Category: Financing & Loans

Until recently, most government grant proposals were developed in a defined physical space. The proposal team worked near each other, had frequent face-to-face contact, and used conference rooms in its work.

The New Virtual World of Grant Proposal Construction

Today, however, this traditional model of proposal development is rapidly changing. An increasing number of government grant proposals are virtual efforts – they involve a geographically dispersed proposal team that works and communicates (for the most part) electronically, rather than on a face-to-face basis.

Virtual proposal managers must ask themselves (and answer) four basic questions:
 1.  How can I provide support to a geographically dispersed team?
 2.  How can I distribute information, documents, and tools?
 3.  How can I provide training and support to people whom I have not met?
 4.  How do I produce and submit the proposal?

How can I provide support to a geographically dispersed team?
Besides plenty of e-mails, telephone calls, and conference calls, a proposal manager should establish an electronic site where proposal team members can upload, download, and review proposal documents. Many organizations have SharePoint already in place, which is easy to use, access, and administer. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It also provides the security you need to work remotely.

How can I distribute information, documents, and tools?
As the proposal manager, you can use SharePoint to post documents such as resumes, past performance write-ups, drafts, and templates to team members.

How can I provide training and support to people whom I have not met?
Using SharePoint, you can post training videos, instructional materials, your organization’s style manual, and other documents.

How do I produce and submit the proposal?
Nowadays, most government grant proposals are submitted electronically. At the very beginning of the proposal effort, you should arrange to produce and upload your final proposal. If you wait until the last minute, you risk torpedoing the entire proposal because there are often problems uploading proposals, especially to government agencies using their own Web sites.

Answer these four questions before the proposal effort begins, and you will avoid a great deal of unproductive, low-level administrative and repetitive work in the expanding world of virtual grant proposals.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.

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If 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.

A couple of thoughts to start the new year:

The Fundraising Appeal

Donors tend to be (highly) selective in deciding whose name goes on the payee line of their checks. Non-Profit Organizations, therefore, must do all they can to get donors to want to give to them.

At most times, especially in a “less than terrific” economy, donors want to be sure that their gifts are going to support/help people in need. NPOs must be sure, therefore, that their marketing, their literature and their solicitations all focus on the people in need … not on the needs of the NPO.

And, in addition to talking about people and their needs, the best wording should also talk about how the NPO is helping those people, how cost-effective it is in its operations, how a donor’s gift to the NPO can/will help so many people, and how the donor will derive a great deal of satisfaction by making the gift.

Introduction To Major Gifts

A comment made by the executive director of an NPO on the brink of closing its doors suggested to me that many people think of major gifts as those you pursue after you’ve done all of the other fundraising.

The language that the E.D. used was to the effect that, “We have to be sure we can stay in business before we can think about going after major gifts.”

I would hope that I never said anything to any client, or in any of my classes or postings, that would suggest that !! I’ve often mentioned that many (start-up and ongoing) NPOs can (and do) create major gifts programs from scratch, and can (and do) operate quite nicely on that income.

Certainly, in tough economic times, NPOs should be making every effort to raise funds by whatever (legal/ethical) means possible … keeping in mind that one major gift can (and often does) exceed what is raised via other methods.

Any NPO not actively/vigorously working on obtaining major gifts is doing a disservice to the people it serves … or could serve.

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com

One of the advantages of online fundraising and marketing is that the data entry is outsourced to the donor. It’s also one of the disadvantages!

When a donor writes a check and mails it to you, you have to pay someone (at your organization, or at a service bureau) to open the envelope, deposit the check, and enter the donor’s name and address into your database. When the donor makes a gift online, they do the work.

Now you might guess that a typical professional data entry person can enter a name and address with higher accuracy than the typical donor would. What you may not realize is that the professional data entry person can enter the donor’s name and address with higher quality than the typical donor can enter their own name and address! Data entry by donors is appalling, and it costs you money.

According to the Direct Marketing Association’s “The Power of Direct Marketing” 2011-2012 edition, email marketing (across all direct marketing segments, not just fundraising) yields a return on investment (ROI) of $40.56 per dollar invested. It would be higher, of course, if more email messages were actually delivered.

