Tag: donor

Twitter Bootcamp Lesson 3: Actually Tweeting

Fundraising

Good morning everyone! This week I am privileged to be attending Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Midwest Leadership Conference in Milwaukee, WI. With all hustle and bustle associated with attending a conference, I decided to find a “guest blogger” to take over for me this week. It wasn’t a difficult search. As a subscriber to the Nonprofit Nate blog on WordPress, I have become a huge fan of Nathan Hand and was thrilled when he agreed to step in for me. The cherry on top of this sundae is that Nate agreed to post all week on the subject of Twitter and how non-profit organizations can/should use that social media network. So, the following is a little bit more about Nathan and today’s post. Enjoy . . . and I’ll see you next week. Here is to your health! ~Erik Anderson, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

Nathan Hand is an AmeriCorps alumnus, holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, a Masters in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University. Nathan is Vice President of Development at School on Wheels, an organization helping homeless children in Indianapolis. He writes at www.nonprofitnate.com sharing thoughts for nonprofiteers and helping visitors navigate the world of giving. For more, follow Nathan on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to his blog!

Twitter Bootcamp Lesson 3: Actually Tweeting

Welcome back! This is the 3rd in this week-long series. Come back each day, subscribe via RSS or get posts via email (see right). Unlike the others, this is participatory and may take a few minutes for you to do. Ready?

Are you sitting down? This is gonna rock your world.  We’re not going to use Twitter to tweet. What?!?! Say it out loud to yourself.

“I will not use Twitter to tweet.”

That’s right. While the folks at Twitter are really smart, there are better ways to actually tweet than using Twitter.com.  What you need to do is go to Hootsuite.com right now and set up an account and connect your Twitter account.  Don’t worry, it takes a few seconds and is super-easy. Go ahead, I’ll wait….

Welcome back. Good job! I’ll explain the streams, columns and other stuff later. First up…

The tweeting box

1. Compose a message – this is where you type in what you’re going to say. Let’s practice. Type “I’m learning how to tweet from @nathan_hand“.  (while a bit self-serving, there’s no harm done by actually typing this – but if you’d rather just type “I’m new to twitter!” that’s ok too.)  See the little ’140′ count down as you type? This helps you keep track of how many characters you have left.

2. Add a link – let’s say you’re referencing this post.  Copy the website address in your URL bar above (the www.blahblahblah) and paste it in the spot where it says ‘Add a link’. Then click ‘shrink’. It immediately creates a new link that fits within your 140 characters. Smart huh?

3. Click ‘SEND’. Go ahead, take a big dramatic breath and click SEND! Done? You did it! You just tweeted! Give yourself a pat on the back, high five or toast to your technological prowress – well done! Ready for more?

4. Scheduling posts – this is one of my favorite features. You can schedule a message to be sent at a later date.  Let’s say you just read 4 amazing articles all about _____(insert your hobby here) and you want to share them.  The reality is that if you share them all at once, and then don’t share anything for a few days, your account may be seen as a bit spastic. Instead, schedule them over the course of the next couple hours or days. That way you don’t look like a hibernating tweeter who just comes out to see the sunlight and reads once every few days.

5. Drafts, attachments and location – I seldom use these but you may find them helpful.  There’s nothing wrong with exploring and testing – see what works for you!

Anatomy of a tweet

Let’s take a look at a sample tweet that you might see.

  1. Hardlynormal is the name of the person/entity tweeting – you can usually click on it (or their avatar/photo) to learn more about them.
  2. The time shown is when they sent the message (duh) but it also shares which tool they use. This line is clickable and takes you to the actual status update on twitter.com
  3. See the RT? That stands for retweet. It means that @MitzvahCircle (another person/entity) actually sent this message out and then @hardlynormal chose to forward it, or retweet it out to his followers.
  4. See the #kindness and #hope? These are called hashtags.  Hashtags are a way of indexing twitter. We’ll learn later that you can follow particular words or hashtags in order to watch or take part in conversations about that word/topic.  If you click on the hashtag #hope – you’ll see all the latest tweets referencing #hope. Cool huh?

Oh my gosh! You’re tweeting! Reach your left arm straight out, then over to the right, then touch your right shoulder-blade with it. Then reach your right arm out, then over to your left and touch your left shoulder blade. Now give yourself a hug. Congrats.

Twitter Bootcamp Lesson 2: Signing Up

Fundraising

Good morning everyone! This week I am privileged to be attending Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Midwest Leadership Conference in Milwaukee, WI. With all hustle and bustle associated with attending a conference, I decided to find a “guest blogger” to take over for me this week. It wasn’t a difficult search. As a subscriber to the Nonprofit Nate blog on WordPress, I have become a huge fan of Nathan Hand and was thrilled when he agreed to step in for me. The cherry on top of this sundae is that Nate agreed to post all week on the subject of Twitter and how non-profit organizations can/should use that social media network. So, the following is a little bit more about Nathan and today’s post. Enjoy . . . and I’ll see you next week. Here is to your health! ~Erik Anderson, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

Nathan Hand is an AmeriCorps alumnus, holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, a Masters in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University. Nathan is Vice President of Development at School on Wheels, an organization helping homeless children in Indianapolis. He writes at www.nonprofitnate.com sharing thoughts for nonprofiteers and helping visitors navigate the world of giving. For more, follow Nathan on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to his blog!

