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As we enter the season of light, and you move into full-steam-ahead year-end fundraising mode, there’s something I want to remind you about your messaging.

“Oh, by the way, it’s not about you.

The biggest mistake you can make is thinking your organization is the story.  People aren’t buying your organization.  When someone asks: “What do you do?” they’re not interested in your organization so much as what your organization accomplishes.

Imagine you’re at a dinner party and someone asks “What do you do?”  Are you going to tell them your entire life story?  Every aspect, from job to education to family to hobbies? No, of course not! You’ll tell them one thing about yourself.  Why?  Because they don’t know you. They’re not yet that interested in you. First, you have to intrigue them.

The same holds true with your nonprofit.  Whenever someone asks the “What do you do?” question, whether explicitly or implicitly, your job is simply this: tell them about ONE thing you accomplish.

“If you write what you yourself sincerely think and feel and are interested in,” Rachel Carson wrote as she contemplated the loneliness of creative work after her unexampled books about the sea made her one of the most beloved writers of her time, “you will interest other people.”

– Maria Popova, The Marginalian

Now is a good time to personally re-connect with your organization’s mission. What really jazzes you about the work your efforts make possible? If you’re not excited, don’t expect others to get excited. Philanthropy is a passion business!

Okay! It’s biweekly newsletter time again, and my hope is some of the free resources I’ve collected and curated for you will help you share your passions and guide others on the pathway to passionate philanthropy. As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

Show Me the Data

The fictional LA detective, Joe Friday, was famous for saying “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Similarly, in the tech and business worlds, “show me the data” has become a common refrain.

As in, nothing really matters if there isn’t data to support it.

Well, that’s great if you’re a middle manager with a lot of boxes to tick.

But think back to the last time you saw a line go around the block, and ask yourself what the folks were waiting in line for.

Chances are, they weren’t in line to download a bunch of facts. They were in line to experience a story. Or a song. Or a preacher. Or a chef. Or a painter. They were in line to experience something unique and wonderful.

Data likely had Sweet-Fanny-Adams to do with any of it.

Russ Roberts talked about this on the Tim Ferris podcast back in August.

Yes, most of us are in business because we want to be successful. And yes, data in business is terribly important. But success requires more than just data. Success requires humanity as well. “Man does not live by bread alone” and all that.

–– Hugh MacLeod, The Gaping Void

All of the above holds true, big time, in fundraising. People are drawn to emotional stories, not logical data. As you move forward with year-end fundraising, bear this in mind. People don’t care about the how, what, when and where of what you do. They care about the who and the why. Please, please, please do a quick check of any mailed or online appeals you plan to send between now and December 31^st to make sure they include a compelling story, an ask, and very little else.

Persuade, don’t lecture.

Okay! It’s biweekly newsletter time again, and my hope is some of the free resources I’ve collected and curated for you will give you the help you need to meet your greatest challenges.  As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

“I’m not that smart”

Someone said that to me the other day and it was heartbreaking.

The number of tasks in our culture that require someone who was born with off-the-charts talent is small indeed.

Just about everything else we need people to do is the result of effort, practice and care. It’s true that variations of that work are easier for some folks, but no one finds all of it easy going.

The correct thing to say is, “I don’t care that much.” I don’t care enough to do the reading, to fail along the way, to show up, to make a promise, to learn as I go, to confront failure, to get better at the work.

All of that might be true.

But you’re almost certainly smart enough.

— Seth Godin

If you’re using your own judgement of your level of intelligence as an excuse for not learning a new skill, ask yourself if that’s really the core of the problem. It could simply mean you’re not interested. You don’t have the heart to work hard at what you’re being asked to do. Or what you think you should do.  That’s okay. But if it’s the case, perhaps you should find another line of work. An area where you can invest those talents that most align with the core of your being.

It’s a choice; not fate.

If you like the niche you find yourself in, person up. Real excellence and achievement is largely a matter of commitment and practice. This is what Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in Outliers. First learn what needs to be done. Then study how to do it. Then… do it!

It is my hope some of the free resources I’ve collected and curated for you in this newsletter will give you the help you need.  As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

Fundraisers have only three basic objectives:

1) To describe their institution and what makes it distinctive

2) To develop a sense of urgency for the project or program, and

3) To secure the necessary funds to make it happen.

