Getting Where You Want to Go

Posted on February 23, 2012 by

One thing I’ve learned after more than 30 years working in and around development is that while it may not be rocket science, it isn’t a no-brainer activity.  Just do it may work well for exercise (though, as a long-time gym rat I can tell you about the dangers of that), but fundraising does require thought and yes, planning.

I’m not talking about the once-a-year (or every few years) major effort to build a strategic development plan, though that can be an important piece.  No, the planning I’m talking about is the one you should be doing for every single action you take and every single donor you speak with.

These plans don’t always have to be formal, but they should be concrete and complete.  Before you take an action ask yourself:  Why am I doing this?  What is it that I hope to achieve?

If you can’t answer those questions, then maybe this is something you shouldn’t be doing.  Now, I admit, that for many of our actions the answer is, “Because my boss or the board told me to” and “to keep said boss or board off my back.”  It may not raise any money, but then again, doing it will probably keep you off the unemployment roles.

More to the point, when you are considering visiting with a prospect or donor, do yourself a big favor.  Take some time to consider the purpose(s) of the visit.  If you don’t know much about the person and his or her relationship to your organization, find out.  Yes, it is good form to ask the person to speak to their interest in your organization, but the more you can focus the conversation, the more productive it will be—and the more comfortable the prospect/donor will feel.  So yes, if you must: “Tell me about your relationship with us.”  But think how much more interested and informed you’ll sound if you can say, “I notice that three years ago you made a wonderful gift to our mentoring program, could you tell me more about that?”

Unless the person comes back at you with a horror story, it’s an easy leap to “That’s wonderful.  It’s been so important to the success of that program.”

Or perhaps they haven’t made a gift to your organization, but they have to something similar.  Find out about that relationship and then connect the dots to yours.

Planning will allow you to navigate pathways that will help to bring your prospect or donor closer to you.  And closer is always the direction you want them to take.

It goes beyond knowing about the person (or organization) you are visiting.  What do you hope to accomplish?  And that’s a larger question than “accomplish for this visit?”

Is this a get to know you meeting?  Or a pass on more information one?  Do you want to take the prospect’s pulse or move him or her further along the path toward a gift?  Or perhaps the gift has recently been made and you want to tell the donor what is happening?  Before you go, be very clear about what it is that will make you feel that the meeting was a success.

And then, make sure you think about next steps.  This is the piece where we too often fall down.  We’ve gone, we met, we’re done.  Not.  Every meeting has a next step, just as every step leads to another.

Make it a habit to think about next steps before you embark on your meeting, make that phone, send that piece of correspondence.  Once you’ve done whatever it is that is immediately to be done, look at the next step you’ve considered.  Does it still make sense?  What changed, if anything, to make a different next step more viable?  And then, as you are taking whatever next step you’ve decided upon, think about the step after that.

Make sure, however, that as you are thinking about individual steps you are not losing sight of the rest of the landscape.  One misstep and you can find yourself down the proverbial rabbit hole—which is definitely not where you want to go.

Janet Levine works with nonprofits and educational organizations helping them to get their development programs where they want to go.  Learn more at http://janetlevineconsulting.com.

 

 

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Attitude Adjustment

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

“Oh no,” said the ED.  “We can’t ask the committee members to donate—they are already giving of their time.”

I hear that kind of comment a lot and, frankly, it concerns me.

Who would be more willing to support your organization than the people who are already involved with you?  Who better knows the importance of the work you do?

Asking—even expecting—someone to support your nonprofit organization is not a bad thing.  You are not “hitting on” or “begging” someone to do something shameful or evil.  You are, rather giving that person an opportunity to be (more) involved with something important.  You are asking them to take ownership in the work that you do.  You are, in short, providing something that will make them proud and help them to achieve something that matters to them.  This is the true meaning of “donor-centered fundraising.”

Deciding you won’t ask—because “we already ask so much of them” or, even worse “they don’t have the money to support us”—is, frankly, insulting.  If someone in fact does not have the wherewithal, or feels that they are already giving (in any way) to their max, they will tell you.  And mostly they won’t be insulted you asked.  In fact, most people will be flattered—especially if you have really thought about what you are asking for and connected the dots between the needs of the organization and the hopes and dreams of your donor.

So many of my clients tell me that their clients could never make a charitable gift—they are too financially stretched.  Yet those who do ask their clients to be part of a solution they, more than anyone, know is important, the response is overwhelmingly positive.  It may not result in much money but it sure creates buckets of pride.  Clients are now part of their own solutions and that means almost as much as what they are already receiving from the nonprofit.

Sometimes, of course, the sense that we “keep going back to the well,” is accurate.  A nonprofit finds one or several “angels” and doesn’t look any further for supporters.  The usual suspects become the only prospects, and this does not bode well for the future.  Attitudes must be changed so that the door is opened and more people are invited to the table.

