Marc A. Pitman's Blog, page 42

The secret behind year-end fundraising fall appeals

Fall is upon us and that means year-end giving is right around the corner. If you haven’t written your year end appeals over the summer, then now is the time to get those done!

As a broad generalization, I recommend sending a mailing:

now (late Aug/early Sept)

in mid-November

in mid-December


How to write fundraising letters

Jeff Brooks wrote a great post on how not to write fundraising letters. He tells of how his fundraising letters for a cause helping Calcutta were more effective before he went to Calcutta than after.

Surprising, isn’t it?

The gist of the story is that his “intelligence,” his growing understanding of Calcutta, outstripped that of the people getting the appeal. This isn’t saying anything bad about the recipients. He simply knew more. And the more he knew wasn’t helping make the case.

A fundraising letter trick from radio show hosts

Back in 2008 or 2009 when I was preparing to host a radio show, an experienced radio show host gave me a great bit of advice: don’t study up too much on your guest.

That took me by surprise! As a nerd, I figured I needed to read their book, check out their bio, and know as much about them as possible. Not so.

My friend told me that I was the bridge between the expert and the audience. If I knew too much, I’d get into “insider” conversation with the guest. We’d have a great time, but we’d lose the audience.

My friend told me that my job as host was to ask questions that were close to what the audience might be asking.

If you’ve ever heard my interviews in the 100 Donors Program or The Donor Retention Project, you’ll know I took this advice to heart. In these and my other interviews, I keep pulling the conversation back to the intended audience. When a guest geeks out, you’ll hear me say something like: “That’s great. Now for the person sitting in her office with no staff and only a few hours to devote to fundraising put that in place, what steps would you suggest so she can put this into place?”

Go back to the beginning

You need to do this in your three fall fundraising letters! As you’re writing your three letters, force yourself to go back to the beginning. Ask yourself:

What grabbed you first about your nonprofit?


What keeps you connected?

Before you write, reconnect with these stories. If you’ve been with your nonprofit for a while, it may be hard to reconnect this way. If you can’t remember, go and ask board members and donors.

What grabs you about this nonprofit?

How did you originally get connected with us?

Remember, you’re year-end fundraising letters are supposed to raise funds. To do that, connect with where donors are, not where you wish they were!

If you want more tips and techniques for writing fundraising letters, sign up for the free email course at: http://fundraisingcoach.com/fundraising-letters/

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

Other Possibly Related posts:
3 ways to jumpstart year end giving by planning your fall fundraising now
Fundraising Secret #44: Up your giving this year
Political junk mail can hurt your fall fundraising letters

Happy National Bowtie Day!!

Today, August 28, is the day you’ve long been waiting for: National Bowtie Day!

To celebrate this sartorially splendorific day, I’m giving away my bowtie cards for free. True, I always give them away for free. But today, I’ll even mail them to you.

Just fill out the form below and I’ll take care of the rest!

You can join all the cool kids, like these:

More on my Google+ bowtie album and on my Facebook bowtie album!

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

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Happy New Year! (Fiscally speaking…)
The Fundraising Coach Bowtie Business Card
Are you making it a happy Valentine’s Day for your donors?

Facebook promotions just got easier for nonprofits!

Like to be entered

Facebook promotions used to be a weird thing. Nonprofits did them but technically, they risked Facebook deleting their page.

Facebooks changes its terms again. This time for the good!

Now according to Facebook’s blog you can run those promotions without fear!

You’re now able to use likes and comments as votes and entries into contests.

Sure, for some of you this is dull. We’ve already been doing all that. But if you’re a first born like me, it’s nice to know you’ve now got the rules on your side.

H/T to Thanks to Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) for the tweet that led me to Facebook’s blog:

https://twitter.com/PamMktgNut/status...

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

Other Possibly Related posts:
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Get the most out of Facebook
Great reason to NOT fundraise with Facebook

[Question Marc] What are the best donor management systems?

I get lots of questions similar to this all the time:

Quick question: Do you have a few favorite donor database software recommendations. Especially for collecting donor giving habits.

My answer

Here are the ones I hear good things about from clients. I’m most familiar with RaisersEdge but am seriously impressed by Bloomerang.

RaisersEdge

(You can have it hosted by companies like Beyond the Nines.)

Bloomerang

eTapestry

DonorPerfect

Little Green Light

SalesForce

Total Community Manager


What would you have said?

Donor databases are vital for nonprofit fundraising. We need to treat donors like the valuable humans they are. That means we need to remember what they say, when they’ve given, and what their interactions with our nonprofit are.

That’s our job.

Other than “an Excel spreadsheet,” what would you suggest in answer to this question?

