Thursday, April 8, 2010
Speaker:  Tara George, VP Search Practice, KCI
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Norwood Hotel
112 Marion St.
Registration information coming soon.

2010 Education Archive

Monday, February 8, 2010
Norwood Hotel, 112 Marion St.
Topic:  Speaking their Language
Speaker:  Tracey Bailey, CFRE, Vice-President, Ketchum Canada

Education Session - February 8, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

The Fort Garry
222 Broadway
Winnipeg, Manitoba

National Philanthropy Day® (NPD) is a special day set aside each year to recognize the great contributions of philanthropy — and those people active in the philanthropic community — to the enrichment of our world.

National Philanthropy Day® provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of giving and all that it has made possible. First held in 1986, NPD celebrates the endless daily contributions individuals and organizations across the world make to countless causes and missions. Last year, more than 100 AFP chapters held NPD events and activities across North America.

Through NPD, participants are able to show appreciation for all that has been accomplished in the name of giving, as well as show that there is still more to do. It’s our chance to step into the spotlight for a brief moment and remind our communities, our society and the world that the spirit of giving is alive and well.

National Philanthropy Day®,which is registered with the Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Department of Commerce, is coordinated by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

We hope you will choose to be active in celebrating this year’s National Philanthropy Day®,and we encourage you to work with other organizations in your community to promote it. The philanthropic community is strong yet varied, and each individual voice is equally important on this day of recognition and reflection.

Manitoba Chapter Achieves Ten Star Status Yet Again.The Chapter Ten Star Award honors those chapters that align their objectives with AFP’s current strategic plan and encourages them to perform specific activities designed to increase professionalism within the profession, as well as public awareness of the importance of philanthropy.

“Achieving Ten Star status again is proof positive that the AFP Manitoba Chapter is actively increasing professionalism within fundraising and public awareness of philanthropy. I’d like to thank the Board of Directors and their diligent committees for attaining this honour for Manitoba.”
Linda Lindsay, CFRE, AFP Manitoba Chapter President

(Aug. 11, 2009) There’s nothing like being in a mess to get an organization focused on fixing things. General William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, said: “We must wake ourselves up! Or someone else will take our place, and bear our cross, and thereby rob us of our crown.” How appropriate in today’s challenging times, but he said that more than 100 years ago.

We are now into the 19th month of this recession, which makes this the longest recession in 60 years. As a result of the tough economic climate, many organizations are drastically cutting back their fundraising programs. And it is easy to see why:

• Total giving decreased in 2008 by 5.7 percent in inflation adjusted dollars … only the second decrease in the past 50 years.
• GDP will drop in 2009 … and giving has closely mirrored GDP since 1967.
• Target Analytics just released their 2009 first quarter results and every key metric declined … especially the most important one which is the acquisition of new donors.
• The government continues to increase spending, proposes to raise taxes … and at the same time, plans to reduce charitable deductions. In countries that have higher taxes and more government social programs, giving is less than half that of the U.S.

But when others scale back on their fundraising efforts, it presents an opportunity to cut through the clutter for those that stay the course. Many years ago, I heard a story of an organization that wanted to mail a membership/fundraising appeal to every address in the state of Florida. They secured the motor vehicle registration list and mailed approximately 7 million pieces.

After the campaign they did an analysis to refine the models they were using on compiled lists and also studied results by various other response lists.

The analysis was done and when completed revealed some valuable information. The most startling fact was that the best responding list was the DMA preference file. While this organization didn’t mail the DMA Mail Preference File they also chose not to purge it from their mailing. What the analysis showed is that people who are not receiving much mail respond at a much better rate than those who are being inundated with mail.

So, here is the opportunity some organization see. As others cut back their efforts and as a result reduce the mailbox “clutter,” there will be an opportunity to have your message heard. Further evidence of not drastically cutting back in hard times came after the 9/11 terrorist attack and after the financial crisis last fall. While it may not be true for all, most organizations that proceeded with the plans where glad they did, and those that didn’t, regretted their decision to cut back.

What else can be done during hard times to maintain and position your organization for future success? Here are four strategies.

First, embrace integrated marketing. Donors, media and competition are changing and direct mail is declining. There have been plenty of articles and blog posts about the value of integrated marketing. Unfortunately many organizations have not adopted this proven strategy. This is no longer an innovative approach but is now a best practice. In a recent study one human services organization revamped their marketing efforts based on a competitive brand analysis, rolled out a completely integrated campaign and saw an amazing improvement in results:

• Number of new direct mail acquired donors up 35 percent
• Average gift size up 15 percent
• Number of retained/reactivated donors up for the first time in 7 years
• Call center revenue up 7.6 percent
• White mail revenue up 15 percent
• Total NET income up 12 percent

In the just released Giving USA report, giving to human services dropped 12.7 percent and this human services organization was UP 12 percent. That is the power of integrated marketing.

