A few years ago I asked: “Does your nonprofit have a Director of Development who Isn’t?” Since then, I’ve encountered organizations with “Philanthropy Coordinators,” “Fund Directors,” “Donor Managers,” and people with equally unimpressive titles – people who didn’t know the definition of “Development.”
So many nonprofits are hiring people for all-or-part of their fundraising/development operations without knowing what to look for in candidates for those positions.
If an organization’s CEO (or whomever is doing the searching/hiring) doesn’t understand what development is all about, how can that person hire someone who will be effective as a development officer??
A development officer is someone who knows/understands the NPO,
its mission, its leadership and its hopes and aspirations. He/She
has the experience and skills to help the organization plan for
next week, next year, and (strategically) for a number of years;
and, he/she plays a major role in ensuring the organization’s future.
A development officer’s primary role should not be as a fundraiser. She/he serves best, most effectively, as a planner, trainer, designer and coordinator of the various programs that comprise a development operation. There will be occasions, of course, where this person’s experience/skills/perception makes him/her the right one to ask for the gift, but not always and not often.
This person should have input at all levels, should be able to guide/train the board members, the CEO and staff, and should be able to bring to all of them an awareness and understanding of how they affect the development process and how they can make that process more effective.
An NPO that hires people just to fill a slot, that doesn’t hire qualified development people, puts its future at risk. If a CEO doesn’t know what to look for in a candidate, she/he should find someone who knows what to look for, and have that person help with the search. In fact, it wouldn’t hurt if that CEO were to ask for help in determining what development activities it needs and how they should be structured. That way you’ll know what to look for in a development candidate.
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Figuring out how to do reputation management can be tricky. Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of positive examples of organizations doing good work both online and off, and all it takes is a bit of Googling to dig up best practices you can apply to your own efforts.
If you’re looking for a place to start your research you’d be hard pressed to do better than this list of Top 10 Reputations in the U.S., based on an official Harris Poll:
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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If you and your client decide to terminate the project because it was satisfactorily completed, or for a technical reason, or because of a sudden interruption, then be sure to terminate it in a way that maintains a respectful relationship. Consider these guidelines.
Produce a Final Project Report
Both you and your client should complete a final project report. It might describe the outcomes of the Project Evaluation, and your decisions as a result. The report might reference your Project Plan.
Conduct a Final Meeting
You both should arrange a final meeting, in which you discuss the results of the Project Evaluation, including to acknowledge – and celebrate – the project’s accomplishments. Be prepared to share each of your own versions of “goodbye.” That is very important.
Complete a Formal Letter of Closure
You should follow up the meeting with a formal correspondence that affirms your mutual agreement that the project is formally over. In that correspondence, you should mention the date that you both agreed as the official end date, if it is not the ending date on the signed contract.
Organize Your Administrative Files
You should attend to administrative matters to close the project, for example, final invoices and closing the file for that client.
Arrange to Stop All Meetings About the Project?
You might consider stopping any further meetings about the project itself. That might seem a bit arbitrary, but it can actually be a very healthy practice, to avoid project creep and to avoid an ongoing, unhealthy dependency between you and your client. If your client wants to continue meeting with you about the project, then consider cycling back to the Contracting Phase to start a new project.
“Development” is, by definition, the process of creating and enhancing relationships with (potential) donors to ensure current and future funding; “Fundraising” is only about income generation.
With “Development,” with the relationships you create, you take a major step toward ensuring future income; with “Fundraising,” income generation focuses on “now,” with no provision, no assurance, and little-or-any potential for the future.
If people’s giving provides the opportunity for them to feel good about helping to advance the organization’s mission and services, if they give because they want to please the person who is “asking,” because they want to see their name alongside the names of recognizable personalities, or if they want to see their name on (a floor, a wing, or on the outside of) a building, those reasons, for the most part, have to do with satisfying the needs of the donor.
If you create/maintain relationships with donors, you increase the likelihood that they will continue to give — that’s “Development.” If all you do is “Fundraising,” you make it that much harder to ensure your organization’s future.
Fundraising is like a band-aid, Development is closer to a cure.
