Here a few inspiring social enterprise ideas discussed at the recent national Social Venture Network conference. (Source: Forbes article by Devin Thorpe)
1. Be Political. While 92% of Americans favor disclosure of genetically engineered ingredients in their food, objections from the powerful food industry are so strong that only through collective advocacy will this change. Continue reading “14 Insightful Social Entrepreneur Ideas”
It’s undeniable – having a positive reputation not only helps your bottom line, but also significantly reduces the risk of crises causing permanent damage. The time to start working on that reputation isn’t in the middle of crisis management, however, but before trouble ever rears its ugly head.
Not convinced? Maybe the stats in this Ciceron infographic will sway you:
In our experience, the cost of properly preparing for reputation threats falls FAR below that of recovering from a full-blown crisis situation. Don’t be left saying, “we should have been ready”, start putting your plans together today.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
1. Who Are Your Planned Gift Prospects? – Part I
by John Elbare, CFP
Before you get started with planned giving, you need to identify your most likely planned gift prospects.
Planned giving works best when you target your efforts toward a segment of donors who are most inclined to consider a planned gift.
Avoid falling for the common misperception that planned giving is mostly for wealthy donors. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, wealthy people do set up planned gifts for their favorite charities … but so do your average middle class donors. In fact, most of your planned gifts – once they start coming in – will be from your regular, average donors.
This is the real beauty of planned giving – it allows your everyday annual donors to become major gift donors, even though they are not wealthy. Here’s how it works. Most middle class donors can only give so much each year, depending on their disposable income. This may be $100 or $1000.
When your donors think about their annual gift, they almost always think about what they have in their checking account. This limits their giving. They think about their budget and what they can comfortably afford.
However, as they save for retirement and accumulate more and more assets, they may very well end up in a position to leave a large gift at the end of life. End-of-life gifts, or planned gifts, are generally made from a donor’s assets – their investment account, bank account, retirement account, the family home, or a vacation home.
This is why planned gifts tend to be much larger than a lifetime gifts. For many donors who leave a planned gift, that one single planned gift may be much larger than all of their cumulative lifetime giving. The national average for planned gifts is about $50,000, which is a true major gift for just about every nonprofit.
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See Part II of “Who Are Your Planned Gift Prospects?” on May 28
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John Elbare, CFP, has spent the last 30 years helping non-profits raise more money
through large, planned gifts. He shows them how to add an effective planned giving
strategy to their current fund raising effort without a lot of extra expense or staff.
You can contact him at John Elbare, CFP.
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Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks?
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
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2. Events In Private Homes: Part III – Solicitation
by Hank Lewis
(Continued from Last Wednesday)
Solicitation at a home event, asking attendees to write a check, depends on whether or not this is a first-time meeting for this group of attendees.
If these folks have met before, and have discussed the organization’s needs and their role in helping to satisfy those needs, then they are expecting to be Asked … and probably for a specific dollar figure.
If this is an initial solicitation, following an introduction to the organization and its mission, then it’s not realistic to ask everyone to make a gift of a specific amount. What you’re likely to get in that initial Ask is “go-away money.” Those people who actually write checks will only give amounts that they consider sufficient to meet the social circumstances.
Not that that’s bad. The first gift is usually the hardest one to get, and it gives you the opportunity to put those new donors into your cultivation/stewardship process.
If the homeowner invites (selected) people into his home and asks them to write checks to a nonprofit, then it is likely that he will, at some point in the near future, be asked by his “guests” to write a check to organizations they support. It often becomes a quid-pro-quo, and there would be little or no “bonding” of donors with the nonprofit.
Keep in mind, if the homeowner is well-known, has wealth, and has been a major donor to the organization in question, and/or to other nonprofits, he is undoubtedly aware of the quid-pro-quo. There’s a lot of that in the world of money, so you want to be sure that an event at someone’s home will be of “substance.”
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program?
AskHank
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Have you heard about
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99-$4.99)
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If you would like to comment/expand on either of the above pieces, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of either posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page.
