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July 5, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising

The magic of engagement

Here I was last night watching fireworks when found myself engaged in a conversation with a gentleman by the name of “Dan”. In no time, our conversation turned to non-profit organizations and philanthropy. As he ticked through a number of different organizations he has supported over the years, he ended each of those thoughts with a negative memory attached to a fundraising issue or event. Here is a list of terms he used repeatedly used:

Dreaded special events
Rubber chicken dinners
Money grubbers
Beggars

If you personally know me, then you know how enthusiastic I am about philanthropy. So, this conversation was painful to sit through. However, five minutes into our chat Dan’s tone changed completely when he started talking about a new charity in which he has recently gotten involved. The name of this non-profit organization is Year Up.

I was desperate to change the path we had been on, so I started asking questions about this particular non-profit organization. What I discovered just confirms everything I’ve learned about philanthropy over the last 15 years. In a nutshell, Dan glowed on and on about a recent “rubber chicken fundraising dinner” where participants weren’t just asked to give money, but the entire program was geared towards promoting involvement.

Creating internship opportunities for clients
Helping clients with resumes, cover letters, and their job search
Mentoring clients

While these words didn’t exactly come out of Dan’s mouth, he essentially said, “Ah ha! Finally a non-profit organization that isn’t just after my money. I am more than just a meal ticket. I am seen as a partner who is willing to roll up his sleeves and help advance the mission.” Most importantly, he had a twinkle in his eye and was obviously excited.

In my opinion, this is exactly what Penelope Burk is talking about when she writes about “donor centered fundraising”.

Isn’t it funny how many fundraising and non-profit professionals are afraid to ask donors to get involved? All I can figure is that we practice this avoidance behavior because we’re afraid donors will see us as “asking for too much” and withdraw their support completely. So, instead of letting donors make decisions about their own time and level of engagement, we oftentimes make that decision for them.

I can imagine that there are donors who might stop supporting a non-profit organization if they feel harassed. With that being said, I’m not advocating harassment tactics. So, here is my challenge to you … identify 10 current donors and schedule face-to-face visits with them sometime in the next 30 days. During your sitdown meeting, talk to them about the impact their most recent financial contribution has made and then ask each donor this simple question: “in addition to your generous financial support, is there anything else you would like to do to support the mission?” Don’t offer up your ideas and thoughts. Just like when you are soliciting a contribution, be very quiet and still after asking the question.

You might just be surprised with where the conversation leads you. You might also like what kind of fundraising and non-profit professional or volunteer you become. I bet you will find an army of people just like Dan who will roll up their sleeves and end up becoming some of your most loyal donors. And those donors who are happy remaining financial supporters and cheerleaders will likely be thrilled that you asked.

Do you know anyone like Dan? What words have they used to describe fundraising and non-profit organizations? Have they fallen in love with a particular charity? If so, what do you attribute to their change of heart? Please use the comment section of this blog to share because these stories can be so transformative for so many of us.

Sorry for today’s super long post, but I always get excited when I can relay a real life donor story to those of you who care so much about philanthropy.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

July 4, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Philanthropy and the Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

As with most Americans today, I find myself reflecting back on our country’s history. While doing so, I became curious about how the history of philanthropy is woven into America’s story. After a little bit of googling and thinking, it is very obvious that one of very cornerstones on which we’ve built our country is philanthropy and charity. Consider the following facts:

In 1628, the Massachusetts Bay Company established the first ever American “board” to manage colonial business.
In 1630, John Winthrop preaches to Puritans bound for America that it is the obligation of the rich to care for the poor.
In 1638, John Harvard’s planned gift establishes a major American educational institution.
Throughout the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin is involved in numerous philanthropic projects including creation of the first circulation library in Philadelphia. He arguably plants the seeds of philanthropy throughout the founding of our country.

The list goes on an on. Click here to see a very interesting chronology of philanthropy in America.

There is also a great white paper published on the website learningtogive.org that argues that the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution are underpinned by philanthropic principles. First, consider that “philanthropy includes voluntary and active efforts to promote human welfare and well-being.” Look no further than the Constitution’s preamble that charges our new country with many things including providing for the “general welfare”. Click the aforementioned link to read so much more about how philanthropy is woven throughout the American tapestry.