“Development” is more about people “giving” to an organization than it is buying a product, a recognition opportunity or a ticket to an event. “Giving” implies not expecting anything in return … except for that “good feeling.”
“Development” is also about understanding who your (prospective) (long-term) donors are, and what you have to do to get them to want to support your organization.
Whether it’s a Corporation, a Foundation, a prospective Major Donor or the recipient of a mass solicitation, they’re not going to write you a check if you don’t show them that doing so will satisfy their needs.
Getting a Corporation to want to give to a non-profit is a simple matter of learning, understanding and acting on the needs of the corporation and those of its decision makers. Will supporting your NPO help the corporation’s marketing efforts and increase its revenue? Will supporting your NPO and espousing your cause make the corporate leaders look good? … feel good ??
Foundations give based on their mission and the needs of the foundation leadership. Do you try to create relationships with foundations whose leaders feel strongly about your programs and activities and about the people you serve? Do you know who those leaders are and what is important to them?
To get individual (potential) major donors to want to give, you have to know them well enough to know what’s important to them. You have to know/understand their priorities and what will make them feel good.
Just because a nonprofit does wonderful things in a cost-effective manner doesn’t mean that potential donors will want to support it.
Getting people to want to give, and corporations and foundations are run by people, is about learning, understanding and appealing to their various needs.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks?
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99-$4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program? AskHank
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Several factors play into creating successful content: a clearly defined outline, quality writing and value. But most importantly, you’ve to wait for content to make its impact on your marketing field. Content as a strategy isn’t short-term, it is means for you to construct a loyal following of potential leads over a period of time, we all know this. For maximum ROI on your content strategy it is logical to invest in writing a good amount of content with long term value for your subscribers.
Look at content like your marketing currency – a dollar today is worth more tomorrow. Money appreciates and ideally, so should the kind of content you write.
How to write content with long term value
Essentially, you have to aim at writing something that your audience will return for, it is as simple as that. You can begin by defining what that could be.
Pick a strong premise
What kind of content would be useful always? The way you answer this question will decide the outcome of your long term value content piece. Why should your audience view your content?
Neil Patel has 6 questions to answer this question.
“What topics are always relevant?
What goals are always in place?
What controversies never go away?
What problems always need to be solved?
What skills do people always need?
What qualities of the industry are always important?”
Base your blogs, videos, infographics on topics that fit any of these descriptions and you’re good to go. For instance, I wrote a blog on the 7 types social media content that drive most engagement. Although engagement is evolving on platforms (like the new reactions on Facebook), ways to drive that engagement will remain unchanged and social media managers will always want to read it.
Create a Comprehensive Piece
Given that your content will have to be extra-comprehensive, navigating through it without a roadmap will result in chaos. A detail oriented outline can make your writing process more organized, efficient and complete.
Start at the top
A great piece with a boring headline is a disaster, you’ll lose out on click-throughs if you don’t grab your audience’s attention while you can – with your header.
Your header should communicate 2 things – value and context.
I’ll reiterate this: Why should your audience read your post? Effectively answer that in your title, and directly address your audience in it – this is a great idea. For example: How to Capture Your High Value Target Audience – for Social Media Managers. People want to feel important, and like you have written or made something specifically for them.
Your headline should also sell your content.
Social media and marketing experts have always discussed the prominence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – the base laws of human motivation – in using motivation to encourage a certain kind of behaviour. To understand how to write a headline that compels someone to click you could adapt the laws of this pyramid.
State your takeaways
I’ve found this more useful than focussing on subheads because it takes the process one further. Instead of formulating what you’ll put into your sub paragraphs, write down the central ideas
or takeaways of each paragraph. This can help you craft a more useful and effective piece. Ask yourself, would you want your readers to know?
Title: How to Capture Your High Value Target Audience – for Social Media Managers
How to find your high value target audience – 1
What are the best ways to engage with them – 3
How to bring them to your page – 2
How to convert them into leads – 5
Which tools or KPIs to use to monitor conversions – 6
How do you build good, long-term relationships with them – 4
You can do this quickly and as the ideas come, because you can always reorganize them to form an easy flow. Remember to direct each takeaway at insights that can prove viable over time, in keeping with your long term value theme.
