Author: DonorDreams

Ooops … Experiencing technical difficulty

Uncategorized

Dear DonorDreams blog subscriber:

I am on the road today for business and came prepared to blog from the road. Unfortunately, I have experiencing connectivity glitches and only have my cell phone to bang this quick message out to you.

If you are needing an organizational development “fix” because today it is “O.D. Fridays” at DonorDreams, I encourage you to read yesterday’s blog titled “To change or not to change your annual campaign! That is the question.” Or jump over to “johnponders~ about life at work mostly“.

Sorry for the glitch. See you on Monday for “Mondays with Marissa”.

Here’s to your healthy (and better connectivity)!

~Erik

To change or not to change your annual campaign! That is the question.

Fundraising, organizational development

Every Friday is “Organization Development (O.D.) Fridays” here at DonorDreams blog. Last week my post was titled “Would you please solve the REAL problem? Structure Drives Behavior!” It was based on John Greco’s post on how structure drives behavior, and I applied it to non-profit organization’s annual campaigns and their use of donor database contact reports.

In last Friday’s post, I offered a few suggestions on how your agency might change its annual campaign “structure” to encourage fundraising volunteers to change their behavior when it comes to completing contact reports.  (Please circle back to last Friday’s post to read a few of those suggestions)

Well, later that evening John Greco circled back to my blog post and offered the following suggestion using the comment box:

“What if we used the natural motivations of a volunteer to apply some pressure to comply … How about:  for a volunteer to get the next donor name and contact information, they must return the contact form … To make this work even better, some visibility to what’s in the queue would maybe create the urgency to complete the contact form to get to the next donor?”

As I try to do with all comments to this blog, I responded quickly; however John’s suggestion has haunted me for the last week. While it seems perfectly logical, I am unable to stop going back and forth in my head as to whether or not this would work. My head says “YES” and my gut says “maybe“.

So, I’m done over-thinking this topic, and I’ve decided to try something different today with the DonorDreams blog. I’m not going to pontificate about this subject and give you the pros and cons. Instead, I am simply sharing John’s suggestion and asking you to think it through and weigh-in with your thoughts. I always say that “we can all learn from each other,” but let’s actually try to put this mantra into practice today.

Would you attempt this approach with your annual campaign this year? Why? Why not?

There are no right or wrong answers! There are only those of us who are willing or unwilling to share their thoughts.

OK . . . it is your turn. Please scroll down and invest the next 60 seconds of your life in responding via the comment box. Come on . . . please?

Here’s to your health! (See you tomorrow for a new “Organizational Development Friday” post)

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Getting your ducks … er … volunteers in a row

Planning, technology, volunteers

Putting your nonprofit organization’s resource development plan together can be a monumental undertaking. If you do it in an engaging and collaborative manner, then you are likely temporarily expanding your resource development committee and inviting various stakeholders (e.g. event volunteers, foundation staff or board members, and donors) to come to the table. This could easily result in 8 to 16 volunteers jockeying for position around your planning table.

I have used this approach before. Yes, we experienced challenges such as:

  • getting everyone’s calendars aligned,
  • communicating effectively and trying to avoid crazy, overlapping, and confusing long email threads,
  • keeping track of action items (not to mention injecting accountability into the process),
  • collaboratively working on building one document that didn’t result in 20 different versions attached to countless different email threads, and
  • sharing files with each other (Note: “the cloud” did not yet exist at the time of the project I am referencing).

A few months ago, a very dear friend and fellow consultant — Teri Halliday — introduced me to an online product called “Basecamp“. She swears by it, and I trust her like I trust my mother. So, I purchased the service and it changed my life! (Yes, dramatic but very true) There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t think back to the resource development planning process that I described a few paragraphs ago and wonder how different things would’ve been if I would’ve had access to Basecamp.

All of the challenges I described in the previous set of bullet points would’ve disappeared. Once everyone registers and links to your online workspace, you can:

  • work on collaboratively building documents in the Writeboard section,
  • keep everyone’s schedules in lock step with the Calendar section,
  • communicate with each other using the bulletin board functionality in the Messages section,
  • keep track of action items using the To-Do section (and OMG the system even reminds people their tasks are coming due), and
  • share documents using the Files section.

