CausePlanet Blog

This is my favorite time of year for many reasons bestanden downloaden van soundcloud. One of them is our chance to look back at a great year of book choices for our readers.

It’s also the hardest time of the year because we choose books that stand out among the rest updates nicht automatisch herunterladen. Now, this may seem like an easy task but it isn’t. Choosing from titles that are already among our favorites is like choosing a favorite child. Thankfully, the challenging task is tempered by the fact that we know you love these awards netflix folgen am mac herunterladen. Thank you for the wonderful feedback when we launched this designation last year.

All our Choice Award titles are chosen based on the following criteria: original insights, inspirational content, well-organized and easy-to-follow format, voice, applicability, and strong evidence of case stories and/or exhibits income tax return 2019.

Our Choice Awards for 2015 go to the following authors:

The Sustainability Mindset by Steve Zimmerman and Jeanne Bell
This book not only effectively argues the importance of having financial and programming discussions within the same conversation, but the authors also provide a proven framework designed to guide the process toward sound decision-making herunterladen. Thanks to matrix mapping, your leaders can leave the guesswork out of strategic planning.

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook by Jayne Cravens and Susan Ellis
Cravens and Ellis do a wonderful job of addressing how volunteering has changed so dramatically over the years that calling out the notion of virtual volunteering is no longer necessary because this form of giving has meshed with traditional volunteering funny sounds. This thorough guidebook is the resource for anyone managing volunteers.

Global Fundraising: How the World Is Changing the Rules of Philanthropy edited by Penelope Cagney and Bernard Ross
Cagney and Ross create a rare and fascinating look at what types of fundraising are working all over the world windows media player 11en gratis nederlands. In a telescoping society that’s facilitated by technology, nonprofits’ reach is farther than ever before. This book helps you gather context for your fundraising efforts and consider what’s influencing your donors outside of traditional boundaries and borders beihilfe app herunterladen.
On behalf of the CausePlanet team, we would like to thank these authors and the company of authors they share who’ve contributed so much to the sector in which we work bfv spielplan herunterladen. We hope our Page to Practice™ book summaries have inspired you to engage in deeper reading and make better book choices. Don’t forget—December is Read a New Book Month ps3 games download multiman. Choose one of these titles or any of the great recommendations in our book summary library and work smarter in 2016.

See also:

The Sustainability Mindset: Using the Matrix Map to Make Strategic Decisions

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: Fully Integrating Online Service into Volunteer Involvement

Global Fundraising: How the World Is Changing the Rules of Philanthropy

We recently interviewed Tom Ralser about Asking Rights, which explores the differences between emotional and rational asks civilization 6 download. Ralser explains that emotional asks have their place at the lower end of the gift pyramid but a rational approach is preferable for bigger solicitations movies netflix computer.

Find out what Ralser has to say about emotional versus rational appeals: Tom Ralser on Emotional Versus Rational Appeals

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

We talked about outcomes in our interview: Tom Ralser on Outcomes-Based Approach

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 kostenlose spiele zum downloaden für kinder. Asking Rights explores how to successfully fund your nonprofit and do so with a greater focus on and understanding of the funder’s interests and motivations musik herunterladen programm.

Learn more about Tom and the premise of the book: Tom Ralser on Asking Rights

See this book and other relevant titles we’ve summarized:

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

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

Fundraising with Businesses: 40 New and Improved Strategies for Nonprofits

How to Write Fundraising Materials That Raise More Money

Ever wonder what makes some of your interactions successful and others failures pubg gratis downloaden?

Give and Take author Adam Grant also wanted to know this answer so he spent 10 years of his life studying the professional choices of leaders from all walks of life schriften mac.

What he found were givers, takers and matchers. Grant’s startling discovery is that givers dominate both the top and bottom of the success ladder herunterladen. Grant explores compelling research that illustrates how—in spite of the risk—giving is more powerful than people believe. Grant’s book examines the special behavior that’s characteristic of the givers at the top.