Add substance to each takeaway
Do you remember your high school chemistry manuals? Colorimetry is a procedure to measure the concentration of substances based on light absorbed by them. This procedure was founded by discoveries that go back to the 1720s! A lot of scientific procedures remain firmly based in the fundamentals.
This is precisely what you want to create for your audience. Sound knowledge that focusses on logic and the science of marketing. Don’t hesitate to do extensive research and find your facts, figures and functions that can support your content. Write to guide your audience to understand fundamental concepts. The result is more permanent and they’ll return to your “marketing manuals” for help.
It is important to note that long term value is created by whole efforts. You’ll have to go deep into the subject. Your subheads should ideally have further divisions and so on to explain every last concept encompassed within the subject you choose to write about.
Title: How to Capture Your High Value Target Audience – for Social Media Managers
How to find your high value target audience – 1
1. Listening in on social
……Platform wise social listening
……Case study
2. Tools that help
……How to leverage each tool to identify important conversations
……Case study
3. Analyzing buzz
……Case study
Explaining each concept with examples and images – graphs, charts, or procedural images can further add value to your content.
Make necessary updates
For your content to have relevance always, you may have to make inclusions or edits as things progress with your industries. Neil Patel suggests 3 substantial (para edits/additions) edits every quarter and also points out that Google loves fresh content and favors it, if but marginally, in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
You could also add notes, or simply supplement your content with well curated content (content curation platforms like DrumUp help you find specific and relevant content). Add strategic links on your long term value content to these fresh pieces and you can instantly build reserves for your audience.
Finally, remember not to compromise on writing and content quality. Make it an enjoyable read. If your content is top-notch, google’s algorithms will place you well, if your content is a great read, your audience will place you as a permanent go-to. Both extremely valuable positions to hold.
Author Bio:Disha Dinesh is a social media and content marketing enthusiast who writes for Godot Media, a leading social media marketing firm.
In the NP community, as elsewhere, it’s targeted marketing that is most effective. But you can’t target your market until they’ve been identified.
Direct mail is, for many NPOs, an essential part of building a substantial base for the donor pyramid. But, unless you’re a huge organization with high visibility and a great level of success, it’s not branding that has the major impact on the results of donor-acquisition mailings, it’s the list selection process, the roll-out mailings, the testing of copy, all the tried-and-tested elements of the traditional direct mail program.
And, such a program can’t be evaluated in its first six months of operation, its first year, or even two years. I’ve seen reference to three years as being a minimum period for such an evaluation – the usual period it takes to have a direct mail program begin to “show a profit” – not as the period it takes to market/establish a “brand.”
That stuff about counting hits in a search engine as a way of evaluating an NPO’s “brand recognition” is of minor significance. Don’t get me wrong, marketing is an important part of what we do in development, and “brand recognition” can be a big help – but it’s not essential to the relationship building that is so important to the development process.
No matter on what level or to what end we work with nonprofits, it wouldn’t hurt to have a broad based background in development, before trying to apply to nonprofit development/fundraising some accountant’s theory of ranges or medians or marketing statistics or hits on a search engine.
And, the way of getting an organization’s board to understand the process, and the expected results-over-time if proper procedure is followed, is not to send them to check out search engines, but to have them check out their contacts in the community.
Certainly, if the members of an NPO’s Board and/or its CEO don’t know what to look for when they hire a development person, they sure aren’t going to know how to evaluate that person or his/her programs.
If you’re looking for advice on measuring the effectiveness of development programs, remember, if you’re relying on information you’re getting on-line, everybody has opinions, but not everybody has the experience and expertise; and, “buzzwords do not equate to best practices.”
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks?
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99-$4.99)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating
or expanding your fundraising program? AskHank
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= We’ve been posting these pieces for the last five years,
and we welcome your questions/problems.
They are likely to engender further discussion.
Look forward to hearing from you. Comments & Questions
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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.
Truly excelling at online reputation management requires a customized approach and effort over time. While you work towards that, you can get positioned for success by learning all you can. Studying best practices and how-to’s (provided you vet where they’re coming from…) will allow you to lay a solid groundwork and avoid missteps that will cost you in the long run.
