causevox, on 10/30/15 4:20 AM
On the Tuesday following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, #GivingTuesday rises from the dust of the crazy commercialism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and encourages people to focus on a spirit of philanthropy and generosity. So, needless to say, #GivingTuesday is a great time to launch a new fundraising campaign.
Evan Paul, on 10/29/15 8:00 AM
One of the greatest challenges facing the nonprofit sector is our inability to clearly compare the activities and performance of diverse organizations. Historically, nonprofit leaders have struggled to compare and benchmark their organizations, and donors have used simplistic metrics—like overhead ratios—to judge performance.
Jay Love, on 10/28/15 4:24 AM
The major giving season of ever year is literally upon us. November and December often provide a majority of the funds raised for nonprofits from individuals annually. You do not want to miss out!
GuideStar Guest Blogger, on 10/27/15 4:27 AM
“You are not ever a genius all by yourself. Your ideas are a function of the people you are connected with…” – Carol Dweck, Author, Mindset
Your professional network is your greatest asset no matter what stage you are in your nonprofit career, whether you are an emerging leader or an acknowledged thought leader in your industry or somewhere in between. When you intentionally build your professional network in the right way, you create a circle of individuals who are all rooting for your success and happy to help you. An effective professional network can be a valuable asset to your nonprofit’s goals if you are leveraging your network in service your organization’s mission.
I like to balance two different approaches to professional networking, strategic and serendipitous. The strategic approach encourages you to analyze your network, find alignment for making connections, and have purpose-driven meetings. The serendipitous approach is a more casual encounter, walking or coffee meetings, or doing favors for contacts that don’t seem to have the capacity to help you now. If you deploy these two approaches, you will be able to make connections that can help you solve problems, learn, move forward on a professional or organizational goal, or what ever it is need you need to succeed.
Many times we don’t value serendipity because we don’t see an immediate ROI. As Kathyrn Minshew, CEO of the Daily Muse, notes in her HBR post, “Never Say No To Networking” it is hard to make the time to get out of the office when you are working long days.
“Always say yes to invitations, even if it’s not clear what you’ll get out of the meeting. I’m not arguing for long, pointless, unstructured conversations with everyone you meet. But many of my most fruitful relationships have resulted from a meeting or call in which I was not entirely sure what would or would not come of the conversation. You could call it making your own luck, by increasing the odds of making the right connection. Because you can’t assume that you know much about someone you don’t know very well. You may know their occupation, industry, and job title — but you don’t know what they may be an expert in, and you certainly don’t know who they know.”
I’ve found that scheduling walking meetings is a great way to get to know people and you get some exercise into your day! (I did a webinar on this topic for Guidestar in February, listen and view the slides here.)
In “Managing Yourself: A Smarter Way To Network” by Rob Cross and Robert J. Thomas, they offer a more nuanced way to network based on the old adage, “It isn’t what you know, it’s who you know.” It isn’t about having a lot of connections or only connecting with influential people. Before they offer up their framework, they ask, “Are you networking impaired?” Professional networking gone wrong includes a mismanagement of structure, relationships, and behavior.
But what really matters is structure: Core connections must bridge smaller, more-diverse kinds of groups and cross hierarchical, organizational, functional, and geographic lines. Core relationships should result in more learning, less bias in decision making, and greater personal growth and balance. The people in your inner circle should also model positive behaviors, because if those around you are enthusiastic, authentic, and generous, you will be, too.
The authors have analyzed many professionals professional networks and found that high performers have the following types of people in their core network or inner circle:
How do you create the inner circle of your network? The article offers these four steps:
There are many techniques to analyze or visualize our professional networks and I’ve identified a methods in this post that include analyzing your contacts via social media. These techniques are both high tech and low tech, as simple as using sticky notes. When doing the analysis, you want to look at diversity. Harold Jarche, a thought leader in networked leadership, suggests you also reflect on this question: Who are the people with you have most frequently communicated with in order to get your work done? List them and do an analysis based on:
– Age
– Organization
– Gender
– Hierarchical Position
– Area of Expertise
– Geographic Location
Then ask yourself: Is your professional learning network diverse enough? Diversity correlates with innovation? Are you getting new ideas from your network? If you find Twitter or LinkedIn boring, perhaps you are following wrong people. It is time to tune your network.
