Category: Financing & Loans

Want to increase the impact of your fundraising emails?

Don’t leave online social media out of the picture.

Consider this interesting fact: Americans spend 3 times as much time on social media as they do on email.

Improve your email performance by combining your email messaging with your social media presence. With a modest investment of time and effort, you can adapt your email content to create Facebook posts and Twitter tweets.

Since most email results are captured with a few hours of an email’s launch, it makes sense to put more online effort into those hours by being very present on your social media.

Here are a few quick and easy ways to boost your email fundraising power:

•   Build excitement with posts and tweets a couple of hours before the email release and
    follow with updates a few hours after the launch. Link one of
    your posts or tweets to an online version of your latest email.

•   Provide sample “share” copy with colleagues, volunteers and friends, so they can
    help spread the word via their own social network sites.

•   Use compelling graphics for goal-oriented campaigns such as a thermometer
    on your Facebook page to display the latest results.

•   Include a “last minute reminder” tweet and post for appeals with a deadline.

•   Be active on FaceBook, responding to messages from your fans and mention that
    they should check their email.

Social media expands your reach because it meets your supporters where they “live.” With consistent messaging across channels, it can help increase open rates and boost overall conversion.

Want to know how to earn your donors’ loyalty and keep them engaged all year long through integrated fundraising campaigns? Send me an email!

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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

A Simple Grant Proposal is Better….

When your grant proposal is being evaluated by a government agency, reviewers rely on a mental toolbox of rapid and simple techniques to score your application. How you write/design the proposal must be as persuasive as possible, and must help reviewers gather information quickly and effortlessly.

Use the principles of Good Information Design to help reviewers quickly find the information that interests them:

• Instead of the boxy, justified look, make your proposal attractive-to-the-eye
by using a left-justification with “ragged-right.” Add lists, graphics, tables and other visuals.
Use headers and footers, and headings that stand out.

• Organize your proposal to reflect the grant guidelines or the evaluation criteria and,
especially, by using the vocabulary of the grant guidelines to label proposal
sections and headings.

• Show how your proposal will be structured … by including an Executive Summary, a Table of
Contents, frequent headings, and topic sentences at the beginning of paragraphs.

• Make it easy for the reviewer to navigate the proposal by using page and section numbers
and letters, headers, footers, and chapter and section titles.

• Create a proposal that reads easily, by breaking your narrative into manageable chunks of
information and by having related chunks of information grouped together.

• Show the importance of blocks of information by using different font sizes, font weights,
indentations, and numbering/lettering systems.

• Differentiate information types with themes, section summaries, lists, captions, sidebars,
and visuals.

Reviewers of your grant proposal are evaluating many grant applications besides yours. Make it as easy and effortless as possible for them.
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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.

The CFC Deadlines Are Not That Far Away
If you believe that the CFC would be a good fit for your charity, both in terms of your mission and your non-profit’s capacity to handle an additional method of fundraising, this posting and the postings on Nov xx and Dec xx will outline the process for applying for the 2012 CFC season.

For national and international charities, the application deadline is January 17, 2012, and for the more than 220 regional CFCs, the specific deadlines vary, but in general they are from late January (in the Washington DC metro region) to March/April in other parts of the country. (Dates for applying for CFC federation memberships often precede the CFC official dates by 30-60 days.)

The first step, before applying to be part of the CFC, is a management analysis – a process for determining whether or not to invest your resources in applying for the CFC. This decision-making process is an approach I’ve used in workshops for state non-profit associations. I call it “The Three C’s.“

Capabilities:
 •  Who will be responsible for the day-to-day accomplishment of the tasks?
 •  What skill sets are needed? (Public speaking, communication skills, writing skills, etc.)
 •  Does current staff (paid or volunteer) have the needed capabilities?

Capacity:
 •  Even if your staff has the capabilities needed, do they have the capacity at present to
    handle a new project/program?
 •  Or, in other words are their plates already too full?

Commitment:
 •  Is the Board supportive of the new planned program/fundraising method?
 •  How much money have they committed to it? (If the answer to this is zero, or unrealistic,
    the answer to #1 is no!)
 •  Does Executive Director or Development Director have the time?

