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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

Are you planning to thank your volunteers?

There are so many little things that get overlooked when we as Fundraisers get busy.  One of them is thanking volunteers.

I was coaching a busy Executive Director lately and she mentioned that she has a lot of people who are volunteering with her organiazation and doing sweet things.  I asked her if she had thanked them recently. “Thanked them? Uh, no.” 

So here’s the idea I gave her.  Go pick up a box of valentine’s and write a personal note on them, then mail them to your volunteers.  It’s simple, it’s affordable, it’s quick, and it works!  Most of the time, people just want to know you appreciate them. (This also works for some donors and other supporters.)

Brainstorm a couple of ideas throughout the year when you can do these little things to thank your volunteers.  Then get them on the calendar so you won’t forget.

Would you like more great little ideas like this?  Join me Thursday afternoon at 3 pm eastern for a free call.  Sign up and get all the details here: http://getfullyfunded.info/where-is-sandy/free-teleseminars.

A note about setting fundraising goals

Setting goals is a key part of creating a plan.  How you create your goals is equally important.

True story:  I’ve asked nonprofits to share their goals with me and they say “raise more money” or “raise a lot of money”.  Those are not good goals.  They’re too vague.  They set no direction.  Does “raise more money” mean you want to raise $1 more?  Or $100 more?

Be as specific as you can when setting goals and you’ll be much more likely to achieve them.  Setting a goal of “raising $10,000 by July 1″ is a better goal – provided that you have the capability to raise that amount of money in that timeframe. 

Once you set a goal, be sure that you know HOW you will achieve it.  Pulling numbers out of the air and then hoping you’ll reach them is no good.  Be sure you have specific work plans to back it up.  In the case of the $10,000, if you know you can add one more direct mail appeal to your schedule and raise that money, then that’s a good goal and one you’ll be likely to achieve.

Perk up your online giving

Are you getting as many online donations as you’d like?  My guess is probably not.  Most nonprofits would like to see much more coming from their virtual donors.

There’s a great article in the November issue of Fundraising Success that covers the basics of online giving.  One thing they mention is to have a call to action.

“In addition to providing intriguing content to your audience, the main purpose of your Web site is to get your users to take action.  The best way to achieve this is to ensure that you actually ask them to do so by the use of context-sensitive calls to action.  The most notable exmple of this is the “donate now” button.”

The article goes on to say that you should make your ‘donate now’ button availebl throughout your website.  You can read the rest of the article here.

My pal Gail Perry also has something to say about online giving.  She offers a list of 10 things donors want to see on your website, including

1. Can they find what they want easily?

2. Is it safe to give on your website?

Read the rest of the article here.

If you’ve been successful raising money online, hit the comment link and let us know what’s working for you (or not working).  We’d love to hear it!

What you believe becomes your reality

I heard someone say recently that they want to participate in a training, but they can’t afford it.  Sigh.  Get ready, I’m getting on my soap box!

I understand that some of you live and breathe by your budget.  Most of the time that’s a great thing.  But it can be very limiting.  And it can hold you back.  (A budget is a guideline by the way, and not chiseled in stone.)

Take this to heart:  Whatever you believe becomes your reality.

If you believe you can’t afford something, it becomes real.  Your limited negative thinking will actually repel money.  You’ll become so focused on staying inside that budget that you will miss golden opportunities. You’ll start to believe that not only can’t you afford something, but you shouldn’t have it or don’t deserve it.  Your world will actually start to shrink from your limited thinking.

If you leave your options open, things can change and money can show up from an unexpected source.  It’s the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction.  It amazes me still, but I see it work in my life regularly.

About two weeks ago, I was in agony.  There was a 3-day business developing workshop that I really, really wanted to go to, but I kept putting registration off because of the money.  It was more money than I had ever spent on training for myself and I believed I couldn’t afford it.  Yet something kept telling me I really needed to be at this event!  After several days of going back and forth, I decided to go. So, I took a step of faith and went.  Had to borrow the money from my daughter (how funny is that??).  I went to the event.  Had a GREAT time.  Met lots of wonderful people.  And I got such big things out of this event, that I will easily earn 10 times what I spent on the event in the next 6 to 8 months! (translation:  I have BIG IMPACT services and products planned for you! stay tuned!)

Now I realize that business and nonprofit are different.  But are they really?  If you think small about the money you can raise, what results can you expect?  If you limit your thinking, what will you attract?  Do donors want to be involved with organizations that think small?

There’s also a cost involved when you limit your thinking.  It’s the opportunity that’s lost when you don’t take advantage of things.  In the situation of training, it’s the cost of continuing to do things the same way you always have because you aren’t learning a new way.  In my example above, the cost to me was clear:  if I had chosen not to go, I would have missed the chance to learn some new thinking and missed the chance to offer bigger and better products and services next year, plus the chance to earn more money.  That cost was simply too great.

When you pass on a training because you “can’t afford it”, you are hurting your organization, because you’re missing the chance to learn new ways of serving clients or raising money.  Sometimes all it takes is one good nugget from a workshop to make a big impact on the way you do things.  And you might have a Board member or a donor who would love to pay for you to attend.  When you immediately decide you can’t afford it, you aren’t giving that Board member or donor the chance to support you.

So, please, please, please be careful with your thoughts!!  Don’t limit yourself and your opportunities.  Leave your options open and see what life brings you.

How your ears help raise money

There’s an ad in the new issue of Fundraising Success magazine that caught my eye.  It says “Listening is the new fundraising.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve known listening was important for years.

When it comes to building relationships, which is what fundraising is all about, listening is key.  

One of the most important skills you can develop as a Fundraiser is your ability to listen well.  Whether you’re talking with donors, volunteers, or co-workers, being able to hear what someone else is saying is a skill that takes a moment to learn and a long time to master.

There’s an old saying that goes “You have 2 ears and 1 mouth – use them accordingly.” It’s a nugget of wisdom that means you should listen twice as much as you talk.

Here are 8 keys to being a good listener.

1. Be patient and calm. Don’t be tapping your foot or drumming your fingers.

2. Be present in the moment. Don’t be thinking about yesterday or tomorrow.   And don’t be thinking about what you’re going to say next.

3. Focus on the person you are listening to. No multitasking.

4. Don’t let your mind wander. No mental distractions.

5. Ask questions. This is a good way to open up the conversation for the other person and give them the chance to express themselves.

6. Summarize what you’ve heard.  This is a great way to clarify. Sometimes people don’t say what they actually mean and by summarizing, you help them better verbalize their feelings and ideas.

7. Watch body language and what isn’t being said.  Listen for underlying feelings and ideas.

8. Don’t interrupt.  In fact, pause for a moment before you speak.  This will help the other person feel that you aren’t in a rush and are likely paying close attention to what they are saying.

If you are tired or stressed, it’s going to be harder to listen well and you may have to work a bit harder.   

The best way to master the skill of listening is to practice.  Spend time daily practicing these 8 keys to being a good listener and you’ll find fundraising to be an easier task.

What your donor REALLY wants

Monday Morning Motivation

Saw this on Twitter this morning and just loved it:

“Don’t be afraid to try, remember…Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic.”

Thanks to @PhilReinhardt for that.

Too often, we get all worked up trying to be perfect or do something perfectly.  (I’m really guilty of this!!)  All we need to do is our best and it will be good enough.  We don’t have to be perfect to change someone’s life.

Have a great week!

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