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

Other Possibly Related posts:
[Question Marc] How do I recruit new board members?
[Question Marc] Conversation starters for cold calls
Question Marc: Your fundraising questions answered

Some people make excuses; others raise money

Are you making excuses or raising money?

If I had a dollar for every fundraiser that’s told me they’re not making major gift calls because “August is a slow month,” I’d be able to make much larger gifts to nonprofits!

I actually like hearing that, in a twisted way. The more people “taking it easy” this month, the more chances are I’ll get through. And the more chances the prospect won’t be getting more calls from others!

Don’t let a slow month kill your fundraising

Mindset is crucial in fundraising. Fundraising is hard work. And, as humans, we are constantly on the look out for excuses to get out of hard work. We avoid pain.

As fundraisers, we need to get over it. Our nonprofits deserve funding.

We need to trick ourselves. Really. We need to be so focused on the end goal, that we stop believing the excuses to stop.

Take August for example. Suppose you are making your calls and you are getting lots of prospects say “I’m on vacation in August” or “Call me back in the fall”? You have two options:

You can roll over like a dog and say, “Ok. I’m sorry.” (And secretly give yourself a pat on the back for at least making the call although you haven’t raised any money.) Or

You can reframe the information you’re getting.

The power of reframing

Reframing means looking at the information you’re getting in the light of your end goal.

If making calls is your end goal, then you’re done. But your nonprofit could still go out of business. Your end goal for fundraising needs to be raising funds!

My friend Amy Eisenstein told her email list subscribers to use August calls to set up September appointments! Isn’t that brilliant reframing?

If you just accept their “call me back in the fall” and hang up, you’ve got to start all over again in the fall. But if you reframe it in light of your goal of raising funds, you can say:

Great idea, [prospect name]. Let’s get a time on the calendar now. Is the second week in September good for you?

This way you’re still getting the appointment! Can you imagine how powerful your September will be if you take this approach? Rather than having to start all the calls from scratch — chasing people down, reminding them that they put you off once already, etc. — you’ll have a full calendar of appointments! Your fall will be transformed.

And, more importantly, your nonprofit will get the funding it needs.

People are making donations this month. But only when asked. Are you too busy making excuses to ask?

What are other ways that you reframe?

Reframing is a powerful tool in a nonprofit fundraiser’s toolkit. Chances are, you use this all the time. Where have you found it to help your fundraising? Tell us in the comments below!

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

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[Guest Post] 3 Changes You Should Make To Your Nonprofit Blog Right Now

Today I get to introduce you to Steven Shattuck, Vice President of Marketing at Bloomerang, the exciting new donor relationship management software that makes it easy to focus on donor retention. I’be been getting to know him over the last few months an love his knowledge of technology and marketing. Better still, he’s a great guy. I’ve asked him to share what he’d recommend for your nonprofit blog. You’ll love it. You can reach Steven on Twitter @StevenShattuck.

3 Changes You Should Make To Your Nonprofit Blog Right Now

by Steven Shattuck, VP of Marketing at Bloomerang

Nonprofits who have implemented a blog to their website are able to deliver fresh content to their donors, volunteers and patrons. It’s also a great way to tell the story of your organization through a variety of authors and perspectives. However, if are you blogging regularly but aren’t seeing a significant return-on-investment in the form of website traffic, donations or awareness, you might want to consider making the following changes:

Stop Writing About Your Organization

While it’s okay to post news and information about your organization, or promote events and upcoming campaigns, this kind of content should not dominate your blog. Instead, strive to present your nonprofit blog as an educational resource for those who are stakeholders in the arena in which your organization operates. For example, if your nonprofit serves those suffering from Alzheimer’s and their caregivers, why not share helpful information that can empower? Caregiver support tips, new research findings and prevention advice will be far more valuable than content that promotes your organization. Your content should provide value – and once it does, your website will become a frequent destination.

Include Strong Calls-to-Action

With the credibility and traffic increases brought on through educational (rather than promotional) content on blog comes the need to capitalize on all those visits. The best way to ensure that a reader does not leave your website after finishing a blog post is to insert relevant calls-to-action throughout the page. A CTA can look like an embedded link to another page or blog post in the article they are reading, or perhaps a banner image at the bottom of the article, or a donation form in the sidebar. It’s critical that you give the reader something to do once they have finished reading your blog post.

