The Extreme Fundraising Blog

In the spirit of the last fundraising secret People give to people, I offer

Fundraising Secret #16: ALWAYS be interested in the donor as a PERSON not as a pocketbook.

Relationships are always our most vital asset. Whether or not people give to us, they are intrinsically important.

That’s not to say we have to pour all our fundraising efforts in the same measure for donors and non-donors. By no means!

But if your only interest in a person is what they can do for you…you’re sunk before you even start.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of such a request? Doesn’t it make your skin crawl?

Back in college, I was one of the students with a car. I still remember the “you’ve got a car and we want to go somewhere” look. One time in particular, two girls sought me out and asked, “Do you want to go to the movies?” Despite their big smiles and their sweet sounding voices, their eyes were clearly saying, “We could care less about you. We’re just interested in a ride to the movies.”

At first, I felt the extrovert’s high of loving to be with people. But that was almost instantly followed by the let down of “I’m just being used.”

Don’t use your donors. Get engaged with them.

It can be as simple as asking little questions about their family (if appropriate) or about their business. Just something to get to know the other person as a person.

They know your job is to raise money. And they’ll probably give. But do them the honor of treating them like people.

I gave the girls a ride. But I certainly didn’t stay for the movie.

We want our donors to stay with us. To get more involved with our organization.

This is especially important if we really are moving into an economic downturn. Donors that are engaged with us in a relationship will be more likely to stay with us through the tough times. They’re more likely to become our donor evangelists.

So please, be sure to always be interested in the donor as a person!

This was the It Could Happen to You episode of Oprah’s The Big Give!

I suspect, most viewers thought it’d be incredibly easy to give away $100,000 in 24 hours, even with the quirky restrictions. But it’s not as easy as it seems!

First I want to highlight a couple lessons donors can learn from this episode. Then I’ll comment on some of the ways people gave their money away.

As I see it, one of the main lessons of this episode is the need for philanthropic advisors. The only person to give all the money away was Stephen. His dad acted like a philanthropic advisor, making him aware of an impoverished neighborhood in the area.

In a perfect world, there would be more research done too. What’s the use in getting an oven if you don’t have the wiring to handle it? Or in getting a huge HDTV if your neighborhood has a high crime rate?

I don’t mean to take away from Stephen’s creativity and achievement. The rules were strict. I do find it interesting that the only person to succeed with the task had an “advisor.”

Another big lesson from Sunday’s episode concerns Eric’s experience. He promised to pay the funeral costs of a family in mourning. But because of restrictions, he needed as many family members to be present as possible. Not enough were there at the wake so he promised to come to the funeral the next day.

He simply didn’t show up.

Can you imagine how awful that was to the family? Not only are they in mourning. But now their emotions are getting jerked around by a do-gooder that doesn’t follow through. (Fortunately, the notes on the Big Give’s message boards say Oprah gave $20,000 to the family on her show Monday. But still…)

So here’s the second lesson for funders: in the words of a great Irving Berlin / Bing Crosby song, be careful, it’s my heart.

No charity is “entitled” to a donor’s money. Ever.

But donors that promise a gift set up very real expectations in the minds and lives of nonprofits. To not follow through can be quite traumatic, causing the nonprofit to lose focus on it’s mission while it scrambles to make up for funding it was supposed to have received.

If circumstances change, communication is key. Things change all the time. If a donor needs to shift giving priorities, that’s his perogative. But it’d be thoughtful to at least let the charity know. Or better yet, to let them know that funding will be tapering out over the next couple years. Advanced warning can be extremely helpful.

Why didn’t Eric get a phone number to contact? At the very least, he could’ve called to say he was running late, get the count of family members, and arrange to leave the cash at some point later that afternoon.

Now some highlights from the other contestants:

• I loved Cameron’s taking the encourage the kid at the Midas to do good to others. What an amazing teachable moment. One missed by people like Kim and Rachael. They bought people stuff but didn’t appear to leave the people with any encouragement to “pay it forward.” In doing this, Cameron made his gift move from a mere transfer of cash to an enduring character lesson in the life of at least one child. Good for you, Cameron!
• Kim had a really hard time. But I loved the “it ain’t over ’til it’s over” lesson from her experience. I had a flashback to every capital campaign I’ve done. We always hit the wall and don’t think we can go on. But something inevitably happens to give us a second wind. It’s a great reminder for us to not give up to quickly.
• Brandi’s giving the bus tokens seemed to come right out of It Could Happen to You! What a great gift for those women.

  And it was inspiring seeing how much joy Brandi got from giving away $2,000 worth of flowers. And how happy she made people! I also loved that she pulled at least one other person in to the joy, getting him to help her.

• Rachael’s giving to the cystic fibrosis function was just shameless. She obnoxiously swoops in to what was clearly a huge event for them, makes a splashy donation, and sweeps out. This happens far too often in real life but it’s still painful to see.

