August 2014

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An awesome telemarketing call from a charity

An awesome call from a charity. Am I nuts? Whoever says such a thing?!

I received a wonderful telemarketing cDo Not Call Forces Philadelphia Telemarketing Firm To Closeall from Seeing Eye Dogs Queensland on Monday evening. I love these calls – especially when the caller provides a good quality experience for the recipient!

This caller identified herself from Apple Marketing Group. She really made me feel appreciated for my past financial support, stated a strong case for support, and encouraged me to give a regular gift and to become a “super” supporter. In the ask, she described the benefits of giving at this level.

You know what else I liked about telemarketing call from Seeing Eye Dogs Queensland? The Apple marketing Group employee did not make me feel uncomfortable, I did not feel pressured, and she respected my time. It was truly a conversation between two individuals – the rare type of telemarketing call from a charity or supplier. In the end, she left me with a very good impression of Seeing Eye Dogs QLD, the organisation’s services, and my ability to make a difference.

The following day, I received another call from an energy company. The caller, hard to understand, had to repeat his pitch to me three times, he made me feel as though I was incompetent because I am using the wrong energy supplier, and I never fully understood his pitch. I ended up telling him to please take me off their list.

Does your organisation monitor your telemarketing agency? Most agencies will allow you to listen in to various calls throughout your programme so you might applaud people like this particular caller and correct issues or misinformation on other calls. Telemarketing is not an inexpensive channel. You owe it to your organisation to monitor calls and to make such monitoring part of your quality assurance.

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Ice bucket challenge – creative, innovative, and successful

On Saturday, I was in Zambia packing to return to Australia while BBC World News was on the television. A panel discussion was occurring and one of the topics, in addition to the situations in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, was the Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Association. Seriously? This made BBC World News?

1D274906370956-today-ice-bucket-challenge-140715-06.blocks_desktop_mediumThe fact is the entire world is talking about the Ice Bucket Challenge. It has become one of the most successful fundraising drives of our time. The ALS Association has raised over $62.5 million as of 23 August compared with $2.4 million during the same time frame (29 July to 23 August) last year and the numbers continue to add up.

Why is the Ice Bucket Challenge such a huge success? Social media. And, peer pressure. People around the world are being doused with ice water and making a $10 donation to the ALS Association. Should people choose not to be drenched in the ice water, those challenged are making a donation of $100 to ALS Association. In either scenario, parties challenged continue to challenge by nominating work colleagues, family, friends, and even famous people to face the same challenge!

All in the name of research into the debilitating disease known as ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

One reporter on the BBC panel said that this was nothing but an example of “narcissism” and compared it to you and I posting pictures of us with friends while having dinner or on holiday. Another complained about the waste of water. Both of these comparisons are ridiculous, in my opinion. First, diseases such as ALS need our personal support given government cutbacks and arguments that government cannot do everything for everyone. The fact is most government grants for medical research go to the more established research studies rather than cutting-edge research. Regarding the wasted water argument (which was laughed at by the BBC host), the ALS Association has answered the call for not wasting water, particularly in areas where water supplies are running short, by suggesting people simply donate to the ALS Association and pass the challenge on!

In the end, this is an incredibly creative, innovative and successful means to raise awareness and badly needed funds for the ALS Association. Anyone who has ever personally experienced Lou Gehrig’s disease or has lost a loved one to this debilitating thanks everyone who has faced frigid water and ice over the past several weeks. The rest of us applaud you.

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Cause marketing in Australia – few examples come to mind

Cause-related marketing is quite popular in the United States. Examples that come to my mind include the ability to add a donation to my grocery bill at a supermarket chain, corporate contributions to a cancer-related charity when a Boston Red Sox player hits a home run, and a big global bank offering free admission to museumgoers on Mondays of each week. If pressed, I could likely come up with, or surface, hundreds of examples from Boston where I lived prior to moving to Sydney six years ago. Other examples come to mind having travelled to the United Kingdom for business, including the ability to add a charitable contribution to my airline transaction on British Airways’ website.

Snip20140810_2I recently flew from Sydney to Johannesburg South Africa and saw a shining example of cause related marketing, which many of you would have seen prior. Qantas encourages all flyers to give their loose change to UNICEF through its long-standing campaign, Change for Good. Previously, the campaign suggested any loose change and now Qantas has taken this campaign further than in years prior. Qantas now suggests passengers give $6 to provide three 10 litre collapsible water containers, helping communities transport and store their safe water. Other options were also suggested on the overhead announcements. Additionally, the giving envelope also suggests giving your credit card or enclosing a cheque to make a gift. Finally, the giving envelope asks people over 18 to give their name and email address to keep updated on UNICEF’s work.

