Experience Proves: You Never Know
I was lying on the beach with my wife a few years back when a client buzzed through my cellphone, declaring in a sorrowful voice, “I’m going to have to apologize to all of them. In fact, I am writing the apology letter now.”
`Worse Than No Blog At All? Bad Blogs Prove “Something for Nothing” Never Happens
You’ll find it up there at the top of the list of disillusioning truths: “There ain’t no free lunch.” It’s true in fundraising, of course; but it can be obscured by the endless parade of miraculous “next big things” that tend to put our common sense out of focus. For example, the seemingly limitless marketing possibilities offered by the Internet have charmed some planned giving fundraisers into the mistaken belief that this new miracle vector will do their job for them. Make no mistake: With planned giving on the Internet as with anything else, lack of effort and commitment translate directly into lack of results,
Website Messaging That Works: The Library Sells Its Sizzle
There’s something graceful about smart marketing messaging. Maybe that’s why it works. And fundraisers competing for charitable dollars need every advantage they can get in engaging and persuading prospects.
Planned Giving: Simple Stuff or Just for Harvard Lawyers?
How do you view planned giving? Is it simple, or complicated? One of the biggest misunderstandings I see in the non-profit world is the mistaken belief that planned giving is complex and mysterious.
Every Dollar Looks Big to a Nonprofit
More than 40 years ago, comedian Steve Martin did an inflation routine that featured the line, “Gee, I got four dollars; I think I’ll throw it out into the street.” This came during the time of gas strikes and a recession in the 1970s, when many folks felt like their dollars weren’t going very far. These days, four dollars looks infinitely smaller than it looked back then. In 21st Century America, we’ve been desensitized to dollar amounts up to and including those with 12 zeros after them (i.e. numbers in the trillions). No surprise there: One hesitates to pay attention to numbers that big when they appear all the time with a negative sign and a dollar sign in front of them. The problem for fundraisers, of course, is that when even a million dollars looks paltry, donors can easily feel that their “small” gifts won’t make much of a difference to your organization. They need to know they’re wrong about that. It’s our job to tell them that every gift helps. So it’s crucial for planned giving to be specific: Let prospects know exactly how much good their donation will do in concrete, real-world terms. Explain to them how important all donors are to accomplishing your organization’s mission. Show them how all planned gifts contribute to growing your nonprofit’s endowment over the long term. Emphasize that your gratitude for and recognition of their gift is based on the fact that every dollar looks big to your nonprofit. And let’s all hope that one day in the future we won’t be so familiar with how many zeros there are in a trillion. Category: Giving
Johnny Carson’s Philanthropy Is a Class Act
Johnny has done something more: He has contributed over $156 million dollars from his estate to a variety of charitable groups.
Say Thank-You Right… And You’ll be Saying It More Often
“I don’t need to be recognized,” the donor commented, “but a sense of individual appreciation such as a personal thank-you goes a long way.”
