Sep112024
Colored pencils

What to Say When Your Donor Asks: How Much do you Spend on Overhead?

Colored pencils

I’ve been asked this question many times.

And not just by donors, but also by board members.

One of the ways I’ve answered is with my own questions:

  • If you could invest 20 cents to get a dollar, would you?
  • If you could invest 50 cents to get a dollar, would you?
  • If the dollar you got was old, wrinkly and ripped, would that matter to you?
  • If the dollar you got was mint, would it be worth it to you to pay a bit more?

Maybe the return on your invesment doesn’t matter to you. But maybe it does.  In the case of the wrinkly vs. mint dollar bill, it would matter a lot only if you’re a collector.  Change that to 50 cents to buy a bag of fresh, nutritious produce that will last a full week vs. 20 cents to buy a bag of old, rotten vegetables, and you begin to understand.

All things are not created equal.

That’s true, BIG TIME, for what folks consider ‘appropriate’ overhead.

There’s a time and a place for the red pencil, but most of the time another color will do a more effective job of generating the revenues you need to survive and thrive.

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Leave a commentStrategy & Management
Sep22024

7 Breakthrough Annual Fundraising Appeal Strategies

 

Three San Francisco Hearts. Launch. Heartstrings. Rise. Benefit for S.F. General Hospital Foundation.It’s back-to-school and prime fundraising season.

In fact, the end of the year will be here before you know it!

Working on your fall campaign and year-end appeal?

Wish you had a way to prioritize the stuff that really matters?

Around this time of year, it’s common for me to hear one or more of the following — not just from newbies to the profession, but also from seasoned pros:

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Leave a commentAnnual Giving
Aug152024
ducks in a row, swimming

5 More Top Strategies to Prepare for Fall Fundraising

ducks in a row, swimmingIn Part 1 of this two-part series of “Top 10 Strategies to Prepare for Fall Fundraising” we covered.

  1. Clean up Data
  2. Purge Mailing Lists
  3. Review Staff, Vendors and Freelancers
  4. Set Priority Objectives Based on Last Year’s Results
  5. Solidify a Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign

Today we’ll look at:

  1. Send Impact Reports to Set the Stage
  2. Stock Up on Compelling, Relevant Stories and Photos
  3. Connect with Major and Mid-Level Donors
  4. Prioritize Contacts with Mid-Level and Other Promising Supporters
  5. Plan Ahead to Welcome Donors to The Flock

Ready to get all your ducks in a row?

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Leave a commentAnnual Giving
Aug122024
Ducks in a row

Top 5 Strategies to Prepare for Fall Fundraising NOW

Ducks in a rowYou’ve got one month before fall fundraising season begins in earnest.

What will you do with it?

I’VE GOT 10 TOP STRATEGIES TO HELP YOU GET ALL YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW!

We’ll start with the first five today.

  1. Clean up Data
  2. Purge Mailing Lists
  3. Review Staff, Vendors and Freelancers
  4. Set Priority Objectives Based on Last Year’s Results
  5. Solidify a Multi-Channel Marketing Campaign

Next week we’ll look at:

  1. Send Impact Reports to Set the Stage
  2. Stock Up on Compelling, Relevant Stories and Photos
  3. Connect with Major and Mid-Level Donors
  4. Prioritize Contacts with Mid-Level and Other Promising Supporters
  5. Plan Ahead to Welcome Donors to The Flock

Ready?

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Leave a commentAnnual Giving
Aug52024
language of love alphabet

Nonprofit Gift Planning: Do You Use the Language of Love?

language of love alphabetWhat must you keep top of mind to have meaningful conversations with donors who (you hope!) may contemplate a gift to your organization?

I’ve given you a hint within my question.

One word: meaningful.

And for a conversation to be meaningful, you have to speak in a language that resonates with the other person.

And what is it that resonates more strongly than just about any other emotion?

LOVE.

To get folks to “YES” you need to learn the meaningful language of love and apply it to gift planning.

The word philanthropy literally means, from the Greek, the feeling of love (philos) towards humankind (anthropos).

It’s not just about HOW people give, but WHY.

What is it about your organization’s values, as enacted, that your donor is most passionate about? How can you, as a philanthropy facilitator, make it easy for the donor to meaningfully express their feelings and passions?

Planning is involved, both on your end and the donor’s.

Passionate philanthropy is seldom a spur of the moment action.

No one just gets up one morning and decides to give away $10,000, $100,000 or $1 million.

Or let’s just stipulate it’s relatively rare.

Rather, would-be philanthropists consider how making a particular gift at a particular point in time may match their values and help them accomplish their objectives, personal and philanthropic.

Anyone who contemplates a major, or stretch, gift plans ahead.

For purposes of this gift planning article, let’s consider your audience to be prospective major (outright) and legacy (deferred) gift donors.

Let’s try an experiment.

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Leave a commentMajor & Legacy Gifts
Jul312024
Olympic flag

Lift Up Your Nonprofit Donors with Their Olympic Moment

Olympic flag

“Give me one moment in time.

When I’m more than I thought could be.

When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away.

And the answers are all up to me.”

Ah, the lyrics remembered from a Whitney Houston song sung at the 1988 Olympics Opening Ceremonies.  The Olympic torch. The parade of nations. The stories, stories and stories.

Chills run down my spine.  The hairs stand straight on my neck.  A lump comes to my throat.

Cheesy, I know.  But it gets to me.

We all yearn for that one moment where we step outside our daily, mundane lives and exceed our wildest expectations.

When we’re bigger than ourselves.

We can’t all be gold medal athletes, but we can all be gold medal philanthropists.

And gold medal philanthropy facilitators.

The Olympics lifts us up.  At its best, philanthropy does this as well.

It inspires us.

It engages us fully.

It’s as addictive as chocolate when done right.

In fact, MRI data show us when people even simply contemplate giving, the pleasure centers of their brain light up. The very same area of the brain that lights up when we eat chocolate! One might call this the “philanthropic high.”

And, unlike other addictions, this one is good for us!

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Leave a commentDonor Retention
Jul292024
Expert Secrets; 80-20 Rule

3 Nonprofit Secrets to Rock Major Gift Fundraising

Expert Secrets; 80-20 RuleThere’s a treasure trove of knowledge and research around major gift fundraising. What works well.  What doesn’t work at all.  What’s, at best, half-baked.

It’s not rocket science.  But there’s definitely art, and some science, involved.

The gestalt way of thinking about the three secrets boils down to simply being:

(1) SMART,

(2) SYSTEMATIC and

(3) PASSIONATE.

But, I’m pretty pragmatic. So I’d like to give you something more practical.

If I had to pick the top three practical secrets to success, they would be the following:

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Leave a commentMajor & Legacy Gifts