Even worse, it might be HURTING you and your cause.

Why?

Because it is boring!

It may not be boring to you but it sure may be boring to the people you hope will read it.

And boring newsletters are a turn-off to donors.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your newsletter actually helped RAISE money?

Too many newsletters are lame, uninteresting and internally-focused.

And that’s a shame, when your newsletter could be an important fundraising tool – one that can open donors’ hearts and wallets, even!

Don’t lead your newsletter with a formal letter from the head of your organization.

I’m sorry, but, hey – reading a profile of your latest new staff member is probably not very interesting to your donors.

Here’s the problem -

We’re competing with magazines and much snappier marketing tools that are also landing in our donors’ mailboxes.

Here are some DO’s and DON’Ts  that will help turn your newsletter into a fundraising tool.

And I have included the “why” as well in case somebody in your organization wants to challenge you on this! : )

DON’T make it too long.

DO make it short and sweet. (Shorter is much much better.)

Why?

Short newsletters are more likely to be actually reviewed and maybe even read.

DON’T be confused about your newsletter’s true purpose.

DO clairify its purpose – which should be to make your friends, supporters and donors feel happy about the wonderful changes they are making in the world.

Why?

If you can get everybody to agree on the actual purpose/objective of the dang newsletter – then maybe you can create something worth your time and energy to put it together!

And – what other purpose could possibly be worth the time and energy you put into the dang thing?

DON’T talk about your staff, your building, your board members, or your organization.

DO talk about what donors are accomplishing with their money.

Copy that is too dense turns off readers.

Why?

Focusing it on what your organization is doing is too self-focused and it is not about the donors.

DON’T use the pronoun “we.”

DO use the pronoun “you.”

Why?

It’s not about you and your wonderful organization. Instead it is about the READER!

Don’t put in too much copy.

DO cut out 2/3 of your copy and add more pictures.

Why?

Telling your story via pictures is more powerful to most people.

DON’T use pictures with too many people.

DO use pictures that are closeups of people – and with bright colors.

Why?

Use close up photos of people – like this one.

Too much detail in a small photograph just shows up as a jumble.

DON’T crowd everything in.

DO add tons of white space, bold, headlines, etc.

Why?

People will skim the newsletter – not read it word for word. If it looks too dense, people will avoid it altogether.

DON’T write lengthy, complex articles.

Do write articles that someone will skim.

Why?

If you want people to comprehend what’s on the page, you have to make it easily digestible quickly.

DON’T use one color.

DO use two or more colors.

Why?

More color makes it livelier and more interesting.

Lots of white space means that it is more likely to be read.

DON’T eliminate your print newsletter and switch to email to save money.

DO send out communications via multiple channels: print AND email.

Why?

DON”T send a pdf of your newsletter to your email list.

DO reformat it for online reading.

Why?

Most print layout It is NOT properly formatted to read online – it is very awkward to read on a computer.

Want more help to improve both your print and e-newsletters?

If you would like to improve YOUR newsletters AND turn them into true fundraising tools, do join my INSIDERS for a Master Class on Tuesday May 28 at 2pm ET with Mazarine Treyz, the “Wild Woman” of Fundraising.

If you can’t make that time, you can still listen to the recording afterwards.

Newsletter Strategies That Will Open Donors’ Hearts and Their Wallets

She will show us:

• Potent Calls to Action for your newsletter
• 16 kinds of headlines to help your donors give
• Joking around: How to avoid getting too serious about your cause
• The 5 reasons people will share your e-newsletter
• Subject Lines to get people to Open
• Getting Donors to Click Donate or Buy
• Sample Surveys to help you segment your subscribers
• Example welcome emails to keep your subscribers happy
• 4 Simple emails that lead people to take action
• 4 MORE emails to get donors to take action

Find out more here!

If you are an INSIDER subscriber, you are already signed up for this Master Class. If you are not an INSIDER subscriber, you can purchase the class as a stand-alone here. 

The post Newsletter Strategies That Will Open Donors’ Hearts and Wallets appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

There we are – facing doubtful board members and CEO’s who think they know better than we do.

And there we are — trying to convince decision makers to follow smart strategies that we know will pay off. And trying to get them to abandon tired old strategies that don’t work.

And there we are – trying to learn and master new skill sets that are now required to be really successful. All the while trying to enhance and grow our professional fundraising skills.

Keeping up with a changing fundraising skill set and donor environment is really difficult.

So what should you do to find the support you need?

I think you need two things:

• A support community.

• A professional development program you trust.

1. You need a support community.

You need colleagues, a mentor, or maybe a coach – anyone who can be a helpful sounding board with constructive ideas. Anyone who can give you moral support.

Your colleagues will always be there for you.

You need to band together with other nonprofit folks wherever you can find them.

Your co-workers in the business can commiserate. They can offer suggestions. They’ve been there.

Where can you find colleagues?

First, look internally. Are there other fundraisers to befriend? Can you trust them?

Don’t ever forget AFP – the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

I have to tell you that I’ve made lifelong friends thru my local AFP Chapter. I was even chapter President a few years ago. And I was happy to serve.

And now that I’m active on the national and international stages, I have new wonderful AFP friends around the world.

I can’t say enough good things about AFP.

These are the local people who are working to bring the best education they can to the local fundraising community.

If you are not a member of AFP right now – you really should join.

Where can you find a mentor?

Well, look first in your local AFP Chapter.

And then look locally at other organizations. Look for people who’ve been around a while.

I also mentor people virtually via phone and email f you ever might be interested. Shoot me an email if you’d like to discuss it.

2. The second thing smart fundraisers always do: they invest in themselves.

Smart fundraisers know that the only thing they have to market in this world is their very own track record, and their own skills.

It’s really up to you to keep enhancing yourself.

Nobody else is going to do it for you.

There’s so much to learn!

So much that will make you far more successful in your field – and in your life.

You need to keep yourself informed.

What killer new tools will help expand your bottom line?

You know that major gifts, internet fundraising, inspiring your board members are important – but how do you do it?

I don’t talk a lot about the importance of professional development. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think it is wildly important.

I have spent a lot on myself to expand my skills.

I’ve hired coaches to teach me certain knowledge areas so I could be a better, smarter consultant and fundraiser. I subscribe to all number of personal and professional sites, trainings and seminars.

I’m taking webinars all the time; I attend conferences and I do tons of reading.

There’s always something else to learn.

And just think of the skills YOU need to be an effective nonprofit leader-

Communications, leadership, direct mail, copywriting, internet fundraising, the art of asking, annual fund strategy, fundraising events and sponsorships, major gifts, capital campaigns, volunteer management – the list can go on and on.

Now where can you work on all these skills?

You just might want to consider my INSIDERS professional development community.

I bring my members THE top speakers, cutting-edge strategies along with coaching and in-depth workshops.

I personally select the top gurus in our field to bring to you exactly what I think you need to know to be successful.

The INSIDERS may not be for you.

But then again, it might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

I’d like to invite you to join something that’s proven to be meaningful and rewarding for everyone involved – financially and otherwise.

If it turns out to be a good fit for you, you’re welcome with open arms.

Join the INSIDERS Community Today. 

INSIDERS offers plenty of tactics, techniques and tips to learn from. And it also offers a community of support.

Our private facebook page is a place where we all answer the little questions that come up in the daily like of your work, or just to give support when you are having a tough day.

Definitely make the right investments in yourself.

In whatever way you choose. And we’d love to welcome you as an INSIDER too!

Join the INSIDERS Community Today   

The post Two Things Smart Fundraisers Always Do appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Wish they would, don’t you?

How creative can your thank you be?

I bet you are spending lots of time on planning those terrific solicitations to them.

But I bet you are NOT spending enough time communicating with your donors in between your solicitations.

Here’s our huge problem:  we are overemphasizing the Asking, and we are neglecting the Communicating.

I think it’s time fundraisers and board members tackled this issue head-on.

Why You Need a Donor Communications Plan RIGHT NOW

How we communicate with our donors has everything do to with whether they give again, and whether they keep giving.

Did you know that in recent years, overall only about 4 out of every 10 donors renewed their gifts. That means we are losing 60% of our donors every year.

Just think what your bottom line would look like if you could get more donors to renew!

Donor communications can make or break your fundraising program – hands down.

If your donors don’t feel appreciated, involved, supported, responded to, connected, and informed – then they probably will not make another gift to your wonderful cause.

