Quick Tips: Wordle

In my consulting work, I spend a lot of time on storytelling.  If you want to figure out a strategy forward, it helps to agree on who you are and what you do now...and getting stakeholders to tell their personal and institutional narrative is a great start towards that agreement.

One of the things I frequently do after getting a bunch of people to write down answers to a few questions (nothing particularly complex - things like "how would you describe your organization to a friend?" and "what are the values of your organization in 140 characters or less") is run those answers through Wordle.

People think it's magic.

I feel conflicted about damaging my mystique here, but I'm sharing this little tip because it turns out that a lot of my former clients are taking this brilliant (FREE) web tool and using it to make graphics for various communications, from printed material to social media.

Check it out.  www.wordle.net

Simply enter a bunch of text (survey answers are super handy if you've recently asked relevant questions, or you can feed in your last couple of development pieces - case statements are great for this), tweak your colors, and voila - a free graphic that reflects language you use when talking about yourself or your mission.

Also...what if you don't identify with what comes out when you pop in your development narratives?  You might want to use that as the starter for a serious conversation about a disconnect between your organizational identity and your fundraising strategy!

Quick Tips: Shake up your mailing calendar

A lot of folks use the summer to plan their full calendar of mailings.  Are you still sending two big mailings a year, once in December, to capitalize on the tax year ending, and once in the late Spring, before the summer but a reasonable distance from that holiday mailing?

You've got plenty of company, which may offer some comfort...but a lot of folks in nonprofit management positions (including development) tend to be very risk averse, so "best practices" and "wisdom of the masses" tend to get conflated.

You don't NEED to shake things up.  But you do need to think about whether you're sticking to a particular mailing schedule for the right reasons, rather than comfort with routine.

Here are some ideas that are perfect to toss to your development team for a conversation right about now, mailings that separate themselves from the herd and have worked exceptionally well for others.

• Everyone and their mother will make an ask near the end of the calendar year, to capitalize on the end of the tax year, when a lot of folks make all their philanthropic decisions.  It's very hard to stand out, and the likelihood of your bringing in a lot of new donors is low - you're expecting annual gifts from your known supporters (be they consistent or every other year or two donors).  So...if you can find another way to give those folks a reminder that they need to make their regular gift (could be switching to a cheaper mailing, could be switching to email, could be switching to a phone-a-thon by board members...how many folks are we talking about for you?), you can shift those resources elsewhere.
• October 31.  Halloween.  Trick or Treat.  Unless you count UNICEF, no one is known for their Halloween solicitations.  If you've got a constituency that is likely to have fond memories of trick-or-treating, or is currently enjoying this American pastime with their kids...try designing a mailing around this holiday instead!  Bonus points for creatively utilizing a "free-mium" (like the labels so many folks include in their mailings) - they're reported to be annoying, but they do work, particularly if your base is over 50, and the cute aspect of tying this to Halloween may warm the hearts of your youngest donors too.
• February 14.  Valentine's Day.  A genuinely fun and warm valentine arriving as a surprise is going to stand out in most people's mail, in the very best way.  Connect it to your identity and mission and you're golden.
• Are you a religiously affiliated organization?  Use that to your advantage.  Rosh Hashana has long been used by Jewish organizations for their fall appeal; Christian organizations might think about Easter instead of Christmas; etc.  Guru Purnima works well for academic organizations (though you have to have a way to connect with the cultural/religious implications respectfully).
• Summer.  Most folks avoid summer mailings for very good reasons.  People are on vacation.  Productivity (which impacts things like "remembering to put a check in the mail") goes way down.  Peoples' minds tend to be elsewhere.  But those are general assumptions...are they true for you?  If you have a donor base (or a segment you can reach separately) that is aching for a summer distraction because they're not on vacation or working less even though it's light until 8:30pm, summer is a great time to reach out.  
• Maybe even get away from mailings...hopefully you're doing some regular analysis on how effective your direct mail program is.  There are lots of other ways to reach supporters, there are lots of ways to solicit them.  If you're not satisfied that direct mail is getting the financial return you want, if you aren't retaining donors at great rates, if you aren't acquiring enough new donors to sustain your strategies...don't hold anything sacred, including the notion that you need direct mail.  You might.  But if it's worth re-examining your assumption that the summer is a bad time for a mailing, you should be asking if mailings themselves are still working for you.

