Membership organizations know a lot about building loyalty

May 13, 2014 erik Uncategorized

In the interest of building momentum, we’ve dedicated the entire month of blog posts to this topic. We’re specifically focusing on what a variety of non-profit organizations are doing (or are looking at doing) to build loyalty.

Serving people’s interests inspires loyalty
Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce

Not all non-profit organizations are the same. Social service agency are different from arts organizations, and colleges/universities have different wrinkles than churches. However, the differences in many cases are slight and everyone can always learn from each other if they just look hard enough for the teachable moment. So, it didn’t come as a surprise to me that I learned a lot about how to build loyalty from Carol Gieske, President of the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce, a few weeks ago.

Unlike other non-profit organizations, membership-driven organizations need to focus on building loyalty because without members to serve there is no need to keep the doors open.

In the time that Carol and I sat down to chat, she shared two great strategies that any non-profit organization can use to help build loyalty.

Planning

Everyone does it because as the old expression goes:

“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

Every good planning process begins with some form of evaluation. It could look like a SWOT analysis. It could be significantly more intensive and involve going through an accreditation process. Regardless of what evaluation process you use, good planning starts with evaluation because it is difficult to figure out where you want to go if you don’t know where you are currently.

After establishing what “Point A” looks like, the planning process usually involves engaging in discussions focused on:

mission
shared vision
shared values
goals
strategies
tactics / action steps

While talking about strategic planning with Carol, she made the point that involving her chamber members in the planning process is critical to building loyalty. Why? Because when members participate in planning, they have buy-in to where the chamber is going. And when members buy-in and the ideas on the page are theirs, then they are more likely to roll up their sleeves and stay engaged.
Affinity groups
Another loyalty strategy upon which Carol and the chamber of commerce focus is affinity groups. While this term takes on many different meanings, in chamber circles it simply involves bring like-minded people together to talk about their similar interests. The following are a few examples of affinity groups:

entrepreneurs who are in the process of opening new businesses in town
non-profit organizations
manufacturers
restaurant owners

You might be wondering how is this a loyalty strategy?
On the surface, this is simply a perk of membership for people who join chambers. So, giving customers what they want (and doing so with quality) naturally builds loyalty.
However, it goes a little deeper than just giving people what they demand in the marketplace.
When you place your agency at the center of a relationship building exercise and do a good job facilitating it, affinity group participants do more than just build relationships with each other. They also end up building a last relationship with you.
Members — in fact any stakeholder group — become more loyal to your agency as the strength and depth of your relationship increases. This is one of the reasons we hold staff meetings, develop donor recognition societies, host client focus groups, etc.

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

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

Building staff loyalty starts with a good hiring process

May 8, 2014 erik Uncategorized

In case you haven’t heard, DonorDreams blog is hosting for the second year in a row the Nonprofit Blog Carnival in the month of May. This year’s theme revolves around building loyalty among various non-profit stakeholder groups such as donors, employees, volunteers, etc. If you are a blogger and looking for the “Call for Submissions,” then click here. The carnival will be posted right here at DonorDreams blog on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Stay tuned!
In the interest of building momentum, we’ve dedicated the entire month of blog posts to this topic. We’re specifically focusing on what a variety of non-profit organizations are doing (or are looking at doing) to build loyalty.
Today’s blog post is from Nick Jones, who is the Director of Operations at Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus in Ohio.

Lead a Team; Don’t Manage a Group
Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus

By Nick Jones
Guest Blogger
bgc columbus My first days (and those leading up to) as the Director of Operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus — an after-school program in Columbus, Ohio — were solely focused on what fun and engaging programs I could implement for the kids.My thoughts were consumed with:

Open gym basketball with the teens
Arts and crafts with the younger members
Interactive homework help session

