Author, coach, copy-writer, nonprofit marketing consultant and political junkie, Pamela is the author of “Five Days to Foundation Grants”  and  the creator of Simple Development Systems, the only online coaching program created for the overwhelmed fundraiser in the one-person marketing and development shop.

Pam segued from six years working in programming and communications at a regional grantmaking foundation to the world of fundraising in 2001.  In her first position as a 15-hour a week development director for an agency with a $3 million dollar budget, she increased individual giving by 25% – while reducing costs by 31% – and increased foundation funding by an astonishing 93%! She’s raised over $10 million in funding since then and has been positioning small nonprofit organizations on the path to sustainable funding ever since  with her “Simple Development Systems” of donor-centric fundraising methods.

With an eclectic 20 year background in politics, sales, marketing and philanthropy, Pamela’s greatest satisfaction lies in teaching the small community-based nonprofits how to, in her words,  “market like the big boys” with limited time and resources.

How Simple Development Systems Will Create Sustainable Funding

In the past six months my daughter has lost 45 pounds. She watches her diet, runs several times a week (she’s surpassed me – a runner or over 30 years – in that department!) and looks and feels amazing.

The other day I suggested to her that her experience would be prime fodder for a book, even an e-book, to help others struggling with their weight. After all, she has been struggling with her weight for over ten years and seems to have hit upon the perfect solution!

“Are you kidding mom?” she responded. “I lost this weight through diet and exercise! It was hard work! No one wants to hear that! Everyone wants a quick fix or a pill …”

You know what?

She’s right.

Lately it’s occurred to me that many of us in the field of nonprofit fundraising have the same mindset.

Whenever I’ve met with potential clients, I always hear the same questions or concerns:
“What about a signature event?”
“How do you get major donors?”
“How do we use social media to raise money?”
“We tried grants a few years ago and it didn’t work …”

As Charlie Brown used to say: “Argh!”

What I have found, in my 14 years working in the nonprofit arena, is that organizations who commit to their development in the same way that they commit to their mission, and who establish sound fundraising systems will always have the tools at their disposal for sustainable funding.

Great development is all about systems and relationship-building. There is no magic pill. There isn’t one single technique or tactic or trick that will set your organization on the path to sustainability.

Nonprofit organizations need tried and true systems – systems for:

• Grants management
• Individual giving
• Donor stewardship & communications
• Website creation & management

And the backbone of all these systems is a strong case statement presented with engaging story telling.

An organization doesn’t “try” grants one year and decide it doesn’t work! You’ve got to engage the foundations, reapply, research on a consistent basis and steward the grants that you have received well.

After all, you wouldn’t go the gym once, decide exercise didn’t “work” and never return would you?

Repeat my mantra: systems and relationships, systems and relationships, systems and relationships …

There’s a formula in the business world that somehow proves it is less expensive to sell to established or previous customers than it is to find and develop new customers.

I’m not much of a businessman, but that seems to make sense, right? After all, you already have your previous customers’ (or clients’) names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and even information about what they bought from you, which indicates preferences and tastes.

You just don’t have that kind of information on people you haven’t dealt with yet. So, you have to work hard and spend lots of money to get new people to become part of your non-profit community.

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t always be looking to grow your community, but what I am driving at is there are many reasons to put a significant effort into getting more out of the people already part of the group, alumni, if you will.
Here are three ways alumni can help your organization in very important ways. The final four examples will come in the second part of this article to be published soon.

1. Fundraising. It is much easier to make a compelling fundraising case to people who already have been touched in a positive way by your non-profit. In fact, it is possible that alumni would be extra-open to receive fundraising solicitation letters by mail, since you really don’t have to convince them to give. Letter drives are much cheaper to run for the non-profit, so the overhead costs normally associated with product sales or lage events are eliminated. You just have paper, printer ink, envelopes, address labels, and postage. Not bad.

2. Public Relations. If you keep in good touch with your alumni donors and/or clients, it’s not too much of a stretch to ask them to help you spread the good word about your organization in your city or town. This doesn’t have to be very formal, but they could use a coffee mug with your organization’s logo on it at work, they could just post on their Facebook page an event of yours that they are planning on attending, they could upload photos of their volunteer experience with your group to Flickr, they could tell their friend who works at the local newspaper what great work you’re doing on behalf of…. The ist goes on. Just ask your alumni to keep thinking of you and how more people could be turned on to the group. The rest will come on its own.

