Rainbow after a storm

Do You, or People You Know, Hate Fundraising? Read This!

Rainbow after a storm

Focus on the Rainbow, Not the Storm

 

If you’re coming at fundraising from the perspective of “no pain, no gain,” I’d like to suggest you reframe your approach.

Especially when it comes to asking individuals, one-to-one, for passionate gifts.

As long as you hate it, you’re never going to be effective.

In fact, if anyone in your organization feels this way, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Why?

Because… (I really hate to break this to you)…

Donors can tell.

When donors can sense you’d rather be doing anything else than asking them for a gift, guess what happens?  They follow your lead!  In other words, they feel like they’d rather be doing anything else than making a gift.

Uh, oh.  How can you change this equation?

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Greek woman wearing laurel wreath

From ‘Resting on Laurels’ to Leading with Vision: A Nonprofit Guide to Moving On

Are you planning to do, more or less, the same thing you did last year for your year-end annual fundraising push?

I mean things like:

  • Recycling the same appeal letter
  • Mailing to the same list
  • Failing to segment your list
  • Failing to clean up addresses and de-dupe your list
  • Using the same donation landing page
  • Mailing only one appeal letter
  • Sending only one or two emails
  • Failing to link to your appeal on social media
  • Failing to ask your influencers to share with their peers
  • Failing to actively encourage recurring gifts
  • Failing to suggest specific ask amounts
  • Failing to ask major donor prospects in person
  • Failing to plan ahead to send a prompt, personal thank you
  • Failing to have a donor love & loyalty plan in place to retain your supporters
  • … the list goes on!

I was moved to write this article after attending an excellent local production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George.”  I found it surprisingly moving, especially the final musical number: “Move on.” And, being me, I was able to relate it to something I find all too common in nonprofit work.

It’s something insidious. Something that kills innovation and inexorably drains spirits.

It’s almost a disease.

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Leave a commentAnnual Giving, Strategy & Management

Heartbreaking Missed Opportunities: Is Your Nonprofit Falling Short of Its True Fundraising Power?

 

Survival Depends on Collective Commitment and Deep Support

Too often, fundraising is relegated to an administrative function rather than a mission-central function. 

It’s viewed as a ‘necessary evil.’ As a result, either no one embraces it as central to their job description, or someone is hired and shunted off to a corner to do the ‘dirty work.’

Others don’t necessarily feel a need to cooperate or support the fundraising effort.

It’s ancillary, not primary. A cost center, not a revenue center. In fact, I’ll often hear executive directors or board members tell me, with some pride and a soupçon of defensiveness: “We can’t spend money on development staff right now; anything extra we have must go into the mission!”

As if fundraising doesn’t support the mission? 

Seriously, that’s the entire purpose of what nonprofits call ‘development’ (aka fundraising and marketing). It derives its purpose from ends served. It’s never an end in itself. What this so-called ‘mission first’ logic fails to acknowledge is everyone associated with your nonprofit is guided by a ‘mission first’ philosophy and has a collective stake in your nonprofit’s survival. And for most nonprofits, survival – or at least some level of mutually desired success – depends on philanthropy.

It takes a dedicated village to generate sustainable, meaningful philanthropy.

When fundraising is treated as an afterthought, relegated to the development committee, or delegated to a single staff member, it disenfranchises a huge segment of folks who care about sustaining the cause. This means you’ll leave money on the table and fail to realize your mission potential.

I’ve found four ways nonprofits don’t wholeheartedly commit to fundraising. They all have to do with typical priorities that aren’t standing them in good stead.

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"Doing the right thing isn't always easy" storefront art

How Humanity and Trust Supercharge Nonprofit Fundraising

"Doing the right thing isn't always easy" storefront artEveryone’s been saying this, just about daily, for some time.

“These aren’t ordinary times.”

If the anthem for the Boomer generation was Bob Dylan’s “The TImes They Are A’Changin’,” what’s the anthem for today? History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. We’re living in the face of a firehose of breaking news, and much of it is difficult to digest. Let alone know how to face, handle and get through it with safety and sanity intact.

We can retreat, live in limbo or figure out a way to navigate through this reality and find opportunities to do our work in new and better ways.

It’s a difficult assignment, because it’s not easy to know where to begin.

