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“What really counts is what the people who actually write the checks think,” explains Tom Ralser, the author of Asking Rights. More specifically, how do donor motivations inform nonprofit fundraising behavior? Ralser would say, “It’s all about the outcomes.”

Tom Ralser asserts the rational appeal or the pursuit of earning the right to ask a donor for his investment is at the root of every successful request windows bilder herunterladen. Asking Rights is a book about how to successfully fund your nonprofit and do so with a greater focus on and understanding of the funder’s interests and motivations.

In our first installment that highlights the book, we take a closer look at the investor’s perspective and how to adjust your appeal to meet your goals and donor motivations youtube videos online kostenlos downloaden.

The investor’s perspective and how to balance your approach

Ralser explains the difference between investors and donors in order to encourage nonprofits to not only appeal to the emotions of a donor, but also to the rational, outcomes-based side of an investor.

Donors

He defines a donor as “an individual or organization that typically provides low-level, often sporadic financial support that is not necessarily connected to the mission of the nonprofit.” An investor, on the other hand, he defines as one who “typically makes larger financial commitments that span several years herunterladen.

Investors

An investor is most concerned with the long-term success of the nonprofit.” He differentiates an investor’s thinking in the following way: “If you can’t demonstrate results (outcomes), then you do not have the right to ask for money. If you can’t make your outcomes meaningful to me, then you do not have the right to ask me for money.”

Because higher-end investors are more interested in your results, which involve improving the lives of your customers and effecting real change over the long run, they need you and any organization into which they invest to communicate the impacts clearly to them jurassic world evolution pc free download german. Therefore, they do not want only emotional appeals, despite the research that donors respond more to emotion than statistics.

Where emotional appeals are a fit

Emotional appeals serve a purpose in direct mail and other impersonal channels, but Ralser argues nonprofits that craft the most effective emotional appeals do not always raise the most money. Ultimately, higher-end investors want a return on their investment, instead of simply giving to a charity with no expectations. They don’t want the best ad campaign and have already been bombarded with marketing pitches beach buggy racing 2 herunterladen. Investors are becoming wary of the emotional appeals that do not show any specific impact.

Ralser argues that many studies that seemingly prove the effectiveness of emotional appeals over factual ones are conducted in certain situations and do not necessarily apply to real-world giving situations, particularly not to long-term investors.

Rokia Study

For example, he references Save the Children’s Rokia study that found that providing donors with a photo of a 7-year-old hungry child with general information raised more money than giving the donors statistics yatzy spiel kostenlos downloaden. This study was conducted through impersonal channels and dealt with small amounts of money.

In contrast, in his real-world business helping organizations raise money, the rational appeal, focusing on ROI (social return) for higher-level investors, works when an organization is looking more toward sustainability, larger donations versus smaller donations, fundraising beyond direct mail or impersonal channels, and a focus on outcomes delivering value to investors.

Ralser’s overall point, then, is that organizations must adjust their appeals according to their goals and their audience’s motivations.

He provides a matrix with four quadrants to illustrate the options kostenlos call of dutyen.

Heart (appeals to donors): When an organization is appealing to a donor who is giving lower sums of money and is not highly committed, the emotional appeals work well, e.g., a countertop collection for an animal shelter.

Acorn (appeals to donors): When a donor is going to give lower amounts of money but more of a rational appeal will work, the campaign can turn into more of a sustainable one tia portal v13 kostenlos. For example, “a membership drive for the operation of a local Chamber of Commerce, where membership dues are based on the size of the company and where membership carries with it certain privileges or benefits.”

Shooting star (appeals to investors): Emotional appeals that require high financial involvement and commitment are classified as shooting stars. They are usually highly visible appeals, such as a “one-time campaign for a hospital emergency room that needs refurbishing and updating, made obvious by a tragedy in which lives were lost due to lack of modern equipment.”

Blue chip (appeals to investors): This level requires more evidence of valuable results and a rational appeal to secure larger funding (higher financial involvement and commitment), such as “a capital campaign for an economic development program that will create jobs, increase capital investment, and produce positive, long-term economic ripple effects.”

Therefore, if an organization is relying only on emotional appeals and raising smaller sums of money, it can strive to create more rational appeals in order to move toward sustainability free games om te download.

Also, different audiences may require different appeals. In the author’s hospital example, appealing to a grandparent with an emotional appeal may work better, whereas appealing to a major employer may require more evidence of impact and a more rational appeal.

