Tag: donor centered

How is your organization blending storytelling with mission-focused donor stewardship?

Fundraising

write brain booksLast week I found myself in New Orleans at Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s national conference sitting in an exhibitor booth trying to make new friends and connect with old ones. On Wednesday, right before the exhibitor area opened, I was visited by a fellow exhibitor from Write Brain Books. She shared with me a little information about her company, asked me about my non-profit consulting practice, and invited me over to her booth to learn more.
After spending the morning in my booth, I decided to visit my new friend. As I crossed the exhibitor floor, I found the Write Brain Books booth. It was twice the size of most exhibitor spaces and it was very, very orange (all the way down to the orange carpeting they brought in).
While I couldn’t find the person who had visited me earlier, there was a swarm of people working the booth. More importantly, there were lots of conference attendees buzzing about and checking out this company’s program. Most importantly, everyone was greeted warmly and pulled into a discussion about how after-school providers can better engage kids in academically enriching activities. I was no exception.
Before going any further, let me give you a road map for today’s blog post.
First, I’m going to talk briefly about Write Brain Books and their amazing academic enrichment program. Second, I will talk about how this encounter became a resource development AH-HA moment blended with a peanut butter cup craving. Finally, I will provide a few examples of mission-focused and inspired donor stewardship.
Thanks for letting me do a little signposting. I hope that you’re still with me. Did I mention that we’re going to talk about peanut butter cups soon?  😉
I won’t be able to do a good job in this short space with describing the Write Brain Books program, but I think you will get a sense of it from the following bullet points:

  • Write Brain Books uses illustrated, wordless books to help spark a child’s imagination and allow them to write their own stories
  • Story Mats (e.g. 11 x 17 art posters) are also used to help engage kids in writing and storytelling
  • Story Builder Cards are used to help facilitate group writing games
  • There appears to be lots of resources for after-school program staff (e.g. facilitator guides) with an eye towards outcomes measurement
  • Participants also participate in a project-based learning and where they learn how to collaborate while co-authoring an actual book that will get published
  • This program is so much more than a simple writing program . . . participants benefit in the areas of reading, writing, vocabulary, critical thinking, collaboration, storytelling, etc
  • Write Brain Books activities aren’t just for little kids . . . programming is age-appropriate and spans K-12

I’m staring at a stack of literature on my desk, and I realize that I am only scratching the surface. If you want to learn more, I encourage you to visit Write Brain Books YouTube channel. There is also tons of great stuff on their website.
You’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with resource development? Well, as I walked away from the Write Brain Books exhibitor booth, I had this thought . . .

reese peanut buttercups“Hey, you got peanut butter in my chocolate!”

That’s right. I’m referencing that 1981 Reese Peanut Butter Cup commercial where a peanut butter lover and chocolate lover bump into each other on the street, and the entire goofy encounter is supposed to give birth to the idea of a peanut butter cup.
If you want to take a walk down memory lane (or don’t have any idea what I’m talking about because you’re a Millennial), then here is the YouTube link to the commercial.
You might be wondering how I suddenly turned this blog post into a discussion about peanut butter cups. In addition to probably being hungry, there is a logical explanation. Please let me try to explain . . .
In the days right before BGCA’s national conference, I was researching information about the 2016 Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, which is coming to Chicago on November 10-11. As a result, I had the following two similar ideas spinning around my head as I walked away from the Write Brain Books exhibitor booth:

  1. Storytelling is an effective strategy used to engage kids in reading, writing, comprehension, vocabulary, critical thinking, and many more skills necessary for academic success in the 21st Century
  2. Storytelling is an effective engagement strategy in resource development when it comes to prospect cultivation, solicitation, and donor stewardship

Professionally, I am a BIG fan of non-profit organizations marrying together mission-focused program stories and donor stewardship activities. When this occurs, it is refreshing from a donor’s perspective and so much more effective than throwing outcomes statistics at a donor and simply saying: “See! See! Your donation resulted in ROI.”
Similar to the Reese Peanut Butter Cup commercial, I had fun donor stewardship ideas rolling around my head stemming from the question of: “What would I do with the Write Brain Books program as it relates to donor stewardship if I were still working for a non-profit organization?”
Here are just a few thoughts:

  • Host a reception and ask donors to participate in one of the Write Brain Books activities (e.g. Story Mats, Story Builder Cards, or a collaborative story writing exercise)
  • Use kid generated story mats as a donor gift and simple way to say thank you (as a donor to my local Boys & Girls Club, I’d totally hang a story mat on my refrigerator)
  • Host an event (e.g. book signing, panel discussion, book launch, etc), where kids could interact with donors in a meaningful and mission-focused way