There is also research that suggests having an “open network” can lead to more career success than a closed network. A closed network is a network of people who already know each other – an industry network for example. In a closed network, it’s easier to get things done because you already share a common understanding and vocabulary and you know all the shorthand terms and unspoken rules. It’s comfortable because the group converges on the same ways of seeing the world that confirm your own. But if you create an open network — that is connections across multiple fields and perspectives – it is a better predictor of success.
In the HBR article, Cross suggests asking these two very important analysis questions: What benefits do your interactions with them provide? How energizing are those interactions? Having energizers in your network, people who are not self-interested or what Adam Grant describes as “Takers,” is important because it can help you be more successful. (Read GuideStar's review on Grant's book here.) Cross also suggests doing an analysis based on the benefits your connections provide. He suggest these categories:
– Information and learning
– Political support and influence
– Personal development
– Personal support and energy
– A sense of purpose or worth
– Work/life balance
It’s important to have people who provide each kind of benefit in your network. Categorizing your relationships will give you a clearer idea of whether your network is extending your abilities or keeping you stuck.
Once you’ve done this analysis, you can determine which connections to back away from. The article suggests avoiding people who steal your energy. The techniques for backing away might include “reshaping your role to avoid them, devoting less time to them, working to change their behavior, or reframing your reactions so that you don’t dwell on the interactions.” You should also analyze if you have too many connections that provide one type of benefit versus another and then look at the all the diversity characteristics that Jarche recommends. Now that you have made space in your professional network, start to fill it with the right people. Michele Martin has created this terrific worksheet based on the HBR article that you can use to help make decisions. An even simpler way to approach is this to write down three organizational or professional goals and three people who can help you achieve them.
The last step is to make sure you capitalize on your network. Are you staying on contact? Are you providing value to your connections? Don’t fall in the trap of connect with them and forget them. Here is a list of tactics that expert professional networkers use to keep in touch.
How healthy and vibrant is your professional network? Do you have a strong core? Are you building your professional network to be diverse, energizing, and supportive? Are you balancing being strategic with serendipity?
This blog was written by Beth Kanter and cross-posted onto the GreatNonprofits blog here. View the original here. GreatNonprofits is the leading platform for community-sourced stories and reviews about nonprofits
BoardAssist, on 10/26/15 4:38 AM
Not all nonprofit board members are financial experts, but every board member owes the stakeholders of their nonprofit, the duty to help steer their nonprofit in the right direction. For help in doing that, we turned to finance pro Paul Konigstein, in this week’s terrific guest post, including a checklist for the less financially inclined on the board that Paul developed. Thanks Paul!
Beth Kanter, on 10/23/15 4:25 AM
This photo is from an open space session during last week’s Funders Learning Lab: Investing In Network Leadership. I proposed a session with a title, “Going from Self Care to We Care” to talk about how do we scale a culture of self-care in networks. The networks, nonprofits organizations, and movements are filled with people who are passionate about social change work, but often work hard and long with few resources and many just keep going without giving a thought to self-care.
GuideStar Guest Blogger, on 10/22/15 5:10 AM
As many non-profit professionals know, getting funding for your ideas and projects isn’t easy. Oftentimes, even when you do find a funder with interests and priorities that are well-aligned with your own, the process for creating and submitting a grant application can be a daunting task.
Here are some key guidelines for writing a proposal that is clear, compelling, and fundable:
Andrea Kihlstedt, on 10/21/15 4:29 AM
Do you have a question to ask me? Email me, Andrea Kihlstedt, at ask.andrea@yahoo.com for your chance to be featured in the column!
Pursuant, on 10/20/15 4:31 AM
You know who they are. The fundraiser who makes it look easy. She nails the big gifts. Loves her job. He always seems to be grinning ear to ear. At the cocktail party they’re surrounded by all the donors you want to get to know. What’s their secret?
