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Put on your oxygen mask before helping others

Posted on  March 21, 2020
  · No Comments

“Put on your oxygen mask before helping the passenger next to you.”

That’s the directive you hear from a flight attendant as they review the safety instructions at the beginning of every flight. Whether you are a leader, manager, front-line fundraiser, or a person working behind the scenes pulling reports or sending stewardship letters it is important that you take care of yourself as you seek to care for others.

Self-care is very personal but in a time such as this, we can find ourselves flailing. Even though I’ve lived through 9/11, other epidemics, multiple market downturns, and the loss of all of my immediate family members, I found myself unsure how to live with the uncertainty of life that the Coronavirus has made even more palpable.

However, I knew I could not live in this limbo for long. I have a team of people with whom I work and I wanted and needed to be there with and for them. We work with University faculty and staff who address many of the kinds of issues being discussed today — the impact of inequity on healthcare access, disease research, food insecurity, and much more — secure funding to support their work so it is critical that we be able to move forward. I also have a family and I want to be my best for them.

It was as I wrote my monthly newsletter an idea came to me, I had to take care of me before I could care for anyone else. I had to determine what had enabled me to survive major losses and find a way to move forward. The following exercise is the one that came to mind and is what I shared with readers this week.

Time to put on your oxygen mask

1. Think about a difficult thing that happened in your life or

2. Identify a crisis that you have experienced.

3. Take out a pen and paper or your laptop.

4. Reflect on all that you have survived and then

5. Write thoughts about what helped you to not only survive but to thrive.

Once I did this for myself I identified a reservoir of attitudes, skills, and abilities that I could tap into that have enabled me to move forward. I entered the week with confidence even in the face of uncertainty, confidence that I had within me that which would enable me to move forward.

As important, I remembered that I am not on this journey alone. Working with a team, reading the writing of others, and participating in various online groups have all provided helpful insight and support.

In other words, we’ll all riding on this plane together.

Once we put on our own mask we can help one another. To that end I ask:

  1. What reservoir lies in you?
  2. What has helped you move forward in these trying times?

I hope that as my LinkedIn friend Shanna Hocking posted today, you will speak about what has helped you to move forward. If ever there was a time such sharing is needed it is now. We will save lives by remaining apart physically, but we can connect, support one another, and move forward together.

Wishing you strength, hope, and peace.

Categories : Blog
Tags : #fundraising #charities #charitablegiving #5i'sfundraising #giving

Fundraisers Feeling Burned by Market Drops? Jill Be Nimble

Posted on  March 4, 2020
  · No Comments

You may have heard this nursery rhyme: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick. According to Wikipedia if you could jump a candlestick without being burned you would experience good luck.

Being nimble is on my mind as stock markets churn. You might be worried that the friction caused by that churning will burn a hole in your fundraising revenue.

It’s far too soon to tell if markets will continue to roil or to know what will transpire with the Coronavirus. What’s more all of this is taking place with the backdrop of a Presidential campaign in the U.S. and events such as Brexit in the U.K.

If you are wondering how to navigate times of tumult you might want to read Leading Through Change: 3 Facts and 1 Point to Ponder. In that piece I said that I believe that we struggle the most with unwelcome or unexpected change. It’s difficult to think about being nimble but is critical when the:

  • Donor who we thought was going to make the lead campaign gift tells us that she now needs to wait until she knows when and where markets will settle and the
  • Campaign was to go public in a few months.

What’s a professional to do? I suggest Jill be Nimble.

But what if being nimble doesn’t come easily? Is it possible to learn how to roll with the punches?

I believe that the ability to be nimble relates to our capacity to lead through change.

As this Fast Company article – Change or Die – indicates, it might not be easy to navigate change, but it can be done. Pulling from this article and others I offer three steps that I believe can help us be nimble and lead through changing times: 

  1. Face your fear
  2. Reframe the Situation (see Change or Die article)
  3. Review Jim Collin’s book “Good to Great” (here’s a synopsis by Mr. Collins) or check out the work of Barbara Trautlein from Change Catalysts.

When I speak about change leadership I always find myself returning to the concept of resilience. If you haven’t read the book Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance you might review it or read Diane Coutu’s Harvard Business Review article How Resilience Works (May 2002).

I myself am a work in progress when it comes to leading through change and being resilient. Might you help me build my skills in this arena by answering this question:

  • What books or articles have you read that have helped you to lead through change or become more resilient?

Here’s hoping you will share because we can all learn from one another.

