Posts Tagged ‘nonprofit fundraising’

One of my favorite blogs (For Impact) is talking today about making fundraising calls.

I hear so many times how excited my friends are when they manage to actually get the appointment.

In their excitement, they forget about planning the details of the visit.

I remember years ago when I was a beginning fundraiser at Duke University. I was walking down the street with the VP for Development at Duke.  He was going to accompany me on a fundraising visit.

I was pretty excited but also nervous because he was the head honcho. And I will never forget what he asked me:  “what are your goals for this visit?”

Well, I almost swallowed my tongue! I had never given it any thought! I managed to scramble and come up with some objectives to share with him, but boy – what a jolt!

Don’t let this happen to you.

Never make a fundraising call unless you determine what you want to get out of it.

If you are clear, you’ll actually be able to achieve what you want during the conversation. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, you can pretty much be sure that you won’t accomplish it!

The For Impact blog today talked about a particular visit, and then suggested these as possible goals:

1. Qualify the prospect. (Financial capacity and interest).
2. Have her help to identify the correct players in the city to get on board.
3. Get her help in getting to some or all of those identified in number two.

A great start!

There is one step, and one step only, that can make the largest difference in your year-end fundraising results.

And it’s not letters or email or fancy packaging or phone calls or any of that stuff.

It’s this:

Identify the top 10-15 largest donors who gave last year but have not yet given this year – and go see them. Find out what is on their minds and ask them to support you this year.

Spending your time with these funding sources is clearly the absolute best place for you to be in November and December.

So go see these wonderful donors who already believe in you and have supported you in the past. They have already voted with their pocketbooks that they are sold on your mission.

These folks are pre-sold.

You won’t need to educate them, or spend a lot of time developing a close relationship, because it already exists.  It’s the most productive place for you to put your energy – especially if you evaluate the return on your investment of time and energy.

And if you added up the amounts that these funding sources represent, I’ll bet it is a substantial part of your year-end fundraising goal. All of us fundraisers know that it is the higher dollar donors who make the most difference in our totals.

Spend your time where the pockets are the deepest, if you want to raise the money that you  need.

If you don’t do anything else in your year-end campaign, you must do this.

I’m just back from the Northeast Leadership Conference of the Boys and Girls Club of America where I spoke yesterday afternoon at their Regional Leadership Conference. (Love those BGCA folks!)

Here’s what Dovie Prather, the Senior Director of Development Club Resources for BGCA Northeast Region, shared with me about their year-end fundraising strategies.

(That’s Dovie in the picture right here along with Glen Staron, Vice President, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Northeast Region, and me.)

Dovie spends her time coaching board volunteers and staff in the various Boys and Girls Clubs in her region – from Maine to Maryland.  She has worked with her share of reluctant board members who don’t want to go on fundraising calls.

But the staff needs the board members to help if they are going to make their goals.

And face-to-face visits are a key part of her year-end fundraising strategy recommendations for her Boys and Girls Clubs.

She’s counting on those one-on-one calls for $1k or more with key supporters to help the Clubs meet their goals. (See my earlier blog post on Focusing on Individuals to Make Your Year-End Goals). We all know that we can count on individuals this fall far more than we can count on our foundation and corporate supporters.

But most of her board members think they won’t be successful in face-to-face visits. And she doesn’t really want to send the board members out alone anyway.

So here’s her solution:

She asks board members to accompany staff on these calls. Many times all the board member has to do in the call is to tell their own personal story about why they are involved in Boys and Girls Clubs.

A board member’s personal story is a very, very powerful in-person, live testimonial. And it happens right there in the call in front of the donor. Bringing a board member along to share their story is a bit like bringing a portable live testimonial with you.

We all know that stories are more powerful than facts. And that a volunteer’s endorsement is more powerful than anything we can say or do.

Be sure you include face to face visits in your year-end fundraising strategy.  And bring board members along.

It just might make all the difference!

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 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 was August, and that meant time to create our dreaded Annual Report.  I was working on one of my least favorite projects as a Development Director.  I was worried that the content was pretty deadly, with the standard “Letter from the Chair” and pie charts of expenditures.

Creating this and the rest of our publications was a painful, lengthy process. I also knew that no one would read it if it were boring.

What to say and how to say it?  This is the perennial challenge of nonprofit fundraisers. And we usually don’t do a very good job in our attempts at “messaging.”