Mailbag: Recipe for Alienating Your Donors

Q: I just got a "thank you" note from my kid's school that is such a ridiculous form letter that I don't think I'll ever donate to them again.

Dear <Mr. and Mrs. Names Redacted to protect the annoyed>: Thank you so much for supporting <Could be any school, really> with your generous gift to the Annual Giving Campaign. Your tax-deductible gift of $20 will have a tremendous impact on <let's call her Jane> and her classmates.

In fact, when my 10 year old saw it, she asked "Is that sarcastic?  It's kind of mean."

I get that there's an absurdity to fundraising etiquette, but...are they being sarcastic?  It's a school of less than 100 families.  I know I can't give anything close to what some families give, but it would be really nice to feel like someone actually cared that I gave what I could.  How do I get over this and not let it affect my relationship with the staff at the school and the fellow parent who solicited me?

A: When I taught SAT Prep, one of my favorite little reminders to my students was to remember that writing SAT questions is someone's job.  They're not brilliant, they're not out to get you - on the other end of that test question is a pencil pusher who's an average Joe, clocking in and out and just looking to pay the bills.  The lesson there was to demystify that which held emotional power over you.

Same thing applies here.  They really didn't mean anything by it.  It's a form letter, and a fairly benign one at that, truth be told.  They're not out to get you, and I'm pretty sure that even the petty folks (and there are some) who might be tempted to shame or embarrass folks who didn't meet their standards for How Much To Give would be more flamboyant about their attempt to make you feel bad.  On the other end of that letter is someone who is just doing their job, probably underpaid and overworked and just trying to get out a few hundred thank you notes at once.

On the other hand - this is a great lesson for those of you WRITING form letter thank you notes.   Take note of these tips, and don't put yourself in this situation:

1. Segment your list.  You should really be sending different language to donors of small gifts (whatever that is for you) and donors of large gifts.  You might also segment by lifetime giving history, so that someone who's given millions gets a letter than acknowledges how much they've done for the organization over time, even if this gift is just $50.  This story shows how much it can matter.  
2. Don't be afraid of telling it like it is in your thank you notes - sincerity goes a long way.  Once you've segmented, for your small donors, try something like "...it may not seem like much, but your gift of $x will be put to good use, and knowing that 90% of our parents give what they can is extremely gratifying for our entire community." If you think anyone would describe your purple and flowery prose as "absurdist fundraising etiquette,"try simplifying - using plain language to say that you're grateful, and what you're grateful for is the best way to communicate authentic gratitude.  Use hyperbole, and your sincerity may get lost (to the point of suspected sarcasm, in really bad cases).
3. Personalize the note, when you can...and in a school setting, you really should be able to.  A handwritten postscript would have made all the difference here.  It would have instantly made the recipient feel like part of a community again instead of a faceless stranger being pumped for money by people who see her every day.

note: I cheated a lot in putting together this post - the real story (and of course there is one) happened on facebook.  It wasn't so much a question, sent to my email mailbag - a friend posted her complaint to everyone on her friend list (and she's charming and amazing, so there are a lot of us)...the second lesson, as important as the one above, is that it only takes one person to have a terrible experience to tarnish your reputation with a thousand people immediately. EVERY donor should be treated with grace and sincere gratitude.  This is one anecdote, but I have several others...how you treat your $25 donors reflects on your organization as much as how you treat your (may you have some) $25,000 donors.

Quick Tips: Getting Online Donations Up and Running, ASAP

A friend/reader just took a summer internship helping a small organization to think about their fundraising strategy.  He's young (as you might have guessed from the internship bit), so the first thing the board did was assume that he knows a lot about "online stuff."  Kids today, right?