I was excited about the opportunity to work with kids again, having just taken two years away from the field.
However, as a new manager, I quickly realized my time would not be consumed with facilitating a program for kids, but instead with our staff, who in turn worked directly with the kids.This was a painful realization, as my true passion was in building positive, developmental and long-lasting relationships with young people, especially those who need us most.
It was this realization, though, that was the first step towards building a loyal TEAM of professionals I now believe I have.
Team vs. Group
Before moving forward, I want to make sure I emphasize the importance of the word, “team.”
In one of my MBA courses, a professor spent almost an entire class differentiating between “team” and a “group.” He explained that a team takes a long time to build. In fact, he said, many groups never develop into teams.
Here are two points I took away from that lecture:

A team is willing to praise one another as well as hold each other all accountable (it isn’t just the manager’s responsibility)
A team can have confrontations and disagreements among themselves. However, once it’s time to “hit the floor” and perform, everyone needs to be on the same page and drive towards one common goal.

Finding Your People
bgc columbus2 The first step I stress to all of my managers in building a loyal team is the importance of the interview process.
During your search you will hire for the attitude you want as part of your team. Most important is making sure there are several levels to your interview process.
In the after-school and youth development sector, with most positions being part-time, we are often faced with the dilemma of being short-staffed and trying to maintain a substantive, safe and fun program for the kids. This, at times, creates “rush hiring,” where it is tempting to fill an open position with a warm body.
Of course, I have seen this fail repeatedly, as many “rushed hires” pass the initial smell test, but later show inadequacies in ability and non-commitment to the organization. This is why it is important to have a multi-layered interview process and allow several management-level staff members play a role in interviewing a candidate.
Your search process should include:

pre-screens
behavior assessments
practical experiences

A thorough interview process will allow you to gain a fairly solid picture of what the applicant could bring to the table as an employee.
I believe most important to this process is conducting behavioral interviews. Why? Because one’s past behavior is the best predictor for future behavior. Interview questions should begin with, “Tell me about a time when . . .”
The interview process is the first step towards developing a supportive and trusting relationship with your employees.
Acclimatizing Your People
bgc columbus3 Once hired, make sure the new employee participates in an immediate on-boarding process and orientation to the organization.

Has (s)he reviewed your Employee Handbook?
Has (s)he seen her/his official job description?
Has (s)he learned about the organization, its history and its values?

It is important during the first couple of weeks to make sure the new employee’s manager spends as much time with them. Slowly acclimatizing her/him to the organization may be hectic, especially when you’re short-staffed, but it will pay off in the long-run.
It is also critical during this time to build a one-on-one relationship with the new employee as well as with the rest of the team.

Allow time for the new employee to shadow her/his new co-workers
organize staff get-togethers (outside of work hours)
make sure staff meetings incorporate team-building activities

Whatever your process may be, it is most important to remember that consistency, communication and collaboration are all necessary actions for any on-boarding and orientation plan and for building long-term loyalty.
Retaining and Keeping Your Talent
bgc columbus4 After the honeymoon phase and the initial adrenaline of starting something new, the “real work” is just beginning for the person managing a new employee. The staff manager has the unenviable job of figuring out how to retain talent and simultaneously build a team.
In my current role, most of my time is focused on staff development and creating a work culture that brings out the best in everyone.
I have tried many different things to engage our staff and make our organization a fun place. One of the first things we did was make sure that all staff had a role in defining our organization’s shared values. This effort was instrumental in establishing the process we now use for making all sorts of strategic and operational decisions.
To create a loyal team, your employees must feel a part of every decision. Employees need to know their voices are heard and valued, and that their ideas are considered.
Additionally, our organization’s managers develop their people through a strengths-based approach.Considerable time, effort and expense is taken to do this, and we’ve been able to learn the areas in which our people have the greatest opportunity for success.
Of course, we also identify areas of development for our people, which is how we focus on ensuring all employees are well-rounded and no one feels like they are being set-up to fail.
Loyalty is built when employees feel like their employer is as invested in their growth as they are invested in achieving the agency’s mission.
Finally, we ensure that our staff leaders operate with what Sean Covey describes as a “cadence of accountability.”
It is a requirement for our leaders to have a minimum of one, dedicated touch-point with each of their employees per week.
Our staff leaders work with their employees on creating a development plan, and the weekly touch-point meetings focus on the employee’s development and success.
Consistency in this regard makes an immeasurable difference in creating a loyal team.
Bringing It Together
shetland sheepdog While Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus allows each of our five programs to have its own identity, we strive for something that we call a “One Club Feel.” This, to me, is the most important part of my job and truest test of my success (or failure) as a leader.
I spend endless hours, days, weeks and months working to solidify a dynamic, diverse group of professionals to lead our programs. Most have come through past professional experiences or by recommendation from trusted colleagues, which makes the goal of establishing a loyal team a lot easier and attainable.
While it is great when my direct reports and program managers possess leadership qualities, frankly it isn’t enough. The following is a short list of other things I work hard at doing when coaching them on how to coach their team:

identifying each leader’s strengths
investigating areas for development
developing a communication style and leadership style

In addition to coaching, our agency developed common goals and lead measures to which each leader is committed. While each staff leader has different numbers to reach, all leaders have the same goal and lead measures. This allows our management team to speak the same language when planning our staff meetings, staff trainings, and even our staff get-togethers.
Our dedication to coaching and planning helps us build loyalty and trust, which in turn has enabled our organization to grow exponentially over the past four years.
Rarely would I ever try to compare the loyalty of my beloved Shetland Sheepdog — Ollie — to anyone (or anything). However, if there are humans who are in the same loyalty-hemisphere as Ollie, then it’s our team!

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

If you want to learn more about what other non-profit organizations are doing to build loyalty among various stakeholder groups (e.g. donors, employees, volunteers, etc), then tune in here to DonorDreams blog every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month of May. We will also publish the Nonprofit Blog Carnival on May 28, 2014 with a number of links to other non-profit bloggers who are talking about loyalty related themes.
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

Building donor loyalty is about communication

May 6, 2014 erik Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

Donor stewardship leads to donor loyalty
Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington, Indiana

bgc bloomington “It is all about relationships,” explained Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington (BGCB) executive director Jeff Baldwin. He said this while talking about a change his agency made a few years ago when it made staffing changes in order to free up more of his time to spend with donors and prospective donors.
You’re probably asking, “What did the board do to make it possible for their executive director to spend more time with their donors and prospective donors?”
They accomplished this by making the difficult decision to budget money to hire both a Resource Development Director and Director of Operations.
One of the reasons this strategic decision was made is because the board understands what Dr. Adrian Sargeant and Dr. Robert Hartsook at Indiana University talk about in their paper titled “Donor Retention: What So We Know and What Can We Do About It?”
Here is a short excerpt from their paper that speaks directly to what the BGCB board is hoping to accomplish:

“A 10% improvement in [donor] attrition can yield up to a 200% increase in projected value,as significantly more donors upgrade their giving, give in multiple ways, recommend others and ultimately perhaps, pledge a planned gift to the organization.“

Since finding more time in his schedule, the executive director is meeting with more and more donors. During those meetings, here is what he says those conversations usually entail:

Talking about what’s going on in the donor’s life
Discussing common ground issues pertaining to the donor’s passions and the agency’s mission
Sharing good news about the organization (making sure the donor understands that whatever the good news may be that they are in part responsible for it happening)

feedback loop In addition to these individualized sit down meetings with the executive director, the Club invests time and resources in a variety of other donor stewardship activities including:

Cookie Drops
Handwritten notes
Eat. Thank. Love. stewardship event

Not only is the Boys & Girls Club getting positive feedback from donors, but they are finding that donors are telling their friends about these visits and sharing the good news. This informational ripple effect is generating additional interest in the Club, which provides more loyalty building opportunities.
In the final analysis, the Club’s executive director, Jeff Baldwin, sums it up like this:

“Donors appreciate being heard and want to know more about how their contribution is making a difference. People are loyal to their friends and to success. We believe that our strategy speaks to both of these considerations.”

