MASSIVE CHANGES PROPOSED TO THE COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN (CFC)

If Implemented As Proposed, Changes Could Cut CFC Revenues to Nonprofits by at least 50%

HELP SAVE THE CFC !!

POST YOUR COMMENTS ON THE PROPOSED CFC REGULATIONS

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has proposed massive changes to how the Combined Federal Campaign works. There are more than 40 pages of proposed regulations, and my analysis of the changes can be found at the SAVETHECFC Linked-In Group and on my blog at http://www.cfctreasures.wordpress.com.

There is a public comment period for all proposed government regulations, and the comment period concerning the Combined Federal Campaign proposed regulations closes June 7, 2013.

There are two ways to comment: Send a written letter to Keith Willingham, the OPM’s Director of the Combined Federal Campaign, or submit your comments via the electronic comment function of the Federal Register. I recommend, strongly, that you use the Federal Register method so that other members of the nonprofit community will be able to see your comments.

Subject/Reference Number: RIN 3206-AM68, Solicitation of Federal Civilian and Uniformed Service Personnel for Contributions to Private Voluntary Organizations

HERE IS THE SPECIFIC PAGE TO COMMENT ON THE PROPOSED CFC REGULATIONS: http://www.regulations.gov/…

Here’s one example of a proposed change that will have dire consequences for the Federal CFC donor, for CFC charities, and most importantly the people that receive the services from those nonprofit organizations.

Example of a Proposed Regulation Missing the Mark and having wide negative consequences:

In the CFC-50 Commission meetings there were many people and organizations that spoke to the benefit of extending the campaign to January 15th from the current December 15th end. The reasons for this include, both, year-end charitable giving and federal personnel schedules.

In watching all eight hours of video testimony, reading all the recommendations and appendices in the CFC-50 report, not a single person said “Shift the Campaign” from September-to-December to October-to-January.

“Shifting” is not the same as “extending…”
and there are many negative consequences to shifting, but since there was no mention of this at all in four public meetings over many months, the idea was not addressed.

Hidden Regulations – Federal Retirees Section

Some of the proposed regulations are poorly organized, with no logic behind them, and they have the effect of hiding significant and important changes. For example, the section dealing with Federal retirees, instead of being in a “Donors” section, is hidden in the “establishing Regional Committees” section, ignores the CFC-50 Commission recommendations, and makes a multi-million dollar error in judgment … all in less than a paragraph.

Here’s the link to the section that deals with retirees, hidden in the phrase “and also eliminates restriction on soliciting non-Federal personnel.” 950.103 Establishing Regional Coordinating Committees.

Will Cut CFC Revenues in Half:
If implemented as proposed, these untested changes will have the effect of cutting in half the CFC revenues for thousands of CFC charities, which is what has already happened when such massive changes were tried in workplace giving campaigns at the city and state level.

To see how much revenue was raised in your state through the CFC, please see my worksheet showing the state-by-state totals: http://cfctreasures.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/combined-federal-campaign-2012-results-by-state.

If you have questions or concerns about how you can help save the CFC as one of the most useful programs for millions of Americans who benefit from the $260 million dollars generated annually by this workplace giving campaign, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Bill Huddleston or by phone at 703-434-9780.

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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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What is a Fundraising/Development Consultant?

This is a companion piece to my posting, Who/What is a Fundraising Consultant, from last year at this time.

First, simply, a fundraising consultant is not someone who does “it” for you, and s/he is not an insider (i.e., staff, board, etc.). A fundraising/development consultant is (must be) “an objective outsider.”

You can, for example, engage someone to teach you how to write grant proposals, and have that person work with you to critique/edit what you write. That’s a consultant.

If the person you engage will do the research and write the proposal for you, that’s not consulting … that’s doing.

You can, as another example, engage a capital campaign director who will be “resident” at your location and will provide all the direction, planning, training, oversight and trouble shooting needed for the campaign. That’s doing, not consulting.

A capital campaign consultant can train you to do what needs to be done, can sit with you and provide direction while you do what needs doing, can provide occasional analysis of progress, and can suggest ways to improve/enhance the process. That’s consulting.

Taking the definition to the next step, for a consultant to provide the best possible advice/counsel/direction/training, s/he must (to a significant degree) buy into your mission and make a commitment (to him-/her-self) to help you succeed in its pursuit.

