Non-profit donors: “Should I stay or should I go?”

A few years ago I discovered two fundraising bloggers from “across the pond” who collaborate on a daily blog called “The Agitator“. I fell in love and told all of my friends to subscribe if they knew what was good for them. A few weeks ago, The Agitator published a post titled “Flat Earth Fundraising: Ignoring The Leaky Bucket” that was so outstanding that I fell in love all over again.

While Roger hits a lot of hot buttons for me in this post about donor retention, one point struck me particularly hard when he said:

“This means half of your retention battle has nothing to do with your mission features and organizational benefits. A large part of the reason a donor will stay or go is not mission or message or premium offer, it is how she/he is treated when encountering donor services. The opportunity here is not avoiding bad experiences (that is obvious), the real opportunity is recognizing that service can actually improve the relationship and is a critical touchpoint, one that can help to further monetize the relationship with cross-sell and upsell.”

There are big non-profit organizations out there that are well-oiled machines. These types of organizations have fundraising departments and use complicated direct response strategies that would make many for-profit organizations proud. They employ fundraising professionals responsible for managing a caseload of donors and use Moves Management strategies. I suspect “donor services” look very different at a large non-profit agency than it does at a small organization. I’m not saying that it should (maybe it should and maybe it shouldn’t) . . . I’m just saying that it does.

After reading Roger’s thoughts about “donor services” and the role it plays in donor retention, I started thinking about what this means for small non-profit organizations that focus more on in-person, face-to-face fundraising and less on targeted and direct mail.

What does it mean?

It means that the volunteer solicitors your agency recruits to work pledge cards becomes one very important touchpoint for the donor.

Duh . . . right?

As I think back upon my days on the frontline of a small non-profit agency working with volunteer solicitors on annual campaign implementation, I am embarrassed to admit that the thought farthest from my mind was “how enjoyable and fulfilling will that solicitation meeting be” for the donor. In fact, I was more focused on tactical issues such as:

  • do I have enough volunteers?
  • where can I host a good kickoff meeting?
  • how can I inject accountability and urgency into the campaign so that we can finish “on time” and run along to the next fundraising event?

Sure, I provided volunteer solicitors with “training” at the kickoff meeting, but it sometimes felt like an after-thought. As I look back over some of the campaigns I’ve run in the last decade and think about some of the volunteers I recruited, I now wonder how well some of those solicitation meetings went.

Ugh! I would describe some of my favorite volunteers as “major closers”. They are task oriented and would “hunt down” their assigned donors like a dog hunts down their favorite bone. While that approach might have been good for me, I am now worry about how the bone . . .errrr . . . donor felt.

I would also describe some of my other fundraising volunteers as “highly reluctant” and only agreed to participate because I was charming and persuaded them to do so. In spite of all the training, I can imagine that their solicitation calls felt uncomfortable for everyone involved.

I suspect that prospects/donors have the classic song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” by The Clash running through their heads every time they are sitting down with a volunteer solicitor. This encounter needs to be good. In fact, it needs to be great!

The following are just a few thoughts running through my head this morning on how to get a little closer to achieving this objective:

  • put lots of time and thought into recruiting “the right” volunteer solicitors who are comfortable and excited about asking other people to consider making a pledge to your annual campaign;
  • be thoughtful and engage your volunteers during the prospect assignment phase of your campaign and focus on matching people based on good solid relationships;
  • go beyond the typical training focused on how to make the ask and use the case statement by including tips on how to improve the quality of the meeting itself; and
  • ask the volunteer solicitor to engage their prospects/donors in a conversation around what their preferences are for post-solicitation communication by the agency.

What is your agency doing to improve the quality of interaction between solicitor-donor and agency-donor? How are you evaluating and assessing the effectiveness of those encounters? Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health! (If you want to be “agitated,” go check-out Tom & Roger’s blog posts over at The Agitator. You won’t be disappointed!)

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

Non-Profits Can Mobilize Slacktivists Using Social Media

Hi, my name is Marissa and I am a slacktivist. I admit to thinking I am politically active by sharing my thoughts on issues with my friends through social media without really taking any other political action. It is easier for me to “like”, “retweet”, “+1”, or “share” something than it is for me to write a letter to my Congressperson.

But is slacktivisim a bad thing? And how can you use this passive involvement of others to actually make something happen for your non-profit organization and mission?