3. Board Members. Non-profits are always on the look-out for new board members. The alumni ranks is a great place to start the search. And this doesn’t have to be a rushed process. Usually, alumni that are invested in the organization aren’t going anywhere. This gives the director of the group, as well as the existing board members, time to get to know the person in question and vet their background to make sure he or she is a good fit. Love of the organization is so important when picking new board members. An actively involved alumnus or alumna comes with that built in.

4. In-Kind Donations. The fourth way that alumni can be used more effectively by non-profits is to solicit goods and services at greatly reduced prices, possibly even donated completely. If you have a gentleman who was once part of your organization, and he went on to become an architect and you need blueprints for a new building, he might be able to work with you on a great price. If there was a lady who used to be a client or customer of your organization, and she is now an attorney, you might get some pro bono work out of her. The same is true for craftsmen, like electricians, plumbers, and landscapers.

I strongly suggest that you start finding out what your alumni members do for a living, and then start becoming friends with them, if you aren’t already. In a time when new income is hard to generate, reduced expenses are a great method for helping your bottom line.

5. Recruitment. The fifth way alumni members can be helpful to an organization is to help recruit new customers for you. Why spend lots of money on marketing, when we all know that word of mouth advertising works best. A strong recommendation from a friend is much more effective than a print ad or radio spot. Therefore, you should look at your alumni as walking billboards. Perhaps you can create some talking points for your alumni, so they are current on what your group offers, but really count on their passion and enthusiasm for your cause to convince others to try you out.

6. Volunteer. A sixth way that alumni can lend a hand to your organization is to volunteer. This may seem like a no-brainer, but with everybody having a busy schedule, volunteerism is often forgotten. If you can create a volunteer experience that is well-planned, rewarding, and appreciated, you’ll have your alumni clamoring to sign up.
I have often found it is also a little easier asking alumni to volunteer for things because at one point in their lives, they benefited from volunteer help. So, I’m simply asking them to pay it back a little.

7. Historical Development. The seventh suggestion I have for non-profits to use their alumni more effectively is to find a few interested people to undertake historical projects. This might include sorting through and labeling old photos, slides, and movies. Or, it could be writing histories of specific events or periods in your group’s past. It could also mean trying to collect pictures of mementos from previous eras. I think you could also get some volunteers to create attractive historical displays that could be hung in your group’s facility.

People love remembering and honoring the past, especially if they were part of it. You should capitalize on this human inclination and get as many alumni involved in preserving your organization’s history as you can. A non-profit that knows and can share its past has a much better chance to have a long and prosperous future.

Photo by: J.harwood

Here’s a great post from Marc Pitman, aka The Fundraising Coach.  Today, Marc offers timely advice about raising money in a challenging economic time.

Marc is a great friend of Step by Step Fundraising.  I hope you take the opportunity to get to know him as we have.

Recession-proof Fundraising

I’d like to welcome back Kirsten Bullock to Step By Step Fundraising.  Kirsten is a CFRE consultant, trainer and coach who works with leaders of non-profit organizations and ministries to bring professionalism, excellence and effectiveness to their board and fundraising efforts.

She earned her designation as a Certified Fund Raising Executive in 2002. Kirsten is currently serving as president elect of the Association for Fundraising Professionals Greater Louisville Chapter. She is an AFP Master Trainer, compiles ‘Kirsten’s Fundraising Headlines’ Blog, authors the ‘Growing Your Donors’ blog and is a contributor for SOFII (The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration).

Kirsten holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a Master’s of Business Administration. When not working to equip and empower people in the nonprofit sector, Kirsten sculpts, is attempting to learn to speak Danish and enjoys living in the Highlands in Louisville, Kentucky.

Gayle Thorsen (pictured at left) is back with another great article to share with us here at Step By Step Fundraising!  Over the past year, Gayle has been kind enough to share with us her recent articles from her blog ImpactMax.  Today she has one for us about time saving advice for those of us working in the non-profit field.