RelSci, on 10/19/15 4:57 AM
The Brief
These articles come from the nonprofit RelSci 5, their weekly newsletter for and about organizational leaders. Its curated articles and insights revolve around a different theme each week to help you do your job better. Get it in your inbox every week.
Thomas Wolf, on 10/15/15 8:00 AM
Adapted from How to Connect with Donors and Double the Money You Raise
A few years ago I was invited to a party where the only person I knew was the host. My wife was away so I was on my own.
After greeting the host and ordering a drink, I steeled myself for what promised to be a long evening. At that moment a young man came up and introduced himself. “You’re Tom Wolf,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to meet you. If you have a minute, I’d love you to come over here and meet some of my friends.”
Later I learned the host had deputized a group of people to act as a welcoming crew and my new friend was simply doing his job. Did I feel manipulated? Not at all. It was a wonderful evening and I met a lot of new and interesting people.
The next year, when the party’s host sent me a fundraising letter, he referred to the evening and said how much his young friend had enjoyed talking with me. I didn’t hesitate before putting a check in the return envelope. I felt connected.
In this vein, let me offer four cultivation tips that I discuss in greater depth in my book, How to Connect with Donors and Double the Money You Raise.
“It’s all about turning a name into a relationship.” So said one of my mentors, the late Francis Bosworth, executive director of a settlement house in Philadelphia.
In teaching me the elements of “friendraising,” Boz counseled patience coupled with genuine interest. “The contributions will come in time (or they won’t), but that isn’t the place to begin. Never ask a stranger for a large gift.”
This latter advice was a bit of an exaggeration. We request donations from plenty of people we don’t know and are often successful doing so. But in an age when fundraising books and courses teach the science and metrics of list building, Boz’s emphatic wisdom was an important complement for two reasons.
First, it was built on the idea that prospect lists take on much greater value when the names become flesh-and-blood people and, second, that a major benefit of this approach is that it often results in turning the casual small donor into an intensely loyal and large one.
Another early mentor, Peter, taught me the importance of using an early fundraising call primarily as an opportunity to form or deepen a relationship. You don’t endlessly talk about yourself or your organization.
“Think about the people you like to spend time with,” says Peter. “Are they the ones who constantly focus the conversation on themselves or those who show interest in you?”
Peter continues: “Would that every fundraiser took a crash course in empathy. Call it the art of good listening. It’s often the difference between success and failure.”
Since it sets the tone and helps to form your prospect’s initial impression, good listening is especially important at the beginning of a fundraising call. Take your cue from the great English novelist, Thomas Hardy, who said: “That man’s silence is wonderful to listen to.” Be like that man.
After decades of fundraising, I’m sometimes asked, “What’s the worst mistake you’ve made in your career?” It’s a question I can answer without hesitation because the mistake is one I made not just once, but countless times … and at great cost. Simply put, I didn’t pay enough attention to my donors’ children.
Needless to say, donors age and in time leave us. For those with a good deal of money, much of their wealth will live on after them. Where there are children, it’s the younger generation that will ultimately control where the family philanthropic donors are directed.
I’m not suggesting we cultivate friendships with six-year-olds. But youngsters grow into adults quickly and establish their own philanthropic preferences. When their parents’ estates are finally passed on, the kids in many cases have already established loyalties to organizations different from the ones their parents supported. Simply put, befriending the children can help prevent the family philanthropy from straying once the parents are gone.
A regular donor of ours, Madelyn had recently divorced and remarried and her new husband was quite wealthy. With her first husband, Madelyn had always made a contribution to our organization which, given their economic situation, I considered generous.
She came to many of our activities and professed great interest in our work. With the organization taking on a new project that I knew would interest her, and with Madelyn now having access to greater wealth, I went to see her and asked for $5,000. She said it sounded interesting and she’d discuss it with her husband.
A week later I received a letter explaining that with two children in college, things were a bit tight and they wouldn’t be making a gift. I was surprised and a little disappointed, but let it go. Until I took my car in for service the next week!
