I’ve been watching with sadness the controversy surrounding Greg Mortenson and the nonprofit he heads up.  I think it’s made my heart so heavy because I just read “Three Cups of Tea” which tells the story of how he got started.  I was very moved by the story and even wondering how I could help.  Then I started seeing news stories online about how money isn’t being used wisely, etc.  I hate it when any nonprofit has to face these kinds of situations.

Whether you believe in the allegations being made about Greg or not, it doesn’t really matter – the damage is done.  Lots of people will hear the accusations and believe them instead of digging in to find out what the real story is (by the way, the accusations never tell the whole truth).

There’s a HUGE lesson here for everyone.  Do EVERYTHING you can to protect your nonprofit’s reputation.  I’ve always said that your reputation is about all you have.  Once it’s damaged, it takes a lot of time and energy to repair.  Once it’s damaged, it makes a big impact on whether the community wants to continue to support you or not.  Once it’s damaged, fundraising gets a lot harder.

How do you protect your reputation?  Be trustworthy and honest and ethical. Be a good steward of the gifts donors have given.  Be willing to share your financial reports with anyone who wants to see them.  ALWAYS build trust with donors and the community.

Nonprofit leaders who don’t pay attention to this or gets complacent thinking “that will never happen to us” are asleep at the wheel and put their nonprofit’s reputation on the line.

It’s time to wake up! One person grumbling about how your nonprofit handles money can be the start of an avalanche you don’t want to be in. 

I was at a fundraising committee meeting recently and we were talking about growing the organization’s donor base. This is a common goal for nonprofit organizations, right?  Well, I’m always delighted when folks who don’t have formal fundraising training get it, as happened that day.

As we were talking about strategies for growing the donor base, we talked about how minimizing the loss of donors would help increase our overall number of active donors.  That’s when one sweet man said “we need to put our picture on their piano.”  We giggled immediately knowing what he meant.

I remember when I was little, my Grandma had lots of photos of family and friends on her beautiful upright piano.  That was her way of keeping them close and remembering them often.  The suggestion of putting our picture on the donor’s piano was a perfect way to describe the importance we need to put on relationships with our donors.  Our donors are so much more to us than just the check they write.  Their gift is a vote of confidence in the work our organization is doing.  It’s their way of saying they support what we’re doing and they want to see us succeed.  They, too, want to see the change we’re after in the world.

And that kind of support deserves our attention and respect.  Maybe we should put their picture on our piano, too.

How to Work With Bosses and Volunteers to Raise More Money

Last Wednesday, I had the privilege of speaking at the Western North Carolina chapter of AFP in Asheville.  I had a great time seeing old friends and making new ones.

Can you imagine me anywhere not having fun?

I spoke to them about working with bosses and volunteers in fundraising, especially when you don’t like your boss or volunteer.  I know this is (unfortunately) a common issue for lots of people and I’ve experienced it myself.

I remember working as a Development Director and not liking my boss much.  It wasn’t easy, but we were able to be successful in fundraising as a team.

Here are some of the things I shared with the group.

There are three keys to being able to work with a boss or volunteer in fundraising. 

The first is communication. We must learn to be clear in asking for what we want and in sharing information.  And we must learn to set clear expectations when we set out to work with someone else.  This above all I think is critical in relationships!  I see lots of problems on Boards because people were not given a good idea of what to expect when they agreed to serve on the Board.  Being clear in the beginning can prevent a lot of problems later.

The second key is trust. No matter how much we like or dislike someone on our team, we must work to build trust with them.  Otherwise, we aren’t going to get very far.  Some ways you can build trust are to act consistently and keep your word.  Do what you say you will do.  And treat people with respect.  Remember, if you don’t respect someone, it’s your problem, not theirs.  It’s yours to fix.  Again, I know this isn’t easy, but it’s what will help you be successful in raising money.

Finally, I talked about ‘leading from the chair.’ There are an awful lot of Executive Directors and Board chairs out there who have little in the way of leadership skills.  If this is your situation, then you can try providing leadership without actually being in charge.  It’s not easy to do, but with some grace, it can be done.  When I was in this position, I found that it was a matter of gently (and I mean gently!) sharing information that my boss needed to know, and making suggestions as to the action that was needed.  Over time, my boss turned to me repeatedly for advice and insight into lots of situations.

Sometimes the relationship with your boss or your volunteer is so damaged and broken that no amount of trust and respect will repair it.  That’s when it’s time to dust off your resume and go find another job.

The good news about working with bosses and volunteers in fundraising is that you can get a lot more accomplished when working as a team.  They may have connections in the community that you need or knowledge of your organization that you don’t have.  Either way, presenting a united front to your donor prospects will get you much farther down the road of raising money for your good cause.

Seems like lots of nonprofits are talking about social media these days, but not many are doing it well.  If you are thinking about uing Facebook or Twitter or email campaigns or any other tools, here are some tips for success.

