TV Show + Nonprofit = Big Thanks!

On most Tuesday nights, you can find me and my daughter on the couch watching our favorite TV show – Biggest Loser.  We love watching people working hard to meet their goals. If you’re unfamiliar with Biggest Loser, it’s a reality show where contestants lose weight.

Tonight showed the contestants each working an 8-hour day for a week at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. I was so excited to see them there!  Food banking has a special place in my heart – I spent 5 years working as the Development Director for the Food Bank in East Tennessee. If you’ve heard me speak, you know I tell a lot of Food Bank stories!

Tonight, what caught my attention was that 2 of the contestants worked in the Call Center at the Food Bank, calling donors to thank them for their support.  Yay!  The LA Food Bank has it right – donor appreciation is important.  In fact, it’s critical to cultivating relationships.

That got me to thinking – how can you recruit volunteers to help thank donors?  Sometimes a call from a volunteer or  Board member carries more weight than a call from a staff person. If you can find the right person, they might be able to make calls from home,which is attractive to some volunteers.

The important thing is to take the time to connect with donors and thank them.  No matter how you do it, you’ll be glad you did.

Thank your donor 7 times

There’s nothing more important than thanking our donors. We need to make sure donors know how much we appreciate them and their generosity.  So thank your donor 7 times. The 7 Thanks don’t have to be elaborate or expensive – just sincere.

The initial Thank You should be timely.  Your quick response to a donor’s gift lets them know that you did in fact receive their gift and that you are glad to have it.  Ideally, you should get an initial Thank You letter out within 48 hours of receiving a gift.  There’s nothing worse for a donor than waiting weeks or months for a gift acknowledgement.

Subsequent Thank Yous may be spread out over several weeks or months.  Letting a little time go by between Thank Yous shows the donor that you haven’t forgotten about them.  And, it helps you build a relationship.

Ideas for the 7 Thank Yous:

• Computer-generated letter
• Hand-written note card
• Phone call
• Email
• Call or note from the Executive Director
• Call or note from a Board member
• Call or note from another staff member (NOT a Fundraiser)
• Note from a client
• Photograph of your organization in action
• Written update about the use of the donor’s gift

So get busy and thank your donors!

Tips for thanking a donor

Taking a few minutes to thank a donor is some of the best time you’ll spend as a fundraiser.  Don’t overlook or underestimate the importance of this small task!  When done well, donor appreciation can bring big rewards later on.

Here are a few tips for thanking a donor.

1. Send a Thank You letter promptly.  Ideally, you want to have a Thank You letter in the mail to the donor within 48 hours of receiving their gift.  If you can’t possible do 48 hours, then figure out what you CAN do and be consistent.

2. Personalize the letter.  This is NO time for ‘Dear Friend.’

3. The Executive Director of the organization should sign the letter.  This shows the donor how important their gift is.

4. Include meaningful information in the Thank You letter.  Let the donor know how their gift will be used and what impact it will make.

There are probably dozens of other things you can do to strengthen your Thank You letter.  If you have a good one, hit the comment link and share.  We’d all benefit from what you have to say.

The power of the pen

One of the most powerful ways you can thank a donor is to send a hand-written thank-you note. Almost no one does this anymore and it will really set you apart.

Jerry Panas wrote recently
“Think back to when you were a kid. Remember how excited you were to receive a handwritten note or a letter from relatives and friends. Most of us have saved special ones over the years.

There was something about the pen strokes, the crossed-out mistakes, smiley faces, and knowing that time was taken to write especially to you. It meant you were important to the writer.

Although many think we’re too busy to read (and certainly write) hand-written notes, it’s no different for us as adults. Everyone likes to feel special.”

If you’re tight on time, I suggest you write hand-written notes to your top 10 donors once a quarter. It’s a great way to let them know you appreciate them.

Donor appreciation in the small shop

When you work in a small fundraising office (or shop), you’ve got to be judicious with your time to get everything done.  I know.  I’ve been there.

I once worked in a nonprofit where one other person and I shared all the administrative and fundraising tasks, and some of the program tasks.  It wasn’t easy.  But it did teach me that I HAD to prioritize my “to do” list and focus on those things that would bring me the most bang for the buck.  What I figured out pretty quick was that spending most of my time on special events was not the best use of my time.  Making thank-you calls or taking major donors to lunch was a much better way to spend my time.