Organizations with successful fundraising programs know that fundraising is a partnership.  People who give do so because they value what you do and want to help ensure that the work continues.  Consider the synonyms for partner:  colleague, companion, cohort, equal.  If you think about your donors in this way, you will approach them in a different way—not so much with your hands held up but with your arms outstretched.

Change from asking them to do something for you to embracing them and inviting them to do something with you.   It’s an attitude adjust that will change your world—and your outlook on what fundraising really, truly is.

 

Janet Levine works with nonprofits and educational organizations helping them to increase their fundraising capacity.  Changing attitudes is a big part of her work.  Learn more at http://janetlevineconsulting.com

 

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Commitment

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

A long time ago, when I was the Dean for External Affairs at Pasadena City College my president used to comment how we should contact the president of USC and ask him how “he” raised the many millions of dollars the University brought in each year.

“I can tell you,” I used to tell him.  While we had me as the only fundraising professional on campus—and I wore many, many hats—USC had, has, hundreds and those hundreds have a lot of support.

Beyond that, most of their development officers work within a pretty specific portfolio—either at a certain level, type of giving (individual, corporate, foundation), or specific project(s).

All this means that the most important factor of fundraising is considered—that fundraising is about relationships and the closer you get to a prospect the more likely that prospect will become a donor.  More, the closer the relationship with a donor, the more likely the donor will continue to be a donor.

Smaller organizations, those not quite as successful in the fundraising arena, tend to shoot themselves in the foot by minimizing the size of their development staff (if they even have a development staff) and maximizing what it is they expect the development director to do.

It’s not that someone can’t possess the various skills needed to write a grant, run an event, publish the annual report, create a direct mail appeal, and meet one on one with major donors.  Many do have all those skills.  But it is foolishness to think that anyone person can successfully manage all those things at once.

And those are the lucky ones.  In many organizations, fundraising is only one area of responsibility.  When I was Dean, the following programs were in my area:

  • The foundation—the 501(c)(3) organization where charitable money was kept.
  • Board relations for the foundation
  • Fundraising
  • Alumni Relations
  • Extended Education
  • PR and Marketing
  • Videography
  • The web (content)
  • Government relations
  • The Grants Office

I did have 17 staff members.  Two of the programs had managers:  PR and Marketing and Extended Ed.  I was the manager—and sometimes the sole staff– for the rest.  That meant that in addition to everything else, I had about 12 direct reports.  Clearly some things had to give.  Beyond my sanity, what gave most of the time was fundraising.

I bring this up not to complain—I know too many development directors who wear more hats than I did and have fewer resources—but to point out a fact of life.  Fundraising takes time.  It takes focus.  And it takes commitment.

Commitment not only from the development director and the donor but also from the organization.  Commitment that says we are serious about raising private funds so we can enhance our programs, serve more people, improve our facilities—whatever it is that will allow the organization to do better.  Anything less means you are focused solely on keeping your doors open and that does not make a very impressive nonprofit.

It is way past time for nonprofits to realize that investing in development is an investment in the future.  And like all investments, it must be handled wisely.  That means considering the ways funds could be raised for your organization and making sure you have enough hands on deck to do the fundraising well.

 

Janet Levine works with nonprofits and educational organizations helping them to maximize whatever resources they do have to raise more money.  Learn more at http://janetlevineconsulting.com

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Stomp Out Should

Posted on February 3, 2012 by

Fundraisers, despite our commitment to mission and doing good, tend to be a pretty crass bunch.  Our eyes are fills with dollar signs, and we tend to look at people as a means to an end rather than the end itself.

Worse than that, however, is the sense that too many directors of development have that someone or some organization “should” make a gift.  Most egregious is when that “should” morphs into “will” (as in he/she WILL make this gift) without any proof of concept.

Let’s be clear—gifts, once you turn about 10 years old, cease to be something you should receive.  Gifts are things that are freely given by someone for a purpose that has meaning to them.

Yes, yes.  You may get a gift for a purpose dear to you (your birthday, for example, or a holiday) but trust me, rarely does someone give a gift without it providing him or her with some sort of benefit.  My husband, for example, swears he gets pleasure from giving me things.  Whatever the truth, he clearly derives something beneficial from his gift giving.  Which brings up the truth that sometimes you get a gift, and nice as the getting feels, what you’ve gotten isn’t at all what you wanted or need.

So, if a gift is to bring value to both giver and receiver, it will be most successful when there is clarity on both sides of what those values are.

That means knowing what is important to the donor (as opposed to deciding what should be important to him or her).  For many nonprofits, this would be a whole new way of thinking about things.  And that would be a very good thing.

