My hope has been that the work we do in 8, 6, or 3 hours together will impact organizations for a long time into the future. The goal is to change paradigms in those workshops. We focus on taking any “lack” conversations out of existence and focus on possibility and impact.

Do the strategies last? Do people get something from the time together? Recently I received this message:

Just after our one session with you years ago, we had done everything you suggested.

In 2006 our revenue was 16,000+ (that was our first year)
In 2007 our revenue was 106,000
in 2008 our revenue was 108,000
in 2009 our revenue will end up slightly above $255,000 . . . we were just short of making our $265,000 goal and haven’t done our annual ask yet and have traditionally done about $10,000 with it . . .

Our donors now repeatedly tell us that we do more for them than they do for us . . . In fact our biggest donors are now into selectively bringing their potential big donor friends into the circle. ~Marnita

Although the workshop is constantly updated, there are some core topics that get covered no matter what the length:

• Storytelling: Learning to tell stories that powerfully convey your mission.
• Money: Talk about money so the community understands why more money is needed.
• Asking: Identifying what is holding your organization back from asking for large gifts.
• Using social media to support our communication.

I’m grateful to learn when the workshop makes a difference because I believe that focusing on measures, donor-centered actions, and clear communication will bring in more dollars. I’ve seen it work immediately. One participant phoned me the next morning after a full day workshop to report she’d just asked for and gotten a yes to a $5000 gift. A gift she’d been struggling to ask for previously.

And just last week I received this message:

I was in an event planning meeting today and my volunteers were talking about lowering the dollar amounts of our live auction. They were uncomfortable stating large dollar amounts in front of an audience even though each of them has contributed over $10,000. In fact the one that was the most uncomfortable has made a $50,000 cash gift.

The reason I am emailing you is because it was your training years ago with my board of directors about money that helped me move this group forward and be unafraid to ask for large donations! I was able to explain to them that it is okay to ask for money and that is the ONLY reason we are holding this golf tournament. People expect it and we never have to apologize for asking for money at a fundraising event.

I wanted you to know how much your work makes a difference even years later… I simply understood that their discomfort had to do with how their family handled money when they were growing up. And from that place I could move them forward without being hooked myself. ~Michelle

Since that first workshop I’ve now delivered three different length versions of it: Full-day, day and- a-half and the ever popular 3-hour session to more than 500 people. About 1/3 of those who have attended have been board members who leave with an excitement for helping with fundraising that is contagious.

I’m delighted to learn from Marnita and Michelle that they created sustainable strategies from our time together that continue to serve their organizations.

Join us in August for the three-hour workshop in St. Paul. Bring board members or new staff. I promise you’ll take away helpful strategies that last.

This topic of this month’s Personal Branding magazine is philanthropy. I was honored to be invited to submit an article and have found myself in an issue alongside a number of my sheros and heros of the nonprofit community: Beth Kanter, Rosetta Thurman, Marc A. Pitman, Roger Carr, Paul Young of Charity: Water and more.

My article “Can You Teach People How to Fundraise” is a true story from a training session I led with the board and staff of a local nonprofit a few years ago. The dread that was pervasive at the beginning of the session changed to excitement and a desire to take immediate action by the end of the session.

Since that session thousands of dollars have now been raised from individual donors by the board members; dollars that may have gone to other organizations if they hadn’t invited participation.

Here are the guidelines I shared in my article about teaching people to fundraise: (excerpt from Personal Branding, August 2010 issue)

• Acknowledge current donors via phone with a warm, personal thank you.
• Deepen supporters’ relationship by learning why they give.
• Each time you share what is going well, share an example of how more money will impact one person.
• Don’t take “no” personally. It’s not about you.
• Break down the support needed into bite-size amounts. For example, support a child per day, per week or month.
• Share short stories of real people impacted by your work. You allow others to feel great when you invite them to help save or change a life.

To read my full article and great information from others check out the August issue of Personal Branding.

This past weekend, my partner Mark and I were personally touched by this drive to help others. Suddenly, we found ourselves as the recipients of these services, experiencing the social profit sector on a whole new level. Today’s message is purely one of gratitude.

Thank you to each of you who advocate for others; feed, house & clothe others; save or clean the environment; teach; care for the sick, frail or elderly; counsel; plant; read; provide emergency support; and in some way make your community a better place.

And a very special thank you to the fire and police departments across our country who do their jobs to handle emergencies like the fire that struck Mark’s house and garage this week.