So, what’s your communications strategy to keep your donors in the loop?

You need a plan to keep them close, warmed up – so they’ll be friendly when it comes time to ask again.

You need a plan to connect with them.

Create a systematic, month-by-month calendar for your donor communications.

In between your solicitations, what will you send them? What will you say to them?

Learn How to Craft a A Donor Communications Plan That Makes You Their Favorite Nonprofit

I am thrilled to have one of THE TOP international marketing experts as a guest for my next Master Class, next week on May 15.

Kivi Leroux Miller, the nonprofitmarketingguide.com guru, is giving us a brand new presentation - developed just for my followers  - that is packed with the very most cutting-edge communications strategies for nonprofits.

She is going to show you exactly how to connect with your donors, what to say (that’s always MY challenge!) when to say it.

Kivi will show us all how to make our donors choose US as their favorite nonprofit. Hurray!

So join us next week or find out more about this very special Master Class here. 

Here are my own tips on how to set up and roll out a smart communications plan – and I can’t wait to hear what Kivi has to say to amplify this!

How to Implement YOUR Communications Plan to Your Wonderful Donors.

1. Be Systematic.

Set up a calendar of what type of communication you are sending out and when it goes out.

Plan ahead and put somebody in charge.

Create themes and message ideas and get everybody to agree on them ahead of time.

That’ll save you lots of time and discussions later on!

2. Get Help.

If you are really smart, engage a terrific communications firm like Big Duck, or Agents for Good.

Ask them to help design a Donor Communications plan for the year.

A great communications consultant can come up with ideas that will charm the socks right off your donors.

Ideas you’d never think of.

3. Be Creative.

Come up with different ways to say thank you to your donors. Can you send a singing thank you telegram for example?

Donor Love can increase your donor’s trust in you and your organization.

Can you change your Annual Report into an “Accomplishments Report?”

Can you change your Annual Meeting into an Annual Celebration?

Can you change your Donor Appreciation Event into a cookout or a porch party?

4. Use lots of channels.

You have all sorts of communications channels at your disposal:  in person visits, phone, mail, all types of events, newsletters, acknowledgements, social media.

Use them all. Systematically.

Especially face-to-face visits.

5. Let your donors know how you spent their money.

Donor are having a lot of trust issues these days. They don’t trust the government, big institutions, politicians, nonprofits and probably not your organization either.

You have to earn their trust.

How?

By letting them know how you spent their money – as accurately and as transparently as possible.

6. Let your donors know what you achieved with their money.

(Note: this is different from “how you spent their money.”)

Can you be this warm and fuzzy with your donors? : )

This is about outcomes and your results.

How many people did you help? Or cure? Or feed? Or care for?

How many kids, or adults or elders? How many performances did you present? How many educational sessions with how many kids?

7. Get your tone right.

Lofty and formal is different from warm and fuzzy.

Yes, it’s ok to deviate from the formal, jargon-rich, lofty “nonprofit-speak” that you so often use to the rest of the world.

What’s the tone of your communications to them?

How personalized?

Yes, it’s ok to use contractions like I’m using in this sentence.

Yes, it’s ok to tell stories and to be casual.

By all means, be friendly!

Bottom Line:

It’s past time to add Donor Communications as a new formal element to your fundraising program.

You’ve GOT to stay in front of your donors – cheerfully – in between solicitations if you want them to keep giving!

What do you think? Let me know with a comment!

The post Make Your Donors Choose YOU as Their Favorite Nonprofit appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

It’s party time!

Do you enjoy putting on your organization’s events?

Better yet, do you think your guests like to attend them?

Why don’t you focus a bit on the “experience” your guests are having.

Because if they are enjoying themselves, wonderful things might happen for your cause.

If your guests are NOT enjoying themselves, you just might not see them again.

Then where would you be?

You might also enjoy this post about turning your “events” into “parties” and my Top 10 Party Tips. And also getting the most out of your auction here, here and here.

So let’s take a look at common mistakes that happen to lots of nonprofit events – hopefully not YOUR event, right?

1.  What’s the Point You Want to Make? 

What are the objectives of your event or program at your event?

Hopefully, to raise money – and also raise energy, renewed commitment and motivation to do your work. Right?

So set your own very clear goals and objectives for your event:

Fire-up your crowd! Rally the troops. Have some fun. Be entertaining. Touch some hearts. Break some hearts, even.

Then if you define these goals, then you can design it to accomplish your desired results.

Without clear objectives, you will probably waste a great opportunity and maybe people’s time.

2. A Dull Endless Program.

The Kiss of Death to an event? A boring program!

The program is wildly important.

That’s when you have your guests’ attention and you can either drive them crazy with boredom or you can inspire them.

You must, I repeat must, set a firm schedule, create an interesting experience and by all means, take charge of your speakers.

3. Uncontrollable Speakers.

Everyone’s had the experience of the speaker who would not shut up. Yikes!

I like to use an emcee to be in charge of the program. I authorize them to walk out and nicely cut speakers off when they go over time.

But one time, the emcee – a local TV personality – decided to give HER OWN lengthy speech –without any notice. OMG. We were groaning in the back.

If you honor someone, be careful. They may expect to talk at length!

One honoree came to the podium for a 2-minute speech, and pulled out  three entire handwritten pages. The staff and I looked at each other and went “Oh NO!”

4. How to Brief Your Speakers Correctly.

My strategy for controlling the program?  

I get right in EACH speaker’s face. Right up in front of them. I smile sweetly. And I say with a big smile:  “cheerful and brief! Got it?”

And they nod. And I repeat. And every time I see them during the evening, I say with a big smile “cheerful and brief!”

So what do they do when they get to the podium? They are usually cheerful and brief. Hurray!

 5. Too Large of a Venue.

If your room is too large, it can make your event seem listless and poorly attended.

Last weekend I attended a huge gala – and unfortunately it was in a vast convention hall (with an awful concrete floor).

The crowd did not fill up the room, and it felt half empty.

If you have a room that is too big, you dissipate any energy of the crowd.

Building energy should be a #1 goal of your event.

I’d far rather have too many people crowded into a smaller room than too few people to fill up my large room.

Your strategy? Take a risk with a smaller venue and it will feel like the best party in town!

6. An Event That Goes On Too Late

Don’t let your program put your guests to sleep!

When you go on too late, what happens?  Your guests get tired.

The next day all they remember is how tired they were and how badly they wanted to leave.

You are shooting yourself in the foot. Unhappy guests will not come back.

Once I attended the auction of a wonderful community organization. Somehow the time slipped away. When they finally started the live auction, more than half the crowd was gone.

There went the evening’s profit – out the door.

Your Strategy:  End the program by 9:30 at the latest. You will probably see people leaving starting at 9 unless they are having a wonderful time.

7. Unpopular Food Choices.

If you want to serve roast beef be sure to offer a choice of something else.

I was at an event recently with a friend who did not eat red meat.  She was stuck and she was NOT happy!

As they become more health-conscious, many affluent  people are more careful about healthy eating. They are also not eating white bread.

Your strategy? Offer healthy when possible – and choices! 

8. Memorials That Turn Into Downers.

Sometimes at events, we have memorials to honor people close to the organization.

Be careful.  Don’t let them turn into sad times that take everyone down. 

Be sure to plan something rousing to get everybody happy again.  

Your strategy? Turn the memorial into a clear rallying cry:   “Let’s honor their memory by going out and renewing our commitment!”

9. No Call To Action.

EVERY program needs to end with a totally clear call to action.

Not a general one.

Your strategy? Say something like this:  ”We want every single person in this room to go out and do these three things NOW!”

10. Cash Bar at A Plated Dinner.

I am usually fine with cash bars – these are fundraising events anyway.

But what about this:  you pay $100,  sit down at a white tablecloth with a pretty centerpiece, and get served by waiters.

But you have to get up out of your seat, and schlep across the room to buy a $7 glass of wine.

It’s just awkward. And it negates the classiness of the lovely table and the elegant waiter.

Your strategy: Don’t do it.

Bottom Line:

Consider your event from your guests’ point of view.

Be a gracious host.

Make it fun for them and they will COME BACK! : )

What are YOUR biggest pet peeves with fundraising events?

I bet YOU have some stories to share too! Leave me a comment and tell me about this!

The post Don’t Make These Mistakes At Your Next Event! appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

I’m willing to bet that you joined the board because you really, really believed in the cause.

It meant a lot to you.