The consultant you want to engage is the one who will care about your success, and will work with you to help you achieve it. A consultant will often lose sleep … thinking about how s/he could help you do “it” better.

A good consultant will help you develop the perspective, the direction of vision, to understand how development/fundraising relates to everything an organization does, and how everything your organization does can impact/enhance/hurt your fundraising/development efforts.

A consultant will help you Identify The Problem, identify the solution to the problem, and work with you to implement that solution, but won’t solve it for you.

One important element in the definition of a fundraising/development consultant is how that person is compensated: A fee, based on the number of hours or days s/he will commit to working with you, or a pre-defined fee to include any/all effort s/he will expend on your behalf. Said fees are usually payable at $xxx per month … at the beginning of each month of the relationship. Fundraising/development consultants are never compensated by a percentage or commission of the monies raised.

Some “consultants” offer various combinations of consulting and doing. Before you engage counsel, talk with him/her, get a feel for what it is you might want him/her to do, and discuss the wording of a contract. Don’t just hire someone because you don’t want to do it yourself or because you don’t have a clue as to what needs to be done or how to do it.

And, a final thought: Consultants are also people, with the usual character plusses and minuses, but the one characteristic a consultant must have to be most effective is an ability to read, understand, motivate and get along with the people with whom s/he will be working.
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? Ask Hank
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
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If You’d Rather Read a Book Alone Than Join the Party, You Can Still be a Fantastic Nonprofit Fundraiser

…a guest posting by Andrea Kihlstedt

Introverts have been in the news for the past year or so. Thanks to Susan Cain’s book about introversion, Quiet, we’re now more aware that those of us who shun the limelight have unique strengths that ought to be honored.

What you might still not be aware of, though, is that introverts – yes, introverts – can make fantastic nonprofit fundraisers, either as volunteers or professionals.

This idea may seem completely counter-intuitive, but I assure you it’s true.

According to my experience and research, introverts bring the following specific gifts to the fundraising table:

• Introverts are great listeners – and aren’t we always saying that listening to donors
is one of the most important aspects of the fundraising process?

• Introverts are sensitive to the people around them–often more sensitive to their
needs than their extroverted counterparts.

• Introverts are willing to cede the limelight to others without feeling dismissed.

• Introverts are great observers and take in the all-important details of a
conversation.

If you are an introvert – or you are managing staff members and/or volunteers who are eager to help but are most definitely not the life of the party – how can you build on the inherent strengths of introversion to enhance self-confidence and build fundraising success?

Here are three suggestions:

Find the courage to be your authentic self. That’s essential.    Introverts who try to put on an extroverted face can come across as
phony, and they exhaust themselves in the process. Rather than
trying to be something you’re not – or encouraging your staff or
volunteers to be something they’re not – it’s far better to
play to your natural strengths.

Find out whether your friends and colleagues see themselves as
introverts or extroverts. In discussing this with them, you’ll
come to understand one another more fully and be able to rely on
each other’s strengths rather than being frustrated by them.

Be sure to give yourself plenty of quiet time to recuperate from
heavy interaction with others. Remember that while extroverts are
energized through interaction with other people, for introverts
contact can be exhausting. So plan on plenty of time alone between
your meetings.

The final thing to remember is that, while introverts bring natural strong skills to fundraising, the best organizations recruit introverts and extroverts and encourage each type of person to build on the inherent strengths that come from being their authentic selves. Not only that, but each of the two personality types also have other dominant traits to take into account – but that’s the topic of a different post.

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Want to find your asking style, use Andrea’s Asking Style Assessment; and, if you want to read more about Asking Styles, take a look at Andrea’s book, Asking Styles: Harness Your Personal Fundraising Power. You can contact Andrea at [email protected].

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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? [email protected]
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Have you heard about
The Fundraising Series of ebooks.

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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Getting That Derailed Fund-Raising Campaign Back On Track

You can’t fix a problem in a campaign unless you know there is a problem !!

We track progress in a fund-raising campaign to be able to identify problems in time to take corrective action. If at any point in the campaign it begins to look as if the ability to achieve the goal is slipping away, then those managing the campaign must give immediate and focused attention to identifying/analyzing and formulating a solution to the problem.

