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June 17, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Boards should meet NOT email

I opened my e-newsletter from Jean Block yesterday, scrolled through it, and nearly jumped out of my chair when I read her link to an article in The Non-Profit Quarterly about boards that are voting on issues in between meetings using email . In a nutshell, the article spells out all the reasons why taking email votes is neither legal nor a very practice. I strongly encourage you to click the previous link and read the article for yourself (after you are done reading this blog, of course … LOL).

My former supervisor at Boys & Girls Clubs of America used to periodically rant to me about email. If I heard it once I heard it one hundred times … “email is an information technology and not a communication tool”. Regardless of whether or not you agree with him, I think we can all agree that email has its limitations. I thought the MAXIMUMadvantage website did a good job of naming the times that email is not appropriate.

Board members that use email voting are not exercising their fiduciary responsibilities. How in the world can we “discuss” important issues unless we’re engaged in a “real-time” discussion?

I know that there are people reading this blog who are saying to themselves that board members are “too busy”. To those folks, I suggest that anyone who doesn’t have time to attend board meetings probably shouldn’t be a board volunteer.

Please don’t misunderstand … there are appropriate roles for everyone in your organization. You just need to take the time to be donor-centered and relationship-oriented by getting to know the person and finding the right opportunity for them to support your mission.

Not every big donor or important person needs to be on the board of directors. It is possible to “engage” donors and community decision-makers without asking them to join the board.

Ask them to be a program volunteer or fundraising volunteer.
Ask them to help with strategic planning or participate in a focus group or a special project.
Just listen and then ask them to do something they are passionate about.

My bottom line is that square pegs shouldn’t be asked to fit into round holes.

Others of you might be saying that non-profit organizations have a tendency to “over meet” their volunteers. If that is the case, then I simply suggest that we need to figure out how not to do that. Instead, we should focus our efforts on having powerful and effective meetings. It “must be” possible because there is a website with the name effectivemeetings.com. LOL. At the very least, in all seriousness look into instituting a consent agenda. Additionally, here is a YouTube video with a few meeting tips.

Other than a consent agenda, what other strategies are you using to streamline board meetings while maximizing impactful and strategic discussions that serve to engage and empower board volunteers? Please share your thoughts and practices in the comment section before another email proxy vote is sent out for consideration.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 16, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Fundraiser-in-Chief?

My partner and I have been bombarded in the last few weeks by the Obama fundraising team with countless solicitations. There have been phone calls, emails and even snail-mail appeals. There is even one interesting email enticing us to donate in order to get entered into a raffle for a chance to have dinner with the President. Ohhh, let the fundraising fun begin!

After closing the “Dinner with Barack” email, I randomly decided to look at the Wikipedia page for “fundraising“. Interestingly enough, the only picture on that page was of U.S. President Barack Obama.

These two unrelated things in my life got me thinking. “Is Barack Obama not just the Commander-in-Chief but also the nation’s Fundraiser-in-Chief?” Here are some of the thoughts floating around in my head as I contemplate this question:

Team Obama raised approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2007-08 and experts are predicting they will top the $1 billion mark in 2011-12. I don’t know of anyone who has done that in any sector.
Team Obama raised their money from approximately 4 million donors, many of which were individuals.
Many fundraising experts who looked closely at the numbers said the Obama people did very well with getting small donors to contribute to their first political campaign and then did an even better with getting small multiple gifts from those same donor.

While I’ve come to learn the hard way that political fundraising is very different from doing so for a non-profit organization, I still believe the upcoming Presidential campaign fundraising efforts (all of them and not just Team Obama) are worth watching because there will likely be some interesting take-away lessons for social service non-profit organizations.

Team Obama did much to move the needle with regards to making political fundraising more “donor-centered” and less “transactional” compared to previous campaigns, and they seemed to do so using a blended approach of traditional fundraising (e.g. events, mail, phone, face-to-face) and e-philanthropy (e.g. email, website, social media, text, etc). I personally came to these conclusion because of the countless “update emails with videos” I received in 2008. It was obviously an attempt at stewardship and a way of demonstrating ROI to individual donors. It must have also been successfully because of the number of small donors who made multiple contributions.

