The Extreme Fundraising Blog

entitlement
n : right granted by law or contract (especially a right to benefits)

[Written Wednesday, July 20, 2005]
Yet again it’s time for Maine Public Broadcasting to do it’s pledge drive. Rather than the normal NPR news programs, now much of the time is given over to folks talking about the importance of being a member. I appreciate public radio and am grateful for the programming. I really want to give money. But I’m afraid my gift may encourage them to continue raise money by interrupting my life as they’ve been doing for decades.

I couldn’t live with that on my conscience.

I think what irks me most is the sense of entitlement the MPBN folks seem to have. I’m sure they don’t mean to. But to an outsider, it often sounds like they’re whining.

Here are some examples from the 7:55 a.m. slot on Wednesday, July 20. (Not exact quotes but very close. I’ve been hearing this stuff all week.)

• When I hear: “We’ve already committed to the programming. Our bills are coming in. So now you have to pay.”
  I think things like: “Your not being able to pay your bills isn’t my responsibility. I can’t just hop on the radio when I can’t pay my bills. I certainly couldn’t run my business that way either. If they don’t have even a rough idea if they’ll be able to cover their committments, why would I want to give money to them in the first place?
• When I hear things like: “Membership is important. You get to decide what is played here. You get to belong. We chose programs in response to members’ surveys and comments. Now you need to do your part and join.”
  I think things like: “Who are you talking to? Me as a non-member or your current members. As a non-member, I certainly am not responsible to pay for choices you made based on member feedback. I’m not a member. I started pulling out my wallet when you talked about the importance of belonging and having a voice. But I shoved it back into my pocket when it felt like you were trying to guilt me into paying for decisions I didn’t have a voice in.”

I could go on but probably shouldn’t. Who do they think is really listening? I bet it worked decades ago when there weren’t many stations to choose from. But in an age of channel surfing, iPods, and satellite radio, interruption marketing is deadly. People will just surf away until the pitch is over.

I don’t think I’d mind a 2- to 3-day pledge drive. But keeping it going until they’ve reached the goal seems wrong. Each show always has sponsorship blurbs. Why can’t they air 10 second clips from regular members during the regular shows.

So why have I devoted so much of this issue of Extreme Fundraising to this rant? Because entitlement strikes us all.

Look at your web page or your latest fundraising appeal. How many times do you use the pronouns “we” and “us” or “you” and “yours”?

Donors aren’t really interested in us. And no organization is entitled to a donor’s money. Whether the donor’s money is just that–her money. The challenge for us is to market our benefits to donors. Yep, market.

I’ve written an article on The Rule of Threes, a tool I use with my clients to help them tell their story consistently and organically. You can download The Rule of Threes PDF file here or view it online here.

In the meantime, let’s remember that we need to earn the priviledge of being given money by a donor. And let’s work hard to earn it!

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I. Fundraising Follies: Forgetting the Story
II. Resource Spotlight: WeReview

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I. Fundraising Follies: Forgetting the Story
It seems so much of our time in the nonprofit world is what I call “present-future focus.” Our organizations can see the present and know exactly what we’re looking for in the future.But this present-future focus can cause us to forget the past. 

Without the past, we wouldn’t have a present.

One of the reasons I love fundraising is that we get to learn the stories of our organizations. We also get to tell those stories to any and all that will listen. Everybody has a story to tell. And you’d be amazed at how willing they are to tell it.

I consider one of my unofficial titles to be “Keeper of the Lore.”

Asking the story is “right” on so many levels:

• We prove to donors, and ourselves, that we are moreinterested in people than their pocket books.
• We honor the hard work and sacrifices that people made forour organizations.
• We get to tell these great stories to the people that arecurrently working in the organization.

I’m sure there’s more. It’s incredibly rewarding to see people thoroughly enjoy remembering the past. And there is a fundraising payoff: the whole time they’re remembering, they’re selling themselves on the how much they love our organization.

Although you won’t make a solicitation during this meeting, this could set the stage for any sort of ask, including planned gifts.