The most common problem encountered during a campaign is the failure of solicitors to ask for and/or obtain commitments from their assigned donors at the levels that the rating-and-evaluating process ascribed to them.

Beginning on Day One, tracking of progress is crucial. It is better to find out that results are 15 percent below estimate after 10 percent of the (major donor) prospects have made their commitments, than after half of your prospects have responded.

Once a campaign is under way, the steps you can take to make up a projected shortfall are limited, but the earlier you take them, the greater the chance they will resolve the problem.

What to do to cover a projected shortfall and get a campaign back on track:

• Solicit a matching/challenge contribution to inspire and compel the gifts of others.
(A matching/challenge gift would greatly assist in carrying out all of the following
steps, but even without a matching/challenge gift, the following steps must be
considered.)

• Ask trustees and campaign leadership to increase their gifts.
They have a special interest in the campaign’s success, and have been making
their gifts. And even if they were substantial gifts, ask them to up the ante anyway.

• Increase the “Ask” amounts for prospects yet to be solicited.
Rework your evaluations and “Ask” amounts for prospects yet to be solicited.
Go back and reassess them individually … to a higher level.

• Identify additional prospects to be solicited.
An organization rarely contacts all of the persons capable of giving to it.
New prospects must be identified and contacted/solicited. That will, of course,
also add to your donor base for future campaigns.

• Go back to selected donors who have already given and ask them to increase
their gifts. This must be done with great care – with selectivity and sensitivity.
You go only to those whom you are certain as can be that they will not be
offended, thinking that what they did give was not satisfactory in the first place.
Have a good case ready to explain that such a request is not based on a panic
situation, but that they are special, and it’s always the special ones to whom
we look in time of need.

Any thoughts you’d like to add?? We’d really like to hear from you.
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Have a question or comment for Tony? He can be reached at [email protected]. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com
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Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Write The Letter: Bequests II

Last month I introduced promotion of planned gifts with bequests.

This month, I’m helping you write your direct mail letter. If you can’t afford direct mail, don’t worry. There are lots of other channels to promote charitable bequests and I’ll get to those.

If you don’t plan a letter campaign, my tips will help you understand the audience so you’ll gain confidence in your other promotion channels—including face-to-face meetings.

If you will use direct mail, here you go:

§ Write the letter from your heart. Be warm, factual, sincere, and straightforward. Share how a bequest in a will can help support your important work long into the future, because today’s bequest may not mean cash to you for many years. This is long-term fundraising.
§ Acknowledge that family always comes first in one’s long-term planning.
§ Include an invitation to “consider including ABC Charity in your will or other long-term plan.”I like to see this ask in its own paragraph.
§ Don’t be ashamed or ask humbly. Ask with confidence and sincerity.
§ Devote your letter exclusively to promoting a gift by will. No other subjects to distract from your heart-whole purpose.
§ Your prospects are in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Bear that in mind as you write.
§ Limit your letter to one page. Take the advice I’ve given and write concisely.

Testimonial letters carry great power.

So if you have donors who have already included you in their wills, ask if they’ll tell the story of why they did it and how it makes them feel to have your nonprofit alongside the bequests for their spouses, children, and grandchildren.

You’ll find it easier to interview them, write the letter for them and let them edit it.

Your donors who love you will accept a simple, authentic and heartfelt explanation of how their wills can help you. Remember from last month, you’re writing to your most consistent and loyal donors.

Take note of the adjectives I’ve used. They’ll guide you as you write: warm; factual; sincere; straightforward; confident; simple; authentic; and heartfelt.

Come back in June for advice on what to do with your letter in “More Direct Mail: Bequests III.”

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Tony Martignetti, Esq. is the host of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. He’s a Planned Giving consultant, speaker, author, blogger and stand-up comic. You’ll find him at tonymartignetti.com.

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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??

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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

 

Make your Grant Proposal Team into a Learning Organization!

What is a Learning Organization?
Modern nonprofits face unrelenting pressures to remain competitive with their federal agencies. One way to address these pressures is to create a special type of nonprofit grant proposal team – a learning organization that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself.

I was reminded of the importance of facilitating learning in a grant proposal debriefing. I had just finished serving as the Proposal Manager on a bid to NASA. We were proposing to manage an ongoing graduate fellowship program in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to help prepare NASA’s future workforce and contribute to the nation’s need for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.