Gayle has been in the nonprofit communications world for more than 25 years, the last 12 as the communications head for two large foundations:The Minneapolis Foundation and The McKnight Foundation.

Take a few minutes to visit ImpactMax and read all the terrific articles Gayle has posted there. It will be time very well spent!  Thanks, Gayle!

Nonprofits: Create “customer pathways” to build loyalty

Recently, I was sent a free copy of You’ve Got to Have Heart, a book about how to achieve success in the nonprofit sector by Cass Wheeler, longtime CEO of The American Heart Association (AHA).  I went right to the “Big Brass Bands” chapter on marketing.

Greetings!  Today, I have another terrific guest article to share with you.  This time, author of 50 Asks in 50 Weeks and certified fundraising consultant Amy Eisenstein, (pictured at left) has been kind enough to share one of her recent blog posts with us.

If you’ve never visited Amy’s site, TriPointFundraising, I highly suggest that you take a few minutes, when you’re done reading this piece, to click on over.  She has a wealth of useful information for people actively engaged in raising money for non-profits.

I want to thank Amy for her generosity in sharing this very valuable information about fundraising with us.  I hope you enjoy this post and get to know Amy better! ~ Jim Berigan

4 Simple Steps to Asking Individuals for Donations

Finding a Few Good Prospects

After a long summer off, I am very happy to welcome back Gayle Gifford to Step By Step Fundraising- (pictured at left).

Gayle brings over 30 years of experience to her work with nonprofits – from her personal activism for peace, disarmament, environmental, human and civil rights, to her professional work as a consultant and former director of development and senior nonprofit manager.

She is one of fewer than 100 individuals in the US who hold the advanced fundraising credential, ACFRE, issued by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Gayle learned her craft as Director of Development and Communications at PLAN USA, as Deputy Director/Director of Development and Marketing at Save The Bay, and as Director of Development at CityYear RI.

I urge you to read more from Gayle’s fantastic collection of articles and learn about her consulting services by visiting her site, Cause & Effect. I also would recommend that you check out the book Gayle wrote called “How am I Doing, the 1 hour guide to evaluating the performance of your nonprofit board” available through Contributions Magazine. – Jim Berigan

If donors knew what others gave, would they give more?

In the Summer 2011 issue of The Nonprofit Quarterly, you’ll find an intriguing article, “Fundraising Education: A Fork in the Road?”.

The authors, both professors at Indiana University, home of The Center on Philanthropy, lament the depressingly statistic that giving in the US has been static for decades at just 2% of GDP. They suggest that more robust interaction between academic research and practice — and more academically educated fundraisers – is a potential solution to lifting us out of this giving doldrums.

We can talk more about this at another time.

But what particularly caught my eye was an assertion, that if true, every fundraiser should be aware of now.

The authors stated:

“… by simply changing the words in their solicitation to provide donors with social information, [fundraisers] could increase the value of giving by an average of 10 percent.” (Emphasis added)

WOW! What fundraiser wouldn’t want to increase solicitation returns by 10%?

Immediately intrigued, I wanted to know how to do this. First, I had to decode what the authors meant by social information. (You might have been asking yourself that same question.)

So I read a few of the research studies available online that had been conducted by one of the authors, Jen Shang, PhD.

Providing social information, it seemed, was letting a donor know what other donors were doing. The idea is that we are influenced by what other consumers similar to us have done – a concept that’s not unfamiliar to most of us, think of social media driven marketing like Foursquare, for example. Or the research on peer influence that we talked about in a recent blog post It’s not what you know, but who you hang out with.

In the papers I perused, some of the fundraising tactics mentioned by Dr. Shang included:

Telling alumni in a fundraising appeal what percentage of the class has made a gift. Doing so apparently gets a bigger response than not mentioning this information.

In Dr. Shang’s research, prospective donors to a public radio station were told what another donor had given during the same pledge drive before they were asked about their donation. Example: “We had another member, he [she] contributed $240.” This led to higher giving levels, in some instances. (I’m grossly simplifying, but that’s the purported gist of the research).

The papers I read seemed far from definitive on the topic. Some of the conclusions were based on experiments that involved using questionnaires to ask how people might act or be influenced in a given situation.

