As I Gen-Xer myself, I found this quote particularly compelling.

“Tell them you want to end world hunger, and they’ll say, ‘No, you’re not,’” she said. “Tell them you want to put a piece of fresh fruit in every child’s lunch bag, and they listen.”

Cohen added that the ROI for Gen Xers is more psychic than material. They don’t dwell on benefits and are well-positioned to be the most loyal group in decades.

To read the entire article, go to Fundraising Through the Years.(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

At a recent gathering of executive-level fundraisers in Boston, the following suggestions and thoughts for working during these uncertain times were elicited:

• Stay close to donors. Listen carefully to their interests. Place an emphasis on stewardship and reassure donors of the strength of your institution/organization.
• Make your case clear and compelling to new donors. Welcome these generous folks to your organization.
• Demonstrate the value of planned gifts and bequests. Let your constituency know how their legacy can impact your organization.
• Cross-train staff. Now is a good time for all staffers, especially those in alumni relations, to expand their skills and build a larger major gifts effort for your institution.
• Be open to lengthening pledge periods. Such flexibility enhances relationships with donors.
• Add volunteers to your team. Already great ambassadors, many are willing to ask for gifts.
• Appearance counts. In harsh economic times it is important not to appear extravagant. It’s time to re-tool the glamorous gala and re-think a four-color brochure.
• Don’t stop now. Successful fundraising programs are built over time, not stopped and re-started based on the economy.

I love that there’s nothing “new” about this list. This list drives us back to the basics.

If you go to a practice of an NBA team like the Boston Celtics, guess what you’ll see these world champions doing? Lay-ups. Free throws. Passing drills.

The very same basketball basics they’ve been doing these since elementary school!

It’s the same with raising money: if you’re not practicing the lay-ups, you’ll probably never make any amazing plays.

Readers of this blog and email list know I’ve been talking about this for a long time:

• ideas on creating recession-proof fundraising back in April,
• techniques for writing more compelling fundraising letters to donors back in August, and
• why there’s nothing compassionate about not asking for money last month.

In reality, even Creating Donor Evangelists is about the basics: multiple ways to listen to donors.

In economic times like these, it’s tempting to get bored with the basics and look for a quicker fix. You could get whiplash from every “expert” offering a “sure-fire” way to solve all your money problems.

Unless you’re already doing any of these, I’d suggest you not follow after search engines that will pay you if your donors click through to buy stuff, or the latest chocolate candy bar fundraiser, or flashy new fundraising scratch cards. These can have moderate success. But they can seriously dilute your brand.

Rather, just stick to boring lay-ups. That’s why I’ve even called my newsletter Extreme Fundraising: the basics are extreme.

Keep doing the basics and you’ll weather this storm. You may even become world champions, just like the Celtics! :)(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

According to the Chronicle, Levy exhorted the attendees that:

“Great fund raisers don’t whine about the economy. They believe in Noah’s principle: No more credit for predicting rain. Credit only for building arks.”

He also says:

“There’s never a bad season, or year, or day, or economic climate for soliciting donations for a worthy cause.”

I whole-heartedly agree! I’ve been writing on ideas for fundraising in a tough economy for months.

Remember, curtailing fundraising is not compassionate.

Besides, donors get enough whining from their kids. They don’t need it from us.

Read the entire article, Fund Raisers ‘Don’t Whine’ in a Tough Economy, to find out how Levy thinks nonprofits can make the most of this economy. (c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

This was a bitter pill for both of them. You see, they’d created their nonprofit because of their passion. They saw a need and they filled it. And they love what they do.

But filling that need takes money.

Both founders had hired people to do the fundraising for them. And both founders were pretty upset that neither were as effective as they had been. After all, they’d given their employee the same list they used, hadn’t they? What was the problem.

The biggest problem in each case was that the founders put off asking as long as they could. And they were a bit put off that they even needed to ask. Wasn’t their cause self-evident? Neither had really factored fundraising into their original plans. So they only did it when the need was most pressing. They paid many of the costs out of their own resources.

By the time they hired their new employees, they were behind the eight ball, desperately in need of money. And they had unrealistic expectations. They didn’t realize how steep the learning curve would be for their new employees. They just thought the funding problem would be magically fixed.

The reality is they still had to do the fundraising themselves.

I see similar situations come up in the way some people hire consultants. They have a money problem, so they hire a consultant to come in and raise a lot of money to fix it. They have a hole that needs filling so they hire someone to fill it but they don’t want to learn how to stop digging the hole.

(That, by the way, is why I don’t do consulting. There are a lot of wonderful consultants that are amazingly good at raising money. But when I’ve done it, it’s been a thankless task. I’d prefer to work with people that want to learn. That is also why I wrote Ask Without Fear, to give people a low-cost way to learn to do waht all nonprofits need to do.)

If you’re the founder of a nonprofit, or even a CEO or Executive Director, you will have to fundraise. No matter how wonderful your staff is, you have a unique way of telling the story. And donors want to hear from you.

You can hire an amazing staff, and a great coach :), but you’re still going to have to do some of the fundraising yourself.

And you can have a really good time doing it. Honestly!(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

I whole heartedly agree. Some nonprofits should fail. Just like some businesses should fail.