This past week, I caught an episode of my favorite news source, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His guest was Ben Rattray, founder of a website called change.org. As the interview went on, it became clear to me that Rattray had found a way to take the simple act of a person’s “like” or “retweet” and turn it into powerful political action.

The basics behind change.org are this: a user can create a petition about any issue and change.org will help the user reach out through social media to get people to sign the petition for free. Petitions are simply signed with the click of a button.

If the user decides to pay change.org for their services, they can export the list of people who have signed their petition. Change.org also offers organizations access to sponsored campaigns.

“Sponsored campaigns” are promoted to change.org users who would most likely support your cause. The community on change.org is growing everyday, and I can only imagine it growing even more after this week’s exposure on The Daily Show. Tapping into the already growing community of users could help your non-profit organization gain more exposure. It could also be a great way of generating a list of prospective donors who are interested in supporting your mission and issues.

Change.org also connects users with local and national media outlets. Remember when Bank of America was going to charge $5/month for using a debit card? It was a change.org user who created a petition that 300,000 people signed, which gained national media attention. This, of course, resulted in Bank of America deciding to drop the proposed fee hike.

So, what could change.org do for your organization? You could create  a petition connected to your mission and use change.org to engage individuals who sign your petition. A recent article on Mashable states:

“slacktivists are 2x as likely to volunteer, 2x+ as likely to ask for donations, and 4x as likely to ask others to get involved.”

If you’ve seen KONY 2012 or Bully, you know how quickly a message can spread through the internet. Projects like these have inspired many people to get involved.

Even if you choose to not use a platform such as change.org for your agency, there are still lessons to take away from the foundation they set-up.

Make it easy for people to get involved. If you have a blog on your site, make sure you have social media buttons at the bottom of each post to allow users to share your message with their friends.

Create a community. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. Use it for good. If you create a community on a social media site (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or even on your own blog), then make sure you take the time to reply back to those who leave comments as well as recognize those who are sharing your content with their social network.

Support a cause that supports yours. If there is a petition out there that helps your mission, then get involved and sign it. If people see that you care about an issue they also care about, they might take the time to visit your website to learn more.

It was exciting for me to see how change.org makes a difference in our communities with a tool as simple as a petition. And I guess that’s the big takeaway from it all; the easier you make for people to get involved, the more people will be.

Is change.org a network that your organization could benefit from? I’d love to hear why or why not in the comments below! Or are you using other providers or platforms to accomplish the same objectives? Please share.

Stop hating on the donor because its not their fault that you’re broke

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

Today, we’re focusing on a post that John titled “My Other Two Dogs“. In this post, he shares an old Native American story about two dogs as it is told by Harold Kushner in his book Living a Life That Matters. It is a great story about how every day most of us struggle to maintain a balance between good and bad.

While John’s post is complex and can easily take you in many different directions, I immediately started thinking about donors. You know . . . those generous people who write checks to your non-profit organization because they believe you’re going to change the world.

I have seen this tendency to blame the donor for our woes. It doesn’t happen all of the time. It typically happens during our darkest hour when a fundraising campaign is falling short of its goal or our agency’s annual budget is projected to slip into deficit.

I’ve seen it often enough to know that this behavior is not atypical. If you’re still trying to get your arms around what I’m talking about, here are a few examples:

  • “If all of our donors just sacrificed a little harder and donated what it likely spend on Starbucks coffee every week, then our agency would have more than enough funding to do everything that needs to be done!”
  • “If every person who lives in our community would just give us $5 per year, then . . .”
  • “Oh yeah, sure . . . who does that guy think he is blaming the economy and the housing market for his inability to donate $50 to the annual campaign. It isn’t an inability, it is an unwillingness. Geez, it’s just fifty bucks!”

I can go on and on with examples of where we blame the donor for our woes, but I think you get the idea.

I need to also confess that one of those examples came right out of my mouth yesterday. Yes, I am a bit embarrassed because I like to think that I am a bigger person than that and a more savvy fundraising professional. However, this realization simply confirms for me that John is right on target in his post “My Other Two Dogs“.

ALL OF US (or at least most of us) are faced with this struggle for balance every single day of our lives. It manifests itself in our personal relationships, and it is likely present throughout the work day. We must work at maintaining balance because it will not naturally occur. If you’re not vigilant, then you run the risk of slipping. In the case of fundraising, you run the risk of saying something in front of a donor, board member or volunteer that could have lasting repercussions.

