Category: volunteers

Gobble Gobble … pass the stewardship please?

Board development, Fundraising, volunteers

This non-profit professional loves Thanksgiving! Yes, as you can tell from my picture, I love the epicurean delights that grace my table for this holiday. However, what I really love has almost nothing to do with food . . . it is the idea of taking time to simply say “thank you” that really appeals to my inner non-profit soul. It is for this reason I believe Thanksgiving is quintessentially a non-profit holiday.

What are you doing this Thanksgiving holiday to reach out to your donors and volunteers and express your thanks and gratitude?

When I worked for the Boy Scouts more than a decade ago, I found tremendous joy in cooking a full-blown Thanksgiving meal for my District Committee. Mmmmmm . . . I remember it as if it were just yesterday. Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, beans,  rolls, dutch oven cobbler . . . prepared and served with my own two hands in the church basement we used to meet every month.

After feeding 50 of my best donors and volunteers, I relished the opportunity to take 2- or 3-minutes and tell them how thankful I was for their help and support. I also highlighted a handful of our collective successes from the last year.

Years later, as I worked with local Boys & Girls Club affiliates throughout the Midwest region, we worked on developing “thank-a-thon” events to steward donors around the Thanksgiving holiday. This was simply a handful of board volunteers who were armed with a list of donors, short script, and telephone. The message was short and sweet . . .

  • thank you for your support,
  • your support made a difference,
  • we accomplished X/Y/Z and couldn’t have done it without the support of caring and generous people like you,
  • we hope we can continue to count on your support in the future, and
  • this Thanksgiving we give thanks for people like you. Enjoy the holidays!

There was no solicitation for money. There was no guilt. It was an expression of simple gratitude. It demonstrated that donors and volunteers were part of a larger family — our “non-profit family”.

What are your personal plans to steward board volunteers, donors and volunteers this holiday season? I see many non-profits doing something. So, please take 30-seconds and share your favorite Thanksgiving stewardship activity of all time. If you’re a volunteer or donor, please share the best Thanksgiving stewardship activity that your favorite non-profit has ever included you in. We can all learn from each other . . . but that requires using the comment box below to share. Please?

Here is to your health! Enjoy your Thanksgiving with both your immediate family as well as your non-profit family.  🙂

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

Calling all wing nuts! Want to join my board of directors?

Board development, volunteers

A few weeks ago I received an odd email in my inbox. It was so foreign to me that I marked it “unopened” and let it sit there as I marinated on it.  It wasn’t until just today that I felt willing to re-open it and share its contents with you. Here is how the first paragraph of this jarring email started (and I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent):

The board of directors of the XYZ non-profit agency is looking for leaders to help drive our further development. If interested, please contact John Doe, Board Secretary jdoe@gmail.com to receive an application /board questionnaire which is due by November 4, 2011; for terms that will run from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2013 (2-year term limits).

The email went on to provide details about this organization’s goals and advertise its upcoming conference in downtown Chicago.

At first, I was flattered to be asked and then I realized that it was a eBlast and I was not special. So, I closed the email and went into “stewing mode” and here is what has been coming together in my head over the last few weeks:

  • Why is there a “general call for applications”? Why not target supporters and donors?
  • How did I get on this email list in the first place?
  • How desperate must this group be for quality board members?
  • Can they possibly learn enough about me from a paper application that would help them conclude whether or not I’d be a quality board member?

While many people will tell you there is a right way for a non-profit organization to set-up its board development process, I know that I’ve seen many different variations throughout the years. However, every process regardless of how it is set-up should probably include elements of the following: prospect identification, prospect evaluation, prospect ranking, prospect recruiting, orientation, training, annual evaluation, and celebration/recognition. There are many different ways to do each of these steps, and I suppose a “general cattle call” could be one way. Needless to say, I am skeptical.

Building your non-profit organization’s board of directors is like building a family. Perhaps, a better analogy would be it is like baking a soufflé. You need to be deliberate and careful. Here are just a few considerations I suggest your board development committee look at during the prospecting phase:

  • What does the prospect’s social network look like? Does it overlap too much with existing board volunteer’s circle of friends and influence?
  • Does the prospect’s network provide fertile ground for new fundraising efforts and provide opportunity for the organization to expand its donor base?
  • Does the prospect have the skill sets and experiences that you are looking for to fill gaps on your board to be an effective fundraisers?
  • Is the prospect a “wing nut” whose personality will upset the balance of personalities who already sit around your board room table?
  • What general skills sets and interests does this person bring to the table? How are they willing to leverage those things on behalf of the organization? What committee, task force or project(s) will the prospect bring value and are they willing to do so?
  • Is the prospect a donor? If not, are they willing to be a donor who is open-minded to “sacrificial giving” every year to your organization?
  • How many other boards does the prospect serve on? If they have other board commitments, do they have a firm grasp on the concepts of “fiduciary responsibility” and “conflict of interest”? How do they plan on mitigating their conflicts and how have they done so in the past?