This post is runnnig long so I’ll stop.

But remember: If you’re looking to give away lots of cash, get an advisor, someone that knows the lay of the land. And be careful with the expectations you set up!

If I had a nickel for every time I was asked if I’d work for a percentage of funds raised, I’d be a rich man. But fundraisers that have been in the field far longer than my measly 10 years have long been against this practice.

The idea appeals to the entrepreneur in me. There’s a great deal of common sense in getting paid for your performance. When I start a business, I’m only paid on what works.

But since 1964, the AFP consistently says it’s an unethical way to do fundraising. I’ve tried to explain it as a fear that I’ll take advantage of a little old lady, getting her to give more than she should, so that I can pay my mortage.

Not all fundraisers join AFP or agree that this is an ethical problem. But how many more stories of tele-fundraisers that keep 70% - 80% of the donations they take in for fraternal police organizations and other charities do we need to hear before we agree there are abuses?

Now, according to the blog Don’t Tell the Donor, the AFP is trying to get this percentage injunction banned by Congress. According to the post:

The AFP maintains that percentage based fundraising is unethical because:

• charitable mission becomes secondary to personal gain
  
• donor trust can be unalterably damaged
  
• there is incentive for self-dealing to prevail over donors’ best interests
  
• the very philanthropic values on which the voluntary sector is based are undermined.

What do you think? Should Congress ban this practice?

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how charities can in good conscience sign these 80% deals!

Just made a reservation for the New England Association of Healthcare Philanthropy 2008 Conference at the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa.

The call to the Marriott reservations person was friendly. He knew of the conference discount. He not only asked if I was a Marriott Rewards member, he even looked up my number for me!

As we were winding up the call, I asked if, being a Rewards member, if there were any perks or amenities I should be aware to ask for when I arrived. It being a spa, I certainly didn’t want to miss out.

The until-that-point friendly man paused as though looking and then said, “No I don’t think you have enough status to get anything.”

Doh!

I’d been enjoying my experience until that point. Why didn’t he say:

• that there was nothing available at my “level” or
• that if I had 48 separate night stays at Marriott hotels I might qualify for a level by March or
• that I qualified for a free paper or free breakfast (without telling me that everyone else does too)?

Instead he told me I wasn’t important enough to be considered for any pampering.

I’m sure what he said was very factual. In fact I know it is. I haven’t used Marriott hotels in years. I’m a Hilton guy. I even told him there probably wasn’t anything I qualified for. He could have simply agreed with me.

But he said “you don’t have enough status.” It felt like I was in Sense & Sensibility being snobbed for being in the wrong socio-economic class! Weird isn’t it? I know better but I still felt like it was a personal judgement.

I sure hope I don’t end my phone calls with donors that way! I’m definitely going to be more aware of my phone manners today!

For earlier posts on phone etiquette, see:
Dialing for Donor (visits)
and
Phone Etiquette II

The November question for the Giving Carnival is: “What business practices should nonprofits adopt to maximize their resources?”

Great question! I think a very helpful business practice would be having open books.

Donors are used to living in a world of increasing transparency. And with sites like GuideStar publishing our 990’s, our financial information is more readily accessible than ever.

I think we should embrace this. The hospital I work for is publishing its quality indicators on the web. If you want to see if we follow best practices with heart attacks, you can find out right on our own website. Even if the stats aren’t what we’d like them to be.

It goes beyond working with the 990’s on GuideStar though. It means having tight financial controls so that it’s easy to see that the money people give goes directly to the right place. [Don’t ask me for advice in setting these controls up. There are generally accepted accounting procedures already out there. Ask a CPA that’s conversant in nonprofit accounting.]

Another great practice is subjecting your books to an annual audit by an outside firm.

We don’t necessarily need to shout-it-from-the-rooftops that we have tranparent finances or really tight financial controls. People already expect us to so trumpeting it would probably raise red flags rather than reassure donors.

But the wonderful thing about the world we now live in is that if we don’t have these controls, we will be found out. I really think that is a huge benefit of living in our world!

I hope you can see that using good accounting practices will definitely help maximize your nonprofit’s resources!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking for some good quality, inexpensive thank-you cards online, I Googled “Thank You cards.” I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to a fantastic article on how to write a thank you note.

The key points made be the author Leslie Harpold (with my own comments) are:

1. Greet the Giver - We all love our name. (And our name isn’t “Dear Friend”!)
2. Express Your Gratitude - You are saying “thanks” after all
3. Discuss Use - I think this is the one we most often forget
4. Mention the Past, Allude to the Future - let’s them know you remember and that you’re moving foward
5. Grace - You’re supposed to say “thanks” seven times so why not get it in a few times now?
6. Regards - people give to people so let them know you’re a person!

It’s amazing how easy it is to miss one of these. Or to fall into the “I’m just writing to say…” verbosity trap.

Harpold includes much better explanations under each point. Read them and your fundraising thank you notes and letters will surely improve.

