Blueprint Fundraising

Showcase of fundraising innovations (and a few mistakes)

Need some inspiration for your next appeal? Check out SOFII, a “Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration.” I don’t really know of anything like it. You’ll need to sign up for a free membership then you can browse through case studies and examples of some of the world’s most influential fundraising campaigns and ideas. The site has especially good examples of direct mail packages and advocacy advertising campaigns. The commentary for each case study tells you what worked, what didn’t and why the campaign was innovative at the time. There are some interesting historical fundraising pieces too. Here is Unicef’s first-ever Christmas card from 1946 and an Oxfam fundraising ad from the 1950s.

10 ways to identify planned giving prospects

I attended a planned giving workshop last week, presented by local consultant Leslie Howard of PlanforGifts.com. It was a very nice introductory session and she generously provided some great handouts. I thought I would share a few of her tips for identifying planned giving prospects in your donor base along with some of my own. You might be doing these already — but what about your co-workers? Leslie made the excellent point that the person who opens your mail and processes the donations (if that isn’t you) should be watching for these things too.

1. The best planned giving prospects are female donors who are 80+ years old. Makes sense. But how do you know if someone who sends in a donation by mail fits that profile?

2. Ask for birth dates on some of your donor forms (and then you can send birthday cards too).

3. Watch for those who identify as “Miss.” Younger women tend not to call themselves Miss. Anyone who does is probably at least 70 years old. And they aren’t likely to be married or to have children. Make sure there is a “Miss” options on your donor forms.

4. Pay attention to old-fashioned names. Leslie suggested looking up popular names from the 1920s and 30s. So I did. I couldn’t find much Canadian information but the US has extensive records dating back to the 1880s. There are many names you don’t see today that were more popular in the 20s and 30s: Mildred, Florence, Ethel, Ruth, Doris, Shirley…

5. Shaky handwriting could be another indicator of age.

6. Being a monthly donor or long-term supporter. Frequency of gifts is much more important than size when it comes to planned giving.

7. Living in an affluent postal code or zip code.

8. Sending a cheque from a VIP bank account — e.g. the cheque says “Private Banking” or is from the head office branch.

9. Being windowed or divorced, having no children, or having children with their own wealth.

10. Having had a direct positive experience with your organization — as a grateful client, volunteer or board member.

Counter-intuitive rules for success in 2008

Happy New Year everyone! This is my first real day back at work after a holiday that was wasted away by being sick for almost two weeks. I’m better now, thanks, and just in time for work.

This time of year is always exciting to me — new beginnings, resolutions and infinite possibilities for the year ahead. I love hearing from clients about the last-minute donations they received at the end of December and I hope you had a few of those yourself.

Here’s a good way to begin 2008… Read this speech, filled with counter-intuitive secrets for success from Van Jones, a veteran of the non-profit sector and founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights…

There’s probably at least one person, and maybe more than one, who feels like their little not-for-profit just may not make it. There may be somebody that feels like their cause is too marginal, their constituency is too desperate, their dreams are too big, their knowledge base is too small, and they just don’t know if they’re going to be able to pull this one off. If you’re that person, I want to tell you a little bit about my story, my secret rules for success if you’re doing tough things, and to remind you how important it is that you stick this out…

Thanks to Mary-Ev Anderson for pointing me to the speech.

Procrastinator’s Guide to Year-End Fundraising

It begins with a poem…

Twas the Night Before Christmas, and all through the House,
Grownups were surfing and clicking their mouse.

The kids were asleep and the stockings were loaded,
With ipods and Wiis and things sugar-coated.

And now it was time to think of some others,
The poor, disenfranchised, sons, daughters and mothers.

Worthy cause emails came in by the scores,
Making the case for donations and more.

Which one to choose, and what to do then,
Join, donate, or give—oh how much and when?

But the sites were a mess and the forms were a tangle,
The wanna-be donors’ nerves came a-jangle.

It was too much confusion and they were so tired,
You’d think it would be easier to make charity wired.

Donate tomorrow, they said to themself,
Was enough work today to be Santa’s elf.

And so off to bed, the causes can wait,
If it had only been easier to give or donate.