Their top priority for him was to figure out how to get the organization to a place where they could accept online donations.

There's more to having an online strategy than simply being able to take a credit card donation online...a LOT more, honestly.  Bottomline, being thoughtful is worth more than being an early-adopter of new technologies.  Always.  But ideally, you want to be thoughtful and take advantage of new tools.

Here's a very practical (if also very incomplete) listing of a few quick ways to "get online" with your donations, and I'll trust you to not jump to any irresponsible uses of technology!

• If you have your tax-exempt status, you are already eligible to receive online donations through some third-parties.  My typical picks (below) represent a good sampling of the field, and will give you some hints at things you should be evaluating when figuring out how to get online, fast.
• Network for Good - this site allows people to make donations to anyone in the Guidestar directory of verified tax-exempt entities.  There are pros and cons here - it's not the most customizable interface, and from a user perspective, it's most convenient for folks who are making a bunch of small gifts to a bunch of organizations at the same time (think year-end).  The fee structure varies from 5% of gifts to 3% + an annual fee + setup, and is likely evolving, which is not outside the typical range of fees.  Still, you can "be online" immediately - just find your organization's Donate Now page and link to it as a way of driving traffic.  If you don't have a strategy yet, but have an immediate need to be able to take someone's online gift, this is a great option.  Use it, and move towards a more strategic solution forthwith.
• FirstGiving.com - this platform has just one advantage over Network For Good: the turnaround time for donations.  With a fee structure of 5% + 2.5% credit card fee + $500 annual fee, they're on the higher side of fees...but depending on your cashflow needs, they promise weekly dispersal.
• Fundraise.com - If you've got a little more capacity for strategy, this third party has a more aesthetic interface, and one which you can customize quickly without having a high level of technical knowhow on your team. People who can use a Facebook page (upload photos, enter content with an eye towards web formatting (when/where should hyperlinks be added, use bitesized paragraphs, etc.)) should be able to customize this platform reasonably well.  They help out with some email management so you can publicize your campaign(s), and they do occasionally turn up new donors for you who are looking at the Fundraise.com homepage to discover projects that are a good fit for their interests.  Fees are reasonable (4.5% + credit card fees) and they have a 30 day dispersal schedule, which is also quite reasonable.  This is my pick, in general, if you want to maximize a very limited tech capacity.
• Facebook Causes - speaking of being able to use Facebook, this runs through Network For Good on Facebook.  If you're one of the growing number of small/startup nonprofits that have a Facebook page but no website, this is an obvious choice for you.  It can also be a good way to get your Facebook followers and friends to utilize this particular social network for you by making it very very easy.  On the other hand, if you have a database of donors who may or may not use Facebook, it's something that needs to be maintained that only reaches a subset of your supporters, and will never be something you fully control (Facebook is not infinitely customizable as your own website would be; it will continue to roll out changes that you'll have to adapt to, with or without notice.)  You need to figure out if this fits with your plans for solicitation - how are you going to be encouraging people to give money online?  If it's almost all Facebook, this might work for you.
• If you don't have 501c3 status yet (it's pending, or your goals are so modest that you just don't want to deal with the bureaucracy - fine as long as you're not misrepresenting yourself) you still have options -- and both of these work even better if you DO have tax-exempt status.   For these, you're trading convenience for control.  If you are able to take advantage of that, I usually recommend the tradeoff, but it's important to be honest with yourselves when making the decision one way or another.
• Braintree Payments - I used to love Google Checkout as a convenient and functional widget that could be added to any website.  Not the prettiest, but very very practical.  Unfortunately, that's been discontinued and the Powers That Be at Google recommend you take your business to Braintree Payments.  Early reports are pretty good - their customer service gets high marks, and they seem to be gentle and generous in providing set-up support.  It's always good to be able to keep people on your website to make donations, instead of sending them to a third-party.
• Paypal - without Google Checkout, Paypal is a reasonable substitute, and usable for anyone, with or without tax-exempt status.  After all, people can just give money to other people - Paypal just provides the mechanism.  You have to keep abreast of all the technicalities and stay within legal boundaries (e.g., obviously, you can't offer tax-deductions if you're not tax-exempt; if you're selling raffle tickets make sure your raffle is legal; etc.)  Fees are reasonable if you file the paperwork to get recognized as a tax-exempt entity - 2.2% + .30 per transaction as long as the donations total less than $100,000 per month (and let's face it - if you're clearing more than $100,000 online per month, you shouldn't be cobbling together this particular solution!)
• Best possible solution:
• Most fundraising database software solutions these days have an online payment component.  If you've got a website and can hook a fundraising page to that which will automatically enter new gifts (and new donors) into your database (as well as logistically enable the payment), that's the neatest solution in almost all cases.  If you're committed to the database already, it's either a sunk cost or very small marginal cost, you're saving on the man-hours otherwise needed to get these gifts recorded in your database, and you've got a good amount of control over your donors' experience.  If "fast" is by far your most important criteria, and your database doesn't offer this option, you'll need to use something else as an intermediary (see above), but this is likely to wind up being your ultimate destination.

