Donor Cultivation and Management

I love this time of the year because Giving USA allows fundraising professionals to jump in Mr. Peabody and Sherman’s “Way Back Machine” (aka WABAC machine) and look at what happened in philanthropy in the previous year. This activity has become an event of sorts. Reports are released. There arewebinars. The media covers it, and then there is lots of chatter throughout the sector.

 

For those of you who are hoping for a quick down-n-dirty synopsis, here you go:

Overall, charitable giving is up, but it is small and reflects our slow economic recovery (1.5% increase when adjusted for inflation.)An increase in corporate giving was robust (but it still only accounts for less than 6% of total private sector fundraising.)Individual giving is still the biggest piece of the pie (approximately three-fourths of philanthropy . . . DUH!)The sector is still nowhere near approaching its pre-recession peak. (at this pace, it may take another five to eight years to get back to 2007 charitable giving levels . . . welcome to the “New Normal” for non-profit organizations.)

Web 3.0? Give me a break! We just got a Facebook page up, what’s next?

First you needed a website. Did it take a while to get one up and running? Then you needed social media, that changes so rapidly it’s hard to keep up! You integrated a blog, that now you need to find people to write for it.

Do you really need to do more? 

Yes you do.

 

I’m writing this in the summer so you can start to put it into your budget for the next fiscal year. Let’s talk about what you need to do to be Web 3.0.

Can you relate to this scenario?

You just inherited a database(s) that is meant for you to track down donations, board members, visitors and everything else. Perhaps there are several files with repeated information or better yet, incomplete information. Sitting in the storage room are files of handwritten notes and check copies, none of which have been entered into a computer. Emails are going back and forth between you and other staff collecting bits and pieces of information making it a tracking nightmare.

So what do you do about when you are tasked with organizing your organizations database in a maze of information?

First, define a plan of attack.

Is the focus to improve on the database moving forward? Or is it necessary to change historical information.  A lot of organizations can just say “forget the past, I’m starting fresh tomorrow.” However, most cannot and they have a lot of cleanup to do.

Breast cancer advocates are up in arms because the CEO of the Susan G. Komen Foundation is still taking home a hefty salary even after the nonprofit recently canceled a number of charity walks and fundraising has dropped.

 

Nancy Brinker, founder of Komen –- the largest breast cancer charity -- officially stepped down from her role as CEO in August in the aftermath of the Planned Parenthood debacle, but Brinker is still earning a whopping $684,000 a year. Experts say her salary is disproportionate to the organization’s size and advocates are disappointed that so many donor dollars are lining her pockets even as the nonprofit is scaling back on its fundraising efforts.

 

“This pay package is way outside the norm," Ken Berger, president and CEO of charity watchdog Charity Navigator told NBC. "It's about a quarter of a million dollars more than what we see for charities of this size. ... This is more than the head of the Red Cross is making for an organization that is one-tenth the size of the Red Cross.”

 

According to a study by Charity Navigator, the median charity’s chief executive officer’s compensation is $132,739.

 

The nonprofit told NBC that Brinker was given the raise in 2010, prior to the Planned Parenthood fallout and that she did not get an increase in pay in 2011 or 2012 and will not receive one this year either.

 

But breast cancer advocates remain upset about Brinker’s earning of $684,717 year -- a 64 percent from April 2010 to March 2011, according to the Dallas News.

 

In early 2012, the organization announced that it would cut grant funding to Planned Parenthood, causing a backlash from donors and abortion advocates. Though Komen reversed its decision, Brinker still stepped down from her post as CEO in August. Yet, the founder is still holding onto her role and her generous salary.

There are a lot of so-called “social media experts” out there. Dishing out advice, sometimes based on limited experiences, and sometimes based on nothing at all. Even the true social media experts sometimes share some misguided advice based on their beliefs and experiences. So with all this bad advice floating around the web, how do you distinguish between what you should -- and shouldn't -- believe?

 

Have no fear! We’re here to share some of the worst pieces of social media advice we've seen to debunk all those misguided "best practices" and steer you in the right direction toward social media marketing truth and justice.

 

I Love Serving Because . . .I learned this exercise from Gail Perry and have since adjusted the questions in many ways. It works — trust me! Have your board members stand up, and pair up. They will take turns with the exercise, which you will time. For one minute, one person in the pair completes the sentence you pick, such as

I love serving on this board because . . .

 

I agreed to serve on this board because . . .

 

I donate to this organization because . . .

 

and they don’t stop talking for a whole minute, until your timer goes off.  You reset the timer, and the second person in the pair takes their turn, answering the same question.

 

Then you ask everyone to find a new partner, and repeat the exercise again, with the same question, and with you giving each person one minute.

 

I recommend that you do a third round too.

 

Then debrief. How did their answers change from the first round to the third? What nuggets did they borrow from what they heard others say to incorporate into their own answer?

 

This always helps board members feel more comfortable talking about the organization and is an excellent alternative to asking people to remember a stiff elevator pitch.

