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Coach Dave

Giving Circles: My Giving Tuesday Gift To You

Giving_circle

Dear Charitable-Minded Person:

Before you go too far into your diatribe about how, someday, you’re going to join Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg among the world’s great philanthropists, I have to ask you, no BEG you: PLEASE for the love of mercy, DO NOT START A FAMILY FOUNDATION!

Why? Well for starters, there are already way too many of them on the books, and a large number are out of compliance with government regulations and/or legal/ethical standards for grant makers.  Many foundations don’t even have any money to give out.  Besides being a waste of time and resources, the main reason you should think thrice before starting your own foundation is that they’re just not necessary. Here are some things you can do instead:

  • Write a check to an organization whose mission is aligned with what’s important to you.
  • If you can’t find one, give your money to a community foundation that provides discretionary grants to organizations that support your favorite cause.
  • If you have enough cheddar, hire a wealth manager to start a donor-advised fund and let them do the dirty work of finding, vetting and managing grantees for you.
  • If you don’t have a lot of money, or even if you do, but want to be deeply involved in your philanthropy, you can start a giving circle.  This is a participatory form of philanthropy in which you and a group of like-minded people pool your resources and give collectively.  Giving circles are extremely flexible and can be as formal or informal as you need them to be.

Here is one of many links that will help you to learn more about giving circles. Or you can book a free consultation and we can talk about it.

Happy giving!

The Theory of Aligned Contributions

skin a cat

As a cat lover and admirer, I’ve always been troubled by the expression “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Why on earth would anyone want to skin a cat? But I have to admit, the saying makes a valid point. Any problem or goal can, and should, be approached from multiple perspectives and directions.  The important thing is that all of the contributors need to know what specifically they and all of the others are doing to accomplish the goal.

I learned about the Theory of Aligned Contributions as part of a workshop on Results-Based Accountability, sponsored by the Staten Island Foundation. The theory posits that there’s no ONE way to get it done (whatever “it” may be).  In short, it is a framework to for getting service providers on the same page and working together instead of in silos.  Much like its more prominent sibling Collective Impact, the Theory of Aligned Contributions is a multi-sector, results-based approach to collaboration that is intended to achieve a population-level result.

Also much like Collective Impact, service providers bemoan the “extra work” that comes with this broader, more coordinated approach.  I say, if the extra work will generate positive results, then it’s well worth the trouble.  Anyone who disagrees should be somewhere else doing something else, and leave the cat-skinning to those of us who are willing to do it together.

For those who dare to go tumbling down the rabbit hole of collaboration, here’s a link to an article on the Theory of Aligned Contributions.

The Case for Outsourcing Development

UnderDeveloped

The harsh reality about development staffing (as noted in the above 2013 report by CompassPoint), is that you’re very likely to go through a search every two years.  Good Development Officers move on to higher pay and other adventures, and the not-so-good ones just move on.  Either way, they leave a big hole in your organization’s operation as you face a competitive and dynamic funding landscape. So in your search, the major question to ask is: How does your development department spend the next two years building momentum, being productive, generating results, and making sure it can sustain its efforts?

Development, like HR and Finance, is a critical system in any organization.  When effectively managed, these systems enable leadership to focus on vision, mission and strategy (aka the real, actual work).  Similar to the benefits of outsourcing HR and Finance, retaining a Chief Development Officer (CDO) Consultant has the following advantages:

  • It provides senior level management and leadership experience
  • Consists of a focused scope of work with clear deliverables and measures for success
  • Provides objectivity and a new perspective/approach to building sustainable systems
  • Allows for more flexibility in creating roles/building staff
  • Is more cost-effective and efficient than the “revolving door” option of hiring a FT development officer
  • It frees the CEO to focus on the real, actual work of the organization

Shameless plug: Before you update that job posting and launch your semi-annual search for next Development Officer, schedule a free consultation and we can talk about whether outsourced development is a good fit for your organization.

