SOFII's Blog

When you tell people you are a fundraiser what is the typical response?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:46:00 +0000

Do people see fundraising as

‘getting money out of people’?

By Lucy Gower

For me, people either ask if I’m ‘one of those chugger people’ while slowly backing away, or are incredulous that I work for a charity – which must mean I don’t get paid – and yet how is it that I manage to live in an expensive place like London?

The general public have a basic lack of understanding about fundraising. The majority understand it to be about ‘getting money out of people’ and it is often, in my experience, perceived as somewhat underhand or in some way against people’s will. As fundraisers, part of our job is to work harder to help the general public better understand that fundraising is not just asking for money, but more about giving people the opportunity to make a difference – to enable them to make a change in the world.

Only by being inspired can we
inspire other people

Therefore it makes sense to approach our fundraising from a perspective of how we make a difference rather than simply raising money. Can you be a good fundraiser if your focus is simply about asking people for money? I think you can do a good job and raise your targets without a passion for making a difference for your beneficiaries. But I think that to be a great fundraiser you have to have to be truly passionate about the cause and the difference that you are making. Only when you are passionate can you convey that passion and emotion to someone else. And great fundraisers know that people make decisions based on emotion.

Charlie Hulme talks about how your own passion is an essential part of being a great fundraiser in his 101fundraising blog, ‘Why tell a story when youcan tell the truth’. He highlights the importance of getting out from behind your desk to get inspired about the cause you fundraise for on a regular basis.

It can be hard to make time to do this when you have tough deadlines, day-to-day pressures and are reacting to the many demands of your colleagues, volunteers and donors. It is easy to get worn down by the daily grind, but the great fundraisers make time to stay inspired.

I was lucky enough to be working with some great fundraisers at TerrenceHiggins Trust this week.

The partner and friends of Terry Higgins set up the Terrence Higgins Trust after he died with AIDS, on 4 July 1982. His doctors didn’t know what was wrong with him and his family – who never approved of his ‘lifestyle’ – didn’t want to know. His partner, 19 years old and terrified, had the hospital curtains shut in his face. He wasn’t considered next of kin.

Terrence Higgins Trust was founded in Terry’s name, so that others wouldn’t have to suffer the way he had. Today Terrence Higgins Trust is the UK’s leading voice on HIV and sexual health.

I wanted to understand a bit more about what inspired the Terrence Higgins Trust fundraisers so I asked them to bring an object that represented why they do their job.

They bought an eclectic range of objects that included

Newspaper cuttings from 1985 depicting AIDS as a killer epidemic showing how far the organisation has come in educating and supporting people with HIV.
A torch representing a shining light that Terrence Higgins Trust shines on a subject that is met with prejudice and is unpopular to fundraise for –which provided an added element of determination and inspiration for many in the team.
Pictures of teenagers – for those in the room with small children who want to feel assured that their children, when they reach their teenage years, will have access to information about their sexual health and how to stay safe.
Stories of how Terrence Higgins Trust had helped staff support friends who had been through a sex change.
A copy of the Gay Times that represented experiences of how hard it was growing up as a gay man with no support networks or understanding.
A letter from Maureen who had made a donation in memory of her son thanking Terrence Higgins Trust for all their work.
Examples of hate mail that is often generated when appeals about this unpopular topic are launched, such as, ‘Why should I give anything to SELF-INFLICTED IMMORAL SCUM. At one time these people were killed that’s how it should be THAT’S the TRUTH’, which just fired the team up to work harder to educate people about HIV and sexual health.

I also heard some inspirational words from Stephen Fry at a Terrence Higgins Trust Friends for Life event, he said,

‘I’m not the only one here with tear-stained cheeks; it happens every year that someone, or some people tell stories of their lives with HIV and how Terrance Higgins Trust has helped them. It doesn’t matter how many times you hear it, each time you are inexpressively moved, its not just their courage and honesty and bravery but the memory that it is the kindness of people like you that has allowed them to be there.’

The team was incredibly open and shared many personal and emotional stories, as well as their fears and hopes for the future. I had no idea that was going to happen. It was an emotional experience for us all. What inspired me was that everyone in that room was connected to the powerful and important work that they do to make a difference to people with HIV or in need of sexual health services. No one talked about asking for money.

We all have work to do to help people understand that fundraising is not just about ‘getting money out of people’. It is about enabling people to make a difference.

PS What object would you bring to represent why you are inspired by your job? I’d love to know.

Retention Song

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 06:03:00 +0000

By Reinier Spruit on the 101Fundraising blog.

If you are really going for retention in 2013 you have to record the Retention Song with your fundraising team. I’ve especially adapted Bob Marley’s lyrics for everyone to embrace the area of retention. So, just do it. Get out your camera and tape it. It will increase your retention rates by at least 20 per cent. Trust me…

The best performance can do the opening plenary at all fundraising conferences in 2013. Who says fundraising can’t be fun?

Retention Song (to the tune of Redemption Song by Bob Marley)

Our donors, yes, we ask them; 

Ask them and not only once, 

Even after they give more 

Not a relation here 

But our goals de-serve more 

By the touch of Aphrodite. 

Our reward in this donation 

Relationship. 

Will you help to spread

 This songs of richdom

‘Cause all we ever have: 

Retention songs; 

Retention songs.

Oh man they stay with us for gentle reasons; 

None but ourselves are there to blame. 

Shed a tear for inactive supporters, 

‘Cause none of you can stop them leave. 

How long shall we ill non profits, 

While we stand aside and look? Ooh!

Some say it’s just a part of it: 

We’ve got to try a new hook. 

Will you help to spread 

This songs of richdom 

‘Cause all we ever have: 

Retention songs; 

Retention songs.

—

/Guitar break/ —

Oh man they stay with us for gentle reasons; 

None but ourselves are there to blame. 

Wo! Shed a tear for inactive supporters, 

‘Cause none of you-a-can-a stop-a them leave. 

How long shall we ill non profits, 

While we stand aside and look? 

Yes, some say it’s just a part of it: 

We’ve got to try a new hook. 

Will you help to spread 

This songs of richdom 

‘Cause all we ever have:

 Retention songs –

All we ever have:

Retention songs:

These songs of richdom, 

Songs of richdom.

(applause)

We only live once? A worldview that is infinite

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:12:00 +0000

By Usha Menon

Click to enlarge. Original image from www.worldmapper.org

Over the lunch break at a board training session, we were sharing snippets from our lives. And one person, very philosophically, said ‘We live only once’. To which his colleague on the board asked, ‘Do we?’ The others at the table nodded appreciatively in unison, while reflecting on this perceptive query.

An interesting and thought-provoking query – I thought.

Many of us have adapted to visible behaviours that could be called ‘western’. Yet, our beliefs and thinking are strongly influenced by our Asian culture, upbringing and religion. A worldview that is cyclical rather than linear – the concept of rebirth being just one case in point. To a large number of Asians, life itself is not considered as one with a finite start and end. Hence when we use management tools developed in cultures that have a logical, linear and finite worldview, we tend to confuse our thinking.

Hence I would like to share three observations.

Strategic planning

Many nonprofits spend hours on strategic planning sessions and well-crafted feasibility studies using tools widely used in domains where reason is paramount. However, the nonprofit decision makers implement strategies based on their instinctive understanding of the environment, making some of the planning a mere technical exercise.

Here is the drawback in this exercise. The vision, values and goals are important concepts. But a linear roadmap generally used in the common strategic planning process and step-by-step action plan does not take into consideration the more intuitive ways in which Asians would like to get to their goals.

Therein lies the frustration that some donors and grantmakers, social entrepreneurs and investors, boards and consultants face when they look at the same thing through different angles. One – where highly logical and institutional thinking is overlaid on social impact organisations run by people who have great faith in their beliefs and intuition and have proved that it works as well.

Hence, an amalgamated approach that takes into consideration the alignment with the philosophies and thinking of the implementer will ensure a better buy-in and hence greater success.

The sea is not just a body of salt water, but one that is filled with many fresh-water rivers.

Evaluation

A recent interview with Ms Yukiko Uchida, Japan’s foremost researcher on ‘happiness’, highlighted a specific example of how cultural contexts mould the framing of research questions to understand the level of happiness. Ms Uchida gave an example from her classes at Kyoto University, where she teaches about the role of culture in shaping ideas of happiness. While her Japanese students usually rate their happiness around five or six, she said studies have found Americans and Europeans usually rate their happiness at eight or nine.

Ms Uchida said, ‘Japanese judgment of happiness is not just, yeah, I’m happy now, I check 10. They also think about social comparisons and time-frame comparisons’, she explained. Her students have told her that if they check nine or 10, they think they can only go downhill.

‘Absolute judgment is very difficult for Japanese people. But they can judge their happiness compared to other people. Like, “I’m okay compared with my neighbour or my colleague”, which shows that relationship orientation is very important for Japanese happiness.’

Nonprofit leaders and executives in Asia need to be aware of, and develop or adapt materials to, this aspect of our worldview. Blindly providing input into the various matrixes, which are not generally designed with a focus on the relational aspects of our thinking, will provide data that is incorrect, as cited in the example above – that Japanese students are not unhappier than their western counterparts, just that their interpretation of happiness is different.

Communication

‘Yatha dristi, Tatha sristi’ ~ Vedic affirm in Sanskrit, which means that whatever our view is, accordingly the whole world appears.

At a recent seminar in Thailand, a very dynamic speaker shared the importance of activism in civil society development. He then talked passionately about the need ‘to get angry’ with the status quo. And that’s when he lost the plot. The audience, made up largely of Thai nonprofits, shifted uncomfortably in their seats. What was lost on the speaker was that purifying oneself of anger is essential to Buddhist practice, which the majority of his audience was. In Buddhism there is no such thing as justifiable anger.

Being aware of the impact of religious and cultural beliefs and philosophy is the key to communication with any audience. More so in Asia, which is home to over 60 per cent of the global population. A large number are followers of Buddhism and Hinduism, which are ancient religions with well-established traditions that cut deeply into their followers’ daily life and they are proud of it.

The same is relevant in the cultural context of storytelling. Asian communities, be it through Korean drama, Indian cinema, or Indonesian wayang (traditional theatre), are raised on a solid appetite of non-linear storytelling. Stories of duty, sacrifice, honour and fate resonate very well with the audience. As communicators for the life-and world-changing work done through social-purpose organisations, we have a great opportunity to revisit and learn the basics of storytelling as we know it in Asia. I will share more thoughts on this in my future blogs.

I would love to hear from you, your thoughts and comments on this post. Have you had experiences that are similar or different from what I have shared?

Common sense and effective fundraising

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:48:00 +0000

By Lucy Gower.

At Christmas and birthdays my mum used to make me write ‘thank you’ letters to everyone who had bought me a gift. I suspect that you may have gone though a similar exercise as a small child.

This means that ingrained into most of us is the belief that we should always thank someone for a gift. It’s common sense. It’s polite. It’s expected. And it’s the ‘right’ thing to do.

So I’ve been really interested in reading the recent blogs on the subject of thanking donors that challenges this conventional thinking.

If you have missed them then let me fill you in. It started with the findings of an Ipsos Reid study conducted for AFP Canada called, “What Canadian Donors Want”

One of the things the study told us was that 52% of respondents said that not receiving a thank you would not decrease the likelihood of giving in the future.

This prompted Chuck English on his Marketing that works blog to ask,

‘Does saying thank you really make a difference? Do you know of a research study that proves that thanking donors will lead to further or increased donations?

It turns out that there is no empirical evidence that directly confirms that thanking donors will lead to improved results.This was picked up by The Agitator in their “No- thank you” blog.

The only evidence that thanking donors increases gift levels came from Penelope Burke. Penelope’s experience shows that there are fundamentally two types of thank you; average and exceptional.

Receiving an average thank you letter makes no impact on future fundraising performance, however, when exceptional thank you correspondence is tested against the average, and the rate of renewal and average gift value is measured, exceptional letters far out-perform the average.

You can read more here in The Agitator OK thank you blog.

The very suggestion of not thanking donors has been too much for some fundraisers to bear. It goes against what most of us feel is ‘right’, or is common sense or even best practice. But that’s the point; it’s not about you. You are not your donor.

Tom at The Agitator points out; ‘common sense’ might establish that donors are busy and will respond better to shorter letters. Or that $35 a year donors won’t make bequests. Common sense can often be, as in these two examples; wrong.

So when there is evidence that thanking some donors makes no difference at all should we not trust the data and bravely decide not to thank some donor segments? If we look objectively at the data we would conclude that its simply not good business sense to thank every donor.