Now it’s time for a online community strategy. It’s one thing to set up a group and chant the mantra “If I build it they will come.” And another to say “I will go to them with what I built.” In other words start your strategy with these three steps:

 

A. Ask your community how they want to participate online?
- Depending on what kind of community you are working with their interest in how to use a community forum may vary.
- Do they want to be able to have subgroups or subcategories?
- Are they interested in promoting their work?
- Do they want to have a deeper discussion or get quick answers?

 

B. Where do they want to participate?
- Is the group more comfortable with email?Perhaps a listserv would fit best? Is your group concerned with privacy? Perhaps they would want a secure network instead of a social forum.
-  Is everyone on Facebook already? Sometimes being on a platform they are already on like Facebook would encourage them to participate.

 

C. Personally guide them there.
- When starting a new community group you will likely get people to initially join the group but then there is the big question of how to do you get people to participate.
- The most effective method is also the most time consuming. Start by talking to them one on one and ask them to participate.
- Help them by cluing in on how they can contribute something to the community. While discussions are brewing bring in the quiet ones.
- There are people who read the forums but never participate.

Technology has blessed your community with more sharing power than ever before. The ability to retweet, like and pin with increased ease is what helped launch the slactivist movement.

 

Even though sharing has gotten easier, getting people to share still feels like pulling teeth.

 

So how do you get people to share your content? Here are five mind-shifts to remember:

Start with your databaseThe people who are most likely to share your content are in your donor database and email list. Before you waste time trying to target specific audiences on Facebook (which you can easily do), make sure you’ve worked your database first. They are better spokespeople for your cause than you are.Become one of themIf you’re thinking on some level (even subconsciously) that your job is to get people to do something, stop it. You can’t make people do anything – especially if they don’t trust you.

What you can do is find the people who are already talking about your cause, and join their conversations. Quite naturally, on their own terms, they’ll accept you as one of their own.

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - Individual charitable giving in the United States grew almost 4 percent last year, while corporate donations rose at triple that rate, according to a report that shows donations by Americans to nonprofit groups mirroring the slow recovery of the larger economy.

Overall, U.S. donations to bolster the arts, health, religion and other activities totaled $316.2 billion in 2012, a 3.5 percent increase from the $305.5 billion donated in 2011, according to the report, "Giving USA." That was just a 1.5 percent increase when adjusted for inflation.

The annual report is published by the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Donations are still down about 8 percent from their 2007 peak of $344.5 billion. Giving levels fell sharply during the subsequent recession.

Failure and your fundraising plan

The first flurry of thoughts that ran through my head pertained to many fundraising programs I’ve seen throughout the years. Here are just a few questions I find myself asking about many agencies’ annual resource development plans:

Why are they running so many special events?Why aren’t they measuring return on investment (ROI) on each of their events and campaigns?Why aren’t they evaluating and critiquing each event and campaign?Why aren’t they innovating and trying new things (e.g. email, social media, etc)?

I’m now wondering if the answer to these questions is that we’re afraid of failure, and it is just easier to keep doing the same thing over and over again. After all, if we evaluate and ask questions, then shouldn’t we “do something” about those things that don’t look so good?

As for innovation and trying new things, there has to be all kinds of “fears” associated with venturing off into the great unknown. Right?

I know that talking about those things we’re afraid of is difficult for many of us. It is this simple truism that keeps countless counselors, therapists and psychologists employed every year. However, I encourage you to take 30 seconds our of your busy day right now and consider these questions and the possibility that your fundraising program is in the grip of fear-based decision-making by staff, fundraising volunteers, and board members.

What would you do . . . if you knew?

What an interesting question to ponder. Dontcha think?

What would I do, if I knew, I could not fail?

Let me step off that cliff first. The following is a list of things (as it pertains to non-profit management and fundraising) I thought of in 30 seconds:

I would call the top 10 most influential people in town and ask them to join my board or get involved in some aspect of my fundraising program.I would kill every special event fundraiser that was older than 5 years old and replace it with something new and fun.I would calculate ROI on every event and campaign and stop doing everything that didn’t bring me at least a 75% return (and I’m talking about using both direct AND indirect costs in that calculation)I would find the time to add an ePhilanthropy aspect to my annual fundraising plan that includes blogging, social media, email and website (and I’d add a robust evaluation component to this program).

Should your nonprofit invest in designing a responsive website? Read on to find out if responsive design is right for your mobile marketing strategy.

One of my ex-students recently gave me an update on his startup. When I asked, “What are you working on?” the first words out of his mouth was his fundraising progress.

 

Sigh. What I should have been hearing is the search for the business model, specifically the progress on product/market fit, but I hear the fundraising story first at least 90 percent of the time. It never makes me happy.

 

Entrepreneurs need to think about 1) when to raise money, 2) why to raise money, 3) who to take money from, and 4) the consequences of raising money.

It all starts with understanding what a startup is.

What’s a startup?