If your non-profit organization is struggling with fundraising, you need to look internally. The following are a few questions I suggest you ask yourself:

  • What does your written case for support look and sound like? Does it convincingly “make the case” for donors to write a check or can it use some tweaking?
  • How do your fundraising volunteers use your agency’s written case statement? Are they using it? Or does there need to be more training provided?
  • Do you and your fundraising volunteers look and sound like they’re having FUN while soliciting for a special event or pledge drive? Or is the energy level down and do people sound like they can’t wait for it to be done and over?
  • Structurally speaking . . . what tactics are you using to inject a sense of “mission-focus” into your fundraising efforts?

As John suggests in his blog post, we need to keep “feeding” the good dog so that the “bad dog” doesn’t win. I hope some of these suggestions provide you with some “food”.

Have you ever found yourself channeling that bad dog? How do you guard against it? What do you feed that good dog to remain focused on all of the right things associated with your resource development program? Please scroll down and share a few of your tips and tricks in the comment box below. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

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

How to “make” an effective fundraising volunteer?

Yesterday’s blog post titled “Are fundraising volunteers born or are they made?” stirred the pot for many of you and begged the question: “How do you go about making an effective fundraising volunteer?” So, I thought answering that question would make for a great follow-up post this morning.

When I consider this question, two really goofy and childish analogies immediately come to mind. The first thought that popped into my head is that of Dr. Frankenstein stitching up his newest fundraising volunteer and pulling the switch while proclaiming “It’s alive!” Ummmm . . . maybe this would be the wrong tone for this subject.  LOL

Instead, I decided to pay tribute to my Generation X roots and take a page from an iconic 1970s television show: “The Six Million Dollar Man“. After all, don’t we all wish our fundraising volunteers were worth six million dollars or were capable of raising that sum of money for our agency? LOL

So, let me paint the scene. You and your resource development committee developed a prospect list of volunteers and recruited those individuals to help with your annual campaign. As these individuals stride purposefully through the front door of your agency for their first meeting, you hear those iconic words from the Six Million Dollar Man introduction: “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic . . . fundraising volunteer.”  Or something like that.   😉

So, now what? What does that approach and support look like?

Training
Formal training is obviously needed, but it must go beyond a simple PowerPoint slide show that illustrates the 12 steps to making an effective face-to-face solicitation. You may want to incorporate some video into this training opportunity. There are many good resources available on the market, and one of those DVD resources is Marc Pitman’s “Ask Without Fear“.

However, don’t stop with a PowerPoint slide show and a few video snippets.

I think people learn by doing, which means getting people to practice what they see. Yes, this means motivating people to do something they dislike, which is role-playing things like: 1) making the ask, 2) answering questions and objections, and 3) using the words they’re provided in the case for support document. To make this easier, don’t ask volunteers to do it in front of the large group . . . break them into pairs or groups of three and facilitate small group role-playing.

Support material
You can help improve the effectiveness of your fundraising volunteers by ensuring they have what they need to do a good job:

  • solicitation materials
  • pledge cards
  • donor profile sheet including contact info, giving history, and a specific ask amount for this particular campaign
  • letter to leave behind with the solicitation materials that reminds the donor of what they were just asked to donate (Note: this letter might act as a crutch and help the volunteer NOT leave the pledge card behind.)

The more organized and prepared a fundraising volunteers feels, the more confident they will be when it comes time to making the appointment and solicitation.

Support in-person
I cannot tell you how many fundraising professionals I’ve seen conduct a great training and provide great materials, and then think their job is done. Professional staff are not like orchestra conductors. I personally believe that they are “roll-up-the-sleeves” kind of people who get into the trenches with their fundraising volunteers and participate in solicitation meetings. It is especially critical to go along on solicitation calls with your newest fundraising volunteers. This is an opportunity to model best practices, provide support and encouragement, and coach.

However, there is a huge challenge that exists with this suggestion. Most volunteer will do everything they can to discourage you from going with them. Why? I suspect that it is because they are afraid. Afraid of what? I think they’re afraid of “doing it wrong” and being told to do it differently.