You need to have the option on every web page to subscribe to your email newsletter, or take some other action which will have the same result – you get an email address and permission to send further email messages. If that email address isn’t valid, you’ll never reach that potential donor again.

Worse, it will look like your fault (since donors don’t assume they made the mistake). They’ll think you never sent them anything by email. So you should employ some techniques in your form to check and report on mistakes right away, preferably while the donor can still correct them. Some tips include:

• You can add some basic error checking software routines into your
   web page code. Some easy-to-check items include:
     o One and only one @ sign in an email address
     o At least one period after the @ sign
• Print a list of your bounced email addresses regularly. Sort it by
   domain (e.g. aol.com) and scan for obvious errors, like “aol.cmo” or
   “gmial.com”. Correct them or re-enter them correctly into your database.
• Employ more sophisticated instant error checking tools – software linked
   to your website that attempts to validate every email address as it is entered.

Now, you’ll find that your efforts to capture email addresses are yielding even higher returns!

More questions about email fundraising? Send me an email … but type my address carefully ☺

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Rick Christ has been helping nonprofit organizations use the internet for fundraising, communications and advocacy since 2009, and has been a frequent writer on the subject. He delights in your questions and arguments. Please contact him at: RChrist@Amergent.com or at his LinkedIn Page
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If 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.

To stand, to be effective over the long term, a major gifts program needs all three legs: Leaders, Prospects and Involvement of both in the life of your organization.

Leadership includes the organization’s CEO, Trustees and (often) key volunteers. It’s their role to define the funding need, take their case to the public, and identify, cultivate and evaluate those most likely to make a major gift. It is, of course, also the job of the leadership to set the example and ask others to follow that example.

The most likely Major Gift Prospects are those individuals with the means to make a gift of the appropriate size, who know your organization, believe in its mission and that it is being run effectively, are accessible to your leadership, and have been substantively involved with your organization.

An effective major gifts program requires the active participation of your leadership in getting your prospects actively involved in the life of your organization. Please note, active involvement of prospects does not necessarily refer to attendance at special events.

In the identification and initial evaluation process, involvement by leadership is absolutely essential. It is they who must have access to the wealthy, before the wealthy can be considered prospects. Your leaders must know your prospects and their interests well enough to identify the best means for involving them with your organization.

Involvement is an ongoing process that ranges from asking the prospect for advice, in one-or-more areas, to having that person serve on specific committees — for an event, to help identify/evaluate prospects, to add expertise on a project, etc..

Involvement can also mean working with you to help provide the service that is the mission of your organization. It can also be speaking for you, to community groups, corporations, the press, etc.

There is no time limit for involvement, it depends on the prospect. By definition, you ask for the major gift at the point where the prospect is likely to respond, “Of course. What took you so long to ask?” That’s why, since it’s not always easy to identify that point, the people doing the cultivating/involving must know the prospect well enough to make that determination.

To complete the “three-legged stool” analogy, you must also have someone to hold the legs together, and make all concerned do what’s needed, when needed. That’s your Director of Development … the person who directs your development program.
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If 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.

It’s almost spring, and now’s the time to start planning your non-profit’s CFC campaign for the 2012 campaign season.

The best-selling author, Jim Collins, who wrote Good to Great, has five key principles for organizational success; and, in his own words, the single most important principle is to “Get the right people on the bus.”

That means that selecting the right people for your organization or project team is one of the most important tasks of a leader. This, most certainly, applies to your CFC action team, whether they are all paid staff or some combination of paid staff and volunteers.

There are several factors to consider when forming your CFC action team, and in particular deciding who is going to become the project leader. One key question I have my consulting clients’ executive directors ask themselves, as they consider who should be the CFC Team Leader, is:
    “If I need to send one person to a CFC charity fair, who do I
    want representing our non-profit and its mission to the public?”

