Marc A. Pitman's Blog, page 23

The danger of seeking 100% online giving

Online giving definitely is growing. And if you listen to the growth statistics, you may feel you can fully fund your organization using online giving tools.

If that's you, stop.

Seriously. When something grows from 1% to 2% it's 100% growth, but it's still not the other 98%.

According to a recent GivingUSA webinar, online giving is now 8.3% of all giving. That is great. But that means 91.7% of giving is not online.

As you plan your fall fundraising, be sure to increase your emphasis on effective direct mail fundraising and in major gift fundraising.

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Are you just putting out fires?

Here's the text of an email I sent to subscribers of the free #FollowUpFriday email list. Versions of this process helped keep me sane as a fundraiser so I thought I'd share it here.

Good morning!

Yesterday I felt overwhelmed by the demands on my time. Projects needing completing. People needing to be followed up with. Talks needing final touches.

So I took 2 hours to, in a way, follow up with myself.

You see, you are either leading your life, or you are letting life lead you. The tug of war was SO strong. The tug to just start working on projects. Putting out fires.

I knew the fires would still be there in an hour or two. So I made time for myself. I wrote about the simple structure of that time over on the Concord Leadership Group blog at: https://concordleadershipgroup.com/lead-life-life-leading/

As you start this #FollowUpFriday, perhaps you should consider taking time to remind yourself what truly matters. Then go in and follow up with others.

Whatever you do, please let us know by using the hashtag #FollowUpFriday or leaving in the comments at http://FollowUpFriday.org/.

To your follow up success,

Marc

Leading Your Fundraising

This process really helps you stay on track with your fundraising too. Often, fundraising and leadership can feel like a reactive game of Whack-a-Mole. Taking a step back helps you remember why you do what you do, and it helps your sort out the important from just the urgent.

How about you?

What process do you use to keep from burn out?

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It's not about scaring, but caring

I recently blogged about a storytelling tip for nonprofit leaders that I learned from Kindra Hall. The tip is especially powerful in nonprofit fundraising.

Kindra took the millenia old story structure - beginning, middle, end - and reframed it as normal, explosion, new normal. One of her lessons for us was that as storytellers, we need to spend more time on the "normal." Spending time on the normal helps our audience begin to care about our hero.

"We don't exploit those we serve"

This is especially true in fundraising. So often, we skip past the cloudy normal, share a bit of the explosion, and spend the bulk of our fundraising appeal on the sunny new normal. Often I hear nonprofit fundraisers and marketers justify this by saying, "We don't exploit those we serve."

I agree. We never want to exploit or manipulate. Ever. But what if telling their "before" story weren't exploiting? What if it were honoring the struggle?

I remember hearing of a rape crisis clinic that didn't want to tell the stories of the women they served. They wanted to protect those women. To not dig up the past. But when one staff member tentatively asked a client if she's be open to sharing her story, her response shocked them. "Absolutely! I'll definitely share my story. Maybe if someone else had shared their's when I was younger, this wouldn't have happened to me."

Allowing the client to share her story honored her struggle. And helped prospective donors care.

Give people something to care about

Year after year, Nonprofit Storytelling Conference speakers like Jeff Brooks exhort us to give donors a problem to solve. Jeff reminds us that if we show only the happy ending, donors won't be able to see themselves as being a part of the solution. It'll look like everything is under control without their help.

As you review the next twelve months of fundraising appeals, major gift asks, and event agendas, ask yourself, "Are we letting donors care? Are we giving them enough story for them to care about the person/pet/mission?" Are you spending time on the gray clouds of "normal"? Or are you jumping to the spectacular "explosion" or straight to the sunny "new normal"?

If you're not spending time on normal, get together with your team and start working on the "normal" part of the story. Better still, go talk to people you've served. Ask them what life was like. And then actually listen.

What you hear will likely transform your nonprofit's fundraising. In fact, listening could be the "explosion" in your nonprofit's fundraising move to the "new normal"!