Sean Triner, Director of Pareto Fundraising in Australia, and self confessed data junkie, concludes that, “If there is evidence that not thanking will increase the total charity net income, then the moral obligation is not to thank. You are not employed to be nice, you are employed to maximise your charity net income in the long term.”

Sean adds, “non transactional, anecdotal evidence is probably important for high value donors, so consider thanking top donors with a separate letter”

You can read more on this topic from Sean on the LinkedIn SOFII debate about thanking.

The challenge for fundraisers is to be open minded to the possibility that doing what we always do, because that is what we have always done, or simply because it is common sense, may not be the most effective fundraising strategy.

If you knew that not thanking certain donors was what they wanted, or that putting maximum effort into fewer targeted exceptional thank yous would improve your results, what would you do differently? Would you continue to keep doing what you have always done? Or would you be a bit braver and find a low risk way to test the evidence with your donors with the ambition of achieving better results?

Whatever you decide, there is one principle that applies to all your fundraising. There is no advantage in being average. If you are only going to be average, it’s probably not worth the effort.

What are your thoughts?

The world needs you to be excellent

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:20:00 +0000

By Kimberley MacKenzie CFRE

How one fundraiser secured her place at an international conference.

In my years as a fundraiser I’ve come across many inspiring stories. But without doubt the most inspiring tale of commitment to attend a conference is the story of my friend Sudeshna Mukherjee.

Sudeshna Mukherjee

I first met Sudeshna at a conference in Jaipur, India. I was a volunteer SOFII country ambassador at the time and Sudeshna was considering a similar role in India. The second I met her in that hotel lobby I knew that someone very special had just entered my life. Sudeshna was intense, anxious to know what to do and extremely motivated to get started. She also had an amazing smile, a bright lightness in her eyes and an extraordinary amount of energy. Perhaps what I was most taken with was the amount of space she took up in the room. Sudeshna is a small person but her energy and enthusiasm filled that large hotel lobby. I was completely in awe of her and liked her instantly.

After seven years working as a fundraiser for Oxfam India and the Resource Alliance Sudeshna was awarded an Atlas Corps Fellowship and is now working with GlobalGiving in Washington DC. When Sudeshna was invited to attend AFP’s 2012 Conference in Vancouver she had a problem – how to get there. Living on a small fellowship makes a trip from Washington DC to Vancouver almost impossible to imagine. ‘Almost’ being the important word in that sentence. Because, you see, Sudeshna is one of those remarkable people who always views the glass as half full. Instead of seeing her attendance at AFP as impossible she asked herself – how can I make this work? The solution to her was to practise the very skills she is working on honing – she would raise the money. Sudeshna launched an online fundraising campaign.

In her own words on the boostive website:

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

Every day I help nonprofit organizations develop their own online fundraising strategies. While I've learned a lot working with GlobalGiving as an Atlas Corps Fellow, I’d still like to grow and learn more about how I can help nonprofits raise more money and be more effective. The AFP's 2012 edition of the International Fundraising Conference in Vancouver, BC is happening in April, and it will be a great opportunity for me to learn how I can better serve nonprofit organizations. I have been invited to the conference, but I am still required to cover my own travel expenses. I'm currently living on a fellowship with a limited budget, so it is difficult for me to afford this conference all by myself.

How will this project solve this problem?

I’ve decided to practise the exact skills I’m trying to hone; I’ve created an online fundraiser to help raise funds for my attendance at the fundraising conference and $1000 will get me to the conference!

Potential long-term impact

I believe that this conference will not only help me with my own professional development as I meet other practitioners and specialists from the field, but it will also help me improve my skills. Furthermore, it will provide me access to international networks, help me earn latest skills from the sector, and help me learn from my peers. If I am successful I plan to tell my story on The Showcase of Fundraising Inspiration and Innovation (SOFII), so I’ll help others learn from my experience!

Project details:

I will be in Vancouver, BC from March 30 to April 3, 2012. My budget is $1000 including visa, travel and lodging. I scrutinize project budgets on a regular basis, so I value transparency.

Therefore I'll tell you exactly how I’ll spend the $1000:

- Flight (round trip – Washington DC to Seattle): $450;

- Visa: $75;

- Greyhound bus (round trip – Seattle to Vancouver, BC): $80;

- Hostelling International (4 nights stay): $200;

- Intra-city travel in Vancouver: $40;

- Food: $150.

Truck drivers, lawyers, farmers, doctors, insurance agents, real estate agents, dentists: all of these professions, and many others, require continuing education and ongoing profession development. New technology, the environment, fluctuating economies and other external factors change the way in which all professions provide services. The world and the needs of society shift and evolve. Raising money to fund charitable programmes is no different.

In fact, I would argue that staying up to date and inspired is even more important in our profession because as fundraisers we serve a greater good. We fund life-saving programmes. We help those who cannot help themselves. When publicly funded government programmes are eliminated, non-government organsations or the ‘third sector’ steps in. Now more than ever, development staff need to be inspired, motivated and at the leading edge of their craft.

In spite of this organisations continue to see professional development as a perk. At a time when charities have to do more with less, budgets for professional development often don’t survive even the first round of cuts. This is extremely unfortunate and not good for the overall health of a charity because we know that the best way to build revenue is to keep staff. We also know that fundraisers value continuing education budgets even more than compensation. The best way to keep fundraising staff is to support their professional development.

However, it is a far greater tragedy when fundraising professionals accept the elimination of an organisational budget as defeat. It is not the responsibility of the charity to keep your skills fresh, it is your responsibility. This is your career and you need to be committed to advancing it. Period.

There are all sorts of ways to ensure you are able to attend workshops and conferences. You could volunteer. You can allocate a portion of your salary each month to your own education fund. You could build conference attendance into your family vacation plans. You could invite a colleague to come and do an in-house workshop with your staff. Or you could simply copy what Sudeshna has done and raise the money yourself from friends and family.

This blog post was originally intended to help a friend achieve her goal of attending the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference in Vancouver. However within one week Sudeshna had exceeded her fundraising target and I’m very happy to say will not be staying in a hostel, but will be hosted by a fellow fundraiser in Vancouver. Bravo my friend. Well done!

So if next week you are at AFP’s International Conference in Vancouver and you see a small Indian woman talking a lot, smiling and full of enthusiasm for her profession, please say hello to her and help her feel as welcome as she did for me during my first shopping experience in India.

I hope you find Sudeshna’s story inspiring because she has displayed exactly the kind of determination, commitment, innovation, initiative and tenacity that our sector needs right now. Remember, this is your career and while it is nice if your employer is able to underwrite the costs of your professional development, ultimately the responsibility is yours. Find a way to stay inspired, refreshed and up to date. The world needs you to be excellent at what you do.

How often should we ask?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:10:00 +0000

It may be the wrong question, but it deserves an answer.

By Ken Burnett

This is one of those questions that pop up with depressing regularity in fundraising and to which there’s really no right answer. Other examples of the genre include how long should a fundraising letter be, how often do donors want to hear from us and how many words should there be in a PS? It’s a bit like, how long is a piece of string? Attempting to answer can be cathartic and at times instructive, but really, if we’re honest, it’s not the question that should challenge us.

The only correct answer is the unhelpful, ‘Well, it depends.’ Which could be followed with another question, ‘How interesting, engaging and worth hearing from are you?’ But I guess that’s really not good enough.

Twenty years ago this coming April I brought out a book called Relationship Fundraising, which made me nearly famous in a small field. Fame of this sort can be a two-edged sword. Over the years people have come up to me at conferences and said things like, ‘You know you said on page 137… or, ‘You said, in your third chapter, that if we would just…’

Usually I’d look at them blankly and deny everything. If quick-witted enough I’d hide my name badge, fake an Italian accent and plead mistaken identity. That rarely worked. Then I’d haver a bit and confess that I can’t actually remember what I wrote all that time ago. That, as you can imagine, impresses nobody.

I’ve found that people often assume things about that book, perhaps because of its title or general thesis. One thing many assumed is that in it I prescribe what kind of relationship fundraisers should have with their donors. And that I decree it should invariably be close, personal, warm – even intense.

I don’t. Because, of course…it depends.

Similarly with how often we should ask. Recently a correspondent in SOFII’s LinkedIn discussion group suggested that I’ve misled the fundraising fraternity all these years. He accused me of, ‘promising people that if they just ask less, they’d raise more.’

That doesn’t sound right. I’m rarely either that specific or that prescriptive. I’ve searched my writings and can’t find anywhere any advice to ask less. Ask better, sure. Ask more sensitively, of course. Listen to your donor and take account of his or her wishes, for certain. But not ask less.

Unless that is, you’re already asking too often. My correspondent (see above) felt the mere mention of this an admission of guilt – he was outraged that I should utter such a phrase. I responded by saying that, by definition, asking too often is…too often.

He came right back at me with, ‘Really? Says who, you?’

I kid you not. This highlights the trivia to which such debate can quickly descend. It’s not merely a question of semantics, it can get plain silly. The other phrase he objected to my agreeing with was, ‘don’t over ask.’ It was time to stop the conversation, I felt. After all, these were his phrases that he ascribed to me, not mine originally.

So, really, how often should we ask?

Well of course we shouldn’t over ask or ask too often, that’s blindingly obvious. However, defining too often would be a generalisation I’m no more qualified to make than anyone else.

It’s not about how often you ask. That’s simply too mechanical. It is about how well you ask, which involves opportunity, sensitivity, setting, language, history, culture, tradition, preparation, empathy, urgency and need. We have to consider our timing, our storytelling ability, the donor’s comfort, interests and potential for resentment and our ability to inspire and create rapport. And the rest. There can be no optimum number to cover such an intimate and personal inter-relationship. I wouldn’t pronounce upon it any more than I might aspire to tell people how often they should have sex.

The first edition of Relationship Fundraising appeared before the recent fashion for making 17 asks on page one of a direct mail letter. Otherwise I might have commented about that. As it happens I know this procedure can be effective. Equally, I can see that from the donors’ point of view the practice might after a while become wearisome. Fundraisers should test it, ask their donors, consider its long-term as well as short-term implications. It may work in some circumstances for some causes, for others not. There is no one size fits all.

The ideal situation is when the fundraiser doesn’t actually have to make a physical ask. The need is so evident and the donor so enthusiastic she will volunteer her gift at the right time or even jump in ahead. The fundraiser still needs to control this situation, but it’s a nice place to be.

We should recognise and cultivate the implicit ask. When Mohammed Amin filmed those long, disconsolate lines of mothers and babies starving in Ethiopia the ask was instantly evident from the faces in that queue. So people here were queuing up to give well before Bob Geldof issued his famous profanity. Many organisations benefit from the implicit ask – the Red Cross, Salvation Army, NSPCC. We close our eyes, imagine and the case is made. Lesser known causes have to work at it. Often the ask needs no more expression than the look in a child’s eyes. Or the offer in a headline. The fundraiser still needs good timing, judgement, inspiration, persistent application and luck. Often we have to learn to let our cause do most of the work for us.

Is a long-term relationship more important than a short-term ask? Again, I don’t think I can always answer that question, for every situation. You must decide. Generally it is. Are there times when a short-term need might necessitate putting other considerations aside and asking anyway? I can envision that, sure. And if the relationship is worth anything, I think mostly it’ll survive and even thrive because of that short-term need. If the ask is right.

The ask is often – even usually – for something much bigger than money. Will you make a blind man see? Will you change a child’s life? Good feedback too can replace the need for an explicit ask in the donor’s mind. It worked, was great value for money, so I’ll do it again.

Saying thank you, we all know, can present the best fundraising opportunity of all. But if while thanking you ask again, you’d be wise to be careful and be sure to ask right. Any fundraiser can decide, after reviewing the arguments for and against, whether or not it's right to ask in a letter of thanks. Then to make a policy decision for them and their organisation. But clearly this also is a question where there’s no absolute right or wrong.

Can less sometimes be more? Well, talk to donors. I’ve not met many who relish being asked for money 17 times within the first few minutes of meeting a fundraiser. Ask like that and before long fundraisers will be regarded with the same enthusiasm as insurance salesmen. If we’re not there already…

So for the fundraiser what matters is not just to ask but to ask right. Asking right isn’t easy and presents fundraisers with several challenges: who to ask, when to ask, where to ask, how to ask and for what? If you really understand your donor and are sensitive to the signals he or she is giving, how often to ask is perhaps the least difficult of these challenges.

I will say though that generally we should ask more. Because asking is the high point of effective donor relationship development. And the more we do that the better. But bald, naked, random, indiscriminate and repetitive asking, that I am sure we should avoid. We can aim higher.