In addition to deciding upon a team leader for your non-profit’s CFC program, plan on having at least two others involved on a regular basis (and more if warranted):

• A second person that can also staff the CFC special events including campaign kick-offs and charity fairs.
• Someone who can answer basic questions about your non-profit’s participation in the CFC, while others are away from the office.
• Depending up on the nature of your non-profit, it can be very valuable to have someone is part of the program staff as one of the key members of the CFC action team.

While it’s important to have at least one person who is in the office on a regular basis as the lead on your CFC action team, it’s often quite successful to have volunteers who are able to staff the charity fairs as well.

A few years ago the Chesapeake Bay Foundation had one volunteer whose sole activity was to staff charity fairs. As she once quipped to me, “I love helping the environment, but I don’t like getting muddy!”

Planning & Organizing

The team leader will be responsible for the overall planning for the non-profit’s CFC campaign, including deciding what campaign giveaways should be ordered (described in the previous post), as well as planning the communication and awareness generation strategies for the entire year, not just during the solicitation period.

The planning process include both deciding what tasks need to be accomplished, by what date, as well as a review of what worked well in the 2011 campaign (for non-profits already in the CFC), and what areas need improvement or updating for the 2012 campaign.

One item that needs to be periodically updated is your non-profit’s display board that has highlights about what your organization accomplishes. If the pictures haven’t been updated in several years, it’s time!

Annual Reports

Of the 7 Keys to CFC Success, the most important one is Number Seven, “Say Thank You Early and Often!” And, one of the places where you should say thank you is in your printed materials, including annual reports and newsletters.

Since many non-profits are now working on the content of their 2011 annual report, make sure that you include at least a simple thank you to both your CFC donors and to the CFC volunteers who helped raise funds for all of the CFC charities.

In the next post, we’ll take a look at one specific action that you can take in April to increase the awareness of your non-profit in your community.

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During his 25-year career in the Federal sector, Bill Huddleston, The CFC Coach, served in many CFC roles. If you want to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign, maximize your nonprofit’s CFC revenues, or just ask a few questions, contact … Bill Huddleston
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If 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.

Why Not Work on Percentage, Bonus or Commission?

I have long and unyieldingly stood against any form of contingent-pay in the non-profit sector — having an organization’s staff development officer working for compensation based on a percentage of funds raised, a bonus, or a commission.

Such arrangements, and any variations, are denounced by major “for-the-profession” associations. They go so far as to state, emphatically, that contingent-pay is unethical.

Most development professionals themselves think it’s a bad idea. But I do far more than just cite high standards and strong ethics as good reasons to have nothing at all to do with the contingent-pay practice.

I let the contingent-pay principals know of the very real harm possible when working in that way. In my article on the subject I list a number of very real and damaging consequences that may befall both parties when working to such an arrangement. (See: The Argument Against Paying Development Professionals Based Upon The Amount Of Funds Raised For Non-Profit Organizations)

My hard stance against contingent-pay was bolstered even more by a personal experience, several years ago, when I was engaged as a fundraising consultant for a major organization. Sadly, it represents what appears to be an ever-growing issue.

During my several months serving the organization, I conceived, developed and produced fundraising plans where there had been none. Annual, endowment, capital, sponsorship, and underwriting campaigns were all fully developed and were being phased into the duties of the organization’s new and first-ever Director of Development … whom I helped hire.

The individual was hired at a straight annual salary basis while I was nearing the end of my consulting term. Soon, the Director of Development was up and running very well and I concluded my consulting engagement.

In a routine phone call some months later, just to check in to see how that individual was doing, it became readily clear that the several key development initiatives I had set out for the organization had not progressed much, if at all, except for the Annual Fund.

There were no ongoing cultivation activities. Recruitment of a volunteer fundraising team was abandoned. There was nothing in place to ensure opportunities for long-term funding. What was clear was that the Director of Development was dead set only on meeting the Annual Fund goal.

Why? Because after I left, the next salary review with management allowed the D.O.D. to work toward a bonus of $5,000, contingent upon meeting the Annual Fund goal by the end of the campaign/fiscal year.