The Qantas/UNICEF campaign is likely the most visible cause-related marketing effort in Australia. Are there other cause related marketing campaigns in Australia that are of equal value? If so, why don’t they come to mind?

I am not sure how much revenue the Qantas/UNICEF cause marketing campaign has raised in its 21 years of running. But, the visibility Qantas has provided to UNICEF likely is worth gold and it must have translated into good revenue for the charity over time.

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New donor welcome packets – a thing of the past?

Many people know that I have conducted a mystery shopping study in Asia Pacific over the past four years. This study, self-funded, self-guided and self-directed, focuses on the gift giving experience, receipting and acknowledging, follow on solicitations, and other donor care treatments received. I have reported on study findings prior and today I want to discuss the new donor welcome packages part of the study.

Snip20140810_1Are new donor welcome packages a thing of the past? I ask this question because less than 2% of the organisations in the study sent me a new donor welcome package. Those received would be rated a 1 out of a possible ten and here is why:

  • None of the new donor welcome packages were truly new donor welcome packages, with essential components one would expect in such a package.
  • Two of the new donor welcome packages appeared to include a copy of every publication produced over the last year. The packages included magazines, newsletters, brochures and other materials with no sense to why the copies of the publications were included.
  • As a result of the above, the postage paid to send these extensive packages, full of publications, was a large percentage of my original first gift. Most people will view this as a waste of money.
  • No ask was included in any of the packages. I view this as a missed opportunity. Why wouldn’t the charities take the opportunity to ask me for a second gift or to join their regular giving program? Why produce such a package without making a further ask?

Here are the key ingredients of any new donor welcome package:

  • A welcome letter from CEO/Chair of the Board.
  • Material to tell the organisation’s story with the ultimate goal to maintain the engagement of the new donor. This material should not be over the top in nature and cause the donor to wonder if you simply are cleaning out your publications storage.
  • Calls to action, including: a coupon encouraging the donor to join the organisation’s regular giving program or to make a repeat single gift and a trigger to encourage the donor to leave the charity in their will.
  • Links to: like your organisation on Facebook, follow your organisation on Twitter, and other social media.

Keep the new donor package simple, yet attractive and professional looking.

New donor welcome packages, if produced correctly, offer a host of opportunity to continue to engage the brand new donor or the renewed lapsed donor. New donor welcome packages do not have to be complex nor do they have to be costly to accomplish your engagement goals. So, why do so few organisations in Australia produce new donor welcome packages?

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Donor care events – showing the impact of philanthropy

I recently received an invitation from RMIT inviting me to attend an event hosted by the Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Margaret Gardener AO. The event is to showcase the impact on philanthropy at RMIT. The event appears to be open to donors and prospects alike because the letter attached to the invite says “if you have given to RMIT before or are interested in find out more about philanthropy, this is an ideal opportunity for your to learn about the transformative impact of giving to education”.

RMITBravo! Excellent! Terrific example.

Organisations often appear to have their hand in our pocket and do not take enough time to share the impact giving has had on their overall organisation. Those of you who know me know that I am an aggressive American-trained fundraiser who never hesitates to make an ask. But, it is nice to see organisations valuing donors enough to educate them about their giving! I love the track RMIT appear to be on and applaud them for events such as this one.

Donor care events not only recognise the support donors have provided, but they also help to reinforce and, sometimes create, a culture of philanthropy. I encourage you to use RMIT as a model to create one for your own organisation.

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Switch up your donor care treatments

I travel each week. I am a creature of habit. I mostly take the same flights, I usually sit in the same seat on the plane, and I try stay in the same hotels. Things are pretty routine. Because I stay in the same hotel, I am surprised each week when I receive the same welcome note, hand signed by the same manager. I now know the note by heart. It’s nice to receive the note from the manager each week – please do not get me wrong. But, I am wondering why the hotel does not switch up their customer care treatments in the same way we need to keep our donor care treatments fresh in the nonprofit sector.

Thank you

I encourage clients to, at a minimum, refresh their donor thank you letters at least quarterly. Cash donors, who give more than once in a year, deserve a new thank you letter than they might have received five months ago. You don’t want your donors to “check into your hotel” and get the same welcome letter from the manager!