I asked the dealer, an old friend, how things were going. He happened to mention Madelyn and her new husband and how in the last year they’d bought two new cars—in cash—one of them a luxury sedan.
I was livid. Here was one of my long-time donors, now affluent and crying poor. I went to the development committee and spewed forth various invectives. Their reaction surprised me. “Tom, you’re no longer rational about this,” they said. “You’re too upset. We’ll take them off your list and give them to someone else.”
It was good advice. In real life when our friends disappoint and anger us, we can move on. But in the world of fundraising we can’t afford to. We need to figure out a way to continue the relationships or our organizations will be seriously impoverished.
The preceding is a guest blog post by Thomas Wolf is a principal with the consulting firm WolfBrown. In addition to How to Connect with Donors and Double the Money You Raise, he is the author of Effective Leadership for Nonprofit Organizations: How Executive Directors and Boards Work Together.
Chuck McLean, on 10/15/15 4:27 AM
Nobody really knows how much Americans give to charity each year, and there are now a number of new actors in the charitable giving estimation game, but Giving USA has been around the longest, and they estimate that Americans gave more than $335 billion to charity in 2013. As one might expect, most of the charities that receive the most contributions are household names.
Claire Axelrad, on 10/14/15 4:36 AM
Successful nonprofit development (both fundraising and marketing) is all about persuasion. One of my favorite books is Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human. His premise is that we’re all in "sales" on a daily basis. Whether it’s simply trying to get your kids up and out the door in the morning or persuading your boss to give you a raise, you’re constantly coaxing people to induce a specific desired behavior.
GuideStar Guest Blogger, on 10/12/15 4:37 AM
Nonprofits are missing the boat on fundraising with businesses. Last time I checked the average nonprofit raised just five percent of their revenues from businesses. Compare that number to the 72 percent nonprofits raise from individuals.
GuideStar Guest Blogger, on 10/9/15 4:56 AM
By now you’ve probably seen the news about the refugee crisis in Europe. And you may wonder why so many refugees are coming from Syria.
Jessica Walker, on 10/8/15 4:43 AM
Earlier this year, GuideStar began hosting a staff book club. So far, we’ve reviewed, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and most recently, Give and Take by Adam M. Grant. The book’s premise is that there are three types of people – givers, takers, and matchers – with givers being the most successful of the bunch, even though it may seem that takers gain more in the long-term.
Paul Jolly, on 10/7/15 4:58 AM
Let’s break fundraising down to the bio-chemical level: your donors give because they want the endorphin rush. All the catch phrases that donors use to describe the satisfaction of giving, like “changing the world,” “having an impact,” “making a difference,” giving back,” are all ways of describing the fire-hose that blasts their brains with happy-juice.
GlobalGiving, on 10/6/15 4:53 AM
Both GuideStar and GlobalGiving are interested in highlighting the nonprofits and funders that have long been working to address the issues laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Below is an introduction to GlobalGiving’s Global Goals initiative which aims to mobilize individual donors, corporations, and philanthropists to take action around these goals.
Chuck McLean, on 10/5/15 4:41 AM
I would like to thank everyone who attended our webinar about the 15th GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report on September 29th. In case you missed it, you can view the full recording and slide deck here. There were a few questions that we did not have time to answer during the webinar, so I will take them on here. Forgive me first for providing the standard disclaimer: The information provided below is not to be considered legal advice applicable to any particular situation and organizations needing specific advice and counsel on these matters should always consult with knowledgeable counsel.
Are you seeing an increase in the number of nonprofits who are paying directors to serve on the Board? Do you think Guidestar will start including director compensation in its report?
Orr Associates, Inc., on 10/2/15 4:39 AM
This week, we bring you our final installment of our Junior Board Series with Orr Associates, Inc. Read part one for an overview of junior boards as a fundraising tool, and part two for the challenges of junior boards.