If you are looking for an example, then you might want to check out what Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta did with their creative writing program a few years ago. Click here to view a creative writing program that donors received as a “donor gift” and stewardship touch.
Does your organization integrate programming opportunities with donor stewardship activities? If so, please use the comment box to share your thoughts and experiences. Please also share how donors respond. 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

Make your organizational data easy to digest

Fundraising, marketing

dataFor the last few decades, the non-profit sector has been focused on data in an effort to convince donors to continue their philanthropic support. I still remember being a new executive director sitting in my first United Way meeting and learning about constructing logic models and differentiating between inputs, outputs, outcomes and pre- and post-test survey tools. All of this was piled on top of a slew of other data metrics my national office was asking for such as:

  • overall organizational membership
  • average daily attendance
  • member demographics (e.g. gender, age, ethnicity, zip code, household income, etc)
  • employee turnover
  • how many members attended 52 days or more per year compared to 105 days
  • And on and on and on (seriously, the report was 35 pages long)

While I understood information was powerful, especially with regards to management and decision-making, it was mind-numbing to me the first time I heard someone advocate for total transparency by sharing all of this data with donors.
My immediate reaction was:

  1. Of course, donors have the right to see what their investment is producing!
  2. But seriously . . . isn’t a data dump via the annual report, website, newsletter, impact reports, etc. counterproductive and confusing for donors?

From that starting point in the Spring of 2000, I began my journey and life-long struggle with becoming a donor-centered fundraising professional.
I must confess this quest for the holy grail of perfect donor communications is ongoing.
For the last few days, I’ve been preparing for next week’s Boys & Girls Clubs of America National Conference in New Orleans. In addition to beautifying my exhibitor booth, I’m refreshing The Healthy Non-Profit‘s marketing materials. In the process of doing this, I decided to take a stab at producing a few infographics related to some of the services I am trying to highlight.
I recently got bit by the infographic bug because two of my capital campaign clients are really good at using these tools. I just love how easy they make it look. I also became a fan after I started researching why these communication tools are so effective.
Check out the following cute infographic that helps make the case (Source: CopyBlogger post titled “25 Ideas to Transform Ho-Hum Infographics into Something Extraordinary,” written by Barry Feldman):
information-overload
As I set out to create my first few infographic handouts for my conference booth, I must admit it wasn’t easy. However, I found a few great online resources that helped me get over those first few hurdles. In the spirit of collaboration, I thought I should share:

It has been a while since I’ve served on the front line of a non-profit organization. I’m sure online tools like these are now more common. What does your organization use to distill its data and information into easy-to-digest, bite-size donor communications pieces? Please scroll down to the comment box and share your thoughts and experiences. We can all learn from each other.
Oh wait . . . before you leave . . . it is important to note that there are some very smart fundraising professionals and bloggers who are NOT on the bus when it comes to sharing data with donors during the solicitation stage of the resource development process. While they typically agree on the importance of collecting data for data-driven decision-making, they stop short of sharing it with donors because philanthropy is an “emotional” act and not “logical.” I find these arguments compelling and lean towards storytelling as a fundraising tactic, but I still see infographics as powerful stewardship tools.
<sigh>
Heck, I tend to waffle on this issue. So, I’m interested to hear what you think.
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 your non-profit learn from Gloria Steinem?

Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

steinemIt was a bleary-eyed late night dash in a rental car to position myself for a morning meeting, and I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR) in an effort to stay awake. At one point, someone was interviewing iconic feminist leader Gloria Steinem. While I cannot remember the big reason for the interview (e.g. new book, rally, election analysis, court ruling, etc), there was one thing that stuck with me, and I just had to share with you because I think it is a great allegory for how your non-profit should interact with donors.
After listening to the NPR interview, I went online and Googled around for the text of what Steinem calls her “Always Ask The Turtle” story in her own words. Luckily, I found it in a number of different places so I feel OK with sharing it with you here:

I took geology because I thought it was the least scientific of the sciences.
On a field trip, while everyone else was off looking at the meandering Connecticut River, I was paying no attention whatsoever. Instead, I had a found a giant, GIANT turtle that had climbed out of the river, crawled up a dirt road, and was in the mud on the embankment of another road, seemingly about to crawl up on it and get squashed by a car.
So, being a good codependent with the world, I tugged and pushed and pulled until I managed to carry this huge, heavy, angry snapping turtle off the embankment and down the road.
I was just putting it back into the river when my geology professor arrived and said, ‘You know, that turtle probably spent a month crawling up that dirt road to lay its eggs in the mud by the side of the road, and you just put it back in the river.’
Well, I felt terrible. But in later years, I realized that this was the most important political lesson I learned, one that cautioned me about the authoritarian impulse of both left and right.
Always ask the turtle.

