This week’s Click-it is another eclectic mix of stuff I think you’ll find really, really useful. The post on headlines has already changed my life! And at the end you’ll find a great opportunity to join a cool major gifts Master Class. I promise, it’s a good one.
I recently had the privilege of presenting at the ALDE Conference, during the course of which I had the good fortune to listen in on the Keynote Address presented by Kivi LeRoux Miller. It got me to thinking about becoming a nonprofit milliner.
Say what?
Well, here’s the deal. I’m sure I could do a brisk business selling all sorts of different hats based on what Kivi had to say about results from her 2015 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report. After surveying more than 1500 nonprofits, guess what she found?
Today I’ve got an eclectic mix for you from both fundraising and marketing blogs. Everything is applicable to nonprofits, and lots of the advice is stuff you can use right away to increase your fundraising success. Then there’s stuff to help you plan for even greater success next year. Woohoo! Let’s begin with the stuff you need the most now… Oh, and did I mention there are presents at the end?
This week’s Click-it has some thought-provoking posts as well as some practical tips. Hope you enjoy them! Also, if you meant to sign up for my latest course — designed to help you with critical donor retention — this is your last chance. I know you have the best of intentions. Your donors are super important to you, and you mean to let them know more often. You really do. But somehow you don’t get around to it as much as you should. This course will help you make it a priority — so when this time rolls around next year you’ll be in better shape than you are today. Sound good? Okay!
Now… enjoy these articles, please.
Because I’ll bet you it’s not embracing two key elements essential to raising awareness and getting folks to engage with you in 2014 and beyond.
What’s that? (1) Content marketing. (2) Social media. For real.
Let me explain.
Philanthropy, Not Fundraising
For too many nonprofits something isn’t working. Change is happening at a rapid pace while people try to employ yesterday’s ‘best practices,’ seeming to work harder and harder to make do with less — while needing to serve more.
Before the digital revolution, an information imbalance existed. This facilitated a one-way ‘push’ model of marketing/fundraising. We could define our own brand and sell it. Guess what?
This week is all about building relationships using online media – with tips from some of my favorite nonprofit and for profit fundraising, marketing and social media gurus.
With donor retention rates hovering around 30 – 40% — yes, that means you’re LOSING 7 out of 10 new donors and 6 out of 10 repeat donors – it’s more important than ever to use every tool at your disposal to truly engage with your constituents. The majority of them are online, either a lot or a little. So read these articles and put your best foot forward!
Here are some gems – practical to thought proving — from some of my favorite nonprofit fundraising and marketing gurus. I leave them to you to enjoy! Marketing Click-it: Are You Making These 3 Mistakes in Your Marketing? Are you trying to build your e list or supporter base? Betsy Baker suggests three…
Yes, it turned to spring at 12:57 p.m. early this morning. It’s a good time to do a little spring cleaning. Clear out the mistakes and the old stuff that’s no longer working for you. Keep the basics. Freshen up with some new stuff, or just tweak things a little. This week’s links for nonprofit fundraisers and marketers includes some of all of this. Happy spring!
Earlier this year I posted on the ONE big thing nonprofits absolutely must do in 2014: Adopt an integrated (fundraising combined with communications – no more silos, please!) inbound marketing strategy.
Well… it seems like a lot of folks didn’t know what I meant. Or if they did know, they had a whole bunch of reasons why they thought they couldn’t or shouldn’t do it.
Apparently I have some ‘splainin’ to do!
More trends and food for thought as you plan where to focus limited resources in 2014. This is your year to really think about why, what, how, when and where you’re reaching out to and engaging with potential constituents. I want you to work smart this year. You’ll get more done, and feel a lot less stressed. To your success!
This week I’ve got some provocative posts, practical posts and more actionable tips to help with your year-end fundraising (don’t miss the useful tips; they’re at the bottom). To your success!
Because people are SO busy at this time of year, and SO bombarded with messages, you’ve got to focus… stand out… target the right audiences in the right places… and invest the resources to do it right. This week’s links will give you some fuel for your marketing and fundraising engine, for year-end and beyond!
They’re the same thing.
Let me repeat, to make sure you heard this correctly: they’re the SAME thing.
