Archive for the ‘Fundraising’ Category
Posted by Jon Howard on January 31, 2012 in Effectiveness, Fundraising, Research
A collaborative capital campaign created an entire new arts and business district in Cleveland. Photo: Gordon Square Arts District
Collaborative fundraising takes time and trust. That’s what we heard over and again in our interviews with seven nonprofit executives in Rhode Island, Boston, Cleveland and Spokane, each of them successful collaborative fundraisers.
We looked into the topic at the prompting of our friends at New Roots Providence and presented our early findings at a New Roots workshop on January 19.
The short version of what we learned from our informants:
- Successful collaborations flow from a deep process of trust-building among the partners. The right partners may take years to self-select, discover their shared goals and commit to combined action.
- Detailed legal agreements help establish trust and smooth functioning by exploring and resolving the partners’ deepest worries in advance. (These also take time)
- At the same time, good partners must be ready to make commonsense adjustments to agreements when they create unfair or unproductive results for some partners.
- Long-term and permanent collaborations need to form an independent organization to fundraise and distribute revenues. (Another time-consuming process.)
- The collaborative case must promise more than the sum of its partners: new funders respond to a transformative vision.
- Truly successful collaborations can reach more and larger funders and generate more income at lower cost than the two partners could achieve separately.
Our cases covered five forms of joint fundraising: grants, workplace campaigns, events, capital campaigns, and, finally, our elusive ideal of truly integrated annual fundraising. We’ll tell you more about three very interesting cases in future posts:
- The YWCA and YMCA in Spokane, Washington created a fully integrated capital campaign to build new shared buildings in two locations.
- The Gordon Square Arts District in Cleveland, Ohio brought two theater companies together with a community development organization to build not just theaters, but a whole theater-oriented arts district with major economic benefits for the city.
- The Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts began by building new shared performance space for the the Nora Theater Company and the Underground Railway Theater. The partnership then went on to take on all fundraising, business and back office operations, leaving both groups free to focus on their artistic missions alone.
If you have had a good – or bad – experience with collaborative fundraising that you think could help others, please send me an email. We’d love to hear from you.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on January 23, 2012 in Fundraising
Did you know that the typical major gifts officer for a large institution has a portfolio of somewhere between 75-150 donors?
Did you know that the typical major gifts officer meets with 7-10 donors a month?
I’m just wondering how many donors or prospective donors your organization – whether that was your Executive Director, your fund development staff, or your leadership volunteers - visited last month?
For many small organizations I know, they’d be lucky to visit that many donors in a year!!
No wonder most of us aren’t raising the money we’d like to raise.
Want to see the metrics that universities use? Take a look at this slide deck presented by Eduventures at a 2011 CASE Conference in Vancouver.
We can create giving pyramids all day. We know that we need 4 or 5 qualified prospects to realize one gift. What those gift pyramids keep telling us is that we have to find, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a heck of a lot of people to reach our fundraising goals.
It’s really hard to do that from your office chair. Or during a committee meeting.
So, let’s finish up the plans, polish up the case, and then get down to the really important work — those one-on-one conversations that are essential to our fundraising success.
Wondering where to start? Start with the people who already love you… your donors, your volunteers and your board members. I’ll bet that list will keep you busy for a while.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on January 15, 2012 in Better Boards, Communicating, Fundraising
On this weekend celebrating the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I was reminded again of the words of his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, The Quest for Peace and Justice, given in 1964.
“The well-off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds, and driven from the mainstream of our societies, because we have allowed them to become invisible. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.’ “
Since then, the gap between the rich and poor has only widened in the US.
The rich and poor rarely live in the same neighborhoods anymore. Heck, the well-off don’t even need to mingle with the less fortunate or use public services if they don’t desire, with private schools, private beach clubs and swimming pools, private country clubs, gated communities and isolated vacation enclaves.
So, if you are an affluent individual who never sees the poor or has no need to associate with the less-well-off, and if you are relatively immune from the cutback in government services, how do you come to understand the desperate lives most people live each day?
I worry about the impact of this social isolation on philanthropy.
Yes, as the sheer numbers of the affluent continue to grow, charitable giving grows. But where does the money go? Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on December 20, 2011 in Fundraising
Now that you’ve mailed out your annual year end appeal, I’m hoping you are getting ready to mail many of your donors again in a few weeks.
