Rush Hour: Is Time a Fundraiser's Greatest Luxury?

You've just start a new job as a development director for a nonprofit organization. How much money can you raise by Friday?

Now you've been on the job for two months. Have you raised enough money to cover your salary?

Oh, and the board members are asking--we gave you that list of cold calls to make. Why haven't we seen a major gift yet?

In a tough economy, there is a lot of pressure to "show me the money." Yet in the traditional fundraising model, we talk about the development cycle:

Board Training Essentials: Resource Materials

On June 2, 2010, GoalBusters presented a webinar on Board Training Essentials for Stevenson Inc. Here are some of the resource materials we discussed during the session.

In addition to basic business policies, like human resources and financial operations, here are organizational policies related to nonprofit operations that you should have:

• Gift Acceptance
• Conflict of Interest
• Investment
• Donor Confidentiality
• Naming/Recognition

Templates for each of these are available by emailing info@goalbusters.net.

Links to additional information:

• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Gallup Q12 Model to evaluation employee satisfaction
• VALS Survey from Strategic Business Insights
• Simple Board Member Expectations summary from the Association of Fundraising Professionals
• Sample Board Member Commitment Letter-Word Document from North Dakota State University Extension or HTML from Onestreet.org
• Board Evaluation Matrix sample from Lori Jacobwith

And here's the PowerPoint:

Board Training Essentials

View more presentations from GoalBusters LLC.

Thanks for participating!

A Really Bad Idea

.
A well intentioned board member once suggested to jump start the major gifts program by getting a list of the wealthiest people in the community. With the list, someone (meaning staff) would be instructed to cold call the wealthy people, set up a meeting under the guise of "informing" them about the organization, and then spring a proposal on them at the end for a large gift.

If you have any fundraising experience, you'll recognize that this is an incredibly bad idea on many levels.

First, fundraising is not "cold calling." They call it "development" for a reason--it's about creating relationships for long term, sustainable support. You will immediately alienate your prospective supporters with your lack of knowledge about their interests.

Second, philanthropic relationships are based on mutual trust. The donor has to trust that your organization will respect their interests and properly steward their gift, and the organization has to trust that the donor supports the organization's mission. That cannot be developed in one meeting.

Third, doing what was proposed is akin to asking someone out for lunch for a first date, and proposing over dessert. Developing major gifts is not a one-night stand. While you might be able to get one gift this way, it's "go away money." You will have a tough time getting a second gift.

Identifying wealthy people is not bad, but you need to find a connection to those people. Why would they take your call? Who's the person who can make that connection?

If all this sounds a little too "touchy feely," here's how we explained it:

If you were asked to invest $5K, $10K or $15K in a company you had never heard of, would you? Sounds almost like a "get rich quick" scheme.

If someone came into your home under the guise of not asking you for anything, and then did, would you make a decision on the spot?

If you were being approached to invest in a company, would you want to know something about the company you are investing in? What would you want to know? How much time would you want to review that information?

Philanthropy is NOT about "hitting people up for money." It is about a voluntary exchange of value, and about donors investing in a company they value. Luckily, the board member took this to heart.

Connect with GoalBusters: LinkedIn - Alice Ferris / LinkedIn - Jim Anderson / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Myspace

A Remembrance for A Dedicated Volunteer

Amy set down her phone and raised her hand.

“May I have a moment? Teri’s gone.”

What followed was a deafening silence that probably didn’t last long, but felt like an eternity.

Jim was standing in front of the room, facilitating a portion of an all day board retreat for Flagstaff Community Partnership, a group of parents who provide peer to peer support for families with special needs children. He looked to me, and we both grasped for what to say to our grieving participants.

Teresa “Teri” Sanders was a strong advocate for the rights of special needs children. The board members described a passionate woman who was a force to be reckoned with. One person said, “You did not want to see her stand up in a meeting. One time she stood up and pointed her finger at someone, and I thought, ‘Good thing she’s on my side!’” Another board member elaborated, “Teri knew the law inside and out. She always knew what to say or do. What will we do without her?”

The people in the room continued their remembrances. Soon, it started to feel familiar. In my mind, I was transported back to the Quaker memorial service we attended for long-time Flagstaff philanthropist, Frances McAllister. I shared with our group what someone had shared then:

“If you continue to tell someone’s stories, they’re never truly gone.”

Interestingly, we had just worked on an exercise that the group had a difficult time completing. The group was trying to figure out the key stories for Flagstaff Community Partnership—what is your elevator speech? Whose stories do you tell to the outside world? What makes Flagstaff Community Partnership unique?

After hearing about Teri, we had our answer. As a parent of two special needs children, Teri had taken it upon herself to smooth the path for families, educating herself about resources, regulations and assistive services so that she could share the best of the best with others. She understood the difficulties parents of children with special needs were going through. She did all this as a volunteer, with no vested interest other than to make sure families didn’t have to unnecessarily struggle and had information that she didn’t have before. She embodied what Flagstaff Community Partnership is all about.

I like to think that Flagstaff Community Partnership will be telling Teri’s stories for many years to come. Jamie, the board president, said, “Teri’s definitely watching over us now.”

Although we never met Teri, we thank her for her dedication and service, and for being an inspiration for special needs advocates in Flagstaff for years to come.

Flagstaff Community Partnership:
http://www.flagstaffcommunitypartnership.org/

Teri Sanders’ obituary:
http://azdailysun.com/articles/2009/01/20/news/obituaries/20090120_obitu_189310.txt

*****
Connect with GoalBusters: LinkedIn - Alice Ferris / LinkedIn - Jim Anderson / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Myspace