Set Up Google Authorship

Google Authorship is a mechanism that allows Google to tie an author profile – in this case, a Google+ profile – to a blog post. You may have noticed headshot photos appearing in search results. This indicates that a blog author has established Google Authorship:

Some research shows that these search results get more clicks than results without an author photo. Google Authorship is also believed to be a prerequisite to AuthorRank – a future Google ranking factor that will benefit bloggers with established authorship, and punish those who remain anonymous. Setting this up is fairly simple and straightforward. You can find instructions here.


What changes are you making?

If you’re already invested in contributing to your nonprofit’s blog, implement these three changes and let us know if you see results!

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

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[Guest Post] Why Donors Stop Giving
[Guest Post] Getting Started with Social Media

Baby boomers most generous - Gen Y most likely to increase donations

Baby boomers represent 43% of giving in USA

Blackbaud just released it's Next Generation of American Giving study (and a nifty interactive infographic).

According to their research, Baby Boomers accounted for 43% of giving in the USA last year.

While I generally trust Blackbaud's research, I find this a bit of a surprise. The "Silents" and the "World War II" generations still hold a lot of wealth. The study's results could be skewed because it was an online survey. Online surveys effectively rules out the $22 billion given through bequests last year. (Dead people aren't known to respond well to surveys.)

But this result could make sense, too. Baby Boomers are now in their peak earning years. Despite not being particularly well prepared for retirement, they may feel they have more cash to give. The generational line up as reported by Blackbaud is:

Matures (age 68+): 26%


Boomers (age 49-67): 43%


Gen X (age 33-48): 20%


Gen Y (age 18-32): 11%


Boomers most likely to be giving monthly

Interestingly, at 21% of responders, Boomers are the most likely to be giving in a monthly giving program. Only 13% - 16% of other three generational segments are giving this way. If you're not yet offering a monthly giving program, what are you waiting for?

Generational engagement

One of the biggest challenges for North American nonprofits is donor retention. Nonprofits will find lots of help in this study, which looks at numerous ways donors engage with nonprofits (volunteering, host events, participate in runs, etc.) as well as engaging with other information.

For example, go to the interactive infographic and look at the study's findings on digital engagement, both overall internet usage and more specific social media usage.

As might be expected, Gen Y and Gen X have the most varied internet usage, with Boomers and Matures mostly reporting using it for email and banking.

I was most surprised by the social media usage statistics. Not only did all groups use social media sites, but the most popular social media site was YouTube. Does your nonprofit have an active YouTube strategy? It should. People of all ages are there. (And YouTube makes it incredibly easy to share your YouTube videos on your own nonprofit website and all the other social media sites.)

Despite what you may think, significant portions of all generations are using the internet, and even social media.

Gen Y is most likely to increase giving in the next 12 months

Another interesting finding is that Generation Y (or Millenials) is the generational cohort most likely to increase giving in the next 12 months. While they're still giving less dollars, they're also still only in the beginning of their careers. Nonprofits that effectively engage millenials now will reap benefits for years to come. (Millienlials represent a larger population than Baby Boomers!)

The study found 43% of Gen Y responders helped fundraise or participated in an event like a race to raise money. And Gen Y is the most open to the crowdfunding approach to giving. They had the largest percentage of people who'd actually given through crowdfunding. And almost half said they'd be likely to give (compared to the next highest being Gen X at 30%).

I'm not advocating starting a race or launching a Kickstarter project, but I am advocating taking this generation seriously. They may be the ages of your kids or grandkids, but they're adults and a tremendously talented group. And they happen to be open to increasing giving in the next 12 months. (Ian Adair gives some incredibly practical tips on engaging Millenials in his section of The Donor Retention Project.)

What should you do?

Here are three take aways from the study:

Dust off your fundraising letters. Direct mail still accounts for around 90% of giving. But chances are you've been writing for Matures, not Boomers. To see an example of the two real-life fundraising letters to either generation, go to http://fundraisingcoach.com/fundraising-letters/

Don't ignore YouTube. Sure, you should have a plan for all your nonprofit's social media. But consider intentionally working YouTube into this plan. All generations report significant use of YouTube.

Tighten up your year-end giving campaign now. Making sure your plans are integrated will help you reach all generations as effectively as possible.

Get the full copy of Blackbaud's NextGen report at: www.blackbaud.com/nextgen

Do these results line up with what you're experiencing? Let us know in the comments below!

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

Other Possibly Related posts:
Americans continue to be generous
Americans continue generous giving
Does the phrase "tax deductible" kill donations?

Baby boomers most generous – Gen Y most likely to increase donations

Baby boomers represent 43% of giving in USA

Blackbaud just released it’s Next Generation of American Giving study (and a nifty interactive infographic).

According to their research, Baby Boomers accounted for 43% of giving in the USA last year.