This morning I was reading marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog and, as usual, he nailed this issue. He said this is where marketing is heading:

“Big companies, non-profits and even candidates will discover (the best communications are) hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant . . . this is where we are going.”

What he means is that people (donors) want to receive messages from their favorite nonprofits that are “anticipated, personal and relevant.” And if the nonprofit marketing communication they are receiving fits these criteria, then they’ll read it.

If your letters, reports, brochures, invitations are not “anticipated, personal and relevant,” then you are not going to be heard or read or paid attention to.

How do we make our communications “hyperlocal?”  By referring to something that is going on locally. Or that the reader is currently involved in.

How about “hyperspecialized” – what does that look like?  It means that the folks who attended your auction get special communications about how well the auction did and what you did with the funds raised.

How about “hyperrelevant?” It means that donors who gave to help teach prison inmates to read get updates about that particular program.

This is a tall order for nonprofit organizations with few fundraising resources.  But focusing on your current donors, and sending them relevant information that they are actually interested in, can keep them involved and coming back for more.

And that’s the basis of our holy grail – a sustainable fundraising program, full of repeat donors who are enthusaistic and passionate advocates for your cause.

My site has lots of ideas and strategies for catapulting your fundraising results, your board and your organization - all to new heights.  It is my honor to help you in any way I can – as a trainer, blogger, consultant and coach to nonprofit leaders.

PLEASE sign up now for my newsletter to get regular tips and strategies to help you motivate your board and raise that money your organization needs.

Also do check out my new webinar series for board members to learn about friendraising and fundraising:

End Your Board’s Frustration and Nervousness about Fundraising

Train Your Board Members in Friendmaking and Fundraising

My New Fast Track For Board Members Webinar Series Will Show Them How

If you are supporting or leading a nonprofit board, I’m sure you want to see every single person on your board excited, engaged, involved, and working hard for the cause.

I’ve designed a series of webinars for nonprofit board members – in their language, from their perspective, with humor and practicality.  And it gives them exactly what they need to know in order to be successful.

• March 11: How to be a Supremely Effective Board Member
  
• March 30: How to Become An Influential Advocate For the Cause
• April 22: How to Start the Conversation and Open Any Door in Town: The Art of  Friendmaking for Your Cause
• May 13: Six “No Ask” Fundraising Strategies for Board Members
  
• June 3: How To Never Get Turned Down When You Ask for Funds and Support
  

The webinars will be all at 1pm eastern and will come with discussion questions to help turn your board into a fired-up, action-oriented friendmaking TEAM. Find out more here.

FREE AUDIO:  “Asking for Major Gifts: How to Never, Ever Get Turned Down”

Here’s everything you need to know about successful solicitations and the secrets to get your donors to say “yes.”  I hope you’ll take the time to listen to this hour-long session.  Download it now and learn how to secure those most important BIG GIFTS!

You can find out more about hiring me to fire up your board for fundraising, present a keynote speech or seminar, or help you as a consultant.

Do check out my calendar of events for my upcoming monthly webinars, and definitely sign up for my newsletter!

Thanks again for visiting!

Gail

PS: You can contact me personally and connect on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. I personally respond to everyone who writes.

Are our donors sticking with their giving commitments in the recession?  We are finding that, in times of economic stress, donors will narrow their giving down to their favorite top priorities.  I like for my client organization to be on their donors’ “top three” list.

That means that the donor would consider your organization one of their top three giving priorities.  This is the big challenge for nonprofits.

How do we get on the Short List?  We need to make our goal clearly to be in front of our key donors so much that we crowd out the other causes on their radar screen. You do that by offering constant personal attention to your donors. And the attention is not on what YOU are thinking about. It is focused on what the donor’s interests and thoughts are.

Usually a donor puts your organization on the short list because they have been personally  affected by the cause. It could be that your donor’s family was affected by some issue, or that their own life was changed in some way. Or they may have been brought up with a certain set of family and moral values that holds your cause dear. 

It is hard to manufacture that kind of personal commitment and passion, when someone has your cause deeply ingrained in their being.  But when you find someone who has been deeply touched like this, you’ll find incredible energy, passion and commitment – energy that can catapult your cause if you can guide your donor.   

What does personal attention look like?   Call a donor to ask them to put a certain event on their calendar.  Call or write them with an update.  Send your newsletter with a personal note. Ask them to tell you the story of why they care?  Listen to them, and then act on their interests.  The list can go on and on – it’s up to you to 1. Find the time to do this, and 2. Be creative in coming up with ways to make your donors feel just so special and appreciated.