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#donors #donorlove #donorloyalty #loyalgiving #stewardship #fundraising

Be a breath of fresh air for donors

Posted on  March 29, 2020
  · No Comments

My last post was titled Time to Put on Your Oxygen Mask. While you may be able to assist others for a short time, if you don’t take care of yourself first it’s impossible to provide support to others over the long term.

This may seem raw to some but I believe it’s time to fundraisers to stop and think about our donors on a deeper level than you may have ever before. Those at the greatest risk from Covid 19 are elders, people who are 80+. The next most at risk are people in their 70’s, 60s, and people with chronic conditions. 

1. Which of the donors that support your nonprofit are in their 60s, 70s, or 80s?

2. Who has a chronic condition of which you are aware?

I have little doubt that many of the most loyal and generous donors who choose to include your organization among the group which they support fall into one or even both of these categories. 

I was reminded of how an older person might feel at this time by a fellow campaign committee member. This a man in his 80s who is a highly respected and valued member of the organization for which the funds are being raised. Couched in an email chain was a line that read something such as

“While I hope to see this project come to fruition I don’t know how much time I have left given the spread of this virus.”

This note was gut-wrenching. My eyes teared up when the reality behind his statement hit me. This person whom we have loved and respected — who has given his time, talent, and treasure — feels he might be measuring his life by a much shorter time frame.

If you have ever read “How to Say it to Seniors” (David Solie) you know that those who believe that they are reaching the end of life

want to know that their lives mattered.

You can provide a breath of fresh air to a donor by letting them know that they have made a difference, that their life has mattered. 

As you move through this crisis things will hopefully settle for you. Now that you’ve mastered, or at least aren’t making a fool of yourself on Zoom and have figured out other word-at-home tricks you may find that you have more time than expected because your commute is now from the kitchen to your home office.

What could you do with this time? You can be in touch with the donors who have made a conscious choice to support the nonprofit which you serve. (FYI see why I use this terminology in She is not YOUR Donor!) Consider this:

Call two or write to two donors today, two tomorrow, and two the next day.

  • Identify those most in need of a note of thanks and support based on age, health, not having family, etc.
  • Inform them that they have made a difference.
  • It might sound a bit challenging to do but involve them by saying something such as “if only you could see staff pitching in and clients being served despite this crisis” then tell a story.
  • Invest your time, not by asking for a gift but by giving back to those who gave.
  • Impact — Share a short story about how one of your clients or staff is making it through this time thanks to donor support.

And leave it at that, just say thanks maybe share an inspiring story. Most of all, if you make a call be prepared to listen — if ever there were a time to build a deeper bond with a donor it is now.

If you are looking for more on this topic you might want to read

  • Fundraisers Harbingers of Hope
  • Flip the Focus: Fundraising’s Impact on Donors

Are you keeping in touch with donors? What are you hearing from them? I hope that you will share because we can all learn from one another.

Categories : Blog
Tags : #donors #donorlove #donorloyalty #loyalgiving #stewardship #fundraising, #fundraising #charities #charitablegiving #5i'sfundraising #giving

Endowments: Not a Tool, Rather a Way of Leaving a Legacy

Posted on  October 29, 2019
  · No Comments

I just returned from the #leadingage19 Annual Meeting and Expo. There I co-presented a session about endowments with Bill McMorran from Green Oak Consulting. Thinking about endowments and legacy giving reminded me of this story which I posted late last year.

“Today is my mother’s birthday. She’s been gone for nearly 20 years but her legacy lives on in the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that are part of her family line.

Today she is the focus of an article about legacy because she is the perfect example of the phrase we use in our work: anyone can leave a legacy. As a first-generation American who lived through the Depression mom didn’t have much, yet what she did have she shared.

She gave in simple ways, in the church collection plate and by leaving food on the porch for people passing through the community who had no home. Those may seem small contributions but like the story of the starfish being thrown into the ocean one at a time, her gifts made a difference for each hungry person who came by our house.

I have come to realize that it was my mother’s example that led me to become a giver. In some ways it was also she who led me to become a fundraiser. I do what I do because, like my mom, I believe that giving is about changing and saving lives (sometimes of the donor as much as the recipient).

Mother, I didn’t say it when you were alive, thank you. Thank you for giving me life and for being the role model that you were, you may be gone, but your legacy lives on.”

