Tag: fundraising

The Power of Course Corrections

Fundraising, like life, is typically more a marathon than a sprint. Building relationships and achieving organizational goals happens over time. Trouble is, the more we get bogged down in the daily slog, the more we can lose sight of the eventual goal. We need to stop from time to time, figure out where we are (as opposed to where we think we are) and make sure we’re on course. If we’re not, it may be time for a course correction.

(Navy Flashback Alert!) Let’s say you’re on a ship leaving San Diego and heading for Pearl Harbor. At 20 knots that trip should take a bit less than five days. So you leave San Diego, set your course toward Pearl Harbor, and then you sail happily across the eastern Pacific expecting that you’ll wake up on the morning of Day Five with Diamond Head on the horizon. Right? Wrong! It doesn’t work that way, as anyone knows who has spent any time on the open sea.

What will happen instead is that you’ll wake up on Day Five with Diamond Head nowhere to be seen. That’s because along every mile of your cruise the ship is being driven off course. Sometimes the causes are external: wind, waves, currents. Other causes can be internal: your compass is bad, your rudder is misaligned, your helmsman isn’t paying attention. If you just set your course and forget it you’ll probably discover on Day Five that you’re 100 miles or more off course, because the forces that drive you from your predetermined track are cumulative — that is, the longer you wait the greater the correction you’ll eventually have to make. The obvious answer, and what Navy ships do, is to take constant fixes to determine where you actually are. Then you make continual, minor corrections to stay on course. And on Day Five, voila — there’s Pearl Harbor, right where it belongs.

In my business (and also in my relationships — this definitely applies to marriage!), I may think I’m on track, but in fact I’m constantly being driven off course by outside and inside influences and distractions. I’d better get into the habit of taking continual fixes — a regular reality check! — and then making those small adjustments I need to make to keep myself on track toward my destination. The longer I wait and assume everything is fine, the bigger and harder the course correction I’ll have to make. It might even be too hard, or too late.

So…I can think of several course corrections I need to make. How about you?

I May Not Know Much About Fundraising…

Someone asked for my input the other day. I was surprised that I actually had some to offer!

It was a colleague who works for a different division within the same non-profit I work for. She said she was considering putting on a fundraising banquet, and did I have a few minutes to kick around some ideas. We sat down to chat and when she left my office after 40 minutes or so I was actually sort of pleased with myself — I think I gave her several helpful suggestions! Now please bear in mind that I have personally helped plan and execute a grand total of two fundraising banquets, and since one of those was a breakfast it barely counts. So I was hardly speaking from a deep reservoir of personal experience here.

However, in working on those two events I did learn a HUGE amount, including what works (recruit really good table hosts) and what doesn’t (don’t miscount the cupcakes), and also what to watch out for next time (your audio visual people will not automatically show up with a CD player unless you ask for one). My epiphany — sort of a “Well, duh” epiphany at that — is that pretty much everything of value that we learn is learned by doing. And no matter how little experience you may think you have, you probably know more than you think you do.

In fundraising I have found immense value in the informal reservoir of shared experience, information and insight that is all around me. I suspect you have, too. So my encouragement to you (and to me) is, first, be willing to ask for help from others in the business…and, second, be willing share what you know. Join a forum, teach a workshop, start a blog. And as you begin to share, you’ll probably be surprised at how much valuable information you’ve assimilated along the way!

Always Close for Something!

True confession time: I used to be a Professional Visitor. Or at least I felt like one.

Oh, I thought I was an account executive for a major metropolitan radio station, but more times than not it was as if I was really getting paid just to visit. I recall too many episodes spending time with certain prospective accounts, sitting in their offices exchanging pleasantries over coffee for an hour or so, only to walk away with absolutely no clue what was supposed to happen next. My Sales Manager, Mac, would ask me how the meeting went. “Great,” I would say, “I was with him for an hour!” “So,” Mac would ask, “what’s your follow-up strategy? When is the next buy up? What’s the next step with this guy?”

“Um…” I would answer, staring at my shoes. I had no clue. The client and I had talked about everything except the real reason I was there! Finally after one too many of these frustrating conversations, Mac blew a cloud of cigarette smoke my way and said to me in exasperation, “Remember — always close for something!”

Now I’m a fundraiser, but Mac’s advice still resonates. Always close for something. What could that something be? Well, a gift, obviously — but if it’s not time for that, how about closing for the next appointment? Closing for a follow-up call? Closing for a site visit? Closing for a written proposal? Closing for some information? Even closing for the next time you plan to call and say hello? Clearly we fundraisers value our relationships with our donors, but it seems to me we should always be moving those relationship gently and appropriately toward that next gift, that larger commitment, that new initiative. It’s why we’re here. I shouldn’t have that deer-in-the-headlights stare when my boss asks me what’s my next step with a significant donor.

Mac said it more than 30 years ago: “Always close for something.” Thanks, Mac — good advice that still applies!

Is the Air Going Out of Your Balloon?

So here we are one week into 2014 and I sense…a little bit of a letdown. Maybe that’s just me, or maybe it’s inevitable.

After all, we in fundraising tend to push, push, push toward Calendar Year End. December! The Holy Grail of months! The make-or-break page on the calendar! So much is riding on these 31 days — we strategize, we plan, we execute, we measure, we compare. We watch the tally for this gift or that. We call, we ask, we match. Your gift doubled through the end of the year! The countdown has begun! The ball is about to drop!

