planning – Page 8 – The Healthy Non-Profit

Getting your ducks … er … volunteers in a row

March 28, 2012 DonorDreams Planning, technology, volunteers

Putting your nonprofit organization’s resource development plan together can be a monumental undertaking. If you do it in an engaging and collaborative manner, then you are likely temporarily expanding your resource development committee and inviting various stakeholders (e.g. event volunteers, foundation staff or board members, and donors) to come to the table. This could easily result in 8 to 16 volunteers jockeying for position around your planning table.

I have used this approach before. Yes, we experienced challenges such as:

getting everyone’s calendars aligned,
communicating effectively and trying to avoid crazy, overlapping, and confusing long email threads,
keeping track of action items (not to mention injecting accountability into the process),
collaboratively working on building one document that didn’t result in 20 different versions attached to countless different email threads, and
sharing files with each other (Note: “the cloud” did not yet exist at the time of the project I am referencing).

A few months ago, a very dear friend and fellow consultant — Teri Halliday — introduced me to an online product called “Basecamp“. She swears by it, and I trust her like I trust my mother. So, I purchased the service and it changed my life! (Yes, dramatic but very true) There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t think back to the resource development planning process that I described a few paragraphs ago and wonder how different things would’ve been if I would’ve had access to Basecamp.

All of the challenges I described in the previous set of bullet points would’ve disappeared. Once everyone registers and links to your online workspace, you can:

work on collaboratively building documents in the Writeboard section,
keep everyone’s schedules in lock step with the Calendar section,
communicate with each other using the bulletin board functionality in the Messages section,
keep track of action items using the To-Do section (and OMG the system even reminds people their tasks are coming due), and
share documents using the Files section.

It is true that people who don’t want to be engaged won’t get any more involved in a project just because you’re utilizing an online project management tool. When you see this dynamic at play, your problem isn’t that you’re disorganized . . . you have a recruitment problem!

However, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen well-intentioned volunteers who want to be involved just walk away from a project because it is disorganized and hard to collaborate with other volunteers. It is this problem that Basecamp can help you resolve.

OK . . . I must admit that I am in LOVE with Basecamp. I am like a man with a hammer, and now I see nails everywhere! 🙂 I can see busy families utilizing Basecamp. I can see for-profit companies who operate in offices sprinkled across the country utilizing Basecamp. I obviously see the benefits for non-profit organizations who constantly engage busy employees and volunteers on a multitude of projects (e.g. strategic planning, resource development planning, special event fundraisers, annual campaigns, etc).

While I wish I could say that this “Software as a Service” (SaaS) was free, I cannot say such a thing; however, I think it is reasonably priced with one plan costing just $20 per month (and no long-term contract to sign).

I am sure some of you are wondering what has gotten into me this morning . . . am I a paid spokesperson or something like that? No! No! No! I am just a huge fan of things that work, and I have worked in the non-profit sector long enough to know that a tool like this can be a godsend. I say every day on this blog that “we can all learn from each other” . . . so I decided to put my money where my mouth is today.

What other tools (either free or paid service) has your non-profit agency used to help organize your volunteers and projects (e.g. Doodle.com? Google docs? GoToMeeting? BigMarker? Microsoft Project?)??? Please take a moment to scroll down and share your ideas via 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
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

Non-profit mergers aren’t the “easy way out”

March 22, 2012 DonorDreams organizational development

At the end of 2011, I wrote a series of blog posts focused on predictions for the upcoming year. It seems as if my post on December 28, 2011 titled “2012 Non-Profit Trends and Predictions: Contraction Continues” hit a nerve with some of you. There isn’t a week that goes by without someone engaging me in a discussion around collaboration, strategic alliance, merger, acquisition, and outright sale.

None of this surprises me for all of the reasons I wrote about back on December 28th. However, the thing that is a little interesting has been the manner in which people are talking about the subject. At least in my conversations, this subject has been framed as the “perfect solution to get out from underneath our financial problems“.

While it is true that most non-profit mergers and acquisitions are inspired and motivated by financial crisis, it is important to remember that there isn’t a large group of non-profits sitting on the sidelines with a large wallet of cash just waiting to bail you out. Let’s please get real for a moment.