After hearing Steinem share this story, the first person I thought of was Penelope Burk, who is the famous CEO of Cygnus Applied Research and author of Donor Centered Fundraising. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced non-profit organizations should adopt Steinem’s turtle story as a moral compass for how to work with donors.
Here are just a few comparisons I came up:

  • Like the turtle, donors spend lots of time struggling to crawl up a dirt path called a career path
  • Like the turtle, donors build a nest egg of money (e.g. net worth)
  • Like the turtle, donors behave in certain ways for certain reasons (e.g. they didn’t just crawl up the path for no reason at all ... they saved their money for a reason … they donate to certain charities for a reason)

OK, I’ll stop beating this dead horse.
The point I’m obviously driving at is simple, but one I think every fundraising professional should live by.
Don’t assume the following:

  • Don’t assume you know why individual donors support your mission
  • Don’t assume you know what a donor’s capacity to give or willingness to give
  • Don’t assume you know which programs/activities a donor is passionate about
  • Don’t assume you know the best way (e.g. via event, pledge drive, major gift agreement, planned gift, etc) for a donor to give to your organization

The bottom line is DON’T ASSUME . . . “Always ask the donor”.
Thanks to Gloria Steinem for inspiring this morning’s blog post and sharing her amazing story with the world.
How does your organization engage its donors? What activities do you consider “donor-centered“? Do you have a fun story to share where engaging with a donor resulted in an ah-ha moment and something beautiful for both your organization and the donor? Please share your thoughts and experiences 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

Hangin’ with Henry and talking about Heart vs. Head Fundraising

Fundraising, Hangin' with Henry

As most of you know, DonorDreams blog has dedicated the first Thursday of every month for almost the last year to featuring a short video from Henry Freeman, who is an accomplished non-profit and fundraising professional. We affectionately call this monthly series “Hangin’ With Henry”  because of the conversational format around which he has framed his online videos. This month we’re talking about Heart vs. Head Fundraising. I guess it only seemed appropriate with Valentine’s Day less than two weeks from now.
For those of you who subscribe to DonorDreams blog and get notices by email, you will want to click this link to view this month’s featured YouTube video. If you got here via your web browser, then you can click on the video graphic below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfbjvnchuX4
I hope you enjoyed this month’s featured video. I not only enjoyed it. I loved it! Here were a few ah-ha moments I walked away with:

  • I was reminded that donors are like snowflakes and each one is very different (which is the essence of donor-centered fundraising, right?).
  • Good fundraising professionals can recognize this truism and adapt their approach when it comes to cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.
  • Just like how different donors are motivated by different head vs. heart messages, there are different types of fundraising professionals who are better at one or the other approaches.

When I worked for Boys & Girls Clubs of America as an internal consultant, my toolbox contained a PowerPoint training they called “Closing the Gift“. It was contained the organization’s teachable point of view for how staff and volunteers at local affiliates should go about soliciting donors. This process included 12 steps that volunteers were encouraged to follow. Doing so would minimize the fears associated with asking for money and maximize the effectiveness of the solicitation.
Here are those 12 steps:

  1. Make your gift first
  2. Think about the kids (in order words, stop obsessing and thinking about the money and start thinking about why you are doing this)
  3. Choose good prospects to solicit (aka no cold calls)
  4. Pick-up the phone and schedule the in-person meeting
  5. Prepare for the meeting
  6. Talk about the kids (aka discuss the case for support)
  7. Share your commitment
  8. Ask the donor to “consider” a specific gift amount
  9. After making the ask, BE QUIET
  10. Answer questions
  11. Schedule date/time to “follow-up” if they needed time to think about it (aka don’t leave the pledge card behind and schedule time to circle back to complete paperwork)
  12. Express gratitude for their time and consideration

Over the last 10 years, I’ve made a lot of money working with clients on this 12-step program. LOL It might look easy, but as people always say . . . “The devil is in the details“.  😉
However, while “Hangin’ with Henry” this morning and listening to his thoughts about heart vs. head fundraising, I was reminded of something new to which I’ve recently been exposed with regards to making the ask.
Last month, I was onsite with a capital campaign client and I needed to train a group of volunteers on how to make an effective, “by the book” solicitation. Rather than reach in my toolbox for my standard training curriculum, I was allowed access to another fundraising professional’s toolbox.
seven faces philanthropyWhile much of the process was the same, this new training incorporated some of the ideas put forth in the book “The Seven Faces of Philanthropy: A New Approach to Cultivating Major Donors” written by Russ Alan Price and Karen Maru File. In a nutshell, the book identifies and profiles seven types of major donors and offers detailed strategies on how to approach them.
The following are the seven different “types of donors” identified and profiled:

  • The Communitarian
  • Devout
  • Investor
  • Socialite
  • Altruist
  • Repayer
  • Dynast

I won’t give away anymore of what characterizes these seven groups or the strategies they suggest you use to approach each type of donor because I suspect the authors would like you to buy their book.  🙂  If you are in the market for good professional reading, I highly recommend this book.
So, as I listened to Henry and Joan chatter about heart vs. head fundraising this morning, I found my thoughts drifting back to the training session I facilitated last month.
Some of the volunteers around the table LOVED the “seven types of donors” wrinkle and other volunteers absolutely HATED the idea and preferred the simpler 12-step approach.
This got me thinking.
Henry said in the video that there are “heart donors” and “head donors“. He also said there are fundraising professionals who are more adept with each approach. After my experience last month, I would apply this thinking to fundraising volunteers, too.
As I get to the bottom of my cup of coffee this morning, I am left with the following questions:

  • Are you a heart fundraiser or head fundraiser?
  • After identifying which type of donor you’re dealing with, are you capturing it in your donor database or CRM?
  • When recruiting fundraising volunteers, are you using this “heart vs. head” lens to develop a diverse prospect list? Are you also using this lens as part of your prospect assignment exercise?

As I always say, we can all learn from each other. Please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences (or take a crack at answering any of the aforementioned questions) in the comment box.
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

A book every fundraising professional MUST read!

Fundraising, Hangin' with Henry

henry freeman bookI do a lot of reading as a non-profit consultant and blogger. I subscribe to other people’s blogs (e.g. Marc Pitman, Jeff Brooks, Seth Godin, etc). I subscribe to e-newsletters (e.g. Tom Ahern, Pamela Grow, etc). I allow companies like Blackbaud, DonorPath, Network for Good and Convio to send me awesome whitepapers, eBooks, etc.
I love to read. I believe you cannot thrive (let alone survive) in our industry unless you’re a lifelong learner and committed to continuous improvement and evolution. There are lots of ways to achieve this goal. I prefer to read.
So, when my friend — Henry Freeman — told me that he just published a book and wanted to sit down and talk about it, I couldn’t resist an invitation like THAT.
I won’t go into the details, but I walked away from that meeting with a suspicion that my life was about to change (or at the very least, my life was about to become clearer). After consuming Henry’s book in two short airplane rides, I am now totally convinced my life has been touched and I am different.
Here is a short excerpt from Henry’s book — Unlacing the Heart — from page 2:

“One of the most visible hats I wear is that of a fundraising consultant. As is true of most professions, a rather generic title like “fundraiser” tells you very little about who I am and what I actually do. When someone learns that I am a fundraiser, the conversation usually drifts off into a discussion of his or her work and occupation. Yet I do no see myself as a person who simply helps organizations raise money. I am a person blessed with the desire and capacity to hear people’s stories and help them build their dreams.”

I felt the same way after reading Penelope Burk’s book, Donor Centered Fundraising. However, Henry’s book added to that experience.
When I read Penelope’s book, which was full of data-facts-figures, I understood more deeply why I loved resource development and fundraising. The idea of “donor-centered fundraising” resonated with me because I never saw myself as a “solicitor of funds“. I loved the relationship building aspect of resource development and felt a sense of fulfillment when talking to people about their philanthropic passions and working with them on finding ways to make their vision a reality.
When I read Henry’s book, my epiphany was that “philanthropy” is spiritual in nature. Relationship building requires finding a sacred and vulnerable space for both the the fundraising professional and the donor. AND this isn’t a fundraising tactic. It is a human trait that good professionals who love their jobs just so happen to possess (or ultimately find inside themselves).
Here is a short excerpt from Henry’s book — Unlacing the Heart — from page 98:

“For fundraisers and members of most professions, the “hat we wear” clearly states that our presence in the room with another human being is primarily grounded in what we do to pay the bills. Indeed, few people will trust you (nor should they) if at any point you try to disown the professional role that brings you to their door and into their lives. There are, however, many opportunities to move relationships to a deeper level while still working within the boundaries framed by the professional roles we play.”