If you’re not careful from the very beginning of your board development process with identification, evaluation, and ranking, then you run the very real risk of your board soufflé falling. In real world terms, this typically means dysfunction and the worst case scenario using ends with some sort of board room conflict (with “someone” possibly getting fired).

If you want to read more about board development, please read my recent blog post titled: “Don’t put Dorothy on your board of directors“.

What does your non-profit organization’s board development process look like? How do you keep the conversation from naturally drifting to: “I know this person who would just be great on our board. Let’s just go ask them before someone else grabs them!”? Do you use a committee to do your board development work? If so, what does that committee look like? What are your thoughts about the aforementioned non-profit’s “cattle call” application process? Are you skeptical like me or am I missing something?

It only takes 30 seconds to scroll down your computer screen and weigh-in with a quick comment to one of these questions. Please take a moment to do so because we can and should all learn from each other.

Here is 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 put Dorothy on your board of directors

Board development, volunteers

September 15, 2008 . . . do you remember where you were and what you were doing? It was the day the world changed. It was what some people have called an “economic 9-11”. Regardless of how you characterize the day that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and the stock market started its crash, it is hard to argue the following: 1) the economic paradigm we all used to live in shifted and 2) nothing will ever be the same again.

This week I have used characters from “The Wizard of Oz” to talk about current challenges facing the non-profit sector. Today, we will spend a moment talking about Dorothy.

Dorothy is an iconic character who has been described as a “level-headed, plucky, resourceful, determined, all-American, populist”.  However, I’ve always seen her as a traditional “conservative”. Don’t believe me? Refresh your memory with this quick YouTube clip. Of course, I don’t mean this in any kind of political way, but more of the traditional meaning of “holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation”.

You cannot afford to have Dorothy on your board of directors during these tough and turbulent economic times!

Mentally take a look around your board room and see if you can identify how many Dorothy-like volunteers occupy chairs. They are kind folks (dare I say friends) who look and sound like the following:

  • They are frightened by the economic “tornado” whirling throughout the world. They talk about economic news constantly.
  • They wish for yesteryear and reminisce about times when your non-profit was facing a different set of circumstances. They fixate on making things better . . . just like they “used to be”. They’re focused on making that formerly kick-butt special event awesome again. They’re insistent that you can hold onto all of your government grants if you just tried a little harder. After all, there is no place like home.
  • They are visibly closed to new and innovative ideas that have not been tried. They believe ePhilanthropy is a passing fad. They won’t entertain ideas around merger, acquisition, or strategic alliances that share back office functions. After all, that is not the Kansas they so fondly remember.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting a “witch hunt” to root out these folks and fire them. Dorothy serves an important role on your board. She is that cautious voice that keeps you from getting into trouble. She will stop you from pulling the plug on your annual campaign and direct mail appeals and “going all in” on ePhilanthropy efforts. Valuable? YES! However, what happens when you have too many Dorothy-like board members? Or what if you have those well-intentioned people serving in the wrong roles (e.g. board president, annual campaign chair, strategic planning committee, etc)?

My best two pieces of advice for non-profit staff and board volunteers this morning are:

  1. Be especially strategic and thoughtful about where you ask these people to serve in your organization. This means that you need to: a) identify who these folks are and b) have a clear understanding of which volunteer opportunities are acceptable for conservative personalities.
  2. Focus your board development efforts over the next year on recruiting people in your community who don’t resemble Dorothy to serve on your board. This is not the time to pine for Kansas! This means your board development committee needs to double down on the “prospect identification” and “prospect evaluation” elements of the board recruitment process. Gone are the days when everyone sits around a table and tosses out names of good, kind and resourceful people. BE STRATEGIC!

I suggest that the type of people your board development committee should look for exhibit some of the following characteristics:

  • They don’t appear to be “personally” economically impacted by the Great Recession
  • Their business or line of work seems to be doing fine
  • They are naturally positive and have a decent outlook on the future
  • They seem to be open to new ideas (as evidenced in their personal and professional lives)
  • They are “outside-of-the-box thinkers (as evidenced in their personal and professional lives)

Remember, if you want to keep the flying monkeys away from your non-profit agency, STAY AWAY FROM DOROTHY.

OK — if you aren’t buying into my cheesy “Wizard of Oz” analogy, then please go to the library and borrow the book “Who Moved My Cheese“. You’ll thank me later.

How has your agency adapted to the new realities? Have you changed your resource development model or are you still trying to do things the old way? Do you see your board development efforts changing or focusing on different types of prospects? Please use the comment box below and weigh-in. Please remember that we can all learn from each other. In fact, it is probably the most effective way many of us learn.

Here is 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

If I only had a heart . . .