Twitter Bootcamp Lesson 2: Signing Up

So you’ve heard enough about Twitter and you’re ready to at least sign-up and see what it’s all about.  No, I’m not going to do it for you but here are some tips to get off on the right foot.

The second in this week-long series, come back each day, subscribe via RSS or get posts via email (see right).

Your handle

Your handle is your ‘Twitter name’.  Pretend you’re a trucker. It’s what people will know you by, what they’ll click on to learn more about you and what you’ll be associated as.  You can technically change it later but it’s better not to.  10-4 good buddy.

  • Keep it real & simple – many people (myself included) select their name, see @nathan_hand.  Or some combination of their name, title, identity or descriptor. See @profsaxton, @charityideas, etc.
    Don’t use trucker language…or ’10-4′ or ‘over and out’ on Twitter.
  • Keep it short – remember that tweets are only 140 characters. The shorter your name, the more space you (and others) will have to converse.
  • Keep it clean & appropriate – people will come to know you by this. Would you want your Grandma yelling @BgKahuna in church? Maybe if you’re @BgKahuna.
  • Keep it transferable – Including your work or location can make it difficult when/if you ever change jobs or locations.  Then again, it can make you more relevant or help people understand more about you.  For example, if @NicoleWTHR ever switches stations or cities, she may need to change her name.  However, those that come across her tweets are more likely to understand she’s connected to a TV station than if she was @NicoleMisencik.

Your avatar

No, I’m not talking about the 12 ft tall blue Na’vi creatures from James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster. Your ‘avatar’ is the little picture that exemplifies you on Twitter.  Brands usually use their logo. Some people use professional headshots, others crop family photos or create cartoon versions of themselves.  I really don’t think this matters a lot. HOWEVER, make sure you use it. Otherwise Twitter puts a big ugly egg there until you do – and you’ll be known as an egg-head – not to mention it’s very impersonal (the opposite of social). Remember, the pics are small, so don’t use a full-body image or group shot – you want your head/shoulders so people know what you look like or what you stand for.

Your bio

This is where the magic happens. The purpose of your Twitter bio is to let other people know who you are and why they might want to follow you. If you’re a squirrel expert or are only going to tweet about fireworks, it’s probably a good idea to say that. What makes you interesting? You’re looking for quality followers, not quantity, so be real and honest. Here’s one of my favorite posts on Twitter bios.

Your location

This is simple.  You can put the city, state you’re in. Maybe the area of the country/world you spend most of your time in. You can use it to make a statement, or just follow the norms for once. Maybe you want to be creepy and put “Psst! Right behind you!” You only have a few spaces so think hard and wordsmith wisely.

Your settings

Most of them are easy but there are a couple I think are important. Like any social media, you want to be (somewhat) responsive – meaning if a week goes by and you haven’t responded to someone who tweeted you – you’re not following the Twitter customs. So, under ‘Mobile’, set up mobile alerts for when you’re mentioned or sent a Direct Message (DM – I’ll explain soon).  That way you’ll receive a message if someone’s trying to contact you via Twitter…and you’re not lame-o. Also, go to ‘Notifications’ and determine when you want emails.  I prefer the ‘less is more’ approach to emails – you can uncheck all the boxes because we’re gonna use Hootsuite and mobile to handle it – not email.

Now you’re ready. Open Twitter in another window or tab and refer to this post as you sign up! Tomorrow – we’ll TWEET!

Twitter Bootcamp Lesson 1: Why Twitter?

Fundraising

Good morning everyone! This week I am privileged to be attending Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s Midwest Leadership Conference in Milwaukee, WI. With all hustle and bustle associated with attending a conference, I decided to find a “guest blogger” to take over for me this week. It wasn’t a difficult search. As a subscriber to the Nonprofit Nate blog on WordPress, I have become a huge fan of Nathan Hand and was thrilled when he agreed to step in for me. The cherry on top of this sundae is that Nate agreed to post all week on the subject of Twitter and how non-profit organizations can/should use that social media network. So, the following is a little bit more about Nathan and today’s post. Enjoy . . . and I’ll see you next week. Here is to your health!    ~Erik Anderson, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC

Nathan Hand is an AmeriCorps alumnus, holds an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, a Masters in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University. Nathan is Vice President of Development at School on Wheels, an organization helping homeless children in Indianapolis. He writes at www.nonprofitnate.com sharing thoughts for nonprofiteers and helping visitors navigate the world of giving. For more, follow Nathan on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to his blog!

Twitter Bootcamp Lesson 1: Why Twitter?