While I generally trust Blackbaud’s research, I find this a bit of a surprise. The “Silents” and the “World War II” generations still hold a lot of wealth. The study’s results could be skewed because it was an online survey. Online surveys effectively rules out the $22 billion given through bequests last year. (Dead people aren’t known to respond well to surveys.)

But this result could make sense, too. Baby Boomers are now in their peak earning years. Despite not being particularly well prepared for retirement, they may feel they have more cash to give. The generational line up as reported by Blackbaud is:

Matures (age 68+): 26%


Boomers (age 49-67): 43%


Gen X (age 33-48): 20%


Gen Y (age 18-32): 11%


Boomers most likely to be giving monthly

Interestingly, at 21% of responders, Boomers are the most likely to be giving in a monthly giving program. Only 13% – 16% of other three generational segments are giving this way. If you’re not yet offering a monthly giving program, what are you waiting for?

Generational engagement

One of the biggest challenges for North American nonprofits is donor retention. Nonprofits will find lots of help in this study, which looks at numerous ways donors engage with nonprofits (volunteering, host events, participate in runs, etc.) as well as engaging with other information.

For example, go to the interactive infographic and look at the study’s findings on digital engagement, both overall internet usage and more specific social media usage.

As might be expected, Gen Y and Gen X have the most varied internet usage, with Boomers and Matures mostly reporting using it for email and banking.

I was most surprised by the social media usage statistics. Not only did all groups use social media sites, but the most popular social media site was YouTube. Does your nonprofit have an active YouTube strategy? It should. People of all ages are there. (And YouTube makes it incredibly easy to share your YouTube videos on your own nonprofit website and all the other social media sites.)

Despite what you may think, significant portions of all generations are using the internet, and even social media.

Gen Y is most likely to increase giving in the next 12 months

Another interesting finding is that Generation Y (or Millenials) is the generational cohort most likely to increase giving in the next 12 months. While they’re still giving less dollars, they’re also still only in the beginning of their careers. Nonprofits that effectively engage millenials now will reap benefits for years to come. (Millienlials represent a larger population than Baby Boomers!)

The study found 43% of Gen Y responders helped fundraise or participated in an event like a race to raise money. And Gen Y is the most open to the crowdfunding approach to giving. They had the largest percentage of people who’d actually given through crowdfunding. And almost half said they’d be likely to give (compared to the next highest being Gen X at 30%).

I’m not advocating starting a race or launching a Kickstarter project, but I am advocating taking this generation seriously. They may be the ages of your kids or grandkids, but they’re adults and a tremendously talented group. And they happen to be open to increasing giving in the next 12 months. (Ian Adair gives some incredibly practical tips on engaging Millenials in his section of The Donor Retention Project.)

What should you do?

Here are three take aways from the study:

Dust off your fundraising letters. Direct mail still accounts for around 90% of giving. But chances are you’ve been writing for Matures, not Boomers. To see an example of the two real-life fundraising letters to either generation, go to http://fundraisingcoach.com/fundraising-letters/

Don’t ignore YouTube. Sure, you should have a plan for all your nonprofit’s social media. But consider intentionally working YouTube into this plan. All generations report significant use of YouTube.

Tighten up your year-end giving campaign now. Making sure your plans are integrated will help you reach all generations as effectively as possible.

Get the full copy of Blackbaud’s NextGen report at: www.blackbaud.com/nextgen

Do these results line up with what you’re experiencing? Let us know in the comments below!

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

Other Possibly Related posts:
Americans continue to be generous
Americans continue generous giving
Does the phrase “tax deductible” kill donations?

[Guest Post] 15 Fundraising Mistakes That Have Already Been Made for You

I’m glad to introduce you to Tom Harrison, the CEO of Russ Reid. Tom and I are members of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board and were able to present at a recent conference in Philadelphia. He has an amazing mind for nonprofits and a good sense of humor, as can be seen in this post. In this post, which originally appeared in FundRaising Success Magazine, he shares 15 fundraising mistakes your team doesn’t have to make. #6 mystifies me. And I commit #11 far too often! Tom can be reached at tharrison@russreid.com

15 Mistakes That Have Already Been Made for You
You can go ahead and make them again, or you can take heed here and avoid them

by Tom Harrison, CEO of Russ Reid

It’s been said that good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. There’s a lot we can learn from some of the really bad decisions that have been made — so we can make better ones. Or at least we can make our own mistakes rather than simply repeating these whoppers.

Here are 15 mistakes we all wish we had known about without having to actually make them!

Mistake 1

Cutting acquisition quantity to improve fundraising ratios but destroying your future revenue stream in the process. If you cut back on acquisition, you’ll have fewer current donors to cultivate next year and will start a downward revenue spiral that’s difficult to reverse.