Board development, Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising, resource development, volunteers

There are 9-keys to “inspiring and managing yours board for fundraising success”. In fact, the reality is that these 9-keys are the same nine things you need to do to “engage” anyone in anything. However, I believe that these nine concepts are not all equal. While all are important, I have come to realize that the most important and most difficult engagement tool was best summed up by the “Wizard of Oz’s” Tim Man in this YouTube video.

The most important engagement tool in your nonprofit toolbox in my humble opinion is “MISSION-FOCUS”.

I personally learned this lesson more than 7-years ago when one of my more influential board volunteers (I’ll omit his name for privacy purposes, but let’s just say he was really good with other people’s money) resigned from the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin’s board of directors. While he resigned for personal reasons and still supported the Club, I didn’t see the train wreck coming until it was too late.

This board volunteer was infamous for taking 15+ prospects’ pledge cards as part of the annual campaign every year. His reasoning seemed sound: 1) they were clients of his, 2) they were friends of his, and 3) he had always solicited these donors. I’d be lying if I tried to tell you that I ever tried to talk him out of being such an overachiever. However, in hindsight I wish that I had.

The first year this individual wasn’t on our board, we tried to redistribute his annual campaign prospects to other volunteers. I finally understood how big of a fool I had been when my phone rang a few weeks after our annual campaign kickoff meeting. The call came in from one of our more steady donors who had always been solicited by this former board volunteer.

The call started off nice enough. “Hi . . . how are you . . . how are things down at the Club?” However, pleasant conversation quickly turned into a cross-examination: “why is so-and-so calling me for my annual campaign pledge this year . . . what happened to he-who-I-loved-to-get-solicited-by . . . is there something wrong at the Club whereby he just walked away from your board of directors?” And as if that wasn’t enough to cause me to run to the restroom and vomit, most of the calls ended with the donor talking to me like I was a kindergartener and telling me that they didn’t donate to the Club because of our mission but because of who had been asking.

The lesson I painfully learned was that stewardship was very important in the resource development process. Successful stewardship and relationship building meant transitioning a donor-relationship from their the volunteer-solicitor connection to a love affair with the organization’s mission. While it might not happen overnight, working on it symbolized a commitment to sustainability and a donor-centered paradigm. The Tin Man was 100% correct when he sang about the value of his heart.

Being “MISSION-FOCUSED” goes beyond stewardship . . . here are just a few ideas for infusing mission in everything you do at your non-profit organization:

  1. Host your board meetings, committee meetings and fundraising meeting at your service facility as a way of reminding everyone what their volunteer time commitments are all about.
  2. Focus newsletter content on return on investment messaging and all things related to your agency’s mission. Skip the boring advertisements for the next opportunity to make a contribution.
  3. Don’t let your annual campaign volunteer solicitors go on important solicitations by themselves. Staff should do everything possible to get invited on important solicitations and ensure: 1) the ask is not being done in a “quid pro quo” manner and 2) mission-oriented reasons are infused throughout the solicitation call.
  4. Find ways to bring the idea of your clients into important meetings. For example, ask agency clients to participate in an essay contest about what they value most about your organization, its programs and mission. Share those essays with board volunteers, fundraising volunteers and donors.
  5. Incorporate a “mission moment” into ALL MEETINGS as a way to keep the focus on why you’re asking others to do what they do.

Failure to inject “MISSION-FOCUS” into all of your meetings and fundraising campaigns can be disastrous. It can lead to volunteer-fatigue and donor turnover. It can create a sense of disengagement that results in staff doing everything. Do I need to go on? Come on  . . . if a Tim Man can get it, then surely we all understand the importance of this concept. Right?

I can go on and on, but I’d rather you share with your fellow DonorDreams blog subscribers what you do to maintain a healthy dose of “MISSION-FOCUS” in everything you do. Please use the comment box below to share your example because we can all learn from each other. There are no right or wrong answers. Please jump in.

Here is 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

Are you King of your nonprofit forest?

Board development, Fundraising, Planning, volunteers

As a new business owner who just opened up a nonprofit & fundraising consulting practice, I’ve made it my business to “get around”. In addition to visiting with many of my oldest and dearest non-profit friends in Elgin, Illinois, I recently attended a regional Boys & Girls Club conference and engaged countless staff and board volunteers from around the country through a very aggressive social media strategy including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and this blog. While I don’t want to exaggerate, I was surprised at how many conversations looked and sounded like this “Wizard of Oz” YouTube clip.