If I have to explain the importance of Twitter one more time I’m going to vomit in my mouth and swallow it, fighting through the sore throat it creates.  Just kidding. I love it. I love it so much I thought I’d share the first in a five-part series this week. Designed to help you understand it, sign up correctly and do it right – come back each day, subscribe via RSS or get posts via email (see right).  Already tweeting? Convert your friends or add something to the conversation…smartypants.

Understanding the concept

Before you dive in and sign up, it’s important to frame your understanding of Twitter.  My favorite analogy is a global cocktail party.  Imagine a giant room full of all sorts of people, from all sorts of places, conversing about all sorts of topics…without the house wine or mini quiches.  The room’s at a constant buzz. People are bouncing from table to table, some are laughing, some are in serious conversation, some are teaching things, some are looking for business, some are bragging about themselves and some are quietly taking it all in. Oh, and it’s happening 24/7.  The only difference is that it’s online.  Twitter is bazillions of short messages being fired off from all around the planet at all hours of the day.

Just like a normal cocktail party – the truth is you probably don’t give two naked squirrels about most of what’s being said.  The trick to finding value in Twitter is cutting through the bazillions of messages and finding the few that you actually care about. The beautiful thing is that there are super-easy tools that help you do that – I’ll get there soon, bear with me.

A megaphone back-flip

Why is Twitter important? Besides being able to share/hear/learn from people in a crazy-awesome quiche-free environment, it changes the global communication dynamic.  What do I mean?  In traditional marketing 30 years ago, a company put up a billboard or created a commercial to craft the message it wants people to hear and think about a product (think Mad Men).  It was large, mega-phonal, one-way communication.  If United airlines lost your luggage, you’d complain to your friends and family and just maybe a couple of them wouldn’t book United the next time they flew.  The reality? United did not care.  (que tear and sniffle) They didn’t have to. They had millions of other customers and loosing one or two to your vengeful word of mouth rampage didn’t matter to them…at all. They’d produce a commercial or put up a billboard and quickly replace you with new customers spending new dollars.

With Twitter (as with Facebook, YouTube, social media, etc.) the dynamic has changed.  Individuals can see/measure the power of their network and amplify their message.  Most importantly, they can have as much or MORE influence and power than a company or brand using traditional marketing. See the infamous “United breaks guitars” video and case study.

What Twitter is not

Twitter is not a bad word. It’s not a waste of time. It’s not only for young-ens. It’s not the cool kids’ table. It’s not only for athletes, Ashton Kutcher or Ryan Secrest. It’s not too confusing or too much trouble. It doesn’t take away from your priorities and it’s not hard. At the same time, just like sushi or rollerblading, Twitter’s not for everyone.  At the end of this series, if it’s not for you – that’s ok. I just ask that you give it your best. I think you’ll like it.

Ready for Twitter 102-105? Come back each day, subscribe via RSS or get posts via email (click here to visit Nonprofit Nate and sign-up ).  Tweetcha later.

The Sounds of Annual Campaign Planning: Part 4

Fundraising, Planning

As most of you already know, I am dedicating all of this week’s blog posts to the 2012 annual campaign planning process, and I’m putting it all to music just for the fun of it. Today’s post focuses on constructing your campaign’s policies.

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

First, let me admit that I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to skipping the policy writing part of the annual campaign planning process. For some reason, I always saw this exercise as a harmless corner that could be cut without too much damage being done. For this reason, it is important to address this question first: “Why should you write policies pertaining specifically to your annual campaign?”

When in doubt, I always say “Google It!!!” … so I did and found this great little blurb straight out of a U.S. Department of Agriculture manual:

“Policies give direction to plans. They are a road map [that] management can follow to reach goals and attain objectives. Well written policy facilitates delegation of authority to the lowest feasible level . . . “

Let me use an example to help illustrate the importance of this wonderful little blurb and put it into context for a volunteer-driven fundraising campaign. So, let’s say I am sitting with a donor and just asked her to consider making a pledge of $1,000 to our annual campaign. The donor seems agreeable, but has some questions. I handle the first few questions flawlessly, but then we start getting into territory where I don’t have the slightest idea of what the answer might be (e.g. can the gift be paid for in stock, how much time does the donor have to pay-off their pledge, etc). Uh-oh! Maybe I shouldn’t “close the deal” right now because I need to find some answers to this donors questions.

Volunteers are already super reluctant to participate in face-to-face solicitations. One of their many fears is being unable to answer a donor’s question (or providing inaccurate answers to their questions).

From a staff perspective, written policies are your friend because they keep volunteers from calling you every other time with questions about whether or not something can be done. When your volunteer solicitors are empowered with that kind of knowledge, they are more successful at “closing the gift” and have fewer prospects to follow-up with after the original solicitation call.

Overall, writing campaign policies saves both staff and volunteers time and increases a volunteer’s confidence heading into a solicitation call.

