Things I wish Boards knew #1

A "prospect" is not "someone we've heard has money."

Here are some things I've been told as a consultant:

• We have a portfolio of prospects, we just need someone to manage the relationships.
• We have more than 100 local prospects who are waiting to be contacted.
• Each of our board members has provided a list of 10 prospects, but our development staff hasn't been able to close a single gift.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard a variation on this theme...and not once has it been what I would call "true."

The board members telling me about their large numbers of prospects aren't (for the most part) trying to confuse or mislead me.  They're misleading themselves with an earnest belief in these "prospects."  But having a list of people (even a well researched list, where you have a specific and accurate estimate of capacity - the reliable measure of wealth) that is essentially plucked out of a phone book is just that - a list of names that no more belongs to you than any other list of names of people in your community.

A prospect is something much much more.

A prospect is someone that you have reason to believe would be interested in supporting your organization if you got the chance to talk to them.  Perhaps they are a friend of someone already connected to your organization, and that person tells you they're interested in some aspect of what you're doing.  (Preferably, that person will also make an introduction!)  Perhaps they have a history of supporting many organizations that share your general mission or vision (e.g., if you do anti-poverty work, they support three organizations that come at it from a different angle or work in a different region).  Perhaps they have a family connection to your mission.  (e.g., if you are a disease research foundation, they have a sibling who has fought the disease you're trying to cure)  Perhaps they have made public statements about supporting social enterprise in their hometown, and you just happen to fit that bill.  There are nearly infinite ways that someone might pop onto your radar - but "having money" isn't enough.

Let me say that again: Being rich does not obligate someone to give you money.  I don't care who you are, or how deserving you feel your organization is.

Here's the hard hard work that has to go into successful fundraising: you have to take people with known capacity and research them to figure out whether your organization has a chance at being a good fit for them.  You have to find a way to reach them so that you can make your pitch.  You have to make a good pitch...and that pitch is rarely "give us money," it's "here's why you should get to know us."  THEN you work your way towards "What would make you want to support us financially" and close with "Can you give us some money?", which will only work some of the time.

If you are a board member, there's no quicker way to convince a great development officer that they're going to be persecuted at your organization than to keep conflating "people who sound rich" with "prospects."  That's so far from the truth that there's no way to succeed if you think everyone with a house in a really nice zip code is just waiting to give you money if you just send a professional to ask them.

I am willing to sympathize though: over 90% of board members (from some study cited at a conference I went to - forgive me, but that's a "truthy" number nonetheless) have never had formal development training as part of their board orientation.   If you are on a board, take the time to learn how development works, and what role you can and should play for your specific organization.  I'll offer some additional tips on fundraising from a board perspective in this column, and please send me questions for the mailbag!

But in the meantime, this is Board Sin #1.  Cut it out.  Not only are you setting your expectations stupidly high on a foundation of sand, but you'll damage the morale of your professional team. And shame your fellow board members who haven't gotten the memo.  (Gently or publicly, whatever gets the message across best.)

Article Review: Millenials matter - here's why

Alana Ramo wrote a nice piece over at Policymic about the philanthropic power of today's young adults: Millenials Aren't Millionaires, But We're Great Philanthropists.

She's right.  There's a lot of giving power in today's 20-30 year olds, and they're breaking a lot of "rules" when it comes to supporting causes and missions.  That scares a lot of people, who are uncomfortable having to learn new ways of doing business.  You don't have that luxury.  Not only are you missing out on a huge resource if you decide that you can survive without figuring out how to attract Millenial supporters, you're condemning your future.

It's always been the case that donors (as a demographic) gain capacity as they get older, and the first few organizations who treated today's Big Money Donors as VIPs are statistically likely to remain among their top causes.  There's no reason to think either of those trends will be changing.  Millennials will be richer in 10 years, richer still in 20...and because they're gaining a philanthropic philosophy and practice NOW, getting their attention for significant support years down the road will be even harder.  You'll be competing with institutions who've been working with them for decades by the time they're in their 40s.

Alana's article draws a lot from the Chase Foundation's Millenial Impact Report, which you can check out in full here.

Here are the biggest points in support of my dire warning:

-83% of the Millenials surveyed made a financial gift to at least one cause last year.
-73% volunteer for a cause, and a full 70% have raised money online or offline on behalf of a cause.