The importance of our interactions

Adam Grant explains that highly successful people have three things in common: motivation, ability and opportunity. He argues that a fourth ingredient is often neglected. This characteristic involves how we approach our interactions with other people. “Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make: Do we try to claim as much value as we can, or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return?”

Your mix of giving and taking affects your success

During the last 30 years, social scientists have discovered that people differ dramatically in their preferences for reciprocity. In other words, their desired mix of taking and giving. In order to further uncover differences along the reciprocity spectrum, Grant introduces the two types of people who fall at the opposite ends of the range, as well as the one in the middle. He calls them givers, takers and matchers.

Givers

Givers are rare and prefer to give more than they get. Givers are “other-focused, paying more attention to what other people need from them.” Grant recognizes that givers don’t earn this distinction because they give more charity dollars or demand less pay at work; rather, givers help whenever the benefits to others exceed the personal costs. Ultimately, they strive to be generous with their time, energy, knowledge, skills, ideas and connections. To illustrate giving, Grant cites psychologist Margaret Clark’s research at Yale which concludes that most people act like givers in close relationships. For example, in marriages and friendships, we contribute without keeping score.

Takers

Takers, on the other hand, have a distinctive signature, explains Grant. Not only do they like to get more than they give, they “tilt reciprocity in their own favor, putting their own interests ahead of others’ needs.” Grant adds, “Takers believe the world is a competitive dog-eat-dog place. They feel that to succeed, they need to be better than others. To prove their competence, they self-promote and make sure they get plenty of credit for their efforts.” The author tempers this description by explaining this group isn’t cruel or cutthroat, they are just cautious and self-protective.

Matchers

In contrast, the workplace produces behavior that’s neither purely giving nor taking. “We become matchers, striving to preserve an equal balance of giving and getting. Matchers operate on the principle of fairness: when they help others, they protect themselves by seeking reciprocity.” In short, your relationships at work are ruled by an even exchange of favors.

Who is the most successful? Grant discovers a surprising pattern.

Giving, taking and matching are three fundamental styles of social interaction but Grant explains they aren’t hard and fast because people can shift from one style to another as they move from one setting to another. Professionally, all three reciprocity styles have their own benefits and drawbacks, states Grant.

However, one style in particular is not only more successful than the others, but can also experience failure if the person is constantly yielding to others or gives to the point of exhaustion. Givers are most likely to land at the bottom of the success ladder, but Grant discovered a surprising pattern:

Givers are also most likely to be at the top. “Givers dominate the bottom and the top of the success ladder. Across occupations, if you examine the link between reciprocity styles and successes, the givers are more likely to become champs—not only chumps.”

What kind of connector will you be? Perhaps during this timely week in November, it would be better to think about Thanksgiving than Thanksgetting.

See also:

It’s Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life (and Your Organization) by Turning Colleagues and Contacts Into Lasting, Genuine Relationships

Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World

Nine Minutes on Monday: The Quick and Easy Way to Go from Manager to Leader

Image credits: penguin.com, mom2summit.com, filesdirect.com

Amy Eisenstein has answered the burning question so many smaller charities ask themselves when observing the best practices of larger organizations: “Can we run a successful major gifts effort when we’re so much smaller?”

Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops answers this question in four parts that begin with creating a culture conducive to giving and end with retention stadtpläne zumen. Eisenstein takes her promise one step further by assuring readers they can run a major gifts program working five hours per week. Even doubtful readers’ concerns are put to rest when they find an addendum at the end of the book that helps them find the five hours per week video ipad downloaden.

Why Eisenstein felt compelled to write this book

Major Gifts author Amy Eisenstein began thinking about how to help smaller nonprofits enjoy the success of major gift fundraising in 2013 when she launched the Major Gifts Challenge herunterladen. The Major Gifts Challenge was the title of a blog series she provided for her readers with the intent of sharing the entire process of identifying, researching, stewarding and asking prospects for major gifts.

The results were amazing.