Writing policies does not need to be a difficult or time-consuming part of your annual campaign planning process. I encourage staff and campaign volunteers to sit down and make a list of commonly asked questions. I suspect the following questions might be found on most lists:

  • How often can the non-profit send me a pledge reminder (e.g. how many payments can I slice my pledge into)? Or can you bill me on an irregular schedule of May, August, November and December?
  • By when do I need to have my pledge paid?
  • Do you accept stock as a form of payment? Or can I pay my contribution with a credit card?
  • Do you accept in-kind contributions, too? (e.g. cars, computer equipment, etc)
  • Will you send me an acknowledgement letter that I can give to my accountant for tax purposes? How soon will I get that documentation?
  • Will you share my name and contract information with other companies?
  • Can I make this contribution anonymously?
  • I hate receiving all that junk mail from charities . . . can I opt out of those mailings (e.g. newsletter, etc)?
  • I don’t like public recognition, can you keep my name off of donor honor rolls, newsletter recognition and the website?
  • May I designate my annual campaign contribution to a specific program or to a future building fund?

This list can go on and on and on, which can make this step in the planning process look time-consuming. So, I encourage you to not get carried away. If you haven’t ever written campaign policies, then start small. You can always add written policies in the future.

If you already have written resource development policies as part of your organization’s written resource development plan, then you may not have to re-invent the wheel. However, staff and volunteers should still take a moment to review those policies to ensure there isn’t anything missing from an annual campaign perspective.

If you are a “googling fool” like me, it will be a challenge to find samples if you try searching “annual campaign policies”. I suggest searching on phrases such as: “donor recognition policies” or “fundraising policies”. You’ll have a little more success. Or you can just facilitate an organic exercise and ask questions like the ones I pose above.

The biggest thing to remember is: involve your volunteers in this process. This is NOT a staff-only activity. Don’t forget that these written policies exist to help your volunteer solicitors feel more confident and get “The Question Song” out of their head before/during/after a solicitation call. So, excluding them from this process would be counter-productive.

ALSO … don’t forget that only the board of directors has the ability to bring written policies to life. So, whatever the annual campaign committee decides needs to be reviewed and approved by the board.

Does your organization have written policies that help guide your annual campaign? If so, are you willing to share them with others? How did you develop your policies? How and when do you educate volunteer solicitors on these policies before sending them out to talk to donors?

Please use the comment box below to answer some of these questions. As I always say, we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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

The Sounds of Annual Campaign Planning: Part 3

Fundraising, Planning

In case you didn’t tune in on Monday or Tuesday, please know that I am dedicating all of this week’s blog posts to the 2012 annual campaign planning process, and I’m putting it all to music just for the fun of it. Today’s post focuses on constructing your campaign’s case for support (aka case statement).

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

I think it is important to start off by saying there are many different ‘schools of thought’ about what is and is not a case statement (aka case for support). However, when it is all said and done, I don’t think it matters in which camp you find yourself. It is far more important to be in a camp and in possession of a powerful case statement by the time you complete your annual campaign planning process.

Ann Fitzgerald of A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates does a nice job explaining what a case statement is when she says:

“The case for support, or case statement, is a marketing and fundraising tool that explains in an urgent and compelling manner why someone should support the campaign. It answers the prospective donor’s questions about the nonprofit organization, the project and the cost. And it does so in a way that connects the donor emotionally to a grander vision.”

On Ann’s website, she does a nice job of channeling Tom Ahern’s point of view in his book “Seeing Through a Donor’s Eyes” on how to go about writing an effective case statement.

Putting your case statement together during the pre-campaign planning process is important. It allows you to utilize volunteers to craft your powerful messaging about why a donor should support your campaign with a contribution. Going through this exercise during the campaign planning process should mean volunteers have bought into the messaging and will use the case statement resource later on when they’re out soliciting prospects and donors. Finally, if your case statement is done as part of your planning efforts, it can be used as a recruitment tool when you’re out recruiting volunteer solicitors in December and January.

While some organizations turn their case document into actual marketing material for use during the solicitation meeting (e.g. Jewish Federation of San Diego County). Others treat the case strictly as an internal document and use it to train volunteer solicitors in what to say during a solicitation call (and they create other solicitation materials based upon the messaging found in the case statement).

In addition to helping shape and support the face-to-face solicitation process of an annual campaign, your organization’s case statement should be used to construct the letter for the targeted mail phase of the campaign. It can even be used to craft more effective post-solicitation gift acknowledgement letters and subsequent stewardship materials and messaging.

In an effort to help you internalize some of the most important portions of an effective case statement, I am putting each section to music. I hope you enjoy!

  • Section #1: Who are you? Mission? Vision? Who you serve? What you do? . . . let’s channel a little Lionel Richie here.
  • Section #2: What is the problem(s) in your community that need solving? You are channeling part of a ‘community need assessment’ here, and teh challanges should be things your agency is positioned to help with. These are not your organizational needs.  As for a song . . . I think Paul got it right when he sang about yesterday.
  • Section #3: What does your non-profit do to help solve these community problems? What programs are you running and how effective are they? I’m going to go with Michael Stipe and REM for this selection to pay tribute to this band’s 31-year run.
  • Section #4: Call to action! How can a donor get involved in being part of the solution. And can there be any other musical selection than Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero“?