Did I miss your favorite platform or service?  Tell me about it (or your experiences, good or bad) in the comments section!

Quick Tips: Email Strategy

Email is a great tool.  But like everything, you have to know how to use it well if you want it to be effective.  One of its huge advantages, the very very low cost per email (for most of us, it's just the staff time spent putting together the list above the sunk costs of having an email management system) makes us a little less cautious about how we structure and plan our mass emails.

Here's a great recent post from techcafeteria (aka Peter Campbell) with some cautionary thoughts.  Basically, he reminds us that we're not the only folks tracking the number of people who open and read our emails - that statistic has bearing on how the major email services categorize your messages...you're much more likely to wind up in spam filters if you have consistently low rates of opens and clickthroughs.

http://techcafeteria.com/blog/2013/05/31/everything-that-you-know-about-spam-is-wrong/

It's something to think about.  Certainly, you shouldn't let fear for your sender score (terminology Mr. Campbell describes - it's what you think it is) cripple you...if the rest of the world is anything like me, whether or not I open an email from the organizations I support has less to do with them and more to do with what else is in my inbox and what else is going on in my day.  Aside from trying to anticipate what you can (eg - don't send an email you want me to read the day after a long weekend.  My inbox is guaranteed to be full and I'm going to be having a hard time getting my head back into work mode.  Always.) you have to accept that you can't fully control these things, and email is ideally suited to mass outreach.  But being aware of the implications of the techniques you are weighing is always a good thing.

Three super quick takeaways:

1. Think carefully about your mailing lists.  Just because you don't have to write a check every time you hit "send" doesn't mean there's no cost to sending emails, and it's not as simple as "so they won't read it if they're not interested."
2. Be sure your emails have value.  Best way to get people to open your emails consistently is to develop a track record of sending emails that are worth reading.  (Of course, that's a complicated thing to figure out...what has value to both your organization and your supporters/followers?  If it were as easy as all that to figure out how to implement that kind of platitude, I wouldn't have paying gigs...but at least this kind of advice can prevent you from being reckless!)
3. Stewardship is a great use of email - if all of your emails boil down to a direct solicitation, people will stop opening them unless they want to make a gift immediately.  Also, you should be sending your solicitations to lots of people, not just your guaranteed supporters, so if that's all you send, you'll wind up ignoring all of the good advice in Mr. Campbell's article.  But when you use email to thank and engage your supporters, you'll be rewarded with higher open rates and all their benefits.  (Blah, blah, you still have to do it right, and points 1 and 2 still apply, but if you're looking for a great way to engage in a productive conversation about email strategy with your board, boss, staff/team, etc., start here.  How can you better use email for stewardship?)