If you've ever tried to get your older supporters (or even your Board, who should be your most vocal set of supporters, ambassadors to the community at large) to each ask 5 friends to make a gift to one of your campaigns, you will be blown away at the notion of 70% of ANY demographic group seeking out opportunities to put their own name on the line with their own personal networks to raise money.

But these are also folks who aren't going to respond to direct mail or most email campaigns, they don't go to galas in the same pattern, and they aren't content to simply provide financial support and then be updated with newsletters and annual reports.  These are folks who want to be intimately involved, they want to be active participants in a cause.  You've got to provide that in a way that's authentic, but sustainable for your organization.

What's your strategy for engaging the Millennial generation?

Mailbag: Why I hate my bike-a-thon

Q: I have a charity that's really important to me.  It's a medical research group that is trying to find a cure for a disease that affects one of my loved ones.  It feels incredibly important to me, as part of my journey, to participate in their annual bike ride.  I like feeling like I'm doing something, even if it's just a very little something, and it's an incredible emotional moment (one that I need!) to be waiting at the start line in a huge crowd of people who all have their own stories that they've put aside for the day to come together for something much bigger than all of us.  But when it comes down to it, I feel that it's my selfish little thing.  *I* want to participate, *I* want to make a difference, to a cause that's important to *me*... I just can't bring myself to ask other people to give me money.  I wind up paying the minimum donation for participation out of my own pocket every year.  Is that bad?

A: Is that bad?  No.  That's a gift of $XXX that the organization wouldn't have otherwise.  That's not a bad thing.  But that's not the question.  You want to know if I will give you my blessing to continue doing that, or give you some way to get beyond your insecurities...

So, let's start with how YOU feel about people asking you to contribute to similar events that they're working towards.

Some people absolutely hate it when people ask them to contribute to bike-a-thons (or marathons or walk-a-thons or dance-a-thons, etc.)  They feel cornered and put on the spot, feeling like they have to contribute or you'll hate them/think less of them/hold it against them in a thousand different ways...and if you're using a social network to make your ask, it adds a public element to the pressure, because mutual friends might notice they declined to give.  In their mind, they're thinking, you *&$!!!#, now if I don't cough up $25, all my friends will think I hate people with cancer.

If you're one of these people, no wonder you don't want to ask anyone else.  You're living the golden rule.  But maybe seeing it in tongue-in-cheek print will give you a slightly new perspective...

1. See my previous post, about how to not feel like a panhandler when asking for donations to a cause you care about.  You're asking adults.  Your job is to ask, and to make sure that people understand you will appreciate their answer, whatever it is.  If they give, you'll be grateful, if they say no, you'll appreciate their consideration.  Whenever that is the honest truth, you should go ahead and ask.  They can say no.  These are grownups.
2. There's a caveat, of course.  There's an inherent and awkward power dynamic in the workplace.  If you're getting a gut feeling that it's inappropriate to ask your boss or your subordinates to chip in, then don't.  You're probably right.  But why would you extend that to everyone else you know?  
3. When people I care about ask me to contribute to something like this, in many cases, I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to show them I care.  I have a friend who's raised over $100,000 for leukemia research in the 12 years his mother has been a survivor.  I know how much she means to him, and I am so deeply impressed and honored to be friends with someone who is generous and funny and hard-working and a general all-around great human being.  So I'm grateful to have the opportunity to chip in just a few bucks each year as a gift to him, to send a small token of appreciation to this amazing person and our friendship.  You think some of your friends might feel that way about you?
4. Some of us don't have the time or strength to be able to directly participate in a bike ride or marathon.  But we're looking for a way to do our small part against breast cancer or MS or multiple myeloma nonetheless.  If I'm giving $100 or less, that is not going to make enough of a difference to warrant anything more than a form letter of thanks if I make a random online donation or respond to a mailing...the donation may be worth making, but it's not a lot of bang for my buck in terms of making me feel personally appreciated.  On the other hand, when you're trying to raise $500, my $50 donation not only makes a sizeable difference, I know YOU are going to appreciate my gift and thank me personally.  Maximum emotional bang for an earnest but small gift.
5. A tiny technical point: often, events like a bike ride are not purely about raising money.  Your minimum fundraising target covers the expense of your participation.  Let's say you just personally donate $500 to cover it.  Nothing wrong with that.  But if you get 15 people to donate that same amount (>$50 for each of them), this organization that you care about is getting more than money - they're getting new contacts.  Contacts who have already supported them, and who represent the potential for future donations if the organization does their job well by communicating directly and engaging these new folks you've brought to the table...that's an important gift you are giving, beyond whatever dollar amount you wind up raising.