But when you try to talk to your friends about your organization’s work, do you know what to say?

Maybe yes, maybe no.

I find lots of board members simply don’t know what to say when they have the chance to spread the word about their organization.

They would love to help, but many are not quite sure how to do it.

On my part, I think this is the ONE JOB ALL BOARD MEMBERS need to do – all the time.

EVERY SINGLE board member needs to be able to spread the word.

And they need to do it  to it willingly and enthusiastically.

I find that board members would love to be personal advocates for their organization.

If you could tell your best friend about your cause, what would you say?

Wouldn’t you love to help create BUZZ in the community about what your organization is up to?

Wouldn’t this be a pretty easy job?

When I serve on a board, this is what I try to do all the time – with everybody I run into.

I try to drum up support. I try to engage people in conversations about the issue we are tackling. I try to spread the BUZZ.

But sometimes I feel awkward. I grapple for the right words and phrases that convey our important work.

I am always looking for a fact, or something to share that might be interesting to the person I am taking to.

I’m not talking about a “pitch” here – I am taking about how to introduce or open up the conversation.

This is a lot like an elevator speech – but it’s a little more in depth. You can learn how to create your own elevator speech here and here.

It’s really up to your staff and board leaders to help you refine your talking points.

Here’s how to get some practice talking about your organization:

Why don’t you engage your staff and board leaders in a discussion about What To Say:

• What IS going on at your organization?

• What ARE your biggest challenges right now?

• How MUCH does it cost to help one person, or do one good deed? (What’s the Math?)

• What ARE you tackling this year in your community, region or the world?

• Why IS it so urgent?  What IS at stake?

I don’t know about you but I think this is interesting stuff.

I think devoting your next board meeting to a full-scale discussion of these topics would be an extremely valuable exercise. Right?

And it would give you “meat” to talk about when you run into someone who might be a potential friend, supporter or donor to your cause.

Why don’t you ask your staff and board leaders to spend some time with all the board members working on these messages? I can’t think of more valuable board member training myself.

I like to know just what to say that will captivate my friend’s interest.

And here’s another way your organization can equip you with some cool stories and talking points that you can put in your own words:

Experience Some “Mission Moments”

What’s a mission moment?

It’s a chance for you to see and experience personally your organization’s wonderful work.

Right there in front of you.

It’s when the mission comes right up and smacks you in the face.

It’s when you see something that just might break your heart.

AND when you have a direct, personal experience – in front of your eyes – you have something you can share with all your friends:

• “You won’t believe what I saw last night . . “

• “Did you know that there are people in our community  . . . ?

• “I can’t imagine the situation . . .”

• “I am so amazed that . . “.

Why not cancel your next board meeting, and take everybody on a FIELD TRIP instead? (I bet it would be more productive!)

Turn Your Board Members Into Sneezers!

What’s a “sneezer?” It’s someone who spreads the viral message about your organization.

Remember the basic idea about viral marketing? It’s when messages become contagious.

They even turn into an epidemic! (See Seth Godin’s important book, “Unleashing the Idea Virus.”)

So when board members sneeze, what happens?

They spread a happy viral message all over your community.  They create a cheerful contagious epidemic of good news about your cause wherever they go.

When I work with boards, I tell board members that they get to “sneeze” all over everybody they know.

They get it! And they love it!

BOTTOM LINE

The number one job for a board member is to be a PERSONAL ADVOCATE for the cause.

Too often staff and board leaders ignore this most important job.

If you are a board member, you deserve some help and training so you can be a SNEEZER!

Are YOU a good sneezer?

How have YOU helped your board members become better advocates to spread the word?  Leave a comment and let me know here!

The post Board Members’ #1 Job: How to Be A Personal Advocate For Your Cause appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Rowdy bunch of #AFPeeps at the #AFPIcon in San Diego last week! Sandy Rees, Tammy Zonker, Dave Tinker, Susanna Shumate

These tweets from the top #AFPeeps at the Conference share what I think are key takeaways for YOU to know and remember about where fundraising is today.

These tips cover the entire range of fundraising.   From social media (of course) to online giving, to newsletters and donor communication, to major gifts, to getting goals and strategy, to managing your board.

You’ll find one liners under 140 characters that (hopefully) will ZAP your point of view and shake you up a bit.

They will also surprise you, remind you to do the right thing, and help you be more efficient AND effective!

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, sit back and enjoy this stream!

And if you are on twitter, I highly recommend that you follow these folks. They are smart. They are on point. And they have some fun!

(Now for a disclaimer! My team and I have been working all day trying to get these tweets to show up properly without repeating themselves. I’m about fit to be tied, as we say in the south! I know there are plenty of tech wizards out there much smarter than me, so if you have the magic html secret to help me fix the dang formatting, I will love you forever!)

“Quality of service of your #fundraising team is single biggest driver of donor loyalty” – Adrian Sargeant #afpicon#afpmeet

— Lori Jacobwith (@ljacobwith)
April 9, 2013

LOVE him! RT @afpwpa: @stephenpidge warns us he may be rude today! “American fundraising is boring as hell and unemotional.” #afpicon

— Nathan Hand (@nathan_hand)
April 9, 2013

Studies show response goes down on appeals that talk about more than ONE person benefitting from donations. #afpbrains #afpicon

This stat kills me. Every time. MT @leaheustace: “You lose 70% of donors between the first and second donation” via Adrian Sargeant #AFPIcon

— Shanon Doolittle (@sldoolittle) April 8, 2013

 

Times are a-changing: New philanthropists make up 82% of the giving population, they trust charities less than their predecessors. #afpICON — Laurie Simon (@laurieMsimon) April 9, 2013

— Emily Mapes (@emthesooner) April 9, 2013

Buddies Margaret Battestelli, Editor of Fundraising Success (in the tiara!) and Tammy Zonker

7 out of 10 people say thank you letters are ordinary or predictable. Doesn’t steward well. #afpicon — Sandy Rees (@SandyRees) April 9, 2013

When you get boring your donors get bored. @stephenpidge#afpicon #afpmeet — Sandy Rees (@SandyRees) April 9, 2013

Orgs that let only their communication dept run their website raise less than those who collab w/development via @harveymckinnon #afpicon — AFP Western PA (@afpwpa) April 8, 2013

RT @leaheustace: In your fundraising, lead with emotion. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. #AFPBrains #AFPIcon — Barbara Talisman (@BTalisman) April 9, 2013

 

Boom. RT @webserves: RT @nphub: Would you rather “Donate” or “Feed A Child”? Tweak a button to increase your $$ by 15% #afpicon #52n52 — Nathan Hand (@nathan_hand) April 9, 2013

 

By not allowing donors to ‘share’ their support online, you’re missing 20-200% of potential online giving growth #afpicon — Nathan Hand (@nathan_hand) April 9, 2013

 

Now here are the rest of the tweets in a simple format!

“@npmarc: Fundraisers: Never decide for your donor that donating is too much of a burden for them. @sandyrees & Daniel W #afpicon” — AMEN! — Holly E Herbert (@hollyeherbert) April 8, 2013

Stephen Pidgeon #afpicon session: “US npo newsletters are boring and rubbish” #afpmeet — Robert N. Croft,CFRE (@RobertNCroft) April 9, 2013

We have two sets of rules for non-profits and for-profits, especially in compensation. via Bert Jacobs @lifeisgood#afpICON

Change our verbiage? Word “philanthropy” is happy, warm fuzzy. The word “fundraising” is scary, people fear it. #afpmeet #afpicon — Gail Perry(@GailPerrync) April 8, 2013

With international fundraising greats Bernard Ross, Harvey McKinnon and Stephen Pidgeon.