An organization’s goal, considering all this information, is to develop ways to quantify and value its outcomes to achieve better results so investors will want to be involved with the organization over time herunterladen. It has to communicate this value clearly to the investor in his terms, not through internal jargon. Then, it has the right to ask him to invest.

See this Page to Practice book summary and other related titles:

Asking Rights: Why Some Nonprofits Get Funded (and Some Don’t)

The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications: Real-World Field-Tested Strategies for Raising More Money

The Impact Investor: Lessons in Leadership and Strategy for Collaborative Capitalism

Image credits: outcomesnm.org, money.cnn.com, Tom Ralser

Writing fundraising communications is not merely a derivative of commercial marketing, academic writing or business prose. It’s a highly specialized and nuanced technique that requires experience, ongoing testing and specific knowledge about the reader.

Nonprofits that risk taking a casual approach to their fundraising communications or worse, allow someone without context or background change the branding and donor outreach methods entirely, will find themselves recovering lost ground for months, sometimes years minecraft pe skins zum downloaden.

The donor relationship equity built over the lifetime of an organization should not be taken lightly world herunterladen. Author Jeff Brooks encourages you to apply his proven strategies for raising more money and avoid jarring tactics that jeopardize donor relationships.

In Brooks’ latest book, The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications: Real-World Field-Tested Strategies for Raising More Money (www.EmersonandChurch.com, 2012), he skillfully and entertainingly instructs you in an easy and informative manner about everything you need to know about fundraising communications herunterladen.

To wax on or not to wax on

In this post, I want to highlight one of many elements he covers in the book under “Writing Style.” Brooks tackles the debate over the length of your content and that longer messaging allows for effective use of repetition and storytelling.

What donors really want in your fundraising messages

Even though it is counterintuitive, longer messages, when tested, work better than shorter ones kann keine apps herunterladen windows 10. When donors are asked whether they want short or long messages, they assert they want shorter ones. But actual donor behavior favors the longer messages.

No one really knows why, but theories include the following: A longer appeal can contain multiple triggers or opportunities to relay a message, such as a visualization of a life-threatening need or emphasis on a problem, and a longer message holds more weight, among others fonts for powerpoint.

The two essential characteristics in the best longer messages include:

Stories: You can flesh out your stories in longer messages to deliver more vivid images.

Repetition: This will help your readers get the message clearly. Here is an outline Brooks gives for your message:

Introduction: Why I’m writing to you herunterladen.

Ask.

Why your gift is so important today.

Ask.

How much impact your gift will have.

Ask.

Story that demonstrates the need.

Ask.

Remind the donor of his values and connection with the cause.

Ask.

Another story.

Ask.

Help the donor visualize what will happen when she gives herunterladen.

Ask.

Conclusion: Thank the donor for caring.

Ask again.

If you haven’t picked up on Brooks’ theme here, let me spell it out for you. Longer messages let you repeat your ask and frame it in several ways, increasing your chances for triggering the response you’re looking for. Additionally, stories have greater potential when they can be expanded with more detail and emotion raumgestaltung 3d kostenlos downloaden.

Why do fundraisers get it wrong when writing solicitations?

Content length is simply one of numerous techniques Brooks covers for fundraisers who find themselves in the communications role. Let’s pull back from this specific writing style example and introduce one of Brooks’ answers to our question about why so many fundraisers get it wrong when crafting an appeal sims 4 gratis downloaden voor mac. Here’s what he said:

CausePlanet: Jeff, thank you for writing this book that clearly emphasizes the best ways to write fundraising materials, contrary to many common beliefs. Why do you think so many fundraisers are so misguided and write unsuccessful solicitations?

Jeff Brooks: Almost everyone who enters the fundraising profession comes from somewhere else herunterladen. Those who realize they’re in a new world and seek to understand it quickly learn how to do effective fundraising. Those who aren’t curious and open-minded, who insist on bringing the conventions of another discipline (such as commercial marketing), fail repeatedly and spectacularly.

The other source of unsuccessful fundraising is “Fundraising From Yourself”–the belief that if it’s persuasive to me, it’s good. That NEVER works. You have to aim at donors, and that always means you won’t find the message compelling.

See this book, Page to Practice summary and other relevant titles:

The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications: Real-World Field-Tested Strategies for Raising More Money

The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving

Seeing Through A Donor’s Eyes

How to Write Fundraising Materials That Raise More Money

Image credits: EmersonandChurch.com, leonlogosthetis.com, allisoncarmichael.com, thedailywalk.org

“Your fundraising program reflects the effectiveness of your overall organization visitenkarten design vorlagen kostenlos herunterladen. It’s a litmus test of your viability,” explains author Laurence Pagnoni.