Seven Steps to Crowdfunding Success

crowdfunding

Giving Tuesday will be upon us before we know it, so organizations everywhere are (or should be) starting to plan their campaigns to solicit support from the vast ocean known as the Internet. Hopefully, instead of shooting arrows in the dark, your organization will take a more intentional, strategic approach to executing your crowdfunding campaign.  Here are some pointers:

  1. Conduct a social media audit. Make sure that you already have a robust, interactive social networking community. All of your platforms – website, blog, email marketing, social sites, crowdfunding portal – should be up to date and coordinated. If they’re not, then stall your campaign and make it happen before proceeding to step #2.
  2. Build an inner circle. Formulate the team that’s going to drive and manage the campaign. Ideally, it would consist of a mix of board, staff, and volunteers who have robust and interactive social networks. The inner circle will devote the time and brainpower to build the theme for the campaign, develop scripts and content, and recruit ambassadors to push the campaign out to the public.
  3. Seed your campaign. Successful campaigns raise 30% of the funds in the first 10 days.  Ideally, you’ll have a good portion of this amount raised before the campaign even starts.  Try to identify a major donor who is willing to provide matching funding to support your campaign. Announce the matching gift in the 2nd trimester of the campaign, to offset the inevitable lull that is common at this phase.
  4. Develop the campaign messaging. The ideal campaign is six weeks in duration, with roughly 8-12 unique touch points throughout. Be concise in your messaging. Appeals should be short, (three or four sentences should do), include a compelling or inspiring picture, and encompass a human-interest story related to the cause.  All of the appeals should end with “please click here to make a donation to help us achieve our goal of $$$$$.”
  5. Work your contacts. The inner/outer circles should not only re-post/forward the campaigns to their networks, but also make personal, one- on-one appeals (by phone, email, in person, or online) to solicit gifts and other ambassadors (using the scripts that were developed at the beginning of the campaign). This is tedious, cut and paste work.  If your inner and outer circles aren’t willing to schedule time to get it done, the campaign will be a flop. Or it won’t raise as much as it would otherwise.
  6. Invest in expertise. If you have Ice Bucket Challenge aspirations and want your campaign to go viral, it’s wise to bring in an social networking expert (before the beginning of the entire process) to provide professional guidance on content development, messaging, and search engine optimization.
  7. Stay in touch. Thank your donors right away. Keep in touch with them on the platform in which they originally engaged you.  Make sure they’re periodically tagged in your posts. Research their giving habits.  For those with the potential for higher giving or deeper involvement, schedule meetings so you can ask them a whole lot of questions.

Have questions, challenges or ideas about your crowdfunding campaign? Book a free consultation so we can talk about it.

Fundraising and Organizational Brand

To sustain long-term fundraising success, an organization must show potential donors that its work is meaningful, relevant, and impactful. But simply doing good work that addresses a pressing social need is no guarantee that an organization will attract funders—or even get a positive response when approaching funders. Nonprofits need a communications strategy that highlights the importance and relevance of their work, but more broadly, they need to develop their organizational brand.

All nonprofits inevitably have a brand; they should work to shape it. It is the sum of associations that people have about them in terms of values, practices, and visual identity. Rather than hoping people will pick up on their good work, nonprofits can—and must—deliberately influence how people perceive them by cultivating and promoting a distinct brand. Successful companies don’t leave their brand identity to chance, and neither should nonprofits. Even though most nonprofits have tight budgets for non-programatic expenses, there is still a lot they can do to shape how they are perceived—one key area is how they describe their work.

The language an organization uses to define itself should flow from its mission. The mission statement should get to the organization’s essence; people should be able to read it and understand why the organization exists and what it does. A clear mission should be the starting point for all communication and development language, such as a case statement, grant proposals, website content, presentations, newsletters, annual reports, and an informal elevator pitch. But there is more to branding than language.

It is important to pay attention to other visual aspects of the brand. Today’s world is so digital and brand-sensitive that things like website design, social media presence, logo, and multimedia are hugely important. A potential funder will likely have a bad first impression of an organization if they find a disorganized website, no Twitter feed, and a handful of materials in different design styles. These factors are not in themselves grounds for funding, but when they are subpar, potential funders can dismiss an organization—especially since there is so much competition from other worthy organizations for their limited funding.

Luckily, many nonprofits are catching on to some of the marketing approaches that have long been standard in the private sector. They are learning how much it can improve their fundraising outcomes if they have a mission-centered brand that is reinforced by multiple channels of communication—including a well-designed visual identity and a prominent online presence. Then, when it comes time to request funding, there is already a strong brand in place that reinforces and creates synergy with the funding appeal.