There needs to be “benefit” on both sides of the merger equation. Figuring out what motivates each party is important, and it is one of the first steps.
Mergers don’t happen overnight. A due diligence process must be established with representation from all sides. This process will include discussions ranging from developing a case for change to addressing how to integrate systems (e.g. payroll, tech, etc) if the project gets green-lighted.
While discretion and confidentiality are important elements in such delicate discussions, there needs to be clear lines of communication with staff and both boards.

Engineering a merger is tough and takes a lot of time. It is NOT a quick fix nor is it the perfect solution from getting out from underneath your agency’s problems. The math supports this position. The Bridgespan Group published a paper presenting data and findings from a study that focused on non-profit mergers, and this is what they reported on the rate of success:

“We evaluated 11 years of merger filings in four states: Massachusetts, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina, and found that more than 3,300 organizations reported engaging in at least one merger or acquisition between 1996 and 2006, for a cumulative merger rate of 1.5 percent (number of deals divided by average number of organizations for 11 years).”

Does this mean non-profits aren’t as good at mergers and acquisitions as our for-profit cousins? Nope!

“This rate may seem low compared to the perceived ubiquity of M&A in the for-profit world, but it is not. The comparative cumulative total in the for-profit sector is a close 1.7 percent.”

If your non-profit organization is starting to chatter about collaborations, strategic alliances, mergers or acquisitions, I strongly suggest you: 1) do your homework, 2) develop a process, 3) hire a consultant to help and facilitate, and 4) prepare for a long due diligence process.

I really like this online white paper by CCF National Resource Center that I found on the United Way of the Midlands’ website. Click here to read more about non-profit merger best practices.

Have you ever been part of a non-profit merger process? If so, what was your experience? Is your agency currently looking for a merger partner? If so, why and how are you going about it? Have you seen other merger attempts in your community succeed or fail? If so, what happened and why? How do you think donors should be included in a non-profit merger due diligence process without causing a crisis of confidence with lasting impact?

Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts and opinions. Why? Because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Tips from the unemployment line for struggling non-profits

March 14, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising, Planning

My local United Way published a brochure titled “Help for Hard Times Guide” as a way to help people with their financial decisions during tough economic times. Yesterday, I came across a copy of that document and the following quote on the inside panel grabbed my attention:

“Reduced income is going to require expert money management. This checklist will help you get started.”

While this is as obvious as the nose on your face, it struck me that this is also the case for non-profit organizations who are dealing with falling revenue. So, just out of curiosity, I decided to scan the checklist and see if there was any good advice that might also apply to non-profits.

The bolded text is the United Way’s advice, and the italics text were the thought I had while reading:

Determine your financial resources. What a great idea. Make a list of all the agency’s “resources” and determine what can be maximized and leveraged. Even more important might be to review all revenue streams and circle back around to those donors and funders for personal conversations about their support and if they can do more to help.
Plan a realistic budget. While this is always a good idea, I’ve seen too many non-profit budgets with “plug numbers”. During tough times, an extra special dose of reality is probably sound advice. Real numbers with real strategies behind those revenue numbers.
Stop all use of credit. This might be difficult to do, but it is still sound advice. How many times have you seen a non-profit dig itself into a hole that it can’t crawl out of all in the name of “tough times”.
Alert your mortgage holder or landlord. Yes, engaging the bank or landlord might open up unforeseen opportunities. It might engage a stakeholder in a fruitful, solution-oriented discussion and you might see things that weren’t obvious to you.
Alert your utilities. Same thought as the previous bullet point. There might be some payment plan options that you weren’t aware of. They might even be able to help you better understand how to reduce your agency’s usage and save money.
Alert creditors. Ditto . . . same as the last two thoughts.
Set priorities. Sometimes there are more accounts payable than there are accounts receivable. Right? Well, if and when this happens, it is probably smart to know what gets paid first.
Cancel unnecessary purchases/services. We all have things that we can live without (e.g. cable service, newspaper subscriptions, etc). Surely, the same is true for your agency. However, when we get used to things, we tend to forget that they aren’t essential. Engaging volunteers and an outside set of eyes might be a very valuable exercise for a non-profit executive director.
Consider refinancing. Restructuring loans and stretching payments over a longer period of time might free up some working capital during lean years.
Sell unnecessary items. Determining which assets are essential to the mission today versus what you might be sitting on for tomorrow (e.g. vacant land, old office furniture, etc), might create some working capital and make your cash flow situation a little easier.