In addition to non-profit resource development professionals getting an opportunity to observe up-close-and-personal donor-centered techniques being applied, I think it will also be interesting to watch how 2008 Obama donors behave in 2012. There were lots of promises made in 2008. As non-profit organizations have learned (mostly the hard way), when we over-promise and under-deliver, donors tend to be a little more reluctant to renew their contribution.

Finally, I’m also interested in watching how “transparency” in political fundraising continues to evolve in 2012. Have you ever checked out The Huffington Post’s “Fundrace” resource? Unfortunately, I have done so and found myself sucked into countless hours of looking up friends, family and donors to see who was donating what and to whom. Interestingly, I found my personal contributions to be under-reported. I wonder if that was a problem that resulted from having to reconcile contributions made via so many different avenues (e.g. website vs. snail-mail vs phone).

So, I think the jury is out on whether Barack Obama is our country’s Fundraising-in-Chief and the proof will be in the 2012 numbers. What do you think?

Were there any best practices or lessons learned that your non-profit used after the 2008 campaign? Are you watching anything in particular from a fundraising standpoint as we head into 2012?

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 15, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Symbols and philanthropy

Yesterday was June 14th and that can only mean one thing — Flag Day — which got me thinking about the importance of “symbols” in philanthropy.

Quite simply, symbols are things that help us quickly and clearly understand for what something stands. For example, the American flag represents the historic formation of our country (e.g. 13 independent colonies) and stands for the values put forth by our Founding Fathers (e.g. freedom, justice, democratic principles, self-determination, etc).

Symbols are powerful communication tools for organizations according to Anat Rafaeli and Momica Worline in their paper titled “Symbols in Organizational Culture“. The following are a few examples of symbols that I’ve seen non-profits use effectively:

Boys & Girls Clubs use a logo of two hands gasping each other. It is commonly known as “The Knuckles”. It symbolizes hope and opportunity as well as a partnership between kids and those willing to extend a helping hand in partnership. Donors see the logo and immediately understand in what they are investing.
The Boy Scouts integrated the fleur-de-lis into its logo. This symbol has had many meanings throughout human history; however, within a scouting context it is supposed to make donors think of a compass, which symbolizes scouting’s power in a person’s life to always keep them pointed in the right direction.
Getting back to Boys & Girls Clubs … this organization effectively uses its alumni assets as “symbols” and a way to effortlessly communicate to donors that the Club is 1) an effective after-school program that yields success stories, 2) all about lifting people up, 3) about forging positive kid-adult mentoring relationships, and 4) lots and lots of fun. Check out this Denzel Washington commercial and see if you can see those messages embodied in their spokesperson.

Many non-profit organizations also develop “signature fundraisers” or publicize “signature programs” that become symbols of their organization. I can specifically think of the United Way’s fundraising thermometer, poppies to support veterans causes, and cookie sales to help the Girl Scouts. Think of how powerful it must be for a donor to instantly understand in what they are investing.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge for your organization is integrating a sense of “mission-focus” into the symbols you construct. This is especially true for those non-profit organization’s pursuing cause-related marketing efforts. Who can ever forget when Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure affiliated their “symbol” (aka brand) with KFC’s brand (greasy, unhealthy food)?

Jump in and comment on other non-profit symbols that you’ve seen used very well or poorly by a non-profit organization in their resource development program. And enjoy this final link to the Chinese symbol for “philanthropy”

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 14, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Hiring a fundraising professional

Yesterday, we talked about the qualities and traits you should look for when hiring a “donor-centered” resource development professional. We ended up with some great comments and discussion. So, I decided to continue down this path a little farther today.