There are tons of online resources you can access to help you write an effective case for support. Click around and you’ll find what you’re looking for. However, I encourage you to involve volunteers and donors. After all, these are the people who need to use this resource or get inspired by its messaging. And by all means . . . please start your annual campaign planning process TODAY (see Monday’s post for a starting point) because we’re all going to blink and 2011 will be a distant memory and we’ll all be saying “Let’s do the time warp again“. LOL

How does your organization craft its annual campaign case statement? How do you know it is effective? How do you use it? Have you ever involved donors and volunteers in the process? If so, how? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in because we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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

The Sounds of Annual Campaign Planning: Part 2

Fundraising, Planning

For those of you following along, you know that I am dedicating all of this week’s blog posts to the 2012 annual campaign planning process, and I’m putting it all to music just for the fun of it. Today’s post focuses on prospect identification & evaluation and campaign goal setting.

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

For many of you, this is budget season and you’re sitting around your computers plugging numbers into spreadsheets. Finance committee and board volunteers are poking and prodding, which results in revisions and more meetings. “Lather-Rinse-Repeat“.

As you go through this mind-numbing process, I know many of you are projecting your annual campaign revenue all alone in your locked office. Even more likely, you’re probably pulling numbers out of the air, plugging them into spreadsheet cells that previously held smaller numbers, and are muttering things under your breath like:

  • “Well, we just don’t have a choice. The annual campaign simply needs to bring that in.”
  • “We raised $X last year … surely our volunteers and staff can increase that by 10%.”
  • “Once we make the case to our annual campaign donors, they will see things for what they actually are and everyone will increase their gift a little bit.”

If this picture describes you, then stop what you’re doing. Put down the Häagen-Dazs ice cream. And push away from the spreadsheet. Click here for your next musical selection because we need to take a good hard look in the mirror.

As I posted yesterday, I really encourage you to sit down with volunteers to do your 2012 annual campaign planning. Before tossing numbers around and rationalizing a new goal, I urge you to dig into your donor database and start with real numbers.

I’ve always liked involving volunteers first and starting with donor identification & evaluation exercises, then using that data/analysis to back into a campaign goal. For some reason it just feels more real to me. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Look at who gave last year. Determine who is likely to make another contribution. Set a ‘suggested ask amount’ based on past giving history and what the people around the table are saying about that donor’s capacity and willingness to contribute in 2012.  (Always remember — people’s lives change)
  • Look for new prospective donors. Ask volunteers to review donor lists from your special events (or any other fundraiser for that matter). Also ask them to review donor honor rolls from other non-profits and service club membership rosters. Many of these are ‘cold leads,’ but with the right person making the solicitation they might just turn into a supporter. Be very conservative when assigning suggested ask amounts to these prospects.
  • Look at your agency’s ‘prospect cultivation list’ for the last year. Add any names from that list if you think they’re ready to take that next step from ‘prospect’ to ‘donor’. Again, be very conservative when assigning suggested ask amounts to these prospects.
  • After you and your volunteers have agreed upon a complete list of prospects and assigned each of them an ask amount, sum the column and divide by two (or divide by three if you want to be very conservative). Congratulations . . . you now have your first draft annual campaign goal that can be inserted into the agency’s 2012 budget spreadsheet.

The truth is that this is probably just a starting point. Many fundraising professionals and executive directors like to start tweaking the numbers from here.

  • Some people pull out the donors with giving history and only applying the “divide by two” or “divide by three” rule to new campaign prospects.
  • Some people use a Range of Gifts chart to do this analysis, and instead of dividing anything, they add two or three prospects for every gift required.
  • Some people have these discussions with volunteers around a table, and others use a paper or digital process to take personalities out of it and inject an air of confidentiality.

There is no science to this process, but the hard truth is that you need to develop a process that instills a sense of confidence in the numbers for your volunteers. I believe starting with prospect identification and evaluation exercises that lead into a discussion around goal setting keeps things realistic. Of course, there will be talk about “what needs to be raised,” but the work you do on the front-end will help balance the urge to use ‘plug numbers’ in your agency’s budget spreadsheet on the back-end.

If you start down this path now, then you might just find yourself humming this song from R. Kelly when sitting in front of your spreadsheet plugging in revenue numbers for your annual campaign.

How does your agency set its annual campaign goals? What ‘science’ do you bring to the table with your volunteers? Too many of us pull numbers of the air. So, please step up and share how you do things because we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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

Boards Gone Wild: Part Two

Board development, Fundraising

Last Friday my post titled “Boards Gone Wild” appeared to garner a lot of attention. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, I encourage you to go back and do so. For those of you without much time this morning, the quick synopsis is: the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (ESO) is in crisis and four major board members (also are major donors) have resigned.