Second, focus on donor retention. With declining trends in retention rates, it is imperative to hold on to your most loyal donors. Do you treat your donors like an ATM machine or do you have specific donor retention strategies that affirm donors and build stronger relationships? A 10 percent increase in retention translates into a 200 percent increase in the lifetime value of a donor. It is disappointing to see how many large organizations still do not have effective acknowledgement programs or high touch strategies for their major donors. If donors start cutting back on the number of charities they are supporting, you must make sure your organization stays top of mind.

Third, increase monthly giving. Revenue per donor is another trend that continues to decline. Do you have an intentional management strategy to convert multi-year donors into monthly EFT and credit card donors? The lifetime value of a typical donor is $200 vs. almost $1,500 for a monthly donor. And this doesn’t include the opportunity that these donors represent for major and planned gifts.

Fourth, ramp up or start a planned giving program. While the transfer of wealth won’t be as big as first predicted, it will still create a huge opportunity for charitable organizations. Your donors are perfect candidates and many might even find legacy giving more meaningful as a result of the market’s poor performance.

Americans are generous and will continue to support charitable organizations. Your constituents need you and your donors love you. But to thrive in these difficult times will require you to challenge the status quo.

Claude H. (Chip) Grizzard, Jr. is CEO of Grizzard Communications Group—Atlanta, Ga. Grizzard Communications Group is an integrated, all-media direct marketing and fundraising agency.

A script that covers all key points of the ask, and blocks out appropriate time for each, means the ask will stay on track, Fredricks says. That doesn’t mean it has to be memorized word-for-word or recited as a monologue. It just means all the important aspects of an ask will be covered, covered completely, and in a comfortable order for the prospective donor. Don’t put someone up to bat for your organization empty handed. They will most likely also come back empty handed—and ask, “Why didn’t you prepare me for that response?!”

Fredricks, who is author of The Ask: How to Ask Anyone for Any Amount for Any Purpose, likens the script for a major gift ask to a road map. There are several important components to include before you get to your destination.

First, set a time frame for the ask. Don’t spend 20 minutes of a 30 minute meeting catching up and sharing stories. That said, don’t simply shake hands and make the ask. Fredricks says, as a general rule, the ask should not take more than 25 minutes total. Start with a five minute warm-up period. Break the ice by following up on something the donor mentioned in your last meeting. Ask about children or grandchildren. Here already you need to be prepared—take detailed notes or you simply won’t remember your donor’s particular interests, family concerns, etc.

After the five minute warm-up period should come the ask. Fredricks outlines five essential steps for the ask. The ask should take six minutes.

Essential Components of the Ask

1. Make a compelling case for the organization and the need for support
2. Use transitional statements that specifically reference the prospect’s interest, or prior support, or both
3. Ask for a specific amount and for a specific purpose
4. Detail the benefits of the gift
5. Remain silent

Certainly the first step is to state your case for support. Why give to you? And why now? What is the urgency? The script will contain a solid, clear and concise way of stating need. As a transitional statement, include in the script a way to tie the donor personally to the organization’s mission and current need. A good transition may be as follows:

“Leslie, your support for our mentoring program has put us on the map as the model for these community programs. We have the chance to take the program to a national level that is exciting and equally challenging. Let me take a few minutes to share with you what needs to be done to make that dream come true.”

After the transition, ask for a specific amount of money for a specific purpose. This is extremely important, Fredricks says. Don’t ask a donor to guess what is an appropriate amount. Plus, don’t keep them in the dark about who the money will help and how. Inspire them to make a difference with a particular program or project. If you are asking for an unrestricted gift, explain the benefits of such a gift. Be straightforward.

Next is your chance to cover the great things that will happen because of the gift. You’ve already stated your need, now talk about positive things that will happen once the gift is made—for the people the organization serves and for the donor, too.

The ask concludes with the fundraiser, board member or volunteer simply being silent. You have said your piece. Let the donor speak. This may be the hardest part of all, and reiterates the need for a script, Fredricks says. You don’t want to second guess the prospect’s reaction. Make it clear in the script to pause—and listen, listen, listen!

The Donor’s Turn to Speak

Continuing on the overall road map, step four is to give ten minutes, the largest block of time in the script, to the donor for his or her reaction, questions, feedback and overall response. Pay attention to verbal and nonverbal reactions. Listen intently and offer all the time he or she needs state questions and concerns fully. Remember, making a major gift is no easy or quick decision.

