Archive for September, 2009

Could fundraising be as easy as picking flowers? Maybe!

I frequently tell my clients and audiences something rather revolutionary: that I’d rather have a “friend” of my organization than a donor. At first everyone is startled. Then they sit back and consider what it would mean to have “friends” rather than donors.

What will friends do for you? They will introduce new people to the cause and bring new friends on board. They will spread the word. They’ll help you in any way they can. And when the going gets tough, where are they? They are right there with you at your side.

And will your friends contribute money?

You bet they will!  They’ll even get other people to give money.

So, why don’t we just focus our fundraising on making friends?  And work towards bringing them closer and closer to our organization, so that they are as passionate about our cause as we are.

Because we know when our donors are as passionate and engaged as we are, raising money is as easy as collecting daisies in the field.

Why do I prefer friendraising?

• It’s all about passion for the cause.
• It emphasizes passion and energy; it does NOT emphasize money.
• It’s not about the money, it’s about the movement.
• It’s more natural than fundraising.
• It’s better manners:  We are treating people like real people rather than sources of money.
• It just may be much more effective than “fundraising.”
• It’s more fun!

In TOUGH times you want to make friends out of your donors.  And in GREAT times you want to  make friends out of your donors.

What would YOUR fundraising program look like if you focused on friendmaking rather than fundraising?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Simone Joyeaux, one of the great fundraising gurus of all time,  this morning for the Telesummit on Fall 09 Fundraising Strategies.

When I asked Simone to comment on the difficult giving environment for this fall, she said it was really a “wake-up call” to us. Fundraisers have been able to get away with poor fundraising practices in the past because of a booming economy and plenty of donors. But now, when donors are cutting back, our bad habits are coming home to roost.

Simone mentioned several bad habits and poor practices that are driving away donors. In fact, she noted that two out of three first-time donors DON’T make another gift!  And that we are in a “donor retention crisis” right now with so many of our current donors slipping away because of bad fundraising habits.

Did you know that it costs up to 10 times more to secure a NEW DONOR than it does to retain a CURRENT donor?  So where do you think we should be spending our time, energy and our focus?

Donors think we are treating them like “ATM machines,” says Simone. When we go to them for money, money, money, they resent it and reward us by dropping off.

Treat your donors like they are real people instead of wallets and you’ll be rewarded with donor loyalty and long term gifts.

It’s a great idea to evaluate every meeting or committee meeting that you hold.  But you want something painless and simple, that will actually encourage people to participate.

One organization I belong to has breakfast speakers once a month, and members pay to come for breakfast and the speaker.

This organization sends an email to all attendees immediately after the meeting, asking them to fill out an evaluation survey on SurveyMonkey. They get good, not great, response on the survey.

Another board that I serve on solicit evaluations immediately after the meeting. In our board packets, there is a convenient evaluation form to fill out.  Here’s what’s on the form:

Share your thoughts about the board meeting:

Meeting room?

Stick to the agenda?

Liked the agenda?

Did we miss anything important”

People were prepared?

Reports clear and helpful?

Cordial, team-like discussion?

Appropriate use of our time? (meeting began and eneded on time?)

Any other comments?

Anything we could improve?

In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge our organization faces this year?

What were your big take-away’s from the meeting?

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I am the chair of a board governance committee charged with creating a strategic plan this year.  (lucky me!).

And I am determined to create a compelling, engaging, even exciting planning/visioning process that everyone will actually enjoy!

Here’s the process that I’ve sketched out this year:

September:
1. Board Self Assessment Survey
2. Set strategic planning timetable and process

October:
1. Form Task Force
2. Identify our organization’s stakeholders
3. Determine if and how we want to get feedback and input from the stakeholders
4. Create a plan/process for receiving their feedback

November board meeting:
1. Discussion of board self assessment survey data and determine any action items that need to be taken
2. Vision discussion with full board – what is our vision for our organization.  How much money would it take to achieve our vision?  (this is a “high impact – big picture” discussion that can draw additional people and resources to a big vision, as opposed to starting with “what can we accomplish within our resource constraints?”)

December

January and Feb: Focus groups of key players/stakeholders discussing what is our vision and how much money would it take

March:  WHERE ARE WE?
1. Complete environmental scan at a board meeting.
2. Provide input from the stakeholder focus groups that were conducted in Jan and Feb.
3. Conduct SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

April -  May – June: WHERE DO WE WANT TO GO?
1. Based on all info and data gathered to date, create several scenarios of LL’s future.
2. Assess each scenario re its pros and cons
3. Determine the right path for LL’s future and set goals.

July – August – September  HOW DO WE GET THERE?
1. Staff and committees create plans for accomplishing the goals.  Plans will include objectives, tactics/strategies and who’s responsible

What do you think?  Want to comment?