It is true that people who don’t want to be engaged won’t get any more involved in a project just because you’re utilizing an online project management tool. When you see this dynamic at play, your problem isn’t that you’re disorganized . . . you have a recruitment problem!

However, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen well-intentioned volunteers who want to be involved just walk away from a project because it is disorganized and hard to collaborate with other volunteers. It is this problem that Basecamp can help you resolve.

OK . . . I must admit that I am in LOVE with Basecamp. I am like a man with a hammer, and now I see nails everywhere! 🙂  I can see busy families utilizing Basecamp. I can see for-profit companies who operate in offices sprinkled across the country utilizing Basecamp. I obviously see the benefits for non-profit organizations who constantly engage busy employees and volunteers on a multitude of projects (e.g. strategic planning, resource development planning, special event fundraisers, annual campaigns, etc).

While I wish I could say that this “Software as a Service” (SaaS) was free, I cannot say such a thing; however, I think it is reasonably priced with one plan costing just $20 per month (and no long-term contract to sign).

I am sure some of you are wondering what has gotten into me this morning . . . am I a paid spokesperson or something like that? No! No! No! I am just a huge fan of things that work, and I have worked in the non-profit sector long enough to know that a tool like this can be a godsend. I say every day on this blog that “we can all learn from each other” . . . so I decided to put my money where my mouth is today.

What other tools (either free or paid service) has your non-profit agency used to help organize your volunteers and projects (e.g. Doodle.com? Google docs? GoToMeeting? BigMarker? Microsoft Project?)??? Please take a moment to scroll down and share your ideas via the comment box.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Gift acknowledgement letters, quid pro quo and the IRS

Fundraising

I cannot count the number of times that I’ve attended a non-profit organization’s special event fundraiser and walked away with a gift acknowledgement letter that was not compliant with “IRS Publication 1771, Charitable Contributions–Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements”.

Rather than use the language of accountants and tax professionals to explain, I’ll let the following hypothetically example speak for itself.

  • My first contribution to “Agency X” is the purchase of two dinner tickets for what I am hoping will be the best rubber chicken of my life. My out-of-pocket expenses to get in the room is $120.
  • When I show up, I am assaulted by happy volunteers selling 50-50 raffle tickets. My out-of-pocket expenses to get these intensely happy people who are blocking my path to the bar is $20.
  • With a nice glass of wine in my hand, I am finally able to mingle with old friends, but I end distracted by all of the shiny objects in the silent auction. <<Sigh>> At the end of the evening, I discover that “Agency X” is deeper into my wallet for another $250 in out-of-pocket expenses.
  • The final blow came many glasses of wine into the evening during the live auction (ahhhh, of course it is always the booze and the live auction that sinks most donors). Those Opening Day Chicago Cubs tickets had my name written all of them and only cost $1,000.

So, the next morning usually comes with a hangover and regret (even though “Agency X” is an amazing charity and you’re always happy to have supported their awesome mission). A few days later in the mail comes a gift acknowledgement letter. It tells me how wonderful I am and contains some nice “return on investment” and stewardship verbiage. Ahhhh, gotta love that warm fuzzy feeling.

You’re probably wondering “What’s wrong with all that?”

Well, the gift acknowledgement letter thanked me for my charitable contribution of $1,390.

Sure, if you do the math $120 + $20 + $250 + $1,000 does add up to $1,390, but this was not size of my “charitable contribution” according to the Internal Revenue Service, and now  I need to take time out of my busy day to chase down the executive director or fundraising professional at “Agency X” for a correct letter. To help clarify the math, here is exactly what the IRS has to say on the subject:

“A donor may only take a contribution deduction to the extent that his/her contribution exceeds the fair market value of the goods or services the donor receives in return for the contribution; therefore, donors need to know the value of the goods or services.”