As social benefit organizations, we want to come from a human-centered, community-centered place, but… what exactly might that be in this extraordinary time?

What the World Most Needs Right Now.

I think it’s humanity and trust.

Usually we have to guess at what will feel relevant to our supporters. Today, we pretty much know. Because we hear it all the time. On the news. On social media. When we zoom with colleagues. When we talk to our friends.

  • People want to know who they can trust.
  • People want their fellow humans to act the part.
  • People want to consciously engage — with humans they can trust — in a meaningful manner.

Social benefit organizations have a secret advantage.

Survival in the civil sector is based on the philanthropic exchange, and ‘philanthropy’ means ‘love of humanity’. Yet sometimes it seems all we see and hear is hatred of humanity. Us/Them.  Left/Right. Red/Blue. Young/Old. Good/Evil. Insiders/Outsiders. I could go on…

There’s a better way. When you infuse your nonprofit work with humanity, you’ll reach trust.

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Leave a commentAnnual Giving
woman expressing values

Your Unique Coping Strategies?

woman expressing valuesThese are the best of times. These are the worst of times.

However you see the present, rest assured others see it the opposite.

How do you cope? How do you help others cope? How are you adapting, personally and professionally, to the times in which we live?

It turns out the way you cope, particularly during times of stress, has a lot to do with your unique personality traits.

During such times, it pays to be self-aware. It can help you understand why you may be feeling particularly panicky. Or inexplicably calm and at peace. ANd it can help you lean in to what makes you feel creative, purposeful, and even joyful.

Through self discovery, you can live your life in the best way possible.

Want to make a contribution that feels authentic, productive and true to you?  Want to make this a year where you help others do the same, be they your family, friends, co-workers, program participants and beneficiaries, volunteers or donors?

Then how about taking a bit of focused time to unearth some important truths about the most interesting person on earth — YOU!

Now is a terrific time for some good old-fashioned introspection.

Turn off the news, stop scrolling through social media, and instead get in touch with, and appreciate, what you bring to the table.

How to Learn About the Most Interesting Person on Earth

I’ve got four fun things for you to try!

One is a values exercise. The others can be grouped under the mantle of “personality tests.”

First, let’s stipulate values vary and they’re all legitimate. Also, there’s  no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ personality. These exercises and assessments I’m sharing today are my favorites for the workplace (and beyond) as they’ve been rigorously tested, are grounded in research and have been shown to be fair and consistent across populations.  Plus, they’re fun to take.

Are you game?

Even if you don’t love doing exercises and taking quizzes as much as I do, you may find one or more of these interesting. None of them take a lot of your time. And it’s even more fun if you do it together (with friends, family, co-workers); then compare and discuss results!

Remember: Everyone brings their own gifts to the situation at hand. 

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2 CommentsCulture & Values
Dancing in Love. Heart sculpture as benefit for San Francisco General Hospital Foundation.

Philanthropy – Love of Humankind – Needed More Than Ever

Dancing in Love. Heart sculpture as benefit for San Francisco General Hospital Foundation.

We’re entering an era of uncertainty.

For many, this has been a gut-wrenching week. And not just in the United States. People around the world are struggling with how to make sense of global events. Not just the American elections (though this is a huge sea change), but also escalating, senseless violence across the planet, threats to freeedom of speech, religion and assembly, the spread of fake news, a deepening divide between classes, and a creeping sense of dread as events begin to seem out of our control.

And, to be honest, this may feel like just the tip of the iceberg.

The world can seem a cruel and barbaric place.

Philanthropy – love of humankind — can seem elusive.

Yet it’s right here. In each of us.

Love is connected to the things you believe in. The values you hold most dearly.  The dreams you have and cherish.

Now is the time to be more loyal to your values and dreams than to your fears.

Give yourself permission to trust your own dreams. Be open to them. Don’t critique them or tell yourself they cannot happen. Not now.

Be on your own side, and on the side of your family, friends, neighbors and the entire planet that needs you to restore balance. Don’t wait to nurture those dreams.

Make the internal commitment to come from a place of love.

Earlier this week I shared a poem from Tara Mohr. It began like this: “Today, I am more committed than ever to the things I believe in.”

I encourage you to think about what you believe, and what you’ll commit to doing — from today forward.

I do have some thoughts I’d like to share.

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