You can easily overcome this, but it will take perseverance on your part. Don’t take NO for an answer. Additionally, you can reduce their fear by easing into this approach. Perhaps, the first solicitation or two is set-up whereby they are simply sharing their passion for your mission and the information from the case statement with you “making the ask” and “closing the deal”. Then in subsequent solicitation meetings, you transition them more into asking for the contribution, answering questions, and overcoming objections.

Campaign structure
If all you do is provide training, support materials and role-modeling, you will still most likely fail in your quest to “make” an effective (six million dollar man) fundraising volunteer. There are structural things you need to develop and implement that create a sense of urgency, accountability, expectation, mission-focus, etc.

A few such structural tools-resources-approaches include: report meetings, weekly progress reports, written job descriptions, and things that remind volunteers why they’re out asking others for charitable contributions. I won’t go into detail because this topic in and of itself could be a blog post.

Retention
The biggest and most important thing you need to do is RETAIN your fundraising volunteers and keep them coming back year-after-year. There is nothing worse than investing time and resources into creating the Six Million Dollar Man, and then start over from scratch next year with a completely new set of volunteers. You need to build FUN and recognition into your fundraising activities.

Every year that a volunteer keeps coming back and making more asks, the more effective they will become. After all, we’ve all heard the expression: “Practice makes perfect”.  Right?

What does your non-profit organization excel at doing to “make” effective fundraising volunteers? Please scroll down and use the comment box to share your favorite training video or best practice. Or share something that you do that you believe makes all the difference in the world. As I always say, we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

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

Five things nonprofits should know about Facebook’s Timeline layout

Facebook. What started out as a way for college students to find out more about their friends, has turned into one of the most powerful social media sites ever.

This week, Facebook introduced some new tools for managing your agency’s Facebook page. Let’s take a look at 5 things you need to know about “Timeline for Pages“:

1. Choose a powerful Cover Image. The new Timeline layout allows organizations to highlight their mission through a captivating photo at the top of the page. You will still have a profile photo that will be seen elsewhere on the site, but now the cover photo is a way to feature your latest event or mission in action. You can even create cover photos that supporters can download and use as their own cover photo on their personal Facebook page.

2. Tell Your Story. Facebook allows you to now fill in important dates in the history of your organization by using the new “milestones” update. This is a great way to expand your “about” section and bring it into the Timeline. Consider sharing when your organization was founded, when it reached a great fundraising goal, when your agency won an award, etc. Another approach might be to share important milestones in the history of your mission.  For example, if there was important legislation passed that the impacted your organization, this could be noted on your timeline.

3. Messages. Facebook users can now message you directly. The person does not need to “like” your page to be able to communicate with you behind the Facebook timeline. This is important to note because it is yet another place for a staff member to check regularly.

4. Goodbye landing pages. In the past, users used to be able to set up a static page that would welcome users to their page. This page would disappear if the user “liked” the page giving further access to content. With the new timeline layout, this is no longer possible. Facebook is turning the focus to direct contact with users, so content needs to be engaging in order to entice a first time visitor to your page.

5. Pinning is not just for pinterest. With each story you post onto your timeline, you have the option to highlight it “above the fold” on your page. Click the pencil icon that appears when you hover over the top right-hand corner of a story. Doing so brings up a box where you can choose to pin your story to the top. This is different from highlighting a story which stretches the story across the entire page.

These are just a few of the changes that will occur with your agency’s Facebook page once the conversion over to “Timeline” is complete. As of March 30th, all Facebook pages will be transitioned to timeline. If you want to preview how your page will look after the conversation, click the notice at the top of your Facebook page when you log in. You can preview the page until March 30th or until you publish it to the public.

Along with the layout changes, Facebook is making changes to the marketing side of your agency’s page as well. You can read up on those changes in this TechCrunch Article.

The new Timeline feature changes the focus of yoru Facebook page to sharing stories. How are you planning to tell the story of your non-profit organization using Facebook’s new tools? Let’s brainstorm in the comments below!

And the Oscar goes to . . . Take Two

Yesterday, we talked about how donors are like a Hollywood movie and act as a mirror for your non-profit organization (e.g. reflecting what you’re about, who supports you, what messages resonate and which ones don’t, etc). If didn’t get a chance to read that post, click here and check it out. Today, I want to extend this conversation and talk about the power of testimonials and using video to capture them.