 

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Fundraising statistics at your fingertips

Are you able to recite the progress of fundraising for the year? If asked, do you know exactly where your organisation stands in terms of funds raised to goal, progress within each fundraising program, and other critical key performance indicators (KPIs)?

My experience is that some staff of nonprofit organisations are unable to, if pressed, offer the status of their fundraising programs and state the overall fundraising progress in their organisation. As fundraisers, we live and die by numbers. We ought to know, at any given point in time, exactly where we are in fundraising income and fundraising expenses and we ought to monitor progress and issues through fundraising reporting.

Why is it that some fundraisDataing staff are unable to readily state fundraising statistics when asked? Here are a few reasons commonly stated:

  • Fundraising database or CRM used is complicated. Reporting in the database/CRM is difficult, at best
  • Lack of trust the data in the fundraising database/CRM and, therefore, incorrect fundraising reporting
  • Conflicting reports. Staff run multiple reports, each offering different results
  • Staff creating manually reports to track and expenses. Staff often times use Excel spreadsheet
  • A desire to have fundraising reports available at the click of a button, available at one’s fingertips

Each reason given above is filled with a host of issues behind the scenes. As fundraising managers, we owe it to our organisation and to our staff to conduct a reports analysis session or workshop. This workshop will create change across the organisation so the organisation becomes data-driven instead of excuse-driven. The workshop will lead your organisation to create a suite of reports – some standard reports in your CRM, others customised for your organisation – which can be available each month (or on demand) and available at your fundraiser’s fingertips. Standardised reporting will lead to data cleansing, data standards, and a renewed focus on the fundraising numbers rather than on the distrust or lack of confidence that often times exists across organisations.

 

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Employee professional development – a right for staff, not a privilege

PDHaving worked and consulted with hundreds and hundreds of non-profit organisations worldwide, one of the biggest challenges I have witnessed is staff turnover. In some organisations, staff turnover in a year might amount to 40%+. This is a problem not just in non-profit organisations, but with suppliers in our market as well.

Why might staff leave your organisation? Most staff leave because of 1 (or more) of these 5 reasons:

  1. More attractive opportunities elsewhere
  2. Poor recognition
  3. Increased compensation
  4. Poor management/management changes
  5. Lack of investment in staff professional development

Investing in your staff will pay multiple dividends. Investing in the professional development of staff will increase staff retention and do so much more, in return, for your organisation.

Some managers suggest investing in staff carries too high a risk because those staff may leave anyway. So, why pay for conferences, courses or memberships in professional organisations if the staff may not be with your organisation for the long-term?

As managers, we need to provide professional development for our staff. Professional development is a right for staff, not a privilege.

Where do you turn to come up with professional development investment opportunities for your staff? Sometimes the answer is right in front of us. In this case the answer is in our own backyard.

Fundraising Institute Australia has a wide variety of professional development opportunities, including those in early, intermediate, and advanced career. Consider Essentials for Fundraisers, Certificate in Fundraising, Fundraising Management Diploma, and Executive Fundraising Leadership. Look at the FIA short courses, including Copywriting for Fundraisers, Creative for Fundraisers, Database Analytics for Fundraisers, and more. Additionally, offer staff the opportunity to look at attending the FIA Conference, scheduled for 18-20 February in Brisbane. Allow staff to get involved in FIA in your state and to attend their monthly meetings. Encourage staff to get involved as a mentee in the FIA mentoring program.

FIA offers a host of opportunities at your fingertips, yet these opportunities require managers to actively encourage their staff to participate. Staff should feel welcome to take advantage of these opportunities. Managers need to open the door to FIA membership, FIA education courses, and the FIA Conference. Push staff to get involved in their profession as a volunteer. Doing so will strengthen your organisation, strengthen the fundraising profession, and foster growth in the individual staff. Doing so, may very well be one of your top staff retention strategies for the year.

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New month – take four steps forward for donor care

It’s a new month and the first full work week of August 2014. Take four important steps today for donor care.

  1. Call a major donor who has not heard from your organisation in a while. Simply ask how they are going, tell them two or three exciting things happening with your organisation, and thank them for their support in the past.
  2. Call a first time donor to your organisation. Welcome them, thank them for their support, and tell them two or three exciting things that their support is making possible.
  3. Call a volunteer. Thank them for the time they have given to your organisation and tell them how much you appreciate them.
  4. Record all of the above conversations in your donor database/CRM. Don’t just record the logistics of the call — who, what, when, and how – but, record what was said on the call.

Make these calls before your work week takes over and you forget what is important – donors and volunteers. It’s about the people. People make your organisation happen!