The entire how to write thank you notes is here.

[Warning: rant in progress]

Hang around me for any length of time and you’ll hear me rant about the awful tendency of those of us in nonprofits of getting entitled.

Sit in the back office of just about any nonprofit, and you’ll here people slip into talk that donors “owe” us the same size of gift they’ve given in previous years.

This has to change.

Donors earn their money. It’s theirs to do with as they please.

We need to earn the gift every single time. Even if we’re doing the most important work in the world.

We are responsible to do our mission with excellence.
We are responsible to track our wins and loses.
We are responsible for involving our donors in the work we do.
We are responsible to tell our story with incredible persuasion and power and convince them it is the most important work in the world and it is worthy of their investment, again.

And we must be continually asking current donors, “Who on your

• bowling team,
• carpool,
• morning commute,
• garden club,
• golf club,
• board of directors, etc.

would like what we’re doing?

It’s up to us to earn the gifts each and everytime we ask. And to be grateful for each and every gift we receive.

[the rant has come to a completion]

In reading the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s article on last year’s Record Giving Breaking, I came across this nugget:

Officials at the California Community Foundation, in Los Angeles, were shocked when they received approximately $200-million from the estate of Mary Joan Palevsky (No. 7), whose wealth grew from investments she made after receiving a $40-million divorce settlement in 1968 from her husband, Max Palevsky, the founder of Scientific Data Systems, an early computer company that was sold to Xerox in 1969. Ms. Palevsky’s single previous donation to the foundation had been $2,200 in 1997 to buy textbooks.

“We had no idea we were in her will,” says Antonia Hernández, the foundation’s president, who heard about the gift after attending Mass on Good Friday. “I was literally screaming” outside the church, she says. “People looked at me like I was crazy.”

This story reminded me once again how important it is for us to keep on doing the things we do best. (And maybe the importance to going to Mass. )

“What you sow, so shall you reap” (Galatians 6:7) is a law acknowledged even by those that don’t believe a word of the Bible. A mentor once taught me a nuance on the idea of sowing and reaping that’s helped me for years.

What my mentor told me was that my job was to keep sowing seed and keep tending to the seed in whatever field I find myself in. I was responsible for watering, fertilizing, and weeding that field. I can’t control the harvest, but I can control the cultivation. Here’s the nuance: He assured me the harvest will come, but there’s nothing that says the harvest has to come from the field I’m working it. It may come from a totally different field than the one I’m tending.

I’d never thought of it that way. Imagine if you were a farmer and faithfully tending one part of your property. It’s crazy to think of the field that’s lying fallow to be the one that your harvest comes from. But it happens that way in life, doesn’t it?

So if you’re working with donors and living out your mission, you will reap the good you sow. Don’t give up. The writer of Galatians continues:

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9).

The harvest will come; it just may come from an entirely different source than you expect.

Does this mean we’re all going to get random $200 million gifts? No. But hopefully this will inspire us to keep doing what we’re doing!

I started pastoring VCW after a decade of fundraising. I love pastoring and teaching on financial stewardship but I’ve been intrigued with the donor stewardship issues.

We once got a $5000 check–HUGE for our small, central Maine congregation. As a fundraiser, my first instinct was to pick up the phone. As a pastor, I realized she didn’t give it to me or VCW, she gave it to God. I immediately became conflicted. My pastoring mindset wanted to not acknowledge it; my fundraising background was screaming I had to do something.

I ended up calling her Monday morning and said, “CONGRATULATIONS!”

There was a pause, then she said, “For what?” (with a grin in her voice).

“Well…,” I said, “I’m not sure. But from the size of the check in yesterday’s offering, I know SOMETHING good must’ve happened!”

She laughed and happily explained what had happened. It was a gift from a partial proceeds on sale of a house. She specifically noted “partial” cleverly commenting that she didn’t want to end up like Ananias and Sapphira!

 

Here in the US, we’re about a week away from Thanksgiving. Have you mentally checked out of work or are you preparing for the biggest time of giving in the calendar year?

Before you put your work on hold, consider implementing this tip from Jeffrey Fox’s book How to be a Rainmaker. (It’s the reason I got it in the first place. A colleague on a CharityChannel.com listserv raved about this list. She said whenever business was slow, she returned to this list and business always picked up.)

Here are the 10 things Fox recommends:

1. Send a handwritten note.
2. Clip and send an article of interest.
3. Talk to a satisfied client and ask who else you might help.
4. Send a thank-you gift to someone who referred you.
5. Give your business card to someone with influence.
6. Send a letter to the editor of a magazine your customers read.
7. Add fifteen people to your mailing list.
8. Leave a compelling voicemail.
9. Make an appointment.
10. Call a client you haven’t talked to in two years.

Isn’t this a great list?

Choose today which one you’ll do to help your organization raise more money. Now, commit to doing it before the end of the week.

Then have a great Thanksgiving!