Although I have worked in proposal development for over two decades, during the debriefing I was pleasantly surprised to pick up several constructive suggestions about what I could have done better to manage this proposal effort. It was a forceful example to me of how proposal teams can function as learning organizations.

Without this debriefing, we probably would have made the same mistakes again. But, with this debriefing, we were able to identify and acknowledge our mistakes and learn from them, all in a meeting of less than two hours.

How to Develop a Grants Learning Organization
There is a voluminous literature on how to develop learning organizations, but a good start comes from a citation in our proposal. In the first section, we discussed a book that has been attracting attention at NASA, Tony Wagner’s The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need – and What We Can Do About It (2008). Although this is a study of America’s K-12 education system, Wagner’s advice can be used to help grant proposal teams become learning organizations.

According to Wagner, our nation’s schools do not teach students how to be critical thinkers and problem-solvers. To prepare young people for productive adulthoods and civic engagement, Wagner recommends that schools concentrate on instilling seven survival skills for the 21st century:

• Critical thinking and problem-solving.
• Curiosity and imagination.
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence.
• Agility and adaptability.
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism.
• Effective oral and written communication.
• Accessing and analyzing information.

I doubt whether the skills needed on effective grant proposal teams are different. To remain competitive as grant proposal professionals, we will need to identify, recruit, and nurture the kinds of people who have these seven important skills. If proposal professionals cannot ask good questions, think critically, communicate effectively, or solve problems, then our grant proposals are not likely to remain competitive in the face of fierce competition for federal grants.

There are many ways to promote learning organizations in the nonprofit world. For grant proposal professionals, a good first step would be to read Wagner’s The Global Achievement Gap. It is a stirring guide to what we should want for our children – and expect from our colleagues.

Find ways to learn from your grant development efforts and you will submit more competitive proposals. It is that easy, and that difficult.
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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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Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Development Director Job Description: Donor-Driven

I recently came across a salary review I received while in my 18th year as Director of Development of The Cleveland Orchestra. It was written by an Executive Director who was just finishing his first year with us. I quote that Executive Director’s comments from his written review (which was extremely favorable and which was accompanied by a substantial salary increase). 🙂

“I have more recently begun to understand, and more and more am I impressed, with your absolute concern with the wishes of the donor – a trait I do not possess, as I tend to overstate the needs of the institution.”

When we began our relationship, he didn’t understand and wasn’t impressed with my donor-centered stance, nor was I appreciative of his organization-driven position. There were times when I did not expect to make it to that first performance appraisal.

But, eventually, we began to see that the other was responding to the imperatives of his position. And, fortunately for me, (for him and for the Orchestra), he did begin to understand my donor-driven mind-set, as I began to understand the need for his institution-driven perspective. But it was very close. So close, that for a time, I was certain I would not last the year.

I survived, but too often that is not the case for other development officers in similar positions. You can “burn-out,” get fired, move on to another job, or simply run out of time – and not be as fortunate as I was to have an enlightened executive director who had the integrity and class to make his startling admission in time !!

Simply put, I believe there is a great deal of difference between the temperaments and the expectations that make for successful development officers and successful executive directors. Both MUST see and understand the other’s focus/priorities.

Personally, I was at my very best when I functioned as the donors’ voice within the organization, bringing donor cares and concern to staff and trustees. I could not be as donor-centered if I did not have an institution-centered Executive Director who understood the differences between our roles and perspectives, and (subsequently) provided the support I needed.

I believe the forces at work in my situation have been and still are common to countless other EDs and DoDs. Where we grew to understand/appreciate the other’s perspective, in too many instances that is not the result. Too often, an ED’s narrowness of vision puts needless limits on an organization’s development officer(s) and on the organization’s ability to raise money.
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Have a question or comment for Tony? He can be reached at [email protected]. There is also a lot of good fundraising information on his website: Raise-Funds.com
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

What is a Grant Cover Letter and Why Should I Write One?

In my December 6th (2012) post, I introduced the third step in the four-step grantsmanship process: Grant Proposal Development; and I also briefly introduced the cover letter.

This month’s Grants Posting will provide more information on what to include in a cover letter and why you should write one.