Since last Friday, my local newspaper — The Courier-News — ran another article about the situation. I am re-visiting this issue today because Courier-News columnist Jeff Ward is a former director of fundraising and raises a new set of questions worth discussing. The following section from Ward’s column is what got me motivated to do this:

“As for you, Mr. Cain — fix this. You’re the leader, so start acting like one. Stop making excuses. Using contingency funds to pay operating expenses, a mass exodus of staff and board members, and disappearing donors are all really bad signs. And this kind of thing always starts at the top.

If for some reason you can’t lead the ESO out of this, then step aside in favor of someone who can. The fact that you can so easily ‘dis’ your former staff while Roeser continues to contribute to the ESO after his departure speaks volumes.”

In a nutshell, Ward is saying that holding staff accountable for the situation is only part of solution. He suggests that the board president, Jerry Cain, also needs to be held accountable.

Well, let me go a step farther and ask . . . “shouldn’t the entire board be held accountable?”

The problem with this idea is that outside of the local newspaper, the only other stakeholder group that can bring any sense of accountability to the situation is LOCAL DONORS.

So, what do you suppose would happen if the ESO’s top 50 donors decided to flex their “investor muscles” by organizing an impromptu donors conference focusing solely on solving the problems at hand? I’ll bet that every ESO board volunteer and staff person would be there taking notes and asking how high should they jump.

Of course, the problem with this idea is that donors don’t typically organize themselves into groups and instead only act individually. However, in this instance, there is a person with the charisma and chutzpah to pull this off. I can almost hear that intermission announcer saying: “Paging Mr. Seigle. Please report to the donor services desk.”

(Note: For those non-Elgin readers, Mark Seigle is one of the AWOL board members mentioned in the two Courier-News stories and one of the most charismatic and feisty donors in our town. According to the Courier-News, he is also our local “lumber magnate”. LOL)

So, if anyone out there in cyberspace is listening (or cares), here are two additional suggestions to what I put out there in last Friday’s blog post:

  1. Go back to the written board development plan and policies, sharpen your pencils, and start adding accountability policies and practices to that document such as: a) annual board member evaluations, b) scorecards/dashboard focused on ‘organizational health’ metrics published and update monthly on your website for all donor-investors to see, and c) an expanded finance committee and a resource development committee that includes donor participation (not just board volunteers). More ideas and metrics are available in the “BoardSource Nonprofit Governance Index 2010“
  2. Don’t just look at going down the typical strategic planning road. Use an organic planning model such as the Search Conference. Click here to learn more about the book that is a blueprint for this approach. Click here for a synopsis and an impressive list of corporations who have benefitted from this approach. I love this planning model because it is inclusive of all organizational stakeholders (e.g. board, staff, donors, ticket holders, community leaders, etc).

I know you are all very busy people, but would you please take a moment this morning to weigh-in using the comment box below.

How does your organization add accountability elements to your board development efforts? Have you ever seen major donors spontaneously organize into a donor summit? What do you think about the Search Conference planning model and its potential for bringing other stakeholders (e.g. donors) to the table to help plan and solve problems? What is your prescription to fix the situation that the ESO finds itself in?

We can all learn from each other. Please weigh-in with your thoughts.

Here is to your health!

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

You’re FIRED!

Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

I’m not sure who I enjoy more when it comes to terminating employees or contestants — Vince McMahon (owner of WWE) or Donald Trump (of Celebrity Apprentice fame). Personally, I couldn’t stop laughing throughout the Donald’s YouTube video as he fired Star Wars characters. You really should click that link. ROTFLMAO!!!

So, what does this have anything to do with non-profits, fundraising and donors? For the first time in my life, I heard a donor say: “Someone needs to be fired over this.” Ever since that conversation, I haven’t been able to get The Donald out of my head.

The “back story” to this conversation is really simple. In fact, you won’t believe it at first.

I was catching up with an old friend, who I hadn’t seen in a long time, and our conversation turned to my efforts to open a non-profit consulting practice. Shortly after updating them on where I was with legal paperwork, marketing and business development, they wished me luck and said “non-profits need a lot of help”.

Well, I couldn’t let that comment go by the wayside. So, I asked what they meant. After a sigh, they shared a story about how one of the non-profit organizations (to which they loyally contribute) screwed up the “donor honor roll and giving levels” in their annual report. Without getting into specifics, let’s just say it was somthing like: their name was misspelled, they were listed in the wrong giving level, they didn’t want to be publicly recognized, etc.

As I referenced earlier, this donor wasn’t just annoyed . . . they were angry enough to say: “Someone needs to be fired over this.” After stewing on this conversation for a good long while, I’ve decided that there must be some good lessons to be learned from this situation. So, I did a little research and decided to share those findings with you today because as I always say “we can learn from each other”.

