Month: December 2013

…a guest posting by Andrea Kihlstedt

What personality traits make up an ideal nonprofit fundraiser? In my last post, I discussed the common misconception that you’ve got to be an extrovert to connect with donors. In that post – and in my most recent book – I’ve shown that many of the introverts among us can bring unique strengths to the fundraising table.

Today it’s time to talk about another common misconception about fundraising: the idea that, to get the gift, you have to be able to speak from the heart. You know the kind of person I’m talking about – whether a famous orator like Martin Luther King, Jr. or your organization’s executive director when she gives a talk that brings people to their feet, some individuals have the gift of moving hearts to action.

Few of us doubt that a person like this can become a great fundraiser. As you know, fundraising is about building relationships – and who doesn’t want to have a relationship with someone who knows how to make them feel wonderful and inspired?

But what about the people in your organization who lead from their heads rather than their hearts? I’m sure you know many individuals like this – those folks who want “the facts,” and who prefer thinking logically to thinking emotionally. They care about details and want to know how things work … and why.

You might think that someone like that would bore donors to tears – and if allowed to take the analytic side of their personality to extremes, they might do just that. However, it is also true that, with the right training and encouragement, the analytical thinkers in your organization can be very effective at motivating some donors to give major gifts.

When I was first coming up with the Asking Styles system, one of the first people I thought about in this regard was my husband, Tyko. On the surface you might not think Tyko would be a good fundraiser; he’s a retired academic who prefers the logical approach, rather than the emotional.

On the other hand, Tyko would be the perfect person to send to meet with donors who, like him, are interested in the facts about your organization and exactly what their gift will accomplish.

By their nature, analytic thinkers would never consider meeting with a donor unless they have a firm grasp of the facts about the organization they’re about to represent. If the donor wants to know the rate of return on your endowment investments last year while considering an endowment gift, your analytic thinker won’t just have the simple answer. He or she will probably also be able to explain your investment strategy and your fund’s projected earnings for the next five years.

So yes, an analytic thinker has the potential to bore donors who prefer to lead from their hearts. On the other hand, donors who are more interested in the facts aren’t likely to connect anywhere near as well with intuitive, emotion-based presenters.

As a heart-based, intuitive thinker myself, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I had an analytic thinker with me while being peppered with detail-oriented questions by donors!

While I am generally well-prepared with stories and basic information, talking about facts takes me out of my flow and actually makes it harder for me to connect with a donor. But combine an intuitive person like me and an analytical thinker like Tyko, and you’ve got a team that can both inspire and inform a donor no matter what their style.

With more than thirty years’ experience in this field, I’ve discovered that virtually anyone can become a successful fundraiser – introverts as well as extroverts, and analytical and intuitive thinkers alike.

The real key is to encourage every person who helps with your organization’s fundraising to be their authentic self, to create teams with complementary personality traits (or as I call them, Asking Styles), and to pay attention to your donors well enough to understand which approach(es) will work best for them.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Want to find your asking style, use Andrea’s Asking Style Assessment; and, if you want to read more about Asking Styles, take a look at Andrea’s book, Asking Styles: Harness Your Personal Fundraising Power. You can contact Andrea at Andrea Kihlstedt.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

‘Grants management’ encompasses a breadth of activities within a wide range of organizations and agencies, from small NPOs to federal agencies such as the NIH.

In the context of this post, I am defining grants management to encompass those activities conducted by NPO staff for the purpose of ensuring grant compliance, from the time the grant is accepted until it has been closed out. An important distinction is that the above definition excludes grants from government agencies, as the management of which is very complex.

However, management of grants from private and corporate foundations is still important, since it ensures compliance with the programmatic and financial elements of grants. It is important to remember that grants are NOT a no-strings-attached gift – they are a contract between the grantor, who provides the funds, and the grantee, who performs the tasks and delivers the outcomes described in the proposal.