Impressive . . . nice job United Way! Not only did you create a good resource for people in the unemployment line, but you also created a nice checklist for struggling non-profit agencies.

Of course, these are all temporary fixes because it is difficult to live forever with inadequate resources. Once these adjustments are made for survival, it is advisable to quickly pivot to engage your agency’s donors, board members, and volunteer supports in creating a resource development plan. This ensures that your focus isn’t just on managing what’s left and instead is on developing goals and strategies to secure the necessary funding and get back to a place where you’re thriving and mission-focused.

What additional tips would you add to the United Way’s punch list that I shared with you? Please scroll down and use the comment box below to share some best practices because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Planning can be scary so don’t do it alone . . . invite your donors to help!

March 13, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, nonprofit, organizational development, Planning

There are those of us who like to make plans in the dark and by ourselves. I suspect some people like to do it that way because the act of planning is revolutionary and involves tackling the scary monster that most people recognize as “CHANGE“.

And doesn’t change involve “death”?

Ahhhh, I bet that got your attention. I suspect many of you are scratching your head over that logical leap, but is it really that big of a leap? Consider the following quote from Anatole France that I found online at BrainyQuote:

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”

So, if planning equals change and change equals death, then through mathematical transitive properties . . . planning also equals death.

I know some of you are there with me on this ethereal point and others of you are still shaking your head. Regardless, let’s all agree that planning equals change, and both planning and change are scary propositions for some people. Keeping this in mind, let’s circle back to the question begging to be asked:

Who should you invite to the planning table?

While some people are very cautious and want to control the process and outcomes, I don’t subscribe to that paradigm. I am a firm believer that those people who are involved in planning are the people who you most need to roll up their sleeves once the planning process concludes.

So, if you like to be the Lone Ranger and have time to single-handedly implement (and fund) your nonprofit organization’s strategic plan (or marketing plan or resource development plan or any other kind of plan), then I encourage you to lock yourself in a closet and start writing that plan. However, if you want others to roll up their sleeves and open their wallets, then the answer to this question is that you need to find ways to involve all stakeholders including: board, staff, clients, volunteers, community supporters, donors, collaborative partners, etc.

This does not mean throwing caution to the wind and working in total transparency for the entire world to watch, worry and fret over. After all, there are times when revolutionary ideas are aired and debated during the planning process. For example, imagine how uncomfortable it might be for an organization to examine the merits of totally changing its mission in front of an audience of donors who have fallen in love with and funded the current mission.

Does this mean donors should be cut out of the planning process? Nope! However, getting the right donors involved does require great thought and care. Asking a trusted donor and friend of the agency to serve on the planning committee means creating ground rules and setting expectations upfront.

Does this mean donors should be ignored until the plan is ready to be unveiled? Definitely NOT! While focus groups and surveys are great ways to secure donors’ feelings and opinions during the planning process assessment phase, it needs to be done thoughtfully. Asking donors to share their thoughts means giving consideration to what they actually have to say regardless of whether or not you agree with it.

Are there risks? Yes, of course, there are, but you can do this!

Don’t take my word for it. I found this great Do-It-Yourself resource guide on strategic planning for those of you who prefer a more traditional planning model. Click here to read more about “Step One: Who Should Be Involved?”

If you didn’t like the first quote about change from Anatole France, then try this BrainyQuote from Robert Gallagher on for size:

“Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.”

What have been your experieneces with involving donors in strategic planning (or any planning for that matter)? Did you experience difficulties? If so, how did you handle it? If you haven’t included donors in any of your planning processes, then what is holding you back and what needs to happen to help you feel better about doing so?

Here’s to your health!

Kissing While Driving for non-profit agencies

March 9, 2012 DonorDreams leadership, organizational development

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

Today we’re focusing on a post that John titled “Kissing While Driving“. In this post, he uses an Albert Einstein quote to investigate the perils of “multitasking” in the workplace by employees. He puts forward that employees who are running back and forth between various projects are likely only doing an “adequate” job at best for their employer because as Benjamin Franklin once said, “Haste makes waste”. More importantly John concludes:

this likely impacts employee engagement and loyalty,
can be dangerous for the company whose reputation is based on quality, and
is less than satisfying for employees who take pride in their work.