He laments that too often fundraising programs exist in a silo, meaning the fundraiser works in isolation and the fundraising programs are not embedded into the fabric of other organizational operations and initiatives panoramabilder herunterladen.

Over-reliance on rudimentary fundraising and lack of teamwork among board, staff and CEO

Most nonprofits that are envious of high-performing organizations with robust fundraising programs are usually reliant on one dominant funding source for too many years, renew rudimentary or sleepy grant programs, operate planned giving on a “self-serve” basis, and have a board that doesn’t work efficiently as a team with the CEO and staff herunterladen.

What to do when your board is hot or cold with fundraising

While a chief concern is a cohesive board, CEO and staff, another primary focus Pagnoni emphasizes is, of course, fundraising video from facebook download mobile phone. In his book, The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution, Pagnoni discusses what to do when your board’s core strength is fundraising and what to do when the core strength is not fundraising write programs for free chip.

First, do a little detective work

To take an organization to the next level, a board and CEO must align themselves around the strategic plan, where both parties have a deep understanding of the vision alle fotos aus icloud downloaden. Then, Pagnoni emphasizes finding your board’s core strength (e.g., fundraising, compliance, etc.) through conversations, a perusal of board minutes, attendance at meetings, and possibly a self-assessment kartenspiele kostenlosen windows 10.

The cold shoulder

If a board’s core strength is not fundraising, Pagnoni suggests these steps “in their ideal order of execution”:

1)      Recruit a fundraising professional for the board mein zuhause spiel herunterladen.

2)      Implement a development or fundraising plan.

3)      Establish gift acceptance policies and use them (i.e., which kind of gifts you’ll accept) spanische hörbücher kostenlos downloaden.

4)      Develop the necessary committee structure (at least a development committee and possibly an events committee or planned giving committee) font calibri for free.

5)      Prepare an annual ROI report.

6)      Direct volunteers to fundraising activities they feel lie within their strengths (e.g., good writers write appeal letters; good talkers solicit donations verbally).

A warm reception

If your board’s core strength is fundraising, follow these methods:

1)      Campaign more.

2)      Explore comprehensive giving with top donors (e.g., annual, stretch and planned gifts).

3)      Review your development plan and address a longer period of growth over 10 to 25 years.

4)      Execute more detailed business planning.

5)      Go deeper into one dominant and minor source of revenue, instead of diversifying, since going deeper may prove more lucrative with a good fundraising board.

6)      Develop subcommittees to report to the development committee.

7)      Ensure that strong connections are created between all your various fundraising tactics (e.g., events program connects with the individualized giving program).

8)      Make routine use of external consultants to infuse talent.

Let your relaxed confidence emerge, be nimble and keep an eye on ethics

When it comes to fundraising in harmony with your board whether they embrace or sidestep fundraising, Pagnoni emphasizes identifying solutions that fit your own challenges. He says, “Each person must find his own fundraising path and use his own experience, infused with best practices. What I’ve offered [in my book] are my own experiences based on best practices. Many people ‘want to do it right,’ and I’d rather see a more relaxed confidence emerge where you try a few things, evaluate, change course as may be required. So the challenge here is to be nimble with applying the strategies that I outline and always head toward the most ethical ways to raise the most revenue.”

See also:

The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project or Business Venture

The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving

Fundraising the SMART Way™: Predictable, Consistent Income Growth for Your Charity + Website

Image credits: ca.citizenrelations.com, discoverindulgence.com, sharpologist.com

Last week we introduced Laurence Pagnoni’s notion that “Fundraising is a practitioner’s craft. It requires the intuition of the artist and inquisitiveness of the scientist.” The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution author adds there is no one-size-fits-all method of fundraising; every organization has a unique mission and strategy for supporting its mission herunterladen.

Don’t ignore what you can’t see

While each fundraising program is different, what remains consistent among celebrated revenue results is the connection to a strong organizational culture. You might be asking, “Why are we talking about culture when this is a post about Pagnoni’s book on fundraising downloadhelper firefox herunterladen? He says, “Ignore organizational culture at your own peril because you won’t get depth in the fundraising program unless the culture is aligned with the fundraising goals.”

Pagnoni asserts, “Your organization will do better by seeing itself as a multifaceted entity with fundraising entrenched firmly at its center. Why? Because the barriers to better fundraising performance are, so often, the same obstacles to organizational growth.”