So there are my views. I don’t recall ever suggesting we ask less. Less stridently, perhaps. Less insensitively, I hope so. But not less, absolutely. For that is what we’re here to do: to ask. All I’ve learned is that it really pays us to ask right.

I hope I have now made this clear.

© Ken Burnett 2012

Ken Burnett is a director of Clayton Burnett Limited, The White Lion Press Limited and he’s a former chairman of the board of trustees at the international development charity ActionAid. He’s author of several books including Relationship Fundraising and The Zen of Fundraising and is managing trustee of SOFII, The Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration. For more on Ken’s books please click here. To sign up for free notifications of Ken’s future blogs, click here. You can unsubscribe at any time.

This article also appears on Ken Burnett’s blog, see here.

What can fundraisers learn from Steve Jobs?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:57:00 +0000

By Lucy Gower.

In the 56 years he was on the planet Steve Jobs made a difference to the world. He changed the way we think about technology, from the first ever Macintosh personal computer to the development of tablet computing with the iPad. He changed the landscape of the music industry with iTunes and the iPod and led the development of smartphone technology with the iPhone. So given that making a difference is a fundamental of fundraising, I’ve picked out some of Steve Jobs attributes that I think you can apply to make a difference to yours.

Focus

Steve said, ‘Focusis saying no to a thousand things.’ Your efforts should focus on the activities where you will make the most difference. So perfect the art of gracious and firm rejection because saying no to the activities that won’t help you achieve your targets is as important as saying yes to the ones that will.

Passion

Steve did what he loved. He believed that the only way you do great work is if you love what you do. As a fundraiser you have to be passionate about your cause. Sometimes, after a rejection letter from a funder, a difficult conversation with a volunteer, or a pitch that fell flat it can be easy to lose sight of why you do the job you do. So you need to build up a personal collection of inspiration to remind yourself why you are here. Make time to visit or call your beneficiaries and see the difference you are making. Collect stories and write them down, share them at team meetings, refer back to them, keep those special thank-you letters somewhere close. It’s as important for you to know that you are making a difference as it is for your donors. And if you can’t get passionate about what you are doing you are in the wrong job.

Make connections

In his 2005 commencement speech Steve talks about joining dots, or making connections. He tells a story about how dropping out of college gave him the opportunity to drop into classes he was interested in; the courses he was passionate about. He joined a calligraphy class. At that point in his life calligraphy had absolutely no practical application for Steve, it was only 10 years later when designing the first Macintosh it came back to him. Personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do today if he hadn’t been captivated by that calligraphy class.

Steve said, ‘Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.’

You can only join the dots looking back. So it’s important that you deliberately make connections now, as the more experiences you have, the more you will be able to combine to bring new perspectives to your fundraising.

Perfection

Steve was a perfectionist. I don’t think it’s possible to be perfect in every area of your work, so focus on the things you do well and then be the very best at them. Play to your strengths. Aim to do at least one thing better than anyone else, for example, thanking donors, running events, or developing volunteers. Tweak other organisations imperfections to make them perfect for you, Steve did.

Prototype

Despite Steve’s quest for perfection, Apple release versions of non-perfect products that they test with their customers and are then quick to make changes and improvements based on customer experience. How many of your projects fail to get off the ground because you are waiting for perfection? Life isn’t perfect and neither are we, so expecting that a new product or service will be perfect the first time makes no sense. Test on a small scale, learn and make changes. Aspire to perfection and value your journey to get there.

Failure

He got fired from the company that he started. That’s pretty rubbish by anyone’s standards and it was very public. But he bounced back, started two companies, Pixar and NeXT, which somewhat ironically were bought by Apple and facilitated Steve’s return. So he failed. But more importantly he had determination, resilience and some may say arrogance to brush himself off and get back in the game. Your fundraising may not always work out first time round, even some of the biggest successes took years to get off the ground. Macmillan Coffee Morning started in 1990 and took years to establish. The key is being brave enough to try something new and to accept failing as important learning to drive your fundraising onto greater success.

Simplify

Apple product design is about simplicity. No product is any more complicated than it has to be. How often are you working on a project that seems over complicated? Keep projects simple, keep messages simple. Think about campaigns like Make Poverty History and the NSPCC’s Full Stop Campaign.

Tell more stories

Steve was a great storyteller; he used visuals and descriptive words to take people on a journey into the world of possibility. He didn’t describe the product, he painted a picture of the benefits, the iPod isn’t an MP3 player. It’s a thousand songs that fit in your pocket. That’s what you must do for your donors. How can you tell stories to help donors visualise the world of possibilities that they are helping to create?

Insight

‘If you ask people what they want, they will ask for a faster horse.’ OK so Henry Ford said that, but I think Steve would have said it first if he had been born in time. Steve disagreed with focus groups because he felt people would not have the ability or vision to know what they would want. Instead he looked to the future to what people didn’t know they wanted yet, and created the need. Did you know 10 years ago that you needed an iPod? No me neither – but turns out I did. How can you get real insight about what your donors want that will help you develop what they will want in the future?

Customer experience

Exceptional customer experience is a core element of Apple’s brand. Buying a product, either online or in store, is designed as an ‘experience’. Apple is a loved and trusted brand, with real brand loyalty. Would your donors queue at your office for your latest fundraising pack, like Apple customers queue up at Apple stores for the release of the next iPhone? How do you develop an equivalent donor experience and keep donors coming back for more?

Think differently

In a world in which we are bombarded with information, the only thing that sets you and your organisation apart from your competition is the ability to interpret that information in a different way from everyone else. Steve thought differently and, for me, this advert from 1997 sums it up.

So love him or hate him, the fact is in the short time he was here, Steve Jobs put a dent in the universe. He made a difference. And now it’s your turn.

Can we say the F word please?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:13:00 +0000

By Lucy Gower.

Edison said, ‘I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that don’t work’.

And if Edison hadn’t kept discovering all those ways that didn’t work, it may never have led him to discover a way that did. The electric light bulb might not have been invented. Imagine how different life would be.

The point is that failure is part of life; it’s part of the process that enables us to discover new things and therefore it’s part of innovation. If something is genuinely new it’s likely to fail because no one has done it before. You cannot be innovative without failing. So get used to it. In fact I think deliberately failing should be part of any innovation programme.

Charities are especially afraid of taking risks. They are afraid of being seen to waste donors’ money. I would argue that if an organisation does not take risks and does not invest money in the development of great ideas for increasing the size and scale of its work, then it is not doing the very best it can for its donors, or its beneficiaries. I actually think that, in a competitive marketplace, unless you have something that makes you different from the competition it’s more risky to be the same as everyone else.

Because we don’t like to share failure it’s really hard to find examples of where things have gone wrong. Failures tend to get swept under the carpet and for every failure that isn’t shared a huge amount of learning is wasted.

One person who is bold enough to share failure is Richard Turner, former director of fundraising at ActionAid. He told me about ActionAid’s ‘What a Feeling’ campaign that failed earlier this year. He wanted to say what happened and what was learnt so that other organisations don’t repeat the same mistakes.

What a feeling

On blue Monday, the second Monday in January and officially the most depressing day of the year, ActionAid in the UK launched ‘What a Feeling’. Prompted by the high attrition rates of face-to-face recruitment, the aim of the campaign was to attract new supporters and get them really involved.

The idea came from meeting supporters. The team deliberately got a diverse group together to hear them talk about ActionAid. What stood out was the way they spoke about what they gained. This tallied with the anecdotal comments from supporters when meeting fundraisers; as a result of donating, fundraising, or campaigning for ActionAid, supporters would frequently describe their feelings. Therefore it was decided that this would be the basis of the campaign - real supporters sharing their real feelings to encourage other people like them to sign up to help ActionAid.

The campaign ran over two months and focused on London and the South East of the UK. It used a mix of media ranging from press, inserts, adverts on the London underground, radio, digital, social media and PR. The supporter care team was trained in social media specifically for the campaign.

Check out the What a Feeling video used below

click here to watch video

Despite the conviction of Richard and the fundraising team that they were onto something great, the campaign failed. ActionAid didn’t reach the targets for sign ups to new direct debits. They missed them by a mile. But there were some interesting results, for example a surge in website traffic and take up of people wishing to go on overseas challenges (called First Hand Experiences) at a time many charities have reported a decline. But this was not enough.

Why did What a Feeling campaign fail?

• More time should have been spent on understanding why attrition was increasing and the cost of acquisition was rising (i.e. the underlying causes not just acknowledging the symptoms).

• The general public simply didn’t believe that real people were talking about their feelings (they were).

• The campaign didn’t have a strong enough link to ActionAid’s work and the people it works alongside.

• Great conversations took place on the phone to follow up leads, but the campaign simply didn’t generate enough leads in the first place.

• There was internal pressure to deliver the campaign, as well as to bring in income in the short term. Financial measures were applied but in retrospect the campaign should have been measured for return on engagement rather than the traditional return on investment. It was more a relationship-building exercise than a way to raise more money.

• ActionAid started big, an initial smaller scale approach to inform and develop a larger campaign in the long term would have worked better.

• Because of quick timescales there was less buy in from stakeholders, both by senior staff and those responsible for delivering it.

What did you learn?

• It is crucial to spend time really understanding the challenge you are trying to solve, time spent at the beginning of a campaign will pay off hugely in the end.

• Minimise risk by testing and piloting on a small scale, make refinements before scaling up.

• Be clear on what you are trying to achieve, the What a Feeling campaign was about engagement but it had immediate financial measures. In hindsight, based on those measures, it was set up to fail.

• Build failure, refinements and changes into the development process.

• Get buy-in for your idea and spend time getting the right people on board.

• You need individual and organisational support to make ideas happen.

• The campaign could have been more strongly rooted in the cause and the people that ActionAid work with.

It really is all about engagement

Subsequently Richard did some reading on how marketing is changing which gave some more food for thought about the What a Feeling campaign. He says, ‘I now understand the full nature of the problem. I feel a bit like a doctor who having heard of the symptoms now knows the cause.’

Simply put, Richard had a revelation: the way people decide how to spend their money has changed. Shouting about your product and broadcasting about you is not what customers or donors want to hear. Think about it. Nowadays a lot of people shop online and before they buy they ask their networks or will do a search and, even then, most of them look at customer recommendations. This is why the days of traditional forms of broadcast marketing are in decline and the interactivity of social media networks is becoming increasingly important.

Why should giving to charity be any different? People want to know how what you do is relevant to them and how it will make them feel to be involved; and most importantly how it will help them to feel good. It’s now about connection and being recommended. Your brand, your reputation and what you stand for are more important than before. You have to live and breathe your brand values.

Your people are your brand. So ActionAid were onto something with What a Feeling.

The challenge now for ActionAid is to learn from What a Feeling and to develop the concept into a successful campaign. Often people and organisations want to forget about failure. That is risky. This is the biggest failure of all. Failure gives us all a springboard for success. What we need to do is carry on and even fail again.

I’d like to give a heartfelt round of applause to Richard for being so open about the failure of a campaign he was very much involved in. I hope that sharing his experience will help us all learn, as well as encourage us to be more open about failure in order that we can ultimately all fundraise more effectively for the causes that we are passionate about.

Does anyone else want to be brave and share his or her stories of failure to help prevent others from duplicating your mistakes?

You can follow Richard on Twitter @ifundraiser or his blog at http://ifundraiser.wordpress.com/?'

A checklist to help supercharge your fundraising appeals

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:22:00 +0000

By Damian O’Broin.

Checklists are great. They can make onerous tasks more manageable. And in a busy agency or fundraising department they can be a lifeline to ensure that work is done properly and to the highest standard.

So today I thought I’d share with you two of the checklists we use at Ask Direct to ensure that the campaigns we produce are as effective and compelling as possible.

If you use these 12 points to review the campaigns you produce, it will supercharge your fundraising appeals.

I’ll be honest, though. It can be very difficult to create appeals that tick all 12 of these boxes. We rarely manage to do it. But we’re always trying to get there.

I should also say that we didn’t invent these. We stole them from people who are far cleverer than we are.

The first checklist we stole from Patrick Renvoisé and Christophe Morin, who wrote a book called Neuromarketing (Thomas Nelson, Inc, USA, 2007). In it they argue that the part of brain responsible for action, what they call ‘the old brain’, only responds to six stimuli. And if you want to motivate people to take an action – such as giving money to your cause – you need to use these stimuli.

So here’s checklist no. 1, the Neuromarketing checklist.