Let’s circle back and do the math one more time:

  • The event tickets cost $120, but the food I received in exchange for the ticket purchase was valued at $20 per plate. So, $120 minus $40 means that the charitable contribution only amounted to $80.
  • The $20 in raffle tickets got me four chances at a cash prize. The “value” I received for those chances was twenty bucks. So, $20 minus $20 means that I didn’t make a charitable contribution in the eyes of the IRS.
  • The silent auction was a huge benefit to me because I got some amazing bargains. Woo Hoo! Move over Wal-Mart! So, I might have spent $250, but the items I won totaled $500 in value. So, $250 minus $500 means that I didn’t make a charitable contribution in the eyes of the IRS.
  • And last but certainly not least, there was the booze fueled live auction. The bad news . . . it was $1,000. The good news . . . I finally got something to write off on my taxes. Opening Day tickets to see another woeful season of the Chicago Cubs are valued at $500 (of course, White Sox fans would argue that they are worth nothing). So, $1,000 minus $500 means that I can deduct $500 from my taxes next year.

The IRS tells us that it is legitimate to acknowledge my overall gift of $1,390 as long as somewhere (usually at the bottom of the letter in a footnote) there is language that explains that the fair market value of the items I purchased was $810 and only $580 of my $1,390 contribution is tax-deductible.

In my experience as a donor, this rarely happens and I end up wasting my time chasing after a new gift acknowledgement letter. The harm to “Agency X” is twofold:

  1. It is counterproductive to annoy the donor. This is not good stewardship and doesn’t help “Agency X” in its efforts to secure the next contribution from me.
  2. It can result in fines to “Agency X” if the IRS ever found out.

What is the potential penalty? Here is what the code says:

“A penalty is imposed on charities that do not meet the written disclosure requirement. The penalty is $10 per contribution, not to exceed $5,000 per fundraising event or mailing.”

If you want to learn more, Joanne Fritz at about.com does a nice job explaining it. You can also click here to get it directly from the IRS.

Note: “Agency X” does not exist. I am not calling out any one particular non-profit organization in my philanthropy portfolio. The aforementioned examples are a “compilation” of things I’ve purchased over the last 10 years. Please don’t add me to you special event mailing list.  🙂

Please scroll down and use the comment box below to share the “boilerplate language” that your agency uses at the bottom of its special event gift acknowledgement letters. Please trust me that 30 seconds of your time will benefit countless smaller non-profit agencies. If I had a nickel for every time I was asked for sample boilerplate language, I’d be rich! We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

The Importance of Archiving Social Media Data and How to Do So

Mondays with Marissa, technology

CTRL+S. File -> Save. We all do it when working in Microsoft Word, writing an email, or creating a spreadsheet. When we do, the work we create is saved on our hard drives for later reference.

When writing a tweet or updating a Facebook status most of us just write, press “post” and send it out into cyberspace; leaving no local copy. At the moment, it might not seem like an important thing do, but archiving your non-profit organization’s social media data should be part of your social media plan.

Why, you ask?

Historical Record – Most social media messaging is based around marketing of some sort. In the nonprofit world, our marketing is based upon sharing news, cultivating donors, and attracting event attendees. Wouldn’t it be helpful to be able to search a record of these messages to see if you can pick up on any successful trends that are worth repeating?

For example, imagine last year you tweeted about your annual pancake breakfast on every Tuesday preceding the event. As a result, your event registration went up on the first Tuesday, but you didn’t see the same numbers on the following days. Couldn’t this data help you decide how you’d like to tweet this year? Will you tweet once a week? Only on Tuesdays?

Lawsuits – Social media updates can be used in a court of law. For instance, if one of your employees posts something that slanders another organization or if one of your employees is named in a suit outside of the organization, you might want a copy of your social media records for your protection.

Regulations and Compliance – You may apply for and be awarded a grant that involves a requirement that you use social media. Having a copy of your data demonstrates compliance and can be shared with the funder. Furthermore, if your agency needs to comply with laws such as HIPAA, having your own copy of social media data can prove compliance.

Perhaps, the simplest answer to this question can be found during a discussion about your agency’s document retention policy. In this policy, your board of directors most likely spells out which paper documents (e.g. personnel files, financial statements, meeting notes, etc) need to be kept and for how long. Why should it be any different for data your organization publishes on the internet?

Now, you may be thinking, “Marissa, how the heck do I do this?” Don’t worry, I have some tools to make the job a little easier.

Backupify – This is a paid service, but the back-up of social media is automatic. Backupify covers Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, and other Google apps such as Google Calendar and Google Docs.

ifttt.com – ifttt.com allows users to set up “if this – then that” tasks to create a custom data backup plan. For example, all tweets could be saved to Google Calendar for that the day they were originally posted. At the time of writing, iftt.com is free.