I oftentimes get asked the following two questions by small to mid-size non-profit organizations when it comes to hiring a RD professional:

When should we hire our first RD professional?
How much should we expect them to raise?

I believe an organization should consider hiring its first fundraising pro when it reaches a point when it feels like it needs more help to go to the next level. So, if a small organization is using committed board volunteers and an executive director to go from Point A to Point B in its resource development program, then it is a natural question during the annual evaluation process to ask once they get to Point B — “Do we need help getting to Point C or can we do it by ourselves?”

Evaluation is key to getting perspective and thinking through the question of when to hire your first RD professional. I also think Tony Poderis does a masterful job addressing this issue. Click here to read his article on this subject.

It is easier for me to definitively say that the following examples are times when an organization should NOT hire a RD professional:

When the board is tired of fundraising and wants to hire someone to do it for them
When the executive director of the organization is deemed to be inadequate at fundraising
When the organization doesn’t know in what direction it wants to go with its comprehensive resource development program.

As for ROI, I have heard lots of different opinions on this subject ranging anywhere FROM “one-times/two-times/three-times the RD professional’s salary” TO “you cannot measure it by dollars & cents because a good RD person makes board volunteers better fundraisers which leads to increased donor engagement”. I thought The Foundation Center did a nice job answering this question in their blog post.

When do you think an organization should hire its first fundraising professional or add more development people to the department? And do you have any suggestions on how to measure ROI? Please jump in and share your thoughts!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 13, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Searching for a donor-centered fundraiser

As I said on Friday, I am currently reading the book Co-Active Coaching as part of a business coaching certificate program. While digesting this text, it caused me to reflect back on Penelope Burk’s book, Donor Centered Fundraising. I think this is happening in part because when I read Penelope Burk’s book, I kept asking myself questions like “what would that look like in practice?” and “what skill sets would a donor-centered resource development professional need to possess?”.

I think some of the coaching material I’m currently reading fills in some of those blanks in my head, and I want to share those thoughts with you here today.

Chapter 5 in Co-Active Coaching talks about how one quality of a successful coach is “curiosity” and one skill set required to be curious is being able to ask powerful questions and dumb questions (which can also be quite powerful). On page 79, the authors list a few example questions:

What does what you want look (or feel) like?
What about that is important to you?
What else?
What will you do and when will you do it?

I now see the importance of limiting the number of “Yes-No” and “Why” questions because these questions can be intimidating and limit discussion. Likewise, I found myself thinking that open ended and naturally curious questions help deepen understandings and in turn deepen relationships.

If I was an executive director again and looking to hire a development professional with donor-centered fundraising skills sets, I suspect I would build a search process around finding someone with the following qualities:

listening skills
curiosity & engagement
action-oriented
life-long learner
authenticity
the ability to create accountability
connectivity & relationship building

Have you ever hired a donor-centered fundraising professional? If so, what qualities, characteristics, competencies and skill sets did they possess? What were some of the questions you used to tease these qualities out of your candidate pool? Please jump in and share.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 10, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Coaching at the heart of philanthropy?

As most of you know, I recently left my job at Boys & Girls Clubs of America to open my own non-profit consulting practice. I am taking the summer to prepare for a Labor Day launch of my new business. One of the things on my “summer to-do-list” is take classes and earn a certificate in “business coaching”.

As part of my studies, I am currently reading a book titled “Co-Active Coaching“.

I am only halfway through this assigned text, and I find myself wondering if the relationship between “coach and client” is similar to the relationship between “donor and non-profit organization”.

Non-profit leaders need to “listen” very carefully to donors, which is an important coaching skill.
Non-profit leaders need to be “intuitive” when engaging with donors, which is an important coaching skill.
Non-profit leaders need to be “curious” when engaging with donors, which is an important coaching skill.

Not to mention, I cannot remember how many times I turned to donors to help me think through and solve organizational issues when I was an executive director.

I am not completely sold on this idea, but the more I read this book the more I come to believe that a good donor-centered resource development professional is a good coach. I also wonder how many non-profit organizations allow their donors to coach them in business practices and participate in strategy sessions?

