Archive for the ‘Communicating’ Category
Posted by Gayle Gifford on December 4, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating, Fundraising
Last week I received a very lovely recognition from an organization for which I have been a very active member for just over 20 years.
I was named a Partner in Philanthropy during our state National Philanthropy Day celebration. I was invited to the luncheon, had my photo and bio in the program, received a lovely pin, and was invited on stage with the other Partners who were being recognized that day by nonprofits they had served.
As I arrived at the check-in table, I received a name tag, pretty recognition pin, my table assignment and a recognition certificate in a folder.
When I opened the folder to view the certificate, my heart sank.
My name was misspelled.
While I tried to resist it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the gift I was being given had been selected for someone else. Like the time I opened a present anticipating something very romantic and found a rice cooker instead.
And this organization — I even served as its board president not that long ago.
I admit it. I’ve got a thing about my first name. I’ve never been particularly fond of it. The only thing that has redeemed my name for me is its spelling. So when I see Gayle mistakenly spelled Gail, I feel particularly rebuked. I can’t help it.
I also use my middle initial L. Routinely. And given the organization that was honoring me, an extra special touch would have been to include the ACFRE credential after my name.
But I’ll shake it off. (I did bring it to the organization’s attention that day. They promised to send me a new certificate. I’ll let you know when it arrives.)
Unfortunately, mine was not the only misspelled name that day. My co-honoree for the organization, who was also a table sponsor, saw her name misspelled as it was projected on the screen with other sponsors. And a dear departed colleague would be rolling his eyes to have seen his name misspelled on screen for the scholarship award given in his memory.
Accidents do happen. I’ve made them myself (it’s a plague to locate all the typos in these columns).
As a fledgling development director, I misspelled the last name of a board member in my first annual report (which had been proofed by others). The misspelling was also a pet peeve of this board member. Like me, he frequently saw his name misspelled. It was tiresome and maddening to him to have to re-educate each new staff member who might have occasion to spell his name.
I’ve worked hard to get names spelled correctly ever since.
So please take the extra time to spell it right. It really does matter to your supporters. We’re not always so forgiving.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on December 1, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating
Providence started enforcing curbside recycling a few weeks ago.
The new rule is that you won’t get your trash picked up unless both of your recycling bins are on the curb when the trash trucks come by. (A blue one for glass, cans, and plastics and green for paper)
The city began promoting its new policy in September thinking it would give householders plenty of time to get ready before the November 2 start date. Public service announcements were sent to the media, the Mayor held a press conference, school kids were notified, and brochures were distributed to our homes.
Trash collectors even pasted an informational bumpersticker onto every city-issued big green trash barrel, figuring that had to get our attention when we hauled in the barrel at night.
The big day arrived and everyone should have been prepared – right?
Wrong.
Throughout the city, trash was left on the curb wherever there were no recycling bins. Officials reported that trash pickup went down by 63% — which should give you some idea of how many people ignored or weren’t aware of the new policy.
City Hall and City Councilors were flooded with calls from angry residents. A movement was started to reverse the policy (it wasn’t). Over 3,000 bins were sold in two days.
Residents were outraged! Why hadn’t they been told of the new policy?
It takes a lot of repetition to get a message through.
I was prepared for November 2nd. I knew about the city’s “no bin, no barrel” program. But then again, I read the local daily newspaper.
I also listen to my local public radio station, read most of my mail (or at least open the envelopes), and even take in the garbage can once in a while.
(Yes, some gender roles do die hard ).
But what probably made the biggest difference in my awareness?
I ALREADY RECYCLE!
You selectively pay attention to what you care about
As I’ve written earlier, we’ve been recycling for many years. We’ve faithfully sorted our household recyclables since we had access to curbside recycling.
As a colleague reminded me in a conversation a few weeks ago, I’m more likely to pay attention to news about the things that I’m interested in.
As I was already interested in curbside recycling, it wasn’t hard for my personal antenna to pick up the communications about the proposed policy change.
But as my fellow residents confirmed, householders who weren’t interested in recycling didn’t pay any attention to the City’s attempts to warn them, even when the notice was placed right under their noses where they couldn’t miss it.
So, what makes you think that you’ve done enough to communicate with your own constituents?
Whether you are trying to educate me about a community issue, hope to turn me out for a special event, or are trying to get me to renew my annual membership, don’t underestimate what it will take to get my attention.
If you think that you have sent too many communications, like the recycling program demonstrated, you might want to think your strategy through one more time.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on October 21, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating, Effectiveness, Public engagement
What makes for a genuine process of engaging the public in policy-making?