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Nonprofit Payment Processing: The Ins and Outs

Passion may be a key player in determining a nonprofit’s success, but without the necessary funds to make it happen, your nonprofit will only get so far in making a difference.

That’s why in order to gain real traction with donors, your nonprofit must first set up a reliable source to accept online donations. In other words, they need a payment processing system, which simply refers to the digital behind-the-scenes steps that transfer a donor’s funds to a nonprofit’s account.

Payment processing is essential to helping your organization develop new fundraising opportunities ranging from mobile giving solutions and merchandise sales to online event registration and ticket sales.

To help you get a firm grasp on all that nonprofit payment processing entails, this article covers the following key questions on the subject:

How payment processing works.Accepted types of payments.How to implement payment processing.How to choose a payment processor.How to ensure security in payment processing.

Let’s start with the basics: how payment processing works.

How to Ensure Security with Payment Processing

Unfortunately, it’s not enough to just secure a payment processor; your nonprofit must also be prepared to protect your new online donations from fraud.

This precaution is all too crucial because if a nonprofit fails to take active measures against fraud, it can face some serious damage that’s often impossible to bounce back from, including:

Ruined reputationChargeback fees to credit card companiesRefunded stolen donations to rightful owners

Thankfully, there are a number of ways for a nonprofit to avoid these dangerous pitfalls, namely by setting up these go-to ACH and credit card fraud prevention policies:

Work with a PCI-compliant processor.Make use of AVS.Be wary of large donations.Be wary of minimal donations, too.Stay vigilant during holiday fundraising.

Let’s jump in!

1. Work with a PCI-compliant Processor

The beauty of a PCI-compliant processor (PCI stands for Payment Card Industry) is that they are already informed about nonprofit donation systems, which means they are also armed with several fraud prevention tools.

This software certification is essentially your first line of defense because it manages all of your nonprofit’s data, which means that it can also detect and handle any breach in conduct. Afterwards, the system can then retaliate against the thief by subjecting them to fees or revoking their online payment processing altogether.

Furthermore, a PCI-compliant processor can also keep your nonprofit’s donation page up to date with the latest security regulations from the payment card industry. Overall, this incredible software certification will grant your nonprofit peace of mind in tricky security situations.

2. Make Use of AVS

Another way to check for credit card fraud is to use an address verification system (or AVS) issued by your payment processor.

This tool makes sure that the address a donor lists on a donation form matches with the address they have on file with their bank or credit card company.

If the two addresses do not match, then the payment processor will notify the nonprofit immediately of potential fraud. An AVS can also ask for the security code on the back of a credit card to ensure extra security.

3. Be Wary of Large Donations

Most people don’t know that one of the main reasons why nonprofits are targeted by thieves is because they provide an easy testing ground for stolen credit cards and e-checks.

Basically, a thief will check if a stolen credit card or ACH account works by making large donations to nonprofits through them. This makes it easy for the thief to then contact the nonprofit, insist it was a mistake, and demand a refund either on a different card or check that they can walk away with.

This scam has since issued so many problems in recent years that nonprofits are now advised to double check large donation amounts in order to confirm if they’re legitimate or not.

4. Be Wary of Minimal Donations, Too

Likewise, a scammer can also test a stolen credit card or ACH account by donating miniscule amounts to nonprofits.

However, this problem can be easily solved if the nonprofit sets a minimum donation standard to avoid suspiciously small offerings.

Another more technical approach to detecting these scams involves velocity checking. This technique requires the nonprofit to thoroughly examine the number of transactions from one credit card, bank account, or donor in general. If you notice a pattern of small donations in a short timeframe, they may be coming from a fraudulent source.

5. Stay Vigilant During Holiday Fundraising

The holiday season from November to December is typically the busiest time of year for nonprofit donations.