Reading John’s post brought me back to my “frontline” days of non-profit work. I honestly think this blog post is even more applicable to non-profit agencies because of how they behave in “resource deprived” environments. When I was the executive director of my local Boys & Girls Club, I used to laugh when people asked me: “What is your job?”

I used to describe my work as a daily “sprint” through a series of very diverse and challenging situations.

7:00 am — network with donors at Rotary Club
8:30 am — meet with development director about an upcoming special event fundraiser
9:30 am — prepare meeting materials for upcoming Finance Committee meeting
10:00 am — meet with program staff about a recent hiccup that was brought to my attention by a parent or collaborative partner
11:00 am — double-check the bank deposit against the donor database report and check log; go to bank and make the deposit
11:30 am — Troubleshoot a tech problem that an employee was experiencing (and was preventing them from doing their job)
Noon — Go to lunch with a donor or board member
1:30 pm — Hop on a conference call for the state alliance
2:30 pm — Last minute prep for the board development committee meeting
3:00 pm — Attend the board development committee meeting
5:00 pm — Walk through the clubhouse facility to see programs in action and catch staff doing “good things” as well as connect with the mission
5:30 pm — Respond to email and catch up on stuff that washed into my office throughout the day (possibly screening some cover letters and resumes for a job vacancy)
6:00 pm — Pull together some paperwork and process grant receivables
7:00 pm — Prep for the next day, do a little planning, or take advantage of the silence in the office and write a few sections for a grant application or upcoming newsletter
8:00 or 9:00 pm — Go home for some sleep so you can do it all over again tomorrow.

While every day wasn’t always like this, most days were this way. It is the cross that a non-profit executive director must bear when they operate in a resource deprived environment. It is exhausting, and it produces a situation where many mistakes are made. It is a minor miracle anything got done and that any progress was made. In the end, it was one of the top three reasons I chose to leave the frontline and go to work for the national organization.

Hmmmmm . . . yes, I’d say it was a lot like “kissing while driving”. I wasn’t very satisfied. I wasn’t as engaged in the things that were most important to the agency. I made mistakes and felt horrible about making them. I ultimately left for what I thought were greener pastures.

In hindsight, I wonder what I could’ve done differently:

invested in a volunteer program to expand human resources
engaged board members and donors in seeing and help solving these challenges (rather than celebrating the insanity)
adjusted the agency’s strategic plan to focus less on growth and more on deepening the impact

Of these three ideas, the one I think might bring the highest return on investment is the second bullet point that speaks to engaging board members and donors. As I look around at all of my non-profit friends, I see too many of them placating their boards by always saying “YES” rather than walking them through “cause-and-effect” scenarios pertaining to board room decisions (e.g. budget, staffing structure, new programming, etc). I also see many of them telling donors whatever they think they want to hear just to get another signed pledge card.

I have a hard time believing that if board members and donors saw what your day REALLY looked like that they wouldn’t want to jump in and help solve those challenges. Right? And with multiple people focused on solving these challenges, I suspect the odds go up dramatically that either the car gets stopped so the kissing can continue OR the kissing stops so that some work can get done.

In the end, it is your leadership that will solve this problem. Perhaps, it is a new Teachable Point of View that you adopt as the leader. Or maybe it is your embrace of tools like GRPI or RASI. Regardless, it most likely starts and ends with you. So, what are you going to do about it?

Are your days as crazy as the one I described above? What tools do you use to tame that beast? Have you ever engaged board members or donors in this discussion? If so, what were the results? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts. Remember to also check out other blog posts on organizational development by John Greco at his blog johnponders ~ about life at work, mostly.

Here’s to your health!

Introducing “O.D. Fridays: Non-profit Style”

March 2, 2012 DonorDreams organizational development

One of my dear friends recently joined the blogosphere. His name is John Greco, and he is an organizational development professional. His blog — “johnponders~ about life at work” — deals with issues like change, leadership, organizational structure, culture, and communication. Needless to say, I subscribed right away because I can listen to John talk about these things all day long. But then it struck me! Non-profit organizations deal with these issues every single day.