Ice Bucket Therapy – One Year Later

Ice-Bucket-Challenge-ALS-Research-750x420

So how’s that cure for ALS coming along?

CONFESSION: When the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral, I was more than a little bit jealous. As a fundraiser who has spent many days and nights scraping and clawing for every dime, armed with a noble mission and compelling case statement (and not a cheesy gimmick), it filled me with envy to see all of those buckets of cash pouring into the coffers of the ALSA.

And I’m still bitter. Because the outpouring of support for ALS had much less to do with the actual cause (many people didn’t even know what ALS was), and much more to do with the vain, solipsistic, “look at me” mentality of our society, which was fed by the opportunity to film one of those inane ice bucket videos. Should it matter that people weren’t really connected to the cause? No. ALS is an insidious disease, and the association got an amazing infusion of cash that can be used for treatment and research, which is a very good thing for ALS victims and families.

So back to my original question: How’s it going?

According to this week’s edition of TIME, The Ice Bucket Challenge brought in $115 million – roughly four times the amount that the ALSA brought in the previous year.  At press time, the ALSA had spent $47 million, with about $31 million allocated toward research, $11 million spent on patient and community services and the remaining $5 million on education, fundraising, and processing fees. I won’t bore you with the geeky science of it all, but the infusion of cash has already yielded some encouraging results with respect to both treatment and cure.

So I guess it’s time for me to stop being bitter and focus on what I, and other fundraisers, can learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge.  Did the ALSA catch lightning in a bottle, or is there something there that the rest of us can use, learn from, build on in the future to make our fundraising more successful?

Sigh. I’m still bitter. Maybe another time.

The Case for a Clear Case

case statement

Everybody in your nonprofit should be able to articulate a clear case for support, from board members down to frontline staff. The case is your organization’s unique reason for existing, based on a very real social need—i.e. how you are equipped to offer an effective solution to a specific problem in society. It forms the basis for all communication around your work, whether an informal conversation with funders, the content of your website, or a full grant proposal.

Your case for support should be consistent and supported by all internal stakeholders. Imagine if your staff and board told drastically different narratives of why your organization exists and what it does. Potential supporters might see you as disorganized, disunified, or even disingenuous—all which would reduce their inclination to fund you. But when you have a clear, shared case, it shows supporters that you are unified and have thought carefully about your place in the world.

The act of formulating a case statement—a concise two- to three-page articulation of your case—can help your organization deeply understand why its work is needed. Many nonprofits are so focused on program activities that they don’t spend much time contemplating why those activities are relevant. By framing your work as a direct and appropriate response to a pressing social issue, you will have a much greater impact and mobilize more support. You might even realize that there are deeper issues to address that require a modified approach.

A case statement is best created with the input of many people within your organization. This isn’t something that should be left solely to your development staff. All internal stakeholders should be on board and understand the relevance of your organization’s unique case. When you agree on it, you should make sure that everybody can also articulate it, even if only in simple terms—in fact, simpler is better

Though the creation of the case statement should be collaborative, it’s best if one person writes it, as it can become an issue of ‘too many cooks in the kitchen.’ Ideally, your board and staff would outline its basic points and somebody in development would craft it into a written form, which will serve as the basis for future development documents, such as full grant proposals.

So if your organization does not have a clearly defined case statement, get on your ED’s case to formalize one—there’s a case for it. It will clarify and unify your organization’s messaging about what it does and might even help you approach your work more effectively.

The Case for Interim Executive Leadership

transition

An executive transition is a tumultuous time for any organization. Uncertainty is the order of the day. Some staff mourn the loss of their leader, while others update their resumes. Funders downshift into “wait and see mode,” while the board of directors circles the wagons, formulates a new plan for the organization and launches a search for its new leader.

What better time to bring in an experienced consultant with the skills and know-how to stabilize an organization?

An Interim Executive is equipped with the tools and strategies for gathering and synthesizing information quickly, the poise to reassure staff, funders and stakeholders, the focus to hold the line in the mission-critical areas, and the foresight to identify areas for improvement and further examination.