 Your job is to get the largest gift possible, in the shortest amount of time, to the greatest joy of the donor. People give to change and to save lives. That is the chief motivating factor. Make that the dominant theme in your material and contacts.

Success in fundraising is due less to the fundraiser’s experience than to loving the work. Less to intelligence than to your zeal. Less to the mechanics of the job than to enthusiasm and total commitment to the mission. 

– Jerold Panas,  Irrefutable Canons of Fundraising

This is the time of year to boost your enthusiasm so you’ll boost your results. It is my hope some of these collected free resources will give you the jolt you need to double down on what draws you to your mission. This renewal of commitment on your part will translate to a similar renewal of commitment on the part of your supporters.  Passion is contagious!

As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

Who cares?

No one cares. That happens rarely.

Someone cares. That happens all the time, and it’s at the heart of our work.

Everyone cares. Almost never.

Someone is enough. In fact, someone is the entire point

— Seth Godin

As we enter into prime fundraising season, it’s important to ask the question: Who cares? These folks are the “someones” you should be targeting with your marketing communications and fundraising messaging. Are you, perhaps, trying to reach the amorphous “everyone?”

Think about it. In fact, take some time every week to think carefully about what you’re about to do that week. Does it make sense? Will it positively impact your bottom line? Will it grow a solid base of support among people who care?

Here are some free resources, curated from across the web. Click on those that speak to you. Some offer practical tips; others important food for thought. See if there’s a webinar you want to attend.

As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

Feature creep

1. 1. Adding another feature is cheap compared to the benefits it offers to new users or existing ones.
   2. Once a feature is added, it is almost never removed.
   3. When enough features are added, the system breaks down and fails.

This isn’t just software. It’s the menu at the diner. It’s the buttons on the dashboard of a car. It’s the variety of choices parents are offered of which dates summer camp starts or ends. Anything where a lot of hard work can be slightly improved simply by adding an innocuous option.

Add one point, Yahoo had 183 links on their home page. Google, which had two, ultimately grabbed all of their search traffic. The app on my phone can now open the trunk of my car if I press enough buttons.

Features are useful (that’s why we call them features). And yes, serving the underserved and the unseen is important. But creep cannot continue forever. At some point, there’s system bankruptcy and the cycle begins again.

While we might not easily say no to a new feature, we can be smart and proactive when it comes time to clear the slate and start over.

— Seth Godin

Here are some free resources, curated from across the web. Per Seth Godin, you don’t want to try everything at once, but some features will make your job easier, more fulfilling and more successful. In other words, don’t overly crowd your donation page or offer a reply form with too many choices. Do adopt useful features that make giving, and asking, easy.

As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,

A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,

Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,

For the people hear us singing:

Bread and Roses!

Bread and Roses!

– James Oppenheim

In Massachusetts, in 1912, a group of young women marched. They worked as operators of huge, mechanical looms in massive textile mills that covered the newly industrialized Northeast. Conditions were terribly unsafe. Tiny fibers filled the air, leaving them with never-ending coughs. Loom operators worked long hours, were paid a pittance, and many died from chronic lung conditions. The young women’s banner read: “Bread, yes, but roses too.”

The Lawrence mill workers’ strike became known in the annals of American labor history as the “Bread and Roses” strike. The poet, James Oppenheimer, wrote a famous protest song commemorating that action. It has been sung by everyone from Pete Seeger to Joan Baez to Ani DiFranco. The poem’s words declare the profound truth first articulated in the Book of Deuteronomy: “Human beings do not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3). It is not enough to ensure people have the bare minimum they need to survive, every human being also deserves those things that give life meaning, beauty, and joy.

Labor Day honors the heroes of one of the most successful movements for human dignity in history. Laws forbidding child labor, ensuring safe working conditions, requiring a minimum wage and overtime pay, and a host of other protections are the direct result of the courage and sacrifice of so many, including the women of Lawrence.

Labor Day is an expression of the positive values we see expressed every day in the social benefit sector. As you enjoy this long weekend, take a moment to pat yourself on the back for being a part of this good labor.