ThinkUp – ThinkUp is the most technical of the tools I’m suggesting, but it is the most robust out of the bunch.  ThinkUp is an application that needs to be installed on it’s own server before it can work. You can either talk to your IT department about installing it on your organization’s public server or you can install it for free using phpfog.com. ThinkUp not only archives your data, but it also analyzes it and tells you things that you might necessarily pick up otherwise. ThinkUp is even used by The White House to manage their social media data.

The current state of the web is in flux as the issue of an open or closed internet is debated more often. I suspect that the idea of archiving your agency’s social media data growing in importance. I have included a few more articles below for further reading on the subject to help you and your organization discuss how to do so.

Does your organization already have a plan to archive social media data? What tools do you use? Let’s talk more in comments!

Further Reading:
New York Times: Tools to Help Companies Manage Their Social Media
Mashable: 7 Ways to Rescue Your Curcial Social Media Data from Oblivion

Would you please solve the REAL problem? Structure Drives Behavior!

Fundraising, leadership, organizational development

Welcome to O.D. Fridays at DonorDreams blog. Every Friday for the foreseeable future we will be looking more closely at a recent post from John Greco’s blog called “johnponders ~ about life at work, mostly” and applying his organizational development messages to the non-profit community.

Today we’re focusing on a post that John titled “Close Cover Before Striking“. In this post, he uses the example of how matchbooks were re-designed to discuss an important organizational development concept — “structure drives behavior”.  This is an important concept for all non-profit professionals to master if organizational excellence and mission-focused productivity is your goal.

At the Boys & Girls Club, I cannot tell you how many kids forget their barcoded membership cards every day. So, as I tried to apply John’s blog theme to this example, all I could think of is TATTOO that damn barcode on kids’ foreheads!

Needless to say, I abandon that blog post idea for something a little more rationale — donor contact reports.

Every time someone from your organization visits a prospect or donor, they should (in theory) fill-out a “contact report”. This report needs to find its way back to your agency, into the hands of the person entering data into your donor database, and typed into a contact record. Why? So, that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. More importantly, the information a donor shares with you can influence many other things (e.g. how much they will be asked for during the next campaign, designing a custom stewardship program, building an effective Moves Management program and approach, etc).

Of course, few non-profit organizations are ever effective in convincing their volunteer solicitors to complete this extra form.

Hmmmmmm? John’s blog post got me thinking. This is likely a “structure” issue. So, how could this process be re-structured to get the desired result?

This topic is one that has bothered me for a very long time. I’ve tried everything including: talking slower, pleading, printing more forms, lecturing, simplifying the form, etc. I’ve even thought about investing in mind reading. As you can see, a new line of thought is probably warranted.

Here are a few thoughts I’ve had since reading John’s blog post (some might still be off-the-mark but I think I’m getting closer):

  • What about putting the “contact report” on the back of the pledge form? This could also re-enforce the idea that volunteer solicitors shouldn’t leave the pledge form behind with the prospect/donor. This could be a “twofer” solution.
  • What about taking the responsibility out of the hands of volunteer solicitors? Your agency could email each prospect/donor a short questionnaire a few days after they complete the pledge form. You could ask a few questions (both open-ended and closed) designed to yield important insights into why someone contributed, what they want to see your agency do with their contribution, etc.
  • If you don’t like the idea of a questionnaire, what about recruiting a team of volunteers to follow-up via telephone a few days after a donor makes a contribution to your annual campaign? The call could include a personal “thank you” and end with the volunteer asking if the donor minds answer a few questions designed to help the agency do a better job managing their generous gift and the priceless relationship.

OK . . . I’ve started the ball rolling with a few ideas. Please go back and read John’s blog post titled “Close Cover Before Striking” and use the comment box below on my blog to share additional ideas on how “re-structuring the process” surrounding your donor contact report might get better performance and better donor data.

Come on! This is an issue with which I’ve seen even the biggest and best non-profit agencies struggle. A few minutes of brainstorming can have a huge impact on so many other non-profit and fundraising professionals. It is Friday . . . how about “paying it forward” today?