If you watched the Academy Awards on Sunday, then you may have noticed the myriad of “testimonials” sprinkled through out the television production. There were short little snippets showing Brad Pitt or George Clooney or Angelina Jolie or Sandra Bullock, and they were talking about their love of making movies. While watching those testimonials, here were some of the things I noticed:

  • Their words seemed “powerful” and captured my attention. They caused me to reflect upon why I love movies.
  • There was a sense of honesty in their words. It felt like they were bearing their souls.
  • I felt a connection to that person. It was almost an intimate conversation you have with a friend or family member.

That was my experience . . . I’m not sure if you felt the same thing. Did you feel it or was I drinking too much wine?

This experience got me thinking . . . why can’t non-profit organizations do the same thing? Interview donors on video. Ask them to recount the first time they were asked to donate to your organization? Why did they do it? Why do they continue doing it? What about your mission inspires them?

Sure, I can hear many of you already mumbling about costs and time, but does this need to be something really expensive or time-consuming? I own a flip camera and tripod. Microsoft MovieMaker isn’t that hard to use. Hasn’t technology come far enough where almost anyone can produce something like this without it looking like a train wreck? I think so. Don’t believe me? Then go spend a little time on YouTube. Sure, some of it is crap, but some of it isn’t all that bad either.

As I contemplated all of these thoughts yesterday, the most amazing thing happened. It was almost like the blogosphere gods were listening to my thoughts because one of my favorite bloggers — Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now — posted his blog titled “How to make nonprofit videos that people share” and it landed in my email inbox. WOW!

Jeff shares 10 tips on how non-profits can produce great videos. I urge you to read Jeff’s post, and then circle back here to DonorDreams blog and share your thoughts and experiences using the comment box below. Has your agency done a similar project? What were the results? Were the time and money obstacles too high to overcome? What are the obstacles keeping you from doing something like this? Please remember that we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

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

What do your donors value?

A few months ago, I had the privilege of facilitating a values exercise for an organization. I blogged about it weeks afterward in a post titled “Does your non-profit have a soul?” Yesterday, I had a similar privilege to facilitate a focus group with a different agency, and one of the questions I asked clients was “what values do you see the organization living?

Wow! If you ever want to know if you live your values, pull together a group of clients and ask them what they see. It can be an incredibly affirming exercise. I suspect it can also be eye-opening.

After yesterday’s focus group, I decided to spend a moment reflecting on the power of that exercise. I found my mind wandering back to the same question:

“I wonder how many non-profits know what values their donors hold close to their hearts and how that impacts their willingness to invest in their mission?”

For some dumb reason, I’ve never considered how a donor perceives an agency’s values, reconciles it with their own personal values, and factors it into their decision to donate or not. After thinking about it for a moment, it is as obvious as the nose on my face. However, I must admit that this never has consciously crossed my mind. <<Embarassing>> Additionally, this revelation has now trigger more questions:

  • Could fundraising ineffectiveness in part be caused by an organization that doesn’t have a well-defined set of organizational values?
  • Could an agency that only has values “on paper” and fails to live by them, negatively impact their fundraising program?
  • What can non-profits learn if they ask their donors what values they see the agency living?
  • How can a non-profit organization best ascertain what values their donors cherish?

Regardless of how you answer these questions, I suspect you will conclude as I have that it is important to figure out how to best communicate what your organizational values are throughout the cultivation, solicitation and stewardship processes.

However, first things first . . . what does your non-profit value? I will leave you with the following incomplete list of values and principles that I’ve seen some agencies embrace (e.g. the YMCA’s core values are in the graphic to the right of this paragraph):

  • Excellence
  • Honesty
  • Fun
  • Creativity
  • Respect for Others
  • Quality
  • Diversity
  • Innovation
  • Winning
  • Care for Others
  • Cooperation

Lots and lots of questions for a Friday. If you find yourself with some answers, please scroll down and share those thoughts in the comment box. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

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

Wise words from a frog on donor recapture initiatives

This week we’re looking for non-profit and fundraising advice from one of my favorite books — “It’s Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider” — written by Jim Henson, The Muppets, and Friends. In yesterday’s post, we examined song lyrics from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem band and the importance of training your annual campaign volunteer solicitors. Today, we look at a quote from Kermit the Frog and the concept of re-engaging lapsed donors.

