Food safety issues are one of the most common cause of crisis for a huge number of organizations up and down the supply chain. From the folks who make the machinery to those who prepare and serve the end product, the effect of contamination (or even the appearance of such) can have a serious impact.
Last week the focus was on learning about and understanding what your constituents and potential donors like about you.
Now, assuming that you’ve mastered that aspect of the development process, let’s look at what else you need to know about your potential donors; and, what you would have to do to influence those potential donors.
Once you know which aspects of your mission and which program(s) are most important to your constituents, the next question is: How do you turn those interested/concerned constituents into regular donors … even major donors ??
The easy answer goes back to the concept that donors give to satisfy their own needs, not the needs of the nonprofit organization. Another way to phrase that is that, “People give because giving makes them feel good.” If it didn’t make them feel good, they wouldn’t give.
A basic principle of fundraising, of development, is having the right person asking for the right amount, at the right time under the right circumstances.
So, who is the right person to ask for the gift ? It’s easier to answer that question if it’s personal. To whom are you most likely to say, “Yes,” when asked for a gift?
Asking for the right amount is important from two perspectives: asking for more than a potential donor is willing/able to give can only get you a refusal; and, asking for significantly less than a potential donor is willing/able to give will not allow the donor to obtain the greatest feeling of satisfaction, and may create the impression that you don’t know what you’re doing.
The right time to ask for the gift is when the donor is ready to say, “Yes.” You have to know when that is !!
The right circumstances involve location and environment. It can be at the donor’s home/office; when s/he is alone or with a significant other; while on a tour of the nonprofit; at a meal; on an airplane; in a car; or, any other appropriate place.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it ??!! Of course you’re asking, “How do I know who the right person is, what the right amount might be, and when-and-where to ask?”
If you were the prospective donor, the right person would be someone whose opinion you care about, someone who you care for, someone you respect, someone you want to get to know, someone who meets any/all qualifications you’d consider important/essential, a person to whom you would respond positively if s/he asked you to make a gift….
Since (except for the donor acquisition process) you should not be in the business of cold-solicitation, which is, most often, a waste of time, your organization should have done some research. You should have learned what you could about your prospective donor from a distance, and you should have created an actual relationship with him/her. (For more on Donor Acquisition … click here)
Once you have the “relationship,” the questions get answered … Next Week, some thoughts about the substance of the “relationship.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program? Ask Hank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.
Summer is a time to recharge your batteries by going on vacation.
To Vacate is to leave things behind.
What are you ready to let go, leave behind, release?
What extra burdens are you carrying that aren’t yours to carry?
Make time this summer to finish a project at home or delegate some smaller tasks to others.
How about letting go of one burden you still carry that isn’t your responsibility -oooh there’s a challenge.
Vacating gives you a chance to start fresh.
If you have trouble delegating, finishing projects, or time management, consider getting support to learn successful strategies to stay focused and motivated*.
Vacation Benefits
We typically get time off in summer to re-set our “Go” button. Time to travel, visit friends, re-connect with family.
But is 1 week enough?? People with stressful or fast-paced jobs, need at least 3 days to unwind the pressure. That leaves only 3 days to relax before heading home.
In the U.S., we are lucky to get a two week summer vacation. In fact only 55% of companies give paid time off. USA Today reports, “The United States is the only developed country in the world without a single legally required paid vacation day or holiday. By law, every country in theEuropean Union has at least four work weeks of paid vacation.” (June 2013)
That’s right, the European Union mandates 4 weeks annual vacation, not counting national holidays.
Talk to your HR dept. Turns out they would probably agree that you need more time off.
Forbes shared the results of a survey by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) that 94% of HR professionals agreed that more time off would lead to greater productivity. They found when employees take vacation, it makes a positive impact on performance, morale, wellness, culture, productivity and retention.
Long Service Leave
In Australia they get a 6 month long service leave!
Yes you read that right—- 6 months to travel♦. (That’s why if you’ve gone overseas it’s not uncommon to run into an Aussie who’s been traveling for 3-4 months and has another few months to go.)
Long service leave rewards continuity, longevity, stability.
What if US companies offered a long service leave- especially one tied to renewing your certifications, sharping your skills, or learning entirely new skills?
Academia offers sabbaticals as a way for professors to keep current in their field, why not the rest of us?
Propose a 1 month study period, or immersive skill renewal time to all staff for every 7-10 yrs within your firm. This would build greater engagement and foster life-long learning. It also allows employees to keep current and follow trends in their field.
This could be built into your company’s Talent Management or Professional Development program. Staff would submit what they want to learn prior to scheduling their leave, and describe how they will bring their learning back to their job.