My mom didn’t have the resources to create a financial endowment. However, she endowed her family with gifts equal to those given by the wealthiest of donors.

Is there someone who endowed you with a gift that has enhanced your life? Remember that donors may be thinking about someone like this when they choose to create an endowed fund in honor or memory of a loved one or friend (maybe even a pet).

As fundraisers, we come across people from all circumstances. Some appear to be lacking in resources yet are financially considered to be rich. Others have much, yet seem to be lacking in spirit and seek connection and meaning. Still, others are not able to contribute large sums of money but want to ensure a lasting impact by giving what they can in the form of a legacy gift.

All of these many other types of donors can create or contribute to endowed funds. We can help these individuals to make meaning of their lives and legacies. We can serve as conduits for them to pass on values or change the world in ways that will live on long after they have departed this world.

Whose life might you change today?

Looking for more writing like this? Check out posts by Jennifer Harris of JHCollective, Jim Langley of Langely Innovations, and Jay Frost.

Sophie Penney is the President of i5 Fundraising and the Senior Program Coordinator and a Lecturer for Penn State University’s online courses in fundraising.

Categories : Blog
Tags : #donors #donorlove #donorloyalty #loyalgiving #stewardship #fundraising

Fundraisers: You Didn’t “raise it” (money), donors “gave it”(their gift)!

Posted on  September 18, 2019
  · No Comments

Have you attended a donor recognition or campaign closing event where you heard a leader make one of these statements?

“This year we raised a $500,000 (or $300M)!”

“We reached a milestone, raising X% more than last year!”

“This year’s fundraising total reached a record $Y,000,000!”

“You didn’t raise it (money), donors gave it (their support)! As I have said in other missives, such as Flip the Focus, we need to change the narrative. Don’t believe me? Consider reading Ron Schiller’s book Belief and Confidence. In the introduction, Ron notes that:

“almost every major and transformational gift described as highly satisfying and/or the most successful was also described by the donors as self solicited.” (p. xvii).

Ron goes on to suggest that the dichotomy which I describe above, an “us or them” mentality, doesn’t best describe the type of relationship we as fundraisers should seek to have with donors – a philanthropic partnership:

“. . . it became clear that environments marked by high levels of belief and confidence produce philanthropic partnerships: a culture in which both organizational leaders and donors talk about each other as partners . . . which blurs the line between solicitation  and self-solicitation.” (p. xvii).

This led me to wonder, what might be the best way to declare that exciting goals or milestone have been achieved?

As partners in philanthropy we together have . . .

Thanks to your gifts the lives of people seeking to lift themselves out of poverty will be changed.

Together, we can and will (fill in the blank – find a cure, save a child, feed a family, etc., etc. etc.)

As you think about this you might revisit last week’s post, Summer Reading: Lessons Learned about Women and Philanthropy, which focused on women’s philanthropy. Kathleen Loehr’s book, Gender Matters, invites us to think differently about the language used when speaking with and about women as donors. The same can be said for Lilya Wagner’s Diversity and Philanthropy: Expanding the Circle of Giving.

What say you? What language do you employ at your recognition events or in your impact or annual reports? Is it all about your or your donors (or a bit of both)?

FYI, not sure where to begin? You might review this diagram from Mark Phillips (Bluefrog Fundraising Limited): The Fundraising Paradox. Also, check out Anne Manner-McClarty’s blog posts at Heurista. 

I look forward to hearing from you because through our work together we help change and save lives.

Together we can elevate the conversation far better than I can do on my own.

Sophie Penney, Ph.D. is the President of i5 Fundraising and the Senior Program Coordinator and a Lecturer for Penn State programs in fundraising. Sophie does not receive compensation for recommending any of the above persons or resources.

Categories : Blog
Tags : #donors #donorlove #donorloyalty #loyalgiving #stewardship #fundraising

Fundraisers: Harbingers of Hope?!

Posted on  August 8, 2019
  · No Comments

It’s been a very difficult few weeks here in the U.S. We’ve experienced violence in ways that many of us might never have imagined. Lives have been lost; dreams have been shattered, and it seems folly to have hope for a brighter day ahead.

So too other parts of the world are experiencing great challenges. Violence is not exclusive to the U.S. it is a world-wide issue.