Bill Hoffman, on 10/1/15 8:00 AM
A key responsibility of nonprofit board members is to assure that the organization has sufficient resources to fulfill its mission. There are many indirect aspects of this—helping with outreach in the community, serving on a finance committee to provide fiduciary oversight, etc. But the most direct and perhaps most impactful is fundraising. While many board members embrace the prospect of helping with fundraising, others run in the opposite direction.
Most folks who aren't regularly engaged in fundraising equate the entire process with "The Ask." There are, however, plenty of steps leading up to and following the actual ask that a board member who is uncomfortable with asking for donations can help with. Here are the top ways in which volunteers can help with resource development and without realizing they're actually fundraising.
The old saw is "Ask for money and you'll get advice; ask for advice and you'll get money." Would that it could be so easy every time. But it is true that it's much easier to get in front of prospects asking for their wisdom than asking for their treasures. Most people are flattered and happy to share their perspectives.
I recall meeting with an individual who would have made a perfect prospect, but that wasn't why we were approaching him. I started the conversation by saying that I just wanted to get his thoughts and not ask him for anything. We had a very productive discussion. He opened our minds to some new possibilities and offered to make introductions to individuals whom we would not otherwise have been able to approach. That was the beginning of a series of conversations that culminated in many fruitful contacts—and ultimately a gift from the original advisor. He insisted! That original contact came from a volunteer who was not comfortable with fundraising but was willing to help us get the advice we needed.
I had a board member who was adamant that there was no way she could ever do any fundraising. She had fantastic relationships with the right people in the community, but was uncomfortable asking—or even arranging for someone else to ask—for donations from friends. We discovered that she had a close connection to the leader of a family foundation. This foundation’s work was 100 percent in alignment with our organization. I asked the board member just to send an e-mail introduction so we could exchange programmatic ideas.
Our two organizations had been in the same circles without intersecting until that introduction was made. After that initial contact, the board member was out of the loop and didn't have to worry about any perceptions in the community that she was asking friends for money. (Even though we all know that it's normal for friends to ask each other to support their organizations' projects.) The upshot of that initial introduction was a four-year gift totaling $160,000 and a lasting, mutually beneficial relationship between the two organizations. I always made a point of bragging about this board member "who can't do fundraising" and the support she brought into the organization.
We all know that you can't thank donors too often, but staff time constraints often make going beyond the minimum a challenge. Our plan for thanking donors always started with staff—a call and thank-you letter. These were almost expected by donors. But our thank-yous really got noticed when board members—especially those who wanted to help but not get in front of prospects—got involved with the thank-you process. The power of a phone call from a volunteer or a handwritten note is amazing. The proof was when a donor would make a point of commenting on the nice call or handwritten thank-you note he or she had received from a board member.
Development directors and CEOs will often begin a fundraising campaign by reviewing prospects with board members to find existing connections. Just as with other fundraising efforts, some board members are very engaged in the process and come to the table with dozens of connections to make. Other board members sit quietly because they don’t want to be providing introductions to their circle of friends.
One way to engage those quiet volunteers is to ask for their help in developing strategies for approaching prospects. They will often have inside knowledge of the relationships among the wealthy and who or what approach is most likely to be successful. But perhaps the best payoff I've had in these situations is developing a longer-term strategy for getting in front of individuals or organizations that have no connection with the nonprofit.
The added bonus of involving non-development-minded board members in the resource-development process is that it energizes them and contributes to their feeling that they are doing meaningful work for the nonprofit. This often leads to increased engagement by the board member, which opens up even more potential in the future. It certainly takes an investment of time and effort, but invariably pays off!
The preceding is a guest post by Bill Hoffman. Bill Hoffman & Associates, LLC and has over 30 years’ expertise in various aspects of the nonprofit sector, working in organizational leadership; program design, implementation, and management; board development and training; and strategic planning. He also serves as a volunteer on local and national nonprofit boards, currently chairing the National School Foundations Association. He has written and present on such topics as strategic planning, board development, community and volunteer engagement, organizational development and performance, and best practices; you can find his writings and prsentations in national, regional, and state publications and symposia. He is also an adjunct professor at National University, teaching Nonprofit Leadership and Board Development.