Good luck on your bike ride this year!  I hope you'll take some of this to heart and ask at least a few folks to contribute.  If you continue to be gun-shy, remember, this is something that gets easier the more you do it.  Give yourself a small goal - asking 5 people, say - and see how it goes.  My bet is that you'll be a fundraising fiend in no time!

Mailbag: Glorified Panhandling

Q: How do I not feel like I'm just a glorified panhandler when I'm asking for money?

A: Oh, boy have you come to the right place.  However you want to phrase it, it's a VERY common hangup for people in fundraising (volunteer and professional alike).  Let's start with some praise: you clearly know how fundraising works.  You have to ask for money.  

Does that seem too obvious?  Don't take that knowledge for granted - I worked with an organization that felt it was tacky to actually make a direct ask...they thought it would be best to simply tell people with money about how awesome their organization was, how important it was to so many people, and then just wait for them to beg to give some money to support all that great work.  Seriously.  You can't make this up.

If you need donations, you're going to have to ask for them.

There are all sorts of ways to get through that reality if it's uncomfortable for you.  But you should never feel like a glorified panhandler.

A panhandler is asking you to give him money for no other reason than that he needs it.  He might trade on your sympathy, he might trade on a sense of guilt, he might try to make you uncomfortable so that giving him a little something is the easiest way to make him go away.  But it's always something for nothing.  Why should you give?  Because he needs it.

If this is your fundraising approach, you're doing it wrong.  REALLY wrong.

Even the most desperate appeal from a legitimate not-for-profit institution asks you to give because we need the money TO DO SOMETHING, something that is valuable to other people, something that is valuable to our community or society at large or humanity as a whole.  Don't underestimate that.  It's a huge difference, and you should feel it, deeply.

Here are some other thoughts to help you commit the act of asking, if it feels desperately uncomfortable to you:

1. You're asking adults, right?  You get to ask, they get to say no, if they want to.  They're grownups and you shouldn't feel badly about asking a question, as long as you don't make them feel badly about their answer, whatever it is.  Seriously.  We know how this works.
2. It's not about you.  Really.  You're the embodied voice of an organization.  Didn't you hear about Citizens United?  Institutions are people too...they just need someone else to speak for them.
3. Go back to the difference between you and panhandlers: you're offering something of value in return for a donation.  If that seems very intangible to you, spend some time figuring out how to make it tangible.  For some people, that's knowing exactly what a $20 donation allows you to do.  For others, it's being able to offer a tchotchkie in return (totebag, t-shirt).  For still others, it's figuring out a meaningful way to celebrate their donors (thank you brunch, names on a wall).  Or maybe it's a new commitment to stewardship (sending pictures and handwritten letters so donors know what their money did).  There are nearly infinite ways to do this.  It's about understanding your own value proposition well enough you can eat, drink and breathe it.
4. I can promise a certain level of desensitization.  The more you ask, the more natural it will feel.  Your skin will thicken, you'll be able to let most rejections roll off your back, you'll be able to ask  people you know and people you don't know without feeling as awkward...it's a process, but it gets easier with every ask.  Soon, you'll be able to use your feelings as a geiger counter - the more nervous you feel about an ask, the more suspicious you should be that something's not quite right (i.e., you should rethink your plans for when and how the solicitation goes down), and that's a tremendous asset for a fundraiser.
5. Are you asking for smaller gifts?  Perhaps you can work with your team to take charge of either larger/major gifts, or grant writing, both of which have different emotional dynamics when it comes to the ask.  When I ask a working class friend for a gift of $25, that money comes out of her wallet. It's a tradeoff between fancy coffees, a couple of more expensive groceries, a new pair of sandals...and a donation to my cause.  When I ask someone with a set philanthropic budget for a gift of $1,000, it's a tradeoff between giving to my organization and giving to a different organization.  That money is already marked for charity - I'm just trying to convince that donor that my charity can do something great with it.  

Emotionally, there are still some nuances to cover.  Tomorrow: same basic question, slightly different concern.  Is it "panhandling" to ask people to donate to your bike ride/marathon/whatever-a-thon?