It was with shock and awe that we watched the precision of the fire men and women from five cities put the fire out and keep our neighborhood safe. The temperatures were in the 90s as they rotated in to fight the fire in shifts for 10 – 15 minutes each. Fire Chief Specken managed the organized, efficient process as they all did their jobs. Not for a thank you, but because that’s what they do.

Hours later, the looks on their sweaty hot faces as they left were of fatigue and a bit of pride that they’d saved much of the house and there was no loss of life.

We were unable to put our gratitude into words. A few tears maybe, but words weren’t enough.

So, for just a moment I thank you all in our very special social profit sector. Thank you for the work being done behind the scenes, in front of the scenes, everywhere.

Those you serve may not always remember or have the words to thank you, but today, on their behalf, Mark and I thank you.

At www.majorgivingnow.org I found a helpful article by Richard K. Dupree: “Measuring Performance – A Station Manger’s Guide to Evaluating Major Gifts Officers.”

Although this article is based on staff in public broadcasting I believe the tool shared is very helpful in measuring the effectiveness of any major gifts officer.

This is also a great tool to use to measure the first 90 days of employment as well as annually.

The thing I like the best about this tool is that it weights all four areas equally. Creating an environment for both long and short-term effectiveness.

Here’s a recap of the article and the four areas to measure:
1. Dollar goal – while important, Dupree believes this is the least important of the four measures. I agree that even first-year major gifts officers should be presented with a defined dollar goal of cash/cash pledges and deferred gifts. And by equally weighting this area with the other four the system builds in long-term success as well as rewards for short term wins.
2. Proposals/Asks – Set a goal for the minimum number of proposals or actual asks to be generated each year. To guard against a staffer sending out a large number of unfunded proposals or asking too early, the “hit rate” is measured in section four.
3. Contacts – This is a key area to measure. A pre-determined number of annual contacts should be established with the highest percentage of these being face-to-face.
4. Overall Quality of Work – There are five aspects to measure. Each is given the same weight and they build on the three previous measures.

• Hit rate: Simply measure the ratio of yeses to no’s in the proposals submitted or asks made.
• Prospecting: Pre-determine the number of prospecting visits at the beginning of the fiscal year. This is critical in keeping the pipeline filled and the acquisition rate growing.
• Cultivations: These are meetings with individuals who are not new to the organization and may be much closer to making or accepting a proposal for a major gift. These visits are also important in maintaining an appropriate retention rate with existing donors.
• Use of management/leadership: This is a great way to encourage and remind major gifts officers that management and board leadership can and should be involved in key solicitations.
• Budget management: Being responsible for their own costs associated with bringing in a major gift can be a great safeguard against incurring expenses that may not be necessary.

The system is based on 100 points and Dupree says a score of 80 or higher would illustrate above-standard performance. The full article is listed on the Resources page. It’s a very thorough discussion of these measures and has a link to download the Word document tool.

Many of my readers and clients have taken great care to name their fundraising campaigns, events or your organization may have created a special tag line that’s helped to provide visibility. And as you may remember, I’m a big fan of “six word stories” which are often used as tag lines.

Since your taglines are among the most powerful marketing tools you have to promote your organization, program, fundraising campaign or event…why not get recognition for your hard work by entering the third annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program?

Just for entering you’ll receive a free copy of the 2010 NonProfit Tagline Report. Don’t wait to enter. It takes less than three minutes. Really! The deadline is July 28.

Nancy Schwartz, president of Nancy Schwartz & Company and blogger at Getting Attention, is the award program’s organizer and a messging guru for nonprofit organizations. You can follow Nancy on Twitter . I do. It’s how we met.

Good luck everyone!

Some guidelines to maintain quality donor communication throughout the year:

• Includes 1-2 personal contacts annually with top donors, mixed with other media. Remember last week I defined personal as in-person or on the phone.
• Keep your mission relevant without being intrusive.
• Maintain some sort of monthly contact via newsletters, e-alerts, annual report, special donor message, etc.
• Whenever possible, send a special message to a segmented group of supporters. e.g. Multi-year donors get an “Insiders” message a couple times a year or are invited to an exclusive meeting with your CEO.
• Don’t let too much time pass with no communication. Especially if you want the donor to give again this year. The “void” of time between asks is especially important.

This tool has been refined and used by many organizations over the years. I first started using a plan like this many years ago as both a development and executive director. Then, when I worked as a senior instructor at Raising More Money, now called Benevon™, we coached organizations to create plans similar to this one.

More information can be found on how to create a donor communication plan in chapter 14 of Raising More Money: A Step By Step Guide to Building Lifelong Donors, by Terry Axelrod.