As a reminder, a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/11/fundraising-is-a-means-not-an-end/#DOJbOzlI4objhmkm.99

When applying this Pixar rule to fundraising, Andrew Rogers says:

 

"Rule for fundraisers: What happens if the need isn't addressed? How are real people being affected? In our case, we should never "stack the odds" by exaggerating or otherwise being less than perfectly truthful. On the other hand, don't tell less than the full truth either, and remember that the full truth often isn't very pretty."

I cannot tell you how many times I've seen a non-profit organization try to apply this rule by telling donors things like:

We'll close our doors unless we meet this fundraising goal.We'll shut down a site if this campaign fails to hit goal.We'll eliminate this program if we're not successful.

To be clear, I don't think Rule 16 is a license to practice extortion or heavy-handed fundraising tactics.

 

In instances where I've seen agencies use urgency messages laced with "We're gonna close or we're going to eliminate programming," two interesting things seem to happen every time:

They usually get an initial bump in money coming in (e.g. donors respond), andThe next time donors get solicited, the response is down again.

MS Excel is spreadsheet format of Microsoft Office suite that enables a user to store, organize, and manage data. It is a spreadsheet consisting rows and columns, the intersection of a row and a column is called as a cell. Every cell in your Excel sheet is the basic unit for storing data. Moreover, you can apply complex calculations on the data stored on these cells and based on this data in cells, you can even create charts. In this way, MS Excel is the best way to manipulate and manage your numerical data.

 

However, in any case, if you encounter corruption in your Excel sheet, then you may become completely unable to access your data stored in this file. Your Excel sheet or Excel workbook generally gets corrupt when you perform indecent system shutdown while Excel file is opened on your system, virus infection. Generally, the corruption of Excel sheet renders an error message. Some of the common error messages exhibited by a corrupt MS Excel sheet are:

File format is not validExcel cannot open fileAccess deniedEXCEL.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being createdThis file is not in a recognizable format‘XYZ.xls’ cannot be accessed. The file may be read-only, or you may be trying to access a read-only location.

Mentioned above are some common error messages; however, you may encounter some other error messages rendering Excel corruption as well. You can try below mentioned methods to resolve Excel corruption errors.

 

Lots of data and very little time to digest it all; however, this quotation caught my attention in another Chronicle of Philanthropy article on December 2, 2012:

 

“Online giving, though, accounts for less than 10 percent of the dollars charities collect, experts say. But Steve Mac­Laughlin, director of Blackbaud’s IdeaLab, predicts that over the next five years, the total share of gifts raised online will grow to 15 percent of charities’ overall donations.”

 

All of this gets me wondering . . . where is that tipping point? When should non-profit organizations get more serious about investing in technology, social media and development of online giving strategies and tactics?

 

I think my advice might be evolving. Yes, slow and steady wins the race, but investments in benchmarking and planning are always wise.

What is your average size gift from one-time online gifts? Is it in line with national averages? Did your Facebook fan base grow by 46 percent? Did you Twitter following grow by an audacious 264 percent? If not, what are you planning to do in 2013 to adjust your efforts and prevent yourself from falling behind the curve? And how will you guard against the risk of over-investing and living on the cutting edge?

Here are 6 things online matchmakers do that nonprofits should emulate:

Matchmakers help people find their soul mates. They strive to connect folks based on shared values. They use technology to facilitate this and keep track of people’s preferences.Matchmakers strive to build relationships that will be long lastingand mutually satisfying. Successful online matchmakers have found the opportunity to become relevant in new channels and networks, earning consumer attention and helping folks form meaningful alliances. They do this not with gimmicks, but with consistent delivery of value and meaningful engagement.Matchmakers respect the preferences of their customers and use these affinities as a guide to create proposals. Technology is used as the glue to bring like-minded folks together. They don’t waste their clients’ time by offering them opportunities that don’t match with their interests and needs. 50-somethings who want to date folks their own age are not offered 20-somethings as potential dates. Nor should you offer appeals to care for seniors to folks who consistently earmark donations for children’s services.Matchmakers don’t use “push techniques” or try to convince folks to meet people they don’t want to meet. They’re focused on fulfilling their promise to bring meaning into their customer’s life.They put the customer in control, helping them find the fit that’s right for them.Matchmakers offer and celebrate choices. They don’t squeeze everyone into the same mold, or insist on something like “unrestricted funding” which is the very opposite of donor-centered. They respect people’s right to choose.  Matchmakers offer friendly and prompt service. They’re customer-centered, supportive and caring. They try to bring people joy. Like the joy that comes from giving.

Why do organizations in the UK, Canada, and Australia raise more money with bequests than we do in the US?

 

Fundraising expert Tom Ahern believes that the answer may be as simple as not having a marketing plan to ask for those bequests.

A simple plan might include:

Writing a vision statement that lets donors know how their bequest will help the organization for future generations.Identifying your best donors.Creating a bequest society.Sending an annual appeal letter.Adding stories featuring why other donors made bequests to your newsletter and other publications.

You can also add a “Bequest FAQ” page to your website and offer other resources such as sample bequest language or a bequest information sheet.