But nevertheless, I was still intrigued. I’ve often thought that one of the missing pieces to lifting US giving overall is the lack of community-wide benchmarks for personal giving. Is 1% a year enough? 5%? 10%?

If we knew how much other people gave, would we give more?

We have some examples of how this might work in practice:

The tithe requirement of many religious organizations sets a benchmark for giving by members of the congregation. Higher personal donation amounts by state seem to correlate with areas where religious giving and participation in tithing faith traditions is high.

Another notable example of the use of benchmarks is Microsoft founder Bill Gates’s challenge to US billionaires – the Giving Pledge- to give the majority of their wealth to charity. 69 of the 412 billionaires in the US have signed the pledge to date (16.7% – is that good?).

A more common fundraising example that came to mind is the participation of peer donors on a solicitation team – not only so they can talk about why this program is important to them, but also so they can tell how much they were giving to the campaign.

The invitation for that big gala fundraising event may list the host committee members by their giving levels, again, providing a benchmark for others to give.

But do we have any reliable data documenting a difference that these practices may have made in improved giving?

I’m not at all familiar with the use of this type of social influence in direct response programs like mail or telephone solicitation. Once, long ago, in a new member campaign for an environmental organization, we included a list of some neighbors in the same town who were members (with their permission, of course). I can’t say that after all these years I remember whether it lifted response or not – which makes me think the results weren’t terribly amazing.

It seems to me that with all of the fundraising activity going on in this country or abroad, there must be more real-world, tested examples of using social information in this way.

So I’d love to hear from you.

Do you have experience using social information to influence your solicitation requests?

Has it worked for you? Do you have data to back it up?

If we lifted giving in the US by 10%, that would be another $30 billion. No small change.

I was speaking recently to a man I know who runs a children’s based business that is now a year old. From the outside looking in, everything about his venture seems like a typical non-profit organization, but it is not.

Instead of creating a board of directors, applying for his 501 (c)(3), and getting his clients excited by the thoughts of tax-exempt donations, he just plowed ahead on his own and created the business.

He used his own money, kept within a strict budget, and opened with what he could. He told everybody the business would be a work in progress, so he kept expectations in check. Along the way, he’s closed down for a week here and there to finish work on various aspects of the business, but he communicated absolutely everything he was doing on his Facebook page, so everybody would know what he was up to.

I asked him why he didn’t pursue the non-profit route right off the bat, and he told me that he was much more of a “go it alone” kind of person. He hadn’t had a lot of experience with non-profits, but the idea of a board of directors wasn’t very appealing to him, and neither was the arduous application process involved with gaining tax-exempt status. Basically, he had a vision of what he wanted to achieve, and he was going about doing that.

However, just over a year has passed since he shared those sentiments with me. He’s had twelve months of serving his population, marketing his business, and busting his tail to pay the bills on time. In this period, he’s done his best to build up a new business, which is always a challenge. But now, he may have had a change of heart regarding the non-profit status question.

After a year of trying to build community, he is starting to wonder if he would be more successful if he were to get his 501 (c)(3). Here are some of the questions he is asking himself:

• Would more people in the community volunteer their time to help the business if he were a legitimate non-profit organization? (Everything from serving clients to helping with fundraisers?)

• Would more people in the community feel comfortable donating money to the business if it were a non-profit?

• Would his standing change in the community, if he were the director of a non-profit, not simply a business owner? Would more people be open to network with him?

• Are the hours that it will take to become a non-profit, added onto the hours (and stress) it takes to manage the specific needs and requirements of a non-profit (vs. a for-profit business) worth it in the long run? Will attending to the governmental requirements of a non-profit take his eye off the very basic needs of growing a business?

• What does he risk in giving ultimate power of the organization he created over to a board of directors? We all know that boards are highly political bodies and they change over time. Even if this man stays on as the executive director for years, will his vision be altered by a future board?

• The town he lives in and operates the business in is not large. However, there are, already, a high number of non-profits. Can the town support yet another organization with an auction, a golf outing, a car wash, a bake sale, etc?

Readers of StepByStepFundraising.com are, I would assume, mostly employed by non-profits. I would also guess that our readers been around the non-profit industry for a while.