Just about all of the warnings I cite in my article were at work in this case. Money was being raised only for this year. There was no thinking/planning for tomorrow.

When I see all the wrong that can befall an organization, or an individual, in contingent-pay schemes, I cannot imagine for the life of me why anyone would want to go that route.

What do you think? I’d be interested in your comments.

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If you have a question or comment for Tony, he can be reached at Tony@raise-funds.com. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com

Grant Reports Aren’t Always Required, But They’re (Almost) Always A Good Idea !!

Not sure about you, but the dog eating my homework excuse never worked for me. And not turning in a grant report to a funder who requires one is not going to work either.

At best, you’ll be given an extension for the report, and have a slightly tarnished reputation. At worst, you’ll lose that funder forever.

So, what about grantors that don’t require a report? Should you take the time to write and submit one? My answer is a qualified, “Yes.”

Reporting is an important part of stewardship, and a great way to show the donor that their gift has made an impact. In addition to several feel-good communications to the grantor during the year, a grant report submitted sometime during the year or with your next proposal is certainly best practice.

What should be included in your grant report? A good template would be a report required from another foundation that funds the same project or program. In lieu of that, I recommend including the following sections:

1  Briefly outline the goals of the project/program funded by XXX Foundation.

2  Who or what has been the primary beneficiary of this project/program? How many
    people have you served through this project/program?

3  What were the specific results of the project/program? Compare the actual results to the
    projected outcomes described in the original proposal.

4  Attach a detailed project budget and a specific breakdown of how the grant has been spent.

5  What difference did this grant make to your organization and for the population you are
    serving?

6  What are your plans for the future of this project/program, including funding, expansion,
    replication or termination?

Will preparation of this report require extra work on your part? Yes, but hopefully not too much, because an NPO’s established grant program will have defined goals, metrics and budgets for each project/program for which it is seeking grant funding.

These goals, metrics, and budgets will have been included in grant proposals, and the results of which will need to be communicated in grant reports.

One final point, circling back to my qualified “Yes” as to whether you should submit a report to grantors that don’t require a report. As I have said in previous postings, “relationships are at the heart of all fundraising activities, and grants are no exception.”

Communicating with your grantor is an essential part of continuing a healthy relationship that benefits the foundation or corporate grantor as well as your nonprofit.

So call, write, or e-mail your grantor if you don’t know what their reporting requirements are. They will appreciate your follow-up, and they will appreciate your providing them with the reports they want, in the format they prefer.

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Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grant programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. Contact Lynn deLearie..

And Some Questions in Response:
We are a small 501(c)(3) arts organization with an annual budget of about $25,000 in a small community of about 4,000. We are looking at mounting a capital campaign to buy a building and make it a community arts center. Most buildings of the needed size are selling for $100,000 to $175,000. Considering remodeling, we think we are looking at having to raise $200,000 to $250,000.

*Does your estimate include what it will cost to run a capital campaign ?
*Do you have or can you “easily” get the funds needed to plan for and
implement a capital campaign ?
*How many people do you estimate will make gifts/commitments of
$10,000, $15,000, $25,000 or more ? That’s what will determine the
success (or failure) of your campaign.
*Who has the respect/credibility/clout to lead a campaign and get the
right people to want to give?

Our membership feels that raising the money is do-able over the course of two years.

*What happens to your organization’s reputation/credibility if you
run a capital campaign and don’t meet your goal ?
*Where have your members gotten their experience/expertise at
designing and implementing a capital campaign ?

We have, however, two very conservative board members. They want to know what happens with the capital fund if an organization does not achieve its goal. Say we raise $89,000 in two years, they ask, and then hit a brick wall and give up. I think such a thing won’t happen, but what do I tell them now, to assuage their concerns? Do the donations have to be returned?

It’s a good thing you have board members who require answers
to the hard questions. If you run a capital campaign, and it’s clear
to your prospects that you are raising the money to buy/renovate
a building, failure means returning every cent to the donors.

No capital campaign should be implemented without first having
a Study (professionally) done to determine the feasibility of attaining
the needed leadership and the likelihood of obtaining the larger gifts
that ensure reaching a goal.