Your CFC Action Team
In addition to answering “Three C’s” questions, a major issue that must be resolved is, “Who will be the lead on your non-profit’s CFC Action Team (or whatever you choose to call it)?

The person in this position will have a lot of responsibility; and, this position can be a great professional development opportunity for a young non-profit professional. [If you’re interested in my in-depth article on this subject, please send me an e-mail with “NP leadership” in the subject line.]

Once you’ve made the decision that you do want to pursue workplace giving as one of the tools in your development toolbox, the next decision is to decide if you want to go it alone, or to join a federation.

CFC Federations
More than 60% of the funds generated through the CFC are raised by non-profits that are federation members. These umbrella organizations, as noted in our post of June 16, put together charities with a common theme, each of which has its own application procedure, membership structure and fees.

Of course, all federations require that their members meet the OPM requirements for charities in the CFC, said requirements to be found at opm.gov/cfc.

In addition to researching and calling any given federation, ask the other CFC charities in your nonprofit community if they are a members of a federation, and what their experience has been with it.

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In the next two CFC postings, we will look at the application process more closely, starting with what’s required for national and international charities to apply to the CFC, as well as some tips that can help you be successful.

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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

Hopefully, over the last two weeks, you haven’t been cold calling, cold writing, sending “surprise” invitations or making “cold” visits to people who may or may not have been major gifts prospects. With that in mind, we’ll finish making the distinction between a “large” gift and a “major gift.”

If the person who suggested the “prospect” was close to him/her, just knew him/her in passing, knew him/her as someone who made large gifts to (local/similar) “charities,” or saw his/her name in some organization’s annual report, you must take that into consideration and make judgments as to whether this person is a “real prospect” — or just someone you wish was a prospect, and if it is worth making an investment — using resources that might be used more productively elsewhere.

Look at the time/energy/anticipation that you’ve put into this “drop-everything” effort — the time you took writing, calling, putting together those “nobody-reads-them-anyway” packets of materials, then writing and calling some more. Ask yourself if you could have made better use of your time/effort.

Does all this sounds familiar? Have you found yourself “dropping everything” because someone dropped a name? Have you experienced the frustration of getting “little” or nothing for all the efforts spent on that dropped name?

Would you like to be able to stay focused on “developing” those major gift prospects who give those major gifts?

If so, take some time to review our definitions: “What is a Major Gift,” and “Who Is A Major Gift Prospect.”

Then, next time someone says you have to drop everything to go after some of that “guaranteed” money, ask yourself (and the name-dropper) if that individual meets the criteria, and if s/he then merits a change in your priorities.

A single major gift does not a Major Gifts Program make!! And, you can’t have a “program” if you don’t have a series of activities, a process, that defines the program.

Development is about building/enhancing/maintaining relationships in order to be able to attain fundraising goals. Make the investment in cultivating and involving prospects. Get them to a point where, when you ask for the gift, it won’t be “go away money.”

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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.

“Cool” isn’t a fundraising strategy

A client asked me last week if their organization should start putting QR codes on their direct mail envelopes.

“Yes,” I answered, “…when you’re ready for that.”

For the vast majority of nonprofits dabbling in online fundraising, there are at least ten other things you should be working on ahead of QR codes. This article will just let you be more conversant on them, and help you deter the efforts of people who think that employing the latest cool piece of technology IS a strategy.

What’s a QR code?

It’s an ink-blot that serves as a hot-link to a web page from the offline world. Smart-phone apps use the phone’s camera to scan the code, which contains a link to a web page. “QR” stands for “Quick Response.” You can get a QR code for any web page. Here’s one:

What does it take to make it work?
1. An audience that appreciates them: Smart phone sales have recently exceed sales of all previous types of sales, but clearly not everyone has them, or knows how to use them. If your audience is tech-savvy, you can explore this further. Note: “tech-savvy” does NOT mean the same thing as “young.” What percentage of your web audience now accesses your site via mobile devices?

2. Mobile-optimized web pages: People are going to scan QR codes from the cell phones, and that will bring them to a page on your site. If that page doesn’t render well in the Android and iPhone operating systems, you’ll just frustrate those most tech-savvy donors.