After a summer of shout fests around health care reform, I’d like to suggest that the typical “public hearing” or even “town hall” process simply encourages this way of behaving.
Most of the problems that we face are pretty complex. In our current adversarial way of policy making, there will always be winners and losers rather than win/wins.
I’ve experienced countless public hearings where, as a member of the public, I have been frustrated and angry at the lack of adequate time to share complex views. Standing at a microphone with just 1-3 minutes to make a comment and with no ability to have a thoughtful conversation with the other side — I can’t imagine what else could be designed to make audience members feel frustrated and angry.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The 7 Characteristics of Meaningful Public Engagement
What is necessary to ensure that the public is meaningfully consulted in policy making?
In our primer Meaningful Participation, an activist’s guide to collaborative policy making which you can download for free here, we set out 7 principles that need to be included in any process.
For citizen consultation to be meaningful, it must be:
1. Broad-based. That is, the process must truly include the full range of interests and positions that are represented. As the Quakers like to say, “everyone owns a piece of the truth.”
2. Open. Anyone who is interested should be aware of and understand how they can contribute and participate. They should feel welcomed. Meeting places should be accessible and well located. Meeting formats should be accessible and understandable.
3. Truthful. It is absolutely essential to ensuring the good faith of the participants that everyone acts in good faith. Accurate information needs to be contributed and analyzed. Important data, even if contradictory to your own views, should be included.
4. Responsive. For people to contribute civilly and in good faith, they need to know that their opinions are in fact being listened to and that they might have the ability to actually help create a better outcome.
5. Deliberative. Whatever the process is, it needs to provide enough time for everyone involved to be able to develop a shared understanding of the problem, to create a common vision of what could be, to be creative about options and to have time to thoughtfully reflect on possible solutions. One shot public hearings with citizen comment aren’t set up for this. People expect to have to demonstrate and shout to get their voices heard. There are better ways to talk to each other.
6. Fair. All participants need to know that they are equally valued and have equal access and input. Not just the highly paid lobbyists, but ordinary citizens.
And finally, the process needs to be
7. Competent. That is, it should result in the best decision being made because hard data was examined, real examples of solutions in action were examined, evidence-based practices were considered.
Whether you are a policy maker or a citizen advocate, you are going to need to work really hard to ensure that the process of developing major policies includes all of these elements. But it is truly worth it.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on September 28, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating, Fundraising, Strategic Thinking
What do kaleidoscopes and successful fundraisers have in common?
I hadn’t thought about kaleidoscopes in years until I received one as a gift for presenting a workshop at a fundraising conference. Instead of creating designs from shapes embedded in the kaleidoscope itself, this one made fascinating patterns out of whatever you were looking at.
So what do kaleidoscopes and great fundraisers have in common?
Both are really good at creating many beautiful new designs from one starting point.
In this challenging economic climate, nonprofit fundraisers have to be as resourcesful as they possibly can be to make better and stronger connections with donors. As fundraisers, we are always on the lookout for donors whose dreams and desires are a perfect match with our organization.
Sometimes that match is pretty straightforward, as when a loved one is stricken by a disease and family members give to the organization that is working to find a cure. Or the guidelines of a foundation are a perfect fit with our programs.
Often, however, the match isn’t immediately obvious and requires us to do some mental stretching. A very philanthropic individual I knew gave money to a figure skating association, a community service organization, a library, and other seemingly unrelated institutions. Was there a common thread? Yes, he loved young people and gave to programs that helped them flourish.
Resourceful development professionals have the uncanny talent of making lots of successful matches – from the easy fits to the mental stretches. The ability to see the many facets of our organization and our donor’s interests – like looking through a kaleidoscope – can open many more donor checkbooks.
Here are a few tips for developing your own kaleidoscope vision.
1. Listen to see what your donors care about.
I can’t say enough about listening. When we get too wrapped up in pitching our organization, we can’t hear what a donor wants.
The executive director of a youth service organization wanted to upgrade a corporate donor from a modest in-kind gift to a major sponsorship. At an exploratory meeting with the CEO, the executive director spent the better part of five minutes pitching the organization and one particular sponsorship opportunity.
He wasn’t igniting any interest.
The development director then asked this corporate CEO a simple question: “What community projects are you working on?”
The CEO opened up. He explained how his company was exploring the idea of building playgrounds in inner city neighborhoods – something the youth service organization had a history of doing, but hadn’t mentioned. Suddenly, a match seemed inevitable. The company was excited to provide a corporate sponsorship that included building a city playground – and eventually went on to become one of the organization’s biggest supporters.