So, an idea was born. Every Friday for the foreseeable future, I will pick one of my favorite blog posts from johnponders~ about life at work and extrapolate on it from a non-profit perspective over here at DonorDreams blog. Thus, we should all now refer to Fridays as “O.D. Fridays”. 😉

Today, I want to talk about one of John’s posts titled: “The High Wire Act of Organizational Change“. When reading it, I found myself thinking about all the planning processes I’ve been a part of throughout the years (e.g. strategic planning, resource development planning, annual campaign planning, board development planning, succession planning, etc).

In my opinion, the common denominator to ALL planning processes is “CHANGE,” which many people seem to be allergic to undertaking. I wonder if it genetic or biological . . . hmmmm?

With so many non-profit organizations always stretching resources, it seems like many agencies are constantly trying to undertake some kind of change initiative (e.g. adding a program because of a grant, bringing on new board members, etc).

Whenever I’ve participated in planning processes, I’ve noted exactly what John references in his post. There is a dynamic tension between “preserving order” and “striving for change”. It is those non-profit professionals who can walk this fine line that always seem to be successful. When I think about what I see those successful individuals doing, they always seem to be operating with a plan on how to conduct a planning process. With this in mind, I’ve decided to share with you the “Six-Stage Process for Leading Change” that I once learned about at a Linkage training (source: predicated on the work of John Kotter and the works of Kouzes and Posner, Bennis, and Sayles):

Make the case for change
Enlist stakeholders to develop a vision and strategy
Communicate the vision and strategy
Remove barriers
Set milestones and acknowledge progress
Reinforce change

When you start a planning process at your agency, do you do so with a plan? To John’s point, how do you try to “preserve order amid change” AND “preserve change amid order”??? Please scroll down and use the comment section to share your thoughts, experiences and questions.

Oh yeah, by the way . . . if you have room in your inbox or RSS feed for one more blog, I strongly encourage you to flip over and subscribe to johnponders~ about life at work. I promise that you won’t be disappointed (and he doesn’t bite). 😉

Here’s to your health!

And the Oscar goes to . . .

February 28, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

On Sunday night, I found myself at an Oscar party with some of my favorite local non-profit mavens. There was great food, great wine, and great company. I’m thrilled to report that I won the “voting contest” and walked away from the party with some very nice parting gifts. However, more so than anything else, I came away from Sunday with an epiphany about Hollywood and philanthropy.

This epiphany started with the realization that most of the films nominated for Best Picture were set in the past and a celebration of “where we’ve been” rather than future focused and a look at “where we’re going”. I thought . . . “Hmmmm, the film industry is like a mirror and reflects the mood and values of our society.”

At this point, I started wondering about what Hollywood has captured in past years on the big screen about non-profits, charitable giving, donors, and philanthropy. So, I of course Googled it and surprisingly found very little on the subject until I used the following search words: “movies about giving back”. Ah ha . . . eureka! As you can imagine, there are a number of movies that are either themed or have threads of “giving back” as part of their plot.

In April 2011, FilmBuff blog shared what they thought were the top five films about “giving back”:

Pay It Forward
It’s a Wonderful Life
Milk
Young Mr. Lincoln
Exit Through The Gift Shop

My very next thought took me back to the final scene in It’s a Wonderful Life, when George Bailey is in his living room surrounded by all of his friends and neighbors and they are supporting him and “giving back”. It made me think that movies aren’t just mirrors, but so are the people who surrounded us . . . and . . . for non-profit organizations those people are our donors.

This thought smacked me upside the head and the following questions rushed forwarded:

What do your donors look like? Are they men or women? Are they white-collar or blue-collar? Are they old or young?
What are those donors telling you? Are they saying that you solicit them too often or not enough? Are they asking lots of questions about what you do with their dollars?
How often do your donors stick around? Have they been giving to your agency for a long time or do many of them just give to you once?
What would your community look like if your non-profit organization had never been born?

The reality of the situation for many philanthropy driven non-profit organizations is that donors represent the real life motion picture films unfolding all around us. So, without the benefit of filming those interactions, how does your agency capture those pictures? Is your donor database like a video camera? Do you use tools like interviews, focus groups and surveys much like film directors use scripts, storyboards, and dress rehearsals?