Nonprofit professionals who had never considered major gifts started experimenting and discovering something Eisenstein learned many years ago: Major gift fundraising is far more efficient and takes far less time and effort than special events or writing and administering grants.

We asked Amy Eisenstein more about the Major Gift Challenge and what barrier she likes to focus on for small shops:

CausePlanet: Amy, thank you for tackling what we think many smaller nonprofits wonder: “Can we really run a major gifts program in our smaller nonprofit?” You talked about how the Major Gift Challenge prompted the book. What triggered you to launch the Challenge on your blog?

Eisenstein: I was concerned about small nonprofits being stuck on the hamster wheel of grant writing and event planning. I want to see all nonprofits raise significantly more money, and I believe it can only happen through a major gifts effort.

Amy Eisenstein

Sometimes the difficulty comes with just getting started, so I challenged (via the Major Gifts Challenge on my blog) organizations to get started by dedicating a few hours each week to raising major gifts.

CausePlanet: Can you share an example of one of your favorite small-shop strategies that involves a method to overcome the pinch of smaller resources?

Eisenstein: Half the battle is getting over the fear of raising major gifts and simply getting the confidence to get started.  It’s about believing that you can raise major gifts at any organization–and I’ve seen some of the smallest organizations raise five- and even six-figure gifts. It’s also about committing the time to raise major gifts, which is always a real challenge in small shops.

With these stats, it’s hard to look the other way

At the time this book was published, 72 percent of all giving in the U.S. came from individuals, according to the National Philanthropy Trust. Three quarters of U.S. nonprofits have budgets less than $500,000, states the Independent Sector.

When you view these statistics along with the fact that fundraising is among the most important competencies a nonprofit can master, smaller charities should evaluate if major gift fundraising could be one of their possible strategies. Amy Eisenstein firmly believes most small shops can win at the major gifts game and has an impressive following of nonprofit professionals who have adopted her recommendations and succeeded.

See more book summaries on this topic:

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

Donor Cultivation and the Donor Lifecycle Map: A New Framework for Fundraising + Website

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

Image credits: nonprofithub.com, realitysisters.com, Amy Eisenstein

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” American economist and NYU professor Paul Romer was credited for saying in 2004 herunterladen. His sentiment, unfortunately, is appropriate again today as nonprofits throughout the sector learn from tough decisions that help them recover from the Great Recession and what we are now seeing will likely be dubbed, “The Great Correction.”

Many of you are familiar with the notion that negative news often gets repeated more often than positive news herunterladen. This post is an effort to tip the scales toward encouraging information I recently read in The Chronicle of Philanthropy: “How Recession-Racked Charities Emerged Stronger Than Before.”

Paul Romer would be pleased to learn the nonprofit sector did not waste the Great Recession java runtime herunterladen. They’re making good use of it and demonstrating impressive resolve. “Hopeful lessons” are shared in the Chronicle article, and one in particular involves Voices for Children herunterladen. Voices is a nonprofit dedicated to providing every foster child in San Diego County with a volunteer court advocate.

Voices for Children

After laying off a quarter of the staff, the board resigned itself to the fact that it would have to scrap its ambitious fundraising goal set years earlier and rebuild by stepping up with its own members and setting up a skeletal development shop iphone 6 icloud fotos herunterladen. The executive director courted and hired a seasoned development director from the arts arena and paid the fundraiser more than anyone else. Today the budget is approaching $6 million, double the amount of its pre-recession budget apple app storeen. Payroll has reached 73 employees. Voices is now in a better financial position and perhaps better equipped to handle the next economic downturn.

Administrative and space collaborations

Stronger nonprofits have also resulted from collaboratives to share space and administrative resources Check for free full version. For example, in Denver, international development nonprofits renovated a 19^th-century horse and trolley barn, which they call the Posner Center derive downloaden. The Center is a 25,000-square-foot space that now houses 60 nonprofits. According to the Chronicle, “The Center recently awarded $60,000 in grants to fund partnerships among its tenants, including one between Engineers Without Borders and a group that builds footbridges in Guatemala.”