Aren’t you tired of receiving fundraising appeals with a message of “If you don’t give now, we won’t survive”?

Pathetic, isn’t it?

The Chronicle reports:

“The argument that ‘our organization will go out of business’ doesn’t resonate with me,” said Ms. McKenna. What does resonate, she said, is, “Our population will not be served.”

Please take this to heart. Fundraising should never be to pay the bills. It should always be about the people we serve.

As you write your year end appeals, make sure your messaging is about who you serve. In uncertain economic times like ours, nonprofits are need more than ever because people are in need more than ever.

Focus on those people. Not on your organization’s survival.

(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

But I’ve been hearing some even more disturbing news: some nonprofits are telling their donors “we know the economy is rough so we won’t ask you for money.”

Don’t do that!

Compassion during times like these is important. Times are hard. Liquidity is an issue for donors.

But there’s nothing compassionate about not asking.

I definitely encourage you to be flexible with your fundraising asks. Ask people to volunteer their time. Or stretch payments over a longer period of time. But don’t stop asking! Especially now–we’re heading into the most generous time of the year!

Think about it. What happens when times get tough? People rely on the nonprofit sector even more. If you’re saying you won’t ask your donors for support, you’re doing it just as your services will be needed now more than ever.

It may be a bit more uncomfortable for you to ask, but just think about the clients you’ll have to turn away if you don’t ask. And get out there to raise money for your cause.

Network for Good had a terrific list of “Six Ways to Survive the Economic Storm”. They are:

1. Don’t curl into a fetal position.
2. Set realistic goals.
3. Don’t abuse your existing donors.
4. Get online today.
5. Don’t undersell yourself.
6. Admit to donors that it’s hard.

Isn’t #1 great? You can read their entire article at: Six Ways to Survive the Economic Storm.

I’ve also written an article called Recession-proof Fundraising. Many are using this as a tool to communicate with CEO’s and boards that are looking at slashing budgets. (I advocate funding fundraising activities, even in a down economy.)

You can ride this out. You will need to do things differently. But you can do it.

And you’ll be stronger for it.

So get out there and ask you donors for money!(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

In his post, he gives a description and links to each of these tools:

• twubble
• GroupTweet
• twitt(urly)y
• TwitLinks
• TweetDeck
• Gridjit
• Tweet Later
• Twist
• Twerp Scan
• Summize
• Twemes
• #hashtags
• Tweet Scan
• Twinfluence
• TwitterGrader
• Twittertise
• Twitterrific
• Twhirl
• TwitterWhere
• tweetbeep
• twitterfeed
• TwitDir
• Ping.fm
• brightkite
• TwitterLocal
• twitpic
• SnapTweet
• DoesFollow
• follow cost
• Qwitter
• Twittelator
• Twitterfon
• Twinkle
• Twitterberry

Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

If you’re interested in Twitter, you need to read Brian’s blog post:
Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals.
(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

The industry calls them “yard signs.” I’m hoping that they’ll catch people off guard in the midst of the signs of the political candidates!

It’s a good reminder that as fun as web 2.0 is, offline marketing still has its place!(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

After that post, a fellow Twitter follower, Jon Swanson, recommended following Cheryl Smith of CultureSmith Consulting. I agree! Her blog has great tips on using social media in business.

And Mark Hayward (@mark_hayward on Twitter) has a list of 97–yes, 97!–people he suggests following on Twitter. (I’m flattered to be on the list!)

Check out that amazing list for yourself at: 97 Remarkable Ways to Diversify Your Network in a Down Economy. (c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com

Twitter is called “microblogging.” You get 140 characters to get your message across.

140 characters to answer the question on the Twitter home page: “What are you doing now?” When you first start to tweet, it feels really odd. Why would you share what your eating? And why would anyone care?

But people do. And the conversations get even better when you start answering the question “What are you focusing on?”

People use Twitter to ask questions, follow people that are interesting, promote links to various websites, share news stories.

There are links to Twitter guides below that can give you more nitty-gritty on using Twitter. They’ll tell you what to do and what not to do.

But from a fundraising perspective, Twitter is an amazing way to engage donors and potential donors. One of the hardest things to do as a fundraiser is to maintain relationships. Twitter allows you to do that…right in the midst of your normal every day routine.

1. You get to meet people all over the world that might be interested in your cause.
2. You get to hear what people are really thinking about a wide variety of issues.
3. You can follow other fundraisers and get great real-time advice.
4. You can even promote traffic to your website or those of your friends.

Better still, if you can make your comments effectively understood in 140 characters, think about how all your fundraising writing will improve!

Twitter is definitely not just a tool to push your message. It’s got to be a two-way conversation. Last month, BusinessWeek had a great article on Twitter. In it they said:

Amy Worley, who manages [H&R] Block’s Twitter program, had to alter her approach. “I went in thinking Twitter was a free way to push our message out,” she says. “Big mistake. We learned to listen. We started winning once we let people decide on their own about our services.”

Why not test it out? Check out my Twitter stream right now by going to http://twitter.com/marcapitman. And follow me if you choose to create an account!

Here are some more blog posts on Twitter:

(c) Marc A. Pitman, FundraisingCoach.com