If you are the only person working on fundraising for your organization, you’ve got to work smarter, not harder.  Make sure that whatever you are doing is worth doing, and moves you toward reaching your fundraising goals.  You’ve got to move to being proactive instead of reactive.  In fact, when you don’t have a plan and you spend all your time putting out fires, there is no time to work on things you should be doing.

Once you prioritize your activities, look for ways to systematize your activities.  Using a donor-tracking software will help you streamline gift-entry processes and easily generate thank-you letters.  Anything you do more than once, you should be thinking about how you can do it more easily.

Thanking donors should alays be a priority, no matter how much time you have on your hands.  There’s no better use of your time as a fundraiser than thanking your donors.

An experiment in gratitude

My friend Kivi Miller of Nonprofit Marketing Guide recently shared the results of her annual giving experiment.  And it’s pretty bad.

She sent $20 donations to 10 national charities online and waited to see who would thank her and how they would do it.  These were national organizations and you would think they’d have their act together for thanking donors, no matter what level of gift was given.

As you can probably guess, not many responded. By Feb 18, she had heard from only 3 organizations.  Pitiful! 

Come on folks!  No matter what size organization you work for, you should ALWAYS have time to thank a donor.  If you have lots of donors to thank, then create a system to make it more efficient for you.  Not thanking donors is a good way to lose them.  And you can’t afford that.

Every donor deserves to be thanked for every gift.  Appreciation should be expressed promptly, warmly, and sincerely.  Don’t make the donor sit and wonder if you got their gift – get a thank-you letter out to them within a couple of days.

You can read Kivi’s summary of her experiment on her blog at http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2010/02/18/10-donations-3-thank-yous-7-failures-to-communicate/.

Your Mama was right

Yep, your Mama was right.  Everytime she reminded you to say “thank you.”  She knew what she was doing.

Everyone needs to be thanked.  In the world of fundraising, it’s a critical action.

I remember in one fundraising job I had, the first thing we would do following an event was to write the thank-you letters.  If I didn’t get started on them immediately, my Executive Director would aggravate me until I did.  It was a great habit to develop and I used it throughout my career.

I ran across a resource today that I want to share with you.  Lisa Sargent is a nonprofit copywriter and has a great website with some good resources on it.  One thing she offers is some free thank-you letter samples.  Check out her site at www.lisasargent.com.

5 Tips for Maximizing Special Events

Since I’m sharing about Special Events this week, I thought I’d post some tips for making them better. Here are 5 tips for maximizing your events:

 1.       Clearly define each event you hold.

This is so important! Is the event a friend-raiser or fund-raiser?  Are you having the event to raise awareness?  Knowing your purpose will help you set the direction and expectations for the event to ensure success.  It will also help you narrow down the list of donors or potential donors you invite to the event so that you are getting the people that will help you meet your expectations and goals for the event.

 2.      Know how many events you can handle.

Be careful not to overload your staff and volunteers with too many events.  You want your events to be well-planned and effective.  One or two big events that are broad-reaching into the community are much better than lots of little events that use up all your time and energy.  Make sure that the events you do are a big deal to your staff, volunteers, donors, and the community.

 3.  Use special events as a chance to involve businesses.

Event sponsorships are a great way to involve local businesses and corporations in your special events.  If your event garners publicity, particularly through the media, you can probably secure at least one corporate sponsor.  Good candidates for sponsors are banks, communications companies, and other businesses that have broad target audiences.

 4.  Use a planning timeline.

Once you set the date for your event, use a timeline to back up from the event to plan all the details.  You can include things like sending a press release to the local media a week before the event, confirming with a caterer two days before the event, and so forth.  This great planning tool can help you keep track of all the details and avoid letting things fall between the cracks.

 5.  Use a committee of volunteers to plan the event.

Recruit volunteers to help you plan and execute your event.  You can get help pulling the event off and you will probably get some good ideas, too.  It will be much easier tending to all the details with extra hands.  Plus, involving volunteers in the work you are doing is a great way to get to know them and build a relationship.  After all, it’s all about relationships!

Is it time to put your event to rest?

