The Extreme Fundraising Blog

Here’s something I wrote for the Facebook page of my local library. Unfortunately, it’s too long for the 1000 character limit! So I post it here and hope it’ll help others.
———————
Hi gang,

Whatever you think of last night’s budget session, it’s clear that that we need to get the message out to an even broader audience.

I’m sure Sarah has back up for some of this but I’m thinking of a “Did You Know” campaign. Something that could be easily printed off by each of us and hung at our work places and in the cafes we frequent. Simple short messages that could even be put in our email signatures.

Something like this. (I don’t know if all of these are true, but it gives you an idea.)

DID YOU KNOW…
    …cities with libraries are more economically prosperous?
    …cities with libraries have lower taxes?
    …cities with regional libraries attract more out-of-town people to local businesses?
    …cities with libraries spend less on GA?
    …library circulation has increased by X% in the past 3 years?
    …people use libraries even more during recessions?
    …libraries keep money in the local economy?
    …libraries help reduce family expenses?
    …people with library cards tend to have higher salaries?

They could all end with a “Go to www.SupportTheWatervilleLibrary.org to show your support!”

The website would urge people to give based on the three ways they can give: time, talent, treasure.

A simple clean landing page that had three links:

• Get a library card < -- and make the process online and easy
• Give money to the library campaign < -- leading to a page with something like a Google Checkout account
• Get involved < -- leading to a page with linked PDFs that are easy to print out and HTML code for “Did you know…” web banners and squares for facebook and myspace and blogs.

What do y’all think? Is this something that sounds easily implemented?

Gayle Robertswas my guest on today’s Ask Without Fear radio show.

You really owe it to yourself to listen to Gayle’s thoughts on fundraising and generousity. You’ll be challenged to re-evaluate your thoughts on raising support for nonprofits. And you’ll be re-energized as you realize how incredibly important your role is. And you’ll hear Gayle’s advice of how to fundraise during a recession.

You can listen to the show here or go to http://fundraisingcoach.com/radioshow.htm:

You can subscribe to the RSS feed at:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marcapitman/feed

We’ll take the next couple weeks off. Our next show will be on Tuesday, June 3 at 11 a.m. with Jeff Brooks.

Jeff Brooks’ recent post at DonorPowerBlog is such a great reminder: when you’re writing fundraising letters, you need to write like a human being .

He offers a great real-life example of typical copy from a fundraising letter he received. He then points out:

No mentally healthy person would speak those sentences.

Scary isn’t it? If people give to people, why do we make our fundraising letters so boring?

And I love that he reminds us that “there’s nothing forcing you to write that way”!

Read his entire post, and many others like them, at his blog: http://www.donorpowerblog.com/

Usually when we do think about estate giving, or so-called “planned giving,” we tend to think of really rich people.

But the AFP reports shares that a new study by Campbell & Company blows this preconception away. According to the AFP:

Most surprising for fundraisers was that income did not affect the likelihood that donors would make a bequest, or consider making one, in their wills. Accordingly, fundraisers should not focus solely on high-income individuals but attempt to cultivate all possible prospects.

This really shouldn’t be much of a “surprise,” the same results show up every time a study is done. Gurus like Robert Sharpe, Jr. have been telling us this for years.
Later on in the study, it says:

This study suggests that individuals aged 40 to 60 and those with at least a bachelor’s degree education were the most likely to name or consider naming a charity in their will.

Unfortunately, knowing something and acting on it, are two different things. Most of us who “know” we should be asking everyone to include us in their wills, still find ourselves limiting our relationship building to elderly, wealthy constituents.

In my opinion, asking for planned gifts is a public service we provide. I’ve been told that 70% of Americans die without a will. Whether or not they end up including our nonprofit in their will, the simple act of asking them to include us gets them thinking about wills. The vast majority of people underestimate the real value of their estate. So our asking them to consider including us, is a reminder for them to be proactive.

We will all be philanthropists at death: voluntary or involuntary. Either we’ll choose which causes our life’s work supports (family, charity, etc.) or Congress and the White House will choose for us (the war in Iraq, Wall St. bailouts, funding Medicare or Social Security).

Asking people to inlude our nonprofit in their will is not asking them to cheat their families. Most planned gifts are simply saying “after my family and other interests are taken care of, I want x% of my estate to go to these nonprofits.” This is called a “residuary bequest.”

If you go to a planned giving seminar, you’ll likely be dazzled by the variety of complicated planned giving tools. Here’s a small list, with links to websites (usually nonprofit’s) that show how to market each:

• life insurance policies
• CRUTs,
• CRATs,
• charitable lead trust,
• gift annuities,
• life estate (gift of a home while retaining life use), etc.

And you’ll probably hear examples of sophisticated estate planning like how Jackie Onastis used these tools to structure her estate to maximize the benefit to her family.

But don’t let that confuse you. The single easiest way to ask for a planned gift is to focus on the “residuary bequest.”