After giving you some essential guidance on the conversation you should be having with leadership about fundraising’s role in the organization, Pagnoni focuses on the organizational connection with tactical strategies for improving your advanced fundraising efforts in constituency building, face-to-face cultivation, challenge gifts and other tools, year-end giving, social media, leadership councils, corporate giving and major gift campaigns herunterladen. In short, the book leads with the importance of organizational strength for optimal fundraising and closes with a punch on fundraising strategies.

This week, I wanted to highlight year-end appeals because it’s never too early to think about when we raise the most funds: December.

Year-end giving

One of every three dollars is donated to nonprofits in the month of December due to income taxes, financial planning and the holiday season. Hopefully, says Pagnoni, you have contacted your donors eight times that year to prepare for the year-end ask.

Here are the steps in a successful year-end drive in chronological order:

Thanksgiving Thank-A-Thon: Board members, staff and volunteers call to thank donors, personally connect and answer any questions a week before Thanksgiving either on a weekend afternoon or weekday early evening.

First year-end appeal letter mailed out the week of your Thank-A-Thon: Customize to include the giving history of each donor. Include emotional stories about beneficiaries as well as numbers served and numbers of those who will be served in the future. Ask for a 50 percent increase from the last donation and include a reply envelope and pledge. You can use a mailing house to organize all these items. You can also target lapsed donors. Make sure you have updated your donor database. The author provides a list of resources that can help gauge your donor’s giving potential, such as Blackbaud for prospect research. In addition, post your appeal letter on your website so donors can contribute online as well. Tell your donors how much you appreciate them and how they can make a specific difference and be transparent about how you spend the money.

Second year-end appeal letter mailed between the first and third week of December: Add new highlights and do not send to donors who responded to your first letter. After 30 days, send a “Haven’t Heard from You…” postcard. Let them know what you’ve accomplished but also how much more needs to be done and the cost.

Last four days of the year online: Email your donors every day for the last four days telling stories about your organization. Remind them of the December 31 tax-exemption deadline.

January follow-up: Thank the top 20 percent of your donors and send out tax receipts. You can survey donors, too, on how they would like to be contacted.

Donor meetings to discuss major gifts: 80 percent of your funding typically comes from 20 percent of your donors. Segment your donors to set up personal meetings with the top 20 percent.

We asked Laurence Pagnoni about the most common objection to linking culture and fundraising:

CausePlanet: What is your most common objection to the prerequisite of great culture for effective fundraising? What has been your response in the past?

Pagnoni: So many objections, it’s hard to say which is the most common! One could easily say, “People don’t want change.” Maybe. I often hear, “We don’t have the funds for that,” but even when they do, many clients have stayed stuck. If I had to pick one objection, I’d say it’s not understanding that the vision of where we want to be really does start with me, whoever I happen to be in the organization, whether the janitor or the CEO. Without a vision the people perish, so says the Proverb.

Choose a vision for your year-end appeals and consider one or more of Pagnoni’s six-step process. Better yet, have the conversation about culture and create a climate for your appeals to succeed.

See also:

The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project or Business Venture

The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving

Fundraising the SMART Way™: Predictable, Consistent Income Growth for Your Charity + Website

The Essential Guide to End-of-Year Fundraising

Image credits: Amacom books, ccsfundraising.com, fundraising123.org

“Fundraising is a practitioner’s craft township herunterladen kostenlos. It requires the intuition of the artist and inquisitiveness of the scientist,” says The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution author Laurence Pagnoni netflix series. He adds there is no one-size-fits-all method of fundraising; every organization has a unique mission and strategy for supporting its mission.

What’s the common denominator among successful fundraising programs herunterladen?

While every revenue-generating program is unique, Pagnoni firmly establishes the common denominator between every thriving fundraising effort: Organizational development and successful fundraising are inextricably linked android photos. He asserts, “Your organization will do better by seeing itself as a multifaceted entity with fundraising entrenched firmly at its center. Why? Because the barriers to better fundraising performance are, so often, the same obstacles to organizational growth.”

Pagnoni’s book focuses on this premise and strengthens the organizational connection with tactical strategies for improving your advanced fundraising efforts in constituency building, face-to-face cultivation, challenge gifts and other tools, year-end giving, social media, leadership councils, corporate giving and major gift campaigns norisbank.

Pagnoni defines three aspects of organizational culture that directly affect fundraising:

Dominant source of revenue vs eggwars downloaden. multiple revenue streams: If a culture is not open to diversifying its revenue streams, it cannot possibly get to the next level.