We’ve all been there.  We have a special event we’ve done a few times (sometimes LOTS of times), but it’s losing its luster.  And you realize it’s time to make the hard decision to stop doing it.  It can unpleasant, but the time comes when you must decide to stop hosting a particular event. 

Here are some signs that the time has come to retire a special event:

• Revenue from the event is slipping.
• Fewer people are attending.
• Media sponsors aren’t interested anymore.
• Corporate sponsors aren’t interested either.
• If you included labor cost in your financial summary, you would definitely be losing money on the event.
• Everyone is exhausted at the prospect of planning the event.

Unless the event is accomplishing something specific that you aren’t getting through any other channel (awareness or friend-raising), it’s time to shut it down. 

I remember working at the local food bank and the time came to stop doing a 5K race that we had done for several years.  We just weren’t raising enough money to justify doing it, and we had several other events during the year that were satisfying our need for publicity.  It was a tough decision, but we made it, and stopped holding that event.  It was very freeing actually.  And we had time and energy to put into other things.

Think about what else you could be doing with your time and energy that might generate more money, awareness, relationships, and goodwill for your organization.  You may be missing a big opportunity simply because you’re stuck in a rut with a particular event.

Learning Lessons from your Special Event

It’s important to wrap up every special event you hold with a ‘Lessons Learned’ or post-mortem meeting.

After each special event, you should gather the committee members who worked on the event, staff and volunteers who participated, and other key people together to debrief them.  The only way you can make the event even better next year is to uncover what needs improvement.  Don’t trust your opinion to be the only important one – you need to hear from a variety of people about what worked and what didn’t.

Ask some of these questions and record your answers.  This will help you plan for improving the event next year

• Did the event accomplish its purpose?
• What went well?
• What needs to be improved if the event is held again?
• Did attendees seem to enjoy themselves?
• Should this event be held again?

Be sure to put your answers in writing.  I can’t stress this enough.  By the time next year comes, you probably won’t remember all the things you meant to do differently.  If your Lessons Learned are in writing, you can simply refer to the document and get things right.

Resource Roundup

Here are some great blog posts from around the ‘net.

If you don’t read anything else, read Kivi’s post about her holiday donation experiment.  There are lots of lessons to be learned here! http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2010/02/18/10-donations-3-thank-yous-7-failures-to-communicate/

Jeff Brooks has a great article in Fundraising Success magazine called “When Goofus and Gallant Raise Funds”.  http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/article/two-paths-fundraising-failure-one-success-415674/1

My friend Kimberley Mackenzie has a great post on supporting Board members to participate in fundraising.  http://kimberleymackenzie.blogspot.com/2010/02/stop-complaining-about-your-board-of.html

Nancy Schwartz has a great piece on using Facebook to get the buzz going for your nonprofit.  http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2010/02/how-to-generate-buzz-via-social-media-real-life-dos-and-donts.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gettingattention+%28Getting+Attention%29

Sandra Sims has a great post on internet strategies for nonprofits that provides links to many articles and resources. http://stepbystepfundraising.com/roundup-internet-strategies-for-nonprofits/

Got any resources you’d like to share?  We’d love to hear them.

Some events aren’t so special

I’m not a big fan of special events as fundraisers. They’re usually labor-intensive and generate very little income.  Yet so many nonprofit organizations think that’s the way to go.

I was talking with a Development Director recently and found out that she’s doing a lot of things right.  She understands the importance of building relationships with donors.  She has a major donor program. She’s got a planned giving program ready to roll out, but she doesn’t have time to work on either of them because she’s too busy with her special events.  I wanted to scream.

She needs to completely reverse her priorities!  Or convince her ED and Board to do so.  If she spent more time on major gifts and planned giving, her organization would be way better off!  She’d be raising more money and drawing donors closer to the organization.  Instead, she’s on the special event hamster wheel, wasting her time on transactional events – events where people pay for the ticket to the event and don’t give a flip about the mission of the organization.

There are instances where special events can be very worthwhile.  I’ll be posting over the next several days about these. 

If you have any questions you’d like answered, hit the comment link and post them or shoot me an email at sandy@getfullyfunded.com.

Lessons Learned from a special event

I was talking with a client yesterday about an annual event her organization held recently.  Sounds like it went really well, but she could only see the mistakes.