Mistake 2

Lazy cultivation. It’s not worth all the time, money, blood, sweat and tears we invest to acquire new donors if we’re not going to cultivate them right. Thank them. Segment them carefully. Thank them. Be relevant to them. Thank them. Show them the significance of their gifts. Don’t let that file go cold. Reactivate them. Retention. Retention. Retention.

Mistake 3

Letting brand dictate fundraising messages instead of mandating that brand reinforce fundraising messages.

Mistake 4

Being seduced by a consultant who claims to be able to acquire “higher value donors” and ending up getting too few donors to sustain your organization. The lesson is you need a program that acquires those higher value donors plus all the other donors.

Mistake 5

Setting a target for your capital campaign but forgetting to include two years of operating budget in the total. The new building or new programs always cost more to operate than your current budget. By raising two years of operating costs up front, it gives you time to increase your revenue stream to meet the new operating budget.

Mistake 6

Cutting revenue-producing programs to address a budget shortfall. A wise accountant serving as a new board member addressed a nonprofit’s $100,000 budget shortfall. He suggested actually spending more money on revenue-producing activities. He correctly noted that the direct-response (DR) program raised $3 for every $1 spent. Increasing the DR budget by $50,000 raises $150,000 — with a net of $100,000 to solve the revenue shortfall.

Mistake 7

Accepting watchdog standards. Don’t brag about your stars. Instead, teach donors to judge you by the impact of your programs, not by arbitrary — and often misleading — cost ratios.

Mistake 8

Chasing blindly after the next big thing. The fear of being left behind can cause us to leap before we look. Protect your core revenue streams, and budget separately for research and development with dollars you can afford to lose.

Mistake 9

Making it look too easy. If people take your fundraising programs for granted, they’ll be tempted to water them down by mistakenly cutting frequency or insisting on more stories of success and less emphasis on need and urgency. Worse still, when the resulting fundraising efforts fail — they will — it will be blamed on the channel, the donors or your department, rather than on the dilution of the strategy.

Mistake 10

Forgetting to test. Why would anyone abandon a control for something new without testing? Maybe these people are afraid to be proven wrong, or because testing is difficult, or testing costs more, or maybe they just can’t imagine that their idea could fail. Always test.

Mistake 11

Believing that you are the target audience. Meet the donors where they are, rather than where you wish they were. Make it easy for donors to financially support programs that they are passionate about, not programs that you (or your program people) wish donors were passionate about.

Mistake 12

Being so afraid of being called a micromanager that you don’t manage enough. It’s irresponsible to stand by and watch your people make mistakes that you know, from experience, will damage your organization. Sure, you sometimes need to allow them to learn from their own mistakes — on the small stuff. But on important matters, you owe it to your organization, your people and yourself to teach your staff the right things to do and the right way to do them.

Mistake 13

Hiring the wrong major-gift leader. You don’t want a major-gift leader who meddles with your successful direct-response program instead of visiting with donors. Or one who tries to restrict direct-response communication with donors based on how much they’ve given rather than based on who can actually be personally cultivated. Major-gift officers should generate major gifts.

Mistake 14

Putting all your eggs in one basket. Just like with your retirement account, diversify your fundraising program. You need different offers/products (sustainer program, regular giving, middle-donor campaigns, major gift, capital campaign, gifts-in-kind, government funding) for different audiences and different channels (digital, mail, DRTV, face-to-face, radio, events).

Mistake 15

Being afraid to fire someone. If someone is not succeeding in his position, he is hurting the cause you represent and likely demoralizing other employees. Your organization deserves top-performing employees. If someone isn’t cutting it, even after you’ve worked to help her improve, let her go. It will allow you to hire someone better and the exiting employee to find a position where she’ll contribute more and be more highly valued.

What would you add?

There may only be seven deadly sins, but there are myriad marketing missteps. If you have others to add, we’d love to hear from you!

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

Other Possibly Related posts:
[Guest Post] Helping board members maximize fundraising effort
[Guest Post] Why Donors Stop Giving
[Guest Post] 7 ways to thank a donor

How to get new donors

I’m tremendously proud of being part of 100 Donors in 90 Day.

This week, there’s a special offer. So I made this video. Alas, the lavalier volume was wonky. And my webcam is no HD.

But you still get why 100 Donors is such an incredible program.

100 new donors in the next three months

Watch this video. It’s short. And then head over to http://100DonorsProgram.com/. And if you’re reading this on or before August 2, you can get it at a special offer.

(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC

Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!

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Could you use 100 new donors in the next 90 days?