No, this isn’t some trick. They really serve the same function. Which is why they shouldn’t exist in separate silos within your organization. Do you want to know why?
This week’s links, some free stuff, plus last chance for two great learning opportunities that will help you right now.. Check ‘em out!
I adore color. I’m definitely not someone who wears only black! I thought it would be interesting to think about how we use color in our donor communications, and happened on several great infographics, including The Psychology of Color in Design and Color Psychology and Marketing. They offer a terrific overview of the meaning of colors in the western hemisphere. What you’ll learn is eye opening.
Free Webinar alert below… Now, on to this week’s great links…
Giving Trends
Click-it: ‘Strategic Philanthropy’ Shifts Too Much Power to Donors. This is a provocative Chronicle of Philanthropy article about the way foundations give today. Did you know that 60% of them don’t accept unsolicited proposals? The trend is towards a Madisonian approach where foundations determine which issues are meritorious vs. a more Jeffersonian approach in which nonprofits, community groups and their constituents determine where resources are most needed. On which side of the debate do you fall?
Click-it: How America Gives. This is a super-awesome interactive guide
This week’s Clairity Click-it – your eclectic array of easy to-“click-it” links to posts I’ve found thought provoking. With, of course, a few comments of my own.
Content Creation
Click-it: 25 Brain Lubricants to Generate Content Ideas. This guest post on the Convince and Convert blog comes from creative director Barry Feldman. If you feel like you don’t have enough content to fill a blog (and if you read me at all you know I believe every nonprofit should have a blog!) check out these great ideas for combating writer’s block. Here’s one I like: Got a bookcase full of dusty old classics? Crack one open. Try poetry. Hit Pinterest for inspirational quotes. There’s something about great thinkers that makes you think.
This week’s Clairity Click-it – your eclectic array of easy- to-“click-it” links to posts I’ve found thought provoking. With, of course, a few comments of my own.
Let’s begin:
Here’s this week’s Clairity Click-it, the most intriguing and thought-provoking of the more than 100 articles I seem to read every week – all in an easy-to-“click-it” format with links to posts from an eclectic array of online resources, often sourced from more than one discipline, as I believe we can learn a lot from our colleagues in other sectors. Of course, I add in a few comments of my own.
Let’s begin:
Here’s this week’s Clairity Click-it, the most intriguing and thought-provoking of the more than 100 articles I seem to read every week – all in an easy-to-“click-it” format with links to posts in fundraising, marketing, social media, leadership, change and all sorts of good stuff. I aim for an eclectic array, often sourced from more than one discipline, as I believe we can learn a lot from our colleagues in other sectors. Of course, I add in a few comments of my own.
Let’s begin:
Here’s this week’s Clairity Click-it, the most intriguing and thought-provoking of the more than 100 articles I seem to read every week – all in an easy-to-“click-it” format with links to posts in fundraising, marketing, social media, leadership, change and all sorts of good stuff. I aim for an eclectic array, often sourced from more than one discipline, as I believe we can learn a lot from our colleagues in other sectors.
Of course, I add in a few comments of my own.
Let’s begin:
I’m trying something new. I must read over 100 articles every week, and many of them say things with which I agree. In fact, some say them better than I could have said it (Yup!). So I’m putting together the very best in an easy-to-“click-it” format with links to this week’s best and brightest in fundraising, marketing, social media, leadership, change and all the good stuff. You’ll find it to be an eclectic array, often sourced from more than one discipline, as I believe we can learn a lot from our colleagues in other sectors.
Of course, I can’t help but add in a few comments of my own. I hope you’ll find it useful. Let’s begin:
Find a need and fill it. That’s Marketing 101. Well, today some of the folks most clued in to what people want are the apps developers. Why not piggyback on their insight and research to enrich your content marketing strategy? The key is to tie it to your brand promise (i.e., why you’re on this planet and what folks perceive your value to be to them). Find an angle that makes the trend relevant to your business.
End your constituents’ pain. This is simply another way to think of taking the consumer-oriented approach that means the difference between failure and success. What’s bothering your community? What keeps them up at night? How can you help? This is how app developers – and inventors, and successful business start-ups – think.