Whatever you focus on will grow! Focus on the positive. via Bert Jacobs @lifeisgood #afpICON — Chris LeBrun, CFRE (@chrislebrun) April 9, 2013

RT @chrislebrun: Ask for what ever touches your donor’s heart! And be specific! via @amyeisenstein #AFPicon — Amy Eisenstein (@AmyEisenstein) April 8, 2013

MT @chrislebrun: Most orgs do less than 50 asks per year. Important to countasks from year to year. via @amyeisenstein #afpICON #AFPMeet — Amy Eisenstein (@AmyEisenstein) April 8, 2013

RT @wolfeamy: @chrislebrun: You’re never going to feel ready to make an ask … make it anyway! via @amyeisenstein #AFPICON — Amy Eisenstein (@AmyEisenstein) April 8, 2013

Good is not good enough any more. @bernardrossmc#afpICON

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” Muhammad Ali; #afpicon #afpmeet — AFP St. Louis (@AFPSTL) April 8, 2013

Love it! RT @leaheustace: Your biggest enemy in fundraising? Your own opinion. #AFPBrains #AFPIcon — Amy Eisenstein (@AmyEisenstein) April 9, 2013

Using the language of business..it is ‘risky’ to treat a donor in a transactional way.@seattledrury #afpeeps #afpicon — Andrea McManus (@TDGAndrea) April 9, 2013

Amazing session w @seattledrury. Are we using FR language that makes our donors/volunteers uncomfortable? #afpICON #afpeeps — Amy Eisenstein (@AmyEisenstein) April 9, 2013

RT @seattledrury: TY! RT @lisacburns Risk conversations are common in biz world. Why don’t we talk fundraising risk w boards? #afpICON… — Gail Perry(@GailPerrync) April 9, 2013

TY! RT @sueacri: @seattledrury “donor retention is a much more important indicator for board members to know than cash raised” #AFPmeet — Peter Drury (@seattledrury) April 15, 2013

My presentation at the conference was packed!

RT @gailperrync @davethecfre: “The single greatest driver of fundraising planning is anxiety” via @seattledrury#AFPeeps #afpicon

MT @jim_anderson1: My “Fast, Free & Finished” YouTube presentation prompts welcome to #AFPICON from audience bit.ly/15eYvSY#afpeeps

Keep in mind that the giving impulse is emotional. @leaheustace #afpbrains #afpICON

Overhead is like cholesterol: There’s good overhead and bad overhead. Wise boards & donors study the difference.— Peter Drury (@seattledrury) April 15, 2013

“@susannahshumate: “I don’t want to give money to a charity. I want to change the world with my money.” -S Pidgeon

Thx 4RT @jaxphilville “@afpwpa: There’s a direct correlation between complaints and success in mail appeals via @harveymckinnon#afpicon”  — Harvey McKinnon (@harveymckinnon) April 10, 2013

RT @leahhebner: If you don’t protect the time to make those donor calls, you won’t do it! #AFPicon  — Gail Perry(@GailPerrync) April 18, 2013

Miss the morning session with Tom Ahern? Read the takeways here! ow.ly/jRzfc#afpicon#afpeeps From @nphub   — Marc Koenig (@npmarc) April 8, 2013

If you’ve made it this far in my post, here’s a laugh for you from the great Tom Ahern!

Learn about “unbridled, passionate, hot, STEAMY donor love” with Tom Ahern [VIDEO]ow.ly/jSff1#afpicon   — Marc Koenig (@npmarc) April 9, 2013

LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

The post 36 Fundraising Tips to Provoke Your Point of View, Sharpen Your Focus and Make You Laugh appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Mention fundraising to board members and you get this look back!

Fundraising is often a huge pain point with many nonprofit board members.

And it’s a pain point for many fundraising staff members too.  Staffers all want to know “how to get their board members to help raise money.”

But board members are coming from a completely different place:

• They don’t really understand how fundraising works.
• They fear fundraising (who wouldn’t!)
• They really don’t want to “monetize” their friends.

And I don’t blame board members one bit!

Of course they are nervous about this process called “fundraising.”

If you think it’s all about asking for money, and if you worry about “hitting up” your friends, why on earth would you want to get involved in fundraising?

I think we have a wonderful opportunity to help board members understand more about how fundraising really works today.

They are making decisions about fundraising strategy all the time. I would think it’s in everybody’s best interest for them to understand the strategies and concepts that make for successful fundraising.

Board members love to talk about WHY they care.

I find that many board members are really interested to LEARN about fundraising.

They want to know how it works, and they want to know how they can help.

But – I caution you – don’t bring board members into a training called “The Art of the Ask!”

Instead introduce them to fundraising as an important revenue-generating strategy that all can embrace. Something that everybody can participate in. Whether they are asking for money or not.

Most of all, I think we need to start board members off slowly.

I think we think we also need to BACK OFF when it comes to “asking for money.”

They ARE willing to help.   So let’s ask them to help in jobs that SUPPORT fundraising – ones that are not specifically about soliciting.  There are plenty of NO ASK fundraising strategies that have important roles for board members.

Here’s how to help get board members fired-up, in action and ready to help.

And I absolutely promise you, this works!  Board members love this approach. They think it’s fun. I work with boards all over the world helping them understand fundraising and how they can help make it successful for their favorite organization. And this approach gets terrific feedback.

Here’s how you can take board members from fear of fundraising to enthusiasm.

This is what good fundraising training looks like!

I believe in activating people’s passion and energy first.

And you have to lighten up. Make it fun for them.  You need to fan the flames of emotion and energy.

It’s emotion that propels action.

(How much emotion is there in a business meeting run by Roberts Rules?

Try motivating your volunteers rather than lecturing to them.

It really doesn’t work to treat them like fourth graders.  Try treating them more like a sales team that needs pumping up all the time.

1.  Reawaken their passion for the cause.

Help board members  get back in touch with why they care –why they wanted to serve on the board in the first place.

Fire-up your board members and you’ll unleash incredible energy!

They won’t lift a finger for you unless they are fired up about the cause itself.  You need to help them re-awaken that pull in the heart that caused them to get involved in the first place.

Ask them why they care enough to serve on the board.

That’s my absolute favorite way to re-awaken their passion for their favorite cause. Better yet, ask them what legacy they want to leave from serving on the board.

If you can get them talking, then you can make it happen.  You’ve got to let go and let your volunteers do the talking.

2. Give them practice with their elevator speech.

They need help learning how to talk about the cause. And I mean real world practice, not role plays in front of the group. Help your volunteers create their own, personal elevator speech.

Don’t create a “master” elevator pitch and have everybody learn it. Because they’ll forget it.  Instead let each board member craft their own speech based on why they personally care.  Here’s how to set up this exercise.

Make it fun and make it informal.

Give board members practice with their elevator speech.

Ask them to go around the room mingling with other board members and share why they care.  Or work as a group to come up with some great facts to share about your organization.

That would be a fun discussion for your board.

3. Help them understand what you are really raising money for.

Where does the money go? How many people do you help?  How much does all that cost? How much does each program cost and why?

You can have a deep discussion around “what are we raising money for?”

What could you do if you had an extra $100k?  What DO we need? WHY do we need it? Who’s impacted by it?

How, I mean really, HOW, exactly do we change and save lives with this money we are raising?

Make this a question and answer DISCUSSION.

See “What’s the Math: Three Questions Board Members Really Need to Know.”

Make it informal so that all board members can get into the thinking process.

When board members have these three discussions, they are ready to rock.

They are:

1. In touch with their own passion and energy,

2. Equipped to talk about it,

3. Know how much you need and why you need it.

Sometimes you can’t even stop them. I’m continually amazed at the energy, creativity and strategies that board members come up with when we do these exercises.

I’d love to help you fire-up your own board. Or try this approach on your own. But you CAN awaken your board’s energy and put them to work. You can stage a board retreat that will be transformational – and that they will really enjoy.

How much could you raise if your board members were fully active in fundraising?

Try these techniques and make it happen for YOUR board!

The post Unleash Your Board Members’ Energy for Fundraising appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

“Spray and pray” fundraising doesn’t work anymore!

Ten years ago, you could raise good money with a “spray and pray”  appeal that was boring and generic.

Now we have to work harder and smarter.

The good news is that we can rely on plenty of research about major donors. What are they are thinking about their philanthropy and nonprofits?

I’ve culled through the research – and here are my Top 10 Major Donor Trends for 2013 – along with a strategy to ride each trend productively.

I’m presenting all this for the first time this week in San Diego at the International AFP Conference.

If you are attending, PLEASE come to my session on Major Donor Trends. (Tuesday,  April 9 12:45-2pm)  And do sit in the front row and be a friendly face.

Trend 1. Donors are wary of trusting us.

Trust is a huge issue these days. What can you do to help your donors trust you?

Timothy Ogden, the author of Guidestar’s “More Money for More Good”, claimed yesterday that donors do NOT pick nonprofits based on their impact. What?

Instead, he said that donors choose charities based on personal relationships. Wow.

Agree or not – he does have a huge point.

Getting to know major donors personally is a must.

How can they trust you if they don’t know you? Why would they invest in you?