Or perhaps you want to join me in advocating a TATTOO solution for kids and donors?  😉

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Non-profit mergers aren’t the “easy way out”

organizational development

At the end of 2011, I wrote a series of blog posts focused on predictions for the upcoming year. It seems as if my post on December 28, 2011 titled “2012 Non-Profit Trends and Predictions: Contraction Continues” hit a nerve with some of you. There isn’t a week that goes by without someone engaging me in a discussion around collaboration, strategic alliance, merger, acquisition, and outright sale.

None of this surprises me for all of the reasons I wrote about back on December 28th. However, the thing that is a little interesting has been the manner in which people are talking about the subject. At least in my conversations, this subject has been framed as the “perfect solution to get out from underneath our financial problems“.

While it is true that most non-profit mergers and acquisitions are inspired and motivated by financial crisis, it is important to remember that there isn’t a large group of non-profits sitting on the sidelines with a large wallet of cash just waiting to bail you out.  Let’s please get real for a moment.

  • There needs to be “benefit” on both sides of the merger equation. Figuring out what motivates each party is important, and it is one of the first steps.
  • Mergers don’t happen overnight. A due diligence process must be established with representation from all sides. This process will include discussions ranging from developing a case for change to addressing how to integrate systems (e.g. payroll, tech, etc) if the project gets green-lighted.
  • While discretion and confidentiality are important elements in such delicate discussions, there needs to be clear lines of communication with staff and both boards.

Engineering a merger is tough and takes a lot of time. It is NOT a quick fix nor is it the perfect solution from getting out from underneath your agency’s problems. The math supports this position. The Bridgespan Group published a paper presenting data and findings from a study that focused on non-profit mergers, and this is what they reported on the rate of success:

“We evaluated 11 years of merger filings in four states: Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina, and found that more than 3,300 organizations reported engaging in at least one merger or acquisition between 1996 and 2006, for a cumulative merger rate of 1.5 percent (number of deals divided by average number of organizations for 11 years).”

Does this mean non-profits aren’t as good at mergers and acquisitions as our for-profit cousins? Nope!

“This rate may seem low compared to the perceived ubiquity of M&A in the for-profit world, but it is not. The comparative cumulative total in the for-profit sector is a close 1.7 percent.”

If your non-profit organization is starting to chatter about collaborations, strategic alliances, mergers or acquisitions, I strongly suggest you: 1)  do your homework, 2) develop a process, 3) hire a consultant to help and facilitate, and 4) prepare for a long due diligence process.

I really like this online white paper by CCF National Resource Center that I found on the United Way of the Midlands’ website. Click here to read more about non-profit merger best practices.

Have you ever been part of a non-profit merger process? If so, what was your experience? Is your agency currently looking for a merger partner? If so, why and how are you going about it? Have you seen other merger attempts in your community succeed or fail? If so, what happened and why? How do you think donors should be included in a non-profit merger due diligence process without causing a crisis of confidence with lasting impact?

Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts and opinions. Why? Because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

New Donor Formula: Hustle – Follow-Up – Tenacity

Fundraising

The following is true story about a salesperson who is trying to hook a new customer. I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent.

Once upon a time . . .

There was this salesperson who had a GREAT product, but needed more customers. He decided that millions of business people just like him traveled this path before, so he cracked the Sales 101 textbook and did the following:

  • Identified his prospects
  • Made a list of his prospects
  • Rated and prioritized his prospect list
  • Picked up the phone, started calling and tried to secure appointments with prospects to demonstrate his product

One of the prospects on this salesperson’s list (we’ll call him “Jorge”) would take his phone calls, listen intently, say all the right things, and then end the conversation by putting the salesperson off for a few more months.

“Gosh, your products and services do certainly sound interesting and affordable, but we already have a vendor who we really like who does the same thing you do. We really like our vendor, but once things slow down around here, we’ll let you come over and show us what you got,” said Jorge.

This went on for TWO YEARS!

So, one day the salesperson decided to flip to the next chapter in his Sales 101 textbook and read about how to respectfully get more aggressive with his prospects. Last week, the salesperson showed up at Jorge’s business. He was armed with a huge sample of his product along with sales materials and a business card. Unfortunately, Jorge wasn’t there when the salesperson showed up. Of course, the salesperson left everything behind and asked that Jorge please call him back when he gets a chance.