If you want to learn more about what other non-profit organizations are doing to build loyalty among various stakeholder groups (e.g. donors, employees, volunteers, etc), then tune in here to DonorDreams blog every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month of May. We will also publish the Nonprofit Blog Carnival on May 28, 2014 with a number of links to other non-profit bloggers who are talking about loyalty related themes.
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

Programming changes at DonorDreams blog

May 5, 2014 erik nonprofit

changes Welcome to May! While this month represents lots of things to lots of people (e.g. rain, flowers, planting gardens, non-profit conferences, etc), May is an anniversary month for The Healthy Non-Profit LLC and DonorDreams blog. It was three years ago this month that the company and the blog were started. So, today we’re going to do a little celebrating in addition to announcing a few programming changes.
WooHoo . . . Let’s celebrate!
Over the last 36 months, you and I have accomplished the following things together including:

725 blog posts
332 direct blog subscribers
1,839 individuals checking in from time-to-time via blog subscriptions, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest
1,353 comments (not including the comments you’ve written on different social media sites pertaining to my posts)
53,924 page views
Readers from 23 different countries around the world on all five continents

These bullet points just represent the accomplishments related to the DonorDreams blog. They don’t include business-related accomplishments associated with my non-profit consulting practice — The Healthy Non-Profit LLC — such as:

the number of clients we’ve been privileged to serve
the conferences we’ve attended
the trainings we’ve facilitated
the plans we’ve facilitated and helped develop
the organizational capacity we’ve helped grow.

Hip hip hooray!
Programming changes at DonorDreams blog
For the last three years, I’ve been able to write something almost every day, and I’m humbled by how many people have read and engage in conversations around these posts. I believe that my blogging helps me be a better consultant, facilitator, planner and trainer. For this, I am grateful!
I honestly believe that WE have grown this blog and The Healthy Non-Profit LLC together. I am indebted to you and your readership. Thank You!
Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), I cannot keep up with blogging every day and providing capacity building services through my firm. As a result and starting this month, DonorDreams blog will scale back its publishing schedule to two days per week — Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I’m currently looking at two options with regards to content:

Focusing content around a monthly theme
Focusing Tuesday content on board development and Thursday content on fundraising

If you have an opinion, I would love to hear your thoughts. As always, please share them using the comment box below.
With regard to the month of May, you may have noticed that we’re hosting the national Nonprofit Blog Carnival. In our April 29th post, we issued a “call for submissions” to the non-profit blogger community. This month’s theme centers on how non-profits can build LOYALTY among various stakeholder groups like donors, staff, volunteers, etc.
We will publish the Nonprofit Blog Carnival on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. In the meantime, we will focus all of our DonorDreams posts in May (remember we’re now only publishing on Tuesdays & Thursdays) on the same topic of building loyalty.
Thanks again for your readership and continuing support! I look forward to working with you and seeing what you and I collectively accomplish here at DonorDreams blog in the upcoming months and years.
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

Planned giving? Deferred giving? Let's call it charitable gift planning!

May 1, 2014 erik Fundraising

What’s in a name?

By Michael Johnson
Guest blogger
name People often ask, “What is the difference between deferred giving, planned giving and charitable gift planning? Isn’t it all the same?” Certainly there have been times in the past when these terms were commonly interchangeable. That was absolutely the case when I entered the field 25 years ago. But over the years, most practitioners have taken to using “charitable gift planning” for a number of good reasons.
First, the term “planned giving” always begged the question, “What is an unplanned gift?” As if there was some way a check got written accidentally or, even worse, without the donor’s knowledge! In this sense, all gifts are planned gifts, so what is the distinction?
Another common term used when I was a young man (and the republic was new!) was “deferred giving” as if the only gifts that required planning were gifts which were completed at a later date, like upon the donor’s death. This certainly covers a lot of very popular gifts such as bequests, beneficiary designations and life income gifts, but it does not address the outright transfer of assets, like securities, real estate and other property, that support so many capital campaigns and other major gift efforts.
The wide acceptance of the term “charitable gift planning” is due, in my belief, to two things.

It is a term which encompasses any type of giving, both outright and deferred, which is more complicated than writing a check. But mostly because it places the proper emphasis on the planning process in which the donor and his or her advisors participate.
It is the process by which a donor reaches multiple goals: personal, financial and philanthropic. It is donor-centric and takes into account the person’s goals, risk tolerance and family situation.