Here were some of the things heard I nonprofit CEOs, fundraising professionals, and board volunteers saying that leaves me wondering “King or Coward”:

  • “Erik, I am so sick and tired of my board volunteers passing the buck on fundraising and expecting staff to pick-up the pieces. I’m just gonna tell them ‘how it is’.”
  • “Erik, our staff has let us down and not provided the necessary leadership during these tough economic times. I’m afraid the board will just need to look at making draconian cuts and muddle through these tough times.”
  • “Erik, donors are cutting their charitable giving during these tough economic times. So, the only thing left to do is tell donors and anyone who will listen that our agency is on the brink of closing its doors if people don’t start stepping up.”
  • “Erik, I know we need to invest heavily in capacity building activities during this economic down turn if we have any chance at making it out the other side. However, I just know that the board isn’t up for this kind of work at this time, and I won’t use my influence to push for something that doesn’t have legs.”
  • “Erik, I refuse to invest in ‘planning’ activities because they just don’t work. We once wrote this amazing plan, and it just ended up on the shelf collecting dust.”
  • Erik, fundraising is the board’s job, and I am hesitant to offer my opinion on what needs to be done because then it becomes ‘my idea’. And if ‘my idea’ falls short, then it just becomes one more reason for the board to fire me. Remember . . . board volunteers don’t fire themselves, they always fire the executive director.”

I understand that tough economic times has a chilling effect on leadership, but your only chance at surviving these strange and new times is by eating an extra bowl of Wheaties in the morning and showing up for work ready to take some smart risks and actively lead. Here are a few observations and suggestions I have for the non-profit community as my “listening tour” comes to a close:

  1. My kindergarten teacher always taught me that “telling people” isn’t very effective if you want them to be your friend. I suggest sharpening your listening skills and do more asking than telling when it comes to engaging donors, volunteers and board members.
  2. The “blame game” is an old and tired game. If the board is unsatisfied with the agency’s performance and is feels inclined to play this game, my advice tot hose board volunteers is skip it, save your breath, fire the executive director (because you know you’re going to do it regardless of what anyone tells you), and get on with the business with digging out of your hole. Brutal? Sure it is, and I’m uncomfortable with the recommendation. However, how many times have you seen board and staff struggle through tough times with lots of finger-pointing and it all worked out “happily ever after”??? Never! So, be decisive and move on to what is important — survival. By the way, after the hatchet job and search for a new leader, it is probably important the board turn the mirror on itself, dust off the guillotine and quickly get rid of non-performing, poor fundraising members. I suspect many of those soon to be headless board volunteers were leading the charge to fire the executuve director. Vive Le France!
  3. Pointing the finger at donors is the quickest way to lose a finger. I don’t care if it is an individual, corporation, foundation or government agency. I’ve seen “the little boy who cried wolf” fundraising strategy work once, but it gets more difficult to fundraise the more you use this tactic. Of course, the reason for the fast diminishing return is because no one likes to invest their charitable giving in what they perceive to be a “sinking ship”. Stay positive and double down on stewardship efforts. People like to see the good things their contributions helped produce. So, show it to them.
  4. Written plans that fall short are most likely the result of: a) a poorly designed planning process that did not appropriately ‘engage’ those you needed to step forward during the action plans part of the process, b) thin-skinned leadership who didn’t like what they saw during the evaluation phase and dismissed the call to action by putting their heads in the sand, or c) a poorly designed implementation tools (e.g. committee work plans, staff performance plans, dashboards, scorecards, etc). Don’t toss one of your few ‘engagement tools’ out the window. Instead, double down on do it differently and better!
  5. Attention agency staff: If you find yourself treading water and paralyzed by fear of failure, then please do the honorable thing and resign. I don’t say this to be mean, but board volunteers need strong leaders who know how to LEAD. With leadership, sometimes comes failure. Right? So, don’t be the “Emperor who walks into the room without any clothes on“. (Please accept my apology for this last YouTube link. It was salty and unprofessional, but it was sooooo funny I just had to share it because this uncomfortable and funny video is exactly the same feeling we all share when a non-profit staff person is paralyzed and unwilling yet pretending to lead)

I could go on and on, but I’ve gone on too long. Please use the comment box below and share a story on how you are “king” of your non-profit castle and not a “coward”. How are you investing in capacity building efforts? How are you engaging others who seem to be stuck in neutral during these tough times? Please weigh-in because we can all learn from each other. Your words can also serve as inspiration to others who are struggling.

Here is 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

Meredith Hilt is no zombie

Fundraising, volunteers

So, we’ve all had a lot of fun this week talking about the City of Elgin’s upcoming zombie-inspired Nightmare on Chicago Street, using this Halloween event to shed some light on the serious nonprofit subjects of return on investment, volunteerism and special event fundraising. I wanted to end the week talking about the same things, but in a kinder and gentler way. So, I invited Meredith Hilt to be a guest blogger today.

Meredith has her own blog on WordPress — “mhilt” — that focuses on corporate giving and sustainability. Recently, she posted a blog that addressed Seth Godin’s recent event-critical blog post titled “Gala Economics“. After reading Meredith’s post, I knew I couldn’t have said it better. She really brings some balance to what I’ve been saying all week and sums everything up nicely. So, I invited her to re-publish her post here on DonorDreams, and she graciously accepted. Let’s learn a little more about Meredith before reading what she has to say about Seth Godin’s opinion on Gala Economics and special event fundraising.