As I tend to always do, I turned to the person I consider my fundraising guru — Penelope Burk — who conducts annual donor surveys on this subject and published the book “Donor-Centered Fundraising“. I encourage everyone to buy a copy of that book and internalize it. Here is what Penelope reports in her book on pages 125-126:

  • 93% of non-profit agencies recognize their donors using various vehicles such as a newsletter, annual report, etc.  Of these organizations, 65% list their donors by gift level and 22% list them alphabetically.
  • When Penelope asked those non-profits why they do this, 49% said they think it helps attract other donors, 47% said they believe it creates donor loyalty, 19% said stated it helps showcase philanthropy and the newsworthiness of charitable giving, and 17% believe it encourages gifts of higher value.
  • Upon further investigation, the research shows that there are a number of potential pitfalls associated with recognizing donors in this fashion including: 1) accidentally omitting someone’s name, 2) misspellings, 3) accidentally reporting someone’s name when they contributed anonymously, and 4) accounting for multiple gifts throughout the year and putting a donor in the wrong giving level. This doesn’t even address the problems associated with cost, staff time, etc.
  • Here is the kicker . . . 71% of individuals and 83% of corporate donors told Penelope that the donor honor roll had no influence on the size of their gift. Even more to the point, 90% indicated in the survey that they want to be asked first before a non-profit agency publicly recognizes them.

I am a huge advocate for donor recognition and stewardship. If you want to create donor loyalty, your organization needs to invest in newsletters, handwritten notes, websites, impact reports, donor recognition societies, annual reports, stewardship events and receptions, etc. However, these things cannot be after-thoughts because that is when mistakes get made and donors get angry.

Think of it this way, don’t you think a $25,000 gift (or any size contribution for that matter) entitles you to having your name spelled correctly or being placed in the right giving range? More importantly than just recognition, shouldn’t non-profits be accountable to their donors and demonstrate a return on investment back to their investors?

I must admit that I used to be a big fan of donor honor rolls, but I’m re-thinking my position after seeing how passionate my friend was over that mistake. I guess this is where I am at after a few cups of coffee and a little research:

  1. Figure out a way to ask donors for their permission before publishing their names in anything. It could be as simple as a check box on the pledge form and a line asking them how they’d like their name to appear.
  2. I’m almost inclined to stop listing people by giving levels and just publish their names alphabetically. Stephen Colbert scrolls the names of donors to his SuperPac along the bottom of the television screen without any indication of contribution level, and this seems to work just fine.

I keep coming back to conversations I’ve had with donors who say: “recognition isn’t important to me”.  I now think that my favorite childhood cartoon characters — Tom & Jerry — might have taught me a very important lesson with regards to donors who say this. Click here to see a YouTube video to refresh your memory!

So, if you never forget these two things:  1) You’re FIRED and 2) “Don’t You Believe It”, then you should always be fine when it comes to donor recognition and stewardship.

What are your thoughts about donor honor rolls? Do you still list people by giving level? If so, why and how do you prevent mistakes from happening? Do you ask donors permission before publishing their names? How do you go about doing this? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in because we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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

Beware of vampire staff

Board development, Fundraising

There is an invisible line that exists in the board-staff as well as the donor-staff relationship. Unfortunately, it is a blurry line that gets stepped over from time-to-time. Sometimes it is innocent, and other times it is malicious. Today’s blog post focuses on those not-so-innocent times and offers a few suggestions to both board and staff on how to handle these situations.

First let me start by stating the obvious: “The board of directors has ONLY one employee, and that person is the CEO (aka Executive Director) of the organization.” If this truism is not clear to everyone, then please know that trouble lies ahead on your journey, and it is preparing to ambush your organization.

While the CEO is the board’s only employee (and all other staff work for the CEO), there are times that the CEO finds it necessary to create an environment where their employees interact directly with the board. For example, agencies that are lucky enough to employ resource development professionals need to let that person(s) work directly with board volunteers to plan, implement and evaluate the comprehensive resource development plan. It is in situations like this that the “line” I referenced earlier can get trampled.

Here are a few real life examples that I’ve seen in my travels and work with non-profit organizations:

  • The RD professional was friendly with the COO. Unfortunately, the COO wasn’t performing at a high level and was on a corrective action plan and on the verge of termination. The RD professional didn’t agree with their CEO’s management decisions, started actively engaging the board president, and lobbied for the CEO’s termination (and implying that they should be named the CEO instead).
  • An employee who had been receiving poor evaluations for a few years sensed they were on thin ice. In an effort to undercut the CEO, they befriended key board volunteers and constantly chatted with them about non-work related issues (e.g. health problems, family problems, etc). It was obvious this strategy was an attempt to create sympathy and make it next to impossible for the CEO to terminate them without dealing with potential political blow-back from the board.
  • A special events coordinator hadn’t been making goal, and the CEO was starting to turn up the heat. Suddenly, the staff person initiated an extramarital affair with a married board volunteer who carried a lot of weight on the board and in the community. Oh, did I mention the volunteer was also a fairly substantial donor? <<Gulp>> Needless to say, terminating this employee suddenly came with many complications for the CEO.
  • A VP of Development decided they didn’t like the CEO’s management decisions (or the ‘tone’ they took with staff) and decided they would make a better CEO. Not only did they start openly lobbying for the CEO’s termination with the board president (who was a very good personal friend), but they did so with other key board volunteers and even donors.