And then…it’s done. The year is ended. Oh, sure, some gifts trickle in, maybe some important ones — but the build-up is over, the anticipation is behind us, the results are in. We sweep up the confetti, fill in the spreadsheet, and turn the page. It’s January. Suddenly the urgency is gone, but the importance remains. Much to do, but without the sharp clarity of a hard deadline, I feel I lack some of the energy I had only a few short days ago.

I know, it’s temporary. Some of the air may have gone out of the balloon for a few days, but we’ll get that sucker pumped up again! How about your balloon — is it a little bit flat? Or do you have a solid January Strategy to avoid the post-December slump? How do you give January some of that December punch? Love to hear your ideas!

Breadth versus Depth

Is your organization more about breadth or about depth? In other words, does the organization you represent focus on providing relatively few services to a big number of people, or does it serve a small number of constituents very deeply?

Seems to me that child sponsorship is a prime example of breadth. My sponsor gift of, say, $30 a month is pooled with dollars from other sponsors to create enough critical mass to effect change in a village or community. As a donor I see my gift as making a difference, but it only works if I’m part of something much bigger.

The field of education, by contrast, is a good example of depth. I represent a high school for students at risk, where the annualized cost to educate a single student is relatively high. That makes it a challenge to come up with the sort of “Your gift of $X does Y” calculus that many donors prefer. But the transformation that takes place in the life of each student is deeply significant. Some donors understand that model and embrace it while some don’t.

My experience tells me that, in order to acquire new donors, we need to find ways to break that sort of “depth” model down into bite-sized chunks so the smaller donor understands exactly what his/her gift will do.  When the overall cost per beneficiary is high, how do we attract the entry-level donor with something compelling? We’ve been trying some different approaches but the jury is still out.

I’d love to hear how you’ve handled this balance. Breadth or depth? Efficiency or effectiveness? Or is it both?

My Top 3 Resolutions for 2014

A few months ago my wife and I attended a fundraising banquet for a small non-profit. We were eager to go and enjoyed the evening (although I thought the program was about an hour too long, but why quibble?). And when the ask came, we responded and wrote a reasonably sized check — for us, anyway. Less than a thousand dollars but more than a hundred, we’ll say. And it was our first gift to this organization.

What happened in the few days afterward? Nothing. The sound of crickets. To this day, not a note, not a phone call, not even a receipt (yet — I figure they’ll get us one in time for the IRS deadline this month). It has been at least two months, and nothing.

Now don’t misunderstand. I wasn’t expecting a brass band or a weepy thank-you call from the person in charge. And I realize this is a VERY small organization, so their infrastructure is probably minimal…or less. But come on, people. When a new donor makes a first gift, a thank you is in order…a note, an acknowledgment, something.

I do plan to talk to the organization and tell them of our experience, but more importantly I’ve been reflecting on my own fundraising modus operandi. How am I in the gratitude department? So after careful contemplation I’ve come up with my Top 3 Resolutions for 2014. I hope they help you as much as I expect they’ll help me. They are, in order:

1. Say thank you.

2. Say thank you.

3. Say thank you.

Got any resolutions you want to add?

Why Do We People of Faith Stress Out Sometimes?

Calendar year 2013 is over, and as fundraisers we’re still catching our breath…maybe hoping the mail that shows up in the next few days will bring a few more checks with those 2013 postmarks we’re hoping for. And as we reflect on the year just past — can we talk? — we have to ask, “If we trust God so much, why do we stress out so often?” I suspect the reason the Bible tells us not to stress out (“Be anxious for nothing,” says Paul…Why worry about food and clothing, asks Jesus) is because worry is a natural part of the human condition. I think, therefore I obsess! It’s another classic case of Christian cognitive dissonance: we believe it’s all up to God but we behave as if it’s all up to us.

As fundraisers we live in this tension: how much is God, how much is me? (A pastor friend of mine used to call this “living between ‘already’ and ‘not yet'” — between what God has already done and what He has yet to do.) Yes, we trust God. Yes, we make our plans, work to our best ability and take both our failures and our successes too personally.

So how’s your balance between faith and freak-out? Any resolutions in 2014 to find that elusive balance between the serene walk of faith and the roller coaster ride of excessive self-reliance?

Happy New Year, fellow pilgrims!

What Does “Devo” Mean to You?

If you are, um, of a certain age, “Devo” was an 80′s band with flowerpots on their heads. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, rest assured that (as Dave Barry would say) I am not making this up. Just go up to someone over the age of 50, say “We are not men, we are Devo,” and see what they say.

However, this blog has nothing to do with that Devo. In my experience as a fundraiser at a faith-based non-profit, “devo” has two meanings. It can be shorthand for “Development,” as in “I work in the Devo Department.” Paradoxically it can also be short for “Devotions” which (to the uninitiated) is a spiritual gathering that many Christian workplaces schedule regularly (as in “What time is devo?”). The purpose is prayer and mutual encouragement. The term may sound odd, I realize, but it’s something many of those of us working in these organizations take for granted.

I think these two definitions of Devo, “development” and “devotions,” the professional and spiritual, go hand in hand. But I have to admit that sometimes our fundraising profession and our “faith profession” exist in uneasy alliance, and holding them in proper balance can involve a kind of cognitive dissonance. It’s precisely that balance that Devomania exists to address.