Finally, in four minutes, thank the prospect for his or her time as well as for listening to you. Wrap up with a final statement of the gift opportunity and its benefits and schedule a next meeting for follow-up. If there are questions you could not answer, let the donor know when you will get back to them.

These are some essential elements of an ask, and therefore are elements that should be clearly scripted for the person or persons making the critical major-gift ask. Fredricks lays out these and other steps more fully in her book, The Ask: How to Ask Anyone for Any Amount for Any Purpose, on sale now in the AFP bookstore.

Laura Fredricks, JD, LLC, is a consultant, author and motivational speaker for business and nonprofits internationally. Her new book, The Ask: How to Ask for What You Need and Deserve—for Your Cause, for Your Passion, and for You! will be published January 2010 by Jossey-Bass.

Chaotic Thinking

Effective writing begins (and ends) with clear, disciplined thought. As William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White put it so elegantly in The Elements of Style: “Design informs even the simplest structure, whether of brick and steel or of prose. You raise a pup tent from one sort of vision, a cathedral from another. This does not mean that you must sit with a blueprint always in front of you, merely that you had best anticipate what you are getting into.” So before you lay a finger on the keyboard or position your pen on paper, make up your mind what it is you want to communicate. Decide where you want to go and how you’ll get there. If necessary, outline the steps you’ll take along the way. If you don’t decide in advance what the point is, it’s unlikely you’ll get it across.

Hemming and Hawing

There may still be a place for slow and easy writing that meanders from point to point, but I think that approach went out of style with William Faulkner—and there is no room for such laziness when you’re writing to achieve results. Get to the point—the quicker the better! Unless you can devise a clearly superior lead sentence, I suggest you start a letter with the words, “I’m writing to you today because…” That approach won’t win a prize in a creative writing contest, but it does force you to communicate quickly and directly the result you’re hoping to achieve with your letter. Creativity doesn’t raise money, but directness does. If your writing doesn’t get to the point, your readers’ eyes and minds will wander off to more satisfying pursuits. Bluntness is usually a wiser and more productive course than subtlety.

Boring Leads

If you’re faced with the task of writing a six-page letter or a ten-page memo, you’d better be sure your opening paragraph—and especially the opening sentence—is intriguing enough to pique your readers’ interest. And that goes double for a letter intended to secure a gift or sell a product. Writing that engages the reader often begins with a question, a challenge, a human interest story, a bold assertion, a familiar phrase turned on its head—or straightforward, unalloyed directness. The special circumstances and conditions of your writing assignment (or simple inspiration) may suggest that one of these approaches is ideal. But it may be enough simply to sum up the points you’re going to make—if you state them dramatically enough and set the proper tone for the audience you’re addressing—for example:

I’m writing today to invite you to join me in launching a historic initiative with vast potential to improve the quality of life in our community.

For a general audience, that pompous lead might guarantee your letter will quickly make its way into the proverbial circular file. But for a highbrow group with a demonstrated commitment to your community and a connection to the person who signs the memo or the letter, the boldness of your claim may be captivating.

Run-On Sentences

Writing of any type suffers from overlong sentences; a letter to raise money or sell software can die a horrible death from this malady. If a sentence is longer than three typewritten lines, analyze it, looking for a way to break it down into two or three simpler and shorter sentences. Almost always, you’ll get your point across more effectively if you do so. Keep this in mind: a reader dedicated enough to tackle Proust or Joyce may be willing to concentrate hard enough to follow a tortured thought all the way to a long-overdue period. (Understandably, the period is sometimes known as a full stop.) But your readers aren’t likely to pay that much attention. Long sentences will test readers’ limited attention span, and you’ll come up the loser.

Failure to Use Visual Devices to Guide the Reader

A novelist who is highly skilled in moving the reader from one page to the next may be able to do so with the power of words alone. Most of us aren’t so lucky, and our readers, who often have far more meager incentives to read on for page after page, are typically far less tolerant. To write effectively for impact, you’ll probably need to make liberal use of subheads, bulleted or numbered series, boldfaced section headings, and other devices to break the monotony of gray, unbroken text. Only by providing your readers with clues that are visible at a glance can you make your writing actually look easy to read—and you’ll substantially reinforce that impression by using short sentences and short paragraphs. Signals such as these send an important message to the reader: that you’re writing for her benefit, not for your own.

Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Jossey-Bass, from How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters (w/CD), 2nd Edition by Mal Warwick. Copyright (c) 2008 by Jossey-Bass. All rights reserved.
Mal Warwick is the author of several books on fundraising. His latest book is titled Fundraising When Money is Tight. This and several other titles are available in the AFP Bookstore. Simply search by subject or author’s last name.

eWire contributing writer Ted Grossnickle shares his experiences working with nonprofit clients who are preparing to conduct a capital campaign. Grossnickle is chairman of Achieve, a nonprofit consulting firm in Indianapolis.