New Survey Terms iPad Owners “Selfish Elites”
Is Altruism an Endangered Attribute? What if the “I” in “iPad” turned out to be Gordon “Greed is good” Gekko from the movie WALL STREET? While we don’t know if Gordon really has an iPad, we’re sure he’s out there, at least in spirit, because results from a recent survey of iPad owners by MyType seem to show that his real-world confreres make up a hefty proportion of those who have purchased this trendy new tech toy. Specifically, as reported by Eliot Van Buskirk in the 7/27/2010 edition of Wired.Com, the survey conducted this spring by MyType (a consumer research firm specializing in personality inventories) indicated that: “iPad owners tend to be wealthy, sophisticated, highly educated and disproportionately interested in business and finance, while they scored terribly in the areas of altruism and kindness. In other words, ‘selfish elites.’” The Opposite of a Donor Presumably individuals who self-report in such a way as to generate these results don’t worry much about being “jerks” (to use one popular technical term). And also presumably Apple doesn’t care how altruistic their customers are just as long as they pay for their iPad. But these conclusions about iPad owners might be of some concern to fundraisers. Why? Because altruism is our business – you might even say it’s our bread and butter, not to mention the mainspring of endowment growth and organizational success. So any spike in the Scrooge population is bad medicine. Also, consider some of the other descriptors of iPad owners: Wealthy, sophisticated, highly-educated; and right on the cutting edge of information technology. So you might think of them as a good prospect for charitable giving, especially when solicited via e-marketing vectors. But only if you ignore the fact that they are selfish and unkind! Those Who Wait Get More of the Same? If we are starting to make you feel a little gloomy, brace yourself for another depressing factoid: The age range for these “selfish elite” respondents in the MyType survey was 30 to 50 years old. That means they represent the tail end of the Boomers plus Generation X plus the beginning of Generation Y. So fundraisers can look forward to these individuals passing through the charitable landscape clutching their iPads for the next 30 to 40 years. And that’s not a pretty picture. So is our world coming to an end…again? Going Forward with Plenty of Lemonade The good news is: Not only is it never too late, but strategizing for the future can begin right now. The MyType survey may be unwelcome news for fundraisers, but it’s also news we can use. Do we really have to give up on this unkind iPad cohort? Not yet. Consider: These people are highly educated; they went to school somewhere, and those institutions will have some special leverage in reaching them. Perhaps some selfish alumn would cherish having a big portrait of himself painted on the side of a new business school building he has endowed. Similarly, their enthusiasm for technology, business and finance, and wealth in general represents a chink in their armor. Suggest, for example, that they support state-of-the-art information technology for your hospital’s billing department. Also, they have professional affiliations, so they might smile on funding an accountancy internship with a Wall Street firm. The fact that they are tech-savvy means you can access them with smart messaging via whatever new techie medium happens to be hot. If you meet them on the cutting edge, you may catch them with their egos down. Individuals who are ostentatiously selfish and unkind at age 35 may find themselves experiencing a change of heart as they mature. You can help them make that change. Remember, only one night’s worth of powerful messaging turned Mr. Scrooge around completely! The results of the MyType survey only really support one conclusion: that some people are a lot harder to market to than others. And we knew that already. So the challenge to fundraisers hasn’t really changed, it’s just been brought into sharper focus. The nonprofit organizations that will grow their endowment and accomplish their missions in the future will be those with creative and energetic fundraising professionals on staff who use their talent and drive to succeed in closing gifts regardless of resistance among their prospects… and whether or not they’re iPad owners. Category: Planned Giving Marketing
“We’re Not Sending a Year End Appeal This Year.”
The economy in 2008 was challenging. But what’s scarier than your 401k statement? Writing a year-end appeal to your donors and supporters in this economic climate, that’s what. Some of my non profit friends are telling me that they’re not putting a year-end letter in this year’s budget. They know donors are experiencing a cash crunch, and they don’t want to make them feel even more jittery. So, in my own very gentle, tactful way, I’ve been trying to soothe my friends’ fears by saying: “Whoa! Are you nuts?” That’s right. It’s crazy not to send a year-end letter. During tough times, nonprofits should be thinking bigger, not smaller. A year-end letter is a must, especially one with a planned giving twist. There are creative ways to give at the end of the year and many are through planned gifts. Don’t forget, bequests make up at least 75% of planned gifts, too. And always, always remember this: all you need is one planned gift to make it worth your while to launch an appeal. Smart nonprofit people know that this year, it’s nearly impossible to sing that old song, “Give by year-end and get a big tax break!” because donor portfolios are suffering. That’s why this year, it’s important to think smart, think new, and send a better letter. What’s a smart (and tough) nonprofit person to do? We’ve already written a tried and true, must-have letter you can purchase right now. And here are several free downloads and tools you can put to use immediately. Just because they are free does not mean they are not of value. Use them! Remember; tough times do not last. But tough (and smart) nonprofits do. Category: Planned Giving Marketing
Cutting Back on Marketing?
Do you cut back on food when times are tough? If that were the case, everyone would be slim and trim right about now. Marketing is the meat and potatoes (sorry, bad pun) of any fundraising operation, and cutting back, especially in a tight economy, is a recipe (sorry again) for problems down the road.