Have you ever seen the energy sink out of a group of people when the words “strategic planning” are mentioned?  I’ve actually seen people shudder!

The problem is that board members have had bad experiences with this thing called “strategic planning.” They have sat through laborious planning discussions that went nowhere and wasted their time. (The last thing you ever want to do is ask a board member for a full day of their time and then have them feel like it was wasted.) Even if the experience seems helpful at the time, NOTHING ever happens or changes afterward.

Why is it that many nonprofit planning retreats end up focusing on the wrong things?  The wrong trends. The wrong information. The wrong discussions.

This is why people dread “strategic planning” it’s a lot of time and talk with little or no results.

I once served on a board that held a strategic planning retreat one Saturday from 8am till 5pm.  Our icebreaker was to share the name of our favorite pet in a mingle exercise.  (dumb).  Then we labored over the mission and spent needless time wordsmithing the mission, vision and values.

I just couldn’t stand it – I just had to leave in mid-afternoon because I ran out of patience.  At the end of the process, nothing really was accomplished, and the key critical “elephants in the room” never even got discussed.

I am the lucky chair of a board governance committee who is charged with creating a strategic planning process for our organization. You can bet that I’m going to create a powerful, compelling experience that our board members will enjoy. I’ll chronicle my experiences with our process over the next year as we progress.

Have you had a strategic planning process that really worked for your organization?  Why don’t you share your experience?

How important is it that you coach carefully any of your volunteers?  And you need to choose them carefully too!

I am commenting today on a LinkedIn discussion. The person who started the conversation told of a private school where two different board volunteers spoke about fundraising to the other parents. The first volunteer who spoke complained about “slack parent giving” last year, particularly compared to faculty/staff giving. And he was dressed in a monotone of gray.

Wow, just the sort of delivery designed to get parents charging ahead to support the annual fund! Make folks feel bad and you’re lost before you start.

The second volunteer was a more “flamboyant” presence. He went on about how generous parent booster giving had been last year – to sports and extra-curricular activities. He was engaging and warm.

The first volunteer was deadly (he had a track record of defeat), and the other one was enthusiastic (he had experienced success.) Clearly the person who had a negative and defeatist tone would never inspire other volunteers.

This also shows that you can’t expect every single board volunteer to be a great fundraiser. I think it’s delusional to expect all board members to be able to be effective advocates for the cause or successful fundraisers. We need to select, train and “pump up” our volunteers carefully!

I like to script my folks – or at least give them talking points – so they make an appropriate and engaging presentation. Negativity or arm-twisting never work!

Never trust a volunteer to get up in front of a crowd and deliver the right message. Remember, they aren’t in the business, they are just beginners (usually).  So take control, brief them and give them the talking points.

If you’re really on top of things, actually schedule a formal rehearsal with them. Put them in front of a fictitious group of people and let them practice.

Alice Korngold, contributing writer for Fast Company Magazine is blogging about building nonprofit boards, one of my favorite topics.   I loved her post titled More Bad News for Nonprofit $$: More About Building Better Boards to FIx This,

She takes a much-needed business person’s approach to nonprofit boards. Here’s my favorite: she says that the best people she has worked with, or recruited to a board were “key revenue problem-solvers.”

Nonprofits need to evaluate their business model frequently for missed revenue opportunities and sources of increased earned income. A board member with the right skill set can be invaluable in these cases.

She cites as an example a new board member who was the global pricing strategist for a major consulting firm.  The new board member “pulled a nonprofit out of the red by helping them revise their pricing strategy, thereby shifting the organization into financial health.”

She cites another example of the right kind of board member – an individual who is active in politics and has governmental contacts.  This person can help protect or help gain legislative appropriations or governmental grants.

Or she recommends seeking new board members who have business connections who can “leverage corporate partnerships.”

Clearly recruiting the right new board members is key, key, key to an organization’s future. As Ms. Korngold comments, it’s so important to enlist board members who have relevant experience and who can understand your organization’s challenges and opportunities. It’s up to us to determine what experience and expertise we need on our board, and then go after people who fit that model.

What does it take to enlist outstanding board members who can be “revenue problem solvers?” (don’t you just love that description!)

I believe in planning far, far ahead and targeting potential board members years ahead of time.  You just have to take the time to carefully, deliberately decide who you need on the board. If you take the time to get to know them and let them get to know you, then you’ll be able to enlist the right leadership that your board needs and deserves.

It’s a lonely time out there with lots of my fundraising colleagues.  Especially with this being just about the toughest fundraising environment any of us have ever seen.

Being a staff fundraiser has always been a lonely business.(And consulting can be pretty lonely too!)  This is the time we need to rally our colleagues, our board members our CEO and have give them all a dose of old-fashioned optimism.

Here you are, bravely working for your cause with passion in your heart, trying to create new friends and donors for your wonderful cause.