Jeff Brooks, on 10/1/15 8:00 AM
Excerpted from How to Turn Your Words Into Money
How often have you read fundraising built on statements like these?
These are meant to stir you to action by bowling you over with big numbers. The organizations seem to think, People will open their wallets once they know how big the problem is!
It doesn't work.
In fact, big-number fundraising is so bad it shouldn't be called fundraising. Fundcrushing is more like it. It's a force for evil, training people that charitable giving is for dummies. Fundcrushing spreads a message of apathy and hopelessness.
Let's look at some of the differences between the two approaches:
| Fundraising | Fundcrushing |
|---|---|
| You can change the world. Here's how. | The problem is huge beyond imagining. Just look at those overwhelming numbers! |
| Meet this person you can help. | Grasp the enormity of the problem. |
| Give because you can be part of the solution. | Give because this problem is so big. |
| Feel empowered. | Feel unimportant and guilty. |
Fundcrushing discourages people from giving because it ignores two facts about human motivation:
Most of your donors and prospects already know the problem you’re working on is big. The sad thing is that many people don't donate because they think giving is futile. They feel they can't make a difference.
That's our fault. Fundraisers have been hammering away at how big the problems are for so long, many people only know one thing about the world's problems: They're huge. They have no idea we could solve many of our problems if we would get involved.
Let me show you what I mean by fundcrushing:
Every year, 15 million hectares of rainforest are destroyed. That's more than a football field of forest every second. Permanently gone. With the forest go irreplaceable plant and animal species. More than 137 species go extinct every day. That's one every ten minutes.
A donor who reads this message would have to have an iron will to keep caring and stay involved in the cause. It's as if I said to you, "My dog died. Will you donate to save his life?"
If you want to move people to join you in solving this environmental problem, you need to tell a story or paint a picture of a solvable piece of it. Give them an opportunity to act heroically and make a difference:
The bulldozers are ready. They're parked on the edge of a patch of tropical forest that's about the size of the average American backyard. Several dozen gigantic trees stand waiting too. Each one is up to 200 feet tall, home to birds, mammals, insects, reptiles—including a very noisy troop of monkeys.
It will all be flattened in a matter of hours. Unless someone like you steps forward with the funds to halt the destruction.
A few years ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote about the tepid international response to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. He cited some now-famous research showing that people were far more charitable when told about a hungry little girl in Africa named Rokia than when told about a deadly famine that threatened millions.
Kristof realized that the reason the Darfur crisis was neglected was because it was huge. People couldn't care. He theorized there would be more response if Darfur had "a suffering puppy with big eyes and floppy ears."
He was right.
Every fundraising ask must have a puppy! Not necessarily an actual dog but someone whose story tells the story in a way that touches the heart. The way a puppy does. If you don't have that, you aren't really fundraising. You're just spreading words around, hoping they'll randomly catch people's attention. After I read Kristof's piece, I made a sign to remind myself to find the puppy in every fundraising message. Here it is:
You can download this image in color and sized to print on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet at http://is.gd/wheresthepuppy
Here's how you can change fundcrushing into fundraising:
That's how you win donors' hearts, minds, and donations. When you slam them with big numbers, you confirm the fear lingering in all our hearts: that we are not significant.
Don't do that to your donors. It's not nice. And it's not fundraising.
The preceding is a guest post by Jeff Brooks, author of The Fundraiser's Guide to Irresistible Communications as well as How to Turn Your Words Into Money. He has served the nonprofit community for more than 20 years, working as a copywriter and creative director on behalf of some of the best nonprofits of North America and Europe. His clients have included St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, CARE, The Salvation Army, Ronald McDonald House, World Vision, Feeding America, the American Cancer Society, and many more. He is deeply grateful to be part of an industry that makes the world a better place.
VolunteerHub, on 10/1/15 4:15 AM
Volunteers are amazing people. However, as with any group of people, some volunteers can be a time-drain on your organization, requiring much more one-on-one attention than others donating their efforts. In a word: “high-maintenance.”