I encourage you to take a moment this Fourth of July to reflect upon philanthropy’s roots in our American democracy and pay tribute to how it has made us the country we are today. Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

July 1, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising

Fundraisers are seagulls

One of my favorite books in the whole world is my autographed copy of “Donor Centered Fundraising” by Penelope Burk. As many of you know, Penelope Burk is the CEO of Cygnus Applied Research. Their survey research is some of the only work of its kind when it comes to donor retention and communications. It isn’t uncommon for me to just pull her book from my bookshelf at home and curl up and read a few chapters, which is exactly what I did yesterday.

More oftentimes than not, I find myself closing the book, shaking my head, and wondering what is wrong with us? (and by “us” I mean non-profit and resource development professionals) For example, yesterday I closed the book and started wondering “what would Emily Post — America’s foremost authority (even from the grave) on all things dealing with etiquette — think of my profession?”

If you think this is a harsh and an unfair question, please consider the following findings from Penelope Burk’s research:

71% of non-profits reported that they “communicate” with their donors by inviting them to a special event (Donor Centered Fundraising, page 52). I suspect most of these special events are fundraising events, which I believe is just more solicitation. “Thank you for your last contribution Mr. & Mrs. Smith! May we please have some more?”
94% of donors who responded to the survey said that the non-profits they support either never or hardly ever call them on the phone without asking for another contribution (Donor Centered Fundraising, page 55). “Thank you for your last contribution Mr. & Mrs. Smith! May we please have some more?”
98% of donors who responded said they either never or hardly ever personally see someone from their favorite charities without getting asked for another contribution (Donor Centered Fundraising, page 55). “Thank you for your last contribution Mr. & Mrs. Smith! May we please have some more?”

Friends, family, and countrymen … what have we become? At the risk of being over-the-top, I suggest that many non-profit and resource development folks have turned into those self-absorbed seagulls from the movie “Finding Nemo“. Check out this YouTube video clip to refresh your memory, and for this analogy think of the seagulls as fundraising professionals and Nemo as a donor.

Oh, you don’t believe me? Then please consider this … on pages 52-56, Penelope Burk rattles off the top 10 typical reasons that fundraisers provide for not doing a better job with personal stewardship-oriented communications. One of the reasons listed is: “We are overwhelmed by the numbers and feel that if we make personal contact with one donor, we will be obligated to do the same with every donor within the same period, something that might be logistically impossible.” Hmmmm, that certainly sounds like it is all about us … “MINE! MINE! MINE!” And many of the other 10 reasons on Penelope’s list sound very similar to “ME! ME! ME!”

I beg you … let’s start behaving like human beings and take a page out of Emily Post’s Book of Etiquette. I suspect that doing so will get all of us a little closer to what Penelope describes as “being donor-centered”.

Are you a seagull? Have you seen other fundraising professionals behave like seagulls? What written policies does your organization have that keeps you from behaving like a seagull? Please use the comment box to share any stories or best practices or random thoughts on this subject. We can all learn from each other!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

June 30, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Hiring a fundraiser from the for-profit sector

A few weeks ago, I posted a piece about “Hiring a fundraising professional“. It has been one of the more well-read posts year-to-date. Since that post, I’ve had two close friends speak with me about changing their direction in life and pursuing a career path in non-profit work. In addition to providing them with my point-of-view, I found a FREE online resource by idealist.org titled “Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for Sector Switchers“. It is actually a great resource that I suggest you pass along to any of your for-profit friends who might be considering a change.

So, what does this have to do with you hiring a fundraising professional (perhaps even your first fundraising pro)?

I have seen many non-profit organizations go through a search process for a resource development professional and end up with a bushel basket full of for-profit people claiming to possess “transferable skills” (e.g. marketing people, sales professionals, etc). I have also seen a number of these for-profit professionals fail miserably once they cross the great divide into non-profit work.

After reading “Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers for Sector Switchers,” I am convinced that those of you looking to hire fundraising professionals can use this guide to fine tune your search process, sharpen your interview questions, and sell your organization and its culture.