As she relayed the details to me, I could see that the mistakes were visible to her and maybe other staff, but the rest of the guests probably had no clue anything wasn’t perfect.  This is often the case – we see the warts and we’re so critical of ourselves.

Seems like no matter how well we plan, there are always little things that could have been done better.  My best advice is to do a complete “lessons learned” on each event you hold.  Make a list of everything that went really well and everything that needs to be fixed next time.  Be sure to solicit this same info from a few others too – volunteers, staff, others who attended or worked on the event.  Write these down!  Don’t hold them in your head.  I promise you by the time this event comes around next year, you won’t remember. 

My advice to my client – create a timeline for the event that just happened, knowing what you know now.  Do your “lessons learned” activity.  Both in writing.  Then next year, pull out these documents and use them to plan for the event.  It’ll make your life loads easier!

By the way, my client estimates that there were more people in attendance at her event this year, they raised a bit more money than last year, and people who had attended for several years said it as the best one ever.  I’m thinking it was a successful event!  What do you think?

What are your nonprofit organization’s assets?

Step one in the Simple Success Fundraising Plan is to identify your assets.  What are your organization’s assets?  They are things that you have going for you that you can leverage in your plan.  Here are some examples of nonprofit organizational assets: 

• Compelling mission (like feeding the hungry or housing the homeless)
• Large donor base
• Incredible organization name recognition (like Habitat for Humanity)
• Well-known staff or Board members
• Facility that lends itself well to a tour (like a clinic, shelter, or food pantry)
• Organizational vehicles that are driven around town regularly
• Website with LOTS of daily visitors
• Opportunity for earned income (like a thrift store or gift shop)
• Well-known local, regional, or national celebrity who supports your organization
• Something else?

What are your nonprofit organization’s assets?

Want more info on the Simple Success Fundraising Plan?  Click here: www.getfullyfunded.com/simple-success-retreat.

4 keys to successful fundraising

In my experience, there’s no magic bullet for fundraising success.  Meeting your goals and raising big money are usually the result of doing a lot of little things consistenty.  Here are 4 key things you can do to ensure your success this year. 

1. Diversify your revenue streams. Your funding should come from lots of different sources and no one source makes up more than about 30% of your overall revenue.  I’m talking about fundraising here, not program fees or earned income.  If more than half of your revenue comes from one grant or event and that grant or event goes away, what then?  Don’t let that happen!  Diversified and balanced revenue streams will help you take the loss of a grant or donor in stride without too much trouble.
2. Focus long-term. A successful fundraising program builds long-term sustainability.  Don’t create a plan just to get money for this year.  Raise money for this year but also for next year and coming years.
3. Pick the lowest hanging fruit on the tree.  In other words, choose strategies and activities that will bring you the most ‘bang for the buck.’  Be as efficient and effective as you can with the limited resources you have to use.
4. Focus on relationships.  Successful donor relationships are critical to the success of your fundraising program.  In fact, without donors, you have NO fundraising!  Everything you do must build or strengthen relationships with your donors.

Is there anything you would add?  I’d love to hear it!  Click on the comment link and share!

Get help creating a detailed fundraising plan

Join me next Friday, Feb 19, as I lead a virtual retreat to help you create a detailed fundraising plan for 2010.

A virtual retreat is just what it sounds like – a time to step back and plan, but you can do it from home or your office.  You just need a phone and internet access.  We’ll be on the phone for a while, then I’ll give you an assignment and you’ll hang up and work on it.  Then we’ll get back on the phone together and do the next part.  I think you’ll really enjoy this format!

I’ll be taking you through the creation of goals, objectives, and action plans for your fundraising program this year.  We’ll talk about everything from special events to major donors, and I’ll share nearly a dozen templates and tools that I’ve developed and used over the years to help me raise money more effectively.

To read more or to sign up, visit http://getfullyfunded.com/simple-success-retreat

3 baby steps to overcoming fear and asking for a gift

Asking for money can be a scary thing.  So many people are afraid to ask their friends for money and this seems to be a particular problem for folks who sit on nonprofit Boards and have the responsibility for fundraising for their organizations.

Just like conquering fear of heights or fear of most anything, your fear of fundraising can be overcome.  It takes a few simple steps, a positive attitude, a little support, and a good dose of courage.

