Listen, learn, build, engage, thank, listen

The art of fund development is simple: listen, learn, build, engage, thank and listen again. If you can do these things with ernest sincerity and interest, you are well on your way to success in this field. Sounds easy enough. Yet, when you combine these steps with the everyday of returning emails, filing reports, entering contact reports into the database, attending meetings, comparing benchmarks, returning calls and setting appointments, they tend to get lost. Not good people, not good.

So how can we get back to good on this? How can we take the expectations of our Board, supervisors, whomever it may be and get back to relationships, to fund development, to the reason we got into this field in the first place? My response: make it happen. How can you not?

In a time when donors are giving to fewer organizations, becoming more critical of the impact you may or may not be making, more inclined to dig deeper into who you are, what you are doing and their role in making it all happen, we have to be better. Stop blaming the economy for a lack of funding from private sources. Stop the blame game, period. Sure, sit on the floor for a minute and have a tantrum if it makes you feel better, but then get up and realize that we just have to be better. It is no longer acceptable for donors to be an object; they must become people, family, important. Why haven't they always been? I don't know, but in many cases, we do, indeed, need to get it back to good. (I couldn't help it, I had to put this song in... no real relevance other than the fact that I just quite like it.)

So how? If you can, sit down with the CEO of the organization and find out what role philanthropy plays in your organization. If you are expected to be a major capital philanthropic arm, then there needs to be a mutual understanding of what that is going to take: giving by the board, CEO speaking the mission and vision in the community, philanthropy as PART of the strategic plan, not an afterthought, a focus on RELATIONSHIPS not ROI, the list goes on.

If the CEO, board, etc are not willing to do those things, then go back to the drawing board. But IF they are and IF philanthropy is important, then your donors are important. If your donors are important, who they are, where they have been, why they are engaged, what role they want/can play for your organization are ALL important. The minute development officers are encouraged to establish relationships, build and grow them carefully and with passion, that ROI is going to increase. If the only message your development staff/you are hearing is - raise more money, NOW, make more calls, NOW, burn and churn, I can promise you, sustainability and growth in philanthropic revenue are NOT in your future.

It's time we change our own culture of philanthropy in the fund development world. We have been so worried about changing the culture within our organization that we've forgotten to look inward. I'm ready to change that.

It's working for them, why not for me?

I have several friends who work at Blackbaud (BB) and I adore each of them. Seriously, some of the very best people work for this company. No, this is not a pitch for BB, although, I'm ok with anyone having that take away, but it is a pitch for people who ask the questions and then go and find the answers. I know it is their "job", but they are REALLY good at it and because they dig and ask and find, they deliver.

BB recently delivered on the 2010 Online Giving Report. GO READ IT! A few points in the report tell us that online giving increased 34.5% in the last year and produced over $10M in revenue for a 56% growth rate year over year. AND it shows that it isn't just for small gifts anymore. The report showed that 88% of organizations in this report had at least one gift of $1,000 or more online. WOW. To me, if someone is giving $1K or more online, it probably isn't as much of a stop and think gift as it would be to most of us.... meaning, HELLO - potential major donor!

Am I happy this report came out? YES! It helps many organizations make the case that online giving is important. However, it isn't something that you can just say, "Gee, online giving keeps increasing and so many organizations are raising serious dollars online, so let's go make our online giving site really nifty and just WAIT for the dollars to roll in." I hate to say it, but unless you can predict some major natural disaster in an impoverished country, that isn't going to work.

I have worked with many organizations who see these reports and say, why aren't we raising more money online? We have had an online site for YEARS and yet we only got two gifts last year for a total of $32.93. My response? Well, what have you been DOING to drive them online? WHY should they give to you? WHO are you targeting? WHAT is your message?HOW OFTEN are you reaching out to your current and potential donors?

"Oh, you mean we actually need email addresses? We don't have those and I just can't possibly think of how to go and get them." Yeah, ok, let's go sit down over here and talk more about this...

Regardless of if it is online giving or face to face or direct mail, what is your story? Who are you telling? Who is telling your story for you? What is your impact? How are you perceived by your donor base and those around them? How big is your network? How willing are you to change? Because, if you are not willing to change, grow, be loud, tell your story, inspire others, encourage hope, steward and appreciate, it won't matter how great others are doing online.

So get inspired people! It is so much more fun and productive to be inspired. If you aren't inspired, why not? If you are, why? Get inspired and then go inspire others. I promise this is a MUCH better solution than just waiting around for someone to press that large flashing DONATE NOW button on your online giving page.