Built to last

In a related article, “Bold Choices in Dark Times,” St windows 10 fotos downloaden. Louis Opera general director Timothy O’Leary was faced with collecting promised pledges on the day the stock market crashed. The donors told him they needed to “trim” their major gift commitments windows 10 kaufen unden. O’Leary reported, “The difference [between pledges and fulfillments] was not unsubstantial.”

On the heels of these discouraging donor visits, O’Leary, the new board chair and artistic director, set to work creating a long-term strategic plan that would weather a long economic crisis. While other arts organizations were reducing schedules and turning to crowd-pleasing classics, the St. Louis opera committed to commissioning new and creative work. O’Leary was convinced new and exciting material would compel loyal patrons to return and support the opera.

“The downturn hit the opera’s corporate sponsorships the hardest, and revenue slipped further when the company reduced its draw from its $16.5-million endowment. To compensate, it froze salaries, suspended staff 401(k) contributions, and renegotiated deals with its unions. Yet as the opera rallied donors around its commitment to risk-taking productions, individual giving climbed — gradually at first, and then 21 percent in 2011.”

In 2013, a commitment to innovation and collaboration paid off with an unprecedented debut of “Champion,” which generated more ticket sales than any other production in the history of the St. Louis opera. “Champion” was named a finalist for international opera of the year. Today, the endowment is now topping $28 million.

Always in crisis

With the Great Recession over and a market correction that hopefully will be fleeting, it might be tempting to try risky ventures or allow yourself some wiggle room with financials. Perhaps the lesson here is that nonprofits should act as if they’re always preparing for a crisis. Look for ways to work smarter and leaner and focus on what’s working and core competencies. If you’re interested in engaging in financial forecasting or looking at different scenarios, consider contacting us at Execute Now! where we can help you assemble a financial plan you can feel confident about following.

Image credits: nonprofitcenters.org, urpe.wordpress.com, nytimes.com

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

One of the passages we liked best in Brooks’ latest book, A Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications, was titled “Self-centric fundraising.”

Simply put, if you like your message, your donor won’t psn store vorbestellung herunterladen. Read on to find out why:

Self-centric fundraising

If you like your fundraising message, asserts Brooks, it will not appeal to your donors. Even if your donors say they like it, it will not compel them to give in real life. “Everyone’s conscious opinions about fundraising are automatically wrong. … Everyone hates the stuff that works best.” This happens because when you practice self-centric fundraising, or what appeals to you as the fundraiser, you lose the emotion because your initial emotional connection to the cause has become more sophisticated and educated as you have worked for the nonprofit.

For example, you may want to talk about global hunger as “food insecurity” after working in the field. A donor would not understand this term at all. In addition, you don’t focus on the donors because you are proud of your organization’s work and want to detail its merits.

Donors, however, want to be part of the equation. Finally, “your copy reads like inter-office memos.” Formal, professional, cold communication does not motivate donors to act. In this kind of copy, you focus on facts: “Please consider supporting the 124 children in our hospital,” instead of a compelling, emotional story about a 6-year-old girl talking about her good-luck bear in her fight against cancer.

In order to avoid these self-centric messages, turn off your personal likes and dislikes in favor of what has worked with donors before, either in your organization or others. Ask if it is emotional, clear and simple, rather than if you like it or not.

In our interview with Brooks, we asked more about what donors want to hear:

CausePlanet: What do you think is the best training fundraisers can receive? They need to be fluent, smooth writers but also need simplicity and an intuition about what donors want to hear.

Brooks: The best possible training is an experienced mentor–someone who knows fundraising inside and out and will go over your work in detail and show you what needs to be done. Read quality books about fundraising. There are a lot of them, and the folks at CausePlanet can help you find the right ones. Also, read a few of the blogs.  There are a lot of them, many of them superb sources of information. Find a blog you like, then add a few more from that blog’s blogroll. Finally, get to know other professionals and talk about stuff. Get involved in your local AFP, and/or go to one of the national conventions. Knowing and talking with other professionals really makes a positive difference.