I’ll start with recommendations from the Foundation Center:

•  “All proposals should be accompanied by a cover letter addressed to an
    appropriate person.”
•  “The cover letter should be a brief, to the point, summary of what we can expect
    to read in the proposal. For instance it might read — Dear Appropriate
    Person — Our organization does such and such. We are in need of X amount
    of dollars for — name of project or general support. We are attaching — and
    then list the documents appended.”
•  Links to sample cover letters are provided at the Foundation Center’s website.

I follow these recommendations when submitting grant proposal to most private and corporate foundations. I do, however, make exceptions, especially when proposal content is limited by word/character count constraints.

As I have written previously on this blog, relationships are at the heart of all fundraising, including foundation grants. It is therefore critical to connect the foundation leader(s) to your clients and their unique needs. So, when proposal guidelines – or electronic formats – limit what I can include in the target population and needs statement sections, I often include more qualitative and heart-felt information in the cover letter. I usually include a client photo on the first page – again for the purpose of connecting the person at the foundation to the people (or animals) he or she will be helping by funding the grant.

I also make the connection between the foundation’s mission and that of the NPO submitting the proposal. Foundations are receiving many more well-designed and well-written proposals than they can fund, so it is critical to show them that your NPO will deliver the services and outcomes that matter to them.

I conclude cover letters with a statement, such as: “I thank you for your consideration of this request and look forward to partnering with the ABC Foundation. Please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] or at 012-345-6789 if you have any questions about the enclosed proposal or would like to arrange a site visit.” This opens the door for you (the grant manager) to follow-up by phone to arrange a site visit if you did not already make such a call prior to submitting the proposal.

Be aware that some foundations require that you include a cover letter signed by your Executive Director and Board President with your grant application. In these cases, follow their specific cover letter guidelines.
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Lynn deLearie Consulting, LLC, helps nonprofit organizations develop, enhance and expand grants programs, and helps them secure funding from foundations and corporations. Contact Lynn deLearie.
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Look for Lynn’s ebook on Grants & Grantsmanship. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

What Do You Call The Officer/Staff Person In-Charge of Raising Charitable Contributions?

Volunteers sorting donations into the right boxes

This posting by: Hank Lewis

There are two steps to take in answering that question.

The first is asking, “Who cares?” Isn’t what we call that person largely irrelevant? Isn’t that person going to do what has to be done, no matter his/her title?

Definitely not !! We are greatly affected by how we are labelled. Titles are important to people because they impact both self-image and how others see us. With the “wrong” self-image and/or the “wrong” face to the world, our effectiveness must suffer.

The second step involves defining/understanding that person’s role/job.

So, here we start with the concept of development – the process of identifying potential donors, sparking their interest in the organization, identifying the needs of those individuals, determining how giving to the organization can satisfy those needs, helping to build a bond between them and the organization, and growing that relationship.

Bottom line, development is about creating, maintaining and enhancing the relationships that lead to charitable contributions. Fundraising is merely the end result of the development process. Without the relationship building and the satisfying of donor needs, there can be no real/substantive fundraising.

Now, having gotten that out of the way, let’s look at some of the titles commonly used by nonprofit organizations:

The title to which I object the most is Director of Philanthropy. Aside from that being a really pompous designation, the reality is that you don’t/can’t direct philanthropy. Philanthropy comes from the individual. Philanthropists give because of their desire/need to help other people … or society in general. Those feelings are internally generated, not such that someone can direct them.

Director of Charitable Giving: I’m sure that everyone has heard the expression, “Charity Begins At Home.” Well, the organizational staff person can show potential donors possible places/programs where they can put their money. S/he can show them how their giving can make a difference, how it can help others, but, as with philanthropy, you can’t direct charity. The word, “charity,” is also so very passé.

Of all that I’ve heard, I like “Director of Development,” because the focus is on the building of relationships, but that’s become a euphemism for “fundraiser.”

The Staff Person In-Charge of Raising Charitable Contributions can (personally or through others) show a potential donor how making the gift will not only help other people but will satisfy the needs of the donor. The key to successful fundraising, however, is getting the donor to want to make the gift.

So, what do we call that staff person whose job it is to get the donor to want to make the gift? Not somebody who directs fundraising; not someone who directs philanthropy, not a director of charitable giving; maybe not even a director of development.

There’s also “Director of Community Relations,” “Director of Donor Relations,” and “Director of Constituent Relations.” The first seems so very broad, even encompassing institutional marketing; and the second and third seem to come after the fact.

