Blueprint Fundraising

Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone,
I won’t be posting again until 2006…
Have a happy Christmas and New Year’s!
- Andrea

Tip of the Week: United Way does it right

At this time of year, you can’t help but notice and admire the fundraising techniques of the United Way. While the campaign is on I encourage you to check out the United Way of the Lower Mainland’s Campaign 2005 Toolkit. Wander around at the planning tools, forms, talking points and watch the campaign video to see some really great fundraising.

One red paperclip

This fall I seem to be doing a lot of coaching and training… and when talking with people about what it takes to be successful in fundraising, persistence and determination top the list. Here’s someone showing a lot of persistence… He started in July with one red paperclip. He traded that for a funny pen. He has been trading up and up now he has a snowmobile. He’s going to keep going until he gets a house! What a nut.

Gift idea: artful manager clock

For all you arts managers and artists who think that you do more fundraising than art-making… here’s a gift you’ll like (and confirmation that you aren’t alone). It’s the Artful Manager Wall Clock. The Artful Manager has a very interesting blog too.

The last statistics for a while, I promise!

If you received an unexpected bonus of $1,000, what would you do with it? Three per cent of Canadians would give it to charity. More interesting: if a co-worker’s pay stub was laying on their desk 27% of Canadians would sneak a peek.

More statistics

In conjunction with Vancouver’s National Philanthropy Day breakfast held today, AFP and Ipsos-Reid released results from a poll that are very timely, considering my last entry about people’s self-reporting of their generosity. According to the poll, 94% of people in BC report that they make financial donations to charities at least once per year. That’s well over the 25% and 78% that I wrote about in the last entry. On a happy and more straight-forward note, 41% of people in BC think that charitable organizations are “very trustworthy” and 54% think charities are “somewhat trustworthy.” Only 4% think they are not trustworthy.

Canadian donations in 2004

Statistics Canada reports that taxfilers claimed a total of $6.6 billion in charitable donations in 2004, up 6.3% in 2003. You can read the full release here. It is interesting to compare this annual StatsCan information on giving to the National Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating.

The most recent NSGVP data is from 2000 (they are in the process of updating it using 2004 data and will release that in 2006). Anyhow, StatsCan reports that roughly 25% of taxfilers claim donations on their returns (and this has been steady over the years).  NSVGP reports that 78% of the population say they made a financial donation in 2000.

So… 25% vs 78%. That’s a big difference. Of course, many people give without either getting a tax receipt or taking the time to claim it. Blame it on my cynical nature but I have always had the feeling that people are over-reporting how generous they are through the NSGVP.

Enough about you, let’s talk about me

Quite a few people have emailed to ask me what I do when I’m not blogging on the fundit (thanks for asking!). So maybe you’re wondering too…

I’m principal of Blueprint Fundraising and Communications, a Vancouver fundraising consulting firm. Since starting Blueprint in 2000 I’ve  discovered that I love the challenge and variety of being a fundraising consultant. Details on who I’ve worked with and what I do can be found at my website. Here are a few of the projects I’ve been working on lately:

• Case development for The Banff Centre’s capital campaign
• Capital campaign consulting for Better Environmentally Sound Transportation and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre
• Fundraising plans for the Living Oceans Society, the Richmond Art Gallery (with Vivian Smith of Liberty Quest), and Centre A
• Fundraising coaching for CoDevelopment Canada, New Works, and Kids Around the World
• Direct mail writing for the BC Association for Community Living
• A new workshop on for Volunteer Vancouver (on how to develop a fundraising plan) and a capital campaign session for one of BCIT’s Fundraising Management program courses
• As a volunteer I’m on two boards: the Vancouver chapter of AFP and the Co-operative Auto Network (a very cool car-sharing organization)

That’s all been keeping me very busy. In December, Andrew and I are going on a holiday to Italy to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Can’t wait!

I would love to know more about you and your adventures in fundraising and life in general. Email me.

Feel, felt, found

Jerry Linzy of Jerold Panas, Linzy & Partners spoke at a recent AFP Vancouver breakfast workshop about “making the ask.” One of his tips really stood out for me, so here it is. When responding to a prospective donor’s objection in a solicitation, respond with “feel, felt, found.” In practice it might look something like this:

Solicitor: “Would you consider making a gift of $1,000?”
Prospective supporter: “That’s a lot of money. I don’t know if I can afford that.”
Solicitor: “Well, I know how you feel. I felt unsure about whether I could afford it when I was asked. But I found that I could pledge the gift over two years and that made it possible for me.”

Nice isn’t it? Feel felt found. Feel felt found. Easy to remember when you are feeling stressed in a solicitation and don’t know what to say next!

Register for Kim Klein’s “Raising Money” session

Kim Klein is an amazing storyteller, teacher, speaker, and all-round inspiring woman. She hasn’t done a training in Vancouver for a while, so it’s very exciting that she’ll be here in February!

Raising Money: Build Your Broad Base of Individual Donors
When: 02/06/2006 to 02/07/2006
Where: SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver
Cost: $195 CND
Phone: 604-699-4802 ext. 229

Do you want to build a broad base of donors and achieve financial stability in your organization? You can! Come discover how to develop your fundraising message, ask for large amounts of money in person; build a fundraising board; and make fundraising FUN! Leaders of community-based, grassroots organizations are especially urged to attend. Discounts available if two people from your organization attend, board members welcome and encouraged.