If you are someone who loves the spirituality aspects of philanthropy, then you’re going to love this book!
If you are someone who loves the relationship building aspects of resource development, then you’re going to love this book!
If you are someone who loves the storytelling nature of fundraising, then you’re going to love this book!
Philanthropy is so much more than asking people for money in an effort to sustain our non-profit institutions. Henry demonstrates that so clearly through a series of stories about:

  • his journey to El Salvador
  • his mentor relationships with Henri Nouwen and Herb Cahoon
  • his professional relationship with Margaret
  • his personal relationship with Alfredo

As I read this book, I found myself moved to tears, which is how I know Henry was unlacing my heart and helping me tap into what I love most about philanthropy and my job. I am confident that he will do the same for you.
This book is a “MUST READ” for anyone who works in our field and aspires to find meaning and fulfillment in this work.
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

A sample donor-centered communication

Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

The non-profit community has heard lots about the merits of becoming more donor-centered over the last decade or so. This philosophy permeates everything in our resource development community including:

  • How we cultivate prospects
  • How we solicit prospects and donors
  • It especially speaks to the importance of stewardship and non-profit communications

While there is lots of talk-talk-talk on this subject, it is confounding to me that there are so few samples readily available. For example, I had a client ask me a year ago if I could find samples of “donor-centered gift acknowledgement letters“. After Googling for what seemed like hours and calling in all sorts of favors, I finally found one or two good examples.
So, last week I almost fell out of my chair when I received an email from a non-profit organization (e.g. I’m a periodic golf-a-thon or an endowment match donor) asking me WHAT and WHEN I want to receive from them. At its core, it might be one of the most donor-centered things ever sent me me by an organization.
Here is a copy of that email:
BGCB email sample
When I clicked the link, here is what that survey looked like:
BGCB email survey
All of this got me thinking . . . is your organization “donor-centered“? If so, how is it donor-centered? Do you have any samples that you’d like to share? If so, please email those samples to me and I’ll be happy to share them.  🙂
We don’t need to all re-create the wheel. Sharing is caring.  🙂
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

Make your donor recognition meaningful

Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

recognition1I believe that sometimes the universe speaks to you, and over the last two days I’ve been beat over the head with reminders that your non-profit organization’s donor recognition must be meaningful. While there is a time and place for computer generated gift acknowledgement letters and donor gifts, you need to know your donor and appreciate them in a way that speaks to their inner philanthropic soul.
Yesterday, I met with a group of volunteers and worked on creating a written stewardship document. During that meeting, we discussed things like:

  • When does a donor recognition gift (e.g. lapel pins, coffee mugs, tote bags, hard hats & shovels from a groundbreaking, etc), get to be too much and send the wrong message?
  • How can appreciation of a contribution be personalized and meaningful?
  • How can donor recognition societies go beyond superficial recognition and become more mission-focused?

This conversation was full of rich little tidbits. We used some of Roger Craver’s donor retention findings to frame our discussion and guide what we wanted to include in our plan. While I used a white paper from Roger that I purchased from 501videos.com as part of their Donor Retention Project package (and I’m not sure if that is still available for purchase), I suspect you could find similar good stuff in Roger’s book titled “Retention Fundraising“.
recognition4To sum up the results of yesterday’s discussion, the volunteers decided that donor recognition and gifts should be personal, mission-focused and meaningful.
Of course, this can mean different things to different people.
One of the volunteers said that she once made a gift to a faith-based children’s charity and received an envelope stuffed full of hand-made thank you cards from the kids. SHE LOVED IT! However, another volunteer spoke about a donor recognition society just joined that included a lapel pin, scarf and donor appreciation event. SHE SAW NO VALUE IN IT!
While there are donors who want to receive hand-made cards from kids, there are likely others who wouldn’t appreciate it as much. The same logic applies to donors who love (or hate) hanging out with their peers at an appreciation event. All of this is tricky because few (if any) non-profit organizations have the ability to customize every donor’s acknowledgement-recognition-stewardship program. Additionally, offering too much choice to donors can lead to frustration, which is never a good emotion to associate with your non-profit brand.
So, what is the answer?
Create a reasonable program that includes mission-focused recognition and appreciation. As you implement your program, engage in two-way communication with your donors and make adjustments (either individually or collectively) as you receive feedback.
So, up to this point I’ve shared with you my experiences and conclusions from yesterday. Today, I walk into a client’s office, and the resource development person was banging away on the computer. She was importing pictures from a recent special event into a graphics software package and creating pictures for individual sponsors that included the following:

  • a montage of images from the event
  • the sponsor’s name printed on the aggregated photo
  • handwritten message signed by the organization’s executive director

I believe the picture is framed and given to the sponsor as a small token of the organization’s appreciation.
I was impressed with this effort because it was:

  • mission-focused
  • sincere
  • appreciative
  • thoughtful

More importantly it didn’t feel over-the-top.
So, there you have it . . . these experiences in the last 24-28 hours convinced me that I needed to blog today about donor recognition.
I am very interested in how your organization walks the fine line that I’ve described today. Have you created a donor-centered donor acknowledgement-recognition-stewardship program? Do you think you’ve struck the balance I’ve outlined above? If so, please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences 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

Don't wait until your donors die

Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

in memoriamOn Saturday, I attended the funeral of my father’s aunt — Ruth Merriman — in Crystal Lake, IL. She lived a long and amazing life and her family will miss her dearly. While sitting through the service listening to her children and grandchildren eulogize her, I couldn’t help marvel at the things I didn’t know about my distant relative. For example . . .