One more thing about telling the story: if your organization has donor plaques up, make it your role to be sure that they never get lost. So many times we change our facilities to meet our expanding needs. This is right and good. But we forget to honor the memory of the donors that sacrificed in the past. Find some way to make sure the plaques are taken care of.

Have fun keeping the lore!

II. Resource Spotlight: WeReview
I know I keep talking about CharityChannel, but it is an incredible resource. One of my favorite parts of the CharityChannel site is the WeReview section. With so many books being published that it’s hard to keep up.

WeReview helps. Here you can check out reviews of the newest books written by our colleagues around the world. And my favorite part: if you sign up for the WeReview newsletter, these terrific reviews can be delivered to your inbox.

To your extreme fundraising success!

 

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I. FUNDRAISING FOLLIES: Forgetting What Lies Behind…
II. RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: Boards That Love Fundraising

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I. FUNDRAISING FOLLIES: Forgetting What Lies Behind…
Have you ever heard the tale about the guy that was passed over for promotion? He complained to his boss, “How could you give the job to Frank? I have 10 years of experience. Why didn’t you choose me?” 

His boss responded, “You don’t have 10 years of experience at your job. You have 1 year repeated 10 times.”

Does that sound like your fundraising program? June is the end of many of our fiscal years. And most of us have little option but to hit the ground running in July raising money for the next fiscal year.

But if we don’t learn from this year, how will we improve next year?

So ask yourselves questions like:

• What three things did we do exceptionally well this year?
• What three things should we stop doing?
• What mailing, event, or appeal surprised us by its results? Would it be worth repeating next year?

Take a day with your staff (or with yourself if you’re an office of one!) to reflect and to celebrate. Don’t put this off. This kind of activity makes the following 364 days far more effective.

If you want help setting goals for the next 12 months, check out my free MagnetGoals goal setting e-course. It’s simple but definitely not easy. And, because it involves your whole life, not just your work, it is incredibly effective.

To subscribe to the MagnetGoals e-course, got to Fundraisingcoach.com.

Happy New (fiscal) Year!

II. RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: Boards That Love Fundraising
One of the cooler things I get to do is participate in Charity Channel’s WeReview as a volunteer book reviewer. The book I’m currently reading for review is Boards that Love Fundraising by Robert M. Zimmerman and Ann W. Lehman. This book is simply great.

If you’re a paid development person, it’s everything you wish your board members understood about fundraising.

If you’re a board member, it’s everything you wish you’d been trained to do when you were recruited for the board.

This book is incredibly readable and packed with a terrific overview of fundraising, as well as dozens of exercises to do as a board. Whether you’re a seasoned professional fundraiser or brand-new to this role, Boards that Love Fundraising will help you improve your ability to raise money!

To your extreme fundraising success!

Marc

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I. FUNDRAISING FOLLIES: Not Engaging Your Board
II. WANTED: Your Help With My New Book
III. RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: CharityUniversity

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I. FUNDRAISING FOLLIES: Not Engaging Your Board
Nonprofit board members must be the eighth wonder of the world! They have lives full of work, family, and obligations yet they commit enormous amounts of time and effort on our behalf. 

Unfortunately, we often aren’t equipped with tools to engage board members effectively. As a result, board members experience the extremes of overwork or mere meeting attendance.

I’m experimenting with an idea inspired by Living Your Strengths: Discover Your God-Given Talents and Inspire Your Community by Albert Winseman, Donald Clifton, and Curt Liesveld.
The basic premise of this book is that if we focus on developing our hard-wired strengths, we’ll live much more productive and fulfilled lives.

I don’t know what board members think their strengths are and it would seem odd asking them, “What are your strengths?” So went to each of them and said:

I’ve been on boards that forgot that I wasn’t an employee of the nonprofit. And, I’ve been on boards that I feel like I’m merely showing up at meetings to rubber-stamp pre-determined decisions.I don’t want your experience on this board to be either.

So if I were to come back to you in 12 months, what one thing would you be most proud of contributing to the board?