Chapter 5 of this guide tells job seekers how to make themselves more appealing to you. Reading this chapter might help you develop a better resume screening process (e.g. looking for for-profit candidates with volunteer, board, and/or internship opportunities).
Chapter 7 instructs candidates how to get a sense of organizational culture and assess if there might be a fit. You can turn this around and use the same tactics with the candidate to determine how well they might fit.
Chapter 12 addresses the challenges of “switching sectors”. You could use this information during the interview process to determine which candidates have thought this through and how they plan on dealing with the transition.

I could go on and on, but I will let you explore this wonderful resource for yourself. Happy reading!

Have you ever hired or worked with someone who “switched sectors”? How did it work out for them? What do you attribute their success or failure to? Please share your thoughts in the comment section and remember that it might be polite to “change the names to protect the innocent”. LOL

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

June 29, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

The 7 Ps and case statements

Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of crafting your organization’s case for support document, and I want to continue down this path a little further today. Back when I worked with the Boy Scouts of America, it wasn’t uncommon for me to hear a co-worker or volunteer lament “The Seven P’s” — “Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. If this revelation surprises you, then remember that “BE PREPARED” is the motto of the Boy Scouts .

After yesterday’s blog post, I realized that I might have made the case for revisiting and revising your case statement documents. However, I didn’t talk about how you can best prepare your volunteers to bring that case for support to life.

Here is an example of what some of our volunteers look like when they try to vocalize our case for support when sitting down with a prospect or donor … click here to see a less than perfect example of someone trying to make the case for their charity. Unfortunately, many of these volunteers commit the following mistakes:

They come across nervous or unsure of themselves
They don’t inspire confidence and passion
Their body language sends the wrong message
Some might even perceive that they don’t know what they’re talking about

This is not how we want our fundraising volunteers to come across; however, the reality is that we set them up for failure by not training and preparing them properly. Yes, many of us provide our volunteers with a copy of the case statement. Some of us might even go so far as to tell them what it is and why it is important. However, very few of us model the case statement’s appropriate usage or work with volunteers on practicing how to put it into their own words. Here are a few preparation tips you may want to consider:

Host a campaign kickoff meeting and use some time to review the organization’s case for support.
Ask volunteers to take a few minutes to read the case statement; then go around the room and ask everyone to share one impactful piece of messaging they took from the document.
Pair volunteers up with each other and ask them to take turns using the information in the case statement to “make the case for financial support” to their partner. Ask the person who is listening to also provide constructive feedback at the end of the exercise.
Use video technology to record each volunteer and meet with them separately with positive and constructive feedback.
Make sure that volunteers are personally solicited for their contribution prior to going out on their first solicitation, and make sure the person soliciting them is perfectly modeling usage of the case statement.
Make time to go on solicitation visits with volunteers. Take time after the visit to de-brief and discuss how the case for support might have been made more impactfully.

Volunteers will resist these efforts all in the name of “time”. However, you need to ask yourself if you can afford to send them out to talk to your prospects and donors less than at their best. If you invest a little time in “prior proper preparation,” they will become world-class fundraising volunteers who walk away from your campaign feeling good about the entire experience … click here to see a better example of someone trying to make the case for their charity.

How does your organization prepare fundraising volunteers to make the case for financial support from donors? Please share your best practices in the comment box below.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

June 28, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, resource development

What are you saying?

Last night I was watching Comedy Central before bedtime and caught an interview between Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. It was obvious that Norquist made an appearance on The Colbert Report because he wants to “cultivate” new Millennial generation voters and educate them about his anti-tax message.

Unfortunately for poor Grover, his time was not well spent because when all was said and done the only thing he essentially accomplished was to 1) explain his anti-tax pledge and 2) demonstrate how much he hates taxes. He never got around to telling the young Millennial audience WHY an anti-tax position is important to their generation. I was left wondering what is the case for support?

This got me thinking about many recent conversations I’ve had with non-profit friends. We’ve focused too much on the “how to” communicate with prospects & donors as well as the “how often” to do it. Unfortunately, I think we’re missing the boat (like Grover did last night) by not talking about WHAT should we say to our prospects and donors.