Inward or outward focus: Inwardly focused organizations manage their programs with little concern for the surrounding community settlers 7 for free in full version. Outwardly focused organizations concentrate on marketing, advertising, branding and other types of community outreach. Either extreme can become dangerous, in that the organization either if inwardly focused, loses touch with the community and other fundraising opportunities or if outwardly focused, loses touch with the social problem it is addressing as it works solely on its image herunterladen.

Capacity of an organization to revisit its fundamental assumptions: These assumptions can relate to streams of revenue, inward/outward focus or anything that relates to moving forward image editing windows 7 free download.

We asked Pagnoni in our author interview about how to begin the culture conversation with leadership in order to facilitate better fundraising:

CausePlanet: What’s the best way for a fundraiser to motivate her organizational leadership to consider overhauling culture as a precursor to meeting revenue goals icq ton herunterladen?

Pagnoni: At the end of the day, there is nothing anyone can do to motivate someone else. The people in question must choose to motivate themselves. Recently a trustee told me, “I don’t think the board wants the organizational transformation you’re describing. They are fine with it the way it is.” “So be it,” I said, “but please realize the unintentional consequences of that position.” In this case, it was predictable that only modest fundraising increases would occur, nothing near their potential. It was my job as their fundraising counsel to show them the bar, but it was their job to be motivated to achieve it.

CausePlanet: Which organizational circumstances present the best opportunities for fundraisers to prompt a discussion about changing the culture?

Pagnoni: When a CEO leaves, that’s an opportunity for a self-reflection assessment. Or, perhaps when a new development committee chairperson comes on. Most healthy organizations have some sort of annual planning process within which this conversation can occur. Peter Drucker once cautioned that company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you’ve got. So as you can see, there’s a spectrum to live on—from changing culture, to modifying it, to accepting it as it is, to shaking the dust and leaving it behind.

Pagnoni’s discussion about the importance of culture for successful fundraising is a refreshing and helpful section in part one of this book. Part two carries its own weight with numerous proven strategies and tactics to upgrade your new or existing plan. I found this book to be an innovative balance of big picture organizational matters like the connection between culture and fundraising and prescriptive guidance on how to implement a variety of revenue-generating programs.

Join us next week when I’ll share Pagnoni’s year-end giving appeal ideas. It’s not too early (or late) to work these concepts into your plan.

See also:

The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project or Business Venture

The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving

Fundraising the SMART Way™: Predictable, Consistent Income Growth for Your Charity + Website

Image credits: Amacom books, therainmaker.blog.com, nonprofitchangeagents.com

Picture this: you’re in the middle of presenting your proposal and a person at the far end of the table raises her hand alle bilder einer facebook seiteen. “I’m not even sure the ‘problem’ you’re describing exists, or is a big deal at all!” How do you deal with that?

From reading your responses to my previous posts, I find that many people aren’t able to even reach the point where they can debate the merits of their proposal google herunterladen download kostenlos. Many get bogged down in the quagmire of trying to effectively communicate the nature and extent of the problem. If you can’t do that, it doesn’t much matter what your proposal is driver for hp printer for free. People aren’t going to consider anything until they are convinced there is a problem that truly needs to be addressed.

Have you made the problem feel real herunterladen?

In scenarios like this, I’ve found that it’s effective to highlight the problem and the people affected by it in a way that makes the problem feel real fritzbox zertifikat herunterladen. What’s less effective — and far more common — is to make a dry business case that, even if correct, is usually less persuasive and less memorable than it needs to be windows xp professional download free full version german.

424 gloves drive the message home

On this topic, one story I’ve always liked (from my book The Heart of Change) I affectionately call “Gloves on the Boardroom Table.” A large organization had an inefficient purchasing process, and one mid-level executive believed that money was constantly being wasted with each of the organization’s factories handling their own purchases medianav toolbox downloaden. He thought there could be tremendous savings from consolidating the procurement effort. He put together a “business case” for change but it went nowhere where you can download royalty-free images. His boss said that senior executives didn’t feel it was truly a big problem, especially with so many other daily challenges taking up their time herunterladen.

So the manager had an idea: he collected the 424 different kinds of work gloves the factories collectively purchased and tagged each one with its different price and supplier word 365 download all fonts. He carted the gloves in and dumped them on the boardroom table before a senior
executive team meeting. He first showed the pile to his boss, who was taken aback by this powerful visual display of the waste inherent in having dozens of different factories negotiate different deals for the items they needed!