Another good thing would be for the nonprofit to get a handle on what their needs are.  Too often, we don’t understand that.  We know what we want, what we lack.  What have notions of the activities we want to implement or the thinks we think we should be doing.  But we too infrequently think in terms of outcomes or how those outcomes will affect our communities.

Getting to the heart of what needs to be done, who will be part of the process and solution, how it will all be accomplished starts with one very simple step:  Stomp out the shoulds that have dictating the way you approach your work.  Replace that word with “could” or “would” or even “might.”  Then, think strategically about the steps that you will have to take to turn those iffy words into a positive and solid yes.

 

Janet Levine works with nonprofit and educational organizations helping them to get more prospects saying “yes, we will become donors!”  Learn more at http://janetlevineconsulting.com

 

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Movers and Shakers

Posted on January 25, 2012 by

Eons ago, a friend was the Development Director at a large performing arts organization.  Most their major gift fundraising happened around very social events:  dinners before performances, drinks at intermission, private parties at the donors’ homes where the talent performed.  There was one, big problem with this type of fundraising, and it wasn’t the amount of time staff had to spend planning.

Too often, one or another of her development team would forget that they were staff and no matter how friendly the prospects and donors appeared to be, they simply were not peers.  When they forgot that, they typically ceased to be effective.

Or, as one of my first fundraising mentors elegantly informed me:  “Being a development professional is a lot like being a piece of furniture.”  To the degree furniture is the center of attraction it is because it is needed for something—a place to sit, a table at which to eat—or it is being admired not really for its intrinsic value but rather for the good taste of the person who chose the item.  Likewise with fundraisers.

Or, as another colleague likes to say, “this is no job for an egomaniac.”

In my practice, I meet a lot of fundraisers who don’t seem to understand that their job is to coordinate and facilitate the fundraising process—and the glory goes to the CEO, the Board, the program person.  And even if the development professional is the one who is at the meetings, does the cultivation, makes the ask and then makes nice to the donor, it’s good form and smart politics to thank others for the work you did so well.

Of course, most of the time you would work even better if you included those peers in the process.  Yes, sometimes all it feels like is another layer—but over the years I’ve found that involving my volunteers, even at a distance, not only helps with new prospects but also ties those volunteers more closely to my organization.

A true story:  I was trying to engage a well-connected woman in our community with one of the programs at my college.  I asked the members of our Foundation Board if anyone could help.  Several said they knew her, but the only help that appeared forthcoming was an offer of a telephone number—one that was easily found in the local white pages.

I forged ahead and to make a long story short, the woman indeed became a strong supporter of the program.  I profusely thanked my Board members for their help and tried not to sound too sarcastic.

Years later I was consulting for an organization where this woman was on the Board.  At my first Board meeting, I went over to say hello.  After a few moments of catching up she told me that every time she saw—and here she mentioned the person who had offered me the phone number—she thanked him profusely for involving her with the program.  Go figure.

The point of course is not that the Board member did virtually nothing, but that “my” donor recalled a peer as the impetus for her involvement rather than me or even the program director.

Major gifts, particularly, are best as a team effort.  The professional is the glue that holds the team together, ensures that all the steps are taken and that follow up happens.  He or she documents the process every step of the way.  But make no mistake; the captain of the team is the person to whom the prospect cannot say no.

Fundraising staff may be the “mover” but the “shaker” of this enterprise is almost always a peer, and if not a social peer then it is a business one—the CEO,  the program head, the person who makes the project a reality.

 

Janet Levine works with nonprofits helping them to move their fundraising efforts forward.  Learn more at http://janetlevineconsulting.com

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Ours IS to Reason Why

Posted on January 18, 2012 by

When I was a kid, I hated it when my parents or teachers asked me “why” questions:  Why did (or didn’t) you do that?  Why did that happen? Why were you (fill in the blank)?  I wasn’t too crazy about “what” questions, either:  What were you thinking? being  the main one.

As I got older, I didn’t much like my bosses (and certainly not my first husband) asking similar questions.  Every time someone started a sentence with “why” or “what” I just knew that I was in trouble.

Flash forward.  I was now a boss AND a parent.  And I had learned the value of those questions.

If you can take the pejorative out of those words, it becomes easy to understand their importance.  In fact, if before we do almost anything we ask ourselves two questions—and endeavor to answer them—we will find ourselves far more effective in our work.  The two questions?

  1. Why am I doing this?
  2. What do I hope to accomplish?

This really struck home when a Board Chair asked me about evaluating the organization’s ED.  “She’s always really busy,” the Chair told me, “but I’m not quite sure if she is getting anything necessary done.”

It’s the motion theory of management.  If I am moving fast enough, I must be doing the right things.

Not necessarily.