In today’s day and age of non-profit competitiveness, it is not good enough to:

send out a gift acknowledgement letter that just says “thank you”
mail a quarterly newsletter to donors
e-blast informational emails
call donors with appreciation
host a recognition event
get the newspaper to print your press releases
set-up and use Facebook pages and Twitter accounts

This laundry list is important, but even more important is what your messaging will be once your secure and use these communication vehicles. Here are a few suggestions to help you fine tune your messaging:

Go back and re-read everything you’ve used in the last 3-months.
Assess the messaging with a critical eye. Ask yourself if there is a fine tuned message focused on what you do, why you do it, and where are you doing it, and why is it urgent and critical for the community. (If all you hear is “blah-blah-blah,” then you have some work to do.)
Pull together a focus group of donors and ask them what messages they hear and what do they want to hear.
Dust off your organization’s “case for support” document. Re-read, assess, test, and re-write based on what you hear from others.

Tom Ahern put it best in his most recent e-newsletter when he said: “Our job as donor communicators, I am now convinced by experience and research, is to bring JOY to the donor’s door.”

Has your donor communications brought joy to your donors? Have you asked them? Or are you just grabbing the megaphone and yelling as loudly as you can “we need more money”? Please go to the comment section of this blog and weigh-in on your organization’s communications best practices and how you know they are effective. Let’s learn from each other!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

June 27, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Viruses, hackers, spyware and donors oh my

Last Thursday, I turned my computer on and started preparing to write my daily blog, when suddenly my virus software sprang into action. A pop-up window told me that my computer was infected with a trojan virus and asked if I wanted it removed. Of course, I said ‘YES’. In a blink of an eye, I was staring at the dreaded “blue screen of death,”and I was obviously out of commission. It was for this reason you did not see any blog posts from me on Thursday or Friday.

During my unplanned time down, I started thinking about how non-profit organizations probably deal with this on a daily basis and how in some instances it could even impact donors who routinely feed us their personal information (e.g. name, address, phone, email, credit card and banking info, etc).

Upon further investigation, did you know that the Obama team, who has collected tons of donor information at donate.barackobama.com, had to dealt with hackers as recently as a year ago? And “Twitter hacking” has been in the news recently for reasons I refuse to go into.

Non-profit organizations are constantly collecting information on their donors and storing it in their donor database. In fact, with the social media revolution in full swing, non-profits are pushing further by “friending” donors on Facebook, following donors on Twitter, and linking with donors on LinkedIn. All of these activities are intended to help deepen our relationships with donors and get to know them even better.

It is a brave new world and non-profit organizations need to make sure they are ready to deal with these issue. If you don’t think spyware, computer viruses, phishing and hackers are an issue, then go talk to our resource development friends at the University of Notre Dame or Maine Public Broadcasting.

Put yourself in a donor’s shoes after being informed that your systems were compromised? Where is your confidence level? What is running through your mind the next time you’re asked to make a contribution?

Of course, the answer is not to unplug your donor database or shutdown the organization’s Facebook or Twitter accounts. However, you might consider the following:

Develop a privacy policy for donors like the one Hope House has posted on their website.
Use the Association of Fundraising Professional’s (AFP) Code of Ethical Principles & Standards and The Donor Bill of Rights as a foundation to develop your resource development policies.
Develop a crisis management plan like the one United Way of Marion County in Florida has posted to the internet and consider involving donors in the policy development process so you can capture their point of view on how they’d like to be informed on certain matters.
Develop a documentation retention policies so you know what you need to keep and how to securely keep it. Blue Avocado has done a nice job getting you started down this road, but you definitely need to involve your board volunteers, Finance Committee, auditors, and possibly even your donors in developing your own policies.
Use virus software and spyware software routinely. Check out Tech Soup’s “virus protection toolkit”.
Don’t ever email donor data or information.

If you really want to scare yourself, spend a few moments with this PowerPoint presentation from our friends at NTEN. Scared yet?

So, how do you protect your donor data? If your systems got hacked or compromised, how would you go about informing your donors and dealing with the crisis? Please weigh-in and share so we can all learn together!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

June 22, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising

Donors and organizational politics

A good friend of mine (and a reader of this blog) sent me an email yesterday suggesting that I start reading another blog called “The Third Sector Report“. Being a firm believer that good writers are good readers, I clicked the link and tried that blog on for size. This week’s post by Jeffrey Wilcox CFRE talks about politics inside of non-profit organizations.