In my last post I channeled Bob Dylan, calling for a change in the way we do fundraising. Because the times truly are a changin’…
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command, your old road is rapidly agin’…
When I grew up in fundraising I had a shoe box as my database. I wrote grant proposals on yellow legal pads. When we got our first FAX machine I complained that now folks expected us to mail and FAX them (so double the work). When email came on the scene I complained that now folks wanted us to mail and FAX and email (so triple the work). But it was still the same old road of outbound marketing. At least I understood what it was all about.
Now we’re on a new road entirely. Because folks are coming to us. They’re telling us what they want. They’re defining our brand. And they’re doing so in real time via a multitude of online channels and using a multitude of Web-connected devices. Opportunity is knocking.
Once upon a time I knew what I was doing. I attended The Fundraising School, discovered a host of tried-and-true techniques, mastered the art and science of fundraising transactions and went forth to apply the tools at my disposal. Money was raised.
Fast forward several decades, to sometime about five years ago. I had a dawning realization. I no longer knew what I was doing. I had somehow entered “wing and a prayer” territory. The culprit? Revolutionary and disruptive technology that, simply put, has ended “business as usual.”
What can you think of that has been done the same way for 50 years? For too many nonprofits the answer is fundraising and marketing (aka “development”). And it’s beyond time for a change. In fact, a sea change. It turns out Bob Dylan got it right.
C.P.A.? Yup. In my last post I introduced you to the ‘accountant’ theory of an effective blog content strategy. C for constituent-centered. P for plan. A for accessible. You can review the ‘C’ post here. Today we’re going to talk about the ‘P.’
For starters, you’ve done your market research and you know what your constituents care about (if you haven’t done this, look at the 6 actionable tips in the previous post). Now, take all the great topics you’ve researched and brainstormed – all the questions you’ve been collecting from your constituents – and build an editorial calendar for your blog. I’m going to give you some tips and tools that will make this really simple. Promise.
Yesterday I guest posted on Windmill Networking: WARNING: 8 Clues Your Nonprofit’s Social Media Implementation and Measurement Strategy is Bogus. I encourage you to read the full post. It’s about how so many nonprofits really don’t have a clue why they’re doing social media at all. And, if they are doing it, they may have…
Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you): The foundation of all fundraising and nonprofit marketing is relationships. Thanks to Katya Andreson for great inspiration in 6 tried and true truths about my work . I told her I was going to post these fundamentals above my computer –…
Despite rumors to the contrary, e is still going strong and shows no signs of weakening. Recent data from the Pew Research Center shows it’s the bedrock of on engagement by those 65+, and many of these folks are your major donors. And there are plenty of younger folks who engage via e as well.…
For years nonprofits have worked from the “inside out” in terms of prioritizing constituencies to target. It was accepted wisdom that effective fundraising was an “inside out” proposition and that we should work our networks beginning with those with the greatest reasons to give (e.g., board members, clients, family and friends). As resources allowed, we’d then…
Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you). After a month of discussing content marketing, and using a blog as the hub of your marcom strategy, this month I’m channeling a wonderful post from Marketing Profs about Six Content Marketing Opportunities You’re Missing. Thank you Daniel Kuperman! Confession: this…
Hard to ignore, isn’t it? I hate personally*. Never liked it. I abhor their privacy policies; the burden is placed on the user and one has to be vigilant about checking changes made to their settings on a regular basis. They know too much about us too. Plus there’s the fact that it’s so…
First decide on the purpose(s) of your blog. Anyone can have one, but without engaging content and calls to action it’s not going to take you where you want to go. And your purposes should be reader-centric. Purposes that don’t count: Everyone else has one. My boss/board member told me to do it. I like…
Oh, no… don’t get lost! Before we hit “publish” – whether it be a blog post, e-newsletter, on appeal or even a tweet or post – we should have made a list and checked it twice. In other words, we want to make sure we’ve included everything we intended to include. And we want…
We must begin to think of our brand as a platform from which all dialogue ensues. It is in this context that content creation and content marketing strategy becomes important. That is, unless you’re Seinfeld, and you think you can succeed in engaging your constituents in a conversation about nothing. It worked brilliantly for him;…