Such time could be used on technical skills or interpersonal/team skills to improve communication, Emotional Intelligence, conflict resolution. There are so many on-line programs, MeetUp Groups, Library seminars, and ebooks available, finding programs to fit someone’s schedule and budget should be feasible.
Take Your Vacation and Renew
Give yourself permission to use ALL your vacation days this year. You work hard for it. You earned it. You deserve it.
~~~~~
♦ Australia has such programs due to geography and history. Most of the early Aussies came from the British Isles- literally half way around the globe. To see family left behind, it took nearly a month by boat to get there (and then of course a month to get back).
***
Linda J. Ferguson, Ph.D. is a Job and Life Coach. She offers valuable strategies and tools to have successful work and balanced life.
Like Linda’s FB page for more blog posts and updates of Linda’s work.
Share Linda’s 10th Anniversary edition of “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”as a gift for a colleague, friend or family member who desires to integrate their spiritual life and their work life. Available on Amazon- Click HERE
Sign-Up on Linda’s website for her Transformational Empowerment series to live and work from the heart – www.lindajferguson.com
Are you looking for fresh, interesting ideas for your blog?
Well, if the U.S. government feels that certain topics are important enough to publish for US citizens, chances are that you’ll find something of value on those .gov sites as well.
A great source for valuable, targeted articles and content can be searched and used almost verbatim from: www.usa.gov. The federal government cannot copyright their content – it is public domain information and may be used by anyone for any purpose. But be careful – the content must be written by a government agency, and NOT in collaboration with a private or state source.
.GOV material is generally not copyrightable. HOWEVER, if the content came from a non-government source such as a collaborating organization, then that content is probably under the collaborating organization’s copyright.
Be careful to look for the copyright symbol. In its absence, look for information that states specifically that it is NOT copyrighted and may be used.
Many times, the .GOV source wants to be credited. Listing the domain Home page in our manual under “Resources” should be sufficient to satisfy this request. Note that this is a request and not a requirement.
State sites may or may not be copyrighted. Most state sites are copyrighted. Again, look for evidence of the copyright symbol or other such declarations related to copyright.
Examples of Great Information for Blog Posts That Come From .Gov Sources:
Go to: www.usa.gov – You can search for specific topics or keywords to find .gov content. Information is also categorized this way (copied directly from usa.gov website):
Find answers to the most popular Post Office questions.
Now, click around to find meaningful, helpful information that will benefit your followers.
Write your post, but don’t use duplicate content. If you do, Google will recognize it as duplicate and will not search it. Duplicate content has no chance of showing up in Google’s search results!
You can also turn these into a Tweet, Google+ post, Facebook update, etc.
Go ahead and give it a try! We’ll all learn some interesting and useful things in the process.
For More Legal Information About .Gov And Copyrights, Review These Resources
RESOURCES: Summary of Use of GOV Material and Copyright Implications
If you finished reading this post and you think it’s valuable, others will too.
So please take 5 seconds (!) to share on Facebook, Twitter or your favorite social scoop. Thanks!
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Marketing and Social Media.
.. _____ ..
About the Author:
Lisa Chapman helps company leaders define, plan and achieve their goals, both online and offline. After 25+ years as an entrepreneur, she is now a business and marketing consultant, business planning consultant and social media consultant. Online, she works with 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 (at) LisaChapman (dot) com. Her book, The WebPowered Entrepreneur – A Step-by-Step Guide is available at:
Bad customer service inevitably leads to reputation damage
Treating your customers poorly isn’t something that can be swept under the rug anymore. Besides being called out on review sites, in blogs, and across social media, you’ll also wind up on lists creating by organizations like 24/7 Wall Street, which uses survey data to assemble what they call the “Customer Service Hall of Shame”.
Here are their top five most shameful orgs when it comes to treating customers right:
Comcast
DirecTV
Bank of America
Dish Network
AT&T
Of course, the opposite is true of those who strive to meet and exceed expectations on a daily basis. Gaining positive reputation and goodwill through word of mouth on the street, online reviews, and landing on 24/7 Wall Street’s “Customer Service Hall of Fame” list among outstanding peers including…
Amazon
Chik-fil-A
Apple
Marriott
Kroger
We’ve shared stats on the adverse impact of negative customer experiences, but all too often these types of stats are read and immediately forgotten. If you’d like to keep your name off of the naughty list you need to make talking to your customers, working closely with your staff, and staying flexible when it comes to finding ways to keep people happy without harming yourself in the process an integral part of your day-to-day operations.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Technical Writers describe error messages that appear within many documents and applications. They are useful, necessary, and required. Without these warning messages, readers\users would not know that, e.g., an incorrect key was pressed or that some information was missing to complete a task. Error messages describe what to do (or not), what information is required, or whom to contact to correct a situation.