Wilcox’s words hit me sideways and personally. They took me back in time to board meetings where two or three groups of board members were discussing different building options prior to beginning work on a capital campaign. Some volunteers wanted us to acquire land and build in one place. Others wanted to expand on our current site. Still others (including one of our biggest and most influential donors) wanted us to acquire an existing building and renovate.

When you get a bunch of people together who are mission-focused and passionate, politics can’t help but enter the equation. Sometimes it is paid staff at odds with board volunteers, and it really gets interesting when donors get involved.

Wilcox suggests that politics is unavoidable and urges non-profit leaders to develop a political management toolkit. There are lots of awesome tools one of which is a written succession plan. <Yikes!> However, I don’t want to steal his thunder. I urge you read his blog post for suggestions of the other tools to include in your toolkit.

In the end, I am convinced this “political management toolkit” is a great opportunity for non-profit leaders to get donors involved. CEOs and development professionals are wasting an engagement opportunity if they sit down and pound out a communication policy by themselves. I don’t see any problem with involving key donors and board volunteers in development of the executive director’s annual performance management plan.

Some donors just don’t have time to join the board of directors, a standing committee or a special event committee. So, why not ask them if they want to help out with a small project that has a distinct start and end? If you can make the case for why these tools in your political management toolkit are important, you will likely find a few donors who are willing to help. In the end, that donor is likely to be more engaged and as we all know … “money follows involvement”.

The bonus, of course, is that you’ve simultaneously built more organizational capacity in addition to deepening key donors’ engagement. Additionally, if the project involves something that a donor is passionate about, then you are modeling what a good “donor-centered” resource development professional looks like.

Have you ever included key donors who are not board volunteers in short-term projects? What was your experience and the results? Please weigh-in and let us know.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653

June 21, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Tin cup philanthropy

So, I was coming out of my local grocery store on Saturday and standing outside of the exit was a volunteer. She was holding a small plastic bank in the shape of a dog. Once I was in ear shot distance, she asked if I could spare some change for the local “low kill” animal shelter.

First, let me say that I know this charity. Second, let me say that I respect the work that this charity does. However, I did not part with my pocket change and found myself wondering instead:

How many hours was that volunteer standing there?
How much money could she possibly have collected during that time?
How much more money could she have raised in the same amount of time if she just asked a few of her friends who cared as much as she does about this cause to make a direct contribution?

Now there are some people who believe ALL charitable activities that ask people to make a contribution for nothing in return is “tin cup philanthropy”. If you don’t believe me, just read this Financial Times article for yourself. If you get really interested, you can cross check it with our friends at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who appear to have fallen in love with what they call “Experimental Entrepreneurship“.

As a donor and a resource development professional, I understand why so many people see traditional philanthropy as begging with a tin cup, and it goes beyond just the volunteer standing outside of my local grocery store begging for her charity of choice. It extends to many non-profit organizations who recruit volunteers who are “reluctant solicitors” in the first place and then provide little to no training to those volunteers. The end result is typically well-intentioned people going to their friends and neighbors begging them to make a pledge, purchase a raffle ticket or attend an event.

When this happens, very little time is spent talking about the community needs that the charity might be addressing with its programming. To be frank, it typically sounds like begging and sometimes degenerates into quid pro quo or favor granting.

While I am intrigued with “experimental entrepreneurship” and see nothing wrong with charities exploring it as revenue stream, I don’t think it is “the answer” to tin cup philanthropy.

Non-profit leaders need to recruit the right volunteers for their fundraising activities, and they need to do a better job of training and supporting those volunteers. Let’s stop begging and start talking about our mission; community needs & gaps; our programs, services & solutions; and most importantly the “return on investment” for the community that comes with making a charitable contribution.

Only once we start doing this will we be able to retire the old tin cup.

What has been your experience as a donor? A volunteer solicitor? If you are a non-profit staff person, am I off-base with my conclusions? And is anyone excited about experimental entrepreneurship and why?

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653