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Fire up your Board!

August 4, 2010 By Sandy Leave a Comment

I had the privilege of hearing my friend and colleague Gail Perry present at the Virginia Fund Raising Institute recently.  Gail is a wonderful speaker and has a way of making her audience feel at ease so they can soak up all the information she shares.  I thought I’d share some of my notes from her presentation called “Fire Up Your Board!”

1. Help Board members reconnect with their passion for your organization.  Give them opportunities to practice talking about the organization and their experiences.

2. Redefine fundraising into friendraising.  So many Board members don’t want anything to do with fundraising.  Help them see that you are simply connecting people with the work you are doing through their gifts.  You’re developing friends who will be there to stand beside you for years to come.

3. Put them to work in easy, no-ask jobs.  Give your Board tasks to do that count as fundraising, but don’t require them to ask anyone for money.  Examples include inviting friends for a tour of your facility, calling to thank donors, and talking to friends in the checkout line at the grocery store about your mission.

Gail said, “We all get the Boards we deserve.”  Translation:  we get out of our Board what we put into it.  Don’t expect people to show up to sit on your Board and already know how to be a great Board member.  It won’t happen.  You must support people and teach them how to be a great Board member.

Thanks for a great presentation, Gail!

Filed Under: Board of Directors Tagged With: , ,

Who is a nonprofit major gift prospect?

June 30, 2010 By Sandy 1 Comment

Thanks to my guest Hank Lewis for today’s post. I think you’ll like it.

Who Is A Major Gift Prospect ??
By Hank Lewis, MA CFRM

When the question of major gift fundraising first arises, many unsophisticated board members, volunteers and staff immediately begin talking about the “rich and famous” — with Bill Gates being the name at the top of almost everyone’s list.

The wrong assumption that many people make — and one that can become a major time waster — is that an organization’s prospect list should contain the names of every conceivable wealthy person.

Indeed, yes, the first steps of a major gifts effort should include the generation of a list of wealthy individuals. But the distinction is whether they are likely to become “prospects.”

Major Gift Prospects are people who:

  1. Have wealth, and may derive satisfaction from using that wealth to advance the causes in which they believe;
  2. Are accessible to you and/or (even better) to current major donors to your organization;
  3. Have a need that will be satisfied by making a significant gift to your organization;

Ideally, but not necessarily, Major Gift Prospects are also:

  1. Aware of the effectiveness of your programs and the business-like manner in which you operate;
  2. Passionate about wanting to see your mission achieved; and,
  3. Involved with your organization and/or its programs, and demonstrate a commitment to the success of your mission.

You can have a long list of wealthy people, but unless they meet the criteria, they’re not “Prospects.” They’re people you’d like to think of as likely donors, but you have no evidence to support that wishful thinking.

Bottom line is, for people to be Major Donor Prospects; you must have enough of a relationship with them to satisfy the above qualifiers, and to know them well enough to recognize/identify their needs.

Major gift fundraising is more about the needs of the donor, than about the needs of the organization.

Have a question about starting or expanding your fundraising program?
Email Hank at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com. With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll do my best to answer your question.

Filed Under: Major Donors Tagged With: , , ,

Donor relationships are like gardens…

June 22, 2010 By Sandy 4 Comments

This was the topic of one of my presentations at the AFP Northern Arizona Education Day last week.  Here are some key points from this session:

Donor relationships are like gardens.  They bear the most fruit when they are properly tended to.  Keep them weeded, watered, and fertilized, and you’ll be delighted with the results.

1. Good donor relationships are the key to successful fundraising. Relationships build loyalty.  Loyal donors give again and again, keeping you from always searching for new donors.

2. Two-way communication is critical to building relationships.  We can’t just speak AT our donors.  We must speak WITH them.  Always be on the lookout for ways to give your donors to communicate with you.

3. Good donor relationships are built on purpose.  We’re so used to relationships growing naturally that it feels a bit uncomfortable to do it on purpose.  But it’s really no different.  Be truly interested in your donor as a person and you can avoid feeling manipulative.

Thanks to the AFP Northern Arizona Chapter for inviting me to spend the day with them!  It was great fun!  See the pictures at the chapter’s Facebook page.

Filed Under: Donor Relations, General Fundraising Tagged With: ,

Unlock Your Grant Writing Talent

June 4, 2010 By Sandy 1 Comment

Today’s blog post is provided by my dear friend and grant writer extraordinaire, Charlaine Hood.

The biggest tip about writing a grant is to get over your fear: of failure, of not getting it right, of not including enough…what ever your mind is telling you to hold you back from ever trying to write that B-I-G grant.   However, the focus of this article isn’t about fear holding you back.  It’s about what could possibly be created if you unlocked your potential in spite of the fear.

Sandy has said many times:  ‘Reach into your heart and unlock your passion around fundraising.’  This is great advice for writing grants.  Close your eyes, (Yes, right now.) and think about what it is that you LOVE about your organization.  What just grounds you down to your toes in the work you do each day?  Now hold that image, breathe it in, experience it and let your potential flow.

From here, what would you write?  How would you speak about your clients, staff, organization, national focus and mission?  From this space of OMG I LOVE WHAT WE DO, take a sheet of paper and write:

Funding my project is important because:

We will accomplish ___ with the funds so generously given.

_#_ lives will be changed in ______ ways.

Evidence to support this is ____ (any empirical + all the years of success from past projects as well as lessons learned).

KEEP THIS TEMPLATE! Revise it, reuse it, replace components as your organization grows.  Stay away from the ‘I don’t know how’ mentality and go for writing at least one grant in this manner.

The grant request usually makes this even easier by specifying either a page or ½ a page for just this content.  And if it doesn’t, always remember that there is a committee who will be reviewing the grant requests.  Be sharp, focused and direct in what you are requesting and what your organization will be giving for those funds.

Using just this method over the last few years, I have written and received over 1.3 million dollars in grants.  Let your love of your organization inform what you do.

Charlaine Hood, LMSW is the owner of Vibrantly Alive Consulting & Nonprofit Mentoring.  She works with small to medium sized nonprofits to create strategic solutions for nonprofit issues.  She gained practical experience the last four years as a management executive at a large, faith based nonprofit managing a multi-million dollar budget with diverse programs around the East Tennessee region.  Visit her website:  www.charlainehood.com for more information of what she has to offer your organization.

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Filed Under: Grant Writing Tagged With: , , ,
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