Unfortunately, this also means that it’s the busiest time for credit card thieves to unleash new scams. While this doesn’t mean that a nonprofit should let paranoia ruin the celebratory season, it’s still important that in the midst of all the fundraising success, a nonprofit remains aware of any fraudulent threats.

Above all, there’s no telling how or when fraud will strike your nonprofit. What it comes down to instead are the security measures you’ve put in place and, in times of crisis, how well you maintain grace under pressure.

This all just goes to show that investing in a payment processor can do so much more for your nonprofit than help with online donations.

This multi-purposeful tool can also protect you from fraud, secure your funds in one personalized account, and sync with other fundraising software to form one master donation system that fuels all aspects of your organization.

In short, having a brilliant payment processor can make all the difference in helping your nonprofit thrive and survive in the digital age.

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Are there other ways to fund your nonprofit?

Have you ever been asked by a board member, "Isn't there some other way of funding our work rather than asking for money?"

Or have you thought that yourself?

Well, NonprofitHub's CEO Randy Hawthorne says, "Yes!" He is experienced at generating revenue for his nonprofit and for others that complement both the nonprofit's mission and the nonprofit's fundraising efforts.

In his session in The Nonprofit Academy "Why Nonprofits Should Make Money, Not Just Raise It," he shares his ideas on how to make this possible. And how to do it in ways that do not jeopardize your nonprofit tax status.

Generating revenue in non-donation ways may seem odd to post here on FundraisingCoach. I definitely love asking people for donations! And I know that nonprofits can transform their revenue by asking correctly. But the questions that Randy brings up are incredibly important. They will help your nonprofit clarify its mission and vision.

And done properly, they can help you stabilize your nonprofit's finances which will help you raise even more money!

Check out his training over at The Nonprofit Academy: Why Nonprofits Should Make Money, Not Just Raise It (https://thenonprofitacademy.com/trainings/earned-income/).

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Is fundraising hurting itself?

Today, the fundraising think tank Rogare published "Less Than My Job's Worth." In this important "green" paper - a paper created for discussion - Rogare's director Ian MacQuillin exams the questions "is fundraising a profession?" and "does it matter if fundraising isn't a profession?"

Does fundraising have the hallmarks of a profession?

I've long been a proponent of viewing fundraising as a profession. I've blogged about subscribing to fundraising publications. And I've encouraged nonprofit leaders to ask their fundraisers what books they're reading, periodicals they're subscribed to, and what training they're getting. But reviewing MacQuillen's explorations of ways to define "profession," I appear to have gotten it wrong.

In the paper, he reviews traditional ways of defining a profession - think law, medicine, or engineering - including qualifying criteria like:

organizes itself into some sort of professional bodyhas ethical codesthe community controls entry into the professionand has an authority that allow clients to rely on the professional's judgement.So fundraising is a profession, right?

You may say, "Wait! There is a professional body: the Association of Fundraising Professionals." To which I'd answer,"Then why is there also the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy?" There are organizations positioning themselves as central, but none are clearly the center yet. This is particularly clear in the case of the Institute of Fundraising's complete lack of leadership in the last two years as the press and politicians in the UK ran amuck, proposing arduous fundraising regulations to combat perceived wrongs that didn't even exist.

And you may say, "But there's a code of ethics with AFP." There is, but anyone can say "I'm a fundraiser" even if they don't subscribe to that code. No one is "barred" from entry if they are unethical. They can still call themselves a "fundraiser." (And, unfortunately, many still do.)

Do people trust the authority of fundraisers?

Think about the authority issue. When was the last time you heard a nonprofit CEO tell a fundraiser, "No. You will not raise money that way. You'll do it my way"? This happens all the time. And impoverishes nonprofits. You'd never unilaterally tell your accountant or physician they were not going to do what they know to be most effective. You may discuss and ask for a second opinion. But you'd have a level of trusting their judgement.

The lack of trust of fundraisers is probably most damning of all.

Does it matter?