The boss showed the CEO, who scrapped the meeting agenda to talk about procurement because what he was looking at was so memorable, so compelling, and so real. It galvanized the executives to action. Ultimately, they overhauled their procurement process and saved a great deal of money.

See, feel, change

I’ve called the process used here See, Feel, and Change, as opposed to Analyze, Think, and Change. The latter is all head, no heart, and often fails to motivate people to recognize the importance of a given problem. It’s too easily forgotten or ignored if it doesn’t feel real.

Highlight the personal, real consequences of the problem you want people to see

So what is my everyday advice if you can’t always collect, catalogue, and cart around 424 pairs of gloves? One way is to highlight the real, personal consequences of the problem you want people to see, and to highlight the real people who suffer because of it.

My newer book, Buy-In: Saving Your Good Ideas From Getting Shot Down, features a story of someone presenting a plan to provide new computers for a local library. When dissenters don’t listen because they don’t think there is a problem with the current computers, the presenter has two options. He could use PowerPoint slides to compare the library’s computers to current computer models sold in stores, showing the difference in processing power, memory capacity, and modem speed. Or he could relate the true story of a local fourth-grader from a poor family who relies on the library’s computers for homework — computers that are too slow and outdated to allow her to finish her assignments, leaving her underprepared for school.

Which case would you find more compelling? Which case makes the problem feel real?

See also:

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Ideas From Getting Shot Down

Influential Fundraiser: Using the Psychology of Persuasion to Achieve Outstanding Results

To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Image credits: Harvard Business Review, harborfreight, channelview

“We need to get our message across.” This is a common refrain by many nonprofits leaders and never has it been more relevant, given the current economic situation. In any organization, marketing and communications resources are usually the first budgets to be cut. However, getting your message across and getting people to act on your message has never been more important. Thoughtful, sophisticated communication and organizational transparency are hallmarks that constituents have come to expect from effective nonprofits herunterladen. You can’t afford to fall silent if you want your organization to retain and engage its constituents.

Who: Who is my target audience wordpress download windows? Who should I reach out to?
What: What should I communicate? What is my message?
How: How do I get my message out (i.e. Web sites, blogs, email newsletters, etc.)?
When: I just don’t have the time with everything else on my plate …

These “Who, What, How and When” questions focus on the symptoms, but not necessarily the cause of an organization’s communications challenges. It’s important for today’s nonprofit leader to keep a broader mission-focused perspective when developing a communications strategy.

For a lasting message, stay focused on your organization’s mission, not passing fads opera browser kostenlos. Your organization’s messaging needs to be tied to your mission and to the broader organizational strategies and programs you coordinate in order to accomplish that mission.

One way to ensure your message is in synch with your mission is to revisit your mission statement and make sure you have the proper strategies or programs in place to actively achieve it. This may include creating new strategies or programs that will help you maintain your constituents’ support and sustain your organization during these tough times.

Stay relevant

Don’t try to reach everyone

Don’t neglect your staff

Moreover, keep in mind that your organization’s staff is usually the most important element in your brand, so making sure they can speak to constituents about the conditions your organization faces is very important. At a minimum, your staff should know how to respond to constituents’ questions and who to refer to when a question reaches beyond their knowledge.

Embrace new methods

Review, adapt and repeat

While the suggestions above are nothing new, they should guide your organization’s communications planning, regardless of the size or budget of your organization. Staying connected with your constituents will help your organization weather today’s challenging economic climate. Times are tough, but do not bury your head in the sand. On the contrary, it is time to let people know your organization is still on the job.

“When you ask for money you are not taking something away; you are giving someone the opportunity to feel good,” explains author and fundraising consultant Laura Fredricks herunterladen. When you’ve asked your donor when they’re ready, that good feeling can be multiplied. While donor readiness may seem like a foregone conclusion because you’re ready to ask, Fredricks emphasizes there’s more to understanding a donor’s level of readiness feuerherz alben kostenlos downloaden. More importantly, if your donor isn’t ready, the likelihood of getting a “yes” is severely diminished.

We recently added Fredricks’ latest edition of The Ask: How to Ask for Support for Your Nonprofit Cause, Creative Project or Business Venture (Jossey-Bass, 2014) to our CausePlanet list of recommended reading for nonprofit leaders märchen herunterladen gratis. Join me in taking a closer look at Fredrick’s “readiness formula.”

When to ask

Fredricks provides the following readiness formula to determine when to ask people: education+involvement+cultivation+inclination+assets=the right time to ask. The larger the gift in question, the more of every element a person needs. Every person may require a different quality and quantity of cultivation, depending on the involvement he seeks and time needed to make his decision.

