There is no reason good should not triumph over evil as long as the angels are as well organized as the Mafia

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Transforming Ordinary People into fundraising
Superheroes
Would you like me to write thank you notes to all
of the 50 donors?
Wed be glad to host the pizza committee meeting
at our house. Ill bake brownies and make some
really fabulous coffee.
Can I also chair the Raffle Committee?
With Carol Weisman, MSW, CSP www.BoardBuilders.com
Carol_at_BoardBuilders.com 314-863-4422
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My goal for today is that you find ways to work
smart and not hard as well as learning from the
fundraising successes and learning
opportunities of your colleagues.
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• The 2008 stats on giving in America
• From the Association of Fundraising Counsel
• 307 Billion Given
• Individuals ___
• Bequests ___
• Corporations___
• Foundations___

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• If you dont have a strategy that involves
  soliciting individuals,
• why not?

An individual approach should have a heart and
head component
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The big bucks questionhow are you training your
board in fundraising? Make fundraising training a
part of your annual board retreat!
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• Do you expect your staff to be involved in
  fundraising? If so, what kind educational
  opportunities are they getting?

think AFP (Association of Fundraising
Professionals)
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The three steps in fundraising

• 1. Cultivation
• 2. The Ask
• 3. Stewardship

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Web based cultivation

• 1. Sending a news clipping to friends, donors and
  supporters
• 2. Researching a potential donor
• 3. Looking for funding sources
• 4. Creating an e-zine or blog
• 5. Putting event photos on your web site
• 6. Writing informational articles for your web
  site
• 7. Writing e-books that can be sold

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High touch cultivation

• 1. Invite a friend, relative or business
  associated to the agency
• 2. Have a meeting of a group you are involved in
  at the charity and organize a tour
• 3. Have an at home and have a rep from the
  organization tell the story
• 4. Initiate a lunch, dinner or other visit with a
  closer and a potential donor
• 5. Invite a potential donor to a special event

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Mass Market Cultivation

• Write an article for publication. Dont forget
  the national media and the web based media.
  Connect your organization with breaking news.
• 2. Go on the speaking circuit. Rotary,
  churches, temples, Junior League etc. NEVER leave
  with getting their contact info including e-mail
  address. Remember to ask for more than
  moneytime, volunteers, clients.

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The Ask

• 1. The folks who ask for money need to study the
  case and know how to overcome objections. There
  is a different rhythm to development than other
  sales processes.
• 2. Set up meetings with clients, friends and
  other potential donors with someone who can fill
  in pieces of the case that you dont know.

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• Mass Market Ask
• 1. Work with someone who knows the case and then
  close the sale at speaking events. Create a
  powerful tag-team approach. Tell your story and
  ask the audience to get involved.
• 2. This works in person, on video, can be on the
  web, sent to TV stations, DVD, shown by others at
  home events and in offices etc.

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Stewardship

• 1. Thank people often, creatively, graciously and
  cheaply!
• 2. Research shows that 94 of all donors will
  give a second gift and a larger gift if thanked
  by a board member!
• 3. When you thank a donor, instead of asking for
  more money, consider for asking for more
  information and advice!

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Traditional Ways to Thank Folks

• Hand written thank you notes
• Phone calls
• Lunches, dinners, thank you events
• Naming buildings, walls, rocks, animals, plants,
  anything that is nailed down or not nailed down
  after the donor.
• Remember, these are tried and true and work on
  the Millionaire next door!!!

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• Other Ways to get involved
• in stewardship
• School tours
• Ask to be involved in a focus group (people love
  to give their opinion even more than money!)
• With permission, publicize the gift with the
  media, internally, on your website.

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• Always, always always have an on-going wish list.

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Have your wish list available

• In your newsletter
• On-line
• In your waiting room
• In the newsletters of contributors
• In the holiday letters of staff, board
  volunteers
• In hotels, restaurants
• On the beach
• In bathroom stalls

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The Ability to Motivate

• Mastering the Platinum Rulebeyond the Golden Rule

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Special Events

• Special events are the lifeblood of many
  nonprofits. The trick to being successful is to
  know what success looks like. Is the purpose of
  your event to cultivate donors, to ask for money,
  to thank current donors or celebrate a milestone
  or to educate around a specific issue? If you
  say, All of the above, you will fail. The
  clearer you are, the more successful youll be.
  The purpose of your event has to be clearly
  communicated to your guests. If they expect to be
  thanked and are asked for a donation, dont
  expect pens and credit cards to fly out of their
  pockets!

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Recruit a committee for your event

• If you expect your board to serve as your
  committee, get more than just a vote. Take the
  time to get specific buy-in. For instance, if you
  expect board members to bring or buy a table each
  for a dance, ask them each how many tables they
  will be responsible for BEFORE you decide to have
  a vote. You might be surprised. The vote might be
  to approve YOU doing an event on your own.