Boards need time and latitude to conduct an exhaustive search for a new leader. An Interim Executive Director can give them exactly that.  For more information on Interim Executive Leadership, visit the Support Center/Partnership in Philanthropy, which is training and developing a pool of consultants to provide this valuable service to organizations in transition.  Or you can book a free consultation and we can talk about it.

Development in Times of Organizational Change

change

Startup. Executive transition. Departure (or addition) of key staff.  Loss (or gain) of key funding relationships.  New program development. Strategic planning. Scaling. Board restructuring. Rebranding.

Is there ever a time when an organization isn’t going through some kind of crisis or transformation?

In the nonprofit world, change is the rule, not the exception. And through it all, your organization’s systems and operations have to remain consistently focused on mission and message.  Here are some strategies for making sure that happens:

Conduct an organizational analysis. Times of change are ideal for conducting a holistic examination of the organization’s functioning and effectiveness.  The organizational analysis is a framework that serves to “diagnose” the organization, identify strengths, weaknesses and areas for further investigation, support information gathering, and/or inform critical decision making.

Take your strategic plan off the shelf.  You spent hours, weeks, months, maybe even years, working on your organization’s strategic plan. But as a living document it’s never finished, and it won’t have value if unless you visit it regularly.  A time of change is the perfect opportunity to re-examine your strategic plan (if you’ve forgotten about it) or create one (if you haven’t already).  Be sure to designate a point person (consultant, board member, CEO) to monitor the plan and convene/update the team at regular intervals (no more than monthly, but no less than quarterly).

Document and share your development plan.  A written development plan, consisting of fundraising goals and a work plan to achieve those goals, is a compass. It keeps your fundraising operation moving in a clear direction, allows for seamless course correction, and helps to prevent mission creep and other distractions that can get you lost. Your development plan will be a stabilizing factor during your organizational crisis or transition.  Get  your plan out of your head and on paper so it can help guide you through the next adventure.

Maintain a strong culture of philanthropy.  Everyone in the nonprofit family – participants, board, staff, donors, volunteers,  – plays a role in fundraising.  It’s critical for all members of the team to know the big picture, embrace their role, and have the skills, resources and motivation to carry it out.  That way when change hits, the entire team is well-aligned to handle it.

If you need help thinking through a significant change, crisis or transformation in your organization, book a free consultation and we can talk about it.

Fundraising the SMART Way

SMART

I just got back from sunny Miami, where I attended a workshop that was a real eye opener.  Fundraising the SMART Way, a training and coaching program by Bristol Strategy Group, shows a way out of the blind, hair-on-fire, tin-cup method of donor cultivation employed by most nonprofits. The coaching program helps organizations create ideal donor profiles and scorecards, conduct comprehensive prospect analysis that is customized to the organization’s values and priorities, and develop a pipeline system of relationship management that allows you to move prospects through a clear continuum of engagement.  The major principles of Fundraising the SMART Way are:

  • Focus on your strengths.  Take the “S” from your SWOT analysis and put it on your chest, like a superhero.  Your strengths are what you use to make the case that you are worthy of funding.
  • Define your ideal donor, then go find them. Create a picture of your dream donor in the same way that you envision your dream house, car or vacation. Give it detail, so that you have a standard to measure prospective donors against. Use your favorite current donors as examples.
  • Do more research and less reaching.  It takes more than money to become a donor. So why limit your research to giving capacity?  Dig deeper to find out what might motivate someone to give to your organization.
  • Ask, don’t tell. I’ll cover this in more detail in a later blog. They best way to learn more about what your donors want is to forget about what you want for a moment and just ask them. Open-ended questions will get you very far in learning a prospective donor’s value sought.
  • Establish shared values.  Once you know what your donor is looking for, now you can share information about your organization – mainly, the common ground that you share in what you are trying to accomplish.
  • Attract, don’t chase.  This is more about mindset than anything else.  If you approach funding from a deficit-based mindset (PLEASE help us or we’ll go out of business!), you will appear to be desperate and therefore much more likely to repel than attract donations.  Put away that tin cup!
  • Be ambitious! Your organization has many strengths, as we have already established, and you have big ideas and a grand vision that is worthy of support. So don’t be afraid to pursue big numbers.  Try to target three times as many dollars as you are trying to raise. You can always adjust your targets and expectations along the way if necessary.

For more information on Fundraising the SMART Way, visit  the Bristol Strategy Group website.