A Procrastinator’s Guide to Year End Fundraising has excellent tips on how to make online giving a smooth and pleasant process for your donors and how to integrate it into your year-end solicitation plans. The guide covers 10 steps:

1. Inspire your donors every day
2. Blaze trails to your donate page
3. Optimize your donate form
4. Test drive your online donation process
5. Create a “Why Donate” page
6. Thank your donor at least three times
7. Provide for a warm welcome
8. Launch a two-pronged cultivation plan
9. Measure and Test
10. Avoid procrastinating next year!

Novel twist on the simple pledge-a-thon

This website combines so many great things that I don’t know where to start.
I am Emily X is a blog that chronicles 40 days in the lives of Planned Parenthood workers and asks readers to pledge donations based on the number of protesters they encounter.

They are on day 36 and have encountered 426 protesters — from the polite and pious, to the obscene and violent. They are raising money ($40K+ to date) and using video interviews with volunteers and workers to delve the many reasons why Planned Parenthood (and reproductive choice) is so important. The campaign and blog is a response to anti-choice groups’ “40 days for life” campaign.

Here’s a snippet from the first post:

Hello, world.

We’re in the middle of something here at Planned Parenthood (where I work). The anti-choice people call it “40 days for life.” I call it another day at the office.

Basically, the anti-choice groups have decided to picket more than 80 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country for 40 days. September 26-November 4.

I’m used to picketers. Planned Parenthood is used to picketers. It bothers me very much that the picketers aren’t just picketing our clinics — that they’re really about making it impossible for women to get health care. But…we don’t let them faze us. As for me, the more picketers there are, the harder I want to work.

So, I’ve decided to do something a little different. I’m inviting you come to work with me. Seriously. Every day, I’m posting to this blog — some notes about my day, some photos, some video. I want you to know what it’s like to work for Planned Parenthood.

That’s not all. Since the 40 days thing began, various friends and supporters have emailed us saying they’d like to donate money for every protester that shows up. So we set up a thing over there on the right, at the top of the column — please pledge 5 or 10 cents, too! You have no idea how far we can make donations go at Planned Parenthood.

Corporate philanthopy moves towards sponsorship

I spent the last two days at the Western Sponsorship Congress in Calgary. It was an excellent event and my mind is bubbling with new ideas. I was very impressed with the conference — a rarity for me and professional development events!

Delegates included both “properties” with sponsorships to sell (nonprofits, venues, sports teams, etc.) and sponsors. This was one of my favourite aspects of the event — different than most philanthropy or fundraising conferences where almost everyone is from the same side of the transaction. Sponsors were there to network, share information and improve their own practices in building successful sponsorship programs.

I think that those of you working in corporate fundraising will already know this instinctively but everything I heard confirmed that there is a clear trend away from corporate philanthropy towards sponsorship.

Last year, an IEG report documented that a large percentage of North American corporations are switching money away from philanthropy to sponsorship. There is a feeling that the return is better with sponsorships and that companies (especially public ones) have an obligation to shareholders to see tangible ROI for every dollar spent.

In June Charity Village reported on a COMPAS Inc. survey finding that only 27% of Canadian corporate executives felt that for-profit organizations have an obligation to contribute to “the less fortunate.” When asked why Canadian companies don’t give more to charity, 42% said firms are already heavily taxed and don’t have the ability to give more; 36% agreed that it was improper for companies to give away money that belongs to shareholders; and 20% said charities don’t undergo enough scrutiny and oversight to justify giving more.

However you might feel about these sentiments the reality is that we can’t rely on compassion or a sense of obligation for corporate dollars.

In one of the sessions I attended RBC Foundation described the recognition associated with their largest “donation” made in Alberta to date ($2 million to the Reach! health care campaign, to be paid over 10 years). What was striking to the audience was the amount of recognition given — including naming the program and a physical space and logos on everything — for this donation. It wasn’t technically a sponsorship but extensive recognition was clearly key to getting the donation.

There was quite a bit of push back from the audience, asking the RBC representative how this can be considered a philanthropic donation when RBC gets so much recognition? The frustration was clear — nonprofits feel pushed by corporate partners to give benefits plus tax receipts and confused about whether to take the sponsorship or philanthropic approach. The response from RBC: you have to do both. It has to fit with their community-oriented objectives and it also has to give them lots of ways to trumpet their involvement. From a tax-receipting perspective, she said that the recognition had no clear business value (that could be defined) and so it qualifies as a donation. I think most people would agree that there is a real business value to this kind of association with a nonprofit cause. But it is a challenge to put a dollar figure on it.