And you have to deal with recalcitrant board members who just can’t find the courage to do what you do everyday. And you may have a CEO who also is unsure about fundraising and who won’t “do right” as we say in the south.

You may have unsupportive colleagues who are jealous that you get to go to all the events and travel around to see donors.  If you’re part of a large development operation with lots of other fundraisers, they may be competitive and view you as a potential threat.

Mix all this in with a major recession, donor reluctance, and a sinking stock market, and it sure is hard to keep morale up sometimes!

My friends are sort of relieved when I say that fundraising is a lonely business.  It acknowledges something we all know.

And it takes courage in our heart, perseverance in the face of adversity, tremendous commitment and just plain dogged determination to keep on keeping on.

What cheers me so very much is that so many of my fundraising friends are upbeat, optimistic and full of energy. They are looking at declining revenues with a sense of “things will get better.“  I almost never see a friend moaning and groaning, or wallowing around in negativism.

Here’s a friend’s perspective:  “I have something so great and I believe in it so much and I want to make it  happen!  I’ll do whatever it takes! But I can’t do it by myself.  I really need some help.”

Maybe fundraising attracts a certain personality. Maybe we are inherently cheerful and hoping for the best. I really think that’s the case.

So let’s all head on out there, in the face of a tough environment, unsupportive board members and colleagues and let’s make it work ANYWAY! Gather your forces, cheer up your board members and CEO’s, rally your colleagues around you to make it happen!

Too much is at stake for us to sit around feeling negative or bad.

The world out there is waiting for us, and there are surely lots of donors and friends for our cause in the future!

It’s wonderful to see a board chair assume rightful leadership and challenge her board members to action.  Here’s a brilliant example of excellent leadership from a nonprofit board chair.

I’m on the board of our local AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) chapter here in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. (If you don’t know about AFP, you need to join!

Our wonderful board chair, Eli Jordfald, took on a personal priority this year – to reinvent our annual “National Philanthropy Day” celebration in November.

If this “reinvention” was going to happen, Eli needed every single one of us board members to commit to a part in making this successful.  With only a part-time staff person, we rely on our board volunteers to make it happen.  So if we didn’t pull through, then we wouldn’t even have an event.

Eli send out an email last week with the subject line: “Call to Action.”  Take a look at this professional and very specific note to her board members.

She was not necessarily “asking for help.” Instead it was “rallying the troops.”

How long has it been since you issued a Call to Action to your board,  your staff or your volunteers? These words alone get immediate attention.

Good morning,

Our NPD committees have been working diligently to re-invent NPD for the
Triangle.  I’m proud of their efforts and the incredible creativity they
have brought to the event planning.

The ultimate success of NPD will depend on the community’s response and we, as board members, must lead by example.

*This week, I am asking each of you to consider how you
personally (and your organization) can participate. Please consider
these 3 opportunities to help your donors, volunteers, your cause, and
AFP shine:

* Commit to a table of 10 at the non-profit, special rate of $400 to
honor an outstanding volunteer
* Nominate one, two or more donors and volunteers in any of the
categories Bert’s committee recently announced.  It’s so easy and
you can do it on-line.  Lineberger is nominating in two categories
this year
* Help secure a sponsor at the $500 or $1000 levels.  Jeff has
turn-key packets for you to personalize for your prospect

I would like to ask each of you to either reply to all or send me an
e-mail indicating to what extent you are able to commit to one, two or
all three of the above*.  It will boost our “ask” to others to step up.
It will also help us get an early snap shot of what our board
participation will be.

I appreciate all that you do to make our chapter excellent and look
forward to hearing back from you by the end of the week.

Warm regards, Eli

Here are the things that she did right in this note:

1. She made it clear that “we, as board members, must lead by example.”  I can’t think of another way to say this more plainly!  She reminded us of our responsibility as board members.

2. Her tone (attitude toward us) was correct: she was not lecturing us; she was not wagging her finger like a schoolmarm.

3. Her request was professional and business-like – she was not pleading or begging or manipulating. She simply requested plainly and succinctly, treating us as the capable professionals we all are.

4. Her words were inspirational. She rallied us to our higher purpose and reminded us of what we all wanted to accomplish.

5. She is putting her money where her mouth is and leading by example. She let us know that her organization is buying a table.

6. She gave us clear actions we needed to take and a choice of actions.

7. She asked us to respond to her personally, not to someone else. That way you know that she herself is keeping tabs on who is doing what.

8. She gave us a deadline to respond to her. That way there was a clear time frame for us to take action.

This is the right way to motivate and activate your own board. Give it a try and you’ll get some great results.

Tell you what – I’ll let you know how this Call to Action did as we go forward. I, for one, leapt to action. I have already made two sponsorship solicitations and will do more!

Can you share an experience when a board chair issued a Call to Action?  Let’s hear your own stories!