My paraphrasing of Seth’s answer:

Many CEOs of social profit organizations don’t really know how to give and therefore struggle with the ask. The reality is some CEOs don’t understand what it means to have their work be art and truly give. Transactions pull people apart. Gifts pull people together. What may hold a staff back is the inability to relate authentically to the person who gets asked for money every day. The act of giving adds meaning to our work. And many social profit CEOs don’t often GIVE the investor or potential investor a way to feel good.

It’s our job to allow those we are inviting to support our work to “feel” something. And what social profit organizations really sell is the ability for their supporters, their investors, to feel good about giving and about the work being done.

The way we can give that experience is through authentic conversations that tell true stories about the good work being done and the real people being served. Communicating in a way that causes people to feel something is, I believe, the most important part of the asking process.

What worries me, and what Seth Godin mentioned in a story he shared, is that often people in the social sector are too worried about the pain of others knowing their finances, or their daily struggle or they don’t want to deal with the pain of telling the truth in some way. This prevents them from sharing their compelling story. It gets glossed over with a “we are doing fine” comment that causes the listener to feel absolutely nothing. Or, worst case scenario, it causes them to feel they are not needed.

I encourage you to embrace Seth’s list of ways to embrace the new American Dream (from page 33 of his newest bestselling book Linchpin) and allow your organization and the people you serve to be rewarded.

I invite you to:

• Be remarkable
• Be generous
• Create art – (the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people)
• Make judgment calls
• Connect people and ideas
• Be accessible

…then see what kind of support shows up for your organization.

Bonus offer: I will send a copy of Linchpin to the first two people who email me requesting a book.

This week I’ll turn 50. When I was much younger — in my early 40s — it seemed 50 was a long, long way off. Now that it’s here, I’ve decided to do something significant to me and invite as many of you along for the ride as possible.

This year I’m giving my birthday to charity: water.

My goal is to raise $5000 to support one water project for 250 Bayaka living in the Central African Republic. They are an African Pygmy tribe, one of the last hunter-gatherer societies in the world desperately in need of clean drinking water.

In answer to your question: Why? I have a few reasons.

First: The Charity: water message has stuck with me since last year when I learned about their birthday campaign. As I’ve brushed my teeth or rinsed the dishes each day while clean water easily pours into my sink I’m haunted by these startling statistics:

• Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water.
• Unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all disease and kill more people than all forms of violence, including war.

Second: This campaign, the website support, and the overall online fundraising effort all year long by Charity: water is the best I’ve ever seen. Whether you make a contribution or not, visit their website. Look around. Touch it. Feel the emotion. See the colors and the smiles and dirty water. And then think about whether or not your website can be as compelling.

Third: I work with literally hundreds of social profit organizations each year and financially support many of them. Deciding who to give my birthday to was causing me sleepless nights. So, I’ve chosen an organization that is not a client. Whew! That feels better. Now there is no worry about anyone feeling left out.

Background story:
When Charity: water founder Scott Harrison turned 31, he asked everyone he knew to come to a party and bring money for clean water instead of gifts. He raised more than $15,000 and they used the money to give water to people living in a refugee camp in Uganda. In 2007 they held the campaign again, but asked others born in September to join in as well. They gave up birthday gifts and together raised $150,000 to bring clean water to hospitals and schools in Kenya. A year later, 900 people joined the movement, and almost $1 million was raised through birthdays.

This year, they’re doing it again — but bigger. And I’m joining in. Please celebrate my 50th birthday by making a $50 contribution to Charity: water on my special birthday page.

Last week I read a report from Lisa Sargent based on interviews with top U.S. nonprofit executives. The report outlines a number of things in answer to the question: “what’s working?” The full report has lots of great information in it. Be sure to download and read it.

Here is the Observations and Recommendations portion of Lisa Sargent’s report. These are a great guide as we head into the final and most busy quarter of the fundraising year:
1. The quality and consistency of your post-acquisition donor communications matters more than ever; and until this fact isn’t simply acknowledged – but acted upon – retention rates will likely suffer.

The major impediment here, noted an executive at one of the largest organizations, is simply that even today, quality communications are seen as “desirable, not a necessity”. . . and that most still “don’t value the importance of good communication.”

Of course, based on many of the findings in this report, it’s clear that follow-up donor communications – online and especially offline – hold the key to loyalty and retention. For example:

• Online donors, e-mail subscribers and social media followers are fragile, so your follow-up communications are critical for converting a SM audience to e mail subscribers and online donors, and for improved retention, to direct mail donor care communications.
• Donors now expect more (and thanks to channel proliferation they are marketed to ever-more frequently), so your message must be concise, clear, accessible and with a uniform voice across channels
• Steep nonprofit competition means that regular, relevant communications that resonate emotionally are key to staying top-of-mind with donors

2. Consider making story-based and relationship fundraising a bigger part of the donor communications mix.

At one organization, an executive noted that they have seen a 25% boost in gifts from existing donors, by shifting to a more story-oriented communications style. Overall, the number of communications that donors receive from this charity each year has actually increased; however, the mix now includes more newsletters and fewer direct mail appeals.

This leader remarked that there is far less transactional fundraising going on in these messages, saying it’s “all about personal impact” – an insight offered by a number of others in this survey – and “very little hard numbers.”
The strategy may be effective because it appears to capitalize on the changing donor mindset noted earlier in this report.

3. Find a way to eliminate creative silos when integrating campaigns and when using multi-channel communications.

As noted, the biggest challenge here is consistency: of voice, tone, image, etc.

At least one organization represented in this report is planning to bring its direct mail function in-house, two to three years down the road, in an effort to gain more control over uniformity of messaging.