  

Mailbag: All alone on the PTO

Q: I stupidly volunteered to be Parent Chair of the PTO at my son's preschool.  No one else wanted to step up, so I figured I'd take on the Big Job, but everyone else would help out in little ways (I'm usually great at coordinating lots of people pitching in on a project so that everyone's actually contributing.)  WRONG.  We had one meeting where it was like pulling teeth to get people to even suggest ideas for fundraisers, and now that we picked a couple to run with, I can't get a single person to help me with ANYTHING.  I'm losing my mind and getting angry and feeling like a failure.  And I don't know how to turn things around.  I'm not sure what my question is other than ...HELP!!!

A: Any time you're up for a job no one else wants (even when they flatter you tremendously by saying that you're clearly the best person for the job and everyone else wants to remove themselves from the competition because of how spectacularly great you'll be), make sure you fully understand why you're the only person in the running.  This is just one of the situations you can find yourself in, and it's miserable, unless you've accepted the challenge knowingly.

But that doesn't help you now, it's just a reminder for your long future of parental involvement in the education sector (if your kid's in preschool, you've got at least a dozen more years of negotiating this terrain), and might help someone else avoid your frustrations.

So, the first question I have (and one that all those other parents should have asked the moment you brought up fundraising) is: How much do you have to raise, and why?

I'm always amazed at the range of funds that PTOs and parent Booster Clubs and other educational related volunteer groups have to raise - some need a few hundred dollars for minor incidentals, others need tens of thousands to essentially underwrite the full program.  Being specific about how much you need to raise will help cut through whatever assumptions your fellow parents are walking in with (probably whatever they've experienced in the past)...assumptions that may be filling them with apathy or paralyzing dread.

Why you have to raise the money is also incredibly important to lay out for your fellow parents.  This is your first pitch - and if your pitch isn't compelling enough to inspire other parents who've shown up for a PTO meeting, well, that's got to be fixed immediately.

One or both of these is most likely the culprit here...is the amount you need to raise reasonable?  Is the reason you need to raise these funds important and urgent?  If both of these are true and you've also ruled out communication breakdowns (i.e. - this IS something urgent, say, for the survival of the school, or preservation of teaching jobs, etc., but the parents just aren't getting it or responding...) you need to look at the next question that follows:

How much do you need to raise ---> why do you need to raise it ---> Who are you going to raise the money from?

You thought it was going to be "How are you going to raise it?"...but we're not there yet.  WHO FOOTS THE BILL will shape how you go about raising the money.

A trap that many nonprofits fall into, but is particularly pernicious in the education sector, is tapping a very small pool of interested parties over and over and over again.  The experience of donor fatigue in that case has very little to do with HOW you're asking for money, it's the total that this small pool of individuals is asked to kick in.

If you expect to raise all your money from parents and their friends (is preschool too young to make the kids participate in one of those awful gift-wrapping sales?), through events, raffles, sales of one kind or another, you're not alone...but maybe you should rethink how you're doing it.

Having a school community come together around an event, maybe dinner and dancing, can be fun!  I've seen successful "gala" style events where everyone has a great time...but they worked because the folks in question were on the same page and wanted to get this particular reward for the money they knew they would be tossing in.  But let's say that gala sounds like a miserable way to spend and evening.  You could be sitting in a PTO meeting thinking "So, we need to raise $5,000, which winds up being $250 per family...but you want me to donate dozens of hours of my time to plan a party, buy tickets for myself and my spouse for $100, harass 6 of my friends to join my table out of sheer goodwill, spend $50 on a babysitter for the evening, all for the privilege of spending the night in a uncomfortable shoes and smiling when I'd rather be watching a bad movie on my couch."  And when you break it down like that, you realize that this is one of the most inefficient ways possible to raise your money.

Once you take a look at who you're targeting as the source of your revenue (and be realistic here - you can't just say "local rich people" and expect them to magically appear and give you money while dancing and giggling...for that, you might as well send everyone out to hunt for leprechauns), figure out what fundraising mechanism creates value for THEM.  People give money to gain something of value.

Don't forget: you're head of a PTO.  Every parent is inherently short on time (or oblivious to that fact, if you're saddled with some of those Wonderplanet Moms).  My bet is that if you can figure out how to successfully communicate the amount you need to raise, the reason you need to raise it, who you expect to raise it from and then focus your team on creating something of value to exchange for those funds...you'll have a group of parents who feel you respect the time they're giving you, and will be much more willing to help chip in.

Warning: if you have this frank discussion, you may wind up trashing some "traditional" fundraising tools that the preschool has used in the past.  This may lead to bumped or bruised emotions.  Tread carefully...but don't be overly cowed by things that just don't work.

Good luck!  Let me know how it goes...