Too soon, you say. Mustn’t bother our donors but once a year, you protest.
I’m with you that it might be too soon for those donors who always send you a generous gift at the end of the year. (Though many direct marketers would dispute that).
But what about the donors who haven’t responded to your annual appeal?
In our work, we often encounter small nonprofits or new fundraisers who believe that the “annual” appeal is just that, a once-a-year request for a donation.
These small organizations often don’t analyze the giving patterns of their donors. They may have no useful donor database, or haven’t thought about what just how much work it might take to get donors to give again.
If an “annual” appeal raises the same amount of money or even just a bit more than it did the year before, it’s considered a success. But what isn’t known Read More >>
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Posted by Jon Howard on December 9, 2011 in Fundraising, Research, Tidbits
One of my all-time favorite bumper stickers was this one: “I am an animal. I brake for no one.” (A cynical comeback to the once-common “I brake for animals.)
However, it looks like our basic animal nature actually includes a generous dollop of do-goodism, judging from this NPR Morning Edition report. Lab rats at the University of Chicago have now proven to the satisfaction of scientists that they will sacrifice themselves to spend hours of persistent effort to free another rat trapped inside a small tube within the larger cages.
Not only do helper rats selflessly devote themselves to comforting their stuck buddy, they also work urgently to find the hidden button that springs the trap. They’ll do this even when the other rat gets released to a different cage, removing any social benefit. They’ll even help a pal when they could be working on liberating chocolate instead!
The scientists were thrilled to have discovered such pure altruism in another species. (I guess they never read Old Yeller.)
Let’s take this as a reminder to give our left brains a break as we compose our year-end and other funding appeals. Before you start to pile up facts and arguments, seek out your organization’s deeper appeal to our basic natures as creatures on earth: ”Here’s another person in pain. Here’s how you can make it better.”
And then there’s this: Even though I really do brake for others, I am still an animal.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on December 1, 2011 in Fundraising
At the AFP Massachusetts 2011 Fundraising Conference on November 30th, Margaret McKenna, former CEO and now senior advisor to the Walmart Foundation, shared some tips for appealing to corporate grant makers that I’d like to pass along to you.
- Use your “heart and instincts.” Think about what would move you to give money, and write accordingly.
- Make your case succinctly right up front. Be very “crisp” right from the start by defining the problem and how you are planning to address it. Show why your organization has the credibility to address this problem. Don’t lead with a boilerplate mission and history.
- “Use bullet points.” Explain the need, why the need is important and how it is not being met, whether anyone else is addressing this, and why the money should go to you.
- In writing about your mission, explain why it is important. Would some other group have to come along to address this if you went away? Would anyone care?
- Show your passion.
- Explain your expertise, the commitment you’ve already demonstrated to this issue, and how it fits in with what you do.
- Explain how many lives will be affected and the impact you seek to have, not just how many people you plan to “touch.”
Good advice for making your case to any donor, don’t you think?
Have any success stories of corporate grant seeking you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them.
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P.S. Of course, if the funder has a specific format they want you to use, remember to follow that.
P.P.S. Formerly the President of Lesley University, Ms. McKenna talked about the lack of understanding about nonprofits she encountered when she moved into the corporate sector. She noted that of the foundation heads of the Fortune 100 companies, only 3% had nonprofit experience. And, that most had spent a good portion of their working lives within the corporation whose foundation they were now leading.
Overall, she felt our sector had a lot of work to do teaching the corporate sector about the nonprofit sector. (I agree. And government too.). Joking, she mentioned that PowerPoint presentations with lots of graphs and charts were very influential tools in corporate culture.
But never just assume lack of knowledge about your issues or the sector… make sure that you know who you are talking to. Remember to do your research on the background of your grants officer.
Related posts:
How we got the grant Part 1
How we got the grant Part 2
You can hear a lot by listening
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on November 16, 2011 in Communicating, Fundraising
I’ll never forget this story.
A while back I was facilitating a workshop on donor and member renewals. To get started, I asked the room — board members and staff of environmental organizations — to explore their own personal giving by sharing their own experiences as donors or members. I asked them to think about experiences that really stood out, good or bad.
Bob’s* wife, an artist, was interviewed by the local newspaper. In the article, she shared her fondness for a particular repertory theatre which she said was one of the things she loved best about her 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.