Meet Meredith Hilt . . . She is a former grantseeker turned grantmaker. Currently, the executive director of the Tellabs Foundation and senior manager of corporate responsibility, she started a blog on WordPress for those of us who are interested in corporate giving and sustainability. Her teachable point of view is concisely captured on her “about page” when she says: “Many times we work alone. Development officers, grantmakers and sustainability managers are often part of small departments. It’s important for us to work together and stay connected.  We’ll test ideas, share advice and shed light on good work. Hopefully, even more good will result.”

I love Meredith’s blog. I recently subscribed to her blog using her RSS feed. I hope you will do the same. Without further ado, here is her guest post:

Galas: good or evil?

Marketing wizard Seth Godin made waves with his recent post, Gala economics. He describes galas as “a ridiculous way to efficiently raise money for a good cause.”

Ouch. The truth hurts.

It’s hard to argue that events are expensive. Consider the cost of the food, decorations, invites, entertainment and (here’s the biggie) staff time. It’s a big bill. Then add what individual attendees might spend on shoes, tuxes, accessories and dry cleaning – it’s even bigger.

Seth also contends that “…the gala is actually corrupting. Attendees are usually driven by social and selfish motivations to attend, and thus the philanthropic element of giving–just to give–is removed.” But, in a room full of 500 people, there are a lot of motives. Some pure, some not. Same is true for any form of giving.

Personally, I’ve had similar reservations about events. Back in my fund development days, I coordinated several fundraising events each year. I preferred grantwriting, which seemed much more efficient. And I didn’t have to wear heels and a headset.

However, I believe galas have their place in the nonprofit community.

Event fundraiser Shannon Doolittle, responds to Seth with a thoughtful post, Stop with the gala bashing already. I agree with her view that events should be mission-driven, unique and donor-centered.

Events do good by celebrating both donors and the nonprofit’s clients. I’d add that galas give your donors an opportunity to introduce new people to the cause. Good events can also create media opportunities.

If I could change just one thing about nonprofit events, I’d have fewer of them. Stop doing the ones that are barely breaking even. Or are indistinguishable from everyone else’s “rubber chicken” dinner.

Each organization should have one or two really good events, and drop dead weight. Because quality, worthwhile events strengthen the nonprofit community.

Huh? Fundraising zombie volunteers cost money?

Fundraising, volunteers

As most of you know, I’ve been talking this week about the City of Elgin’s upcoming Nightmare on Chicago Street special event and the role that area non-profits have been asked to play. While I won’t re-hash the story for you here, I encourage you to go back and read Monday’s post titled “Beware of Fundraising Zombies” and yesterday’s post titled “Fundraising zombies ‘doing the math’.” These posts along with what I write today focus on special events and how non-profits need to be especially careful about measuring “return on investment” (ROI) and thinking through how many events are too many.

So, while emailing back and forth with a very smart and dear friend of mine yesterday about this topic, they said:

“Come-on, Erik! What is the big deal with non-profits recruiting some of their volunteers to help the city out with their day-of-event operations? Sure, the ROI is poor, but there really isn’t any cost related to doing this. Right?”

As you’ve guessed, my response was “No, you’re wrong. There is a cost that no one is considering.” and thus the final chapter of my zombie fundraising posts was born.  Here is the explanation:

  • When a person agrees to volunteer, they are making a contribution of time to that particular non-profit agency. Right?
  • Most people consider “gifts of time” to be more valuable than their “gifts of money”. I’ve heard people say this often, and I know you have, too.
  • There are studies that show the “value of a volunteer’s time” is calculated to be $21.36 per hour. Don’t believe me? Click here to see the research for yourself.
  • The cost for a non-profit organization to build the necessary infrastructure to run a volunteer management program is calculated to be $300 per volunteer per year according to a study by Pubic/Private Ventures titled “Making the Most of Volunteers”. For some organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters, these costs go up to $1,000 per mentoring match. Click here to review the evidence yourself.
  • In my experience, a person’s volunteer hours are not an endless pool that non-profits can keep tapping over and over again. While it isn’t set firmly in concrete, most people have a limit to how much time they are willing to give. If you follow this logic, then recruiting a volunteer to work the zombie event means the non-profit is possibly forgoing future “contributions of time” from those volunteers for the charity’s projects back home.
  • Applying the concepts of ROI and “opportunity cost” that were discussed in yesterday’s blog post, let’s look at this entire thing from a different angle. Each charity receives 100 tickets that they sell for $5.00 each, resulting in $500 gross income. Let’s just say a participating non-profit recruits FIVE VOLUNTEERS who each contribute FIVE HOURS on the day of event. To put this into financial terms . . . 5 volunteers multiplied by 5 hours each and then multiplied by $21.36 per hour equals $536.00. This doesn’t even include allocating the costs associated with maintaining the agency’s volunteer management infrastructure.  It also doesn’t include the time associated with ticket selling if the agency asked volunteers to help sell its share of tickets to this event.