Content curation is one of the new buzz worthy terms you’re hearing a lot about these days. And it’s for good reason. With so much information at the buffet , we need some help figuring out what to select. To pick an ‘object’ and add ‘beauty’ and meaning to it, we need curation from sources…
Content is king. What this means is that information is power. A recent webinar by Social Media Today(you may need to register on the site to hear the audio), How Content Marketing is Changing Everything, highlights the challenge for marketers today. We must not only iver the right information, in the right place, at the…
The digital revolution has made it easier for each individual to beat – and march to – their own drum. This means we no longer lead the band (or, shall I say, brand). So if neither marketing nor development is wielding the baton, does it matter how they’re connected or separated? Yes! But the way…
Shall we join forces? Fundraising is not basketball, but it’s madness not to play as a team. I’ve spen with three nonprofits in the past several months that, rather than joining forces, have decoupled their marketing and development departments. I surmise they do this because marketing doesn’t understand development. Or development doesn’t understand marketing. Or…
We’re a nation afflicted with remote controlitis. With so many marketing channels from which to choose, we constantly switch from one to the next. We don’t focus as much as we used to, and we’re certainly not loyal to one media over another. First, a moment to define this disease. You suffer from remote controlitis…
Branding used to connote something done with a hot iron to mark ownership of a steer. If there was a relationship quality to this it was only in the fact of being an owner of the thing possessed. It was certainly not about building a relationship, or any important social bonds, with your livestock. In…
The fact that development and marketing are charged with making the same relationship-building and communications decisions means that it is time, once and for all, to actively align these functions. Yesterday in Part 1 we discussed the natural linkages between these functions and that, first and foremost, everything we do is about the customer experience. Today,…
Trust defines the credibility and legitimacy not only of your organization, but of the entire social benefit sector. Yet too few organizations make the effort to operationalize this construct into their fundraising and marketing planning.
You should.
Without donor trust and confidence in philanthropy there’s no future for social benefit organizations.
Donor retention guru Professor Adrian Sargeant has spent 20+ years researching the relationship between trust, philanthropy and continued donor commitment. And he has found, unequivocally, that trust is the essential foundation of the philanthropic relationship.
Ignore this at your peril.
The Donor’s Bill of Rights is a great starting point. But simply using it as a checklist is not enough. Too transactional. I encourage you to go above and beyond. Because the best predictor of future giving is when people feel good.
You can make giving to you a transformational experience. How? By actualizing what you learn here into a series of multi-step plans for:
Gift Acknowledgement that Satisfies Donors
Donor-Centered Communications that Instill Happiness
Useful Content Marketing that Offers Gifts
Consistent Branding that Instills Confidence
Relationship Fundraising that Creates Meaning and Builds Loyalty
If you take these five steps, implementing the 10 strategies incorporated below, I can guarantee you’ll steadily build trust and make donors happy. They may seem simple, and they are. But honestly ask yourself if you really do these things right now? Trust must be earned, and it can be fragile. So, I’m going to guess you could do better. Please read these action steps with an eye to what you might do to make your donor retention plan – what I prefer to call a “donor love and loyalty plan” – more vigorous. It’s up to you to establish trust and magnetically pull your donors toward you so they never let go.
BOO!
Halloween is creeping up on us, so I’ve got some really scary stuff for you!
Don’t get too spooked. There are also a few treats.
In fact, you’ll get eight delicious goodies — in the form of “to-do’s.”
But first… the bad news.
No bones about it, you’re frightening folks away if you’re committing any of these 8 boo-boo’s!
A couple of years ago I wrote about 4 Strategies to Listen so Others Will Talk, noting the secret to building authentic relationships is to use your two ears and one mouth in that proportion.
It’s a good start, but there’s more.
You can’t just listen passively.
Active listening, supported by powerful, succinct, to-the-point generative questions – that’s what will draw you and your donor (or anyone with whom you’re in relationship) closer together.
But not all active listening is created equal. And you may think you’re actively listening, when really you’ve listened for a hot minute; then gone down your own rabbit hole of reality.
In that rabbit hole, you become the narrator. It thus becomes your story, not the donor’s.