Does anyone have an example that proves or disproves this hypothesis?

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 9, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Generational transition and philanthropy

Jessica Journey’s blog post about the 2011 Millennial Donor Summit is in my head and I cannot stop thinking about Baby Boomers, Generation X and The Millennials.

While on the track this morning at my local gym, I was thinking about what happens when one generation passes the torch to the next generation. My thoughts immediately wandered back to the 1960s when Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” passed the torch to the Baby Boomers. While there were fun cultural changes like the introduction of rock-n-roll music, there was also tumultuous and violent changes like the Vietnam War protests and The Civil Rights movement.

Statistically speaking there is a similar passing of the torch happening today. Don’t believe me? Just go add up the numbers of the Baby Boomers and their parents’ generation and compare it to the combined numbers of Generation X and The Millennials. Still don’t believe me? Just open up a newspaper or tune your television to one of the countless news stations. There is all sorts of conflict over gay marriage, the future of Social Security & Medicare, and America’s role in the world.

I personally believe that these generational conflicts during times of transition are the result of two different sets of generational values systems clashing. It can be like tectonic plates sliding against each other producing cultural earthquakes.

So, what does this have to do with non-profits and philanthropy? I am afraid the answer is — EVERYTHING!

How do you think Gen X and Millennial donors will react to Catholic Charities in Illinois when they find out they have discontinued their adoption program in order to avoid compliance with the newly passed Civil Unions legislation (something these two generations value and respect)?
How do you think Gen Xers and Millennials will see the Boy Scouts of America as they learn about their restrictive membership policies pertaining to atheists, gays, and girls?
How will charities recalibrate their relationships with Baby Boomers (who have been the mainstay of most resource develop programs for a few decades) now that they are starting to retire and live on fixed incomes?
What will Boomers do with all this time on their hands after retirement? Could this be the start of the golden age of volunteerism? Or could part-time careers in non-profit work become a second career for Boomers looking to supplement retirement income?
How will the cynicism that is pervasive throughout the Gen X community impact non-profit organization’s ability to satisfactorily demonstrate “return on investment” and “return on investment” to Gen X donors?
How will Millennials’ technology preferences impact cultivation, solicitation and stewardship efforts?
As Boomers, Xers, and Millennials all start sharing space in the workplace, how will their different value systems interact and clash? How will non-profit managers balance these competing workplace approaches?

Rather than engaging in conflict and fighting, wouldn’t it be great if non-profit thought-leaders like the United Way took the lead during this transition? They could bring different groups together and engage us in a shared values discussion. They could also help local non-profits see the future and build organizational capacity to meet those challenges. Perhaps, our hope also rests with conferences such as the 2011 Millennial Donor Summit!?!?

How is your organization being proactive in preparing for this demographic earthquake? Please weigh-in and share.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 8, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

The donors of tomorrow?

I am a member of Generation X, which approximately includes those of us born between 1965 and 1976. There are approximately 51 million of us living in the United States. In front of us our generation is the uber-generation called “Baby Boomers” (approx 1946 – 1964 and 79 million strong) and behind us are “The Millennials” (approx 1977 – 1998 and 76 million of them). There is some argument over date ranges and even the numbers, but let’s try to stay focused on the big picture.

We can all agree that the donors of today are primarily Baby Boomers and Gen X individuals, which means the donors of tomorrow (and already starting to regularly donate) will be The Millennials.

When it comes to my generation, I usually use me and my experiences as a lens:

I haven’t physically owned a checkbook since 1998
I just quit my job to open my own consulting practice so I don’t need to wait for Boomers in front of me to retire and so I can live life by my own rules
I give to charities much differently than my mom and dad
I hate it when the non-profits I support try to institute rules around my philanthropy
I love technology
I hate to create boundaries between work and home and charity

I am very different from my parents and their friends. I can see it very clearly. There has been and always will be generational differences. It is natural and there is nothing wrong with talking about it.