Notice the red circles on the chart below. Those indicate there is too much time with little to no communication for key supporters on this plan.

To keep this manageable: You don’t have to create the whole year-long calendar all at once. Start with a couple of months at a time. Just be sure that before January 2011 you have a full year completed and ready to guide you.

Scheduling time to complete a plan like this one is invaluable. It allows you and your team to decide which months are too busy, which months need more touches and where to “put” the personal touches with key supporters so they know you’ve noticed them and their gift is special to your organization.

I’d love to hear from you about what kind of plan you’ve created.

I was recently visiting a friend and as she was sitting in the living room talking with me she sent her son a text IN THE NEXT ROOM. For me, that’s taking this whole social media thing a bit too far.

I happen to love social media. I use Twitter and Facebook regularly. I post videos on YouTube. I send out monthly eNewseltters and I often read and comment on postings on the web. This isn’t a slam on social media. I believe it has value, it’s fun and I’ve gotten to know some amazing people from around the world thanks to social media.

This is my plea for some sanity around using more personal methods of communication with the most cherished people in our lives. And if you are in the social profit sector that means your financial supporters and volunteers.

A few months ago, after I had sent out my monthly eNewsletter I received an email reply from Gary asking me a question. I did what I like to do: I picked up the phone and called Gary, whom I’d met once, to thank him for reading my newsletter and proceeded to answer the question. The response I got was: “Oh, you’re calling me! I didn’t want to bother you. I just wanted a quick answer on email.”

I explained that the phone call was much faster and it wasn’t a bother. I made an effort to explain that it felt more personal to me to actually make the call. I attempted to make sure Gary knew that his question was important to me. I’m still not sure he’d recovered by the end of the call.

I’m concerned the trend is to rely on email and eNewsletters to lure ourselves into thinking we are staying in touch with people in a compelling and personal way.

I receive more than 100 emails most days. Some of which are very impersonal and most days the total unread messages can be overwhelming.

While I don’t advocate phoning every donor monthly, an annual, meaningful phone call from the very right person, has huge value. The side benefit is the person knows for just a minute or two that they are special to your organization. And a face-to-face interaction – well that packs an ever more powerful punch for building a deeper relationship.

I believe there is still room for personal communication in our work and in our lives. Live or voice mail. It’s still good. Warm, authentic messages to say hello, thank you or ask for some quick advice from a long-time donor.

My request: If I phone you, please, please don’t send me an email reply. Just pick up the phone and let’s talk, voice to voice, for a minute or five to get our “thing” handled or scheduled and then move on with our day.

Whew. I feel better!

Just because they aren’t as easily accessible doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the effort to stay in touch with them. In fact, 46% of donors stop giving for reasons connected to a “failure to communicate” according to Penelope Burk’s book, Donor Centered Fundraising.

I suggest year-round communication that ensures supporters know you are thinking about them and their gifts matter. Make a plan for keeping donors and volunteers “in the loop” and stick to it, even this summer. Here are a few quick suggestions:

• Maintain a monthly schedule of donor thank you calls as financial and in-kind contributions arrive. Ideally these are made by a volunteer within about 48 hours of receiving the gift. Leaving a voice mail message can have as much impact as speaking directly with the person. And now they know for sure you noticed their gift and it matters to you that they made a contribution.
• Stay in touch via electronic monthly email newsletter updates that are 250 words or less. These short, compelling messages should generate some “feeling” about your work while also providing some factual information. Less is more in length.
  Format to use:
  - Share a short story or quote from a client
  - Tell what’s working – briefly
  - Give at least one example of what’s missing (i.e what you need more of to serve more people)
• Make a phone call to invite a selected group of financial supporters to participate in a summer event. Invite them to your client picnic, a special day at camp or to stop by for a short visit in the morning when people are lined up to be served by your foodbank.
  It’s the personal invitation that counts. Keep the amount of time short for them to participate in your event and allow the donor to bring their family or a colleague. Most importantly make sure the time spent is meaningful. Have a client shake their hand and thank them for their support or have them arrive just in time to see the kids get their end of camp awards.
  Remember: The donor doesn’t have to attend the event to have the invitation be of value. The phone call inviting them keeps you on their radar and reminded them of how important they are to your organization.
• Have some of your clients create handwritten thank you notes to send to selected supporters.This is a great exercise in teaching youth about the value of thanking others or giving elderly clients a feeling of “helping out.” The note reminds your supporters that there are real people being touched by their contributions.