Fredricks gives several specific suggestions regarding the formula that are worth highlighting here:

1) Effective cultivation often involves interacting with prospects around their hobbies or interests, such as sending a golf article to a golfer.

2) Some prospects want to “giv[e] to a forward-moving train,” or know your organization is transformational and sustainable, whereas some don’t want you to “waste” your money on them and are more distant, so cultivation looks very different for these two types of people.

3) To determine “inclination,” ask this open-ended question: “Laura, when and if you were able to do something that was meaningful and significant to you with our [organization], what would that look like?” Then, you can ascertain whether the prospect is thinking of money at all.

4) Listen to your prospects to determine a match (“matching the person’s key interest in your group with a funding opportunity”).

5) With assets, do not rely solely on prospect research because it may not reveal all assets, and do not mistake assets for inclination. Gather how prospects spend their money through conversations.

Finally, if a person does not possess all the characteristics (e.g., low involvement due to time or personal conflicts or a difficult economic time) it still may be appropriate to ask for money, since this formula is a guideline. Simply use “gentleness, empathy, and understanding.” Ask people how they are doing in an economic downturn, for example, and give them an opportunity to feel good supporting their community. “In very hard times the only thing people can control is their community.” Also, offer to make it easier or give more time for the prospect during a difficult time, while still stressing the importance of your cause.

See also:

Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World

Donor-Centered Planned Gift Marketing

A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members

Image credit: ocwtp.net, myfertilitychoices.com, gopixpic.com

“Asking is an essential and fundamentally important part of anyone’s life,” says The Ask author, Laura Fredricks zoom cloud meeting app herunterladen. “If you are involved with a nonprofit in a primary, part-time or volunteer position, you need to know how to ask for money. Particularly when economic times are challenging, everyone needs to be involved in the fundraising effort—not just the hired fundraiser.”

When we asked Laura Fredricks where nonprofit leaders most commonly experience challenges when asking someone for support, she answered, “Asking for a specific dollar amount.”

This answer emphasizes Fredricks’ earlier point that every ask should be treated as its own specific campaign schreibprogramm online herunterladen. Fredricks adds, “Raising money takes organization, structure and focus because every person we want to engage deserves our dedicated time, attention and passion so that we can inspire him/her to be our lasting partner and key supporter.”

In recent posts, we’ve highlighted Fredricks’ emphasis on follow-up and ideal characteristics of the asker herunterladen. In light of her response about asking for a specific amount and the importance of organization, structure and focus, today we’re looking at the elements that must be considered in advance of the Ask and that point toward preparation, such as the setting, the appointment and the “role of paper” in the Ask ringtones for free.

The setting

The location of the Ask should be one where both parties feel comfortable and that is quiet with no distractions zoom aufnahmeen. The ideal places are those where you have met during cultivation, including the home or office of the person being asked, a private room at the organization, the CEO’s office or a private club herunterladen.

Avoid making the Ask where food is involved unless the person is only available during meal times because the distractions increase with wait staff and fellow diners and you have to deal with the check herunterladen. Also avoid the following: cell phones and other noisy devices; glaring sunlight or other lights; background or outside noise from computers, music, other people, traffic, etc.; and asking in a public space like an elevator google chrome 32 bit downloaden.

You must dress crisply and professionally and emit positive energy and enthusiasm. Also, pay attention to your body language and tone of voice mad world kostenlos herunterladen. Sit upright, make eye contact and don’t fidget or chew gum. Your voice should be clear and convincing.

Making the appointment

Fredricks discusses how to make an appointment for the Ask, using this example: “Brandon, I’d like to meet with you in the next week or so to continue our discussion on how you can make a real difference with the organization call of duty 1 kostenlos downloaden vollversion deutsch pc. I have a few ideas that I’d like to share with you in person. We generally meet at your office at 8:00 a.m., so can we meet there early next week?” The conversation should state the purpose, either tying it to a previous discussion topic or a new one, and share how the person can make a difference. The asker should make the appointment via phone, not via email, as well. If the person is reluctant to set up the meeting, he is not ready so more cultivation is necessary. Also, confirm the date, time and place a day before the meeting.

The role of paper

If the Ask is for a large amount, a proposal should be written, which includes the purpose of the gift, the amount, detailed budget for the program or project, how it can be funded, the benefits it will bring, etc. Fredricks clearly states her recommendations: 1) Do not send the proposal before the Ask. Always ask in person first. 2) Don’t give the paperwork in person until after the Ask or it may serve as a distraction. 3) You can always send the paperwork afterward, addressing all concerns, and include a thank-you note.