Your Strategy: Build trust by fostering personal relationships with your major donors.

Trend 2. The Boomers are becoming the #1 donor population.

Boomers, how do we love thee?

Values of boomers focus on the self.

Boomers own most of the nation’s wealth, they are more generous than the Silent Generation, and they volunteer in droves.

What do boomers want? They want personal self-expression.

They want to express their passions and their individuality. They want to be involved.

Your Strategy:  Let Boomers’ personal passions and interests guide their cultivation plan.  Help them connect to what is most meaningful to them.

Trend 3.  Older ladies are THE major donor demographic.

Here’s something amazing. Women are far, far more generous than men. (Hey, we knew this, didn’t we?)

A recent study found that women are more than TWICE as generous than men.

For every $100 boomer and older men gave, women in the very same economic circumstances gave $258!!

Women are more likely to give to charity, and they are more likely to give more. (Women Give 2012, Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Indiana University.)

The ladies are far more generous than the gentlemen.

Your Strategy:  Review your prospect lists.  Reevaluate the giving capacity of the ladies.  Get to work and go see them.

Trend 4.  Donors want Donor-Centered communications.

Donors don’t want to hear you talking talking talking about how wonderful you are.

How do they hear your presentation? As blah, blah, blah.

Try talking (or listening) to your donors about what they think; what they believe; what they want to see in the world. Then they will be happy.

Strategy:  Slant everything toward the donors’ perspective. Stop talking so much about you and your wonderful organization.

Trend 5.  Major donors who volunteer give more. Much more.

The Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy  that came out a few months ago had some interesting information:

Many hIgh net worth donors are volunteering and taking it very seriously.

And those who volunteered over 100 hours last year gave their organizations an average of $78k.  (compared to an average gift of $39k for those who volunteered less.)

Many major donors will interact with you on Facebook.

Your Strategy: Get your donors and prospects on site and in action.

Trend 6.  Major donors are all over social media.

Should you “friend” a major donor on Facebook?

Well if a major donor friended me, I sure would not ignore them!

The fact is – some major donors WANT to connect with you on social media.  That’s their preferred communications channel.

Remember – getting to know you personally is vitally important. (See trend #1).

So don’t be afraid of Facebook. Just don’t post pictures of you and your beer bong, ok?

Your Strategy: Use facebook freely if your donors are there.

Trend 7. Major donors look at their gifts as investments. They want to see impact and ROI.

Ok, this is not new.

We all know this: donors will often give MORE if you let them designate their gifts.

Of course, major gifts are almost always focused or designated for one area or another.

Even if donors are making an unrestricted major gift to “operations,” they understand why and what that will achieve.

BUT it’s up to us to talk to donors in this language. It’s more specific. And it’s about results.

Charity Water does a terrific job showing results with numbers.

Your Strategy: Let major donors fund something specific.

Trend 8. Major donors are assured when they see the financials and the numbers.

They are not so very sure they trust you anyway. (See trend #1)

So showing them the numbers really does help.

Discussing your financials with donors is a great opportunity for them to understand where the money goes and how much it really costs.

I don’t know why more fundraisers don’t simply talk about where the money is or will be spent.

That conversation creates such trust and credibility.

Your Strategy: Be transparent. Show them the numbers. Measure and show your results.

Trend 9. Like most of us, donors are feeling overwhelmed, jaded, and even bored.

Everybody is inundated with media messages. We are all hopelessly busy.

Totally delightful appeal!

Nobody is having any fun!

Major donors are in overwhelm, too.

So how do you reach a bored donor?

You are offbeat, playful and fun. Then your donors will read your stuff first.

This can give you a huge edge over everybody else.

Your Strategy: Add surprise and delight to everything you do.

Trend 10. Major donors love a Big Idea. -

How did Stanford University manage to be the first to raise a billion in one year?

Stanford raised $1 billion/year with Big Ideas.

They had plenty of Big Ideas.!

“Stanford has been doing a remarkable job. They have some very big ideas, they are good at capturing people’s imagination, thinking about what they can do and what they could be,” said Anne E. Kaplan in the New York Times.

Your Strategy: What are your Big Ideas? Talk about them with your donors!

Bottom line:

These strategies can put you ahead of the pack.

Now it’s time to sharpen your story, your prospect list, your financials, your focus and get out of the office!

And show those major donor prospects some love.

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think of this list!

The post Top 10 Trends: How Major Donors are Changing and What To Do About It appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Open her heart to your cause by asking this question!

Then try asking a very simple question.

“What are your impressions of . .?”

I can’t tell you how much money I’ve raised by using this question!

This open-ended question gets pretty amazing results.

It’s an easy, gentle opening to find out what a donor is thinking about my presentation, my cause, my event, my plans, and – my organization’s vision.

I use these 4 words all the time – and I get terrific benefits and feedback!

And you can use them too.

You know, this is such a very simple, single question.

And it is guaranteed to evoke a response from your donor that tells you where she stands.

It’s a Golden Formula for opening a donor’s heart to your cause.

But more importantly, it generates the donor’s own thinking about your issue.

It encourages her to ponder your presentation, to digest your material, to think about it, to react to it.

It encourages her to embrace what you have just said.

I like to get my donor’s brain thinking hard about what I’ve just said. That way she’ll incorporate it more thoroughly.

Your job is to ask, then shut up and listen carefully.

This question encourages the donor to think more deeply about what you’ve presented.

Listen your way to the gift!

She is not going to get hot and bothered about your cause just by listening to YOU do all the talking.

Don’t forget the fundraiser’s Kiss of Death – talking too much!

Talking too much is the number one way to be BORING. Right?

I think listening is a lost art. How about you?

Your wonderful, generous, well-meaning donor needs time to mull over what you’ve said.

She needs to “stew” in the urgent need or bold vision that you’ve just presented to her.

So you ask the Golden Question and you sit tight.

What will you find out?

This is how to find out where your donor stands.

You’ll get her to really react to you and what you’ve said.

If you want money, ask for advice. If you want advice, ask for money!

You’ll get something much deeper – and more informative – from her. Much deeper than if you had just presented, thanked her and then left.

This is true “Conversational Fundraising.”

This is HOW to get the donor talking to YOU – not the other way around.

Remember it’s always all about the donor. We forget this.

We think we have to be great salespeople and make a great pitch. NO!

What we have to do is FOCUS on the donor – and listen to him or her. We have to draw out the donor, and get her engaged with us about our cause.

It’s really amazing what you will find out – but you have to ask.

And you won’t do that if you do all the talking!

Many uses for this golden question:

Here are some real-world situations where “What are your impressions?” has served my colleagues and me very well:

1.  At the close of a visit with a donor.

I just had an Advice Visit with a potential donor to my favorite cause.

At the end of our visit, I asked him “What are your impressions of our ideas?

Ask their impressions and then shut your mouth!

And he shared his reservations about our project. I was able to address these issues and he became a substantial donor. Hurray!

2. Cultivating a major prospect.

I  was walking out of a facility tour with a major, major gift prospect. He was actually a candidate for the leadership gift in this campaign.  So I asked him: what were your impressions of the tour?”

Well after 5 minutes of conversation – with some very careful maneuvering from me – he invited me to bring a $5ook proposal to his family foundation meeting the next week!

3. After a pitch.

I recently made a presentation for a consulting project that I would love to do.  I presented against one other firm.

As I was chatting with the President of the College afterwards, I asked him what were his impressions. He told me that he liked me a lot better than the other firm. : )

4. When I’m training or presenting.

I train boards a lot in fundraising and friendmaking. But I can’t make it just a one-way presentation – I have to get them to ponder and digest the material we are discussing.

So I model the Golden Question all the time, frequently asking them “what are your impressions of these ideas” – it gets them to mull over the discussion and really embrace it.

5.  After a formal presentation.

My friend, a Vice Chancellor at a major university recently made a big presentation to the Board of Visitors. She wanted to gauge the Chancellor’s reaction to her ideas.

She asked him, “What were your impressions of my presentation?’ And she got some terrific positive feedback!

How do YOU employ this question with your donors, staff, family and everyone in your life?

Ask this and you’ll find out lots and lots that you never knew before!

Leave a comment and let me know!

The post Want to Know What Your Major Donor Is Thinking? Try This Question! appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Here are three secrets that will dramatically improve your results from your fundraising activities and events.

1. Narrow, narrow, narrow down your focus.

Restrict yourself to fewer relationships rather than more.