Control and consistency are particularly important as more and more donors now view your work and your communications across multiple channels, and especially if these communications carry the signature of a single, high-level leader: a harmonious tone and style is vital.

What’s Working in Donor Fundraising and Development Today? Copyright © Lisa Sargent and Sargent Communications, published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.

Our special guest is direct mail professional: Blase Ciabaton. During the August 19 webinar Blase will take us through his seven proven tips for reducing expenses on printing and direct mail campaigns.

Here are a few of the myth busting stats Blase will share with us:

• Direct response fundraising makes up close to 60 percent of giving.
• While online donors are a very good acquisition source, they are also less loyal donors.
• On a typical prospect mailing (sent to someone who’s never made a donation to your organization before), a nonprofit should expect to lose money.

One of the best things about Twitter has been all the great colleagues and new friends I’ve met around the world. While I’ve never met Blase in person, we are frequent Tweet buddies. He lives in Naples, FL where he started his direct mail business six years ago. His blog focuses on information for PR & Marketing professionals and the social profit community. Some of Blase’s specialties include tackling issues related to postage permits, mailing lists, returned mail, and donor conversion.

I’m honored to have Blase as our special webinar guest on Thursday, August 19. By becoming a member you can participate for FREE in this webinar as well as 10 more webinars throughout the next year.

Follow Blase on Twitter: @TheDMailMan
Follow me on Twitter: @LJacobwith

Why I loved the session from Andy is that he shared a step-by-step common sense approach to increasing the numbers of “askers” on your development team. No they aren’t board members, though they could be. They are your staff. In fact ALL of your staff.

Andy says in many organizations “what is usually lacking is enough people to do the asking.” He then went on to share a case study about Toxics Action that shuts down for two weeks a year and has ALL staff engage in their major gifts solicitations. Face to face asks are made by everyone from the admin staff to the program manager. When people are hired they are told: everyone is a fundraiser here. No one is exempt. We’ll teach you how to do it. And they do.

While your organization may or may not be able to devote the kind of focus Toxics Action does, this model is adaptable to different size staffs and different kinds of organizations.

The reality is donors will give five to ten times more in person than they will give via mail. So at Toxics Action they train their staff to go out and meet with donors. This kind of fundraising is like conducting your own market research. You get to ask donors questions face-to-face and really learn more about why they give.

Andy referred to this model as the Ambassador model. What I believe, as does Andy, is that “more money exists out there…it’s just hidden from your view.”

What I learned from Andy:
To be successful raising money from individual you need four things:

• A strong case.
• A list of prospective donors.
• People to do the asking.
• A system in place to track data, money, and donor recognition.

What can make a difference in increasing your fundraising dollars?

• Set up time to train everyone in what the current objections might be to making a larger gift right now.
• Allow people time to get comfortable answering those objections with thoughtful answers and comments.
• Practice. Practice. Practice.
• Everyone participates.

Here’s part of the compelling story Andy shared:

After five years of building their major gifts program, Toxics Action now raises $110,000 per year — one-quarter of its annual budget — from individual major gifts of at least $250. Using the time and talents of eight staff members, only one of whom is a full-time fundraiser, the organization conducts 250 to 300 donor visits each year in homes spread across six states.

In an article you can download, Andy shares in detail about the Toxic Actions story and shares a powerful example of how a married couple increased their gift from $45 to $1500 using this model.

The full article is available from Grassroots Fundraising Journal In the “Author’s last name” box, enter Robinson.

Note: The Journal charges $3 to download each article. They deserve your support and it’s worth it.

To view or download the free slide show from the webinar with Andy visit the MCN website.

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.

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.

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.

Does your organization have enough money to do what you want to do? To serve as many people as need your services? As Reynold Levy says in one of my favorite fundraising books, Yours For the Asking:

“The contribution of this nation’s Third Sector to meeting…twenty-first-century challenges is constrained by a lack of resources. Acquiring them with a greater sense of urgency, of competency and of creativity is a critical task. It can be accomplished, but only if the chief executive becomes personally engaged and catalyzes volunteers and professional staff with vision and by example.“

I believe, as Reynold does, that the Chief Executive must both lead the charge by example but also engage a group of volunteers and key staff to help raise the funds needed to do the work.

In my work with social profit organizations of all shapes and sizes, I’m troubled that it’s rare that I find a chief executive who is willing to dive in and make development efforts a major part of their focus. The rule of thumb for the successful CEOs I encounter is that about 50% of their time is spent tending donor relationships or inviting financial support.

Reynold says: “Put simply, fundraising is nothing more than salesmanship. It’s persuasiveness at work. It’s a performing art.” And he should know, as CEO of the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts he’s raised millions. His book is an easy to follow guidebook/roadmap for the different arenas of development: events, individual solicitation, board engagement, appeals, and on. I love this book and give it as a gift, often.

I find Reynold’s no-nonsense style to be refreshing and exciting. He is someone who loves to provide an opportunity to others to be their greatest selves by supporting the organizations he’s worked for. Reynold understands that “the ask” is not about him. And he understands that he must know his organization’s financial supporters intimately for them to feel engaged and “insider” enough to give more of their advice, time and dollars. He makes sure donors to his organization feel “seen” and therefore feel special.

So I ask you:
What amount of time have you spent, today, to connect with a donor?

• Who did you thank for their gift?
• Who did you invite to make a gift?
• Who did you contact to provide some feedback about how a recent gift was put to good use?
• Where did you deepen a connection and cause someone to feel special for supporting your organization?
• Do you know the faces & names of your top 25 or 30 or even 100 supporters?
• Do those supporters know that they are special to your organization for more than just their annual check?

Next week: A few more reminders from Yours for the Asking about what it takes to have a successful fundraising program.