  • Aunt Ruth was the first female to be voted the president of a School Board in the State of Illinois
  • She was a Girl Scout volunteer earlier in life
  • In her retirement, she loved her volunteer work at Good Shepard Hospital in Barrington, IL

Aunt Ruth was the picture of philanthropy, and I only kinda/sorta knew that. How embarrassing!
As I came to this conclusion, it dawned on me that many non-profit organizations are in the same boat with their donors.
Donors are part of your organizational family, but oftentimes they are like distant relatives who you don’t know very well. I wonder how many times a non-profit organization found out that someone was “into their mission” only after the donor had passed away?
Of course, the only solution to this problem is to get out of your office and visit with your donors.

  • Invite your donors to coffee or lunch
  • Ask them to attend your events
  • If they stop donating to you, re-engage them and visit

A good friend of mine did exactly this when he accepted the position of President & CEO of a non-profit organization.
relationship buildingHe first started looking for people who had once been loyal supporters but for whatever reason stopped donating. Then he found mutual friends (e.g. board members, former board members, volunteers, donors, etc) and asked them to assist with a re-introduction. On a go-forward basis he simply engaged in relationship building.
While relationship building varies with different donors, it involved nursing home visits, cigars, and field trips to visit the organization’s facilities in the case I just referenced.
If this sounds simple, I assure you that it is. BUT resource development doesn’t have to be complicated.
Sometimes you find great people. Other times you uncover amazing stories. Once in a while, you rediscover a passionate donor who adds you to their estate plan for $500,000, which is exactly what happened in the case of my friend.
What are you doing to engage your donors and bring them into the inner circle of your non-profit family?
In other news . . .
Speaking of maturing donors and relationship building, I am reminded of BREAKING NEWS that was recently announced.
Did you hear that Congress passed and President Obama signed legislation into law extending the IRA Charitable Rollover retroactive to the beginning of 2014? This legislation allows individuals over age 70½ to directly transfer up to $100,000 per year from an IRA account to one or more charities.
Of course, the catch is that is retroactive to January 1, 2014 and only covers contributions through December 31, 2014.
If you want a better/clearer explanation, check-out Tony Martignetti’s vlog on this subject.

Happy Holidays . . . and 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

Non-profits are using digital videos to say THANK YOU

Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising, technology

It is well documented that non-profit organizations need to 1) show gratitude, 2) prove that a contribution is being used in the manner it was intended, and 3) demonstrate impact in order retain a donor. This could be one reason why some non-profit organizations are starting to produce online videos to say THANK YOU to donors.
When you think about it, video is a great medium to “show” people all sorts of things including the three elements of stewardship that I just mentioned. Additionally, the low-cost (virtual no-cost) of digital videos makes this an irresistible activity for many non-profit organizations.
The following is a video from the Boys & Girls Club of Lorain County, and it was produced by the kids for Lebron James:
Lebron
The next video is from the same organization, and the donors being thanked are a church congregation:
House of Praise
After a little clicking around online, fellow blogger and non-profit marketing guru– Kivi Leroux Miller — wrote a similar post almost a year ago titled “A Few Great Thank You Videos” with a number of fabulous links to videos.
If your organization is interested in trying its hand at directing a “thank you video,” you might want to check out the following resources:

Is your agency starting to use digital technology to steward donors? If so, what have you learned? What feedback, if any, have you received from donors? Please scroll down and use the comment box to share your thoughts and experiences.
Here’s to your health!
Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com 
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

How to "surprise and delight" your non-profit donors

Fundraising

input requestedCraig Linton, blogger at Fundraising Detective, is hosting the July Nonprofit Blog Carnival. In his call for submissions earlier this month, he asked his fellow non-profit bloggers to “Share your posts on welcoming donors and reducing attrition.”
It was this simple request that inspired me to write the following email yesterday and send it to 25 of my non-profit friends across the country.
Erik’s email request to share thoughts and experiences

To:  Erik’s NFP friends
From:  Erik Anderson
Date:  July 23, 2014
Re:  A small favor: 30 seconds of your time?
Dear non-profit friend:
I am writing a blog tomorrow (Thursday) morning and I need a quick favor from you. Would you please click reply to this mail and take 30 seconds to write between two and five sentences answering the following question:

What do you do to welcome donors to your cause and surprise and delight them?

