Archive for July, 2009

What are you asking your folks to do? I mean to actually do?  In your email communications and on your web site, even in your solicitation letters and your annual report or brochures- are  you asking people to take action?

I see so very many communications pieces by nonprofits that just seem namby-panby. They beat around the bush.  They sorta hint at what help the nonprofit needs.

If they are asking for financial support, usually the request is not quite direct enough.  ”We’d be pleased if you would consider a gift of $xxx for your annual gift to . . . ”  Now I was taught this years ago at Duke University when I was starting out in fundraising – and we were all into being genteel and “nice.”  This is the South down here, you know.

But times have changed. There is serious urgency in the air.  So very many people are hurting!  We are about to reach a global environmental crisis!  You and I can’t even count how much help the world needs.

It’s time for us to be much more explicit in our appeals.

We have to be a lot stronger.  We have to tell people exactly what we need them to do.  How to write a check. Where to send it. And above all – we have to say “do this NOW.”

Many donors speak of an “intense, palpable connection” to their cause. They are giving because of this deep emotional experience of connection and making a difference.

If you can help your donors connect deeply with your cause – which we hope is their own favorite cause, then they will give as best they can.

You have to help your donors have this meaningful experience. We all talk about it, but NOW MORE THAN EVER – you need to give your wonderful donors this experience – right in front of their faces.

Walk the talk and SHOW your donors how they are having a meaningful impact and achieving something of major importance.

If it is important enough to them, then your donors will give.

Also remember that people give out of emotion. They then justify it with their head. Touching donors’ hearts is the way to make them happy, satisfied with their giving, and willing to give even more

On the flip side,  we all know that many donors stop giving because they feel over-solicited. Do you blame them?  And they also stop giving because we are not communicating enough.  They lose their connection to the cause.

Clearly then, our failure with our donors is a failure to communicate. What are we telling them? Is the only time they hear from the board chair or the CEO when the annual appeal comes around?

We need to think of our donors as “customers” and give them the quality “customer service” that we expect from for-profit companies. It’s the great communication that they receive that will help connect your donors for the long haul.

If there is one strategy you take away from this blog – it is to over-communicate with your donors – now more than ever!

I am such a fan of Penelope Burk’s outstanding research on donor attitudes. If you are not yet familiar with her work, you really should pick up a copy of her seminal book Donor-Centered Fundraising.

Burk’s latest research focuses on donor attitudes within this terrible recession.  As the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in March, Burk surveyed over 17,000 people in January who had donated an average of $11,500 last year and asked them about their philanthropic plans for 2009.

Burk found that

• 29% of the donors surveyed said they were giving to fewer nonprofits, and that
• 29% of this group reported they were becoming more thoughtful about their giving.

Interestingly, they also said they would be focusing more on local charities in 2009.

So what does this mean to us?  If donors are becoming more thoughtful about their giving, then what about our organizations, our causes, our appeals? Will they stand up to a donor’s thoughtful scrutiny?

We need to build trust with our donors. We need to over-communicate. Never under-communicate. We need to tell our stories in a warm, personal way that connects with our donors’ hearts, not their heads.  We need to fully disclose our financials, and interpret them in a way that donors can understand.  We need to assure our donors that their gifts are being spent in accordance with their intent.

Here’s some more heartening information from Penelope Burk’s recent research on donor attitudes. You can read a summary from the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s March article about her research. Burk surveyed over 17,000 people in January who had donated an average of $11,500 last year and asked them about their philanthropic plans for 2009.

The good news is that over 52% of donors said they would give this year about the same as last year. And only 17.5% planned to give less. However, at that point, 30% said it was too soon to say what they would do.

Of those who planned to give at least as much as last year, 50% said they were willing to make compromises in other areas of their life to do so.

And donors who needed to cut back were making smaller gifts rather than stopping their giving completely.

So this shows that many, many donors are still very much committed to their causes, and that they will keep giving as long as they possibly can.

I am just so impressed with donors who are willing to make compromises in other areas of their lives in order to keep giving.  Now that is a commitment!  And when you have donors who are totally, passionately connected to your cause, they will stick with you no matter what.

The golden key here is: what are you doing to keep your donors happy, informed and connected?

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. . . . Einstein.

What got us here is not going to take us where we want to go in the future If there was EVER a time for openness to new ideas, strategies and tactics, it is now.

Yes, here’s the holy grail!  A board member who is willing to ask – and is comfortable asking.  I’ve worked with a lot of board members on this topic around the country and I have heard their pain.

I’ve seen them drag themselves into trainings called “The Art of the Ask” with a heavy heart.  Yep, you can be really sure they are on fire about raising money.

And will those who just HATE it be good fundraisers? Probably not!

I just don’t believe in sending out board members to do a lot of asking.   Do you really want every single one of them out asking for money?  Some of them may just botch it or just apologize their way through it.

What I do is find the two, three or four folks on the board who can be true champions out there in the community for your cause. They actually UNDERSTAND this fundraising stuff.