2. Look deep into your existing programs.
Just like a prospective donor, you’ll be more passionate about your organization if you see the work first hand. You’ll be better informed too. It’s hard to comprehend the complexity of your organization if you don’t get up close and personal with your program staff, your projects, and especially the people you serve.
A successful fundraiser I know recently took a position as the major gifts director for a hospital. In her first few weeks on the job, she arranged an intensive training program for herself:
“I wanted to meet everyone and see EVERYTHING: operations, autopsies, the emergency room, even the kitchen. I asked hundreds of questions so I could know how we made a difference and what our needs were. Not only did I feel more confident I could explain our work to a prospective donor, but I also knew I’d be better at finding giving matches. An added benefit — because I showed that I cared, I made lots of friends on our staff who are now willing to help in fundraising when I need them.”
3. Look beyond the usual funding suspects.
Arts groups look for arts funders. Senior groups for donors to the elderly. But sometimes it makes sense to look beyond the category in which your organization falls.
A small neighborhood organization heard that the Environmental Protection Agency had funding available for urban environmental projects. As they weren’t an environmental group, they easily might have dismissed this particular funder.
But with some research, the group discovered the EPA had funded vacant lot clean-ups similar to the programs they were already running. With a bit more detective work they discovered that garbage dumped in vacant lots frequently contained materials that the EPA would consider pollutants or even hazardous waste.
By understanding that vacant lot dumping was as much an environmental problem as it was a community development one, they were able to get funding from EPA to develop a more comprehensive program to prevent illegal dumping and clean up vacant lots.
4. Be creative about seeing the connections.
If your vision is too narrow, it’s easy to overlook opportunities.
A statewide organization located in the capital city ran a number of fee-based education programs for school kids. A prospective business donor only funded projects in the northern town in which it was located.
At first glance, there didn’t seem to be the opportunity for a match. But with a little more exploration, the business was pleased to donate the program fee and busing costs of a local school so that three fifth-grade classrooms were able to participate in this education program.
5. See where you fit in the big picture.
Locally-based organizations and nonprofits in small population states often have a hard time attracting regional or national funders. But if you can put your work into a much bigger framework, you may open doors that looked closed at first.
For example, an AIDS service organization from a small east coast city was alerted to a request for proposals from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Five grants would be awarded nationwide for prevention work with young people in minority communities.
At first this organization didn’t think they had a chance competing with major population centers like San Francisco or New York. But they knew they had one of the highest HIV infection rates in the U.S. and that many immigrants from countries with high incidences of AIDS settled there first before heading to big cities like NYC. By articulating their connection to the bigger picture, they were able to win one of the five grants.
6. Look at yourself through someone else’s eyes.
Have you seen the optical illusion of two faces and the vase? If you look at the image in black, it forms two profiles looking at one another. But if you look at the white space between the faces, you can see a vase. Some people see the faces right away but have a hard time seeing the vase. For others, it’s just the opposite.
A senior center had a small, drab thrift shop that didn’t raise much money. While it was located in a college town, the center never really considered it would be of interest to college students so it never bothered to connect.
When a new director was hired, she was able to see the possibilities in the thrift shop. She approached the fashion merchandising program at a local college and offered the thrift shop as a class project. The students were excited at the chance to gain some real merchandising experience and volunteered their time to design attractive new window and floor displays for the shop. (And of course, college students love second hand bargains.)
Not only did the thrift shop start raising a lot more money, but the students recruited their friends for other volunteer work at the senior center.
7. But don’t make it up.
While I urge you to be creative about finding new connections between potential donors and your organization, don’t try to turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear. It never benefits your organization, your donor or philanthropy to misrepresent the work you do. Don’t try to pass a program off as something it is not.
Your success in fundraising ultimately depends on your reputation as being worthy and trustworthy of support.
So get out those kaleidoscopes to start finding the possibility in your organization.
We invite you to share you stories of how you successfully reimagined your giving opportunities.
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You can find an email or printer ready version of this post in the Articles Section of our Tools for Change library. Just click here.
A version of this article first appeared in Contributions Magazine.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on September 18, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating, Fundraising
Friday. 4 pm.
Fifty young people dressed in puffy red jackets, white t-shirts, khaki pants, and work boots were swapping partners in a crazy reinterpretation of ballroom dancing and musical chairs – and my prospective donor (also a prospective Advisory Board member) was right in there with them.
I’m at community meeting at one of the sites of City Year, the national youth service organization. During this end-of-week event, the youth service corps and professional staff reflect on their service work using City Year’s unique form, complete with its own language.
When the dancing stopped, Alicia rose to tell us her Ripple about a child she was tutoring who came up to her today to show off the first ‘A’ he had ever received.