From a personal standpoint, it is far more rewarding than simply closing a large gift because I have had the privilege of being a participant in helping to craft the very best plan for my client, the donor.

Nonprofit Blog Carnival call for submissions: Letting the non-profit sector go to the dogs

April 29, 2014 erik Board development, Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising, volunteers

Betrys3 Approximately 14 years ago, I was a young and eager executive director of a non-profit organization in Elgin, Illinois. While I had already worked in a number of different capacities in the non-profit sector, it was the first time I had held the job of “executive director.” Thinking back to that time in my life is where I pull my inspiration for the May 2014 Nonprofit Blog Carnival.
As a new executive director, everything was new and there were days I found my head spinning, especially when I thought about which metrics and indicators I needed to watch with regard to my agency’s health.
However, I very clearly remember the day when all of that stopped. It happened after a Board Development committee meeting, and one of my board members pulled me aside. He asked me how things were going.
We talked about the organization’s health and how I knew what I thought I knew. It was at that moment he decided to play Oprah and pointed me in the direction of the following two books written by Frederick Reichheld:

Just to give you a small taste of what these two books are all about, here is a short quote from chapter one of “The Loyalty Effect“:

“. . . businesses that concentrate on finding and keeping good customers, productive employees, and supportive investors continue to generate superior results. Loyalty is by no means dead. It remains one of the great engines of business success. In fact, the principles of loyalty — and the business strategy we call loyalty-based management — are alive and well at the heart of every company with an enduring record of high productivity, solid profits, and steady expansion.”

Not to be too dramatic, but that informal book club assignment changed my point of view on all things pertaining to the non-profit sector. After reading those books, my personal non-profit management litmus test usually centered around this simple question:

“What would Betrys do?”

As you’ve probably guessed, Betrys is our 13-year-old Welch Terrier who is featured in all of the pictures you see in this blog post.
This brings me to the May 2014 Nonprofit Blog Carnival . . .
With all of the talk about donor loyalty in recent years, I thought dedicating an entire Nonprofit Blog Carnival theme to the broader idea of LOYALTY might be fun.
So, calling all bloggers! Please write and submit a post this month focused on how non-profit organizations can and should be building loyalty among any of the following stakeholder groups:

donors
employees
volunteers
board members
social media networks

If you can identify another type of stakeholder group with which you believe a non-profit organization needs to build loyalty, then please feel free to blog about that, too. This is intentionally a broad topic. Feel free to get creative. All I ask is that you include in your blog post strategic or tactical suggestions on how to build loyalty so that our collective readership can walk away from our content with lots of new ideas.
To help get into the spirit, I will dedicate all of the content at DonorDreams blog in May 2014 to the idea of building loyalty.
But wait . . . there is more!
If you couldn’t tell from the title of this post, I am a dog lover. Is there anyone or anything in this world that embodies LOYALTY more than dogs?
At the end of the month, there will be difficult decisions made about which submissions get published and which ones end up on the cutting room floor. If you can incorporate some reference to the canine community in your Nonprofit Blog Carnival submission, then you will get bonus points. 🙂
So, I’m sure some of you are wondering what I mean.
A reference to the canine community could be as simple as working your dog (or someone else’s famous dog like Spuds MacKenzie, Snoopy or Lassie) into your post. It could be more complicated like the time when John Greco centered an entire organizational development blog post titled “Puppy Perspective” around his dogs.
Good luck and regardless of whether or not you get a dog into your post, please have some fun with this month’s carnival!

How to submit your work for consideration?

You are welcome to write your blog post anytime during the month of May (or even submit a post you may have previously published); however, I must receive your submission by the end of the day on Monday, May 26, 2014:

How do you submit? Simply email the following information to nonprofitcarnival[at]gmail[dot]com:

Your name
The URL of your post
A two of three sentence summary of your post

We will publish the May 2014 Nonprofit Blog Carnival on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 right here at DonorDreams blog.