WOW!
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.
I just finished reading the recently released report Growing Philanthropy in the United States. The report summarizes two think sessions held with top leaders in the nonprofit world this past year.
While I’ll have more to say about this report in coming posts, it’s worth underlining the major problem the report seeks to address:
While overall, the dollars given to charity have increased, individual charitable giving in the USA as a percentage of after tax income (2%) has remained stagnant for the last 40 years.
The report noted low retention rates, especially for donors new to a cause. It recommended that charities need to do much, much more to understand the individual behind the giving and build relationships that matter.
So what does this all have to do with saying thanks?
Past studies have shown that a top reason that donors say they stop giving is indifference by the charity they give to – a feeling that they and their giving don’t really matter.
In her book, Effective Donor Relations, my friend Janet Hedrick CFRE, eastern region development manager for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, strongly pushes the attitude of gratitude as an essential factor in building donor loyalty.
What is gratitude? It’s meaningful, thoughtful, heartfelt and individualized appreciation.
And when that appreciation is unexpected, it packs a powerful punch.
What thank you has taken your breath away lately? I’d love to hear.
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*Not his real name. But definitely a real person.
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Posted by Jon Howard on October 13, 2011 in Fundraising
For most nonprofits, and especially small ones, a successful event grows over several years as the organizers learn from experience and build a core audience in stages.
Our friends at the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council here in Providence are carefully nurturing a small, but happily growing annual event, the Woony River Ride. This benefit bike ride took place on September 24, showcasing the environmental organization’s two proudest achievements, the 5.4 mile Woonasquatucket Greenway and Bike Path and, of course, the much-restored Woonasquatucket River itself. (The lower river is the setting for Providence’s famous WaterFire performance).
Soon after my muscles recovered from the 50 mile loop, I sat down with Executive Director Alicia Lehrer to find out how the team at WRWC measured success after completing their second annual Woony River Ride.
This was the Woony Ride’s second year and the 2011 results put this event in the “small but growing” category. The Woony Ride attracted 90 riders this year, up from just 37 in 2010. They ride brought in $18,000, half from corporate sponsorships, the rest from registrations and fundraising by riders. That’s a giant jump from the $5,000 they grossed in 2010. The team is happy with the results. (But not satisfied!)
On the other side of the ledger, the Council kept cash costs to a minimum (just $2,000) thanks to generous support from business friends who provided just about everything needed– from advertising and graphics to snacks, lunch, water and prizes. All that in-kind support means that WRWC can keep most of their future growth in gross event revenues.
What else did WRWC get right? Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on August 8, 2011 in Fundraising, Research
In the Summer 2011 issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, you’ll find an intriguing article, “Fundraising Education: A Fork in the Road?”.
The authors, both professors at Indiana University, home of The Center on Philanthropy, lament the depressingly statistic that giving in the US has been static for decades at just 2% of GDP. They suggest that more robust interaction between academic research and practice — and more academically educated fundraisers – is a potential solution to lifting us out of this giving doldrums.
We can talk more about this at another time.
But what particularly caught my eye was an assertion, that if true, every fundraiser should be aware of now.
The authors stated:
“… by simply changing the words in their solicitation to provide donors with social information, [fundraisers] could increase the value of giving by an average of 10 percent.” (Emphasis added)
WOW! What fundraiser wouldn’t want to increase solicitation returns by 10%?
Immediately intrigued, I wanted to know how to do this. First, I had to decode what the authors meant by social information. (You might have been asking yourself that same question.) Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 26, 2011 in Fundraising, Little ideas, Tidbits
I was just thinking about these, and thought I’d share. What would you add to the list?
1. A gift pyramid is really helpful to determine the level of effort you need to raise money. It’s not just for big campaigns. You can use it to plan for special events and even annual giving programs. See how one works online at blackbaud.
2. If their website doesn’t list them, you can discover what grants foundations made in what amounts to what organizations by looking at their 990-PFs. You can find those on Guidestar or The Foundation Center’s 990 finder.
3. The Center for What Works has free sample logic models for 14 types of nonprofits.
4. You can find a lot of really helpful data through the Census Bureau, e.g. how many wealthy households are in your community. Get acquainted with their American Factfinder.
5. You can get low cost technology products (and free advice) at TechSoup.org
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