The following passage is something Kermit said in one of the muppet movies. I think these words are inspirational for non-profit and fundraising professionals who are looking at a long list of lapsed donors and contemplating how to re-engage them.

“Look at all those people out there. Lots of people. But my friends . . . my friends are all gone. Well, I’m, I’m going to get ’em back. I’m gonna get ’em back! ‘Cause the show’s not dead as long as I believe in it. And I’m gonna sell that show. And we’re all gonna be on Broadway. You hear me, New York? We’re gonna be on Broadway! Because, because I’m not giving up! I’m still here and I’m stayin’! You hear that, New York? I’m stayin’ right here. The frog is stayin’.”

While every non-profit organization’s donor recapture initiative will likely look a little different due to circumstances and available resources, they are all rooted in the following foundational approaches:

  • Identifying which lapsed donors are the best candidates for your recapture activities,
  • Assessment to determine if there were systemic reasons for the donor disengaging,
  • Developing a case for support specifically focused on why a donor should come back, and
  • Creating a plan that involves varied cultivation, solicitation, stewardship and testing strategies that uniquely speak to a family member who has been away from home for a while.

Doing all of this falls into the category of “good strategy,” but what Kermit speaks to is something entirely different — good attitude.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve opened a letter, taken a phone call or visited with a fundraising professional who wants to engage me in a conversation about renewing my lapsed financial support. For me, it is all about tone and energy. I can tell if you really care about me or if you just care about my dollars. I can tell if you believe in your heart that I’m a member of your non-profit family.

You can put together the most strategically sound donor recapture initiative and still fall short if you don’t take Kermit’s words to heart about:

  • Being perseverant and demonstrating sticktoitiveness,
  • Believing in a cause, and
  • Understanding the concept of salesmanship.

Jerry Juhl was a good friend of Jim Henson and a puppeteer associated with the muppets. He said, “Kermit is the eye in the middle of the hurricane. And, you know, he’s always in control. And the interesting thing about it, of course, is that he created the hurricane.”

Every fundraising professional should take these words to heart because: 1) you are at the center of your agency’s fundraising program, 2) you need to always exude a sense ofbeing  calm, cool and collected, and 3) you likely created the situation that you’re currently dealing with.

Has your agency every created or invested in a donor recapture initiative? If so, please share what it looked like? If you created a special case for support, what were some of the messages and themes you hit upon? How did you infuse emotion into your efforts? Please scroll down and share your thoughts using the comment box below. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

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

Leader and philanthropist: Bill Clinton

This week at DonorDreams we are talking about what it looks like to be a fundraising “LEADER”. Today, we will continue our work by examining Bill Clinton’s teachable point of view around philanthropy, which he details in his 240 page book titled “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World“. Tomorrow, we will cap the week off by looking at a variety of organizations that provide t”hought leadership” in the area of charitable giving.

Earlier this week I wrote blog posts titled “Are you and your non-profit agency a fundraising leader?” and “What is your teachable point of view around fundraising?“. If I had to capture these posts in a few words, it would be . . . leaders are teachers and they always have a teachable point of view (TPOV). After reading Bill Clinton’s book on “Giving,” regardless of whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, it would be impossible to argue that Clinton doesn’t has a TPOV on philanthropy and that he uses his book as a vehicle to teach us how to be more charitable.

Clinton shares a wealth of “Ideas” (remember this is one of the three elements of a TPOV) through his book including: much still needs to be done in our communities; everyone can giving; charitable giving doesn’t have to just be money but can also include time or things or skills; and we have an obligation to each other (which kind sounds like Hillary’s “it takes a village” mantra).

Identifying Clinton’s “Values” (remember this is the second of the three elements of a TPOV) and principles  throughout his book isn’t difficult. A few of those values were: duty, service over self, compassion, life, and self-sufficiency.

Finally, his “emotional energy and edge” (remember this is the final piece of the three TPOV elements) is loud and clear in every chapter of the book. I think this quote from Clinton captures it best:

“I wrote this book to encourage you to give whatever you can, because everyone can give something. And there’s so much to be done, down the street and around the world. It’s never too late or too early to start.”

This call to action echoes Dr. Martin Luther King’s inspirational words: “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.”  Clinton’s book reads like a manual for the average person in America on how a private citizen doesn’t have to have an extraordinary Presidential life story in order to make a difference.