Focus on the reason why you care about the organization.  Keep that in your mind as you go through this exercise and it will make things a bit easier.  When you’re ready, take these baby steps toward asking for a donation:  

1. Pick a friend that you can ask for a gift.  Make sure it’s someone you trust – this will help you feel safe.
2. Practice telling him/her about your organization. It’s okay if you stumble on your words.  You’re practicing on a friend after all.
3. Then ask for a $50 donation.  (This is a slightly larger amount than most people give and a good place for you to start.)

Pay attention to how the experience goes for you.  How does it feel while you are in the conversation?  Are you nervous?  Sweating?  How does it feel after you ask for the gift?  Are you relieved that it’s over?  Was it easier or harder than you thought?

Afterward, write a short description of your experience, positive or negative. (There’s great power in writing this experience down!)  

Hopefully, it was an exhilarating experience for you!  Once you get your fear under control, you may actually find it fun to talk with people about the organization you love.

Whether the experience was positive or negative, think for a moment if this is how you want fundraising to be for you.  Is there a different way you think it could or should be?  Would you like it to be easy and light, with the words rolling off your tongue? Would you rather it be full of energy, with your donor prospect catching your enthusiasm like a spreading wildfire?  Would you like to have donors thank you for giving them the opportunity to support your organization’s work? (It can happen!)

Remember, when you focus on the baby steps that need to be done, and just DO one, you stop being afraid or overwhelmed by the big stuff or the things that might happen if you fail.

Are you planning to get major gifts?

Nonprofit Fundraising Resource Roundup

Some interesting nonprofit fundraising resources from around the web.

John Haydon has a great post on “How to get our nonprofit’s supporters to retweet content” http://johnhaydon.com/2010/02/nonprofits-supporters-retweet-content/

Katya Andreson has a great post showing a website makeover.  Check it out at http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/site/extreme_website_makeover_from_ick_to_slick/

Nancy Schwartz has a great post on How to Communicate in the Shadow of a Disaster.  In other words, how do you keep telling your story when the world is focused on Haiti?  Read it at http://www.gettingattention.org/my_weblog/2010/02/how-to-communicate-in-the-shadow-of-disaster-nonprofit-marketing.html

Oneicity has a great list of things we should be thinking about in this new year. http://www.oneicity.com/blog/npo-leadership-think-this-not-that/

GrantsandFunding.net has a free grantseekers checklist that you can download.  Get it at  http://cdpublications.com/freeresources/freedown.php?ID=38

Got suggestions for additional resources?  I’d love to hear about them!  Hit the comment link and share.

7 Questions your Fundraising Plan MUST Answer

Yesterday, I led a webinar to teach people my “Simple Success” Fundraising Plan.  One of the things I shared was the 7 questions your fundraising plan MUST answer.  I thought you might enjoy them too, so here they are.

1. How much money do we need to raise?  You need a specific goal for your plan.  If you just want to “raise more money” you’re setting yourself up for failure.  After all, how much is more money?  $1 more? $100 more?

2. Where will the money come from?  You need a mix of revenue streams to ensure the health of your organization.  Will you raise money from individuals? Foundations? Events?  Don’t set a goal without knowing where you will raise the money.

3. Who will we ask?  Be specific.  Who will you ask for money?  This gets into creating lists of potential donors.

4. When will we ask?  Create a calendar of when you will ask.  Include grant deadlines, events, etc. to get a complete picture of your year.

5. How much will we ask for?  You need to think through the amount you will request from each donor.  You may have to do a litle research in some cases to find out how much is appropriate, particularly if you’re working with major givers.

6. How will we follow up on a gift?  You need to know how you will thank your donors, how you will steward gifts, and how you will build relationships.  Be proactive about this – not reactive!

7. How soon will we ask again?  Don’t be afraid to ask several times during the year for a gift.  If you only ask once during the year, I promise you that you are leaving money on the table!  If you are doing a good job building relationships with your donors, they WANT to support the work you are doing.  Make it easy for them by giving them multiple opportunities to give.

If you’re currently wrestling with a fundraising plan and you’d like help, I invite you to check out the virtual retreat I’m leading on Friday, Feb 19 to walk you through my “Simple Success” Fundraising Plan.  Get all the details at www.getfullyfunded.com/simple-success-retreat.

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