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Create fabulous fundraising materials

• You need to have a case statement that includes
• Why your day care center exists, in other words,
  your mission
• How you are going to meet those needs, or goals
• What you still need to be able to further your
  mission
• How your potential donor can be a part of your
  organization

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Create a spectacular signature event

• A signature event is one that is unique to your
  organization and is repeated year after year or,
  for some organizations, every other year or every
  five years.
• A note of warning about special events Always
  ask staff to keep track of the time they spend
  and subtract the amount they make from the gross.
  If you have a staff person spending 10,000 worth
  of time on an event and you net 20,000, subtract
  the 10,000 in staff time if earning revenue is
  your primary special event mission. Be honest
  about on how much the event costs. You might be
  shocked.
• Also, evaluate events from time to time to make
  sure they have not been overdone and you need to
  find another way to bring in revenue.

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Bring your kids and their friends to an event

• It is important to share with your children what
  you care about, especially if you are leaving
  your organization in your will. In years to come,
  they will become not only donors but also
  volunteers and board members. Depending on the
  event, they might already make great volunteers,
  hanging up coats, passing out water at a race, or
  registering guests at an auction.

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Create personalized invitations to be sent from
your committee or board members for your event

• One of the techniques the Baltimore Heritage
  Quilters' Guild used to increase attendance to
  their quilt show from 200 to 1000 was to have
  individual quilters produce their own
  invitations. There are many great inexpensive
  on-line providers for postcards and invitations.
  Ive had great luck with www.kodak.com,
  www.1800postcards.com and www.modernpostcards.com

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Solicit auction items

• If you are a regular at a coffee shop, bagelry or
  restaurant, ask the business owner/manager/staff
  to support your organization, as you support
  their business. This also goes for your bank,
  broker, hairdresser, and other professionals you
  deal with. Hopefully, they will also get
  business.
• Look for the win-win. Link your site to theirs,
  and vice-versa.
• Market your event at their venue and be sure to
  plug their business at your event.

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Put event photos on your website

• People love to see their own photos of
  themselves, even if they arent at their college
  weight. When you write the captions, spell
  peoples names persons name correctly. When
  someone Googles their name, their affiliation
  with you will be apparent.

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Make every event international

• All of us have friends across the country, if not
  around the world. Put your event on the web and
  send e-mails to all of your friends, relatives,
  and colleagues.
• Have a way for them to participate in your event
  even if they arent able to attend, such as
  buying raffle tickets or making a donation. Make
  sure you clarify rules regarding pick up or
  shipping of items, and DO NOT violate local or
  international gaming laws.

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Take photos at your events and send the photos
framed to your donors and sponsors

• These photos should have your web information and
  the name of your organization encrypted on the
  photo. That way, your donors and sponsors have
  theirs walls not only the memory of a god time
  but also the name of your organization.

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Dont just whack and plaque retiring board
members-- have an event to honor them

• When board members of long and distinguished
  service retire, have a luncheon or dinner to
  honor them. Charge a bunch. Speak about what they
  have done for the organization and how you plan
  to build on the foundation theyve laid.
• Introduce them to the current generation of
  organizational leaders, who are carrying on the
  work that the retired board members started. Let
  the retirees know that you hope they will want to
  continue making a difference in the future of the
  organization through their ongoing contributions.
• You will have a mission-focused event that will
  inspire other board members.

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Dont have an event and invite people

• Have a non-event or phantom event. Invite
  people to send in money and stay home, put their
  feet up, rent a movie, read a good book, cook
  their favorite meal and allow you to spend 100
  of their money on doing good.

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Create an event that raises money AND visibility

• Some events earn lots of money, some earn your
  friends. Consider one that nets you both.

In St. Louis, Missouri, Nurses for Newborns
Foundation has a yearly gift wrapping program in
a local upscale mall. Board members, volunteers
and staff are involved.
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Ask for the e-mail addresses of your guests and
send them a thank-you photo from your event

• Despite the fact that some of us are dismayed
  that we dont have our high school figures, we
  enjoy seeing photos of ourselves, sending a
  thank-you note by e-mail is inexpensive and
  enters your guest into your system for future
  e-zines, sales and e-vites.

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Invite committee members for an MM meeting

• In medicine, there are MM meetings, which
  stands for Morbidly and Mortality, in other
  words, a conference on what happened to the
  patient. In the nonprofit world, we call them
  debriefing sessions.
• Set ground rules for these sessions. Ask that
  everyone stay focused on the mission and speak
  honestly and kindly, recognizing that people have
  put a great deal of work into an event, or maybe
  they havent and feel guilty.
• Ask your committee members for their opinion on
  what worked well and what could be improved on.
  Consider having inexpensive thank-you gifts.
  Always have great food.
• Discussion issues
• 1. Did we meet our goals?
• 2. Should we do the event again?
• 3. What did each of the committee members like
  most?
• 4. What did members like least?
• 5. Who is following up with whom? (potential
  donor lunches and tours, thank yous to
  participants, donors, etc.)

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In addition to a thank-you note to a major
sponsor, pick up the phone

• A quick thank-you call, even if you just leave a
  message, really stands out in an e-mail,
  text-message world. It should include
• Something personal, such as It was marvelous to
  meet your lovely wife Nancy.
• Something about the future. We look forward to
  being able to complete the building project
  thanks to your support.
• Something about their business. I hope you had a
  chance to meet Mr. XYZ. I told him that you would
  be a great firm to work with.

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Resources for Training
Available at FundraisingSuperheroes.com

• The National Association for Fundraising
  Professionals www.AFPNET.org
• BoardSource (formerly the National Center for
  Nonprofit Boards) www.BoardSource.org