Try this.  For the next few days, before you do pretty much anything (even, perhaps especially, things you do almost by rote), take a big breath and ask yourself the two questions.  Then really consider the answers you come up with.

If you are not clear why you are doing something—or you are doing it because (a) you’ve always done it or someone above you told you to do it—and you cannot quantify what your hope to accomplish, perhaps you are simply spinning your wheels.

Before you abandon what you are doing, however, make sure you have looked at all sides.  Just because you’ve always done this and haven’t always known why, doesn’t mean there isn’t a great reason to be doing it.  And while being told to do something doesn’t translate into gold, there may well be good reason to follow these particular instructions.

Once you feel confident that you know the why and the what, it’s an easy jump to think about how.  I’ve always liked the mechanics of how questions:  How are we doing this?  How can we reach our goals?  How can we improve what we are doing?

When I take the time—which, alas, I don’t always—to ask these questions, I find that I am more focused, more productive and, best of all, more creative in what I am doing.

Lillian Smith was a writer who said, “When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.”  At the very least, it is a sure-fire recipe to keep you from doing your best.

 

Janet Levine works with nonprofit organizations and leaders, helping them to improve capacity, build on success and overall do the best job they can.  Find out more at:  http://janetlevineconsulting.com.  While there, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

 

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The Beauty of Nudginess

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

My clients will tell you—I am a nudge.  Some of them might even call me a nag.  I try not to cross that line, but have determined better to nag occasionally than to let things go.  After all, they did hire me to help them accomplish something.

But you, you fundraiser you, perhaps you feel that your prospects and donors didn’t hire you to nudge, nag or bug them in any way.  And here I will say that you have found the one way to take donor-centered fundraising too far!

Your bosses have hired you to raise funds so that your organization can excel at what it does.  So, when you reach out, hoping for an appointment and it doesn’t happen right away—reach out again.  And again.  Until you get that appointment OR the person tells you cease and desist.

Of course, just being a nudge won’t get you very far—you have to do with panache.  More to the point, you have to have a purpose to your nudginess—one that clearly benefits the nudgee in some way.

That, said one of my clients as we were discussing this very issue, is the rub.  She couldn’t fathom what purpose she could propose that would benefit the person with whom she wanted to meet.  And that, frankly, astounded and concerned—concerns–me.

All interactions bring something to the involved parties.   If I am basically philanthropic—and not everyone is—and if what you do is of more than a passing interest to me, I very well may want to learn more about your organization.  Understand, this may not translate into “I want to give you a gift.”  It may never translate that way.  Or, it might.  But it is unlikely—unless I have already been courted and won over—that I will be willing to reach into my pocket at our first meeting.  Too many nonprofit leaders and fundraisers don’t seem to get this.

A former client called me in a panic.  She had bought a list and sent out a direct mail appeal.  Surprise!  No one responded with a check or a credit card number.  She had resorted to buying a list because no one she had asked to support her organization in the past nine months had agreed to do so.

Tell me, I asked her, what—exactly—you’ve saying to the people you’ve approached and what was in your mail appeal.

Both activities kind of went like this:
“Hi—give me money.”

You know, every one of those folks could have used a little nudge.  A nudge that says, “I’d like to give you an opportunity to get to know us, to see if we have a fit.  For you to discover if what we are doing is aligned in any way with your hopes, dreams, aspirations.”

And then you keep nudging—to bring them closer; to get them more involved.

Yes, often, there is no commonality.  They don’t care what you do; or they care but they are not enamored with the way you do it.  Or you are located in the wrong place; serving the wrong population; trying to involve them in the wrong thing at the wrong time.

But when you get a no—which you will get often—you need to nudge to find out which no it is.  And then you may have to continue nudging to see if you can turn that no into a yes.  Not today, but maybe tomorrow—or the day after.

How often do you nudge? As with so many things, the only possible answer is:  It depends.  On where you are in the relationship; on what expectations they’ve put out for you; on the signals you get from them.

It’s a fine dance.  Still, more people will be offended if you simply drop them—“he called me once, and then I never heard from him again”—or send one appeal out of the blue, and then never contact them again, than you could ever offend by prodding them to get to know you and your organization.

Do ask, and ask again—but be mindful of what you are asking for.  The right ask can be an impetus to a strong(er) relationship; the wrong one can derail something even before it starts.

Or as my husband recently commented, I’m nagging when I ask him to clean up the piles of papers and books that seem to creep from his office to every other room in our house;  I’m nudging him when it’s about something he wants to do, but needs some help to get over his inertia.

 

Janet Levine works with nonprofit organizations, nudging them toward building greater capacity and raising a lot more money.  Learn more at http://janetlevineconsulting.com, and while you visit, sign up for our free monthly newsletter.

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