1. Self-centred

The old brain only really cares about itself. So you need to make sure that your fundraising appeals are about the donor, not about your organisation. The donor should be the centre of the story, the hero of the piece. Your organisation is merely the trusty sidekick who helps her achieve whatever remarkable thing it is that you’re asking for her help with.

2. Contrast

Our old brains are finely attuned to contrast, difference and change. We notice the new. Does your appeal surprise? Is it unexpected? And does it move between the bad – whatever problem you’re trying to solve – and the good – the positive outcome you’re hoping for?

3. Tangible

The old brain isn’t good at abstract concepts. It likes things to be tangible and concrete. It doesn’t want to end poverty, but it would quite like to stop a child from going to school hungry. It doesn’t get environmental justice and sustainable development, but it would like clean drinking water and not to have an incinerator built next door.

4. Beginning and end

Our old brains pay most attention to what comes at the beginning and the end. The middle tends to be a bit of a mush. Think of your favourite novel. You can probably recall how it starts and how it ends, but I doubt you could relate in detail everything that happens in the 300 pages in between. So make sure the most important information is at the beginning and end of the appeal. And make sure there’s a good story to tie the rest of it all together.

5. Visual stimuli

Apparently the old brain doesn’t even understand words. So make sure you have strong visual stimuli to engage people and move them to action. Wherever possible use images of people, ideally looking straight at the camera.

6. Emotions

As they say in their book, ‘…researchers have demonstrated that [we] make decisions in an emotional manner and then justify them rationally.’ If you want people to take action, you have to engage with their emotions. Make sure your fundraising appeal packs an emotional punch. If it doesn’t, it shouldn’t go out.

So that’s the first six. They’re the easy ones.

We also stole the next six. They come from Robert B Cialdini, author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (William Morris and Limited, Inc, USA 1993), who identified six ‘weapons of influence’. Here they are.

7. Reciprocation

Give something. Someone who receives a gift feels obligated to return the favour. This is why premiums – stickers, labels, pens – lift response. But this a lever of influence you need to use with care and prudence. You don’t want a sense of obligation to descend into resentment. Perhaps there are better things you can ‘give’ to your donor, such as special access, insider information – or even gratitude – that would cement and deepen the relationship and a shared sense of obligation to each other.

8. Commitment and consistency

Once people publicly commit to something, they tend to stay consistent with that commitment. I came across a great example of this recently at the Institute of Fundraising National Convention, when Craig Linton of the Greater London Fund for the Blind showed their donor pledge form. New donors area asked to sign a pledge (not compulsory) to ‘continue my regular gift for as long as I can afford it. I reckon these few words will really help to reduce their attrition rates.

9. Social proof

Social proof is hugely influential. We are surprisingly herd-like and will often take our lead from others. How can you demonstrate social proof in your appeals? One technique that has worked in telephone campaigns is to tell donors how much other people gave to the appeal. The donor is very likely to follow suit. Try to think of ways of showing the breadth of support for your cause. If people know other people ‘like them’ – people of the same gender, or from the same locality – support you, they’re more likely to do so themselves.

10. Liking

We prefer to say yes to people we like. So, is your organisation likeable? Do you seem human, genuine, friendly, caring? Do you demonstrate this with excellent donor care?

11. Authority

We are also remarkably easily swayed by authority. Do you come across as authoritative? Do you sound like you know what you’re talking about? Are you experts in your area? Interestingly, one way to convey this is by talking in detail and specifics, using concrete language. The more detail you provide, the more vivid your storytelling, the more likely it is that your donor will believe you. More on that here.

12. Scarcity

Scarcity and exclusivity are powerful motivators. But they can be hard to apply in general fundraising appeals – you often want as many people as possible to contribute. But you should always consider ways to employ scarcity. A J Leon, again at the Institute of Fundraising National Convention, had a great example where he limited the number of donors to a project to a hundred. And these 100 people got special access and benefits. It was a runaway success. You can watch it here

So there you have it: twelve things to aim for in your next fundraising appeal.

Measuring your fundraising effectiveness

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:15:00 +0000

By Kirsten Bullock

Have you ever told someone you were a fundraising professional and they said, ‘oh, you’re a professional beggar then’. It makes me cringe just to type those words. If you’ve been in the field for a while, you know that nothing could be further than the truth. Arm twisting, begging and other ways to manipulate a gift out of someone might work once, but it’s not a way to build long-term, sustainable relationships with those people who will join with you to accomplish your organisation’s goals.

At its best, fundraising is about building long-term partnerships on behalf of the organisation. At its worst, it’s about a transactional approach that results in a one-time gift. Unfortunately, too often it falls into the latter category. And too often, the only measurement we look at is how much money has come in. While that’s certainly a good indicator to track, it’s definitely not the only one that should be followed.

Now the Association of Fundraising Professionals in the USA (AFP) have introduced growth in giving (GiG) reports, based on results from their fundraising effectiveness project (FEP). Just in case you’re not familiar with the fundraising effectiveness project, here’s the summary from AFP’s website:

The goal of the fundraising effectiveness project (FEP) is to help grow philanthropy’s share of the GDP. It pursues this goal by providing nonprofits with tools for tracking and evaluating their annual growth in giving. Growth in giving is the net of gains in giving minus losses in giving. Nonprofits raise more money by investing more money in growth-oriented fundraising strategies that both increase gains and reduce losses. The FEP is focused on ‘effectiveness’ (maximising growth in giving) rather than ‘efficiency’ (minimising costs). It conducts an annual survey and publishes gain/loss statistics in a yearly report through a partnership between AFP, the Urban Institute and AFP’s donor software workgroup.

That definition seems a little wordy to me, so my understanding of the project is that it helps people better measure their fundraising success. It provides a format so that you can compare your year-over-year results and look at indicators for long-term success, rather than just money.

While putting together the report can be a little complicated, the numbers it measures are fairly easy to explain. Gathering the numbers usually requires a good donor management software programme. The good news is that the members of the AFP donor software workgroup (who are partners in this ongoing study) have said that they would build in a report to give you this information.

First, it looks at new donations that are coming in. This could be in the form of new donors, returning donors (those who had stopped giving previously) and donors who gave higher gifts than in the previous year.

Then it compares those numbers to areas of loss in donations. This includes donors who gave less this year than last year, those new donors who gave last year but not this year and those donors (who had given for two or more years) but did not give this year.

AFP, at www.afpnet.org/FEP, has provided tools to help you develop these charts for your organisation. They are available as a service to the community, so you are not required to be a member to access them. Here’s a direct link to the page that provides a template for the report.

All that is well and good, but the most important thing is what the information helps you to accomplish. First, it provides a format for a report you can take to your board to help them understand what the total amount raised means. Next, it can help you measure how you’re doing against other participants in the study. Third, it helps you identify those areas you’re struggling most in – and address them appropriately. And finally, my personal favourite, it will provide validation regarding where you’ve done well – and gives you a reason to celebrate.

The 2010 fundraising effectiveness survey report found that, from 2008 to 2009, respondents reported gains of 45 per cent in new funds coming in. Unfortunately, this was offset by losses of 61.1 per cent, resulting in an overall loss of 8.1 per cent in gifts. The report, in PDF format and available here provides a detailed breakdown (just in case you’re as addicted to data as I am).

Are there similar projects in your part of the world? I’d love to hear about them.

Making it real

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:43:00 +0000

by Lucy Gower

We know that people make decisions based on emotion. Great fundraisers deliberately seek ways to develop emotional connections between their donors and their cause. This is usually achieved in a number of ways, through storytelling, use of language, images and film.

If you need any evidence check out the story of the Explore the Bay campaign for Save the Bay that raised $11 million. Fundraising board members Joan Abrams and Kate Kilguss discovered that reconnecting people to their own relationship to the Bay was the key to inspiring them to give.

David Brooks, author of The Social Animal (Random House Inc, USA, 2011), wrote: ‘Reason is nestled upon emotion and dependent upon it. Emotion assigns value to things and reason can only make choices on the basis of those valuations.’

We also know that fundraising is hard. Fundraising is becoming increasingly competitive with thousands of ‘good causes’ trying to attract income from limited resources. Fundraising is a business discipline and, like any business, charitable organisations must be constantly innovating and developing new ideas to keep ahead of the competition. So, the more creative you are in finding ways to connect donors emotionally to your cause, the more successful your fundraising will be.

Storytelling, good use of language, images and film work fine, but is fine good enough? If you can get your donors to experience your cause in a physical way it will be even more powerful.

‘It’s never enough just to tell people about some new idea. Rather, you have to get them to experience it in a way that evokes power and possibility. Instead of pouring knowledge into people’s heads, you need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so they can see the world in a new way.’

John Seely Brown, Seeing Differently: Insights on Innovation (Harvard Business Review, USA, 1997).

You have to help people have an experience. There are many ways to do this. Below are some of examples to get you thinking.

Masaru Ibuka, Sony’s then honorary chairman liked carrying his bulky cassette player with him when he travelled. It was rather cumbersome so he instructed Sony engineers to make it smaller. At that time portable cassette players were predominately used by journalists to record interviews, no one understood why anyone would want a cassette player that played and didn’t record. When the Sony Walkman was launched in 1978, Sony employed actors to walk, cycle and, apparently, skateboard around Tokyo demonstrating the use of the Walkman in action. Journalists were taken to a park where they, on their very own Walkmans, could experience the quality sound and see other people using the device. They felt it. It was made real for them. The rest is history.

Chip and Dan Heath tell a compelling story in their latest book, Switch (Random House Inc, USA, 2011), Chip and Dan Heath tell a compelling story of a manufacturer wasting sums of money due to poor purchasing. An employee, desperate to make management understand the waste, hired a summer intern to investigate just one product and the prices that were paid for it. The intern gathered data on the prices paid for standard gloves that were used in all the factories. The result was 424 different gloves and where there were like for like gloves, the cost of these ranged from $5 to $17. At the next board meeting the 424 pairs of gloves were placed on the boardroom table with price tags on. The board members understood. It made the waste real for them in a way that a PowerPoint slide or a spreadsheet would not have done.

During World Water Week UNICEF in New York sold dirty water in dirty water vending machines. No one wanted to drink the dirty water but many made a donation. Watch the clip here to see some emotional responses. Every day, 4,100 children die of water-related diseases. Being asked to buy the dirty water that kills so many made it real for the passers-by.

Plan International pioneered child sponsorship 70 years ago and it remains a key part of their fundraising today. As a child sponsor with them and other sponsorship agencies, such as ActionAid, you can go and visit your child in his or her community and see the difference your donation has made. Sponsors can record and write about their experience. You can learn about The Bramelds trip to Ghana here. It certainly made it real for Lynne and Paul Brameld. It also helps make it real for other child sponsors like them.

Guide Dogs for the Blind hold a blindfold walk where participants are sponsored to walk blindfolded, with the help of a guide dog. I think there is so much more potential for this concept. It helps people understand the crucial role of a guide dog. It makes it real.

Hunger affects a billion people worldwide. WeFeedback asks you to think of your favourite meal and donate that value to help feed others. For example, steak and chips is calculated at $23 that, the steak and chip eater is informed, can feed 92 children. It makes it real.

Unseen tours are walking tours led by homeless guides. They offer a historical yet hitherto unexplored perspective of London, as perceived through the lens of homelessness. The tours include the guides’ own stories and experiences.

Making it real is about helping your donors physically experience your cause. It involves thinking just that bit harder about how to connect your donor emotionally. Whether you make a prototype, or gather real evidence, or play out the real situation, or compare daily lives of your donors and beneficiaries, the more you can do to make it real and emotional, the more connected your donors will be. In a competitive marketplace spending time making it real will make your donors more committed and your fundraising more successful.

If you liked making it real you may also be interested in:

Art of Woo, G Richard Shell and Mario Moussa (Capstone Publishing, UK, 2008).

Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki (The Penguin Group, UK, 2011).

Switch, Chip and Dan Heath (Random House Inc, USA, 2011).

The Social Animal, David Brooks (Random House Inc, USA, 2011).

Dabbling in fundraising won't get you there

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:21:00 +0000

By Christiana Stergiou

Organisations that take up fundraising in a casual, half-hearted or even superficial way, I call ‘dabblers’.

Definition of dabble: to take part in an activity in a superficial or casual way.

Recently, I've come across a number of dedicated people who care about their organisations but have no fundraising experience. They dabble. And that’s fine if you're a local sports club or community group with small funding needs, or you only need a couple of dozen donors, or $25k a year.

But dabbling in fundraising only gets you so far. If you require significant, strategic revenue for your work, dabbling in fundraising will not get you to where you want or need to be. In fact, it may even hinder you.