3. A great conversion strategy: A QR code only brings you a tech-savvy web visitor. How are you going to get them to give you a mobile #, email address, or donation?

4. Somewhere to put them: Three ideas come to mind.
a. On the outer envelope and letter sent to prospects. NonProfit Times research shows that almost half of prospects check out a new nonprofit before they decide to give, and the greatest number of them go to the nonprofit’s website. Make it easy for the prospect and you’ll get more of them to donate.
b. A high-tech scavenger hunt. If you have a museum or other physical location (or multiple locations around a city where you have a strong presence) then a QR code at each site can link to a ‘more info’ page about that site, or a trivia question that furthers your mission. This is great for a conference exhibit hall too.
c. Print or outdoor ads and brochures. Nonprofits are sometimes gifted with print or subway ads. There are few ways to measure the impact of those ads, or to generate additional action from them. This is one way.

Now you know enough to be dangerous. For most of you, go back to making your email messages work better. For the more daring, who meet the criteria above, have some fun!

For more information, scan the QR code above to download a recent whitepaper on mobile technology for nonprofits.

Can’t figure out the QR code? No Smart Phone? Ask Me the old fashioned way – email.

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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

Hoping that, between last Tuesday and today, you haven’t used the four illustrations of bad fundraising technique, we continue with the theme/intent of this three-part posting.

Once in a while, the response to the cold Letter, the cold Call, the Invitation (out of the blue) or the Visit (not preceded by the appropriate education and cultivation) might be, “Of course, let me write you a check.”

That check, whether in 4 or 5 figures, is a “gift” that most non-profits would consider “major.” E.D.s and D.O.D.s often look upon a 4-5 figure check as a “gift-from-on-high,” and don’t realize that, as good as it might feel to get that check, they’ve wasted (at least, misused) a lot of time and effort.

If the contact was a suggestion by someone close to Mr./Ms. Gotbucks, the “gift” is likely to be a quid-pro-quo — a dilemma in which many Directors of Development and Executive Directors find themselves. The “prospect” knows that if s/he gives to his/her friend’s pet charity, then the friend will give to his/hers.

That 4-figure-check, by some amazing coincidence, is likely to be for the same amount as the check his friend/partner/acquaintance wrote to the non-profit organization that contacted him/her at Mr./Ms. Gotbucks suggestion.

If his/her name was provided by an acquaintance or was obtained from a “list,” there would be (much) less likelihood that Mr./Ms. Gotbucks will write a check — there would be less motivation, if any, to do so.

Whatever the size of the check you manage to solicit/obtain/wheedle/beg from this “prospect,” it will be for an amount that the “donor” considers a token — doing-what-has-to-be-done-to-keep-the-scales-balanced, or just to get rid of you. It’s “Go Away Money.”

In other words, “Here’s a check. It’s all you’re going to get. Now, Go Away!!” And, from then on, you have a donor who doesn’t return your calls, respond to your mail or show any interest in learning about or becoming involved in what you do.

Now, don’t get me wrong!! I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t take the check, or even that you shouldn’t make the effort to get it in the first place. The point is, by the above method, you will not realize sufficient/appropriate value for your investment — you (may) end up with a check, but not a constituent.

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This three-part posting concludes next Tuesday … with an emphasis on “real” major gifts fundraising.

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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.

While the Internet has not changed “everything,” it has changed how we shop, how we get directions, and most relevant to the CFC … and all nonprofit fundraising, it has changed where we get our news and information.

And even though video is an increasingly important method of sharing information, the written word is how we acquire most of that data.

Free Press Release Distribution Sites

In that regard, there is one type of tool that can be invaluable for nonprofits in getting the word out about their mission: Internet based press release distribution sites. PRWeb and 24-7 Press Release are two of the better known of those sites … many of which have free options for non-profits.

One thing to keep in mind about the Internet is that it has a voracious appetite for content, and that should change how you get the word out. If you can tell your nonprofit’s stories to more people, you will generate more exposure and hopefully more positive attention as well.