Drumroll please? My conclusion here is that non-profit agency gross $500 in ticket sales, but invest $536.00 of volunteer time as part of this special event collaboration. While I won’t go so far as to say the agency just lost $36.00 (even though I am really tempted to draw that conclusion), I think you can agree that this investment is looking less attractive by the second. Right?

Let me just be clear. I support this event and think everyone should attend. Who can’t agree that zombies and Halloween are fun. For the third time this week, I am encouraging everyone to buy their tickets at the door. By doing so, you’ll send a message to your favorite non-profit organization that you love them and won’t support this kind of counterintuitive fundraising behavior.

Let me doubly clear. I don’t think the City of Elgin is trying to hurt the non-profit sector. I know that this idea of involving non-profits in revenue sharing for this event was borne out of the desire to be collaborative and helpful during tough economic times. Additionally, it is the city’s economic development mission to drive foot traffic downtown to benefit its downtown merchants. This event should do exactly that, which is why I tip my hat to the city for trying to do “something”.

All I am saying is that non-profit organizations need to start looking at fundraising in a different light because their decision-making on these issues can and does have a real impact. Everyone — including the non-profit agencies, the city, donors, agency staff and bord volunteers — plays a role in doing this.

How does your non-profit organization evaluate its fundraising and resource development activities to ensure what you’re doing makes sense? Do you have a real and engaged resource development committee? What does that committee do? What efforts and considerations go into creating your agency’s annual written resource development plan? Do you have one? What does it look like? How much of these activities are ‘put on staff’ compared to collaborating with board volunteers, fundraising volunteers and donors to help find these hidden facts and answers?

There has been decent activity over the last few days with regards to usage of the “comment box” for this blog. Let’s keep up that awesome effort. It will take you less than 30-seconds to type your thoughts into the comment box below. Please do so because we can all learn from each other!

Here is to your health! (And I hope this will be the last zombie inspired post for a while . . . Have a Happy Halloween! In the spirit of Halloween fun, my gift to you is this YouTube video of President George W. Bush talking about zombies. LOL Enjoy!)

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

Fundraising zombies “doing the math”

Fundraising, volunteers

On Monday, I stirred the pot with my post titled “Beware of Fundraising Zombies!” and there has been lots and lots of reaction.

First, let me say thank you to everyone who read that post. Second, let me give an extra special thank you to those of you who forwarded it to others (I always appreciate that). Finally, let me clarify that I am not suggesting donors stop supporting non-profits who are selling tickets to the City of Elgin’s Halloween zombie event. What I advocated for in the post was donors boycotting those agency’s special events, but still sending a check to their charity for the full amount of what they would’ve spent at the event.

I am not suggesting that we put anyone out of business, and perhaps calling for a “boycott” was a bit dramatic . . . but it did get your attention didn’t it?  However, I am seriously suggesting that donors can play a huge role in helping non-profits change their behavior when it comes to the art of fundraising.

Perhaps, the most interesting thing to me that came out of Monday’s blog post and subsequent reaction is how many people apparently still grapple with the idea of “return on investment” and what Charity Navigator points out in its study on special event fundraising.

So, I’ve decided to use a purely hypothetical example to clarify this concept. Let’s just say a non-profit organization decided to run a rubber duck race raffle fundraiser. Drilling down into the hypothetical numbers, we might find something like this:

  • Gross income = $185,855 (remember that the “in-kind” prizes and media sponsorships are included in this number even though they aren’t cash)
  • Gross expense = $128,305 (again, remember that in-kind donations are washed out on both sides of the budget)
  • Net income = $57,550 (but this only accounts for “direct costs” and doesn’t take into account hidden indirect costs)
  • Let’s hypothetically say the agency’s CEO spends 60% of his/her time over a 12-week period working on this fundraiser. The agency’s Development Director is far more involved and easily sinks 90% of their time into this project during the same time period (this fails to account for the months of planning time incurred throughout the year). Finally, the poor administrative assistant is typing their fingers to the bone entering donations into two separate computer databases. Add up all these salaries and it probably comes to approximately $25,000, which means net income falls from $57,550 to $32,550.
  • It should be mentioned that at least 100 volunteers were hypothetically mobilized to make this event happen, and each volunteer probably averaged 10 to 15 hours (which included some combination of staffing two or three duck sales remotes, attending a few meetings/training/kickoff, and the day-of-event operations).

Without allocating other indirect costs (e.g. insurance, utilities, rent, gas for the duck van, payroll taxes, employee benefits, etc), let’s just say this event netted a realistic $32,550. The reality is that most special event fundraisers are not as productive as this hypothetical duck race example and end up closer to ZERO dollars raised or worse yet they end up “in the red” when all of the direct and indirect pennies are counted.

But wait! There is more . . . this duck race analysis wouldn’t be complete without factoring in a small concept like “opportunity cost“.