Creating connections that keep your mission on your supporters minds will impact the effectiveness of your year-end appeal.

My final post on Reynold Levy’s book Yours For The Asking is about the importance of taking time to review your annual fundraising performance.

This year I’ve provided a number of Purposeful Planning trainings and webinars to help organizations of all sizes create annual fund development plans. The simple framework I use is posted in the Resources section of my website. It’s an Excel document to help map out your annual plan and donor communication calendar.

What may help is to be clear WHAT you are assessing. In Yours For The Asking, (p. 102) Levy offers these four powerful questions to help assess progress and maintain an active fundraising scorecard:
1. Did our fundraising in the last fiscal year overall, by market segment (corporations, small businesses, large foundations, family foundations, individual major gifts, and modest gifts) and by method (face to face solicitations, written proposal, special event, direct mail..) meet, beat, or fall short of budgeted expectations?
2. Was our fundraising in the last fiscal year a measurable improvement over the prior year’s results?
3. How does our fundraising track record compare with other admired institutions, overall, by market segment and method?
4. Are we successfully bridging the gap between our fundraising promise and performance, year over year?

Be sure to add: “Why or why not” as you answer each of these questions.

What I love about the questions is they bring attention to gaps. They may also encourage teamwork and partnership at a new level in order to fully answer each of the questions.

Since the biggest barrier for NOT creating a plan is time — staff and board simply not scheduling time to review last year’s efforts — I recommend putting it on the calendar at the start of each fiscal year. The amount of time doesn’t have to be overwhelming but it must provide meaningful information.

Why do this? Fundraising from individual donors is higher this year for the organizations I work with who have taken time to review their fundraising measures and make changes to meet or beat last year’s efforts.

I, too, have been both a CEO and a development director for small nonprofits. I’ve found the work energizing, overwhelming, and never dull.

What I learned, as Reynold Levy tells us in Yours for the Asking, is that when a fundraising program is really humming, it resembles a ladder and the seasons of life.

“It resembles a ladder, because ideally individual and institutional sources find donations habit forming and their relationship to your organization or cause strengthens over time.”

Levy uses an example from Kenneth N. Dayton, the former chairman and chief executive of Dayton Hudson Corporation. Dayton describes the stages of giving for himself and his wife this way (p. 18):
1. Minimal response
2. Involvement and interest
3. As much as possible
4. Maximum allowable
5. Beyond the max
6. Percentage of wealth
7. Capping wealth
8. Reducing the cap
9. Bequests

Here’s the thing: These stages are only likely to occur for a donor if someone in the organization has made it their focus to maintain meaningful relationships with key supporters.

That is not to say the executive director must do all the donor tending. An engaged board, key community volunteers who may also be financial supporters, and of course staff, can all play a role in the efforts. The executive director sets the tone by their own actions and focus on individuals.

An example of a gifted fundraising executive director is Clint, a man who is the President of a large social-service organization. He has a development staff of only one, between 400-500 other employees, and an organization that delivers more than 25 different programs throughout his community.

I’ve watched Clint and his tiny but mighty development staff work to engage more people to assist them in keeping key donors connected both with their time and their dollars. Eight or so years ago the organization had maybe 30 or 40 people who gave major gifts. Now they are just shy of 400. These are people who make gifts of $5000, $10,000, and even $50,000 or more each year. Clint knows each and every one of those people by name and sight.

He’s told me, “I plan on 45 minutes when I run to the store to pick up milk. There are just too many people to say hello to and thank.”

Clint has made it a policy to personally phone or send handwritten notes to anyone who makes a gift of $500 or more. He does it the minute he learns of the gift and then is done with it, so it’s not something waiting on his to do list.

What Clint has created is an environment of caring and really “seeing” the people who love the work of his organization. Does this take him time? Yes. Does he have to make choices to not do other equally important tasks? Absolutely.

When I asked him why, he said to me recently:

“I learned a long time ago, I have to be less of a lone-ranger and more of a recruiter. My job is to keep identifying people who have a passion for our work and then regularly keep them engaged and feeling special.”

Clint’s organization has hundreds of financial supporters at all the stages of giving outlined above. People give more and for long periods of time because they know for certain their gifts matter to both Clint and to the organization.

If your organization has any individuals who have given you their time or their money for more than a year, do you know them by sight? By name? Do you schedule regular times throughout the year when you can meet with a handful at a time or one-on-one?

I invite you to reach out to someone today who is a supporter. Surprise them with your call and attention. Share a short example or story with them of how your organization has changed someone’s life this past week. And then listen. Really listen.