Finally: Sophisticated (potential) donors know that a nonprofit organization has to raise the funds to run its programs … to help the people it serves. And, they know that, whatever the title, that the person “cultivating” them is working to move them toward a specific end result.

The answer to the question, therefore, is that the Staff Person In-Charge must have a title that is comfortable for (prospective) donors, unpretentious, and satisfying to the Staff Person.

What do you think it should be ?? Why ??
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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 [email protected]
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Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
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If you’re reading this on-line and 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. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Timeless Principles versus Technology, Why Workplace Giving Works

Workplace giving has been around for a long time. Indeed, you can make the case that the person who invented workplace giving was Benjamin Franklin … but that’s an analysis for a different venue.

The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) was established in 1961, and has been going strong for the past 52 years; and one reason that is so is because an integral part of a CFC campaign is face-to-face communication.

In a CFC campaign there are multiple opportunities for face-to-face communication, including some that non-profits may be able to participate in – i.e., the kickoff events and charity fairs.

One of the aspects about the CFC that is often overlooked, is that one of the “tasks” of the federal CFC volunteers (including those making the direct solicitation – called: keyworkers) is to engage in face-to-face communication with their colleagues.

Aside from the dollar goal(s), a major objective a CFC campaign is to have a 100% rate of asking people to participate.

This face-to-face communication is one of the reasons that the CFC continues to be successful. More than 50 years after its creation, it just keeps chugging along, generating millions of unrestricted dollars for thousands of local, national, and international non-profits.

I have a mouse pad that I got at a charity fair years ago that lists the ten reasons people give – as follows:

WHY PEOPLE GIVE

  1. People are inherently generous.
  2. People give to people.
  3. People give because they are asked.
  4. People give in relation to the person who asks.
  5. People respond to a specific request for support.
  6. People give to peers.
  7. People give to people in a campaign atmosphere—annual or capital.
  8. People give to positive, enthusiastic solicitors.
  9. Most people want, and all donors deserve recognition for their gifts.
  10. People give to successful and beneficial programs and to make an investment in advancing good work.

When you look at this list, you see that workplace giving actual hits 9 of the 10 reasons listed, the only one that does not take place in a CFC campaign is Number 5, because the keyworkers are not asking for the donors to support a specific charity, rather for the donor to support the ones he or she cares about. Also note that Numbers 2,3,4,6, 7, and 8 all relate to face-to-face communication.

Meanwhile, some private companies that have attempted to move their workplace giving campaigns to 100% online, have seen significant drops in the amount of money raised and in the participation rate … a decline that has often been more than 50 percent in both categories.

This doesn’t mean that the CFC hasn’t kept up with technology, at this point all CFC campaigns have a website, and in most cases the listing of the CFC charities for a region is searchable online as well, and these are just a few basic examples. Many are also on Facebook and are using other tools of the 21st century to help accomplish their goals.

Within a CFC campaign, the central contractor to the government that is responsible for the campaign management is what is called the Principal Combined Fund Organization, or PCFO. (I know it’s a jargon term, but it is a government program after all). The PCFOs are the organizations that manage the overall campaign (and later are responsible for the disbursement of funds – hence the “Fund” part of the name), print the campaign materials, and organize regional kickoffs. The Federal government periodically recompletes the contracts for non-profits that wish to apply to be the PCFO for a given region.

Earlier this year the contract for the largest CFC in the country which is the National Capital Area CFC, and effective April 1, 2013 the new PCFO is EarthShare. The CEO of EarthShare is Kal Stein, who was a member of the CFC-50 Commission that held hearings on ways to improve the CFC during its 50th Anniversary Year.

I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Stein and the several areas that he said EarthShare intends to concentrate are: ways to increase the awareness of the CFC in the community, to implement more of the social media tools in campaigns, and to make sure that Federal employees are recognized for their contributions to the non-profit world via their CFC participation.

He also expressed a commitment to finding ways to help CFC charities by increasing the emphasis on finding ways for Federal employees to volunteer with the charities they support.

If you have suggestions for EarthShare, please share them by posting comments on the blog, or by sending them directly to me, and I will be glad to share them with Mr. Stein.

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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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Have you seen … The Fundraising Series of ebooks.

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