Go visit April’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival

In April, the carnival was hosted by Nancy Schwartz at ” her blog — Getting Attention!” The theme was “The Work Behind Your Work: Your Methods and Wants for Nonprofit Blog Carnival“. She asked bloggers to consider the following questions:

the methods and tools you use to stay focused, productive and happy on the job
or the barrier that keeps you from getting there

If you’re interested in reading what some very smart and talented bloggers had to say about this Nonprofit Blog Carnival theme, click here.

Miscellaneous details?
Click here to learn more about the Nonprofit Blog Carnival. If you want to view the archives, then you want to click here.
Do you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive email blasts twice a month with reminders about the Carnival? Click here if you want to receive those reminders.
In a tip of my hat to the Nonprofit Blog Carnival that I hosted last May, I leave you with this Dr. Seuss-inspired quotation to inspire your much anticipated submission:

“You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go . . .”

I am very much looking forward to see what you decide to do and where you decide to take this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival.
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

Using online interpersonal tools to engage your agency's stakeholders

April 28, 2014 erik technology

What interpersonal tools is your agency using to engage people?

By Rose Reinert
Guest blogger
For several months, I have been excited to share a weekly post with you all. I have been going chapter by chapter through Lon Safko’s book, The Social Media Bible and applying his thoughts to the non-profit sector in a blog on Monday mornings. We have reached chapter 21 — “Let the Conversation Begin (Interpersonal)” of Lon Safko’s book The Social Media Bible. This is the last chapter in part 1 of the book, and it is the final chapter in my guest blogging series.
Our entire journey over the last five months has focused on building relationships and deepening relationships with donors, supporters, volunteers and the public. This chapter offers a great recap of this concept with a focus on “interpersonal.”
Interpersonal refers to all the different ways in the social media ecosphere lets us communicate and interact. Sakfo believes that choosing an interpersonal tool starts with the following two questions:

What do you want to communicate?
With whom do you want to communicate it?

Safko points out a great benefit to utilizing some of these tools, beyond the benefit of building on the relationship. Often, many of these tools can help reduce costs in long-distance telephone calls and travel expenses. I will highlight a few of these today.
Video Conferencing
There is no doubt that as the recession hit many organizations began to cut costs. One of the first areas cut was staff development (e.g. conferences, travel expenses, etc). These expenditured became more of a luxury as donations declined and funding became more uncertain.
However, the recession opened new doors. For example, video conferencing and things like webinars have became increasingly popular. These tools allow for face-to-face engagement, while not incurring travel costs.
Sharing Applications
Other popular ways to increase efficiency are applications like GoToMeeting and Doodle.
GoToMeeting is a web conferencing service that allows up to 15 users to engage in an online meeting. This includes sharing the screen, webcams and documents. This site is secure with passwords, and if a larger audience needs to be reached, there is a GoToWebinar option.
Doodle is one of my favorites. As an Executive Director I would constantly have to convene meetings between groups of people. It was more than frustrating to go back and forth in e-mails trying to figure out a time when people could meet.
Doodle allows you to send out a meeting request with date/time options. The person simply enters their name, clicks what works for them and voilà! You can choose the best option and increase participation by placing your meeting on a day that works best for everyone.
These are just a few of the many great tools that can increase efficiency in today’s busy world.
I am interested to learn more about your experiences with these tools, or others. Please share examples of other interactive social media and internet-based tools that you use at your non-profit organization in the comment box below.

Employee motivation strategies provide keen insights into motivating donors

April 23, 2014 erik Fundraising

I was at it again. Just this morning I was digging through old boxes in my basement when I came across a copy of the book Managing for Dummies. After a few quick nostalgic turns of the page, I came across a section titled “Top ten ways to motivate employees” on page 107. My mind immediately wandered to the resource development implications of this list. So, I thought you and I could explore this question together this wonderful Wednesday morning.
Here is that list of things to motivate employees from our friends who write “the dummy books“:

Personally thank employees for doing a good job — one-on-one, in writing, or both. Do it timely, often, and sincerely.
Be willing to take the time to meet with and listen to employees — as much as they need or want.
Provide employees specific and frequent feedback about their performance. Support them in improving performance.
Recognize, reward, and promote high performers; deal with low and marginal performer so that they improve or leave.
Provide information on how the company makes and loses money, upcoming products, and services and strategies for competing. Explain the employee’s role in the overall plan.
Involve employees in decisions, especially as those decisions affect them. Involvement equals commitment.
Give employees a chance to grow and learn new skills; encourage them to be their best. Show them how you can help them meet their goals while achieving the organization’s goals. Create a partnership with each employee.
Provide employees with a sense of ownership in their work and their work environment. This ownership can be symbolic (for example, business cards for all employees, whether they need them to do their jobs or not).
Strive to create a work environment that is open, trusting, and fun. Encourage new ideas, suggestions, and initiative. Learn from, rather than punish for, mistakes.
Celebrate successes — of the company, of the department, and of individuals in it. Take time for team- and morale-building meetings and activities. Be creative and fresh.

I think this list is very close to being able to double as a recipe for donor engagement, but there are obviously a few tweaks here and there that need to occur. So, the first thing I did was strike-through the word ~~employee~~ and replace is with the word donor. Then I went through each tip and modified things that were obviously only relevant to the workplace experience.
donor engagement Here is how that new top ten list turned out for donors:

Personally thank donors for their support — one-on-one, in writing, or both. Do it timely, often, and sincerely.
Be willing to take the time to meet with and listen to donors — as much as they need or want.
Provide donors specific and frequent feedback about how your agency is putting their contribution to work. Engage them is discussion along the way on how they would like to see possible future donations used to support the both their agency’s mission and vision along with their personal philanthropic wishes and dreams.
Recognize major gifts donors in a manner in which they are comfortable; create and implement strategies to move smaller donors up the “resource development pyramid of donors“.
Provide information on how your non-profit organization raises money, existing products/services as well as upcoming products/services. Explain the different roles in the overall plan (e.g. strategic plan, resource development plan, program plan, etc) that various donors might consider.
Involve donors in decisions, especially as those decisions affect them. Involvement equals commitment. (This could be via surveys, focus groups, committee involvement, etc)
Give donors a chance to grow and learn; encourage them to be their philanthropic best. Show them how you can help them meet their charitable giving goals while achieving the organization’s goals. Create a partnership with each donor.
Provide donors with a sense of ownership in your agency.
Strive to create a fundraising experience that is open, trusting, and fun. Encourage new ideas, suggestions, and initiative and include these things in your annual resource development plan. Learn from your donors.
Celebrate successes of your agency and of individual donors.

So, there you have it. When I take a step back and look at these two lists, I see lots of similarities. Do you see the same things? What would you add to these lists? Is there anything you would eliminate?
Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box. 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

Don't text and drive, but please use it to fundraise!

April 22, 2014 erik Fundraising, technology

Text messaging for solicitation (or stewardship) of donors

By Rose Reinert
Guest blogger
For those of you who are new to the DonorDreams blog, I’m going chapter by chapter through Lon Safko’s book, The Social Media Bible and applying his thoughts to the non-profit sector in a blog on Monday mornings. Of course, it is Tuesday morning (because Erik just returned from his five month engagement in Texas & New Mexico and he got confused).
Last week, we explored marketing yourself through SEM — Search Engine Marketing — and this week we will explore maximizing your message through using mobile.
Do you remember back in January 2010 when The American Red Cross received an overwhelming response with text message donations after the Haiti earthquake? Well, “overwhelming” equaled $41m! The Red Cross received 4.1 million messages valued at ten dollars each, 95% of which were from first-time donors.
Text Message Donations
Simply put, you advertise the fundraising phone number to potential donors. The donors send a text message, and 60 to 90 days later you receive the donation. Seems simple right?
There are some common frustrations that surround that simple equation, which are important to explore. Many non-profits have and are running similar campaigns as The Red Cross, but there are some large hurdles including the cost of processing.
Mobile Site Donations
As we have discussed through our journey in this blog, ensuring that your website is mobile friendly is critical. It also can provide the opportunity to raise funds. A downfall of text message donations is that there is a limit of $10. This, of course, can leave money on the table for your non-profit.
You can utilize similar methods as text message donations, but direct people to your website’s Donate Now button.
Text Message Cultivation
Beyond the usage of text messaging for the end result of raising money, you can utilize it to build your relationship with your donors to position them for larger solicitations in mind.
Send your donor a few quick messages every month (or even once a month) focused on how their contribution is making a difference. Using text messaging in this manner can keep your donors excited and engaged with your mission.
In a year-end campaign for the Humane Society, donors who periodically received stewardship messages via text contributed online with an increased response rate of 77%.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get texting!
I am very interested to hear your experiences (both good and bad) with utilizing text messaging for donations or engagement for your agency. Additionally . . . have you used text messaging to donate to an organization? Please share what you liked and disliked in the comment box below.