You may not remember the old way of developing a press release distribution list, where NPOs compiled a contact list of the media outlets in their region; and, when they had something newsworthy to report, they would print and mail copies of their press release to that media list.

With that method, you might have gotten a story published if one of those outlets was interested in your topic and issue. That was “push” marketing — you pushed out your press release to whatever publications you thought/hoped might be interested.

Now we have press release distribution sites, where, instead of distributing your press release to outlets you think/hope might be interested … newspapers, magazines, other publications and websites looking for content come looking for your information.

They sort the volumes of information based on the keywords associated with each press release. This is the “pull” method of distribution versus the “push” method.

Telling your stories this way can afford you incredible leverage. For example, working with one client, we submitted one press release to 7 sites on April 8 … by April 11 it was on 426 sites; 2 days later on 876 sites; and, within 3 weeks it was on 12,000 sites. This particular press release had a good selection of keywords, including family friendly, volunteer appreciation and mission related terms.

Aside from the simple fact that no one has the time to actually contact thousands of media outlets, you cannot always predict which sites will actually be interested in your content.

For the nonprofit in my example, the big surprise was that a national news service was interested in visiting their site and doing a story about one of their activities – and this organization is a “local” nonprofit.

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The next post in the CFC series will discuss creating the CFC project team within your nonprofit, including leadership development opportunities for your staff and volunteers.

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+ + + NOTICE + + +

The Office of CFC Operations will conduct an application training for national and international charities on November 18, 2011, 10AM — Noon, at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (1900 E Street NW, Washington DC). The session is free and open to everyone as long as seats are available. Send an email with your name, organization and telephone number to cfc@opm.gov to reserve a seat.

The Office of CFC will also conduct a similar training via webcast on December 1 at 2PM (EST). To participate, send an email with your name, organization, and telephone number.

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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 get involved in the Combined Federal Campaign, maximize your nonprofit’s CFC revenues, or just ask a few questions, this is the guy to contact … Bill Huddleston1@gmail.com

In our definition, we suggest that, no matter its size, unless a gift met certain parameters, it wasn’t “major.”

We emphasize the requirement that the process that obtained the gift had to be based on a plan/strategy that included face-to-face cultivation and solicitation components, and that the gift had to significantly help in attaining fundraising goals.

We also provided our definition of major donors, people (for the most part) who feel passionately about wanting to see your mission achieved, and who derive satisfaction from using their wealth to advance that mission. They are people who have a level of involvement with your organization and/or its programs, and they have a need that will be satisfied by making a significant gift in pursuit of your mission.

These definitions exclude all large/significant gifts that don’t meet those parameters.

Why?? For the same reason that “Development” is not a synonym for “fundraising.” “Fundraising” is what happens after sufficient cultivation and involvement — it is the “asking” part of the Development process.

How often has a friend said to you, to your executive director, or to a client, that they know someone who would probably (want to) give your NPO a bucket of money, a real Mr./Ms. Gotbucks that you should contact immediately?

And, how often did it become, “Let’s-drop-everything-and-focus-on-this-prospective-‘major-donor’”? So much time and energy got invested in acquiring this “guaranteed” major gift that other processes/projects/systems were deprived of what was needed to achieve already established goals.

Efforts to acquire this gift usually take one or more of the following forms:

A. The Introductory Letter (with “package”)– “Dear Mr./Ms. Gotbucks. Your friend/business partner/acquaintance/etc. suggested that you’d be interested in learning about all the good things we do. We are enclosing a brief 53 page description of all the wonderful things we do for society. Please use the enclosed return envelope to send your extra-large check to help us continue to do all those good things.”

B. The Introductory Call — “Dear Mr./Ms. Gotbucks. Your friend/business partner/acquaintance/etc. said that we should contact you, and that you’d be interested in learning about who we are. I’d like to stop by and tell you about all the good things we do.”

C. The Invitation to See/Visit (by phone or mail) — “Dear Mr./Ms. Gotbucks. Your friend/partner/acquaintance/etc. said that we should contact you, and invite you to an upcoming meeting/program/event….”

D. The Visit to the Prospect — ….more of the same….

Bottom line, the end result of going into the “drop-everything-else” mode is, most often, a rejection, a delay, or an, “I’ll get back to you.”