This same hypothetical non-profit agency ALSO runs an annual campaign (e.g. pledge drive where volunteers ask donors and community supporters to make a direct contribution and forego the fanfare of an event). Drilling down into the numbers, we might find something like this for this hypothetical agency’s annual campaign:

  • Gross revenue = $68,322
  • Gross expense = $4,174
  • Net income = $64,148
  • Add indirect costs that come from staff involvement (e.g. CEO, Development Director, Administrative Assistant) and another $7,903 of expense magically appears and the net income drops from 64,148 to $56,244.

Hmmm …. what would happen to this hypothetical agency’s annual campaign if the Duck Race was cancelled and those 100 duck volunteers all agreed to help with the annual campaign?

Let’s say these 100 volunteers all made face-to-face visits with five new donor prospects to the annual campaign. This represents an additional 500 people receiving visits and solicitations. Let’s also pretend that the “average size gift” to the annual campaign is $100 (it is usually much higher in my experience). This would push annual campaign net income up from $56,244 to $106,244.

Of course, there would be a loss of $32,550 in Duck Race net income in this scenario, but you just picked up $50,000 from shifting volunteer resources to a more productive fundraising activity. In other words, this hypothetical agency just LOST $17,450 by running what looked like (at first blush) to be a highly successful duck race special event. (Some agencies would look at this unrealized $17,450 and think it looks remarkably like a part-time employee position)

Yes … there are holes to be picked in this hypothetical story. For example, there is value in the publicity this non-profit receives from their Duck Race media sponsorships. The 500 new annual campaign asks might not all materialize into pledges. And the picking can go on and on and on. However, please keep in mind that this was a quick, rough and hypothetical example. You can ignore everything I just wrote and it doesn’t get us around the fact that there has been a study by Charity Navigator that empirically proves that special events don’t make money.

To be clear, I am NOT suggesting that non-profit organizations stop doing special events altogether. If they can plan and implement cost-effective events that bring additional intangible benefits, then please add one or two of these events to your annual written resource development plan. If you need help with a Resource Development Audit or writing a Resource Development Plan, I know where you can hire a really talented consultant who is dying to help you.   😉

However, when your local municipality asks that you sell tickets to their special events (with the promise of netting a few hundred dollars) and asks you to recruit your volunteers to help with day-of-event activities, then perhaps you should think twice about committing your agency’s limited resources in such a way.

Again . . . one final disclaimer. I think the Nightmare on Chicago Street is a great event idea. It is fun and an innovative way for the city to entice residents to rediscover downtown and its merchants. I encourage people to attend, but I encourage them to buy their tickets at the door and not from the non-profits who are selling them. In my experience, non-profits don’t sit-up and pay attention to issues like this one until donors start speaking up. This is a golden opportunity to make a point. Please join me in doing so.

While I appreciated all of the supportive emails on Monday, I encourage all of you to weigh-in with your thoughts by using the comment box below. Let’s all learn from each other. We can disagree and do so in a respectful manner. After all, this is what America is all about.

Here is to your health! (Sorry for the super long blog post this morning . . . zombies always get me going. LOL)

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
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Corporate philanthropy: He loves me — He loves me NOT

Board development, Fundraising, resource development, volunteers

Last week I facilitated a panel discussion about corporate philanthropy at a Boys & Girls Club regional conference in Milwaukee. Serving on that panel was a CEO, COO and CFO from two companies in the Fortune 500 and another company from the Fortune 1000. I personally had a great time interviewing those gentlemen, but later that evening I caught some of the news coverage about the Occupy Wall Street protests. Needless to say, it was a confusing day for me that represented quite a dichotomy.

When I feel this way, I typically like to retreat back to listing off simple facts and try to find some truth and clarity. Here are a few of those facts running through my head this morning:

  • Of the $300 billion given to charities every year, approximately 5-percent comes from corporations and more than 75% comes from individuals
  • There are CEOs who are committed to corporate responsibility and making our world a better place to live as seen in this YouTube video from the 2011 Board of Boards CEO conference.
  • There are individuals who are afraid of corporations and banks as you can see in this YouTube video of a 20-year-old Wall Street protester.
  • While corporations are legal structures without emotions, there are countless numbers of people behind the corporate veil who are living, breathing and compassionate.

From a charitable giving and non-profit perspective, I am always amazed at how aggressive we go after corporate sponsorship and donations even though the statistics don’t seem to justify that strategy. After giving this some thought, I’ve concluded the following two things:

  1. Non-profit volunteer solicitors must feel more uncomfortable talking to individuals about making a donation than even I thought possible.
  2. Non-profit volunteers exhibit this sense of “entitlement” when talking to corporations about charitable giving. (e.g. corporations “owe” this charitable money to our non-profit organizations because we shop at their stores every day and give them our hard-earned money).

If my two conclusions are “on the mark,” then non-profit leaders have a problem on their hands, and I assure you that things are not going to end well. Regardless of how much we cross our fingers and wish, these two things will NOT change: 1) corporations will not suddenly find more money to give away (go back and listen to the CEO conference video very carefully) and 2) individuals will always be the at the heart of a successful charitable giving program.

Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. Don’t stop engaging corporate America . . . continue writing grants, asking for contributions and sponsorships, and building partnerships. However, you need to keep perspective and your eyes on the prize. Listen carefully to this corporate philanthropy manager and I suspect you will come to the realization that your corporate philanthropy strategy can drive the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING to your resource development plans — increased individual giving and support.

Non-profit leaders need to pick themselves up off the ground, put the daisy down and stop singing songs related to: “She loves me, she loves me not“. We need to start LEADING and understand that corporate leaders need to make tough decisions around their limited charitable giving budgets. CEOs want to see return on investment, but even more so, they want their non-profit partners to help them engage their employees and advance their brand.

Additionally, non-profit leaders need to double down on training and working with their fundraising volunteers. We need to help these people get over their fear associated with soliciting individuals. We also need to help them let go of their entitlement attitudes around corporate philanthropy. These two things won’t happen without your leadership, and this paradigm shift must occur if your non-profit organization is going to get healthy during these tough economic times.

So, please feel free to go down to the Wall Street protests in your community, pick-up a sign and march to your heart’s content. It is quintessentially American to do so if you feel that way about the state of our economy and corporate America. However, you ALSO need to figure out how to build bridges to your corporate partners that will enable you to walk their employees (and your future donors) across that bridge and towards your organization’s mission.

Here is to your health!

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

The Sounds of Annual Campaign Planning: Part 5

Fundraising, Planning, volunteers

Today is my fifth and final blog post dedicated to the 2012 annual campaign planning process, and as I did with the previous four posts I’m putting it to music just for the fun of it. Today’s post focuses on the project management components of your plan.

Cue the music . . . click here for your first musical selection then start reading.  🙂

Getting your volunteers around a table to talk about big picture things — like your annual campaign goal, volunteer recruitment strategies, and policies — really just amount to dreaming and wishing. The magic really happens when the discussion is finally had around: ‘who’ is doing ‘what’ and ‘where’ are they doing it, and by ‘when’ it needs to get done.

For me, the old expression “How do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time!” comes to mind.

When fundraising staff roughs out a project management task list and hands it over to volunteers, I’ve never seen a happy ending associated with this strategy. Think of it this way — how can one person know what everyone else is capable and willing to do? Isn’t there an old expression about “ass-uming”???

This is an opportunity to engage people around getting stuff done, and it doesn’t have to be very complicated. Here is what my “To Do List” for a staff person might be for facilitating this part of the annual campaign planning process:

  1. Download a project management task list template from the internet or construct a simple one in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Or use Microsoft Project to organize things.
  2. Look at the campaign in its entirety and start breaking it out into small bite size tasks. The smaller, the better! Add those tasks to your punch list template.
  3. Organize a meeting of your annual campaign volunteers and go the extra mile to find a date/time that works for as close to 100% of the team. Trust Madonna when it comes to this step.
  4. Send the draft task list out to volunteers well in advance of the meeting. Ask everyone to review the tasks and come prepared to talk about when they think certain tasks can realistically be accomplished and who needs to be asked to do which tasks. Most importantly, ask them to think about which tasks they really want to personally volunteer to do.
  5. At the meeting, start by facilitating a discussion around timeframes and deadlines for individual tasks. Always keep in mind that some tasks are more critical than others. For example, the solicitation materials need to be designed and printed before volunteer solicitors can make any solicitations. A Gantt Chart might be useful as part of this exercise, or it might be something you assemble afterward to ensure the committee’s first draft works.
  6. After roughing out timeframes, ask everyone to roll up their sleeves and facilitate a discussion around: ‘who wants to do what?’ This discussion might involve people jumping in to personally grab certain tasks. It might turn into a discussion focused on who else needs to be recruited or asked to sit around the table. Regardless, these are good conversations because it represents the sound of “engagement”.

If there is silence during this last step (cue Simon & Garfunkel), then you just learned something else. You found out that your campaign is in danger of failing. The good news is that you discovered this way before launching your campaign, and there is still time to recruit more volunteers and get it together. Whatever you do, DON’T try to force the meeting because the it will end up looking like the one facilitated by this kid on YouTube. More importantly, the engagement you thought you just gained will all be fake and worth nothing during the campaign if you strong-arm people into doing something they don’t want to do.

Yes, this activity can be time-consuming, but it is a wise investment. Not only will you get people engaged, but it will become an important accountability tool during the implementation phase of your campaign. If used correctly, your project management task list (created with volunteer input) will help keep the “Procrastination Song” out of volunteer’s heads as they travel down that road with you.  🙂

How does your organization go about creating its project management tools for the annual campaign? Are there certain templates you like more than others? Can you point to those tools online? Do you have a success story or lesson learned around engaging volunteers in this process that you’re willing to share? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in because we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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