A few tips for participating in your community's "Giving Day"

April 21, 2014 erik leadership, technology

give local america I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but when I get beat over the head with something enough times over the course of a year it becomes obvious that I’m staring at a trend. LOL! In this case, I am referencing an increasingly popular activity sprouting up all over the place — Giving Day.
I was first introduced to the idea of a concentrated one day push while working with a client in Valparaiso, Indiana. Their local community foundation had organized a day where local donors could make an online contribution and designate it to any number of local non-profit organizations. Of course, there were incentives such matching dollars and contests.
As many of you know, I’ve spent the last five months in West Texas and New Mexico working with 18 different agencies on a variety of organizational capacity building activities. While I was down south avoiding a brutal Midwest winter, I was once again introduced to another statewide Giving Day in New Mexico. Like the one in Valparaiso, it was being sponsored by a handful of different community foundations.
Finally, last week I returned home from my temporary assignment and started wading through a ton of mail that was waiting for me. While sifting through that pile, I came across a letter from another agency promoting their community’s Giving Day and they were asking me to make an online contribution.
As I clicked around on Google, I discovered there is a national Giving Day initiative called “Give Local America!” being sponsored by communities, non-profit organizations and an online giving portal company called Kimbia.
As I said earlier, I may not be the brightest or the quickest, but I suspect that I’m looking at a trend in the non-profit sector. 🙂
The Knight Foundation defines a community Giving Day as follows:

“A Giving Day is a powerful 24-hour online fundraising competition that unites a community around local causes. Hosted by the area’s community foundation, the Giving Day raises money through a single online donation platform. A Giving Day is a great way to build community, connect donors to local nonprofits, teach organizations to use digital tools and generate excitement about your community foundation.”

The foundation developed an online “playbook” for people who want to organize one of these events in their community. If you’re interested, click here to check it out.
online giving As I started playing around with these ideas in my head, I’ve come to the conclusion that this doesn’t necessarily have to be a community-wide event sponsored by a community foundation or a United Way. (However, I do think a community-wide approach organized by a foundation or United Way is preferable)
I believe individual non-profit organizations can take these same principles and develop a focused day of giving for themselves. Perhaps, it is something at the end of your Spring annual campaign pledge drive focused on smaller donors. Or maybe it is a year-end giving strategy with a Thanksgiving theme done in conjunction with #GivingTuesday.
Regardless of whether it is community-focused or agency-focused, there are a few simple best practices that power the successes associated with planning these events. You can find those best practices at the other end of the Knight Foundation link (see link above). If you aren’t planning such an event, but you’re participating in one, then here are a few tips for engaging the most number of people in making a contribution in your agency’s name:

challenge gifts are an important part of the call to action (don’t just rely on the challenge being offered by the organizer . . . additional matching gifts from your major donors will drive even more traffic on your behalf to the online giving portal)
pre-event publicity is crucial to raise awareness among your donors (e.g. targeted mail, email, etc)
day-of-event solicitation (e.g. emails, blog posts, Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn chatter, etc) are important strategies to drive online traffic to the giving page
post-event recognition and stewardship for an entire year leading up to your next Giving Day build loyalty and a strong base of sustainable giving

Does your agency participate in a community-wide Giving Day? If so, what best practices have you used and found work well? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences.
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

Serving people’s interests inspires loyalty Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce

Lead a Team; Don’t Manage a Group Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus

Donor stewardship leads to donor loyalty Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington, Indiana