(July 28, 2009) A former client recently reached out and said his organization was ready to launch a capital campaign. We scheduled a meeting with the organization’s new CEO and development director to discuss their desire to launch a campaign and determine if they truly were ready for a campaign.

A large, regional nonprofit whose endowment provides 30 percent of its annual operating budget, the organization held its last capital campaign in the 1990s. Considered by most outsiders to be marginally successful, the campaign was considered a failure by staff and board. The organization’s current development staff is talented but has no campaign experience. The new CEO and development director are diligently visiting donors, but they are playing a game of “catch-up” and only now beginning to cultivate new donor prospects.

In this case, we recommended that the organization spend the next 12 to 18 months putting together a stronger development program and cultivating donors. Their goal should be to establish a campaign planning group in the summer of 2010, or once board and staff agree that they’re ready to support a campaign.

Because each organization has its own particular set of circumstances, there is NO formulaic answer to the question of whether yours is ready for a campaign. Energy spent now in assessing your readiness will reduce the time, effort and resources required to successfully close the campaign.

Still, there are ways to measure your organization’s readiness. Let’s explore the characteristics of a nonprofit that is most likely to find success in a campaign.

1. Your nonprofit is needed. The organization is actively making a difference in the community and can make an even bigger impact in the future.

2. Your nonprofit is known and respected. The community knows about your organization, and when you recruit board members, they consider it an honor to be asked.

3. Your nonprofit is focused and healthy. The organization has a practical strategic plan that fits with a capital campaign. The organization is financially healthy, meaning it has a balanced budget, access to credit, and financial and audit records that are in order.

4. You have a base for fundraising. A strong corps of annual donors exists, and you have had success with increasing gifting levels by active stewardship.

5. Your board of directors is ready. Each member of the board makes an annual gift to the organization, and many have made additional special or extra gifts. Board members understand what a campaign would require in terms of their own individual and collective financial support and time. The board is willing to help cultivate and solicit gifts, and each member has helped identify one or two donors that can make a gift for the campaign. The board has put a development committee in place, and board champions are advocating for fundraising.

6. The staff leadership is ready. The CEO is respected by staff, board, donors, clients and the larger community, and willing to commit time to working on the campaign. The organization either has a full-time development director or has addressed which staff member will be responsible for the campaign. The CEO and board have secured campaign counsel or addressed why they are not hiring counsel.

7. You’ve done your homework. The organization knows what it needs to raise funds for, can articulate the outcomes and has a written and refined case for support. A feasibility study has been conducted to test the case before going forward with a campaign, and you’ve set a realistic campaign goal.

8. You can effectively tell your story. You have a written plan to communicate your campaign and its key messages. Staff and board members can tell the organization’s story and communicate why a campaign is necessary.

9. You can spend money to raise money. The organization has identified a budget for a campaign and has allocated funding for it. The budget includes funds for donor recognition and communication, training and materials, counsel and equipment. It also has a provision for travel and meals.

And, most importantly,

10. Your campaign is important, exciting and will make a difference! Your board and staff are excited about what this campaign can mean. You can create important changes in people’s lives if you succeed in raising the funds.

Since a campaign is about much more than simply raising funds, it is critically important for the organization to approach the question of launching a capital campaign with some care. A successful campaign can lift public awareness and philanthropic support of your organization to a level you’ve previously only dreamt of, and make a terrific difference in the lives of those you serve.

Ted Grossnickle is chairman of Achieve, an Indianapolis-based consulting firm serving the needs of small to medium-sized nonprofit organizations through personal consultation and online philanthropic resources. Grossnickle is also chairman and CEO of Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates in Greenwood, Ind.

For guidance on how to carry out a successful capital campaign, be sure to check out Nonprofit Essentials: The Capital Campaign, by Julia Ingraham Walker, part of the AFP Fund Development Series.

AFP Guidance: Fundraising in a Difficult Economy is available free of charge and contains numerous pieces of advice on how to proceed with fundraising. While every organization is different and will face unique challenges, our guidance is meant to be both practical and thought-provoking for any charity, regardless of mission, size or geography.

The document is not meant to be exhaustive either, but rather a core list of the most effective guidelines. AFP actively encourages members and non-members alike to respond and provide their own thoughts, tips and practices that have been successful for their own organizations. Feedback and ideas can be sent to paffairs@afpnet.org.

In addition, AFP has developed an Online Fundraising Survival Kit that contains links to articles and advice from a variety of authors and fundraisers. Find the toolkit at this link.

All of us at AFP hope you find this guidance to be instructive, encouraging and most of all, useful on the job.