Categories : Blog
Tags : #fundraising #charities #charitablegiving #5i'sfundraising #giving

A 6th “i”: Intentionality

Posted on  February 27, 2020
  · No Comments

If you know much about me you are aware that I founded i5 Fundraising. The focus on the five i’s is intentional. It’s a way of helping to raise awareness that fundraising, which can seem complex to some, can be understood and practiced successfully by focusing on five i’s.

  1. Identify – Donors with an interest in your cause or particular nonprofit.
  2. Inform – Yourself about those donors so that when you inform them about your work you share information that is of interest to them.
  3. Involve – Donors in the life of your organization.
  4. Invest – Ask donors to contribute to your nonprofit.
  5. Impact – Share stories with donors about the impact that their gifts have on the lives of those you serve.

Recently I shared thoughts with my newsletter audience about a sixth “i” — intentionality.

Many who have read my work are aware that I penned an e-book titled Fundraisers Channeling Fred Rogers. One point that I did not expand on a great deal was the fact that nothing on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was left to chance.

Fred’s friend Maxwell King is the former head of the Pittsburgh Foundation and knew Fred well. In the biography that he wrote about Fred, Mr. King notes that Mr. Rogers didn’t ad-lib — far from it!  

The amiable Mr. Rogers acted with intentionality, he planned every show and scene; he was even known to agonize over a specific word. Fred sometimes stopped in the middle of filming a scene to run down the street to seek guidance from his mentor regarding the wording of the script.

Would you like to read the rest of the article? You can subscribe to my newsletter or drop me a message with your email address and I’ll send the article to you.

Whether or not you write to me I pose these questions and hope to hear your thoughts:

  • Which of the five i’s are you currently focusing on? 
  • How can you act with intentionality to employ that” i” for the benefit of your nonprofit?

I look forward to hearing from you because we can all learn from one another.

 

Categories : Blog
Tags : #asking#fundraising#fundraiser#charitablegifts

Showing Maude Some Love this Valentine’s Day

Posted on  February 12, 2020
  · No Comments

There I was walking out of a store only to look up and see the banner in this photo. It’s a visible symbol for those who walk by of the love someone has for a person or place.

These banners, of which there will be many in our small town, symbolize Valentine’s love. Seeing this one leads me to ask, how will you be showing your donors some love this Valentine’s Day?

It’s not too late to pick up some fun Valentines and drop them in the mail. Imagine being a widow, let’s call her Maude, whose husband passed last year. Maybe Maude never had children (FYI at least 20% of Boomers did not have children so there are many Maudes — Claudes too). Can you imagine the look on Maude’s face when she picks up the envelope with some curiosity opens it and finds your card?

Your card could:

  1. Brings a smile to Maude’s face on an otherwise dreary winter day.
  2. Let Maude know that you value and are thinking of her at times other than when you want her to make another gift
  3. Says, to Maude as Fred Rogers did, “You are special.” (Check out my blog post on this topic).

Leo Buscaglia was a college social education teacher who developed a world-renown reputation for his creation of a course calls Love 1A. He developed the course following the suicide of one of his students.

Dr. Buscaglia went on to write the book LOVE and became a beloved public television presenter. I had a chance to meet him in person and can say that, like Fred Rogers, he personified love, though in this case in a more boisterous way than Fred. One of Buscaglia’s famous quotes is:

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

You may be thinking suicide, turning lives around, “What does this have to do with donors and showing Maude some love?”. Please remember that Maude is just like you and me, she joys and sorrows and experiences ups and downs.

As Henri Nouwen notes in his book A Spirituality of Fundraising, Maude may feel lonely despite being a person of means. Maude may be searching for meaning as she ages and need a reminder that she still matters. Your card could reassure Maude that her simple act of making a gift has changed or even saved a life.

You can say to Maude you are special.

Will you write to or call her today to say Happy Valentine’s Day?

How will you be showing the Maudes and Claudes who make gifts to your nonprofit some love?

I hope that you will share the ways in which you show donors some love. By doing so you will enrich and show love to fellow travelers who seek to raise funds to make the world a better place.

Categories : Blog
Tags : #asking#fundraising#fundraiser#charitablegifts, #donor#love, #donors, #stewardship

Time For Action: Diversity and Major Giving

Posted on  January 29, 2020
  · No Comments

This excellent article was penned by Armando Zumaya, a fundraising consultant who focuses on assisting nonprofits with diversifying at all levels — boards, staff, and donors. The piece is being shared with Armando’s permission. I am grateful for his willingness to permit me to share his perspectives and guidance with you.

“Let’s talk about a subject nobody but this crazy Chicano talks about. Diversity in Major Giving.