Honestly, while I've advocated to fundraisers that we need to be professionals, I've cringed when fundraisers try to beat their chests and tell others that fundraising is a profession. It too often sounds like less like professional pride and more like kids having a temper tantrum in the supermarket.

But given some of the points in this green paper, it's vitally important that fundraising intentionally grows into a profession.

As nonprofit leaders and fundraisers, we ought to push for the research like that is being done through Rogare and the Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy. In fact, that is why I am a member of Rogare's International Advisory Panel. There has been too much "fundraising by anecdote" and too little real research into what works. Most of us trying to create a profession of fundraising have borrowed from business, economics, sociology, anthropology, and neurology. But for fundraising to emerge as a profession, we need to transcend this haphazard cobbling together of theory and practice and create a dedicated body of research specifically of fundraising.

A profession of fundraising will protect donors. Much of the harm done to donor relationships is done because "anyone" can fundraise. True fundraisers know that fundraising only works if the donor is cared for and the nonprofit is cared for. It's not mugging. It's not begging. And it's not shaming donors into giving.

What do you think?

I believe fundraising is hurting itself with it's lack of professionalism. What about you? The green paper is intended to spur a focused conversation. I'd love to know your comments here. And I'd love to have you read the entire green paper. You can get it for free at: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/uploads/production/document/path/9/9060/Rogare_Green_Paper_-_Is_Fundraising_a_Profession.pdf

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No donor wants to make a donation

Years ago, I wrote about Zig Ziglar teaching that nobody wants a drill. He said millions of drills are sold every year. But no one wants a drill. They want a hole.

The same is true with donors.

No donor wants to make a donation. Donors want the value the donation will make.

So tell them about that. Tell them about the change their gift will make. (Or that their gift has made.)

Get your organization out of your nonprofit's storytelling. Instead, tie the donor directly to the impact.

Not: "Because of your gift, we were able to do this amazing thing."

But: "You did this amazing thing because of your gift."

Stop selling drills. Sell holes.

As you go through this week, see if you can stop selling drills. Rather than talking about donations, talk about the great things donors are making possible.

It may sound like merely semantics. But people who've attended the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference are finding is doubling and tripling their donations.

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Don't put off fundraising planning to the fall!

Summer. It stirs up thoughts trips, outdoor activities, and school break. A pause in the normal routines of life.

Even though we're no longer in school, we still let that "summer mentality" affect us. Rest is good. But taking a break from fundraising in the summer can kill your fundraising.

"We'll start in late August"

Over the last few weeks, I've been hearing clients put off significant coaching and planning projects saying, "We'll start in late August or early September." Because of our learned rhythm from our school years, this feels good. We've both made a decision and put off having to work on it at that the same time!

Unfortunately, this thought process ignores two things:

the actual amount of time change really takes, andthe calendar.Change takes time - so build time in

If you're planning on making "big changes," start now. Changes always take far longer than we think they will. And big changes often impact things we never anticipated. (Like finding out that extra fundraising appeal you're adding to the calendar will drop when the already scheduled event invitation does.)

Building in extra time to your planning allows you time to sort through these unintended consequences.

Donors give on the calendar year

More importantly, donors make donations based on the calendar year, not your nonprofit's fiscal year. Let's say your fiscal year starts July 1. Rather than going into a full force strategic planning process, it feels comforting to ease into the new year. You probably hear yourself making excuses like, "Nobody's around in the summer." and "They don't want to hear from us right now."

So we put of good fundraising tasks until the fall. Then we panic because we're so far behind with year-end fundraising planning. Donors are very generous in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. It might be because of the holidays. It might be because of taxes. Or it could simply be that nonprofits tend to ask many more times that quarter than any other.

Whatever the case, people give more.

So plan for that now.Don't jeopardize your fundraising

I've seen this happen alot with major gift efforts and capital campaigns. A nonprofit will work hard all spring pulling together components for a case statement and an expense plan for a capital project. Then they'll let it slide all summer.