Here is some reading, curated from across the web. All the resources are free, and I hope you’ll find something to make your job easier, and more fulfilling. As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. It is my honor to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

As you’re planning ahead, and readying your year-end fundraising initiatives, take a little time to think about your communication delivery mediums. Not to mention your message content. Are you reaching the right audiences, and making it easy for them? Are you sharing messaging that’s relevant, and authentically you?

Take some inspiration from the inimitable Seth Godin:

Little billboards

On the West Side Highway in Manhattan, there’s currently a billboard for some sort of placebo supplement. In the corner is a QR code for more information.

Unless the person in the passenger seat has a telephoto lens on their phone, there’s no way in the world that this is going to work.

My late friend Jay Levinson said that the most effective billboard would say, “FREE COFFEE, NEXT EXIT.” A call to action, relevant to the viewer, easy to see and understand.

Actual billboards are a whole category of media, but now we’re surrounded by a new kind, a smaller, more evanescent and common one: Social media posts. You might see a thousand of these a day.

Social media began as text updates from one human to another, but thanks to photo sharing, some of the posts have become something else entirely. A chance to create consistent, actionable and clear reminders of what you are and what you stand for.

But keeping Jay’s edict in mind, they work best when they’re about the viewer as much as they are about you. They work better when they can be seen and understood from a distance. And they work better when they “sound like you.”

I publish the Clairity Click-it to offer all kinds of resources for all kinds of nonprofit consumers. Whatever your role, you’ll find something in this issue to nourish you. So, start digging through the curated content from across the web. I hope it will make your job easier, and more fulfilling. There’s lots to get curious about!

As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Want to resolve to be an active learner next year? Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. This is what enables me to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

Two kinds of good cooks

One is very skilled at following the recipe. Quality control, consistency and diligence.

The other understands how the recipe works, sees patterns and opportunities and changes the recipe to fit the problem to be solved. It’s about metaphor in addition to process.

Both are useful.

If you think this is a post about cooking, you might be the first kind of cook.

— Seth Godin

Whether you’re a recipe follower or a change maker, you’ll find resources here to match your style and meet your needs. Find a topic that interests you, and… click away! 

I publish the Clairity Click-it to offer all kinds of meals for all kinds of consumers. Lots of food for thought. And this issue has plenty to nourish you. So, start digging through this issue’s curated content from across the web. I hope it will make your job easier, and more fulfilling. There’s lots to get curious about!

As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering.

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing your vital work, and helping make our world a better place,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Want to resolve to be an active learner next year? Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. This is what enables me to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more! 

Feeling these days like you’re constantly bracing for something, and the amount of risks on the horizon can feel overwhelming?

In Solving for stress, Seth Godin writes: “The solution to stress isn’t reassurance. It’s accurately understanding the world as it is, and making choices about what we do and how we do it. But far more than that, we relieve stress by making choices about the stories we tell ourselves.”

Donors do the same thing. And the story most people want to tell themselves is they’re a good, kind, caring person. They’re making a difference to someone other than themselves. They’re being part of the solution. Your job, as a philanthropy facilitator, is to help them tell their story so they like who they see when they look in the mirror.

Do you need a little help with this?

Seth Godin also says: “If we’re hungry, the obvious solution is to eat something.”

I publish the Clairity Click-it precisely to give you food for thought. Fuel, if you will, to ignite the creative process that will enable you to go from good to great. To ask yourself, “how could we do this better?”

So, eat up! This issue has plenty to nourish you. Start digging through this issue’s curated content from across the web. I hope it will make your job less stressful, and more fun.

As always, a big thank you to my Clairity Click-it sponsor, Bloomerang, for making it possible for me to spend the time hunting and gathering. Find a topic that interests you, and… click away! 

It is my sincere pleasure and honor to help you find the ideas, strategies, templates and tools you need to make our world a better place.

Thank you for doing such vital work, and giving to others on a regular basis,

Claire

claire@clairification.com

P.S. Want to resolve to be an active learner next year? Your support via enrollment in ‘Clairification School’ means a lot, and I am deeply appreciative. This is what enables me to deliver original articles direct to your in-box every week, give you access to all my webinars, and offer up exclusive monthly tips, bonuses and more!