Error messages exist within documents, such as:
Technical Specifications which developers use to program and present different types of error messages indicating where, when, how, and what.
Functional Specifications which describe expected error prompts and information required to complete tasks.
User Guides which warn users by defining errors (what to expect – where and when) if certain prohibited tasks are done and how to correct the problem.
Ready Reference sheets which list commands as well as what errors might occur, what they indicate, whom to notify, and how to correct certain problems.
Test Plans which help locate problem areas.
Bug lists (or List of Errors form) which contain anomalies from testing. e.g., while performing software testing to identify defects flaws and errors in application codes, the detailed steps that led to the errors are noted here. Without this completed form, developers would not be able to replicate the occurrence and hence correct it.
Feedback forms which include questions such as ‘Who is not satisfied with the document and Why’. Asking appropriate questions help to find problem areas, e.g., material was written for the wrong audience, contains incorrect or bad formats, or has errors.
To prevent errors within a document:
The front matter of certain documents should present a list of readers/checkers approving the document, thereby ensuring its completeness and accuracy. This will avoid problem areas, i.e., missing tasks within an application, missing reports, incorrect data, etc.
The material should be produced as a technically accurate document.
The contents of global documents should be examined and presented as a clear, concise, error free
The writer should be vigilant and, put themselves in the shoes of the reader, and maintain direct communication with stakeholders.
Error messages are also written for:
Developers to ensure that accurate data is located, gathered, and present a clear understanding of data repositories.
Disclaimers to avoid liability for errors or omissions.
Data analysts to investigate data discrepancies and to detect and resolve errors.
Benefit of Errors:
They help to teach, especially when using animation to display problems and resolutions.
They help to maintain and manage accurate data.
They help to provide editing and proofreading for grammatical errors.
The Technical Writer must ensure accuracy, completeness of technical documentation, and meet company standards, even when providing error messages. Technical Writers are also editors when ensuring documentation that is error free in content and in the usage of grammar, spelling, etc. This is especially important when producing material (i.e., marketing, training, global, or compliance documents) that reflect upon a company’s image.
Exploring the effect company leaders have on your good name
CEOs are the most public face of an organization, and as such they play a major role in its overall reputation. While in the past it was possible for a CEO to “fly below the radar” except when paraded out for investor-related meetings or major product announcements, today’s interactive public want a more personal approach.
– See more at: https://staging.management.org/blogs/crisis-management/2015/07/19/ucla-not-walking-its-talk-in-data-breach-crisis-management/#sthash.T9KxBvuj.dpuf
Fundraising is all about getting your potential donors to want to give to you — if they want to, they will; if they don’t, they won’t !! Too many nonprofit board and staff members don’t understand that little bit of rocket science.
Too many board and staff members are focused on “how wonderful the organization is,” on doing good works, and on helping people, often to the exclusion of what their constituents really think/want.
To turn potential donors into actual donors, there are three things that impact that transition: (1) What your current donors like about you; (2) What you need to know about your potential donors; and, (3) What would you have to do to influence those potential donors.
This week I’ll talk about the first, and next week, the second and third.
So, how do you know, how do you find out how your constituents and (potential) donors feel about your organization, about its programs and about their effectiveness?
To answer that question, and the others that are inherent in this discussion, I must make a few assumptions: That your potential donors are aware of your existence, your programs and your effectiveness; That yours is not a brand new organization; and, That your development program is well beyond the “fundraiser” stage.
A mature development program has a number of components, including direct mail, social media, special events, major gifts, etc., and is supported by the detailed record-keeping that allow you to generate reports indicating to which specific mailings/events/programs a donor responded.
If you have a mail acquisition program, and you send a number of appeals to the same list, you would have a record of the appeal(s) to which your new donors responded. For those who are ongoing donors, if you’ve given them a choice (a checkbox) as to which programs they’d like their contributions applied, then you’ve got those records.
To which of your email messages have your constituents responded? What aspect(s) of your mission drew those responses – requests for more information?
Have you segmented your mailing list to send different groups of constituents different newsletters?
O.K., I think I made my point.
So, obviously, if you have a mature development program, you have the means to determine what it is about your organization and its programs that your donors like.
If your development program is still in its infancy or growth stage, then the above might help you establish a direction for it.
One other thing you might consider … a survey — email would be great for the purpose, and you’d get your responses back fairly quickly.