Ever hear that term before? That’s because the only people talking about it are universities. And to their credit, they have realized what the rest of the nonprofit world hasn’t. That people of color, women, LGBT, Muslim Americans are philanthropic and give. Especially, when educated about your work and asked properly.

Too often all the groups of American’s I just mentioned are seen as victims. Or worse as parasites on society. Often, they are seen as so much flotsam in the great American river. Philanthropy. Nonprofits and the foundation community are heavily focused on the straight, rich old white man to help all of these poor helpless people.

Wealth in the US has changed, philanthropy needs to catch up. I always point people to corporate America. Put your TV on and look at a Honda commercial or that Tide Commercial. More and more you’ll find what I call “passable Latinos”. They are families in commercials that any Mexican or Dominican would identify with, but some nice white folks in San Diego would also identify with. That’s because Honda and Tide know Latinos have a purchasing power of $1.7 trillion annually. If you want to look at one nonprofit who figured out Latinos give, check out anything done by St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Turn on your radio, go buy some tortillas, open your mail, turn on your soccer game and there is St. Jude, in Spanish!

We aren’t victims. We are American’s and we want our voice. Philanthropy right now is our denied voice. We aren’t flotsam, we have our own power. When you help us make gifts, major gifts, you give us an opportunity to show our power.

You can also still hear many people, leaders in philanthropy talk about the need to teach us brown folks about philanthropy. I have literally heard senior leaders at nonprofits say that philanthropy “isn’t in our culture”.

I like to ask people if they have ever heard of Spelman or Xavier? Those Historically Black Colleges, many founded in the 1860s have existed because someone was fundraising. They just didn’t magically appear and survive? Latino cultural philanthropy has focused on the church and remittances. But also, we founded and funded our own nonprofits, I think of LULAC the League of United Latina American Citizens, one of our first civil rights organizations founded in 1929. There was Latino fundraising in 1929.

The lack of diversity in philanthropy has been talked about for 20 years. There has been a lot of hand wringing but I sense people are tired of hearing about it. That’s because, in my opinion, there are a lot of voices complaining about the situation without offering solutions.

One clear solution, going back to our friends at the universities. Is to spend money, focus, and staff diversity. You have seen universities have staff working to ensure diversity in their student populations. Now a few good universities have hired Major Gifts and Development Officers to focus on those groups! If you care about diversity and equity, stop talking, make an investment in change. If you want examples of which schools let me know.

Diversity in your donor population. Especially your major giving prospects is about good prospecting. It’s about having solid, actionable prospect research. And if you have read my articles before you know this is my personal soapbox.

Most institutions don’t use prospect research effectively and most nonprofits have no idea what Prospect Research is in the first place! So, if there is a wealthy old Latino family giving you $50 a year in your database you will never know that they could give you $25,000 if you asked. But you didn’t want to spend the $2,000 on a freelance prospect researcher so you don’t know. A $23,000 mistake. One seven-figure Latino donor of mine to this day gets mailings from his university, but for some reason, they miss him as a major donor prospect. Why? Knowing this institution, and I am guessing here, I believe a Major Gifts Officer hasn’t called him because the Prospect Research team is largely underpowered and ignored by Development Officers at that institution.

My work has been on helping nonprofits with Prospect Research teams create dynamic and powerful partnerships with their field Development Officers. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I help small nonprofits harness the power of Prospect Research to jumpstart small Major Giving programs. In both of these instances, I have seen nonprofits surprised by what they find in donors and how much in the past they were leaving on the table.

This is especially notable in two sectors of nonprofits. The arts and the environmental movement. Both have spoken out loud about their lack of diversity. Some like the San Francisco Opera has appointed staff to diversify audiences. Which is awesome. Kudos to them. But show me the arts or environmental fundraisers focused on diversity? I have seen one staffer at one of the largest environmental organizations in the US. And he is no longer in that role.

The message today is don’t just talk about Diversity and Equity in philanthropy and fundraising. Invest in it. Fundraising has a lot of ground to make up. Staff it well. Also, you can invest in training for your current staff. Help them improve prospecting, help them focus their equity lens in this work. I do this work as well as others.

Diversity in fundraising is ultimately about raising money from the whole community. Whether your community is Cleveland or the whole nation. Empower your whole community to be part of whatever cause your working on. Your sustainability, program effectiveness will see the long-term benefits.”

www.armandozumaya.com

Categories : Blog
Tags : #fundraising #diversity #diversityandinclusion #diversitymatters #funrdraisingdiversity #fundraisinginclusion
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"I have often spoken about the importance of intentionality in philanthropy: that it has to stir the soul. This is true whether you are feeding the homeless, mentoring a child or working on climate change."

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"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

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