Nonprofit organisations that dabble in fundraising are usually doomed to a vicious cycle of fundraising ineffectively, never having enough money to get ahead and urgently needing to try and raise more. Eventually the organisation that dabbles gets to a point where they have to make serious decisions. I think that in such a situation there are two options. Fundraise properly. Or don't fundraise at all.

Why might you say no to fundraising?

· Fundraising is not easy. There is a perception held by many organisations that don’t raise money from the public, or that ‘dabble’, that fundraising is the easy solution. It is not.

· Fundraising is not free, nor is it very cheap. Effective fundraising costs money. It requires investment and often for the long term. It is not a quick fix. Normally, money that is invested now may not see any return for at least an entire year.

· Fundraising can be scary. Effective fundraising strategies and tactics often require some level of risk, something to which boards and senior managers are usually averse. This is more the case for those who have relied on government funding for years on end. Now a change is terribly frightening.

· Fundraising is not fair. If you don’t have a cause that appeals to the broad public, or perhaps to many people at all, you’ll find it even harder than most to fundraise. Although, that in itself is not a barrier to fundraising; even if you don't have a 'sexy' cause, you might find that you have supporters that care strongly about what you do.

Here are just some of the options I think you could choose ahead of fundraising.

· Get a loan from a benefactor or the bank. Have a business plan to pay it back.

· If you’re running social businesses that are meant to make a profit and fund your charitable works, then make sure they are making the profit they should. Don’t fundraise to prop up unprofitable business activities.

· Invest your money wisely and use the interest you achieve (sometimes doing this will show more of a return then spending the same money ‘dabbling’ in fundraising).

· Don’t fundraise from the public. Spend more time and effort on your government grants and philanthropic trusts and foundations – these are two of the largest sources of income for the nonprofit sector. Work on becoming a sustainable organisation beyond these sources of funding. There are experts out there who specialise in this type of fundraising alone. This is often the most beneficial investment for organisations already dependent on such income.

Dabbling in fundraising is not a plan. In Mal Warwick’s The Five Strategies for Fundraising Success – the best book that I have read about fundraising planning – he argues that there are only five fundraising strategies: growth, involvement, visibility, efficiency and stability (GIVES). You can’t have a fundraising plan that does it all. You really need to choose only one or two of these and focus on them.

For example, right now, a few of the nonprofits I work with have a growth + involvement strategy. That is, their primary strategy is growth (lots more donors, giving lots more money), and a secondary strategy of involvement (more people involved in their cause and mission). The aim is that within five years they may be able to achieve a stability-driven plan (that they will one day know where most of the money they need is coming from each year).

Another important concept that Mal covers in his book is that of opportunity cost. This is the money you would have made if only you'd done things right. Dabbling in fundraising can result in you spending time on the wrong things and things that won't lead to long-term sustainability. When considered carefully, opportunity cost may well drive you to outsource some areas of fundraising to established experts, such as those who specialise in grant funding or direct mail and concentrate your own efforts on 'only doing what only you can do'.

If you want to fundraise, don't dabble. Get serious about fundraising. Invest; plan for the long term. Plan for the day when your organisation knows, year after year, where most of your money will come from.

Now that would be a wonderful day.

How to raise monthly donors on Facebook – yes, Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 May 2011 07:05:00 +0000

By Pamela Grow

When I read Australian fundraiser Jonathon Grapsas’ March post about how one nonprofit had managed to raise over $100,000 in monthly gifts via Facebook I was intrigued and mildly incredulous.

I believe that social media is invaluable to nonprofit organisations, particularly the small nonprofits, but I confess that I always thought of it as an initial first step in an organisation’s marketing strategy. When it comes to actual donations, I’ve reflected back upon the numerous Facebook birthday-wish gifts I’ve made to various causes without receiving a thank you, let alone a follow up, from a single organisation.

So I arranged to phone Jonathon to talk to him about fundraising in general and, in particular, about the exceptional social media fundraising success of the Soi Dog Foundation and their $100,000 monthly gifts from Facebook users. (Jonathon is the brilliant head of fundraising innovation for Pareto Fundraising in Australia and publishes one of my favourite fundraising blogs.) Jonathon was kind enough to connect me with Leonard Coyne, the genius behind Soi Dog Foundation’s fundraising and Leonard quite generously agreed to be interviewed over the phone.

The Soi Dog Foundation works to help the homeless, neglected and abused dogs and cats of Thailand by reducing pain and suffering through humane population control. From February to November 2010 (a mere nine months) the Soi Dog Foundation saw a 350 per cent increase in monthly donors, attributed primarily to Facebook traffic. Pretty impressive, no?

What’s more, Leonard’s Facebook experiment for the Soi Dog Foundation resulted in increased audience engagement, a significant increase in one-off donations, supporter driven appeals and even five legacy gifts directly attributable to Facebook. Yes, five legacy gifts.

How did he do it?

As Leonard told me, ‘There’s a lot of noise about social media, but it’s a very ephemeral noise. Too many organisations start up a page or group but there is no discipline in taking it forward.

‘Although many organisations believe that they should establish a group instead of a page (or both) this is not the case. Although groups allow you to ‘mass message’ the group’s members, it is typically fairly ineffectual and regarded as yet another Facebook annoyance if done too frequently. Groups were designed for use by people who have a similar interest. Pages on the other hand were specifically designed to represent an organisation. Pages also offer much more functionality and customisation than groups. Be careful not to confuse your audience with too many pages and groups representing your organisation. One page is the best approach.

‘Nonprofits also need to recognise that an investment of time is required to grow your fan base. One thing that works really well for us is to actively post every other day asking fans to ‘invite’ their Facebook friends to “like” us.’

Leonard’s right, it will definitely take some time to reach that initial mass of active followers who will begin to spread the word organically. The key is consistency. Actively pursue new Facebook followers by way of your regular communications, your organisation’s website, your newsletter, email signatures (don’t forget to create email signatures for your board members as well), and via your blog and Twitter.

Another factor in the Soi Dog Foundation’s Facebook success lies in advertising. Like many internet marketers, Leonard finds Facebook advertising far more effective than Google and he’s spent a fair amount of time in testing. He says, ‘I think anyone advertising on Facebook should be going after a recurring gift. It’s not terribly effective to use Facebook advertising for one-time gifts, recurring giving is key.’

Here are a few other tips for Facebook advertising. Leonard only advertises to women and suggests that in order to find out who you should be targeting, test by age, gender, relationship status, location, education, workplace and any other relevant categories you can think of. This is where your ideal donor profile comes in handy. The best way to get started effectively is to tighten down the criteria to a minimum audience reach of 20,000 people. Figure out what a $20 a month recurring donation is worth to your nonprofit and package it in a way that best appeals to your target audience.

What else can you learn from Soi Dog’s success? I liked the interactive sidebar applications that any organisation can emulate immediately on its own Facebook page. Leonard likens each one to a mini web page.

And, if you’re looking for greater engagement, be willing to relinquish some control. As Leonard notes, ‘It makes perfect sense to utilise Facebook for fundraising. Facebook is a social environment. People use it to interact socially. People are sick of you talking at them. Have dialogues with them, establish relationships and train others to do it. And add heaps of photo galleries.’

For more information on Soi Dog’s strategies, be sure to check out Leonard’s presentation on Slideshare.

How to be a fundraising hedgehog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 May 2011 23:53:00 +0000

By Damian O’Broin

In his book Good to Great – Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t (Random House Business Books, 2001), Jim Collins tells a story about a hedgehog and a fox. Actually, it’s Isaiah Berlin’s story, but here’s how Collins tells it:

‘The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog. Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot and crafty – the fox looks like the sure winner. The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a dowdier creature, looking like a genetic mix-up between a porcupine and a small armadillo. He waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home.

The fox waits in cunning silence at the juncture in the trail. The hedgehog, minding his own business, wanders right into the path of the fox. ‘Aha, I’ve got you now!’ thinks the fox. He leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The little hedgehog, sensing danger, looks up and thinks, ‘Here we go again. Will he ever learn?’ Rolling up into a perfect little ball, the hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog defence and calls off the attack. Retreating back to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new line of attack. Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins.’

People are similarly divided into foxes and hedgehogs. But it is the hedgehogs that make the biggest impression because they simplify the complex into a single, simple unifying idea. Think of Karl Marx and class struggle, Charles Darwin and natural selection, Ken Burnett and relationship fundraising. These are people who have looked at a complex world and found a way of simplifying it. They are hedgehogs.

Collins goes on to argue that all the great companies have a ‘hedgehog concept’, a simple, clear idea that drives everything that they do. For the US pharmacy chain Walgreens it was this: ‘To run the best, most convenient drugstores (pharmacies), with high profit per customer visit’. Once they identified this as their hedgehog concept, they implemented it with fanatical consistency, replacing inconvenient stores with more convenient ones, even closing good stores if the opportunity arose to replace them with potentially great ones. As a result, Walgreens’ stock performance outperformed the rest of the market by a factor of 15 between 1975 and 2000, leaving the likes of Intel and Coca-Cola trailing far behind.

But a hedgehog concept isn’t a goal or a strategy. It’s an understanding of what it is that you can be best in the world at. More specifically, your hedgehog concept can be found where the answers to these three questions overlap.

What can you be best in the world at?

What are you deeply passionate about?

What drives your economic engine?

So what does this have to do with fundraising? Well, I think there’s one, simple thing that most charities could realistically aim to be best in the world at. And it’s something that would definitely drive your economic engine: donor care. The question is, are you deeply passionate about it?

Whether you’re a big charity or a small one, in whatever sector or country, you could be the best charity in the world at donor care. All it needs is the passion to do it and the determination to make it happen.

The small Canadian political party Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada (AAEVPC) is hardly a household name, even in Canada, or a widely recognised cause, but they seem determined to become the best nonprofit in the world at donor care. You can read about how they retain 70 per cent of new donors in this recent post on The Agitator.

Just to put that retention figure in context, in The Agitator’s donor retention survey nearly two-thirds of charities reported that less than 40 per cent of donors ever make a second gift.

And the rate of second gifts is as good an indicator of long-term donor retention as you’re going to get. If you can maximise the number of second gifts you get, you’ll see a major increase in donor retention and a consequent growth in the lifetime value of your donors.

So here’s a free hedgehog concept for you to adopt for your charity:

We will be the best charity in the world at caring for and retaining our donors resulting in a high lifetime value per donor.

Take that to heart, make it the basis of everything you do, and riches will follow. Guaranteed.

Storytelling inspired by film

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:04:00 +0000

By Lucy Gower

So we have already agreed how crucial storytelling is to your fundraising. If you are still unsure, read my last blog For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Tapping into the motivations of your audience, fulfilling their needs, capturing their imagination and evoking emotion that inspires them to take action is fundamental to successful fundraising.

You also know the importance of finding your story. Once you have found it there are many ways to tell it. Earlier this week I was researching the use of film for creating emotional stories. I found so many different examples and I want to share some with you so that they may inspire your own storytelling.

Grab yourself a coffee and take some time to watch these very different short films and consider how they make you feel.

Jot down your thoughts as you go along.

1. The Force: a super bowl advert for Honda using nostalgia and humour.

2. This amateur video captures the destructive power of the tsunami as it hit Kamaishi in Iwate prefecture, Japan.

3. Child’s i foundation raises £10,000 in 38 hours to save baby Joey’s life through the JustGiving community.

4. Topsy Foundation: AIDS sufferer, Selinah, agreed to film herself for 90 days to help others.

5. The tyranny book: Amnesty Portugal’s alternative Facebook.

6. The girl effect showing the extraordinary potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.

7. Cadbury’s chocolate advertisement. No one said it has to be all doom and gloom.

Desperate, joyous, funny, thoughtful, inspired and tearful are some of the words that I wrote down.

People need to feel something if they are going to take action, whether that action is to reach for their debit card, agree to a meeting, or write to their MP. How can you use some of the techniques in these films to make your supporters feel emotion and inspire them to take action?

Not all of the above examples are from fundraising. Look to related worlds; industries whose core business is to inspire or stir up an emotional response, for example advertising, journalism, or Hollywood.

How can you learn from other industries to develop your stories to emotionally connect with supporters and spur them into action?

Answers on a postcard please.

Getting along – conflicts among staff

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:36:00 +0000

By Kirsten Bullock

There seems to be an invisible line drawn between fundraising staff and programme staff, executive staff and frontline staff, support services, such as accounting and technology, and everyone else. It exists in some way in most of the organisations I’ve worked with in the USA and I would be interested to hear from readers elsewhere to see if this staff divide is universal.