Here are some fundraising scripts, or key phrases, to help get you started:

• Would you consider including the hospital in your estate plans?
• After you’ve taken care of your family, would you consider asking your advisors about leaving the hospice in your will?
• Are we already in your estate plans?

Asking for planned gifts doesn’t have to be rocket science. And we don’t have to be estate attorneys. We just need to consistently invite people to talk to their advisors about their estate planning.

So remember, Fundraising Secret #17: Ask everyone for a planned gift.

[This is part of Fundraisingcoach.com’s “Fundraising Secrets” series. For all the articles in the series, go to: http://fundraisingcoach.com/blog/category/frsecrets/. An executive summary of Bequest Donors: Demographics and Motivations of Potential and Actual Donors is available at the Cambell & Company website. If you want more ideas on possible wording donors might take to their advisors, go to the For Financial Professionals section of inlandfoundation.org.]

Last week, I posted a bit about the counter-intuitive relationship of the economy and people’s generousity here in Maine.

Now planned giving guru Robert Sharpe’s April Newsletter comments on it from a much better researched perspective!

Here’s a bit:

With all the media attention on our turbulent economy in recent months, fund development executives may be feeling helpless, or worse—hopeless. But, when we examine giving data from periods of economic downturns in past years, the numbers reveal a much brighter situation for charitable giving.

To read the entire edition, go to Give and Take.

And if you haven’t availed yourself of learning from Robert Sharpe and his colleagues, you’re missing out. I’ve attended a couple seminars years ago and still find myself drawing on the information I learned.

Here’s a question that appeared on LinkedIn.com:

Question:
If donors that have the option to give online would it be a good idea to give them the ability make online pledges?

Here’s My Answer:
If you’re asking as a nonprofit looking at implementing a system, my answer in a word is NO!

I’ve worked with nonprofits across the country for over 10 years. Clients never cite “online pledging” as a source of funding.

The web is an instant gratification medium. Donors wanting to make a gift will want to do it now.

As the previous folks have said, people will give bigger gifts if they can split it up over time. But that usually takes a one on one conversation.

I’d recommend having an online giving set-up that allows donors to “make this a monthly gift.” For years, I’ve offered “monthly, quarterly, and annual” options on the Inland Foundation website but that seems to REALLY confuse people.

Plus, you have to have really good systems in place to “collect” on the pledges. That’s usually a burden for the smaller shops (unless it’s for a capital campaign where the gifts are larger.)

But if you’re asking as a business owner looking to market to nonprofits, online pledging could be a useful option to help make sales. And you can use the other answers to come up with a sales presentation selling them on the value of pledging.

If you haven’t read it yet, go get a copy of Seth Godin’s “The Big Red Fez.” It’s a short book on web design. His premise is that when we sit in front of a web page we’re all like organ grinder monkeys, we just want to know “where’s the banana.”

Effective websites make the banana really obvious, like Google.com. It’s clear what you’re supposed to do: search.

Yahoo.com is so confusing it can hinder people’s response.

And too often, we do that in the non-profit world. We want to be sure all the options are out there, that we confuse the donor.

Oy, this has gotten long! To sum up, if you want to raise money online, I’d recommend NOT making pledging an option.

[You can see all the answers by going to: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/government-non-profit/charity-non-profit/GOV_CNP/198274-7495757]

Reading Stephen Hitchcock’s Open Immediately: Straight Talk on Direct Mail Fundraising, I’ve been reminded of one of the great truths of fundraising, one I’m calling Fundraising Secret #15: people give to people.

This is one of the reasons fundraising letter templates don’t work. They’re like a fundraising version of Mad Libs: easy to fill in the blanks but sort of funny sounding when they’re read.

And that’s why impersonal “Dear Friend” letters don’t work well either. But even if you insert a donor’s name, it’s really easy to sound impersonal in fundraising letters.

According to Hitchcock’s extensive research, fundraising letters get better response rates without brochures. I’d imagine this is because brochures are, by their very nature, impersonal.

So don’t include a brochure and don’t let you letter sound like a brochure! To help resist the temptation to become impersonal, Hitchcock advises using conversational language and having only one signature at the end of a solicitation letter.

A technique I use for overcoming impersonality is doing demographic research to find out who my typical donor is:

• how old,
• what gender,
• where she lives,
• how big her family is, etc.

Once I’ve done the work, I write to that person. It’s helpful to get a picture of what that person might look like to put on your computer monitor. And I always give her a name.

However you fundraise for your nonprofit–whether you’re asking for money in a fundraising letter, on the web, or in person–remember this timeless truth: people give to people.

[For the prior “Fundraising Secrets” posts, go to: http://fundraisingcoach.com/blog/category/frsecrets/]

Another episode of Oprah’s Big Give.

I’ve watched all three episodes in three different ways:

1. via recording on my DVR
2. on TV like I did in the 1990’s
3. on abc.com!

Who knew TV shows could be so adaptable to technology?

This week’s program brought out two interesting themes: creative engagement of donors and the dangers of self-absorption. I’m going to assume you’ve seen the episode. If you haven’t, you can see the full show at Oprah’s Big Give.