• Know your purpose.  Be very clear about what you want to achieve by using social media.  Too many nonprofits jump into it without clear goals then get frustrated when they don’t raise boatloads of money.  It’s not a “build it and they will come” situation.
• Be warm and friendly in your communications.  Social media is about building relationships and the key to good ones is communication.
• Communicate from one person on staff, not from the organization itself.  We know that there’s a real person actually writing the blog posts or the tweets, so let us see who they are.
• Share interesting stuff.  Leave the boring junk out. 
• Share photos and video.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

I’m a big believer in finding a good example to go by and I have a good one to share with you. One nonprofit organization that I think is doing a great job of communicating with social media is the Asheville Humane Society.  Now, it’s a given that kittens and puppies are cute and guaranteed to be interesting.  But the folks there do a great job of sharing photos of adoptable animals, animals being adopted, and updates on animals that have passed through their care.  They always have something interesting going on and I just love the photos they share.  Check them out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Asheville-Humane-Society/48648647067.

I’d love to hear if you have other examples of nonprofits doing socal media or other online communications well.  Leave a comment and share your favorites.

I interviewed Kivi Leroux Miller today about her new book “The Nonprofit Marketing Guide.”  There were several nuggets of wisdom that popped out of our conversation, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Tell stories.  Learn how to tell a story about a person your organization has helped.  A good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The story should be about the person, not about your organization.

Lose the jargon.  Keep all your communications simple and easy to understand.  Your donors don’t know your industry slang and acronyms.

There’s no such thing as the general public when it comes to marketing.  The general public includes everyone.  But you don’t need to reach everyone.  You only need to reach those people who are likely to support you. You must identify the specific groups of supporters who are out there, and craft your message to them.

Be clear about your message.  Don’t try to cram too much into it.  And include a call to action.

When deciding how best to reach your audience, first consider their preferences.  If most of them are hanging out online, then you might be able to completely ditch your print newsletter.  If not, then don’t try to force them online, because it won’t work.

I encourage you to get a copy of “The Nonprofit Marketing Guide.”  It’s easy to read (my copy is already marked up, tagged, and dog-eared!) and is full of practical ideas you can implement right away.  Get yours at Amazon.

My friend Nancy Schwartz is hosting her annual Tagline Awards.  Here’s the scoop:

Your nonprofit or foundation could be one of this year’s Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award (a.k.a. The Taggies) winners!  And this year, for the first time, you can submit your organization’s program, fundraising campaign and special event taglines, in addition to your organizational tagline. So enter here now.

A strong tagline does double-duty—working to extend your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It’s one of your most basic, and effective, marketing tools, but a recent GettingAttention.org survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don’t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly.  This program is designed to help close that gap.

All entrants will receive a free copy of the fully-updated 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report in late 2010. It’s the only complete guide to building your organizational, program, fundraising or special event brand in 8 words or less—filled with how-tos, don’t-dos and models.

Please take 3 minutes now to enter your nonprofit’s taglines today while it’s on your mind. The deadline for entering is July 28.

I heard a wonderful presentation recently about storytelling.  It’s entirely possible to tell a very compelling story without using pictures.  Instead, you paint a picture with the words you use.

To see what I mean, check out The Girl Effect.  www.girleffect.org.

Then think about what you see in your mind’s eye as you watched the video.

Cool, huh?

What stories can you tell about the work your nonprofit does that will paint such a vivid picture in your reader’s mind’s eye?

If you want to be a successful Fundraiser, you must pay attention to details.  No way around it.

Spelling a donor’s name incorrectly can instantly tear down any trust that donor had for your organization.  There’s often a perception that if you can’t handle the small things, you can’t handle the big things.

Here are a couple of details you may not have thought about, but need to be handled.

I received an invitation to an open house recently.  I was unfamiliar with the location, so I plugged the address into my GPS to get directions.  No such location.  The name of the street was misspelled on the invitation.  Luckily, I was able to guess at what the correct spelling was and get the directions.  Lots of people use GPS these days.  It’s a good idea to make sure you give a correct address on any materials.

I happened to be away from a computer when I received this invitation.  I had accessed my email with my phone and saw the invite, but couldn’t open it because it was included as an attachment.  My phone doesn’t open attachments.  If I had needed this information immediately, I would have been up the creek.  Lesson learned – include the information in the text of the email for people on the go.

I’m sure there are dozens of other places where we need to pay close attention to the details.  Please share your lessons learned with the rest of us.  Click on the comment link and tell us what you’ve learned.

I’ve received a couple of email solicitations this week from nonprofits who are trying to urge me to make a last-minute gift.  And they’re very good.  Here’s what I like about them:

• They’re short and to the point. 
• They don’t drone on about how much the organization needs my help.
• They tell a story about someone they serve.
• They include a photo.
• There’s a link to the website where I can make my gift.

Kudos to Knox Area Rescue Ministries for the best one I’ve seen this season! (Good job Angie!)

Hmmm. Seems my great blog post yesterday on communicating clearly wasn’t clear. The video didn’t make it through for most of you. So, I’m re-posting it today, because it’s that good! See if you agree

Communication is key in relationships, and expecially in relationships with your donors.

You may think you’re doing a good job of keeping them informed, but are you really?

Watch this quick video and see if you can tell how unclear communication can literally sink a ship.