CausePlanet: What in your research makes fundraisers lose money more than anything?

Brooks: Failing to engage with donors. Asking donors to “stand with us” rather than give them specific actions they can take. Writing in the language and about things that organizational insiders care about, rather than what motivates the donors. Using images that make insiders feel good instead of those that reach donors. Using abstractions and wordplay instead of clear, plain, powerful emotional messaging. Bragging about the organization and its programs instead of making it about the donors.

Read more about this book in our Page to Practice summary and other related 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: dishntell.wp.com, iconarchive.com, goodwp.com

“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

I conducted a straw poll that confirmed my suspicions: Other consultants, executive directors and development directors get the same blank stare from board members that I do when I tell them their job includes an active partnership in raising money. We all know that the economy has created a situation of higher human service needs and, at the same time, a decrease in foundation resources. 

Now, more than ever, board members need to tap into the community philanthropy base that’s out there: individual donors microsoft herunterladen mac. And they are out there. Giving USA’s latest annual report reaffirms a consistent trend–more than 70 percent of philanthropy comes from individual donations, although some people also try to use loans to accomplish their goals.

In this article, I’d like to offer some simple ways to increase your board’s comfort zone and strengthen your board members’ partnership with you and your organization to impact the bottom line. I’ll be relentlessly repeating the three important components of a successful individual donor effort: Acquire, Retain and Upgrade. Your board may need some support in cultivating donors herunterladen. Make their job as easy and effective as possible. As with any motivational strategy, the more your board members get positive results, the more enthusiastic they will be to continue their participation.

Develop your key messages

Work with your board on simple, consistent messages that will convey to prospects that your organization:

Is differentiated and unique from other organizations;

Will use their investment efficiently;

Provides programming with measurable results; and

Has a compelling mission and vision that you believe in.

Leverage your board’s strengths

Not all board members are good or comfortable at all aspects of fundraising, and there’s no sense trying to fit a square peg into a round hole apps auf pc downloaden und auf handy installieren. Help your board choose their own action steps – all with the goal of Attracting, Retaining and Upgrading donors. Possible ways to contribute include:

Give a significant “leadership” gift

Identify prospective donors

Design and participate in fundraising activities and events

Engage in media and community outreach

Recruit other people who can join your work

Once your board members select areas of participation, move on to your strategies to Acquire, Retain and Upgrade your donors. It will be important to identify a collaborating “champion” or champions on the board to shepherd its development activities, ensuring that the work plan moves toward the organization’s funding goals herunterladen.

Setting the stage in your community

Raise your organization’s visibility with strategies that need not be complicated or costly. Using the key messaging your organization has agreed on, board members should be actively involved in garnering attention, reputation and donor prospects by helping with:

Media coverage: Plan for four newsworthy events or photo opportunities during the year; match each event/opportunity with a compatible reporter (i.e., the education editor or the sports editor); then make a phone call and send him or her a compelling press release. You are doing them a service by offering them great fill for their assignments.

Community events and visibility: Get invited to host a table at a community-wide event, join committees and task forces, show up at affairs and network continually throughout the community horror hörspiele kostenlos downloaden.

Constant ambassadorship: I am like the old stereotype of an insurance salesperson. I am always on the lookout for prospects. Sell, sell, sell. If someone is interested, make sure you know how to contact them to send them follow-up materials.

Personalize every strategy you and your board uses

Take care that each interaction with prospects is culturally sensitive image from google. (You may want to refer to my article on fundraising in diverse communities if you have questions about this).

Infuse a sincere passion into the key messages you have developed. Whether making a personal visit or sending a letter of appeal built around a template, you will be asking an individual to support a cause to which your organization is deeply committed virus herunterladen und verschicken. It’s worth spending time on an activity that reminds your board why your mission is important to them, so that those feelings are potent and compelling when they promote the organization.