And they are good at it.

The rest of my wonderful, well-meaning but nervous board members I put to work in other types of fundraising jobs:  calling donors to thank them; holding socials to introduce new friends to our cause, taking everybody they know on a tour to show them the incredible impact you are making.

That’s how I organize my board fundraising work.

Everybody’s happy. Everyone does a job they like.  And everyone gets their job done.

Now, if you have some board members who are willing to learn about “asking,” then there are ways to help them become more comfortable. You do these things (and I’ll be blogging about these in the future in more detail):

Help them understand that they are asking for “help” not money.. . Help them focus on raising friends who will then give later. . . Teach them actually how to have a conversation with a prospective donor. . .  and give them practice making a pitch. . .  Give them one compelling story to tell that can throw somebody out of their chair. . . Teach them how to talk about the impact that a gift will make out in the world.

Here’s another question I received during my webinar Six New Rules for Board Members in Changing Times. (I’m repeating the webinar on July 16 because the June session sold out.)

Many people wonder exactly what board members need to be doing in fundraising. The entire area is undefined unfortunately.  The pundits say “everybody on the board should be out there raising money.”

But the reality is quite different.  People who serve on nonprofit boards are, in fact, volunteers. That means you can’t MAKE them do anything!  You can only ask them and motivate them.

So it’s hard to say exactly how many of your board members should be fundraising. Every board is different.

I think that looking for exact percentages is tough.  If you expect a certain percentage, then you may place an unnecessary burden on yourself if your board is not performing up to some formal “standard.”

The real problem is that there are no set rules or standards for nonprofit boards.  They have some very general legal requirements set out by law. But nothing very specific. We have some informal rules of thumb and best practices that we share together.

The Rule of Threes.  From my standpoint, I usually see board members fall into groups of threes. One third of the board is action oriented, works hard, delivers results, and takes responsibility.  And often a third of the board is pretty much a waste when it comes to anything.

The middle third of the board can be swayed either way. The action-oriented group can pull them along, and the “do-nothing” crowd can also infect them with a passive attitude.

So I usually see about a third of the board willing and able to shoulder some fundraising responsibilities.

But I have to tell you that my “Easy Fundraising for Board Members” system of educating board members about fundraising really can motivate the whole board.  I just show them how to make it all about “friendraising” – and how to make it fun.

All of my blog posts and articles describe my approach. You can use these ideas too – I promise they can literally transform your board’s fundraising performance – and your life.

Penelope Burk has done it again.  I am a true fan of Penelope and her Donor-Centered Fundraising - and enthusiastically quote her in just about every board retreat or presentation I make.  If you haven’t read her book yet, then you really need to get hold of it – and then get ready for a mind-blowing, revolutionary perspective that will change your fundraising forever.

In her latest blog post yesterday, she did it again! She shared  cutting edge, provocative information that transforms our perspective on an important donor segment – younger donors – who are of course our future.

In her latest research study, she noted that 69% of donors under the age of 35 are professionals, academics, owners, managers or entrepreneurs and 47% of them earn over $70k.  Now that’s a donor demographic to really pay attention to!

And she found that 62% of young donors plan to maintain or increase their giving in 2009 – more than any other age group in the study.  She discovered that “young donors are significantly more open to giving to a cause that they had never supported before, even in a severe recession.”

So read the rest of this important post, and let’s all take another look at younger donors who should be receiving much more attention from development professionals.

It is difficult, certainly, in these times to keep your board members’ spirits up. We’ll be talking a lot about this in my webinar next week  (July 16) “Six New Rules for Board Members in Changing Times.”

But clearly the cause is even more compelling than ever because more and more people are needing help.  So we have a tough situation – your organization may be in financial distress, with shrinking resources, and there is more need than ever.  And then you have your board members who may be losing heart.

It certainly isn’t the time to shrink – it’s time to rally!

This is the time when leadership makes the difference. I spend a lot of time thinking about what exactly “leadership” is within the nonprofit context.

Here’s what leadership needs to look like NOW more than ever:

Someone who can rally the troops, inspire everyone on a well-defined mission/task with a clear path to take.  And if your board chair is unable to call for action, then find another board member.  And if there is no board member who can rally everyone, then the nonprofit CEO and staff need to do it.

Staff needs to provide this leadership. I find that board members do in fact absorb energy and attitudes from staff.  So much of your board’s performance is really up to you, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.  They actually look to you for guidance and reassurance that things will be ok.

I serve on a state-wide board here in North Carolina and we have had our share of financial worries this year. And I have to say that it was the hard-charging attitude of our CEO that helped keep me pumped up.

Her attitude was “never say die!” and we kept plugging – and we managed to EXCEED our fundraising goal for both events!  Even though many donors turned us down because of financial hardship.  Even though we had to ask MORE people in order to make our goals.

This old adage may be overused, but it is more relevant now than it ever has been:

“When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”

How do you inspire  Board members’ passion for the cause when these economic times have hit many on a personal level?