here to Help

This site will help you do that with inspiration, guidance, and connections to help you become a BIG organization and to grow BIGger.

Here are the latest posts with guidance for BIG organizations:

• What's in a Name? Bad News for "Nonprofits"
• Connect with the Heart to Raise Money
• Volunteers Donate More
• BIG Volunteers Eager to Assume Nonprofit Work
• Spreading the Passion - The Key to a BIG Charity

If you itemize or even if you take the standard deduction, you probably want to consider the following: Too often I see people who have in essence paid more tax than they should have by not squeezing every bit of value out of their deductions.

To understand this concept, you need to understand the value of your deductions and the tax cost of income.

Long-term capital gains income: This type of income is taxed at a max rate presently of 15%.

Ordinary income: This type of income is taxed at your top marginal rate, but nearly always at a rate higher than your capital gains rate.

Short-term capital gains income: taxed at your ordinary income rate.

Capital losses: offset capital gains first, then are capped at $3000, i.e., the IRS is a fair weather partner participating in all gains, but only in immaterial losses. They do allow a carry forward of these losses because, in their eyes, it’s only fair.

Deductions and Exemptions: offsets against net taxable income (adjusted gross income or AGI).

Here’s the strategy:

Let’s say most of your income in a given year is relative to net long-term capital gains. Maybe you sold some real estate or a series of stops executed in your portfolio of highly appreciated stocks.

That means the bulk of your income is subject to a tax rate of 15%. Congratulations.

However, say it’s troubling you to think of paying a bigger tax bill than ever, so you start casting about to find more deductions. Perhaps you start thinking about giving more to charities that year to offset the big capital gain.

Stop, take a deep breath and think about what you’re doing. Here’s the central question:

Why use an ordinary income deduction that could offset at (up to) a marginal rate of 37% to overcome a 15% income item????

That would be the equivalent of paying a dollar-based debt in Euros right now without getting the benefit of the exchange differential.

What should you do if you’re in this situation? Take more out of your IRA or from an annuity with gain (ordinary income) to the extent that you have deductions and exemptions in excess of other ordinary income. This presumes you are older than 59 1/2 and not subject to the 10% penalty.

Believe me, I understand the panic mentality of facing capital gains and I have to approach the matter as a surgeon. It hurts, but let’s consider two things.

“First,” I say calmly to my clients, “It’s a GAIN for crying out loud! That is why we’re in this game in the first place, isn’t it? Would you rather be facing a loss? Back off from the wailing wall, would you?”

Secondly, after I’ve embarrassed them, I remind them that they aren’t likely to see capital gains at this rate for the next 20 years, so be thankful that the gains are happening now and not 2010.

Surgeons literally cut and make you bleed. I tend to humiliate with an impatient wit.

Both processes are designed to improve your life.   I’m not sure which one hurts more.