Simplilearn broke down some of the most common mistakes you should steer clear of, along with five principles that apply to any business or organization working to management its reputation on the internet, in the infographic shared below:
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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An email read: “I own a catering company and we often donate goods and services to nonprofits in our community … to a generous degree. Frankly, we are discontinuing the practice, [as we’re] just tired of being treated like ‘second class’ donors.”
Having heard that complaint many times before, I responded:
I know exactly how you feel. That’s one of the main reasons I wrote my article regarding In-Kind donations. I have, far too often, known of shortsighted nonprofits that deal badly with In-Kind donations, thinking that such products and services, given generously to them, do not represent “real money.”
And when such In-Kind donations are given some degree of recognition, often nonprofit leaders become contentious, even pugnacious, arguing that the public credit of an In-Kind donation should be cited in terms of the wholesale cost, rather than recognizing the donation for what it would have cost the nonprofit at retail.
My mantra, in that regard, has always been: “Don’t Be Unkind to In-Kind”
At the close of a successful capital building campaign with a client, the time to finalize the design/content of the wall plaques of donors’ names … at their respective donation levels, a few top leaders of the organization were indignant when I urged that the donor of paint for the entire interior of the building be placed at the $20,000 level, as that was what the project budget said would have been the cost of the paint to the organization.
Those leaders insisted that we find out either the wholesale cost, or what it cost to manufacture the paint. I told them in strong terms that such disregard for a truly major gift would be insulting and highly absurd. I felt strongly about the issue, I was insistent … and, thankfully, I won the argument.
I’ve also had my own personal bad and disappointing experience as a capital campaign consultant. In the final stage of a successful campaign, when I saw that my role, for the most part, was mostly fulfilled, I (with what I considered as philanthropic intent) informed the organization that they didn’t have to pay me for the last month of our contract.
I soon found out that my In-Kind donation was not regarded by the organization as “real money.” That’s what the Director said when I asked to be named in the organization’s donor publications for the campaign. I was not even an In-Kind donor. To them, I was no donor at all.
The basic message here is that nonprofits must regard all types of gifts, including those that are “In-Kind,” with the care and consideration they deserve. It’s so easy, and so appropriate, to acknowledge “real” cash and securities properly. But all too often, when it comes to In-Kind gifts, it’s another kettle of fish. It should not be.
Speaking to all who make those “In-Kind” gifts, maybe it would only take a little reminding on your part regarding the insensitive way the organizations, to which you donated willingly, accepted your generous donations. And it would be worth “asking” why they do not give those gifts the credit and regard they deserve.
If they don’t get it, discontinue your support, tell them why, then move on to another, worthy, but appreciative, nonprofit organization.
Certainly, you care about what is good in your community – even if some of the receivers of your In-Kind donations seem to be uncaring, you should reconsider your plan to totally discontinue giving.
You may feel less fulfilled personally if you discontinue your donations to all nonprofits. Don’t lose that warm-and-fuzzy feeling.
And, we know there are nonprofits out there that would greatly benefit from your generosity, and at the same time, know how to show it, gratefully and enthusiastically, and treat you as the first-class donor you are.
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Have a question or comment about the above posting? You can Ask Tony.
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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.
LinkedIn founder and triple billionaire Reid Hoffman has two endearing mannerisms that reveal the way he sees–and reasons with–the strategic environment. First, he peppers his statements with the word so. Almost a verbal tic that would grate on a speaking coach like the overuse of the dreaded uh … but he uses it more like therefore. That is, he lays out a logical flow for you as he explains his experience. “This happens, so… that happens, so… this happens… and so on.” Really, he is a great communicator of ideas and how they interconnect.
Second, his hand gestures often seem to indicate the existence of an invisible chess board upon which he lays the moving pieces. In a recent interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Hoffman laid out the pieces of a global enterprise that can become impedimenta dragging down efforts toward a massive scale-up of a business… hiring, management, international coordination, customer support. As Hoffman brought each element of the strategic environment to mind he gestured at the table between himself and Zakaria, as if he were placing chess pieces on a strategic board.