How online campaigning enhances election resultsThe basics of using social media in political campaigns is not that much different than using social media for individuals or businesses. Ultimately, you’re posting content in order to engage a defined audience and get them to embrace something.
Your political social media campaign is important – but does NOT replace traditional political campaign marketing. Social media campaign marketing should enhance, not replace your offline campaign. It’s still enormously important to get your message out there in the traditional ways – flyers, door hangers, yard signs and position papers. Your message and your position on the issues become the basis of your social media campaign. No, it does not replace your offline campaign, but it sure does strengthen it – and expand its reach. A candidate with an effective online campaign clearly has a competitive advantage over one who doesn’t.
Political campaign candidates have exceptional qualities that make them a natural success at social media and networking. They’re individuals who are highly dedicated and have a strong sense of place and purpose. Politicians are generally great at connecting – sharing information and helping others. When strong opinions and multiple voices are involved, political candidates are good at cutting through the clutter and deflecting negative feedback.
Your overarching goal for social media during your campaign (and afterward!) is to activate lively engagement with and among your constituents. You will:
• Spread awareness of your campaign
• Make it easy for supporters to follow your campaign and messages
• Interact with supporters (and opponents!)
• Coordinate events
• Raise money
• Get out the vote (GOTV)
• Reach a larger audience
While it’s easy to pay to market your political campaign online, it is definitely preferable to engage your supporters to spread your messages for you. The influence of their reach, credibility and trust far outweigh anything you could pay for.
The future of elected government will likely be measured by Likes and Followers – as well as votes.
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.
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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman:
Ms. Chapman’s book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:
Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. She helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com
Many individuals enjoy working and communicating remotely but is it feasible and worthwhile for the individual or the organization? The value of company personnel working remotely still does not appeal to a lot of companies nor some employees. Let’s discuss the value of it for an employee and the company and its drawbacks.
In Part 1 of this post, let’s first focus on the employee. Part 2 will focus on the organization.
Benefits for the employee
Drawbacks for the employee
Even though I have listed more drawbacks for the employee than benefits, the major benefit in the long run will outweigh the drawbacks if it means an easier lifestyle for the remote communicator. Today’s technology benefits the remote communicator and allows for faster and more precise productivity, quicker responses, and more ease of communication.
What have your experiences been for telecommunicating? What positives and negatives have you seen or experienced?
In the midst of their 2014 NBA playoff run, the Los Angeles Clippers are mired in a massive crisis. An audio recording of a man alleged to be Clippers owner Donald Sterling in an intensely racist 9 1/2 minute conversation was published by TMZ Friday, and the basketball world has been on fire discussing the controversy since.
Here is just a sampling of the disturbing comments made by the man alleged to be Sterling, reportedly speaking to his girlfriend regarding her sharing photos on Instagram posing with Magic Johnson:
— “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?”
— “You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that … and not to bring them to my games.”
— “I’m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people.”
— “…Don’t put him [Magic] on an Instagram for the world to have to see so they have to call me. And don’t bring him to my games.”
The Clippers have responded with the following statement:
“We have heard the tape on TMZ. We do not know if it is legitimate or [if] it has been altered. We do know that the woman on the tape — who we believe released it to TMZ — is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family alleging that she embezzled more than $1.8 million, who told Mr. Sterling that she would “get even.” Mr. Sterling is emphatic that what is reflected on that recording is not consistent with, nor does it reflect his views, beliefs or feelings. It is the antithesis of who he is, what he believes and how he has lived his life. He feels terrible that such sentiments are being attributed to him and apologizes to anyone who might have been hurt by them. He is also upset and apologizes for sentiments attributed to him about Earvin [Magic] Johnson. He has long considered Magic a friend and has only the utmost respect and admiration for him — both in terms of who he is and what he has achieved. We are investigating this matter.”
If you were left feeling less than convinced, we’re right there with you. First sign that the organization is grasping at straws is the line, “We do not know if it is legitimate or [if] it has been altered”. Well, SOMEONE does, namely Sterling himself. Their second mistake was attempting to discredit the source of the recording. It really doesn’t matter what the tipster’s motivation was, what matters is what we all heard.