Putting off their major gift project or feasibility study to September often means it really starts in October. And the first steps of both are often analyzing your database, assigning prospects, and interviewing them. These all take time.

By the time they're ready to roll out the major gift solicitations or secure leadership gifts for their capital campaign, it's January. They completely miss the time when donors are most generous.

Donors give in January. But why would you want to make it hard on yourself? Starting major gifts asks for campaign in January is like starting running a marathon by running up a mountain. Campaigns and major gift efforts are hard enough. Why not give yourself a boost by starting on the "down slope" of October, November, and December?

In one of my recent feasibility study proposals, I added this on timing:

It would be best to have the feasibility study worked on in the summer – June, July, or August. This will make maximum use of the fall – the most generous donation time of the year. A later study could postpone initial solicitations to January 1. It’s much harder to ask for leadership donations after donors have just been through the holidays.

Don't sabotage your fundraising - unless your nonprofit doesn't need the funds

If your nonprofit doesn't need the income, fine. Take off the summer, start planning in the fall, and work all winter and spring to hit your goals.

But if your nonprofit could use funding year round, take advantage of the next few months to get a jumpstart on your fundraising goals. Some fundraising activities perfectly suited for summer months are:

Staff or board retreats: you'll be amazed at how effective a well planned off-site can be in motivating your team and helping get them all on the same pageAuditing your donor communications: taking time to look over all the ways you're communicating with donors can help you see if you're using the same "voice" or if you need to tweek thingsDraft all your fundraising letters: whether you send 4 appeals or 21, there's nothing wrong with drafting all of your fundraising letters at the same timePlanning your major gift relationships: these next few months can give you some space to plan communications with each of your assignments so they are about the relationship, not about an artificial check listStarting a feasibility study: people will still accept interviews over the next three months, but it's also a great time to do the database analyticsWhat are you going to do to maximize your summer?

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7 Techniques to Boost Donor Engagement

Before you can start to use the techniques below you need to figure out what engagement means for your nonprofit. Does it meaning getting involved in other roles like volunteering or getting more donors to read your communications?

Once you have an idea of what that engagement looks like, use the following seven techniques to amp up donor engagement.Be genuine when asking donors to engage.Use software to help your donor engagement.Establish text communications.Maintain the traditional ways you reach out.Encourage donors to join the conversation.Build a peer-to-peer campaign.Suggest ways donors can get more involved.

No matter what motivates you to get donors more involved, these tips will help you reach out to donors in a way that will interest them.

#1: #2: #3: #4: #5: #6: #7: Suggest ways for donors to get involved.

Donors have so many options when it comes to being involved in nonprofits, but it’s your nonprofit’s job to make sure that donors are aware of these other opportunities.

If you’re wondering what other ways donors can get involved, here are a few suggestions:

VolunteeringBecoming a part of your membership programParticipating in events (fundraising and stewardship)

When you encourage donors to get involved, you’re not only getting support from donors in other ways besides just monetary donations. You are creating opportunities where donors can interact with your staff and other donors.

During these other events, donors can learn more about your cause, connect with staff one-on-one, and develop relationships with other donors who are interested in your nonprofit’s cause.

The bottom line is that donors will make more effort to get engaged if you let them know about other things they can do besides donating money. By giving their time or participating in other ways, the donor is gaining more as well.

At the end of the day, boosting donor engagement is about giving donors relevant information and letting them be part of the conversation.

Experiment with these techniques to see which strategy works best for your donor engagement. And, remember that donor engagement starts with having the right mindset.

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The conundrum of corporate gifts

Last week, I was able to listen to a terrific discussion from business leaders about how their organizations make corporate gifts to charities. It's always good to hear the thought process of donors. But it sometimes raises more questions than it settles.

Seeking corporate gifts? Don't be "that" guy

At one point in the conversation, one of the panel shared his pet peeve: nonprofits who don't do any research before asking.

The entire panel nodded in agreement.