Team Field of Dreams had no team work but an incredibly engaged volunteer: Andre Agassi. He was professional, entreprenurial, and a complete gentleman. And a darn good fundraiser. I’m not sure if he sensed the disorganization of the team or not, but he came in with ideas, connections, and a plan. And he got the job done.

I left this episode hoping to be like him when I grow up.

Team Forgotten Christmas had a great team. They worked really well together.

But they hardly engaged Tony Hawks. Granted, a skating crowd is probably a very different demographic and socio-economic background than a tennis crowd. But still, they didn’t seem to suggest ways he could help.

Here’s one of the longest running extreme sport celebrities. He’s got to have connections. It’s not really his job to think, “who do I know?” It’s the job of the fundraiser to ask things like:

• “Who do you know?”
• “What connections might you have to make this an amazing project?”
• “How might the people you know be able to make this blessing last beyond a one day event?”

But noone in the team seemed interested in finding out.

Perhaps both results stemmed from the same problem: self-absorption.

Both teams seemed so consumed with trying to do an amazing deed to be able to stay in this challenge that they neglected to get to know the schools or the celebrities.

The way the show was edited, neither team came up with the idea of getting a tour of the schools they were helping. They seem to quickly figure out the problems and then hastily start “fixing” them.

But you can’t really do that without spending some time getting to know the people you’re working with and for.

Agassi apparently knew this. When he came, he got a tour. And in getting a tour of the school, he found out that the kids needed more than just a playground, they needed new computers and other equipment. Engaging the school helped him get a better understanding of how he could help.

As fundraisers, we must be interested in other people: donor prospects and the people we’re helping. The people we’re helping can’t simply be “a cause” or “a group we’re helping.” They’re individuals with stories that deserve to be heard.

And donors and donor prospects, even celebrity donors, don’t know us well enough to know exactly how they can help. That’s why fundraisers need to get out from behind our desks. We need to walk around and see the mission that our organizations are accomplishing. And we need to engage our donors so that we get to know them.

The Christmas Team did great things for so many kids. But I wonder what “money” they left on the table because they didn’t explore with Tony.

Would I have done any better? I have no idea.

Some may argue that they did the best they could given the time constraints. But all of our nonprofits work daily under the type of time pressure these Big Give teams work under. We have an extremely limited time to get our mission funded. And it’s often “do or die.”

So let’s not get distracted by that pressure. Let’s remember to see individuals as people that can help in special and unique ways.

Who can you get to know better today? Perhaps they have talents, relationships, or passions that are a perfect match for your group!

This is the third blog post in a series related to Oprah’s Big Give.

I originally wanted to call this fundraising secret: Don’t be a jerk—business people often don’t have liquid assets.

That seems to get the message across more bluntly.

I’m amazed at how poorly we treat business owners. Especially sole-proprietors. We approach them in ways we wouldn’t dream of approaching our other donors. With entitlement, bordering on a lack of civility.

A few years back, I had two interactions with business owners in the same city. Both were bitterly upset with the presumption shown by the nonprofits that approached them for support. Sheer impudence.

In their minds, the nonprofits seemed to think they had a moral right to the money they imagined these business men had. These men owed it. That was the way both were approached by many local nonprofits. Not on the merits of the cause. But some misguided Robin Hood myth. As though working for a nonprofit was morally “better” than merely running a “for profit.”

Unthinkable.

Business owners have often risked more than most of us would ever imagine. They go without so their employees can eat. They are on the hook for everything. They’re not paid until the bills are. We need men and women like this in all of our communities.

From our perspective, they may seem well off. But much of their assets are tied up in “things”—retail establishments, equipment, loans. They may be asset rich, but are often “cash poor.”
That’s why many prefer to give gifts-in-kind. They often simply don’t have the cash on hand.

So read some books on entrepreneurship. Get to know business owners. Ask them what it’s like to be an employer.

And do ask them for money for your cause. But please don’t be belligerent.

Our communities need both for-profit businesses and nonprofit ones.

Catching up on my blogs today, I came across an interesting rant from Hildy on Direct Mail Fundraising is Junk Mail.

Here’s a taste:

Have our organizations ever spent as much time trying to engage the people who come through our doors as we spend trying to “acquire new donors”? Have we spent time to ask those who already know us - ask for their wisdom, their advice about the work we are doing? How often do we ask the people who are already our clients, our patrons, our program participants - if they would like to help make our mission stronger?

Give it a read. Even if you don’t agree with everything she says, you’ll benefit from her perspective.

It’s challenging me to re-think the time I allocate to direct mail versus true face-to-face involvement with the friends of the hospital. It takes lots of time to meet one-on-one, but so does this blasted direct mail. Writing, proofing, editing, creating a package, going over the list, again, and again. Yuck.

As she says:

I am often told, “But engaging the community like that would take time. We can’t afford to do that!” Translated: We can’t afford to do what works. So instead we will do something far less effective - with the added bonus that most people hate it!

Thanks Hildy! (And I suspect the friends of this hospital will thank you too!)