As I’ve written previously in this blog, grantsmanship is a team effort, and your team is essential for effective grants management. Hopefully, you have worked with your organization’s program and financial staff people when preparing grant proposals, so they will be aware of the program goals, outcomes and metrics, evaluation methodology, and program budgets (see the chapters: “If You Evaluate It (Well) – They Will Come,” and “Developing Financials for Grants” in my ebook on Grants and Grantsmanship ).

Upon acceptance of a grant, a good practice is to meet with the program and financial staff people who will be involved in implementing the funded program. At that meeting, the grant management activities (listed below) should be discussed and assigned to the appropriate staff member(s), along with a schedule for when the tasks should be completed.

Depending on the size and culture of your NPO, you (as grant manager) may be involved in many of those activities, or you may function more as a project manager.

I strongly recommend against a hands off project management approach, as you are ultimately responsible for completing and submitting grant reports, and this is impossible to do well when trying to gather all the program and financial data from others at the eleventh hour! You may choose to meet (or communicate via e-mail) periodically, throughout the grant period, with those staff members … to ensure things are running smoothly.

Grant Management Activities:
•  Conduct program activities as outlined in the grant proposal
•  Evaluate program effectiveness as outlined in the grant proposal
•  Communicate with grantor (if needed) to request change(s) to
program design and/or grant expenditures
•  Maintain financial records for program expenses and revenues
•  Complete and submit grant reports throughout the grant period
as requested by the grantor, including financial reports
•  Complete and submit final grant report by grantor’s deadline,
including financial reports

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop,
enhance and expand grants programs, and helps them
secure funding from foundations and corporations.
Contact Lynn deLearie.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Lynn’s ebook on Grants & Grantsmanship.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $4.99) ☺
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

A fundraising campaign brochure can be an important tool for communicating the worth of a campaign to a targeted audience, as well as for making an organization’s “family” more knowledgeable about their organization and the purpose and structure of the campaign.

Often, when the subject of a campaign brochure publication comes up, it is greeted with an exclamation that goes something like this: “A brochure won’t raise a nickel !!” That response is far too dismissive and, if left unaddressed, could result in a disregard for what is actually a key fundraising tool … particularly for capital and endowment campaigns.

True, “People raise money, publications don’t,” but people can be more effective in raising money if they are given the resources that can help establish the best possible climate for a solicitation.

Having an official brochure in hand is essential in establishing the perception in the minds of some potential donors that the campaign is structured and is being conducted in a professional manner. It is also a necessity for some volunteer leaders and solicitors as a bolster to their levels of comfort/confidence.

Hand some people a brand new, “off the press” publication and watch their faces brighten and eyes spark with interest. Just the feel of the publication in-hand often works wonders.

Too Many Cooks (Writers/Designers/Editors) Can Doom A Campaign Brochure
On this subject, I have seen campaigns languish and die because the organization could not agree on the text, design, length, graphics, etc. of the brochure.

Typically, this impasse occurs more often in capital and endowment campaigns than in annual fundraising efforts because campaigns, which are (by definition) of limited duration, are viewed as special events.

Because they are not repeated every year, a previous brochure is not there to serve as a comfortable model. Faced with the prospect of creating a document from scratch, everyone on the campaign committee seems to be magically transformed into a writer or creative artist.

In their need to feel adequately prepared for success, volunteer leaders often have the tendency to become inordinately involved with the actual nuts and bolts of developing the campaign brochure.

Therefore, the campaign management professionals, guided by the expertise of communications specialists, should make decisions about the brochure and other related materials … and stick to those decisions.

Accept the fact that it will be impossible to obtain the complete agreement of everyone involved on each and every point, so don’t set up a situation where you have to ultimately disregard some campaign leader’s stated preference about a favorite color or treasured phrase.

While consensus is important in fundraising, it does not mean that you must arm every member of your campaign committee with veto power….

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have a question or comment about the above posting?
You can Ask Tony.
There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website:
Raise-Funds.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $4.99) ☺
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.