Uh, oh.
Today we’ll explore how to draw your donor out so you truly hear their voice and sense their emotions, not your own.
This is something I value, as an outsider looking in.
I’m not good at it.
Storytelling today is ‘hot.’
And why not? It’s the fundamental human activity – we even talk to ourselves!
We tell ourselves stories all the time to inspire, goad, cheerlead and persuade.
“I’ve been knocked down, but I’ll pick myself up.”
“This cake will be even better than my mother-in-law’s.”
“The deck seems stacked against me, but I’m going to fight; I’m going to win.”
“Tomorrow will be a better day.”
Storytelling is something people naturally gravitate to. We’re wired that way.
They are the connective tissue that turns otherwise random acts into important sequences.
Does this sound like something that might be useful for your content marketing strategy?
What motivates someone to make a major philanthropic gift?
Generally it takes one or more meaningful conversations with a donor who (you hope!) may contemplate a gift to your organization. At some point you’ll be ready to make them an offer you hope they won’t be able to refuse. But how do you develop their interest and passion to the point where they’re willing and ready to enact them? Today I’m suggesting it’s actually pretty simple, as long as you truly understand the process of what the nonprofit sector has come to call “development.”
To get folks to “YES” you simply need to learn the language of gift planning!
It’s not just about HOW people give, but WHY.
Planning is the operative word. Alas, when many folks talk about ‘planned giving’ it’s a term that’s come to mean giving vehicles. Often it’s just about deferred giving vehicles. Most donors don’t think this way. Rather, they consider how they want to help. They concern themselves with the best ways to enact their values. This may mean an outright gift today or a deferred gift tomorrow. Or both. Form follows function. So thinking in terms of gift vehicles is a decidedly non-donor-centric way of framing things.
People making bequests or gifts in trust often visit legal and financial advisors. So we think of this more as “planning” mode. And we ask “planned gift officers” to work with these folks. This isn’t wrong, but it’s not as right as it could be if you approached the donor’s giving decision more expansively.
In othe words, major gift officers are also planned giving officers.
No one gets up one morning and decides spontaneously to give away $100,000.
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.
It’s seldom a spur of the moment action.
For purposes of this gift planning article, let’s consider your audience to be prospective major (outright) and legacy (deferred) gift donors.
I recently wrote about 4 Strategies to Listen so Others Will Talk, noting the secret to building authentic relationships is to use your two ears and one mouth in that proportion.
It’s a good start, but there’s more.
You can’t just listen passively.
Active listening, supported by powerful, succinct, to-the-point generative questions – that’s what will draw you and your donor (or anyone with whom you’re in relationship) closer together.
But not all active listening is created equal. And you may think you’re actively listening, when really you’ve listened for a hot minute; then gone down your own rabbit hole of reality. In that rabbit hole, you become the narrator. It thus becomes your story, not the donor’s.
Uh, oh.
Today we’ll explore how to draw your donor out so you truly hear their voice and sense their emotions, not your own.
This is something I value, as an outsider looking in.
I’m not good at it.
Trust defines the credibility and legitimacy not only of your organization, but of the entire social benefit sector. Yet too few organizations make the effort to operationalize this construct into their fundraising and marketing planning.
You should.
Without donor trust and confidence in philanthropy there’s no future for social benefit organizations.
Donor retention guru Professor Adrian Sargeant has spent 20+ years researching the relationship between trust, philanthropy and continued donor commitment. And he has found, unequivocally, that trust is the essential foundation of the philanthropic relationship.
Ignore this at your peril.
The Donor’s Bill of Rights is a great starting point. But simply using it as a checklist is not enough. Too transactional. I encourage you to go above and beyond. Because the best predictor of future giving is when people feel good.
You can make giving to you a transformational experience. How? By actualizing what you learn here into a series of multi-step plans for:
If you take these five steps, I can guarantee you’ll steadily build trust and make donors happy. What I’d like to do now is break these steps down into 10 action strategies. They may seem simple, and they are. But honestly ask yourself if you really do these things? I’m going to guess you could do better. So please read these with an eye to what you might do to make your donor retention plan – what I prefer to call a “donor love and loyalty plan” – more vigorous.