Using the messages that you have agreed on, help your board members customize them to an individual prospect, emphasizing common values and playing to people’s self-interest. If you will be approaching a business person, he or she may care about community economic stability; if it’s a parent or caregiver, he or she may care about access to services spiele für pc kostenlos herunterladen. The question is, “Why would they care?”

Acquire new donors

Have your board members make a list of at least 20 people each that they know who also believe in the organization’s mission. That means anyone, without presumptions about finances or life situation. It is critical here to remember that you will be giving someone an opportunity to invest in a cause they believe in. If they choose not to, for whatever reason, they are free to do so.

Provide specific guidance to the prospect regarding what level of giving he or she might consider syllable separation word download. For instance, you might create levels of giving that resonate with the services you provide, such as a Heritage Patron level of $2,500 to support cultural programming or a Legacy Patron level of $500 to support citizenship education activities.

Retain

Whether they donate or not, continue to keep prospects informed about your organization’s plans and accomplishments. Remind board members to leave calling cards at places of business that they frequent (i.e., a copy shop or local restaurant) to convey your organization’s appreciation of their contribution in the community cloud download.

Continually acknowledge donors. Have your board thank donors promptly and personally with a phone call and handwritten note, acknowledge them in your materials (unless they wish to remain anonymous), invite them to events and involve them in other ways in your organization.

Upgrade

Identify a few dependable donors, including board members, who can give generous “leadership gifts” and, with their permission, leverage that information as motivation when you approach other prospects to join on or to increase their gift.

Provide past giving data to your board members, and have them identify individuals or businesses that they know. It may be time to suggest an increase to past donors. Use your judgment here, but it’s reasonable to believe that after several years, a $50 donation could be doubled and so on.

These loyal donors are also a great source for special board appeals when your organization embarks on a specific, short-term or emergency campaign.

The reality is that raising sufficient money to help your organization achieve its mission can be a relentless and daunting task regardless of the rewards. Your ability to engage your board as a partner in your efforts could be a “four-way win” situation: Your board members become inspired because they personally are making a difference, your donors are able to make an impact on a cause for which they believe, your job is just a little bit easier and, of course, your organization and the constituents you serve are the overall winners.

Learn more about Page to Practice nonprofit book summaries related to this article:

A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofit Board Members

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

Super Boards: How Inspired Governance Transforms Your Organization

Image credits: articulate.com, elevatoragency.com, builtlean.com, sitefinity.com, allthatiknow.com

“Philanthropy is neither a solitary effort by the donor nor even a dialectical effort between the donor and the grantee. Social change involves many different players from all sectors of society. It is through the engagement and alignment of these multiple players that catalytic donors achieve their impact.”

A best practice worth repeating

I recently taught a philanthropy class where we discussed the merits of this sentiment published in Crutchfield, Kania and Kramer’s book, Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World. While this book has been widely discussed since it was published in 2011, revisiting it with my class reminded me that the principles are as relevant today as they were four years ago microsoft office word 2007 kostenlos herunterladen. I have a renewed appreciation for some of the case stories that illustrate what it means to be a catalytic donor so I’d like to return to one of the authors’ great profiles about a donor by the name of Emily Jackson Tow.

Jackson Tow is an example of what the authors call an adaptive leader or someone who fully evaluates the issue and hand and determines how she can facilitate transformative change beyond funding. These adaptive donors “are not content to merely give a man a fish, or even teach him to fish; these entrepreneurs won’t stop until they’ve revolutionized the entire fishing industry,” says Ashoka founder Bill Drayton herunterladen. In this particular case, Jackson Tow demonstrates the first of the six highlighted best practices in the book: advocate for change.

How Emily Jackson Tow advocated for change

The authors highlight the Tow Foundation’s advocacy efforts to demonstrate the power of a donor’s influence beyond financial impact. The Tow Foundation maintains a portfolio approach to giving, but its greatest impact comes from its nonfinancial contributions, such as sweat equity, knowledge of best practices, national and local networks, relationships and perseverance to reform the state’s juvenile justice system.