Well, Jorge’s employees looked over the huge sample and the sales materials. They fell in love with it just like the salesperson had promised on the phone. When Jorge returned to the office, he also totally became enamored with the product and services.

Two weeks later nothing has happened!

Jorge hasn’t followed up or called the salesperson because he is busy.  While the salesperson’s product and services are really enticing, the reality is that the existing relationship with another vendor takes the sense of urgency out of doing anything. As for the salesperson, they obviously haven’t finished reading their Sales 101 textbook and have neglected to read the chapter titled “ABC: Always Be Closing”.

===================================================

“ABC: Always Be Closing” isn’t a bad paradigm for fundraising professionals. If you’ve never heard of this approach, it entails the following:

  • Always be hustling
  • Constantly be following up
  • Never take NO for an answer
  • Keep adding more and more enticements until you get to YES

While I think the final bullet point is probably where I draw the line, fundraising professional can apply “ABC” and walk away from this story with a few lessons learned.

For example, if you aren’t HUSTLING for new donor prospects every day that you are employed, then you aren’t really focused on building your donor base. Prospects are all around you. They shop at your grocery store. They belong to your church. They attend your Rotary Club meetings. There is a way to always be talking about your charity in acceptable, non-obnoxious ways. When someone says “Huh, that sounds interesting,” then it is perfectly normal to invite that person to tour your facilities or sit down over a cup of coffee to learn more.

The thing I see most of us neglecting to do is FOLLOW-UP. We send letters, emails, and newsletters. We make phone calls, have introductory coffee meetings, and give tours. We drop the ball and let things hang out there just like the salesperson in the aforementioned story. We introduce our mission and cultivate prospects, and then one of the following things usually happens:

  1. We don’t follow-up enough because we’re afraid of being obnoxious
  2. We just let it drop because we think the ball is in the prospect’s court and they’ll take action if they’re really interested
  3. We get our prospect really interested, but forget the “call to action”
  4. We hear NO and cease & desist, rather than understanding that the NO was simply to the opportunity we were presenting or the timing of the ask.

I suspect that most of us would get 100 percent better at securing new donors if we mastered the concept of follow-up and didn’t fall into the same trap that the salesperson in the story fell into.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any similar stories to share? How do you apply the principle of “follow-up” without over-staying your welcome or upsetting the prospect? Please scroll down and use the comment box to share your thoughts along with your tricks of the trade. We can learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Non-profit lessons from the Illinois primary election

Fundraising

It is Tuesday, March 20th, and for those of you living in Illinois it means that Election Day has finally arrived. For me, it couldn’t have some sooner. While I am one of those strange birds who loves the act of voting, I am also really ready for all the political yard signs to come down. I guess I am just visually tired of them. Or, perhaps, I’m just getting old and cranky.

While walking the dog yesterday, I was reminded that politicians don’t really have a corner on the yard sign market. As a matter of fact, some non-profit agency’s have found creative ways to integrate yard signs into their marketing efforts. Here are just a few examples:

  • Many moons ago when I ran a rubber duck race fundraiser, I used yard signs to help promote online adoptions.
  • The Boy Scouts of America sometimes use yard signs during “Back to School” time to support recruitment and encourage kids to register for the Cub Scouts in their community.
  • While walking the dog yesterday, I came across a non-political yard sign in someone’s yard advertising Easter Sunday services for one local church.

While I don’t think yard signs are the most effective marketing tool in your non-profit toolbox, I do believe they can be effective in some circumstances. Here are just a few suggestions for those of you contemplating their application:

Use yard signs in a cross-channel marketing approach. For example, how many politicians do you see ONLY using yard signs? Slim to none! Those candidates lose. Successful candidates use yard signs in conjunction with television, radio, door-to-door brochures, etc. When it comes to messaging, don’t use this marketing tactic to “generally” promote your agency. You use yard signs to promote something specific and actionable like a special event, prospect cultivation open house, recruitment drive, etc.