I have lots more to share from the Congress… a few of the coming topics: sponsorship vs advertising, investing in activation and identifying your assets.

Blog Action Day: Green your development office

Today is Blog Action Day — a day when thousands of blogs (more than 16,000) and readers (approximately 12,700,000 and counting) all talk about the same topic. This year’s topic is the environment. In honour of the day, I thought I would share some suggestions on making your development office a little greener.

- Encourage the use of public transportation by providing monthly transit passes for your employees. Encourage cycling by providing secure bike parking somewhere inside your office. If your employees need a car at work, join The Company Car (or another car-sharing organization).

- Allow your employees to tele-commute. I think this is feasible, at least on a part-time basis, for many people who work in fundraising.

- Get a “duplexing” printer so that you can automatically print on both sides of paper. Don’t send single-sided letters to donors — it’s wasteful.

- Get rid of the water cooler and start drinking tap water. (Set up an alternative spot for office gossip.)

- If you live in Metro Vancouver, order your office supplies from Frogfile, which specializes in environmentally-friendly office supplies. (I love their Harbor/100 paper made from 100% post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free, FSC-certified and produced using biomass energy!)

- Provide fresh, local, organic fruit, treats and coffee for your development team with a weekly delivery from Small Potatoes Urban Delivery.

- No matter what sector you work in, tell your supporters what your organization is doing to improve environmental practices. Donors of all sorts — whether they give to the arts, health care, or social housing — want to know that you are progressive in this way.

- Want some more ideas? Check out “50 Quick, Painless Ways You Can Help the Environment Today” from the Zen Habits blog.

And, for your enjoyment, here’s a photo of a clever World Wildlife Fund smog awareness campaign in China. The balloon says: Drive one day less and see how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe.

How to get 10,000 new fundraising ideas in 2 days

AFP Vancouver is offering First Course on November 8 and 9 at Simon Fraser University in Surrey. This is an intense two-day overview of fundraising, perfect for people who have less than three years experience in the field.

I’m happy to be leading the Major Gifts module again. That’s where we talk about how to cultivate major gifts and we practice asking. (In a completely fun and non-intimidating manner and not in front of the whole class, I promise. It really is fun!)

Register here before October 31 to get early bird rates of $325 for AFP members and $375 for non-members.

Five tips for creating a great case for support

Over the last few months, I’ve been fortunate to work on case documents (or case statements, whatever you call them) for a diverse group of clients ranging from the Vancouver International Writers Festival to Washington’s Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, Yaletown House seniors’ centre and the Crisis Centre of BC.

Let me define what I mean by “case statement.” Most of the groups I work with are mid-sized or small. Budgets are often less than $3 million and some are as small as a few hundred thousand per year. Their development shops are small too — three people or less. They don’t tend to develop comprehensive internal case documents. They jump right to the public case for support and that’s where these tips should be helpful.

1. Before you write your first word, decide how the case will be used. Will it be emailed, mailed, used in face-to-face meetings, fit with other fundraising pieces or stand-alone? This will dictate format and length.

2. Show how you solve problems that the donor cares about – for the community, the planet or worthy people. Spend a third of your case describing the problems and the balance providing solutions.

3. Engage readers by being specific. Stories with memorable or unusual details will stay with readers longer than dry organizational facts or program descriptions.

4. Put as much care into the design and imagery as the text. Design gives energy, style and clarity to your words. It should help you stand out from your competitors.

5. Get structured feedback on the first draft from members of the intended audience. Asking donors and prospective supporters for their opinion is a wonderful way to ensure that what you say is reaching people.

This is the cover of a case I just finished with the Crisis Centre of BC. Email me and I will be happy to share a copy with you.

Lovely little ad from Community Living BC

If you are in Vancouver and watch CBC, you might have seen this commercial. It is a nice example of storytelling by a nonprofit (or are they government? I’m not quite sure). Poignant, thought-provoking, light, short and real! (Double click on the video below to be taken to You Tube to watch the whole thing.)