Bill Clinton as a philanthropic leader and teacher? ABSOLUTELY!!!! And he is someone we can all learn a lot from.

Perhaps, my favorite part of this book is where Clinton reminds us of why donors give of themselves.

“Why do some people give so much while others give the bare minimum or not at all? I’ve thought about this a lot, and it seems to me we all give for a combination of reasons, rooted in what we think about the world in which we live and what we think about ourselves. We give because we think it will help people today or give our children a better future; because we feel morally obligated to do so out of religious or ethical convictions; because someone we know and respect asked us; or because we find it more rewarding and more enjoyable than spending more money on material possessions or more time on recreation or work.

When people don’t give, I think the reasons are simply the reverse. They don’t believe what they could do would make a difference, either because their resources are limited or they’re convinced efforts to change other people’s lives and conditions are futile. They don’t feel morally obligated to give. No one has ever asked them to do so. And they believe they’ll enjoy life more if they keep their money and time for themselves and their families.”

Sorry for including such a long quote from Clinton, but I find these words to be truly inspiring. I also believe that EVERY non-profit organization can use this passage to evaluate their comprehensive resource development program by asking:

  • What are you doing to demonstrate to donors and the community at-large that your agency’s programs “make a difference”?
  • What are you doing to show both large and small donors that regardless of how small the contribution might be that it is important, valued, appreciated, and transformational?
  • How does your agency and your staff, board members, volunteers and donors model the morality-values-principles associated with philanthropy? And how do you do this in a way that inspires others to jump on the bandwagon?
  • How are you asking others to join you? Is it all about the impersonal email, newsletter, social media post, telephone call or snail-mail letter? Or are you and your volunteers getting out into the community and “pressing the flesh”?
  • Studies demonstrate that people who make philanthropic contributions (e.g. time, talent or treasure) are “happier” people. Do you and your volunteers look happy or are you making charitable giving and service look dreary and hard?

I encourage you to read Bill Clinton’s book because it reads like a love letter to the non-profit community and an instructional manual for donors as well as non-profit organizations!

Have you read the book? What were your impressions or lessons learned? If not a high-profile leader like Bill Clinton, who have you looked to as a philanthropic leader? What life lesson did you learn from that person?

Here’s to your health!

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

What can fundraising professionals learn from the Iowa Caucus?

Welcome to the 2012 Presidential campaign season! I watched hours of news coverage of the Iowa Caucus and my eyes are about to melt out of my head. However, I walked away from the coverage with what I think is a very clear lesson to be learned for fundraising professionals.

The Obama campaign has been chugging along and exceeding its fundraising for about a year now. They have done this in the middle of a soft economy, which has seemingly posed problems for many non-profit organizations. Many political observers believe that Obama will raise a record-setting $1 billion for his re-election bid.

While Team Obama has continued to raise money, the same can’t be said for the Republican field. If you add up all of the fundraising efforts from all of the current Republican candidates, it still doesn’t come close to Obama’s totals. Is this because Obama is that much better at fundraising? Or is it because Obama is the clear choice of the political donor base?

The current political thinking is that once Republicans settle on their general election candidate, donors will line-up and both candidates’ war chests will equalize. It might be possible that both the Democratic and Republican candidates will have in the neighborhood of $1 billion EACH to run their campaigns.

So, you’re probably asking yourself: “Where is the lesson for non-profit fundraising professionals?”

I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned about your non-profit organization’s case for support.

I believe many Republican donors are sitting on the sidelines because the case for support isn’t focused. There are too many different reasons to donate to too many candidates.

  • Mitt Romney’s case for support involves “electability” and business experience.
  • Ron Paul’s case for support focuses on libertarian principles and shrinking the size of government.
  • Rick Santorum’s case for support centers around traditional values and national security.

Eeeeeeek! If I were a Republican donor, I’d probably take a wait-and-see approach, too.

In these tough economic times, non-profit organizations would do themselves a favor if they spent the first few weeks of January 2012 re-focusing their case for support documents.

Donors like clarity. Donors like winners.

When is the last time your organization revisited its case for support documents? How do you ensure your case is aligned with your donor base? What have you found to be the most difficult part of developing your case? Have you ever considered that your written case for support might actually be costing you money? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts and opinions. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

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