As a lifelong student (and someone who tends to think too much), I have spent time trying to determine the root of these conflicts. It seems to me that they stem from three different areas:

1) A belief that everyone else is just like us.

2) A tendency to think that the area we work in is the most important.

3) Focusing on what we heard – rather than what was meant.

We are not all alike

I confess that I am not a detail-oriented person; however, I have the utmost respect for those who are. I must also confess though that I used to get really irritated with people who dwelt on details when I wanted to talk about the big picture (and still do occasionally). Over time, and through communications tests and profiles such as DISC and Myers Briggs, I’ve come to have a much greater respect for the importance of diversity on work teams. It ensures that we will be less likely to overlook items essential to the success of our project, among other benefits.

Marriage was a similar learning curve for me in this area. My husband and I folded our towels differently, put our toilet paper on the holder differently, squeezed the toothpaste differently and had very different cooking styles (it was a few years before we were able to cook together). It didn’t mean either of us, or our families, were wrong, we were just different.

We are equally important

While there could probably be some very energetic discussions about the most important part of an organisation (programmes, fundraising, operations), the truth is that none of them could be successful without the others. We need money to operate programmes, but we need strong programmes to warrant funding and we need good systems in place to assure that everything is operating smoothly.

Communication, especially listening, is the key

Communication is an on-going challenge for people, as evidenced by the deluge of self-help books covering this topic and the increasing number of coaches focusing on it. Two people might be using the same words but mean very different things. Add another culture, even a second or third language into the mix and it’s a wonder we’re able to communicate effectively at all.

Several months ago my mother had some friends from Denmark visiting her. They had gone on a trip to a store and while they were waiting to pay her two friends were having an animated conversation about something fairly mundane. The person behind the register expressed concern to my mother about the argument he assumed they were having because, based on what he knew from his cultural norms, he thought their animation was hostility.

Creating a collaborative environment

So, with these challenges (and many more that we don’t have space to cover here), how do we begin to create a more collaborative environment?

First, understand yourself (with a goal of helping to understand others). The things you find most irritating about others may be things you yourself struggle with, or could be the exact opposite to you. Spend some time thinking about your reaction to other people. If it’s a negative reaction, try to identify what’s causing that reaction and why.

Next, try to see the good in others. When you’re able to identify differences between you and others, try to see the benefits that those differences offer. If you’re like me and love to push forward on projects, it’s good to have one or two people on your team providing cautionary words about possible obstacles. If you’re the type of person who gets stuck because of all the obstacles, it’s beneficial to have someone on the team pushing to move things along.

Bring internal partners into the conversation early. Ask questions about how things operate in their department and understand the implications for their department of what you’re trying to accomplish. Bringing all the parties together at the beginning of a discussion can help avoid delays later on. The primary objective for this meeting would be to discuss what you’re trying to accomplish and then ask for ideas of the best way to get there. It does take longer, but there will be more support for the implementation phase – and you might be pleasantly surprised when a better idea emerges to accomplish whatever it is you’re trying to do.

Understand your organisation’s programmes. Take time to learn about the programmes you’re raising funds for and what the hoped for outcomes are. This is a great opportunity to build bridges with programme staff. And remember, people don’t always remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. Listening goes a long way in helping to build a strong relationship.

Recognise programme and operations staff, talk about them whenever the opportunity arises. As fundraising professionals, we often have the chance to do so publically. Let your programme and operations staff members know how much you appreciate them.

Start a giving programme for staff so, just like donors, they can become investors in the organisation beyond the day-to-day work they do; in some cases, introduce them to the joy of giving. Perhaps in a small way it helps other members of the organisation to get a small glimpse of the way we, as fundraising professionals, have the privilege of helping our donors use their money to accomplish something that they care deeply about and would not be able to accomplish on their own.

So, to summarise, it boils down to being a strong partner by listening and appreciating the strengths each person brings to the table. Hopefully through this process mutual respect will develop and a fruitful partnership can begin. Please let me know how these tips impact your work.

The unstoppable rise of social entrepreneurship

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:59:00 +0000

By Noam Kostucki

You may know a charity that makes money from selling products and services. Maybe you wonder how you can do the same, but have no background or experience in doing so? Perhaps you’re put off by the idea that it might be risky? Don’t be.

I often meet people from charities that struggle through the process of selling goods or services as a way of raising income. So, to help all those looking to take their first steps in the social entrepreneurial world, I’ve put together a short guide to help you on your way.

You might be impressed to learn that, according to the Charity Commission, charities in the UK have raised over £52 billion, of which broadly five per cent is claimed to come from trading. On the other hand, I am amazed by the Hidden Social Enterprise report from Delta, which shows that ethical and social trading represents a staggering potential contribution to the UK economy of £110 billion.

It would seem that trading in itself is no longer the savviest option. Only the organisations that can adapt to this new ethical opportunity will see a growth they could never have expected under the old paradigm. So if profit organisations are starting to realise that it pays to be nice, then why can’t charities capitalise on ‘being nice’ as a way to boost their income too?

Here are three key things to think about if you’re looking to make the most of your assets. And I’ve provided some examples too, so you can get an idea about what other people are already doing.

1. What are you best at?

What is it that your charity does best? Is it a skill, an attitude or even a specialised knowledge you have? How do you help others and what helps them most?

For example, look at the cancer charity Odyssey. This charity gives a one-week course of activities to help cancer patients boost their self-confidence and rebuild shattered spirits, but they were facing an uncertain future because of a drop in their income. Thinking outside the ‘charity’ box and with the help of some social enterprise expertise they are now developing the same course for healthy people who are looking for an injection of positivity in to their lives and who are happy to pay for the service. Odyssey have also now tapped in to the corporate market and are tailoring their course for company team building days which has a huge potential for growth and a secure source of income.

This is a great example where using your existing knowledge and charitable services along with a little commercial thinking can mean finding new sources of fundraising for your charity.

2. What is your business model?

You need to find a model in which your beneficiaries don’t lose out. You should be making money from people who want the same benefits as the groups you help by tailoring your services and products to a wider audience that is ready to pay. Your customers can be individuals and/or companies.

My favourite example is TOMS shoes: for every pair of shoes you buy, they send a new pair to a child in need. So the more they do for a good cause, the more money they make. The more money they make, the more they do for a good cause.

It is best when your charitable purpose is linked to making profit, directly or indirectly.

3. Use technology to make your life easier

Don’t do it all yourself, you can’t be an expert at everything. Social media can be a great tool for charities to make the most of the chance for free publicity and be sure to use all the free services available.

In the UK, we have initiatives like Eclector.com. This for-profit social enterprise helps you build your own bookshop online at no cost. They host the shops and manage all customer service issues. All you have to do is tell your supporters about the books. Every thousand visitors generate an average of £50, with so many charities having large donor bases it’s a great opportunity to generate new income for your charity.*

There are also a number of free services that can offer you a variety of help. Websites such as getsatisfaction.com and uservoice.com can provide you with feedback from customers; ping.fm and hootsuite.com will help you manage your social media and you can even create your own social network for free at sites like webs.com. Ultimately you need to explore what’s out there and make the most of the free technologies.

Seeducation is my own social enterprise company and we look to help individuals and organisations make money whilst having a positive social impact. Right now we are working on preparing a free eLearning tool called, ‘Making money from doing good’, thanks to a generous donation of a £40,000 eLearning platform by GrowthEngineering. We’ll keep you posted as soon as this is up and running.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for social entrepreneurship: a new era has definitely started.

NB: SOFII is not able to endorse or recommend the websites in this blog.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:36:00 +0000

By Lucy Gower

Fundraisers, think about your most successful fundraising campaign, mailing, event, individual gift, trust application or corporate pitch. I bet that they all have something in common. In some way they have fulfilled a need for your audience, captured their imagination and evoked some form of emotion that has inspired them to take action.

In the charity sector there is a lot of talk about the ‘donor journey’ but for me the start of any donor journey is you finding your story and telling it in a way that touches people’s hearts as well as their minds. Telling a story written by your marketing team isn’t good enough. You have to find your own stories that evoke passion and power in you.

People give to help people. The relationships you build with your donors are your relationships – you build rapport, you build trust, you inspire donors to get involved, you make a difference.

I think perfecting the art, and it is an art, of seeking out real stories and telling them in a way that inspires both you and your donors is the essence of being a fundraiser.

A book that has inspired me is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath (Random House, 2007). They outline six principles that will help your stories to inspire your audiences’ hearts and minds.

1. Simple

Keep your story simple. Focus on your core message. Using analogies helps simplify

complicated information.

Help the Aged’s ‘make a blind man see’ press advertisement is a great example of a simple story.

2. Unexpected

Say something unexpected to get attention. Ask questions to hold people’s attention and curiosity.

For sale: baby shoes, never worn. A six-word story by Ernest Hemingway. Think about it for a moment. Those six words are somewhat unexpec

ted yet hugely powerful. You can read more six word stories here or submit your own.

Amnesty produced an award winning unexpected message to ‘throw away this flyer’ in their insert campaign.

3. Concrete

Be specific. Paint a mental picture with words by using sensory language. The famous president of the USA John Kennedy painted a picture with words in a powerful speech when he said, ‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.’

An RSBP campaign to save the albatross brilliantly uses this technique. You are asked to picture the scene: imagine you are in a restaurant tucking into your first bite of succulent Pacific salmon. Something is not right. Read more about what happens next here.

4. Credible

Provide compelling details, whether it’s research and statistics, the name of an industry expert, or something down to earth about the difference you are making. Research shows that many people respond better when they can link their contribution to providing help to a specific situation or person.

‘If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one I will’, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The Child’s i Foundation raised £10,000 in 38 hours to save baby Joey’s life. The story is all about baby Joey and his parents. Take a few minutes to watch the video in the link. I challenge you not to be moved. Which leads to sticky principle number five.

5. Emotional

People care about people. People care about situations that they can identify with. There is a range of ways in which you can do this and I particularly like Action Aid’s latest campaign, which is a brilliant example of tapping into our emotional need to belong to a community of people like us. Action Aid asks the question ‘How does it make you feel to be part of the Action Aid community?’

6. Stories

The very process of telling a story helps people see how an existing problem might change and how they could help that change happen.

St Mungo’s, a charity for the homeless in London, uses real life stories and includes inspirational accounts of how, with help, people can change their lives.

How to seek stories

Does your storytelling spell SUCCESS? The more of the six principles that you can weave into your communications, the more likely it is that your messages will stick. Your challenge is to continually and deliberately seek stories that inspire you and that you can tell to inspire others. Here are some tactics to help you do just that.

· Carry a notebook with you. Use it, make collecting stories and observations on life a habit. We know that the more connections we make the more likely it is we are going to put those connections together to come up with something new. That something new could be your wonderfully compelling story… or the next big fundraising idea.

· Read more stories. Millions of authors have spent time writing stories. Read them. Think about what the author does to keep you eagerly turning the pages. Try using that author’s tactics on your own stories.

· Watch films and consider their storytelling styles. What keeps your interest? What turns you off?

· As with everything, if you are going to become good you need to practice. Practice telling stories; practice on your friends and family, use your voice and body language to bring the stories to life.

· Volunteer at a local school or a reading stories project – or perhaps you have a Ministry of Stories near you? What a cool place!

· Practice writing. Start a blog.

· Get some storytelling training. It will be one of the best investments you and your organisation will ever make.

· Enjoy your story-seeking adventure.

Have a go. Tell us how you get on.

Oldies but goodies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:18:00 +0000

By Christiana Stergiou

Most of us spend a lot of time focusing on what’s new and on chasing the latest trends. We fail to see that some of the best fundraising methods out there aren’t new, they are traditional and old – but they are executed to perfection. With that in mind, I am going to recommend three ‘old’ fundraising books.

The oldest book on my fundraising bookshelf is Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. It was first published in 1932 and since then has been reprinted numerous times. Caples himself revised it four times and the last edition, which alone has been reprinted 14 times, is still available in paperback.

Caples wrote thousands of direct mail pieces over many years and collected thorough results from each campaign. Advertising genius David Ogilvy said Caples ‘has no theories only facts’ and he shares hundreds of them in this book. Not only will Caples teach you how to test, he will teach you everything he learnt as a result of his body of work and research, including his mistakes. He also provides excellent guides for all aspects of direct marketing – from writing headlines, the first paragraph of an advert or letter, through to hundreds of ways to improve your overall copy to increase response.