After that, Sam shared a Moccasin, his edgy original poem about racism and poverty.
Jane and Lekisa proudly introduced their community hero, Anthony, the owner of a tiny neighborhood diner, who made sure the three men living on the street nearby got lunch and a hot cup of coffee every day.
By the time that Thuan told his life’s work about his journey from a street gang to his work on a community garden in the neighborhood, my prospective donor was salivating to learn how he could get involved.
Reframing fundraising
For most of our history, humans have relied on stories, rituals and symbols to make sense of the chaos and unpredictability of our world. Our creation stories illuminate the unexplainable. Fables and parables convey moral lessons. Rituals mark important life passages.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 8, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating, Fundraising
To paraphrase the Golden Rule: Do onto your donors as you would have some organization do onto you.
Fundraisers attend lots of workshops to find the magic technique that will attract and retain donors. But really, don’t most of us already know what it takes to get and keep donors?
At a workshop I facilitated last month for small environmental organizations, I asked these as the starting questions:
- Thinking about an organization that really matters to you, what makes you donate to it?
- What keeps you donating?
- Why wouldn’t you donate to an organization?
Here’s what people said.
Why I donated:
- I had a personal connection or involvement with the organization.
- My family is connected to the organization and its mission.
- The organization makes me feel good.
- Giving makes me feel that I’m doing good – that my contributions matter.
- I want others to experience what I have.
- I have a sense of obligation – payback.
- The organization does work (eg. advocacy) that I know is important but that I can not do myself at this point.
- I wouldn’t want the organization to go away!
What keeps me donating:
- I know that most of the money goes to the mission.
- The group has an important mission that matters to me.
- The group takes time to help me understand the whys.
- They deliver results.
- They tell me what they are doing.
- There is honesty and transparency – even about challenges and failure.
- The web site has lots of good information.
- The group is doing a lot including activities I can participate in.
- The organization has a local connection – I can SEE what they are doing.
- The organization makes me feel valued.
- They personalize their connections with me.
- They are responsive – they speak to me and respond if I connect.
- They do what I ask them to do (especially around their solicitation of my support).
- They model my values.
What I don’t like:
- The organization has no idea who I am or what I care about.
- I get too much information and it’s not useful.
- The organization only wants my money and nothing else.
- Publications are not well matched to mission.
- They use too much guilt.
- We are sent products (mailing labels) that we don’t want.
- The organization is not transparent, or we hear of scandals.
- The materials raise doubts about the financial management of the organization.
- We are concerned that our name was sold or traded without our permission.
- The organization has no website or a poor website.
Now, while not every single donor will respond exactly the way that you respond to some approach from an organization, overall, must of like to be treated as if we matter, we appreciate honesty and we want to give to something that makes a difference about an issue that we truly care about. So why is this so hard to get right?
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 3, 2009 in Communicating, Fundraising, Tidbits
Last night I heard a lovely story of an unexpected and thoughtful thank you from a nonprofit to one of its supporters. I thought you’d enjoy hearing it as well.
I was facilitating a workshop on donor and member renewals. (More about that in a future post). The participants, who were largely board members and some staff from environmental organizations, were exploring their own experiences with organizations they contributed too.
During our conversation, I asked people to share experiences they had as donors or members — in particular, experiences that really stood out, good or bad.
One of the participants shared this story:
His wife, an artist, was interviewed by the local newspaper. During the interview (and mentioned in the article), she shared her fondness for a particular repertory theatre which she said was one of the things she loved about this State.
Not too much later, the couple attended a play at the named theatre. As they arrived, they noticed an envelope on their seat. Inside the envelope was a note to his wife from the theatre, thanking her for mentioning her love of this theatre in the newspaper article. Also inside was a gift certificate for coffee and dessert after the show at a nearby restaurant.
An unexpected and lovely thank you. A real show of gratitude. Needless to say, this particular act made a lasting impression… and really cemented the love of a fan.
Very nice.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 17, 2009 in Big ideas, Communicating, Nonprofit Highlights, World News
Today is the anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, the landmark, unanimous decision of the US Supreme Court in 1954. In this ruling, the Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, decided that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
The lawyer for the plaintiffs was Thurgood Marshall, who in 1975 was the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court. The cases that led to Brown v. were sponsored by the NAACP. (underscoring the critical role of advocacy and justice organizations in sparking systems change).
Sadly, we still have a largely segregated school system today. I witnessed this first hand.
My three children went to public schools in the city of Providence, RI. We live in the city and sent our kids to public schools because we believe that public education can be the great equalizer and because we want our kids to live in an inclusive society.