If you are “recording” all of these things, then what are you doing with the information? Are you folding it into your resource development planning process? Are you using it to adjust your strategies and tactics? Are you using it to engage others around your mission? Are you monitoring and tracking your results? If so, what have been your results?

Lots of questions today! Do you have some of the answers? If so, please scroll down and share them by using the comment box.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to ask . . . What is your favorite movie of all times that deals with non-profits, charitable giving, donors, philanthropy or giving back?

Here’s to your health!

It’s a party! Non-profit special event tips and tricks

February 24, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

Welcome to non-profit special event season. At least that is the case where I live. Over the course of this last week, we’ve examined FOUR very special and unique special events. Today, we’ll end all of this “party talk” by discussing a few tips and tricks.

However, before we start, please read this quick disclaimer:

“If your agency is small (e.g. too few staff, too few board members, too few volunteers, too few donors, etc) and you need to raise some SERIOUS money, then STOP thinking about throwing a party to raise money! Remember, CharityNavigator.com studied the return on investment (ROI) question and found that the average non-profit will spend $1.33 (direct & indirect costs) to raise $1.00 using a special event vehicle.”

So, if this disclaimer describes your non-profit agency, then I urge you to round-up a small group of volunteers (e.g. those who REALLY believe in what you’re trying to do) and organize them into a group that asks their friends-neighbors-family for direct contributions. Yes, this approach is scary for a lot of people, but it is more effective and you’ll raise more money with less effort.

With that disclaimer out-of-the-way, the following are a few special event observations, tips and tricks for those of you who aren’t quite so desperate and might already have a comprehensive resource development program in place:

If you look around the table and see more staff than volunteers during the planning phase, then please STOP and go recruit more volunteers. This isn’t hard. There are so many people out there who love to plan and participate in a party (at least more so than there are people dying to work pledge cards).
Remember, special events that make crazy sums of money typically do so because of corporate sponsorship and not because a lot of people purchased tickets. Yes, you need people to attend, but make sure to focus your energy on selling sponsorships.
Speaking of sponsorships . . . make sure there is VALUE in those sponsorship packages. Remember . . . companies give you money for different reasons than individuals. So, sit down with your corporate prospects and figure out what they value. Once you figure that out, you’ll easily be able to sell them a sponsorship or craft one around their needs (e.g. marketing impressions, employee involvement, etc). The key here is talking to them in advance AND listening to them AND giving them what they want and need.
The first three letters in fundraising are F-U-N, and special events should personify this word. If you and your volunteers aren’t having a blast planning, organizing and running a special event, then you need to STOP and figure that out! There are so many ways to inject fun into your event: theme, contests, recognition, etc. However, it doesn’t happen accidentally. Non-profit and fundraising professionals set the stage with their demeanor, attitude, approach and ideas.
Infuse mission into your fundraising event. Your special event is a great opportunity to “cultivate” new prospects and “steward” existing donors. This is your moment to shine and educate. Sure, playing 18 holes of golf is fun, but if you can’t find fun and ways to talk about your mission and get people excited about what you do, then I suggest not doing the event.

I don’t have unlimited space to share an infinite number of ideas with you. So, the following links are just a few additional fundraising professionals and organizations I suggest you check-out and read as you strive for creating bigger and better special events: Joanne Fritz, Convio & Event 360, and Andrew Olsen.

If your “fundraising strategy” is predicated on using special events to bring money into your agency, then you’re heading down the wrong fundraising road. Special events don’t make you much money when it is all said and done. I’m not saying “don’t throw a party;” however, I am saying “throw a party for the right reasons.” Sure, you’ll bring some cash into your bank account (not accounting for indirect costs, of course). However, special events are very effective when there is another step (or two or three) in your resource development program that you can transition your event donors (e.g. annual campaign, mail campaign, etc).

Here’t to your health!

What if a fundraising professional could start from scratch?

January 19, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

I recently met with a fundraising professional who has been given the opportunity to build a resource development program starting from scratch. On the drive home, I was mulling over the possibilities in my mind, and I must admit that the opportunity appears to be exciting. My thoughts quickly turned to all my fundraising friends who walked into existing situations.

When you walk into a non-profit with a resource development program in place, there is typically a staffing structure already there. A donor database decision has likely already been made. A resource development plan and strategy are laid out, and board volunteers already have expectations.