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This posting continues next Tuesday; but, just to be clear, we are not recommending the four “approaches” described above. To the contrary, they are illustrations of how so many NPOs waste their time and resources in misguided, ineffective fundraising efforts.

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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.

What does every prospector need to “hit the mother lode?” A good map!! And prospecting for foundation funding is no different.

Here’s the good news: with a couple of key tools, you can create your own map to lead you to some very good sources of funding.

The two that top my list are annual reports of your competitors and foundation 990s. Note that the IRS Form 990s is a document that public charities and foundations use to report financial and operational information to the federal government.

“The Foundation Directory,” published by the Foundation Center, can be quite useful, and is often a good place to start … but isn’t absolutely necessary if you are on a tight budget. It’s also available on-line, at FCOnline

The first step in this iterative process is to look at the annual reports of other organizations that provide the same or similar services as your organization, and identify the foundations listed as their funders.

Foundations that fund these organizations are good prospects for you. If you can’t find the annual report on your competitor’s website, give them a call and ask for a copy. If this seems unfair, don’t worry. It’s not. It’s just best practice. And, if your competitor organizations have good grant managers, they’ve probably already studied yours.

After identifying the foundations, download their IRS Form 990s from Guidestar, and start mining them for all the useful nuggets of information they contain. In particular:
• total net assets or fund balances at end of year – this will help you determine
  if they are large enough to invest time in pursuing for funding
• total annual giving – ditto on usefulness of this information
• whether they accept unsolicited proposals or only contribute to preselected
  organizations
• contact name, address and phone number for grant submissions
• grant application information – submission date, application format, required
  attachments (note that this information is not always included in 990s)
• trustee names and addresses – that could be quite useful during grant
  cultivation
• list of grantees and addresses for the year
• grant amounts and grant purposes (project support, general operating,
  capital campaign, etc.)

You can loop back around, and look at the annual reports of organizations listed in the 990s, but don’t spend too much time down this mine shaft. Prospects that look good on paper still require cultivation, proposal development and submission, and stewardship before they will yield up their riches.

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Lynn deLearie, owner of Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grant programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. She can be contacted at lynn.delearie@gmail.com..

An email indicated that “Our capital campaign has concluded. We’ve reached our goal, but we still have some prospects that have not been met/solicited and we have identified additional capital needs. We’re also looking at creation of a major gifts program.”
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If you’ve just declared success/completion of the campaign, I assume that:

• Your major donors have gotten good visibility;
• All donors have been thanked/treated well;
• You have engendered lots of good feeling among staff and volunteers; and,
• The success of the campaign and the resulting benefit to your organization
   and its constituents has gotten some good press.

If my assumptions are correct, this would be a good time to institute a series of small (non-announced/non-public) mini-capital campaigns.

Target a small number of prospects for each capital need. Use a small number of volunteers — hopefully those who have achieved some success working for the just concluded campaign — or some of those who were major donors to that campaign. And, define a limited timeframe for each mini-campaign.

Give the appropriate publicity/thanks/stewardship to the leaders of and donors to each of those mini-efforts, at the completion of each.

Immediate prospects would be the folks who were identified as likely major donors to the capital campaign but who either couldn’t commit at the time or were not solicited for the campaign.

Since the people who were major donors to the campaign will likely be paying off their campaign commitment over a number of years, that will get many of them in the habit of giving more, on a regular basis, than they did before the campaign.

Then, once they’ve completed their pledge payments, and they’ve gotten comfortable with the concept of making major gifts, there’s a good chance they can be “encouraged” to continue giving at the “campaign” level.

Another part of the preparation for a capital campaign is the design/creation of a program for the recognition of the leaders of and donors to the campaign. A similar effort must precede a major gifts program.

A major gifts program is based upon some considerations/factors that are different from those of a capital campaign. And, the transition from a capital campaign to a major gifts program is not as smooth as it might appear on the surface.

Another part of the preparation for a capital campaign is the design/creation of a program for the recognition of the leaders of and donors to the campaign. A similar effort must precede a major gifts program.

(See: Fundraising For Nonprofits: Major Gifts)

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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.