Further weakening Sterling’s case is the fact that he has a long history of racist behavior, including being reported by many past players and colleagues for using racist language and being forced to pay some $2.72 million to settle allegations that he discriminated against African Americans, Hispanics, and families with children at apartment buildings he owns in and around Los Angeles.
It remains to be proven whether it was indeed Sterling’s voice on the recording, but already major figures in the NBA and sports pundits everywhere are quite understandably screaming for Sterling to be punished, if not removed from the league altogether. In a press conference Friday night league Commissioner Adam Silver stated that, although he wishes to give Sterling due process, the NBA will rush to reach a conclusion in the matter.
We’ll be watching closely to see how the league, and in turn the Clippers as an organization, react.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
We’re constantly searching for ways to gain greater insight into our field and how we can do crisis management more effectively. In that search, we came across an intriguing theory from Jerimiah Owyang, author of Social Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare, who suggested that organizations apply a system based on the psychological concept of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the development of their social media programs.
Sound a bit confusing? Don’t worry, there’s a resource which makes this concept much easier to understand – the below infographic, created by Patricia Redsicker:
![Social Media Crisis How to Avoid A Social Media Crisis [Infographic]](http://wordviewediting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Social-Media-Crisis.png "Social-Media-Crisis")
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
The past few weeks have been quite busy helping a client prepare for an arbitration between a project contractor and the management of a troubled project. An arbitration is less severe than a lawsuit, in that the parties in disagreement choose an ‘arbitrator’ who is well qualified in the industry, to decide who is right about which claim. They then agree to abide by that decision. Much cheaper than a lawsuit, apparently.
We are reviewing the contract, deliverables, deadlines etc. on a given section of the work, when I notice the monetary amount in that section does not seem very large. Diplomatically, I suggest we do a “Pareto Analysis”, and prioritize the preparation of the larger items.
Pareto Analysis (also known as “the 80/20 rule”), refers to the analysis of the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, where he observed that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. More recently, it has been applied to many more uses: what 20% of the effort would contribute to 80% of the improvement; which 20% of customers bring 80% of your business.
“Oh yes” said my customer, “let’s do the Pareto thing”. So instead of a small work item, we analyze and document an item which -by itself- is more than half of the total amount in dispute.
Pareto analysis is one of the first tools the project manager should reach for, suggesting to us which 20% (ie, small amount) , if addressed, would bring us the 80% benefit (ie, large amount). It can help us prioritize change requests. It can help us organize the resolution of problem log items. If funding has shrunk, it suggests which work to keep in scope; which to de-scope.
Even in Agile Scrums, Pareto Analysis can bring clarity to the product owner about which high priority work to deploy in the next Sprint. It can be applied to large items -such as which budgets to analyze first- and to small items -which phone calls to return first-. So do use it extensively.
As to my customer’s arbitration: they lost 2 items and the contractor won 2 items. The contractor’s items were about 25% of the amount in dispute, my customer’s items were 75% of the amount. The contractor just did not present a very compelling argument. He must have run out of time. For my customer, the Pareto thing paid off handsomely.
The story of the teen who managed to sneak into San Jose International airport, cross the tarmac, and climb into the wheel well of a waiting plane – and then actually survive a flight to Hawaii, is making headlines around the world. It’s sensational, and it also raises an awful lot of fears. In other words, media gold.
Of course, the microscope is on San Jose International officials now, as they attempt to explain how a teenage boy managed to bypass millions of dollars in security technology and the supposed heightened awareness of the post-9/11 airline industry to access an extremely vulnerable area of a passenger plane undetected.
Airport spokeswoman Rosemart Barnes gave the standard line that they are cooperating with law enforcement and concerned about the boy, and threw in the message (repeatedly) that the airport’s system “meets and exceeds” all federal requirements. Barne’s statements didn’t leave anyone feeling too reassured, especially after she dropped this gem:
“Despite this, no system is 100 percent, and it is possible to scale an airport perimeter fence line, especially under cover of darkness, and remain undetected, and it appears this is what this teenager did.”