Keep it simple, ask only one-or-two questions. For example, you can list the various aspects of your mission and/or the various programs you use to further your mission, then you can ask that respondents hit and indicate their priorities on that email (i.e., Which aspect of our mission is the most important to you? The second most important? Which program(s) are most important to you … on a scale of 1-5?).
Once you know what it is that your donors like about you, you can look at a massive list of potential donors and begin to identify those with whom you’d have the best chances….
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.
Saying you care is great, but backing it up with action is a must
We can barely go a week without another high-profile data breach hitting the news, and lax security from the latest target, UCLA Health Systems means as many as 4.5 million patients may be affected. Much like Anthem, UCLA didn’t bother to encrypt patient data in even the most basic of ways, meaning cybercriminals had little difficulty once they made their way into the network.
“We take this attack on our systems extremely seriously,” said Dr. James Atkinson, interim president of the UCLA Hospital System. “For patients that entrust us with their care, their privacy is our highest priority. We deeply regret this has happened.”
Atkinson said the hospital detected unusual activity on one of its computer servers in October and began investigating with help from the FBI.
It wasn’t until May 5, according to UCLA, that investigators determined that the hackers had gained access to parts of UCLA Health’s computer network where some patient information was stored.
Those parts of the network contained names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, Medicare and health plan identification numbers as well as some medical information such as patient diagnoses and procedures.
The unauthorized access could have begun in September 2014, UCLA said, and some of the patient information dates to 1990.
If we were among the patients whose information was exposed, the first question we would have is “Why didn’t anyone tell us until now?” After all, investigators knew May 5 that hackers had gained access to parts of the network where patient information was stored, so why the massive delay in communications?
Atkinson says, “For patients that entrust us with their care, their privacy is our highest priority.” Problem is, his actions say otherwise. A clear interest in self-preservation over the best interests of stakeholders has already been demonstrated. Now, it’s time for UCLA to either walk its talk, or eat the reputation damage that comes from failing to do so.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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For this discussion, I refer you to one of my earliest postings, What Is A Major Gift? for a definition of that term, and I add one additional criterion … that it is not a one-time gift
“Stewardship,” in the context of development/fundraising, is doing what needs to be done to keep donors feeling good about having given, and doing what needs to be done to get them to want to keep giving.
“Stewardship” is, in effect, “Cultivating” the donor in anticipation of when they are ASKed for their next gift.
The two terms are essentially synonymous, with the latter taking place before the gift is solicited/obtained, and the former taking place following the contribution.
So, what needs to be done?? Let’s start with the easy stuff:
The “thank you” for the first gift is step one of the stewardship process. There can, in fact, be more than one “thank you.” There can be a “thank you” from the Board Chair, one-or-more Board Members, the CEO/ED, the staff person(s) who guide the program that will be funded (in-part or fully) by the gift, and/or someone who will benefit from the program funded by the gift. And, by no means, does that list limit who can proffer a “thank you” – which can be in person, in writing and/or electronic.
Step Two could include periodic newsletters, emails, personal (handwritten) notes and DVDs showing how the gift has made a difference. Again, that was not meant to be a complete list.
Step Three could be one-or-more invitations to see the organization serving its community.
Step Four could be recruitment to participate in providing the program services – i.e., reading to kids, visiting with oldsters, working the serving line at a soup kitchen. The possibilities are endless … well, almost.
Step Five could be the naming of a program or part of a program in honor of the donor and/or someone s/he wishes to honor – keeping in mind that you don’t want to name a program or part of a program unless you know (not believe or hope) that funding will continue for that service.
Step Six could be recruiting/training the donor to be a spokesperson for the organization.
In Step Seven you could recruit/train the donor to help you evaluate other (potential) donors.
In Step Eight, that donor could be soliciting major gifts on your behalf.
For your organization, there can be as many steps in the stewardship process as would work for you and your donors, keeping in mind that some donors like to be cultivated, some don’t, and some are somewhere in the middle.
Also, it is not my intention to suggest that all of the above numbered steps should be implemented, nor that they should be implemented in any specific order … although some of those steps logically come before others.
If you’d like to add to the list, please write to me, Hank, and, if I use your thoughts/comments in a future posting, I’ll provide attribution.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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’re reading this on-line, and would like to comment/expand on the above piece, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply.” If you’re reading this as an email, and you want to comment on the above piece, email Comments to offer your thoughts. Your comments, with appropriate attribution, could be the basis of a new posting.
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We typically get time off in summer to re-set our “Go” button. Time to travel, visit friends, re-connect with family.