I have a sister who was born in 1979 (and depending on who you listen to she is either a Millennial or right on the threshold). As with my parents and their generation, I can likewise see that I am very different from my sister and her friends. She values different things than me, she interacts with the world differently than me, and she seems to operate by a different set of rules.

As a former executive director of a non-profit organization, I know how much time that I spent trying to cultivate, solicit and steward “the donors of today” (aka Boomers and Gen Xers). It was exhausting work. I also know how much time I spent trying to do the same with “the donors of tomorrow” (aka Millennials). If you could hear me talking, you’d hear crickets because I was entirely focused on Boomers and Xers as I know most of you are, too.

With approximately 7,000 Boomers retiring every single day in America, non-profit leaders need to start paying attention to this sea change because retirement changes a donor’s profile, giving patterns and capacity to give. More importantly, more and more Millennials are engaging in philanthropy each and every day. The face of the average non-profit organization’s donor database is likely to start changing very quickly.

With this change will likely come an adjustment to our cultivation, solicitation and stewardship strategies. For example, we know that Millennials exhibit a high level of volunteerism. This suggests that non-profits wanting to engage “the donors of tomorrow” might want to invest in volunteer infrastructure (e.g. volunteer management / human resources, systems, structures, opportunities, etc).

We know who the donors of tomorrow are, but do we know what makes them tick? How to engage them? How to best solicit them? How to steward them and demonstrate ROI? I suspect not, but there is good news:

The Case Foundation is sponsoring the 2011 Millennial Donor Summit in just a few weeks. It is 100% virtual. You can register and participate online.
There have been studies done that tell us a lot about this generation. You can download and read it. You can share it with your resource development committee. You could engage a focus group of Millennials and ask them to explore what they think it means for your organization.
There are Millennial non-profit bloggers, like Jessica Journey, who you can follow in order to better understand a Millennial generation’s point of view on philanthropy.

There is much work to be done if our organizations are going to be sustainable.

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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

June 7, 2011 DonorDreams Uncategorized

Strategic planning and donors

I have a good friend who is a classically trained organizational development professional. In a previous professional life, I employed him to work on a few different projects. In hindsight, he became a coach for me and I remember he used to always insist that the only way you get performance is by designing the process to accomplish exactly what you need … “performance by design”.

I started thinking about this in a strategic planning context this morning while walking the dogs. So, when I got back home into the delightful air conditioning (it is HOT in Chicago today), I googled the search words “strategic planning models”. Click here to see more than 10 pages of process diagrams and countless pages of graphics.

If you need an explanation that doesn’t make your head hurt, I think our friends at managementhelp.org do a much better job of aggregating everything into five essential models. My “coach-friend” preferred the organic model and specifically liked one called “The Search Conference“.

With two degrees in urban planning and having facilitated countless strategic planning processes for non-profit organizations, I’ve learned that different situations require different models. However, regardless of the path you choose, it needs to engage those who you hope will get involved in future action for your organization.

With this being said, it is a mistake to involve just board and staff in a planning process. I believe whatever process is chosen, it needs to be inclusive of all stakeholders and for non-profit organizations this obviously includes donors. Here are a few of my random thoughts (regardless of which model you choose):

Ask key donors to volunteer on the ad hoc planning committee
Survey donors using paper surveys, electronic surveys and/or phone surveys (remember that one size doesn’t fit all and a diversity of responses requires varied survey instruments)
Interview donors one-on-one
Focus group of donors
If you are using a “search conference” model, invite donors to come to the conference and participate

Your strategic plan sets a direction and vision for your organization. If you want donors to invest in this vision, doesn’t it make sense to include them in the planning process?

Has anyone had success getting donors outside of your board volunteers and auxiliaries involved in a strategic planning process? Or do you have any suggestions? If so, please use the comment box and share. Thanks!

Here is to your health!

Erik Anderson

Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

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