I will incorporate your response into tomorrow morning’s DonorDreams blog post without attributing the response to you or your agency. This way you don’t need to worry about people calling you or supporters seeing your actions as anything less than nice and genuine.
I know you’re busy and appreciate you taking a 30 second break from work to help me out.
Sincerely,
Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

The responses kept coming in!
To be honest, I know how busy my non-profit friends and clients are. I have worked on the front line of a number of non-profit organizations, and I’ve experienced the hurricane that beats every agency’s beach on a daily basis.
So, when 14 people responded to my email request, I was pleasantly surprised at first and then I was humbled that they took time out of their chaotic day to share their thoughts or experiences.
Thank you to those who responded to my call to action. I appreciate you. I appreciate what you do. I loved your submissions.
Warning to readers: There was a lot of content submitted yesterday, and I am sharing it ALL with you. As a result, this post will be a little long today, but I promise that you will find pearls of wisdom embedded in your colleagues comments. In an effort to bring some structure to everyone’s experiences, I’ve divided people’s suggestions into categories. As you saw in my original email, I promised people anonymity unless they decided to share their identity in their response. Enjoy!
thank you letterAcknowledgement letters, emails, phone calls and gifts

  • “I will share what I have – but I cannot really help much here.  Things I have done in the past, but unfortunately have not been particularly consistent: 1) Asked the board to make phone calls thanking first time donors; 2) Sent thank you notes saying that we know that this is a first donation for them; and 3) For a large first time donor, we have taken a small, kid made gift.“
  • “For first time donors of any size, we send a handwritten “Thank You” note signed by our kids. For amounts from $1,000 to $5,000 donors also receive a call from one of our members, letting them know what their donation means to them personally.  Anything over $5,000 the donor receives both of the above as well as an original piece of artwork made by one of our kids and hand delivered to the donor.  All donors are recognized  at our annual event.  This has really made a difference in donor retention.  They love talking with the kids.”
  • “To show special appreciation in certain circumstances: 1) we send donors thank you letters that have been written or made by our youth; 2) send thank you letters with pictures of clients during an activity; 3) ask board members to make a personal thank you call; 4) send a birthday email; 5) send hand written thank you notes; 6) send a logo pin or other small gift; and 7) send a paper or email newsletter 3-4 times a year.  Sorry it isn’t in sentence form…I am going on vacation and have four deadlines to finish.”
  • “I always send a little note to thank them for their gift, and I use a handmade card because I love to scrapbook. While I often get comments on the beautiful cards, my favorite surprise is having the older Club members make turtles. This is an easy gift to do with just a microwave (pretzel, Rollo and a pecan). We put a few of the candies in a cellophane bag, tie with a ribbon, and attach a little poem of thanks telling them this was a handmade gift of thanks. The kids then deliver them if they can, or I do. This seems to thrill our donors.”

Treating donors like you would treat your BFF

  • “In regards to surprising and delighting donors, I think I have found the best way is to treat them as people. In doing so, you welcome learning about them — their hopes and dreams and thoughts. You can learn so much about their families and what makes them personally tick. This can all be done with a phone call, a special note, or their favorite things (e.g. coffee or candy). In doing so we hope they feel what we all want to feel — special, noticed and appreciated.”
  • “We make their experience more personal.  We introduce them to our kids and let them get to know them. We help them understand that we are interested in them, and not just their financial support.”

Demonstrating impact

  • “We welcome them personally and in writing and place a huge emphasis on stewardship; reporting that their generous contribution is being used in the way they intended and assuring them through both statistical and anecdotal means that their contribution is making a significant impact. I know that all sounds pretty standard but it’s what we do.”