I often hear fundraisers say ‘we tested that’, but in reality they didn’t. They just gave something a go to see if it would work. That’s just trying, not testing. Testing involves comparing, learning and continually improving what you do and how you do it. This book will teach you the genuine ins and outs of testing. I’m confident it will improve many fundraising campaigns.

David Ogilvy said he learned all he knew about copywriting from John Caples. In 1983 Ogilvy’s own book Ogilvy on Advertising was published and it too has been revised and reprinted many times. Whether it’s advertising, direct mail copy or advice on how to work with an agency, Ogilvy on Advertising is a must read for the savvy fundraiser. You can read a more detailed review of it on SOFII here.

Published in 2000, Mal Warwick’s Five Strategies for Fundraising Success: A Mission-Based Guide to Achieving Your Goals is a book I often refer to when putting together a fundraising strategy for a charity. Mal identifies the five main strategies as growth, involvement, visibility, efficiency and stability (GIVES). So often boards and management want all those things at once. Oh, to live in that perfect world.

Thankfully, Mal methodically explains the best strategy for any organisation’s current situation and future needs. He also assists in answering some of the frequent questions about developing a fundraising strategy. These include: should we run special events? Are we ready for a capital campaign? And should we launch a direct mail campaign? He also outlines ten key benchmarks that will assist in evaluating your success.

You can find out more about the latest fundraising book news and reviews at www.fundraisingbooks.net. You can also contact Christiana at christiana@fundraisingbooks.net.

Legacy giving: the greatest privilege a fundraiser will have.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:34:00 +0000

By Kimberley Mackenzie

When my mother in law was dying I asked my friend, who is a minister, what I could do. I felt so helpless. Kirsty told me that when people are near death they really just want to talk and need someone to listen.

My mother in law took her last breath in a room that was full of laughter. She was finally at peace. I now know that death, while sad, can be as natural and as beautiful as the loud and painful birth of a child, it’s the circle of life.

What does this deeply personal experience have to do with fundraising? A lot...

This past week a man came into our office for an appointment he had arranged before Christmas. We had talked in December about his will and the potential of including our charity as one of his top three beneficiaries.

Dear reader, you don’t need to know any more about that visit with ‘Mr Jones’ other than to know that I am speaking from experience and not theory. I was deeply honoured to be a part of such important decision.

I am a generalist fundraiser and by no means consider myself an expert in any given area. But, there are some things I have learned through working with legators (people who have bequeathed a legacy) that I want to share with you.

Make the time

Nothing that you have to do that day will be more important than talking to your donor about his or her final wishes in life. Nothing – even if the meeting that was scheduled for an hour turns into three. Gently move it forward to make sure the business objectives are accomplished and be available to listen to your donor talk about her life, her dreams, her regrets and final wishes. Legacy gifts are not about you or your charity. Legacy gifts are 100 per cent donor-centred. Always make the time.

Be sure you can keep your promise

Sometimes donors suggest something very specific like a place they visited or a play they saw. Try to understand their motivations by asking open-ended questions such as:

‘It sounds like you love visiting the XYZ exhibit in the museum. Can you tell me more about that?’

Actively listen and turn off the ‘yes but...’ thoughts swimming around in your head. Be truly curious. Once you understand the true motivations of the suggestion you will be in a much better position to meet a desire to be affiliated with a certain feeling or place or programme. You can then offer a less restrictive solution.

For example, perhaps you work for a theatre company and your donor fell in love with a contemporary new play. What the donor might say is ‘I love the David Mamet plays your company produces and I want to leave a legacy toward that’. Through active listening we can get to the underlying motivation. It isn’t realistic for a bequest to be directed toward producing David Mamet plays every year – in perpetuity. Perhaps the legacy your donor is striving for is an endowment to ensure that your theatre company always has the funding to try new, leading edge and risky productions.

You can get to this place through actively listening to your donor.

Be truly honest

If you don’t think that your charity is the right one or that perhaps the donor has your charity mixed up with another make sure you clarify it immediately. I have had a few donors talk to me and use the name of another charity and it is always a little risky to make sure they called the right place. No one wants a bequest that was intended for someone else.

Be respectful

It may seem like I’m pointing out the obvious but I’m going to do it anyway. Your legator is very likely to be much closer to and have more experience of the cause than you. Organising their affairs may be slightly overwhelming due to frequent conversations with financial advisors and lawyers, as well as balancing family needs and obligations. With some people, their thoughts may wander or their bodies may be frail. Respect their experience and wisdom. I believe our job is to help make the process of finalising an estate as simple as possible.

Through empathy and understanding of their love for our cause, we can offer peace of mind that no financial advisor or lawyer can.

Know your job

Remind your donors several times that you recommend they discuss their plans with their financial advisor and their family. Then explain why. It is very important that everyone understands that your charity is in the will because the donor wanted it there. Not because you did something to entice, manipulate, or coerce. Harsh words I know. You might try saying something like:

‘Mrs Norman, It really has been a pleasure talking to you about your estate plans. We at xyz charity are very grateful for your decision to include us in your will. Please remember to discuss your plans with your financial advisor (or executor or lawyer) and, if you are comfortable doing so, with your family. If we are all aware of your desires it will be easier to ensure that your wishes are granted.’

Discuss recognition

It can be very helpful to a charity to have details of how the legator would like to be acknowledged, even including the wording they would like placed on a bench or a plaque. Having these details in the will can ensure that in the future, when the donor is gone and you have moved on, your charity doesn’t have to guess what was promised. Your charity will be legally bound to carry out the donor’s wishes if it is written in the will. Just make sure that you negotiate something realistic and easy for your charity to implement.

In summary

In my ten years of fundraising, nothing has been as rewarding as my experience working on the planned giving programme. I know that I am better able to do this work for having had first-hand experience with the final stages of life. If you haven’t had the experience of taking the final steps of life with someone then I would suggest reading Tuesday’s with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It is an amazing story, which is not just on how to die but also on how to live. And that really is what legacy fundraising is all about – helping people live in peace, knowing that they have helped make a difference in the world, long after their lives will be over.

Direct mail (social media, email, [fill in the blank]) is dead.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:48:00 +0000

By Pamela Grow.

‘The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead.’

Jack Nicholson.

Do you remember when the experts said ‘bricks and mortar are dead’ because everyone would be shopping online?

‘They’ have been saying that for over ten years now and I’m finding that my local supermarket is still filled with shoppers. How about you? Oh sure, e-commerce has changed the way that we shop, but retail is still alive and kicking (and it isn’t because people don’t know that they can buy online). How is this possible? Well, lots of reasons but three of the biggest are:

a) Change (even welcomed change) is very difficult.

b) Shopping is still a popular activity.

c) There are items people still want to touch, see and try before they buy.

d) The big one: people want immediate gratification – I’ve simply got to have the item now!

What about direct mail, is that dead? Nope. According to DM News, income from direct mail is expected to grow 5.8 per cent to 47.8 billion in 2011.

Has it changed? Yes it has and in a really good way. Junk mail has declined, mostly because mailer

s are becoming smarter by targeting better. So you’re seeing less mail in your mailbox but what you do see is more relevant. Think about how that information can help set your organisation’s next piece of direct mail apart.

Email marketing? Oh yes, I recall when the spam laws were going to destroy email marketing. Did they? Nope. According to Pew’s latest research, 90-100 per cent of every generation from millennials (those born after 1985 who have grown up with the Web and who are now entering the jobs market, higher education and the electorate) to the silent generation (people born between 1925 and 1945) use email. And even though we gripe and moan about it, it still works – if it gets opened. That means putting together a strategy for acquiring email addresses and putting some thought and effort into creating attention-grabbing subject lines and a compelling message. What is dead is the easy ‘send anything’ emails that were popular circa 2001.

Now social media is dead. Really? Someone must be sleeping under a rock to completely miss all the media attention Facebook is getting (heck, the movie alone has won more than a few awards). Is it being over-used and over-populated? Sure, but just like retail, direct mail and email this is a natural progression of business. Come to think of it, the same thing happened with the gold rush – a new frontier was discovered to have gold and early adapters collected the easy gold. Others saw this and rushed in and soon someone declared the gold rush was dead.

Now have you taken a look at the price of gold in the current market? It’s experiencing record highs. So, perhaps you can’t get rich just panning for gold but there are lots of companies that have adapted and are using sophisticated equipment to make money in the harder to reach but still well alive gold market.

There is a lesson to be learned here. Are direct mail, email, and social media dead? Keep buying into that so that my clients and other organisations ‘in the know’ can keep these gold mines all to ourselves.

Seriously, what should you do? Use every media that you can afford ... and get strategic about how you use it.

Take a cue from my friend John Lepp of Agents of Good, ‘Donors don’t give to the channel. They give to the campaign. Give your donors a reason to care, be frank with what you want, tell them how they will help, spread across channels evenly and you will win.’

Sound, donor-centric fundraising is not and will never be an overnight process. Before you dismiss a medium spend some time learning its finer points and developing a strategy for how you can apply age-old tried and true concepts to the new.

Do your donors trust you?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:42:00 +0000

By Damian O'Broin

Last year, Oxfam Ireland posted on their website a copy of a thank-you letter they received from a donor. It is both inspiring and terrifying, and is worth reproducing in full here.

Please find enclosed a cheque… to pay for raffle tickets… Oxfam is my primary charity. Castlebar, the place where I work, has an Oxfam shop and I can go in and make an extra donation for a specific purpose either because disaster has struck somewhere or for a special occasion in my own life… I would like to let you know that I give money to Oxfam in good faith. There are many people in the world who live in dire circumstances and I trust Oxfam and its employees/volunteers to do the best for them that they are able to do within the given circumstances. I like it that Oxfam is a large organisation so that they have expertise in various fields and a large body of personnel to draw upon.

You are unable as an individual to deliver aid to whoever needs it. That would be impossible and very wasteful. The money you received from me is real money – with that I mean, if I didn’t give the money to you, I wouldn’t have difficulty finding another use for it. What I am really trying to say is this: I trust you to spend money wisely and carefully and give aid appropriately with consideration to people’s background. I don’t expect Oxfam employees to work for nothing, they need to be properly paid.

I am proud to support Oxfam and I know that puts a responsibility on all Oxfam personnel.

The first thing to say is that this is a genuinely committed donor we’re hearing from. While she or he is clearly responsive to emergencies, there is also the intriguing line ‘I can go in and make an extra donation... for a special occasion in my own life’. This is not someone who sees giving as a chore or a burden. There is no suggestion of guilt rather there is the hint that giving is a joyous thing, something for a special occasion. We don’t know if the donations are made in celebration, in thanksgiving, in memoriam, or for some other reason but they are clearly very meaningful and deeply important.

It’s also clear that not only does this donor trust Oxfam to put his or her money to good use, she or he also understands that it costs money to run effective charities and that the staff need to be paid. Hurray! An enlightened donor. There can be a view in our sector that donors think fundraising is free and staff should work for nothing. Sure, there are people who believe that, but I think this donor is more typical of the public view.

It’s fantastic to hear a donor express her trust in your organisation and its work in this way. And she’s not even expecting miracles. She or he doesn’t want Oxfam to end hunger or defeat poverty, merely for their staff and volunteers to ‘do the best for [people that live in dire circumstances] that they are able to do within the given circumstances’. There is genuine understanding here, along with a genuine desire to change the world for the better. And a recognition that the best way to do so is through large, professional organisations like Oxfam.

In many ways, this person is a dream donor.

But in amongst the praise for Oxfam’s work and expressions of support is the faintest of threats. And also the deadliest. While this trust is freely given, it is conditional.

The line ‘I would like to let you know, that I give money to Oxfam in good faith’ is not a compliment. It’s a warning, one that Oxfam and all other charities neglect at their peril. If we don’t live up to the trust placed in us by donors, that trust – and the support that goes with it – will be withdrawn.

So what must we do to maintain that trust?

Well, I’m assuming that you have the basics covered – you use the money given to you for the stated purpose, you’re honest and reputable and there are no skeletons about to pop out of your cupboard. If that’s not the case, then you really have more important things to be doing than reading this blog.

It turns out that one of the simplest things you can do to build trust is to just remind donors that they can trust you. Researchers have found, for instance, that adding the line ‘you can trust us to do the job for you’ at the end of an ad for an auto service company, caused people to rate the ad higher in every category tested:

Fair price – up seven per cent.

Caring – up 11 percent.

Fair treatment – up 20 per cent.

Quality – up 30 per cent.

Competency – up 33 per cent.