Aviation Director Kim Aguirre didn’t do much to help stakeholders feel protected either, telling reporters, “if we see any gaping holes, we will work to fill them.”
Uhm, Kim, how about the gaping hole this kid just slipped through?
We’d much rather hear something to the effect of, “this incident has brought a gap in security to our attention, and we’re doing everything in our power to seal it up while locating any other potential flaws in the process.” The denials and weak excuses in the face of a clear issue conveys a lack of competence, not the image you want to be sending when you’re desperately trying to do crisis management on the international stage.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]
1. Keeping Your Bucket Full … With Direct Mail
by Jonathan Howard
Think of your current donor file as a leaky bucket you want to fill. This poses two separate challenges. You need to reduce leaks and add new water at the same time. If you stop doing either task, your water level will sink instantly.
In fact, the data show that the donor bucket at most nonprofits is shot full of gaping holes. The national average rate of donor retention (that is the number of donors who gave in two consecutive 12-month periods) is a horrendous 35 percent.
Even if your retention rate is far, far better, you must add more donors than you lose each year to keep growing. Finding and adding new donors is called donor acquisition.
And to win a first gift you must guide a total stranger through a process most people don’t like – behavior change.
And change is hard.
Scientists tell us that people change customary behaviors, from quitting bad habits to buying new products, in stages. First, we decide whether we even want to think about this new option. Then we weigh the pros and cons. If we still want to give it a try, we need to learn how to do it and collect whatever we’ll need (where did I leave my checkbook?). Only after all this preparation can we finally act.
Every new donor must go through each of these stages from the beginning. Most of your prospects won’t make it all the way to action. Every one who does is your victory.
Direct mail gives us a very durable and expansive platform for walking donors through the stages of behavior change. Mail is tangible, demanding physical interaction. Mail sticks around – the recipient can put it aside and come back when she’s most ready. And a mail package can use all the space it needs to answer every question and objection.
Those are just a few reasons why direct mail has been the workhorse of new donor acquisition for decades. And it still is today, accounting for more than 70 percent of all first-time gifts.
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We’ll take a look at how an acquisition package works on May 7th.
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Jon has more than 25 years in the nonprofit sector,
helping nonprofits develop successful direct response strategies and effective donor communications.
You can contact Jon at Jonathan Howard
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Have you seen
The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
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2. Events In Private Homes: Part II – Education, Cultivation & Stewardship
by Hank Lewis
Education is mostly facts and figures, with every effort made to “make it about people, not about the organization.” Ii is an introduction to the organization, its history and its mission. It is a discussion of the organization’s leaders – its board, other volunteers and staff.
A basic education would describe the organization’s programs, and the people that have been and are being served. And, it would discuss the monies that have been raised in the past, what impact those funds have had; and, what funding is currently needed, and for what purposes.
If the above sounds familiar, its pretty much a description of what should be included in an organization’s Case Statement.
Cultivation is about having the homeowner talk about why he supports the organization’s activities and why he is happy with his relationship with the nonprofit and the recognition he has gotten for being a long-time supporter. The ideal outcome of effective cultivation is to get prospective donors to want to experience the same “satisfaction” engendered by the person(s) who is/are doing their cultivating.
An event in someone’s home can be to discuss which (aspects) of the organization’s programs appeal to attendee’s interests. or a meeting of a Giving Club or Giving Circle – to decide on their dollar goals and/or what programs and activities they’re going to support with the funds they raise.
Stewardship is about an organization’s relationship with those folks who are already donors. It can include thanking donors for their support; reporting to them about how their contributions have made a difference; celebrating attainment of a goal – program and/or financial; bringing them up-to-date on how/what the nonprofit is-and-has-been doing; and, getting them involved in the cultivation of others.
Stewardship is the cultivation of current donors … to get them to where they’re ready and want to give again.
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Next Wednesday “Events In Private Homes: Part III – Solicitation”
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program?
AskHank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Have you heard about
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99-$4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you would like to comment/expand on either of the above pieces, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of either posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page.