Then I shut up. And wait. Each board member had a reason for joining the board. This is one way to make sure they are contributing in ways meaningful both to them and to the nonprofit. Once they answer, and we agree on a way that what they said will best benefit the organization, it becomes my job to make sure that happens.

I don’t know what the results of this approach will be. I’m anticipating board members feeling more fulfilled with their participation. They’ll be able to point to at least on concrete improvement they contributed to.

That’s the kind of board I’d want to be on!

II. WANTED: Your Help With My New Book
Thanks to all of you who responded to me email asking how Creating Donor Evangelists request a few weeks ago. I have another request for help.

I’m in the process of writing a book with the working title Asking for Money: A Get R.E.A.L. Guide to Raising Money from Individuals. I want it to help take the fear out of asking people for money. At little more than 100 pages, it should be ideal for boards to read.

Based on your experience in this field, what topics would be the most helpful to you? If you’ve read books or taken fundraising courses, what do you wish they’d included?

As always, you can send your comments and suggestions to marc@fundraisingcoach.com. Thanks!

III. RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: CharityUniversity
I’ve talked about this before. I you haven’t checked out CharityUniversity yet, do it now. They’ve just added dozens of new live and on demand classes to its line up.

While you’re there, check out “Fundraising 101” by yours truly. That link is:
http://charitychannel.com/publish/templates/?a=4709&z=58

To your extreme fundraising success!

Marc

Welcome to the May 31st edition of Extreme Fundraising

We’re continuing to look at the mistakes we make in asking people for money. I’m transitioning the archives to http://blog.fundraisingcoach.com/ so if you’re looking for previous issues, check there first. Then check in http://fundraisingcoach.com/ezine.htm.

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I. FUNDRAISING FOLLIES: BEING TOO BUSY
II. RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: CDE THANKS
III. CHARITY UNIVERSITY

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I. FUNDRAISING FOLLIES: BEING TOO BUSY
Have you ever heard the touching story about the founding of Stanford. The story goes that a poor looking couple went to Harvard to see about building a building in their son’s memory. The too busy Harvard president spurned them, saying, “Do you realize how much a building costs? We have over $7.5 million invested in our physical plant.” The wife looks at her husband and says, “Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don’t we start our own?” So the Stanfords went home to Palo Alto and started the university that bears their name.

First, that story isn’t true. It’s an urban legend. You can get the full story at:
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/stanford.htm

Nevertheless, the moral of the story is still good. Think about its implications. Are we so busy being managers and raising money that we forget to take time to be people? After all, ours is primarily a relationships business. And people are far more connected with each other than we’ll ever know.

Did you know the average planned giving prospect gives their favorite nonprofit $5 per year? $5. Every year. But statistics normally show the average planned gift is over $10,000.

What would an additional $10,000 do for your organization today?

So let’s remember that our business is about people, rich or poor. Yes, we need to be wise stewards of our limited resources, including time. But we also have to have the integrity to treat people well, regardless of their circumstances.

We can all improve on our people skills. What can you do today to get practice treating people a little better than you have been?

II. RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT: CDE THANKS
Thanks to all of you who responded to me email asking how Creating Donor Evangelists changed the way you approach your work. I’m honored by your kindness! I neglected to include that the CDE report is available free at http://fundraisingcoach.com/articles.htm. Just look for the guy with the sandwich board sign.

Congratulations to Jennifer Warwick, managing director of the Burdenski and Taylor Consulting Group and Rob Hatch, executive director of the Child Health Center! Both Jennifer and Rob knew that person that ordered coffee “black as midnight on a moonless night” was special agent Dale Cooper from the Twin Peaks TV series.

Please feel free to email me your thoughts about Creating Donor Evangelists or Twin Peaks at marc@fundraisingcoach.com.

III.CHARITY UNIVERSITY
A great resource just got even better. Charity University has just added dozens of new classes to its line up. Many of these are live calls so if you attend, you’ll be able to interact with the presenter.

Since the “on demand” classes are already recorded, you can access them when it’s most convenient to your schedule. Be sure to check out “Fundraising 101” by yours truly. That link is:
http://charitychannel.com/publish/templates/?a=4709&z=58

To your extreme fundraising success!