This is the most important thing I could ever share with you about major gift success.

You simply cannot spread yourself too thin.

You can only work with a fewer number of prospective donors if you want to give them quality attention.

And quality attention is what will generate gifts.

My first fundraising mentor at Duke University told me once that working with major donors is like spinning plates on a stick.

Each plate is a wonderful prospective donor you are lavishing attention on.

You can’t spin but so many plates (or donors) at one time, because each one requires constant attention.

You have to go back and forth applying a little spin to each plate to keep it going.

Working with major donors is like spinning plates on a stick.

When a donor is ready to give, you take the plate off the stick and gently put it down.

Then you start working on another donor.

Some fundraising gurus are even saying that you can raise MORE MONEY if you have fewer donors.

That’s because you can give them more attention. What about that!

2. Listen, listen, listen to your prospective donor.

One of my favorite fundraising mottos is, “When in doubt, shut up.”

Listen your way to the gift!

It’s taken me far with lots of donors!

Listening is a gift to the person who’s being listened to.

Nobody seems to listen much any more.

You’ll stand out when you keep your mouth shut around your favorite donors. : )

• It’s listening that will open the door to your donor’s heart, her dreams and her vision.

• It’s listening that will give you a road map to her cultivation plan.

• It’s listening that will tell you her hot buttons to emphasize when it comes time to solicit.

• It’s listening that tells you when she’s ready to be solicited.

3. Love, love, love your donors and prospects a lot.

Everybody laughs when I say this in my presentations. But it’s so very true!

What does a relationship look like anyway?

• It’s cordial.
• It’s friendly.
• It’s genuine.
• It’s authentic.

When I am cultivating a donor, I enjoy the friendmaking part of my work.

Fundraising is not about money; it’s about making and keeping Friends.

I like to get to know them.

I learn about their interests, their families, their hopes and dreams.

It’s fascinating.  And it’s fun.

Make it an enjoyable, friendly experience for your donors and they will want to spend time with you and your cause.

Each visit with a donor is like a step-by-step cultivation move.

Now, I bet you are chomping at the bit to get to work with your own major donors.

I bet you can just see the funding that is just barely out of reach.

If only you could connect with your wonderful prospects and ask them correctly.

If you really want to bring in large, transformational gifts that can take your organization to an entirely new level, I’d love to help you. 

Join me for an online workshop I’m doing next week to help you focus clearly on major, major donors.

So you can bring in the bigger gifts you really need.

Skyrocket Your Fundraising with a Systematic Major Gifts Program

This hands-on virtual workshop will help you develop and refine your major gift efforts.

It’s next Thursday, March 28 from 2-4pm. And I’m opening up only 50 seats.

Click here to find out more and register right now.

In this online workshop, you’ll learn and review all the steps and elements of assembling a strong major gifts program so that you can dramatically improve the results from your fundraising activities and events.

Major donors are where the money is!

You’ll also get every available means that I’ve learned over 25 years in fundraising to strengthen your donor relationships and get a “yes” when you ask for your major gifts.

And you know I love shortcuts!

This will be a “ruthlessly practical” approach to securing your major gifts!

You’ll get my battle-hardened, learned-the-hard-way strategies to help you get the most out of your own limited staff time, conflicting priorities and donor reluctance.

You’ll also get a complete workbook: “Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Major Gifts Program from the Ground Up” in a neat package for your reference and use.

You’ll get examples of successful donor cultivation conversations called to your attention and analyzed for you so you can adapt it to your own fundraising process.

And you’ll also have time in the workshop to work on your OWN plan. I’ll be helping you tailor these approaches to your specific situation.

Let’s turn your fundraising office into a money raising machine!

There’s never been a more important time to focus your energy clearly and target it on a few wonderful people who believe in your cause deeply. And raise some big money.

Click here to find out more and register right now.

The Virtual Workshop is designed to help:

1. Small shops who struggle with conflicting priorities and overloaded staff.

2. Larger shops who know they are leaving money on the table with their donors and want to take action immediately.

3. Any organization facing a significant financial shortfall that needs a plan now.

The webinar will give you lots of tools to skyrocket your fundraising and secure your organization’s financial sustainability.

I really hope you can join me! Next Thursday March 28, from 2-4pm.  Seats will be going fast, so definitely register right now.

Let’s raise some money for your cause right now!

Click here to find out more and register.

Email me if you have a question!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

The post Three Easy Secrets to Major Gift Success appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

You know where I think your pot of gold is?

It may not be in sophisticated analytics (but I do like them!).

It may not be in wealth management screening (which I also heartily endorse).

Where do I think the pot of gold is?

It’s when you can convert your good old regular annual fund donors into monthly donors.

Why?

When a donor converts to monthly giving, they usually give 3 times more!

Converting donors from annual to monthly increases their overall giving significantly.

They will usually give about 3 times more than they were before, says Harvey McKinnon, my favorite monthly giving guru. 

Definitely check out his book: “Hidden Gold, How monthly giving will build donor loyalty, boost your organization’s income and increase financial stability.”

OK, just imagine with me here:

What would happen if you could get THREE TIMES more from your current donors?

You’d have new financial stability.

You’d have a lot more income!

Think of the people you could help. The water you could clean. The kids you could educate.

Monthly giving is such a lucrative strategy.

I like it because you don’t have to look for NEW donors.

Instead you are raising more from the donors you have right now.

I hosted an online chat on monthly giving with the Chronicle of Philanthropy this week. You can read the transcript right here.  

BTW, their online chats with experts and fundraisers every Tuesday are usually really helpful!

For our session, we had a great group of fundraisers from around the world joining us to discuss “How to Spur Donors to Give Monthly.”

Here are some basic tips I shared with my group:

Be committed like this turtle.

Tips for a Successful Monthly Giving Program

What is the best way to successfully retain monthly donors?

Most people find that their monthly donors are a very solid group – and that it’s the credit card bugaboo that ends so many pledges.

I think monthly donors will renew when they are thanked profusely and warmly and treated like family.

All the ways I suggest that you thank them (see below) will keep them giving and giving.

I really like the idea of giving them an inside look at your work in the world, your challenges, and your vision.

They would not be giving monthly if they weren’t really committed to the cause!

How often should you ask donors to become monthly donors?

So that it gets impressed on people’s brains that there is a fabulous monthly giving program.

I’d ask several times a year if you are appealing several times.

I particularly like a special appeal JUST for monthly giving. That sets it apart and gives it depth.

I’m a real rookie at this. What are the first two steps to take when starting a monthly donor appeal?

You need a good back end.

You need someone who will followup failed charges etc.

And on the marketing side you need a catchy brand name – and build it into all your pledge cards.

AND get everybody on board with this at your org.

Make it a big deal that everybody talks about.

I like the strategy of having one person OWN the program too.

So it’s not an afterthought. So it’s not something you sorta get around to doing – it’s a priority.

Is it important or necessary to give gifts for donating?

I am not wild about “gifts” in return for donating.

BUT I am wild about making those donors feel special.

I like to see monthly donors get some special perks.

Maybe a perk is a special tour for them all a couple of times a year.

Maybe you can give them a special phone number to call if they have questions.

I am part of one org that has a “monthly phone chat” with our monthly donors. I really like that.

I personally am a monthly donor to almost 10 charities.

And I love perks and I love special communiciations that acknowledge that I am actually a monthly donor.

It’s weird to be a monthly donor to an organization but they don’t acknowledge it.

Read more on the transcript from our chat earlier this week.

Here are some of the other questions that I answered. You can read all my answers in the transcript.

What organizations in your opinion do the best job at promoting monthly giving? Who can we look to for successful models?

At what point do you ask for increases to those donors who give monthly?

In your experience, does monthly giving appeal more to older or younger donors?

Have you had any pushback on monthly giving programs with also capital campaigns?

What would be an ideal “Welcome Package”?

About how much do merchant charges cost?

BOTTOM LINE:

Don’t waste any time setting up and promoting YOUR monthly giving program.

The post How to Spur Donors to Give Monthly appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Here are 12 great ways to rethink your approach and create meetings that bring out your board’s best.

1) Focus the agenda on results.

Look for ways to structure real discussions among board members that will elicit commitment and leadership.

Decide what is needed most out of this meeting, set your agenda accordingly and tell your board members at the beginning of the session why they are present and what you need out of them:

“By the end of this meeting, we need to accomplish x, y, and z.”