Here are a few tips that should help when “the line” gets stepped over (and unfortunately it happens more often than you think even if it isn’t in such egregious ways as I’ve highlighted above):

  • Board volunteer tip #1: Don’t let staff (including the CEO) get too close and blur the line between professional and personal. When conversations shift to personal things, be polite and redirect the conversation at your earliest convenience.
  • Board volunteer tip #2: Be very familiar (and review annually) what your agency’s written policies say about how staff should register complaints about your only employee (aka CEO). So, when a staff person crosses that line you can quickly redirect them to that policy and urge them to follow it. Remember — not following written policies can put you in a legal position at a later date if the board finds that it needs to terminate a CEO’s employment.
  • Board volunteer tip #3: Similar to tip #2, make sure your agency has adopted written “Whistleblower policies” (this is above and beyond complaint policies in your employee handbook). Make sure the law is being followed with regards to posting and implementing that policy. Click here to read a really good blog post from Thomas Silk at Blue Avocado on this subject.
  • CEO tip #1: Don’t foolishly give your staff unfettered access to the board of directors. Be smart about it, and supervise the situation like a hawk. Remember — “You reap what you sow”.
  • CEO tip #2: Be proactive and upfront with your staff. Tell them during their orientation as well as periodically throughout their employment that there is a “line” that exists between board-staff and staff-donors. Be gentle yet firm and upfront about what will happen if that line is crossed.
  • CEO tip #3: Don’t be soft on staff who step over this line. Once a staff person violates the trust you have placed in them, it is almost impossible to regain it. Be prepared to terminate those employees who lack boundaries, and be prepared to do it swiftly regardless of the consequences. If they lack boundaries when it comes to this, then they lack boundaries all over the place.  Cut your losses quickly!

So, am I being too harsh? Do you think these vampire staff who prey on a board volunteer’s or donor’s good nature can be rehabilitated? Have you ever witnessed examples of similar situations? If so, how did the situation play out? Was there ever a ‘happy ending’ or does it always end up messy? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in because we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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

Boards Gone Wild

Board development, Fundraising

A week or so ago I saw a very bizarre tweet from my local newspaper float through my Twitter feed. The tweet included a link to an article about Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s board of directors and what I’d characterize as a “board revolt”. Suddenly, I felt like one of those people standing in a grocery store check-out line staring at “The Inquirer” and unable to resist taking that ‘rag’ off the newsstand to see if aliens really did help Oprah lose 100-pounds. Have I piqued your curiosity yet? to read the article from Dave Gathman of The Courier News.

It certainly seems like there is a lot going on beneath the surface, but this is what it looks like to this outside observer:

  • Key board volunteers who are also former board presidents and major donors are pissed off about a multitude of things and resigned out of frustration.
  • There is obviously conflict over rising deficits and debt.
  • There seems to be disagreement over the strategic direction of the organization.
  • There appears to be many fingers getting pointed in many directions and the resource development/fundraising department is in someone’s crosshairs.
  • I smell personality conflicts all around the table, especially between the CEO and certain board volunteers.
  • Is it just me or is the current board president kind of stirring the pot when he tells the newspaper that donations and ticket sales have picked up since these people resigned? Perhaps, there was even a schism among volunteers on the board of directors.

WOW!!! This is the stuff that Hollywood movies are made of.  OK . . . maybe I’m getting carried away, but it is at least what after-school, made-for-television movies are made of. Right?

I find myself fixated on a number of thoughts and questions such as: What should the CEO do in this situation? How does this board move forward? What do you say to your donors when your dirty laundry spills over into the local newspaper? Who is getting fired?

However, the thing that weighs most on my mind is: “Who are these people who claim to be board volunteers?” I’ve worked with between 50 – 75 different boards across a 13 state region over the last 5-years, and this isn’t a familiar sight to me. More oftentimes than not, I found boards who would rather sustain pain from medieval torture devices rather than engage in discussion and dialog that “might” possibly lead to disagreement.

So, I’d like to thank the Elgin Symphony Orchestra for renewing my faith in board governance. While the outcome might not have been desirable, I believe once again that there are passionate, mission-focused volunteers who serve on non-profit boards.

As for where to go from here, I can’t stop thinking about Chicago’s new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Here are just a few things I might be thinking about if I were in the CEO’s hot seat:

  • Organize a ton of donor focus groups to engage supporters in how they think the organization’s issues could be addressed
  • Develop a donor survey to secure similar input from smaller donors
  • Commission a resource development audit to dissect revenue streams and look critically at all resource development systems
  • Start down a strategic planning road and make sure the planning model you choose is very “organic”and engages ALL stakeholder groups
  • Target other influential community leaders who you’ve always wanted on your board but couldn’t (or didn’t), go talk to them about your planned response, and ask them to get involved

Regardless of the path chosen, they better do something soon or their non-profit board room might start to look something like this Saturday Night Live sketch.

What would you do if you were the CEO? Board president? Was your faith in boards “renewed” as it was in my case? Have you ever been faced with a similar situation? If so, how was your example handled? Please use the comment box to weigh-in with your thoughts. We can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

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