What is a fundraiser to do in such challenging times? I would proffer that we have the opportunity to be harbingers of hope. Fred Rogers, aka Mr. Rogers, once said:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.” Fred Rogers

When I penned my e-book Fundraisers Channeling Fred Rogers this quote didn’t leap to mind. However, if you are a fundraiser you are a helper.

Yes, I know that your ED or your board might not understand your work. You face the hurdles of competition, donor fatigue, and burnout. You wonder if you can continue on (and not all fundraisers do as per my friend Jennifer Harris’ recent comment posted in the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

“We walk into organizations that, in our mind, are designed to do good,” says Harris, whose consulting group, the JH Collective, is based in San Diego. “There’s an assumption that the people working there are also designed to do good. And that’s not always the case. Organizations don’t always value their employees.”

The discussion, she says, should be “a lot bigger” than whether it’s inadequate leadership that leads to stress, burnout, and turnover.

“In our field, the boundaries are blurred between our head and our heart,” Harris says. “People who are called to this work have a higher calling to purpose. And when it stops functioning, it’s a betrayal. What I see in so many clients is this heartbreak, because they care about the mission.”

And ultimately, she says, “What makes someone leave is feeling like they can’t deliver on the mission.”

All this said a supervisor once said to me “we are doing god’s work.” You may not be religious or believe in a god, but you are, as the great Jerry Panas might have said, in a position to raise funds to change and save lives.

And you don’t just change the lives of those that your organization serves. You change the lives of donors. Remember you may be a harbinger of hope as much for a donor as for a client of the nonprofit that you serve. Like you donors seek to believe in a brighter, better future. When you are working to meet a mission that matches their hopes and dreams fading hope can be rekindled.

If you need some inspiration here are 45 Quotes from Mr. Rogers which was posted by Inc. yesterday. If you need people to talk with reach out to others we’ve trod the paths and are willing to listen and assist.

Most of all, don’t lose heart, you are a helper, someone who can be a harbinger of hope!

Categories : Blog
Tags : #donors #donorlove #donorloyalty #loyalgiving #stewardship #fundraising

5 ?s to ask so you can really “see” donors

Posted on  May 9, 2019
  · No Comments
 
Each month the i5 Fundraising News You Can Use features One Gem. In a past edition, I mentioned marketing guru Seth Godin.

A NY Times article, Sometimes You Have to Quit to Get Ahead, mentions Mr. Godin’s book The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick), which is a brief and excellent read. The Dip prompts thinking not only about fundraising, but other areas of your nonprofit’s work and even about your own personal life.

You might also find of interest Godin’s book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Tribes provides insight into how a person or organization builds a following (FYI as I have implied in articles the key to building a tribe is understanding that the focus is on the donor — see my blog post She is not “Your” Donor).

The book that I find myself quoting time-after-time these days is Mr. Godin’s newest book, This is Marketing: You Can’t be Seen Until You Learn to See. I could not agree more with the tagline.

When I speak about the five i’s of fundraising — Identify, Inform, Involve, Invest, and Impact. I remind people that identify and inform are as much donor-focused as they are organization-focused. In short, you need to see, to really see the types of people who will identify with your cause and your organization. And inform starts with informing yourself about those donors, their needs, their wants, their hopes for the world (not informing donors about your nonprofit).

Jim Langley, former VP of Advancement from Georgetown and founder of Langley Innovations, posted a related and thoughtful set of questions on LinkedIn, questions that a new fundraiser might ask donors. I said to Jim these would be terrific questions for any nonprofit representative, say a board member making a stewardship visit, to ask of donors.

  1. “Why did you make your first gift?
  2. Why have you remained so loyal?
  3. What do you admire most about this organization?
  4. What must we do to continue to earn your support?
  5. What must we change lest we lose your support?”

Jim is part of a movement of people like Jennifer Harris, Kathleen Loehr and Armando Zumaya who are inviting us to take an authentic look a who are donors are and what they want. How have you come to learn about and to see, to really see your donors? I hope you will share because we can all learn from one another.

Sophie Penney is the President of i5 Fundraising and the Senior Program Coordinator and a Lecturer with Penn State’s all online certificate programs in fundraising (one graduate and one undergraduate). Interested in receiving News You Can Use directly to your email? You can subscribe by clicking here. 

Categories : Blog
Tags : #donors #donorlove #donorloyalty #loyalgiving #stewardship #fundraising
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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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"The results of philanthropy are always beyond calculation."

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