Therefore, I would love to hear your thoughts on his concerns, as well as the question: “What would you do in this situation?” Would you go for the tax-exempt status or would you just continue to build what you already have going, which although still new, is doing ok for itself?

Please share your thoughts with all of us in the comment section. I know this man would greatly appreciate thoughtful, outside opinions.

Photo by: bm.iphone

Every time the news starts posting information about mega gifts, boards and executive directors start pounding on the door of development directors. The directive is clear: “we want what they’re having.”

Well, I’ll give you the bad news first. Mega gifts do not typically happen overnight. It is a culmination of months, if not years, of planning, visiting, calling, and yes, lots of effort. One organization I worked at spent seven years cultivating a multi-million dollar gift to lead off their capital campaign. That was seven years after at least a year of planning.

Now for the good news. There are things you can do to get started now. The old adage is true, the tortoise wins the race. With consistent effort ever time, you can start to cultivate, and obtain, major gifts. It may not be the multi-million (or billion) dollar mega gifts, but I am confident that you can find individuals who want to partner with you to make this happen.

Here are 8 steps to help you get started.

1. Fundraising 101. First, you’ll want to learn about trends in charitable giving. Visit www.givingusa.com and http://philanthromax.com/atlas for some general information. Blackbuad USA and Convio and publish stories periodically that can help you stay up to date.

2. Vision / Mission. Revisit your vision. Do you have one? This isn’t about a vision for your organization exactly – it’s a vision for how your community could and should be. Your mission can address how your organization will help that vision come to pass.

3. Case Statement. Your case statement should clearly articulate everything that a donor needs to know before making a decision to giving a large gift to your organization. It should be compelling, visionary, easily read, and packed with information. Here’s a link to my Diigo page with links to lots of samples you can review.

4. Audiences. Next you’ll want to identify the primary audiences you will communicate with. Try to identify those groups of people (and individuals) who identify most with your cause. Don’t try to approach everyone, just target in on a few. If you’re not already following Seth Godin’s blog, I strongly recommend it. He often talks about focusing in our marketing.

5. Awareness. People won’t give to your organization if they don’t know about you. And they won’t give if they don’t know that there’s a need. Social media has expanded the ways we have of getting our message out, but there are many more traditional, proven methods as well. Again, focus in on just a few awareness strategies – don’t try to do them all. Based on who you’re communicating with, select just 3-5 avenues to start with.

6. Asking. This is the one topic that generally leaves most people shaking in their boots. Asking for a gift. Please know, this is not begging. Rather, it is inviting people to participate in a cause that they are already passionate about. It’s about providing a vehicle (your program / your organization) that will help a donor accomplish one of their life goals. Learn about your potential donors and what is important to them. At some point you’re going to have to ask.

7. Develop a Plan. There’s nothing worse than having all the pieces, but not knowing where to get started. Map everything out by month so that you can make tracking easier.

8. Expand Your Team. Don’t try to do all of this on your own. Engage your board and/or develop a fundraising committee. Use your plan to help structure expectations of your volunteers.

This is not a sprint. It is definitely a marathon. And it takes hard work. But, if you commit yourself and start implementing these steps, you will start seeing positive results within a few months. But don’t get discouraged too quickly. The real impact starts to show itself at about the 18-month mark.

Would you like some additional help implementing these 8 steps? Sign up for my newsletter, and you’ll receive access to a sneak peak at the first session of my 8-week Major Gift Training Program.

Kirsten Bullock, CFRE is a consultant, trainer and coach who works with leaders of non-profit organizations and ministries to bring professionalism, excellence and effectiveness to their board and fundraising efforts. She earned her designation as a Certified Fund Raising Executive in 2002. Kirsten is currently serving as president elect of the Association for Fundraising Professionals Greater Louisville Chapter. She is an AFP Master Trainer, compiles ‘Kirsten’s Fundraising Headlines’ Blog, authors the ‘Growing Your Donors’ blog and is a contributor for SOFII (The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration). Kirsten holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a Master’s of Business Administration. When not working to equip and empower people in the nonprofit sector, Kirsten sculpts, is attempting to learn to speak Danish and enjoys living in the Highlands in Louisville, Kentucky.