Emily Tow Jackson became aware of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of adolescents who were jailed for minor offenses, such as graffiti, in the same facility as serious offenders and confined to small, poorly ventilated cells for up to 21-hour stretches with two inmates and no toilet wiso elster steuerbescheid herunterladen. Beyond the horrible conditions, the larger issue was Connecticut’s escalating youth imprisonment rates. Many of the juvenile offenders did not require high-security prison facilities; rather they needed counseling, safe and stable homes, and other basics.

Tow Jackson immediately set to work by enlisting three nonprofit organizations to establish the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance with a start-up grant of $25,000. Additionally, the foundation engaged in advocacy activities that included the following:

–        funding and participating in collaborations,

–        educating legislators with forums at the state capitol,

–        participating on local and state government committees,

–        raising public awareness through media,

–        and giving general operating support to nonprofits focused on this issue ebooks aus der cloud herunterladen.

By 2009, referrals to juvenile court dropped by more than one third and the number of youth convictions dropped by almost two thirds. At the time the Do More Than Give was published, Connecticut was recognized nationally as an innovative leader in handling juvenile cases, rather than as a leading incarcerator of minors.

Nuances of advocacy

The authors explain an important piece about this best practice: Some funders avoid lobbying because of a fear or misunderstanding of how much lobbying is allowed, so the authors define advocacy and related terms as:

–       Advocacy refers to activism around an issue such as climate change, free trade or youth justice herunterladen. Examples of activities range from educating and mobilizing voters to pitching media stories and raising awareness to directly influencing public officials.

–       Policy advocacy (a.k.a. lobbying) refers to specific efforts to change public policy or obtain government funding for a social program.

–       Lobbying versus advocacy: Most of the confusion lies with advocacy sims 4 gratis herunterladen pc. Lobbying is prohibited by foundations in the U.S. and advocacy is an all-encompassing term for a whole range of activities.

Private foundations, which include most family foundations, cannot fund or engage in direct lobbying, but they can make general operating grants to nonprofits that lobby. Large private foundations have a long political history because they generally have a larger staff of trained professionals who have a deep understanding of the issues and social sector.

Conversely, public foundations, such as community foundations are allowed both to engage in lobbying themselves and to fund nonprofits that lobby netflix serieen kosten. Because community foundations find themselves at the center of many different stakeholders, most shy away from lobbying. However, the authors explore a case study about The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and how it successfully positioned its lobbying activities so its constituents would embrace them.

–       Corporate foundation lobbying: Good corporate foundations reconcile lobbying activities that benefit their company with those that lend strength to the social causes they support for a win-win. Corporations can leverage vast brand recognition and marketing channels to broadcast policy messages and they can mobilize entire industries. In contrast, some companies still support legislation that directly contradicts their socially responsible images pictures instagram. For example, Toyota, maker of the eco-friendly Prius, lobbied with other carmakers against tougher fuel economy standards.

Working together for maximum impact

To create systemic change, nonprofits today need catalytic donors in their court to leverage the full participation of every sector in society. According to the authors, the number of billionaires has tripled since 2000 and nearly half of the 75,000 private foundations established in the U.S. were created in the last decade. We’re also seeing growth in private enterprise where new corporate entities are created to blend profit with social purpose, as well as in government’s willingness to partner in nonconventional ways magenta sport app herunterladen.

Within the context of these societal trends, there is no question that donors are positioned like never before to help orchestrate an integrated approach to problems and embrace catalytic philanthropy. Visit the Do More Than Give website for more stories about donors who create catalytic change in their communities.

See also:

Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner

Mission-Based Management: Leading Your Not-for-Profit in the 21st Century, 3rd Ed herunterladen.

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

Image credits: ask.com, towfoundation.org, stlucianewsonline.com, parksandrecreation.com