It appears that trust is contagious. This is a crucial point for a charity’s relationship with donors; if they trust you to handle their donations properly – thank them for their gifts, process them promptly and correctly – then they’ll trust you in the rest of your work. They’ll trust that you handle your finances properly and that you deliver on your mission.

Conversely, if they don’t trust you to handle their donations properly, then that lack of trust will leak into other areas. They may start wondering about your financial probity. They may question whether you’re delivering on your promise to change the world.

The other key way to build trust with donors is to tell them how their money has made a difference. Giving donors feedback on their gifts not only reinforces trust, it reminds donors of why they gave in the first place, helping to build loyalty and motivate further giving. In fact, we know that for major donors, demonstrating the difference a gift has or can make is one of the strongest motivators for giving.

And to finish, here’s a great, simple example from Amnesty International Ireland on how to provide real, emotional, tangible feedback to donors.

Click here to view letter.

Happy New Year.

Evaluation in a fundraising office: why, what and a little bit of how.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:22:00 +0000

By Kirsten Bullock

Over the past few years we’ve been hearing about the various ways that not-for-profit groups should be evaluated. In the US, the conversation has been focused primarily on financial indicators of success (i.e. overhead rates that simply measure the percentage of total dollars that appear to go directly towards programmes rather than to ‘overhead’ costs such as administration and fundraising). Most fundraisers I know would agree that this is a short-sighted approach. So what do we track as an alternative? Some organisations are now rightfully attempting to present alternative ways of ranking nonprofits that go beyond financial but, in your everyday life of running a nonprofit organisation, should you be providing evaluation outcomes for your fundraising programme? This article will attempt to answer that question, as well as what to track and how.

There are three primary reasons for starting and continuing an evaluation component for any programme. Mainly, it gives you something to reach for. In the well-known fairy-tale Alice in Wonderland the character of the Cheshire Cat points out that, ‘If you don’t know where you are going, any road will lead you there’. Stephen Covey offers this as habit 2 in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, that is to ‘begin with the end in mind’. In the nonprofit sector we have funders who require it (along with the general public). If we don’t define what we want to measure ahead of time, it’s likely that a funder or government body will come up with something that could be more difficult and expensive to track (and may be a less accurate measure of what you are attempting to accomplish). In addition, evaluation is important because it helps us see what’s working (and what’s not). Just because a fundraising programme works well down the street, or for a similar agency in a different part of the country doesn’t mean that it will work just as well for your organisation. So evaluation will help you to determine what to continue (and what to discontinue) for your organisation’s fundraising programme.

There are many things that you could track in your fundraising programme. The one aspect that most people seem to want to jump to first is money. However I’m going to be so bold as to say that I believe that’s the second (or even third) thing that should be measured. Short-term strategies to bring funding in the door quickly could be detrimental to the overall fundraising programme and to the long-term intentions of donors. By building long-term relationships with donors we can ensure a longer-term commitment by donors (resulting in higher lifetime giving). It’s expensive to acquire a new donor, so the longer they feel an affinity to the organisation, the better. We want to measure revenue, but interim measurements (such as the numbers of contacts that are made to each donor/prospect, awareness, numbers of volunteers, etc.) may be more important. A third aspect to measure is the cost of fundraising (with a long-term perspective). Not all of the cultivation work that is done this year will result in a gift this year. In fact, one organisation I worked for several years ago took a full six years of cultivation and negotiation to finalise a $7 million lead-gift for a capital campaign. Patience does pay off. There are many smaller groups that don’t have the ability to invest funds in the meantime, but it is an investment that will pay off.

There are many ways to track the indicators listed above, but your primary tool will be your donor database. There are many options out there and most will provide what you need. However there is no one software programme that will be the best choice for every organisation. TechSoup.org offers some information to help in this selection process. It’s important to assess what you need it to do and then select the one that will meet your needs. In addition, be mindful of the GIGO principle (garbage in, garbage out). Spending the time to determine how your data will be tracked will be much easier than trying to adjust data once it has been entered inconsistently. A common challenge I’ve seen in this area is that software programmes and database administrators often speak a different language from fundraising professionals. This communication breakdown can often leave the fundraising professionals believing that the database can’t do what they want it to, when in reality they may have asked something in a way the database administrator didn’t understand.

In closing, please keep it simple. We can spend hours creating plans and reports that give us lots of information, but nothing helpful in planning for the future or accurately evaluating what we’ve accomplished. Identify the few things that really make a difference in your organisation. Then focus on those. Also, test. Test different mailing packages, test different strategies with different donors. You might have some gut feelings about different tactics, but very often our donors don’t think the same way as us. Some of your feelings will be confirmed through testing (and in some cases you may be surprised by the findings). And finally, you can do it. Don’t be overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done, just pick the important things to focus on. You can do it. Really.

My fundraising books wishlist for Christmas.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:03:00 +0000

By Christiana Stergiou

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, for those of you who don’t but may still have an end of year holiday (like me), and for those that just need to get inspired for the year ahead, I thought I would share my fundraising book wish list with you all.

Whether you write fundraising letters, content for your website, donor newsletters, promotional brochures or anything else for your organisation, here are my top ten fundraising books to make you a better copywriter (in no particular order of excellence).

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. This book completely changed my thinking on how to create effective messages that ‘stick’ to the minds of our donors.

How to Write Successful Fundraising Letters and Revolution in the Mailbox by Mal Warwick. Time and time again, when I need inspiration for a fundraising letter, I turn to Mal and the many excellent letters and ideas he features in these two awesome books. Read the review of Revolution on SOFII here.

Tiny Essentials for Writing for Fundraising and Asking Properly by George Smith. Brilliant and simple. George Smith is the George Orwell for fundraising writers. Find out more about George on SOFII here.

The Influential Fundraiser by Bernard Ross and Clare Segal. This book examines fundraising asks, both written and verbal, from the donor’s perspective. It also explains different communication preferences and explains the many ways people receive and process information. Check out SOFII’s review here.

Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. Entertaining and excellent. If you are thinking of advertising, or even already advertise, this might be the guidance you have been looking for.

Read the review on SOFII here.

Tested Advertising Methods by John Capels. David Ogilvy once said that John Capels was the person from whom he had learned everything about copywriting. This book was first published in 1932 and the current revised edition in 1998, though not a lot has changed.

Seeing Through a Donor’s Eyes and How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise more Money by Tom Ahern. Tom’s books are worth their weight in gold. He is mentioned all over the SOFII site but a good place to start is with his nine-step communications audit.

So, what will I be reading over my end of year break? The Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine. I’ve only read the intro so far, but I’m hooked. Here are two people who really understand the dilemma of many nonprofit staff trying to come to terms with social media and the online world. I can’t wait to finally have some time to read the rest of it.

Happy reading to you.

Christiana.

Where in the world? How fundraisers can learn from other worlds…

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:31:00 +0000

By Lucy Gower

Innovation isn’t about a single eureka moment; it’s about a series of thoughts and connections that combine to create something new. Einstein didn’t sit in a darkened room waiting for inspiration; he had a team of people working with him, systematically making new connections.

Not every connection will work but failing quickly and learning is crucial to any successful innovation process. However, the wider you cast your net in your search for inspiration, the more you move away from your current, tired and tested patterns of thinking, the more previously unconnected connections you are likely to make and the more chance you have of coming up with something new.

‘I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work’.

Thomas Edison

Seeking new inspiration takes continued and deliberate effort. However, there are techniques that will help you gather connections that will lead to your breakthrough idea. One of the techniques is called ‘where in the world?’

Where in the world?

This is where you think about where else in the world your challenge is faced and consider what solutions you can borrow, or in the words of business management writer Tom Peters ‘swipe with glee’.

‘Swipe from the best, then adapt’. Tom Peters

The particular challenges you are facing will have been solved elsewhere. It’s your job to look outside of what you currently know, identify how others are solving your challenge, learn from them and apply it to your particular situation. It’s not about just copying like for like but finding common principles that you can adapt for your needs. SOFII is a great place to find inspiration that you can adapt, but we also need to look wider at what other organisations outside our sector are doing. For example we need to consider the corporate sector, diverse industries, art, science, history and nature.

Look outside the charity sector

NSPCC and First Direct

If your challenge is to improve your donor experience, you may look at what companies or individuals offer exceptional customer experiences. Learn from them and apply the key elements to how you work with your donors. The NSPCC have worked with online banking organisation First Direct, seeking inspiration from their world-renowned exceptional customer service. NSPCC fundraisers met with First Directs’ customer service team and applied key learning to their stewardship programmes. This approach of asking for expertise can also strengthen your current corporate partnerships or help to build relationships with prospects as an alternative to a formal pitch.

Remove yourself from your topic

Search for examples of ‘where in the world?’ that don’t necessarily relate to your challenge directly. Remember it’s about making new connections. You don’t know what you don’t know - until you try.

· Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson teamed up with tent makers to develop ways to bond body tissue after operations.

· In the early 90s when the use of aerosols was being discouraged due to the impact on the environment, deodorant companies were inspired by the roller ball pen to spread liquid over a thin area which led to the development of roll on deodorant.

· Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press developed from the technology of the screw-type wine presses of the Rhine Valley.

The Natural World

George de Mestral, while walking in the Jura mountains in France in 1941 noticed burs on his dogs coat and his woollen clothes. On closer inspection he realised they were formed of hundreds of hooks. He went on to duplicate the hooks from Nylon. This led to the development of Velcroä.

Did you know that the Japanese Bullet train was inspired by the shape of the beak of a kingfisher, that Honda studied cockroaches when developing their rough terrain vehicles or that the binding agents in the common blue mussel have been studied for the development of super glues?

Case Study - ColaLife

An inspirational example of the ‘where in the world’ approach is ColaLife. In 1988 Simon Berry was a development worker in remote northeast Zambia. He was bemused that he could buy Coca-Cola everywhere, yet aid organisations struggled to get medical supplies to rural areas. ColaLife identified that part of Coca-Cola’s core business (i.e. the business they were really in), was not soft drink production but logistics and distribution networks. The Coca-Cola company trains and provides transportation to networks of local entrepreneurs in order to get the soft drink to the far reaches of the world. Coca-Cola is delivered by a variety of carts, bikes and on foot to rural areas.

One in every five children die before their fifth birthday from simple causes such as dehydration through diarrhea. If aid agencies could tap into, or learn from Coca-Cola’s distribution networks it would make a huge difference to the lives of children in Africa.

So one solution is for aid agencies to replicate Coca-Cola’s distribution model and develop their own local networks of trained and equipped entrepreneurs. Good idea.

But Colalife have taken this a step further, they are negotiating with Coca-Cola and the local entrepreneurs who distribute the drink to see how they can use their deliveries to get life saving medicines to the children that need it. ColaLife are now piloting this model in Zambia. You can read more on the ColaLife blog or their Facebook page.

Simon had the ColaLife idea 20 years ago, and the help of relatively new social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr have been instrumental in raising awareness and international support of the project.

Case Study - Great Ormond Street and Formula One

Doctors working in the intensive care unit at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital were seeking ways to more quickly transfer sick children to the operating theatre from intensive care. They noted the speed and accuracy that Formula ones teams carried out the pit stop procedures (which has reduced from 6 minutes in the 1960s to less than 15 seconds now).

The Doctors worked with the pit teams to make their processes more efficient and less error-prone. The pit teams were able to spot many ways for the doctors to work more efficiently. They've completely changed their process; it has now streamlined and both technical errors and information communication errors have been reduced by 40%.

When was the last time you visited a business outside your ‘normal’ remit?

Seven steps to make ‘where in the world?’ easy:

1. Ask yourself ‘what business are you in’? Think of the core competencies required to deliver your project. Think broadly, for example if you are considering the best way to develop a new newsletter; are you a publisher, storyteller, newscaster, web author, project manager, researcher, designer, letter writer, marketer? Very probably a combination of all of these things and more.

2. Then think of where else in the world you could seek inspiration, e.g. news presenters, publishing companies, advertising agencies, authors etc…

3. Now think specifically of organisations, things and people that are already doing this. Write them down.

4. Prioritise your list.

5. Get in touch with them, ask for their advice. If this is daunting, start among your friendship group. Someone is bound to know someone from the industry on your list. People are usually flattered to be asked for help.

6. Think about whether this particular organisation/person can help in other areas of your business for example, could there be opportunities to work with a corporate partner in ways other than pure fundraising?

7. Do it today, while your interest and focus is strong – and let us know how you get on.

8. Keep practicing and applying this technique, as with anything the more you practice the better you will get.

If you want to read more

Sticky Wisdom? What If! The Innovation Company

Where Good Ideas Come From Stephen Johnson

Innovation Matters NCVO