So, I started off my return trip home with the belief that any fundraising professional would give their left arm for the opportunity to start from scratch. However, as the miles passed, I kept coming up with daunting issues. I decided to pose just a few of those questions to the readers of this blog and see what you think:

How do you instill a sense of “philanthropy” into an organizational culture where it might not already exist?
If your resource development plan contained nothing but blank pages, where would you start if you need to start bringing in dollars immediately? Would you focus hard on grant writing? Or do you take a longer view and focus on cultivating relationship with individuals?
Do you acquire a donor database or a CRM?
What should the development department look like?
How do you engage volunteers who weren’t recruited with resource development roles in mind? Do you take a pass on trying to engage these people and work hard at identifying and recruiting different volunteers with fundraising skills?
When you don’t have any donors and no existing database, who do you start talking to? Who do you engage in planning?

As I thought through some of these questions, my mind seized on well worn expressions like:

“The grass is always greener on the other side.”

and

“Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.”

So, I toss the question open to you. Would you desire the opportunity to start over from scratch? Where would you begin? How would you tackle some the questions that I laid out above?

Please use the comment box found below to weigh-in with your thoughts. Who knows . . . that person I visited with might actually be a subscriber to this blog, and your feedback could be very insightful and valuable to them.

Here’s to your health!

Oooops! I forgot my annual campaign plan

January 3, 2012 DonorDreams Fundraising

The holidays are behind us and a new year is here. While this is obviously a time of renewal and fresh starts for some people, it is most likely annual campaign season for many non-profit organizations. I see Boys & Girls Clubs gearing up for their “It Just Takes One” campaign. The Boy Scouts are powering up their “Friends of Scouting” campaign. I also see many YMCAs hitting the streets with pledge cards in hand.

So, why would so many well established charities hit the streets with pledge cards in hand this close to the holiday season?

This seems to be a time (January through April) of the year when donors have a little more time to sit down and talk. Don’t believe me? Think about what your summer look like (e.g. vacations, etc). Now think about your fall (e.g. back to school, United Way blackout period, third quarter sales projects accompanied by planning for fourth quarter initiatives, etc) Now think about the holiday season that we just exited (e.g. shopping, holiday parties, etc).
Pledge drives are wonderful in the sense that non-profits aren’t asking for cash . . . they only want you to sign an IOU. This means that every month you wait to ask a donor to sign their pledge card there is that much less time for the donor to stretch out their pledge payments. Let’s do the math on a $500 pledge. Asking in January means the donor can make up to 12 payments of $41.66. Making the same ask mid-year translates into approximately six payments of $70 – $80. Waiting until September only gives the donor a few months to pay their pledge and results in payments in the neighborhood of $125.

The first bullet point is the bigger reason for planning a January through May campaign unless your annual campaign is direct mail driven. The second bullet point is more relevant to non-profits whose fiscal year ends on December 31st. While it is true that pledges can be dragged over into a new calendar (and fiscal) year, many non-profits like to keep their books clean as they prepare for their year-end audit.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen non-profit friends get into early January with first and second quarter revenue budgeted for an annual campaign, but no written plan in place on how to move forward. If you find yourself in this situation, you’re in good company. However, you may want to reach for your “To Do List” and add the following things to it for this week :

Develop your Range of Gifts chart. (Click here to read a really good article on this from Joanne Fritz at about.com)
Engage a few volunteers and start brainstorming names of prospective donors who fit into various gift ranges.
Build a prospect list of potential volunteer solicitors who you think possess the skill sets and experiences to do a nice job with a personal solicitation model (e.g. face-to-face asks)
Start recruiting from your volunteer solicitor prospect list.

If the end of 2011 was a blur and you find yourself at the beginning of 2012 without a written annual campaign plan, these simple four bullet points are a great place to start. However, you can’t afford to dilly dally. These four things are your tasks for this week. There is still a mountain to climb. If you want to get a preview of your impending journey, you might want to read this very thorough article by Henry Rosso and Robert Schwartzberg that I found online at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Are you one of those non-profits who find themselves without a plan? If so, what do you find on your “To Do List” this week and next week? If you are one of those well-planned agencies, what advice or suggestions do you have for those who aren’t as fortunate? Please use the comment box below to weigh-in with your thoughts because we can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!