Learn more about Laura Fredricks’ guidance for the entire Ask process in her book where you can determine how to select the right people at the right time and in the right location to make the Ask. You can also gather solutions to a myriad of responses to the Ask through sample dialogs and apply the author’s guidance on the crucial business of follow-up.

See also:

Fundraising the SMART Way

Fundraising When Money Is Tight

To Sell Is Human

Image credits: hgtv.com, gailperry.com, cmedialab.org

Despite the immense amount of focus we place on understanding the art of asking for support, it continues to keep us treading water and occasionally dipping our heads below the surface. The Ask author, Laura Fredricks, would argue one of the most commonly overlooked elements of the Ask is follow-up—yes, follow-up netflix movies on mac. Many fundraisers don’t realize that the preparation for and conducting the Ask is 25 percent of the process and follow-up is 75 percent!

Fredricks stresses there is a real method, organization and key sequence of steps to take before, during and after the solicitation. Ask yourself if your fundraising prospects are experiencing consistent cultivation, presentation and follow-up that address your organizational needs herunterladen.

After the Ask, you do not want to give your prospect unlimited space and time and let her contact you because you need to have a system and timeline after all the cultivation work you’ve done.

Fredricks provides 10 recommended steps after each Ask:

1. Thank the person immediately after you have discussed and addressed the response lustige werbespots kostenlos downloaden.
2. Convey to the person asked the importance of her decision, the impact it will have, and the reason why it is important to make the gift or investment or decision now as opposed to later (e.g., numbers of people affected). This should relate urgency, not desperation, and should not make people feel guilty. Just lay out the facts of where you are and where you need to be.
3. Set a time and date when you are going to follow up with the Ask.
4. Send a personal thank-you for meeting with you and taking the time to consider the Ask.
5. Call the person the next day and thank him for meeting with you. Ask if he needs any additional information or would want to meet with anyone else in the organization to help make his decision.
6. Immediately send any additional information requested or data, budgets or testimonials that might be helpful.
7. Mix up the communication and the communicator to vary who contacts the person and what s/he says.
8. Tell the person about any new gifts that have occurred while he is deciding to convey strength in numbers.
9. Try to get the person to come to the organization to meet with your beneficiaries or see a new program.
10. Stay positive throughout the entire follow-up process and treat the person as if she is going to say “yes.”

Does your tracking allow for follow-up and what does that column look like?

Not following up will waste all your research and cultivation time. So, it is necessary to pick a comfortable number of prospects to work with and develop a system to track everything. Fredricks provides a chart with the following columns to help: name, research, cultivation, pre-Ask conversation, Ask response, follow-up and stewardship. Since follow-up should take 75 percent of your time, as compared to 25 percent of your time dedicated to preparation and the Ask, your column under follow-up should be longer and filled with more activities and points of contact.

You can see if you are treating your prospects evenly with this chart and whether people are bottlenecking at certain stages, such as cultivation, and you need to move them along. Also, everyone involved in the Ask needs to have the time to follow up. If you cannot complete your follow-up, you need to cut out the people you are asking to focus on this more. Finally, the author gives you some trouble-shooting tips that help with situations that involve difficulty reaching the person asked, length of time you should wait (a few months is a long time; a year is unreasonable), a transfer of the decision to family members or an advisor, and more.

We asked Fredricks about follow-up in our author interview:

CausePlanet: There is a surprising lack of literature about the importance of follow-up in donor solicitations. We’re delighted to see you’ve addressed it in your book. What are some important reminders for nonprofit leaders that might motivate them to place a priority on this area?

Laura Fredricks: You are leaving $$$$ on the table because you do not have solid steps to close it. My BIGGEST tip: Donors leave clues and we miss every one of them. Pay attention to how they communicate and the frequency with which they communicate and follow up on their patterns.

Consider your Ask follow-up as part of your pre-solicitation plan. Determine how you’ll keep your prospect engaged with your organization long after they say “yes” or “no.” Learn more about Laura Fredricks’ guidance for the entire Ask process in her book where you can determine how to select the right people at the right time and in the right location to make the Ask. You can also gather solutions to a myriad of responses to the Ask through sample dialogs and apply the author’s guidance on the crucial business of follow-up.

See also:

Fundraising the SMART Way

Fundraising When Money Is Tight

To Sell Is Human

Image credits: wikihow.com, artsbusinessinstitute.com, vergesstartups.com