take a tourInviting donors to take a tour

  • “The best way to welcome donors to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus is to invite them to tour the Club. Donors are always so surprised when kids from the Club approach them and introduce themselves in a professional way. It is a key behavior that our staff drill into kids and one that really sets our program apart. In addition to being a great skill for kids to learn, donors don’t usually expect to come into the neighborhoods we serve and see such impeccable manners and poise. This experience has engaged many of our donors but also prepared many Club kids to perform well in job and college interviews.”
  • “I believe it is important to listen to our donors and find out first what their passions are and then tailor  our approach to meet them.  When we meet with a potential donor, we like to start with a tour of the facility and provide information about our community needs and the services provided that address those needs.  Usually delight comes when we listen to what drives our donors, and find a way to partner their passions with our mission.”
  • “We try to welcome donors to our cause by getting them to come into the Club for a tour while the kids are here.  This way they get to see exactly what positive impact we make with the youth in our community as well as what positive impact their donations are making.  A little (and easy) surprise for our donors comes in the form of a hand drawn and written thank you card from our youth members that is placed in their “official” administrative thank you letter sent out after we receive their donation.  It is such an easy thing to have our kids do and not only teaches them about appreciation and what others do for them but also sends a heartwarming thank you to our new and repeat donors.  How could donors not be committed to our cause after seeing what we do in action and getting a personalized card from one of the kids as well?!“

Pictures and stories

  • “One of the first stewardship activities we do is to make them feel that they are a part of what we do here, a part of our Boys & Girls Club family. Sending updates about the individual progress and successes of our kids made possible by donors is a great way to do that. It is similar to receiving an invitation to a recital or a graduation announcement from loved ones. Those pictures and stories are shared so donors can celebrate significant life successes together with them. It makes them feel more a part of their lives. This same thing occurs when we bring in new donors by sharing specific success stories about our kids. Because in reality, those donors ARE a part of each child’s life at the Club.”
  • “We welcome new donors by sharing stories of impact – stories of real kids from our community who have real challenges and then how the Boys & Girls Club works hard to improve their lives.  We share these stories through targeted mailings, events we hold, through our Board of Directors’ relationships, through our Social Media efforts, etc.  Then we surprise our donors by thanking them as often as we can – first with a letter after their donation, then with a personal phone call, through a holiday card, and then through our annual “Thank-a-thon Night” in which our Board Members call every donor to simply share our gratitude and finally, for those donors who make a gift of $500 or more we invite them to a special “Donor Night” held at one of our Board Member’s homes in which we treat them to food, drinks, and fun – and the funny thing is, we tell them more stories of real kids and what we do to help these kids while we have their attention and in person.  It’s a constant and intentional pipeline of stories, impact, appreciation, recognition, donation, stories, impact, appreciation, etc.”

chocolate covered strawberriesSend chocolate covered strawberries
I should’ve included this response under the first category, but it was so unique that I had to break it out and highlight it. At first, I was skeptical and thought my friend was pulling my leg. So, here is how the email thread went:

  • Non-profit CEO: “I delight them with a dozen chocolate covered strawberries delivered to their house as a surprise.“
  • My response email: “I am sensing sarcasm and won’t publish that. If you do indeed do this (and where is that money coming from), then let me know and I’ll include it in tomorrow’s post.  I’m looking forward to our lunch in a few weeks.”
  • CEO’s email response: “No, I am serious! My four biggest donors LOVED the unexpected chocolate strawberries. When they call to thank me, it gives me another chance to discuss the Club and their donation(s).  I generally give out 10 to 15 per year. Trust me . . . IT WORKS!!!“

Well, that was embarrassing. I apologized to this friend for ever doubting his resource development genius.  🙂
Invite donors to participate, get them involved behind the scenes, and recognition

  • “1) We invite our donors to participate in behind the scenes engagement opportunities (conductor searches, rehearsals, sitting on stage with orchestra during a dress rehearsal, radio interviews, Fall Camp activities).  2) Send selected performance and Honors Groups CD’s to donors.  3) Provide invitations to hospitality events (concert receptions, lunches or dinners with staff, Board member, and artistic staff, meet & greets with guest artists and guest conductors) and complimentary tickets to ensemble performances.  4) Invitations for complimentary tickets to Chamber Music Institutes Concerts and Honor Groups performances. 5) Instituted a Servant Leadership award given each year to a volunteer or donor.”
  • “Working with volunteer groups that come through our agency, I recognize that they are giving of their time. In our post-project “debrief,”  we thank them for their work and give them stats on their impact. We also share additional ways they can get involved. It could be other ways to volunteer or a special project. We provide them with our most recent appeal that offers stats and a call to action. We share other ways (beyond time) how they can impact the mission. Now this is planting a seed, while not discounting the two hours they just “sweat-it-out-for-good.”

This has been the longest blog post that I’ve ever published at DonorDreams. Again, thank you to everyone who weighed-in with what is working on the front line of their agencies when it comes to stewardship activities. Based on this response, there must be lots of surprised and delighted donors out there.
Did I forget to send you and email? Is there something that your agency is doing to steward donors and is having a positive impact on reducing your donor turnover rate? If so, please scroll down and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below. Why? Because we can all learn from each other.
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