Is there a way to phrase requests so that the funds could be used for other charitable purposes in the community?

When you ask people to support you, you must be clear why the money
is needed, and you must use it for the stated purpose(s).

If you run a major fundraising campaign and don’t tell your donors the
money is to buy and renovate a building … if you give the impression
that the money is to be used for something else … that’s fraud !!

If the “other charitable purposes” relate to your mission, you have to be
clear what all of those “purposes” might be.

Bottom line is that you don’t even think about doing a capital campaign
until you KNOW (not believe) it will be successful !!

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? Contact me at Hank@Major-Capital-Giving.com With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions.

One of the most precious commodities in any government grant proposal effort is the amount of time you have to conceptualize, develop, produce, and deliver your proposal. For many nonprofit organizations, time slips away too easily.

Phases of Grant Proposal Development

There is a good four-phase rule-of-thumb that can be applied to grants, each phase representing 25 percent of the needed time:
 •  Phase I: grant guidelines analysis, proposal strategizing, planning, and outlining.
 •  Phase II: proposal writing and illustration.
 •  Phase III: proposal review and revision.
 •  Phase IV: proposal finalization, edit, packaging, and delivery.

Address the Problem of Slippage
There is usually, however, some slippage from one phase to another and, to address the problem of slippage, I recommend that you do the following:
 •  Do some tasks in Phase I before the release of the grant guidelines.
 •  Do some tasks more quickly.
 •  Add more proposal staff to do the work, if possible.
 •  Overlap tasks so that they can be done simultaneously rather than serially.

If you have to cut corners, there are three realistic steps that you should take:
 First, you can group tasks into one of three categories:
   (1) Tasks that must be done;
   (2) Tasks that would be good to do; and,
   (3) Tasks that are not likely to have an impact on the proposal.
 Limit yourself to the most important tasks with the greatest payoff.

 Second, schedule proposal tasks in parallel rather than in sequence to save time.

 And third, relentlessly focus on milestones and delivery.

Whatever your time constraints, scheduling a grants proposal and finding ways to reach milestones is one of the most important roles of a Proposal Manager. Use the schedule to organize and complete your most essential activities, and if the schedule slips, find ways to finish the essential tasks well to submit a competitive grant application.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.

Responsible planning, in any economy, involves identifying sources of funding sufficient to ensure continuation/survival of the programs that satisfy the needs of the people and the communities you serve.

Ensuring the funding of your programs requires that you minimize the risk of (again?) losing a large percentage of your income.

According to “Giving USA 2011,” in 2010, over 80% of the non-governmental dollars that went to Non-Profit Organizations came from individual donors or their estates. And, common wisdom is that at least 80% of that amount — or 65% of all non-government dollars — came from major gifts from individuals.

And even though everybody, including the wealthy, have been impacted by the economy, major donors are still a reliable source of funding.

Their gifts may be smaller than before the “recession,” but if they still have the means, if you still have a relationship with them and if they have a need you can satisfy by getting them to give to you, then they are still major gift prospects.

For an NPO without a major gifts program, now is the time to look seriously at creating one. Indicators (including the increase in spending over the holidays) are that people’s attitudes/outlooks about the economy have turned positive, and the people that are spending are (or should be) your prospects.

A major gift program is no more than the step-by-step identification, cultivation, involvement and solicitation of a number of individuals … each in their own timeframe. (See: Who Is A Major Gift Prospect)

The difference between successful and unsuccessful major gift programs is the effort placed on identifying and cultivating prospective major gift prospects. It is the determination of who has access to people with wealth, who is the best person to guide the cultivation process for each individual, and who is the best person to know when the time is right to ask … and then do the “asking.”

A Major Gifts Program is easier to design and implement, and more cost effective than direct mail and the vast majority of events. Major gifts are also a more reliable source of long-term funding than are corporate and foundation grants.

The big question is whether your organization is getting your share of the major gifts money that has been and is still supporting so many nonprofits !!

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If 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.