Every chess player understands the importance of controlling the central four squares of the board early in the game. Once in control of the center, a player simply has far more options than the opponent. True to the chess metaphor, Hoffman advises those with bright, active minds and high ambitions to attend to the importance of connecting oneself to the “central nodes” of human networks (such as LinkedIn). He recommends that we do whatever it takes to meet interesting people and find a position near the core of the network.
Hoffman told Zakaria a story from his own seminal days at Apple… his first job. Realizing that his job as a user experience designer was not close to the real center of things, he “volunteered” himself to work in Product Development. He told managers there that he had ideas for products, would work through his ideas on the side, and asked only for instruction and feedback in return. In today’s only slightly more mature and structured corporate environments, Hoffman suggests internships and job rotations as ways of getting connected to the central players. LinkedIn, of course, is a great way to find connections in any network of minds, internal or external.
Guest blog from my colleague, Adam Brock, Director of Social Enterprise at Joining Vision and Action (formerly JVA Consulting):
How can a well-meaning startup avoid “Silicon Valley Syndrome” and actually use a social startup to create real value for society?
Every era has an industry that epitomizes its values. At the turn of the 20th century, nascent car companies like Ford and Packard were the symbols of a growing middle class. A couple of generations later, the best and brightest were lured to IBM and Xerox to develop the infrastructure of the information age. And in the 1980s, a booming Wall Street captured that decade’s spirit of self-interest.
As for today, there’s little doubt that the startup has become 2016’s quintessential business model. Inspired by the garage-to-riches mythology of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, millions of young people are spending their prime years honing business plans, practicing sales pitches and tweaking their personal brands. Whereas the previous “it” industries profoundly reshaped society through corporate R&D, the rise of the startup has enabled scrappy entrepreneurs working out of college dorm rooms and coffee shops to transform how we listen to music, how we get around, even how we communicate our very identity.
But is all this disruption actually making the world a better place? It depends, as it turns out, on what kind of startup we’re talking about. Technically, the word can describe any kind of business in its launch phase. But the ones that dominate our news feeds and app screens are all startups of a certain flavor: those that are based in Silicon Valley, funded by millions of dollars in venture capital, and hoping to be bought out by one of the industry’s titans.
Business Models That Increase Middle-Class Convenience Through Automated Algorithms
For all their rhetoric of a better world through tech, most business models of these startups amount to increasing convenience for middle-class consumers through automated algorithms. Very few of them even manage to create a positive cash flow, electing instead to subsist off of venture capital funding until they get bought out or go public. Yet because these specific kinds of startups are the most visible, we’ve accepted their approach – brash, informal and dead set on glory – as the norm for all new businesses.
So how can a well-meaning social startup avoid “Silicon Valley Syndrome” and actually create real value for society? Here are a few pointers:
What is your goal?
For many centuries, a successful business was one that improved a community by meeting its real needs. But at some point, “success” came to mean relaying an investment into short-term profit. Regardless of their original intent, many Silicon Valley startups get pushed into the second category by their over-reliance on venture capital. Social enterprise startups, meanwhile, build social impact into their core business model, and would never accept investment that causes them to compromise their mission for the sake of profit.
How big is best?
The Silicon Valley ecosystem thinks big, pushing entrepreneurs towards high-stakes, industry-shaking concepts – the vast majority of which fail. For every Instagram, we’re left with 99 other similar ventures that fell flat. The sad thing is, many of these businesses could have thrived on a more modest level, sticking with a specific community or service. It’s great to think big, but sometimes, small is beautiful.
How long are you in it for?
Tech companies tend to go all in on the 21st-century obsession with quick fixes. But it can take years, or even generations, for institutions to reach their full potential. Even if the founders are long gone by then, planning for the long view is important from Day 1.
As more and more entrepreneurs and thought leaders realize the downsides of the much-lauded tech startup, the backlash can’t be far behind. Before long, we’re likely find ourselves in a new era. And with any luck, the values we bring to our startups today will help define whatever comes next.
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Joining Vision and Action, a Denver-based consulting firm, offers a new program called the Social Enterprise Navigator. This one-on-one social enterprise coaching series guides social change organizations through an efficient, well-defined, highly-collaborative process to grow and sustain long-term impact via the marketplace. Adam Brock is the director of that program.
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Guest blog from my colleague, Adam Brock, Director of Social Enterprise at