That will get their attention.

2) Be creative with the agenda.

Look for ways to tweak the meeting plan to evoke your board members’ passion for your cause.

Avoid a dry recital of figures, and instead humanize your discussions by giving the board insight to what the agency is really accomplishing out in the world.

For a more radical approach, occasionally throw out the agenda altogether!

Let the board create its own order of business by consensus at the beginning of the meeting.

That way everyone is immediately paying more attention to the work that needs to get accomplished in the meeting.

They are not just meeting for routine reporting and discussing; action needs to be taken on real issues now.

3) Focus on problems, challenges, or broad issues.

Discussions of this nature will activate your board members’ various backgrounds and skills sets, not to mention their interest.

It will allow you to draw upon a deeper reservoir of their talent and energy, and will give them more interesting work.

4) Look at trends within routine reports.

Identify larger, big-picture issues that are reflected within routine reports. For example, along with the financial report, consider a discussion of long-run implications of certain revenue or cost trends.

What are three important questions anyone might want to ask about this month’s financial report? Identify these questions yourself and introduce them to the board as discussion topics.

Also, along with the regular fundraising report, you could schedule a big-picture discussion of the pros and cons of a subject, such as fundraising events, which we know to be high cost and effort while providing a lower financial return than cultivating major donors.

Or you might have the board brainstorm ways to double the funds raised from the annual event. (Wouldn’t you love to hear your board grapple with that one?)

5) Plan big.

Bring big-picture strategic planning issues into regular board meetings.

For example, you could take the standard strategic planning issues focusing on organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis).

Divide the four subjects over four board meetings and at each meeting, take your board through a discussion or update of one of these issues.

6) Look at your board meetings as cheerleading sessions.

Get ready to fire up your board members and put them into action.

For these meetings, switch your view to seeing the board as the team that is out on the field, with the role of the staff being there to encourage and congratulate them: How would you stage such a session?

Identify who would need to speak in order to rev up the energy of your board.

7) Use consent agendas.

Why devote valuable meeting time to routine business items that do not require much board discussion?

A list of items can be mailed out in advance and approved in one vote.

Any member can ask that a consent agenda item be moved back into the regular agenda for discussion.

Try handling committee reports in this manner by providing written reports in the place of lengthy oral reports.

8) Interview the Executive Director.

Occasionally consider allowing time for the board members to interview the executive director about what is on his/her mind.

What keeps the director up at night?

How about a relaxed “fireside chat” with him or her for about 10 minutes at each meeting? What an interesting discussion this could be and how engaging for board members.

9) Always choose one interesting item and set it up for a discussion.

If you are nervous about turning your board loose and are not sure where the discussion might go, then let a couple of trusted board members know in advance about the planned discussion.

Tell them your perspective and what you need from the board’s conversation on this issue.

10) Select a theme for each meeting.

Follow the advice of the Alliance for Peacebuilding CEO, Chic Dambach, who likes to select a theme for each meeting based a particular need or issue facing the organization.

He says, “This allows ample time for in-depth analysis of that topic.

For particularly important issues, the theme can be repeated over the course of several meetings until the issue has been adequately addressed.”

11) Create “mission moments” in every board meeting.

Give your trustees a personal experience of your mission in action.

Use a testimonial or a story about someone touched by your organization. This could be the most powerful subject of the entire meeting.

12) Break into groups.

Instead of reporting to board members about an upcoming challenge, present the issue as a question and ask them to discuss it in small groups.

Then the board chair can facilitate the full group discussion afterwards.

Having small groups enables everyone to speak, encouraging shy people, those who typically avoid speaking to the full board, to participate.

The post 12 Ways to Liven Up Your Board Meetings – And Your Board appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

Today’s donors are not really sure they can trust you.

Today’s donor has changed.

Here’s how to reach her, connect with her and get her to respond to your appeal.

We spend a lot of time in our profession trying to understand donors’ changing preferences and concerns.

If you are sending out the same kind of appeals that you’ve been doing for the past 10 or so years, I bet your donors are dropping off.

Why?

Because donors have changed.

In fact, they have really, really changed.

You need to understand that today’s donors are more hesitant to give.

Before the recession they were just freer with their money.

Today many donors hold on much tighter than they used to. And they are far more selective.

You are seeing that in your fundraising results I’m sure!

So how can you reach today’s donors for your organization?

1. Show Them the Impact They Can Make With Their Money.

Tell your story through infographics by using REAL NUMBERS.

I bet you are sick of hearing about “impact.”

BUT I see so few nonprofits really showing – clearly – how dollars from their donors are creating positive change.

I know you can do a much better job showing your impact.

You’ve got to be SPECIFIC and use REAL NUMBERS.

How to do this? Try saying: 

• “Your gift can do this . . .  and this . . .  and this.

• “Your gift of $100 can fill 75 backpacks full of food for hungry children.

• “Your investment of $1 million can help us raise unrestricted revenue of $10 million.

2. Show Them How Their Gift is an Investment.

Your donors will open their wallets if they can see how their gift will pay off.

Donors expect their gifts to yield a wonderful happy return.

Remember that nervous donors are not so sure they trust you to use their gift wisely.

So show them all the wonderful stuff they can accomplish.

How to do this?  

Be specific! Use real numbers:

• “Your gift of $10/month can plant 2100 seedlings across North Carolina.

• “Your gift of $400 covers a month of shelter for a homeless teenager.

By the way, both of the sample pages above have too many choices and are confusing to the donor.

Don’t make that mistake.  Don’t give your donor too many choices.

3. Show Them a Clear Return on Their Investment.

Charity water does a fabulous job telling donors where their money went.

A colleague of mine said about a donor recently:

“They made a gift because they could see a clear ROI.”

How clearly are you spelling out your own Return on Donors’ Investments?

I’m sure you are familiar with “social impact investing” and “social entrepreneurship.”

Well – get ready – this is the way of the future.

Donors are looking at things from this perspective:

“What can I do to make things better? What can I do to create social change?”

How to do this?

• Right now – you need to STOP talking to donors about YOUR wonderful work.

• But START talking to donors about the work THEY can accomplish through their gift.

• And use REAL NUMBERS.

4. Build Credibility.

As a consultant, I often have The Credibility Discussion with my clients.

It’s a really important discussion about how we are presenting ourselves to the world – our messages, our marketing and our pictures/images.

It might be useful for you too – have a “credibility review” of all your materials and messages.

Use charts and graphs to show donors how you spend their money.

How are you demonstrating to donors that you are a safe place to invest their money?

How to do this?

• Add your Guidestar and Charity Nav links on your home page or your donation page.

• Add awards and recognitions.

• Add your board members’ names to your web site.

• Add a “Your Gifts at Work” page to your site.

• Add a Performance Dashboard to your site.

5. Let Them Designate Their Gifts to Specific Projects

Telling your story in real numbers builds donor trust.

There’s no question: Donors will give more if you let them restrict their gifts.

Now I know you and your leadership don’t like this.

But whether you like it or not, it’s a simple fact.

And it’s because donors are less trusting.

How to do this?  Try these ideas:

• Can you change the generic name of your Annual Fund and rename it to something project-oriented?

• Or can you focus your annual fund or campaign on a specific project with sizzle?

• Can you figure out how much it costs to help one person a day and focus your appeals around that?

• Or focus on how much it costs to keep your facility open a day.

 BOTTOM LINE:

Donors have changed.

They want different things from us, like it or not.

Smart fundraisers will figure how to ride this trend. Folks with their heads in the sand will lose money.

Good luck and let me know how you are implementing these ideas.

Please leave a comment and chat with me about this post!

The post “Giving Triggers” for Today’s Donors appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

“Standley” visits a Mad Men dinner party!

Here’s a facebook campaign that was charming, silly and actually brought in some money.

And it uses fun and playfulness to capture the attention of supporters.

You know how hard it is to get people’s attention!  Here’s how you do it in our media environment today – with surprise and delight.

Can Facebook help raise money?

Nah!  (at least that’s what I used to think!)

I used to be very dubious about Facebook as a fundraising tool.

Sure social media is great.

It helps generate buzz, visibility and friends – all important backdrops to successful fundraising.

And I personally love Facebook!

Warren Hyer, the creative CEO of the Central Ohio Symphony

But it’s just way too easy to turn off your supporters if you go after the dollars too hard on social media.

So when Warren Hyer of the Central Ohio Symphony shared with me his successful facebook campaign for – of all things – new music stands – I was amazed.