Each of them had met with nonprofits seeking funding who knew nothing about their business. At all. The message the company gets is "You're not worth anything to us. Just give us money."

That attitude reeks of entitlement. And is quite offensive.

Business leaders are not evil

Business leaders have even told me that nonprofit leaders have "asked" them for gifts by treating them as less than human. They, the business leaders, were "just" out for profit. They were told they needed to give the nonprofit to prove they had a conscience.

Why would anyone want to give to people that abuse them like those nonprofit leaders abused the business owners? Even if they don't ever make a philanthropic gift, business leaders are making tremendous contributions to our communities. We likely wouldn't have a community if they weren't employing our neighbors.

Do the research

So a key principle here is: do the research. All of the business leaders agreed that a simple review of their website before getting into the meeting would have strengthened the nonprofits' case.

When deciding how to ask for money, finding out about a prospect - corporate or individual - is just common courtesy.

As you skim through their website, see if you can identify their values. Are they proud to have a strong local economy? Do they seem to love creativity and the arts? And try to find philanthropy priorities too. Do they appear to give only to children? Are they looking for volunteer opportunities for their employees? Do they only seem interested in the city where their headquarters is located?

Which creates the conundrum of corporate gifts

Which leads to the conundrum. Whenever I've listened to corporate donors, they seem to always say, "We don't want to just cut a check." They often want to find causes they can get involved with. Organizations their staff can volunteer with. Groups they can collaborate with.

But every time I've listened to corporate donors, the nonprofit leaders in the room get agitated. Most of them are already working very hard on their mission. They don't really want to take all this time with corporations and employee committees and finding volunteer opportunities. They really just want the check.

And these aren't nonprofits that are trying to be rude or brash. These are nonprofits who will use the donation well and responsibly report back to the business and thank them. They simply want people and organization's who'll donate to them with the fewest strings attached.

Conflicting agendas

So you have a situation where the donor's agenda conflicts with the nonprofit's. If these were individuals, nonprofits would probably agree to politely part ways. It is nice if the prospect is generous, but if that generosity doesn't seem to be in the direction of the nonprofit's strategic plan, you'll end up frustrating each other.

But these aren't individuals. These are businesses. Most nonprofit board members assume businesses are the biggest source of donations (they're not - not by a long shot). And many nonprofit staff secretly feel at least a little empathy to the nonprofit leaders that abused the business owners mentioned above. They feel businesses "owe" them money.

No one owes us a charitable donation. We need to earn it every time. (Click here to tweet that.)

Are corporate gifts worth it?

Corporate gifts can be a lot of work. Nonprofit leaders need to do is determine what kinds of philanthropic gifts they want to focus on. If you determine you want a more transactional checkbook philanthropy, corporations are probably not the place to look.

But corporations can be great partners. If your nonprofit is open to volunteer teams, businesses may be able to send those teams. And they may be able to grow into a great collaborative partner.

For example, if your nonprofit is open to gifts of expertise rather than cash, your entire approach may be transformed. The head of corporate social responsibility at a multi-national company once told me of such a transformation. A local soup kitchen had asked the company to fund a specific number of meals. Instead, the company offered a team of its Six Sigma Black Belts. That team observed the soup kitchen's process for acquiring, storing, and serving food. In less than a month, they were able to offer suggestions that drastically improved efficiency, reduced food waste, and saved the soup kitchen thousands of dollars a year. The soup kitchen was even able to serve more people thanks to the improvements suggested by this corporate team.

The savings the soup kitchens achieved will be realized year after year. Because the nonprofit went into the solicitation open to exploring a gift, their community and their nonprofit are both stronger for this business' donation of expertise.

Know your goals. And learn their goals.

The bottom line? Corporate gifts can be transformational, but they won't look like gifts from individuals. Corporate donors often have complex objectives they are trying to meet. If you're going to seek corporate gifts, have a clear sense of the goals in your nonprofit's strategic plan. And be ready to listen the business' goals. Where they intersect could be magic.

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