Out of three schools they attended, only their exam high school, Classical, came close to representing the fairly equally distributed racial and ethnic make-up of our dynamic city. The enrollment of students in the urban core are predominately children of color with large numbers of low income and first generation immigrant children who deserve more support than they are receiving.
Get outside the urban core and it’s much harder to find children of color. We’re not a lot different here than schools in many parts of the country.
I have seen first hand the struggles of schools trying to make do with few resources, too many kids per teacher, widely divergent student needs, uninspired leadership, too much bad or poor teaching and ever changing mandates. At times I’ve been jealous of the countless resources and one-on-one attention that our private school friends have attested to.
Yet I have to say, there is nothing more powerful than showing up at awards night at the high school and looking out on a stage filled with kids of every color and from every side of town. Than standing shoulder to shoulder with parents from many lands for whom the belief in the American dream where education is the path to a brighter future is a powerful to them as it was for me.
I’ve been fortunate to consult with charter schools (and some small independents that serve low income kids) that are trying to remodel urban education. But even they are faced by huge financial and educational struggles. Luckily we are seeing small, but bright experiments across the US. While it will be extremely costly to roll these models out across all schools across the US, it is too costly not to.
Even Senator John McCain has called access to quality education “THE civil rights issue of the 21st century.”
There is much work to be done. If we truly aspire to achieve what we profess, it will require our resolve as a society to not just talk a good game, but to put our money where our ideals are. There is no better investment in our future, whether that is in our health, our wealth or our quality of life, than an educated populace. All kids deserve high quality public education.
Which brings me to the Supreme Court. As we’ve witnessed over the many decades, the court has enormous power to bring forth a more just society, or to allow power to remain entrenched. Who is selected matters. A lot. We hope President Obama chooses wisely.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 13, 2009 in Better Boards, Communicating, Tidbits, Upcoming Events, Speaking and Training
Purpose. Vision. Wisdom. Humor. Joy. Passion. Shared Values. Dedication. Generosity. Insight. Productive. Patience. Flexibility. Common Ground. Perseverance. Investment. Struggle. Eye-opening. Community-building. Caring. Deep Caring. Collaboration. Diversity. Gratitude. Leadership. Creative. Integrity. Teamwork. Unity. Heaven. Rewarding. Brainstorming. Listening. Support. Respect. Commitment. Interactive. Different. Communication.
These words emerged from a workshop I facilitated this morning called “boards that lead.” To get us started I asked everyone to think of a great board experience they have had and then to share one word that characterized that experience.
In just a few minutes, the 40+ board members, executive directors and staff who attended shared the words above. Together, they described the perfect board experience. What a gift. Thank you.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on May 5, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Communicating, Fundraising, Good reads
When did you last receive a sincere expression of gratitude for a gift?
My friend and colleague Janet Hedrick, CFRE, writes about gratitude in her book, Effective Donor Relations.
Gratitude is sincere. It is being truly thankful. It embodies a deep human connection.
Last night, my bedtime reading was the May edition of Inc. Magazine. The magazine isn’t typically a place where I expect to be inspired by articles about gratitude.
But the article Everybody Loves Zappos in the May 2009 issue of Inc. Magazine had an amazing story about gratitude and deep human connection.
In the article, CEO Tony Hsieh tells one of those legend-making tales about extraordinary customer connections.
In the story, a customer service rep was handling a return of boots from a woman who had ordered them for her husband. She was returning the boots as her husband died in a car accident before he received them. Without asking permission, the call center rep ordered flowers charged to Zappos and had them sent to the woman for her loss. Hsieh says “not only was she a customer for life, but so were those 30 or 40 people at the funeral.”
I think the story struck me so strongly because just hours before I was having a discussion with the students in my class at Simmons College that seemed so contrary to the Zappos example.
All semester, my students have been working on graduate service learning projects. Their teams have developed communications plans to support organizational changes for seven nonprofit partners.
One group has been working on a project for an arts nonprofit. The organization had recently made a number of changes to its volunteer programs. In particular, volunteers were now required to pay membership dues before they could participate in various tasks. Most of those volunteers were over 60, most fairly well-off, and a number had been volunteering for the organization for many years.
A lively discussion centered around the reason for this change. Even though the organization had seen shrinking revenues, was it a good strategic decision to reward years of volunteer service this way? How did the short term need balance against long term good will and volunteer loyalty?
Fortunately, my students designed a communications plan that really emphasized ways the organization could express sincere gratitude to their volunteers.
How would you rate yourself on the gratitude scale? What could your organization do today to increase its donor gratitude quotient? What have you done? I’d love to hear your stories.
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