Focus  . . . don’t scatter your yard signs. You can’t buy enough yard signs to sprinkle them throughout your community on small streets in little subdivisions. Identify the busiest streets and ask residents on those main arterial routes to proudly display your sign in their front yard. You do this by knocking on their door and asking permission (even if you don’t know them or have a previous relationship). This will maximize how many people see your signs and keep your costs down.

K.I.S.S. — Keep it simple. Remember, less is more when it comes to small yard sign design. People are likely traveling by in their cars anywhere from 30 to 45 mph. They won’t be able to read small text. A few key words and a web address or phone number is about all you can do. This isn’t a mini billboard (and even if it were, most effective billboards also follow this same principle).

Sure, many of us find yard signs obnoxious, but this shouldn’t deter you. Why? Because everyone reads them. How do I know this? Because politicians wouldn’t be using them if they weren’t effective. The only catch is that you need to use them effectively.

Has your agency every used a yard sign approach to promote something? If so, how did it work? What lessons did you learn. Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.

Here’s to your health! (And happy election day, Illinois)  😉

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Does your non-profit cell phone policy and apps violate clients’ privacy?

Mondays with Marissa, technology

Apps. There’s a ton of them. Need to track your most recent run? There’s an app for that. Want to keep track of your expenses? There’s an app for that. Need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the a movie and don’t want to miss out on any of the action? There’s an app for that.

We all know there are plenty of smart phone apps out there, but do we really understand what they do once they are downloaded onto your phone?

This past week, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Yelp and fourteen other social media sites were listed in a lawsuit for distributing “privacy-invading” applications. According to a PC World article, these applications are accused of collecting user address book data and storing it on their servers without the user knowing.

This issue is at the top of many minds in the technology field as just last month, the popular social network Path issued a public apology after it was discovered the company used address book data to notify users when their friends had joined the network.

So what does this mean for your non-profit agency? Well, not much if your agency doesn’t allow staff members to use data based applications on their phones. I am guessing though, that nowadays that is a rarity.

When I read stories like this, I often think of non-profit organizations that deal with HIPAA on a daily basis. Many of the employees may have access to company smart phones that allow employees to check in on email while away from the office. Or what if the agency doesn’t supply cell phones and staff members use their personal cell phones to update the organization’s Facebook page?

Phones are so smart these days that . . .

  • information from the email the staff person replied to,
  • the new Facebook friend that was just confirmed, and
  • the phone call that was just made

might be added to the phone’s address book and sent to third-party servers without the user even being aware.

In the case of the HIPAA abiding non-profit (and even those who wish to protect board member and donor information), there could be a violation without anyone’s knowledge.

Even if your agency doesn’t need to protect the identity of their clients, do you really want address book information being shared without your knowledge? These days, with security breaches more rampant, you can’t take privacy seriously enough.

So what can we do?

Decide if your organization really needs to use cell phones. Yes, it is nice for staff members, but is it necessary? Can you get by without them? A radical idea, but it just might be the right one.

If you decide that cell phones are needed, consider providing them only for “necessary staff” instead of allowing staff to use their personal phones. I know this costs money, however; it ensures more control over the use of the phone on behalf of the agency.

Also, consider what type of phone is needed. Does the user really need all of the bells and whistles of an iPhone or can she be as productive with an older generation Android device?

In addition, regardless if phones are being provided by the agency or not; a clear and strict technology policy must be in place and understood by all employees.

If staff members are provided smart phones, what applications can they use? If it is decided that apps can be downloaded to agency phones, then make sure the person overseeing the policy reads up on the privacy policies of the allowed apps. Most of them can be found online in either the iTunes App Store or Google Play Store. Keep in mind that these policies can change.

Audit your agency’s technology. If your organization currently allows staff members to use their personal phones, there is not much you can do other than make them aware of the issue of apps and how they can compromise your clients’ privacy. However, on phones provided by your agency, see if any of these applications are already downloaded and check out their settings to see if any sharing options can be turned off. When in doubt, hard reset the phone and start all over.

I will be the first to admit that managing the technology of business is not easy. And these privacy concerns do not make it any easier. However, until applications stop sharing information, taking the time to address these issues now could mean avoiding a sticky legal situations later.

I’d love to hear how your organization manages cell phone usage for staff members. Do privacy issues concern you? Let’s continue this discussion in the comment section below!