Raising money for new music stands would be a tough call!

Ok, Imagine a music stand.

“Standley” visits a neighboring town!

It’s a dull metal object. It’s sorta ugly, isn’t it?

Not very sexy or appealing to donors.

How on earth do you raise money for a music stand – please tell me!

So the Central Ohio Symphony organized a totally FUN Facebook campaign.

And they created a Facebook character named: “Standley.”

Everybody fell in love with this silly character named “Standley.”

They only needed to raise $600. And each music stand would cost the donor only $50.

(I would have advised them to make the price much higher!  But, hey, it was their very first effort like this on Facebook. They weren’t really sure how it would go over.)

Now, Standley captured everybody’s attention quickly – even well outside their community.

Amazing results from the Facebook campaign:

“The Standley project received an article in the local paper with a picture. (Social media generates coverage from traditional media!)

“Several stands were donated by individuals  from outside our service area, suggesting greater awareness of the Symphony and the fun of the campaign.

“Many people in our community have mentioned the enjoyment of the campaign, with smiles and acknowledgement of the creativity.

That is direct feeback that we are reaching them. It was also friendraising!

“We have had additional inquiries about more stands or donation opportunities.

I have been able to suggest alternative way to support us during those calls. (This is a huge success here!)

“We had a big surge in facebook participation that sustained for some time.

“Standley also appeared in the community Christmas Parade and on Thanksgiving he enjoyed dinner with friends.

Standley hangs out!

“We don’t know the effect on the Annual Drive since Standley did not participate.

Standley is going to have a terrific future!

Warren understands Standley’s true potential. (the comments are mine.)

We are considering developing Standley as a mascot of some sort. (I would totally do that.)

Standley may be the first step to develop a tribute donation program since people gave stands in honor of others. (Yes yes!)

We may turn him into our facebook advocate and use Standley in the lobby during concerts for collecting comments or a donation bucket.  (Love this!)

We may follow up with a “Where’s Standley?” campaign – Note the picture of Standley in nearby Waldo, Ohio!

We are considering developing a personality for Standley.

And Warren really nails the overall potential of a fun, playful icon:

Standley can be a presence where we cannot be. He can help spread information on the Symphony and what we do. He can be a community display that would be unique.

Now wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could pull all this off for your own organization?

BOTTOM LINE:

Now here are my take-aways:

• Be creative and be willing to take some risks with your brand – particularly in social media.

• Have some fun and you’ll raise more money – because you’ll attract people to your cause!

• Get people’s attention first and then ask. Don’t be about the money all the time.

• Make a specific dollar request for a specific project – that appeals far more to today’s donors.

• Tie social media into your fundraising efforts. There’s no reason not to!

• Many donors are hanging out on social media to have some fun – and you can reach them there.

Here are some of the facebook posts from the Standley Campaign:

This is just one of the many posts on Facebook.

Warren was kind enough to share with us the full Standley Campaign Layout. Just click on the link to download a pdf file to see the entire campaign.

The post How Facebook Can Help You Raise Real Dollars appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.

There are a lot of myths out there about how fundraising really works.

Your Leaders Need to Be on the Same Page About Fundraising

That is, if you want to be successful in fund development.

Everybody in your organization – all the staff, board members, leaders of all types – they all need to understand and agree on certain fundamentals about fundraising.

You need to have a “culture of philanthropy” that everybody agrees upon and buys into.  Right?

What are the “Pre-Conditions” for Fundraising Success?

Here are 10 basic fundamentals on how fundraising really works – and how it doesn’t work – today.

Ten Basic Fundamentals for Fundraising Success

1.  Success in fund development is a long term project.

It takes time and consistency to achieve the payback you want.

It takes an investment of time.

Over time, the dollar returns build up and generate more and more revenues.

This is because your visibility and pool of donors gradually grow – if you’re doing smart fundraising.

This means that: you can’t expect a fundraiser to come in out of the blue and immediately work miracles.

You’ve got to give them something to build upon, and to work with.

2.    There is a significant ROI in fundraising that many people do not understand.

Fundraising costs are not a black hole into which you pour money.

Fundraising actually pays for itself. (Yes, it’s true!)

Not only that,  fund development yields a multiple dollar return.

This means that: generally, investing one dollar in fundraising will probably yield 3-4 dollars back.

I’ve seen plenty of CEO’s try to squeeze the fundraising budget dry and then are unhappy when their contributions go down. They don’t see the cause and effect. They don’t understand that if they cut their direct mail budget and send out poor quality appeals, then the number of gifts will go down – and not because of the recession. 

Cost Per Dollar Raised for Different Fundraising Strategies

3.    Different fundraising strategies have different paybacks.

Cost of fundraising is much higher for a fundraising event is much lower than the cost of face to face visits.

For example, looking at the chart above: an event usually costs fifty cents on the dollar. (see my popular post, “why you should ditch your next fundraising event.”)

This means that: when you invest in major gifts staff or in capital campaign consulting, then you will probably get about a 10-1 return on your investment.

Which way to go? Different strategies have different paybacks.

4.    Fundraising is a highly technical specialized business.

The professional body of knowledge of best fundraising practices is well established and researched.

We know what works in fundraising and we now have the research data to back it up.

This means that: it’s important to believe the fundraising staffer regarding what strategies work best.

This also means that your leadership should NOT make fundraising strategy decisions based on their own personal preferences and private opinions of what they like.

5.  Success in fund development requires help and support from everyone in the organization.

Too often board members and the rest of the staff look at fundraising as something that is apart from their own work.

The fund development functions are not integrated with the rest of the organization and its culture. Does everybody embrace the annual event and pitch in to help? Or do they complain and say “that’s not my job.”

It takes all hands on deck to create successful fundraising.

This means that: if the whole organization doesn’t embrace and support fund development, your results will really suffer.

This also means that: if you expect a fundraiser to work self-sufficiently in a silo alone, you will not experience a lot of success.

Definitely refer to the Compasspoint report “Underdeveloped” for a more complete discussion here!

6.    Success in fund development requires consistency.

If you are not consistent in your communications, your thank you’s, your contacts with donors and potential donors, then you won’t be developing the kinds of relationships that will generate money.

This means that: if the position of development director is vacant for any length of time, you are losing serious ground by not being in front of your donors.

When the next director comes in, there will be nothing to work with because all your donors no longer feel connected.

7.    “Post-recession” donors have changed in their expectations from nonprofits they support.

Our profession studies donor behavior constantly.

And we are finding that donors want different things from the nonprofits they support.

They do not trust us as well as they used to.

They want to designate their gifts. They want clear information on where their money is going.

Today’s donor most likely is an older female. For every $100 men gave, women in the same economic circumstances gave $256!

This means that: donors don’t want to give to the black hole of “unrestricted.” You’ll raise far more money if you let them restrict their gifts.

8.  Retaining your current donors is more important financially than finding new donors.

Did you know that on average, 65% of your donors do not renew their gifts?

If you are like other organizations, your fundraising is a leaky bucket.

You are losing donors as fast as you are bringing in new ones.

This means that: the real high dollar opportunity is to work on retaining your current donors. You’ll have higher fundraising returns if you do.

9. Communications to our donors are far more important than they used to be.

Good communications help prepare the donors for another gift.

Because of that, we are now “donor-centered” in our communications instead of “organization-centered.”

“Content management” is now a big issue. What do we share when the 8-page newsletter is giving way to a one paragraph update?

This means that: your communications to donors have everything to do with whether they give again. If you cut your marketing budget, you’ll probably see lower fundraising results.

How much is she really worth? How much would you lose if she left?

10. Your fundraising person is worth more to you than you may think.

Here’s why: the top reason fundraising staff leave is for another job to make more money.

And, when a staffer leaves, the fundraising program takes a serious hit.

Out the door go your warm, fuzzy relationships with important donors. Out the door goes the know-how on your auction, your mailing program, and other strategies.

Your contributions will decline.

This means that: you might want to consider what will cost you more: A salary raise to keep your fundraiser? Or the hit that your fundraising program will take?

 BOTTOM LINE

OK, I know I’ve tackled some sacred cows today. And maybe pushed a few buttons.

But hey, my goal is to be constructively provocative and generate helpful discussion.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

The post Top 10 Things to Understand About How Fundraising Really Works Today appeared first on Fired-Up Fundraising | Gail Perry Associates.