September 2014

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Do you deliver training via Chinese whispers?

Rumors-580x370As children, some of us may remember the game of Chinese whispers, where the first player whispers a phrase to the next player and each player successively whispers what they believe they heard to the next player. The final message usually does not have much resemblance to the original, because of the cumulative effect of mistakes along the line. In this game there is no winner, although all participants are provided with amusement in the unrecognisable result. The game can have an educational value in showing how easily information can become corrupted by indirect communication.

In many organisations, a large percentage of staff gets trained thru the “Chinese whispers” method, where staff trains one another. While it might seem leadership are saving the organisation resources, this methodology could actually end up costing your organisation more, especially when it comes to fundraising and the use of your database. Staff who train one another in practices that might not be “best” practices end up doing things in a fashion they believe is right or doing things in a consistent way that is not “best practice”. Then that staff member trains the next staff member and so on.

Just like in the game, the same results will occur – a cumulative effect of mistakes. You may notice your data becomes polluted with erroneous or duplicate entries, or maybe processes are done in cumbersome and inefficient ways, or timesaving functionality becomes over looked. Certainly there will be no winner – not staff, constituents, or your organisations. In this real-life game, the final result is a lack of participants, donors and dollars – not amusement. Training can reverse these negative impacts on your organisation.

It’s easy to identify new staff as candidates for training; however, there are several other staff members to consider for training:

Role Change: Staff movement within your organisation is another identifier for training. As staff change roles, these staff may require skills or use of database functionality in which they were not previously trained.

Long tenure in role: Staff who have been in database administration, gifts processing, research, or fundraising roles for a long period of time should consider refresher training. While they may not need to go back to basics, refresher training will remind them of best practices and also identify new ways of doing old procedures.

Upgrade of database software: If your organisation has upgraded to a newer version, then new functionality has likely been released and incorporated. Your organisation has likely paid for the upgrade, so you should learn the new functionality.

Never trained: a percentage of staff at some organizations has never had formal training in their job. Staff who self-train end up learning functionality in a way they believe is correct or doing things in a way that is not good practice.

Can you win at Chinese whispers? The game is a success if each participant carefully whispers what they have heard and the message is transmitted accurately. This is the result you want and need for the success of your organisation. Get the message out loud and clear, plan for your training today.

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Plan for a disaster and pray you never face one

disaster-planning-are-you-readyDoes your organisation have a disaster recovery process and have you tested the process to make sure any gaps are filled? You ask – what, exactly, is a disaster recovery process?

Imagine your organisation faced a natural disaster – an earthquake, flood, bush fire, or some other “act of God”. Or, imagine your building caught fire or faced some other sort of disaster. Would your organisation be prepared and be able to fully recover when it comes to your database? Sure, you may take a nightly back up of the database. The issue with most organisations is the backup files are typically housed within the organisation and often times right next to the servers. It is rare that organisations keep what is called a disaster recover file, which is a back up of last night’s back up and is stored externally or in the cloud. Some organisations have their data hosted at a supplier, which means the data is protected in the cloud and your organisation is relieved from the issue.

What is involved in a disaster recovery process? In addition to the suggested disaster recovery file stored offsite, or preferably in the cloud, test the process. Create an imaginary disaster, which you hope your organisation will never face and rebuild using the disaster recovery file. If your data is hosted with a supplier, ask them about their disaster recovery procedures. Require documentation and ask the supplier how often their own procedures are tested.

Days after the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand and the floods in Queensland in Australia, frantic calls were made asking suppliers whether their data was available from suppliers because the data was gone from their damaged servers. Your data is your non-profit organisation’s #1 asset. Protect it. Back it up. Create a disaster recovery file. Create disaster recovery processes. Finally, pray you will never have to implement those processes in a real life scenario.

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Hot prospects for Spring

HotAs the weather starts to turn a bit warmer this time of year in the Southern Hemisphere, it can be a good idea to think of things that keep us warm and help us get excited for summer – the sun, the beach, a barbeque picnic. As a fundraiser, what keeps me warm this time of year? I try to think of my “hot” prospective donors. Who might donate to my organisation this time of year? This is especially important as we come closer to the end of the calendar year.

As Blazing as the Sun – LYBUNT

This first place to look are to those people and organisations who supported you last year, but have yet to make their donation this year, commonly referred to as LYBUNT (Last Year But Unfortunately Not This). Most fundraising database software programs have this report built into the system and should report on those individuals who donated last year, but not during a specified date range, usually compared to this year.

These potential donors are about as “hot” as you can get when it comes to raising money for your charity. Once they have started making donations to our cause, we don’t want to lose them, since it usually takes a good amount of effort and money to acquire a new donor to our organisation. If we have been working hard all year, the list of our LYBUNT’s shouldn’t be too long. Consider getting a short letter to them in the mail today, stating your immediate needs and include an ask and reply envelope. In two or three days, start making follow-up phone calls with the message to make sure they received the letter and to ask them to read it and consider replying by the end of the week. If you divide the list among staff members, it shouldn’t take too long to reach everyone. If you sort the list in previous gift amount order from highest to lowest, you’ll be sure to connect with your higher amount donors first.

As Burning as the Beach – SYBUNT

The Some Year But Unfortunately Not This should report on those individuals who donated some year in the past, but not during a specified date range, usually compared to this year. These previous donors can also be referred to as lapsed donors.

Although it may have been a few years since these people have supported your organisation, it should be a lot easier for you to convince them to support your cause again versus someone who has never given to your organisation. Your message to them could be about how the program they supported still needs their help today; or maybe mention a new initiative they can consider supporting.

If you don’t think you have time to reach all your LYBUNT’s and SYBUNT’s, narrow your focus to those who are also Trustees, Board members, Volunteers, or Committee members. They are leaders for your organisation and should understand the need and importance for your cause.

So, as you get thinking about the sun and beach, turn towards your “hot” prospects. With their continued support, you will feel warm and your organisation will continue to move forward with its mission and goals. Summer will be here before you know it!

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Dip a credit or debit card to Donate?

Snip20140921_10One thing, which has always bothered me about gold coin donation drives and bucket shakes, is the fact these activities create a one-time infusion of cash. Sure, the cash is nice for many charities. Nonetheless, the real worry is these types of drives do not have a means to collect a person’s details to then build a relationship with the person. Instead, a charity accepts their cash and moves on. The result is a quick transaction and the relationship ends there. Additionally, the risk associated with cash and coins exposed at cash registers and at events is very high.

This week, I read with great interest a clever innovation called GiveJar – a take off of the DipJar, an electronic tipping system from the United States. GiveJar allows a person to dip their debit or credit card and to make a donation. According to a recent article in Probono Australia, inside the GiveJar is a standard credit card reader. A charity creates a pre-configured donation amount such as $1, $2 or $10 or any amount. The customer inserts their card and pulls it out to swipe, and the jar automatically deducts the amount determined by the charity. GiveJar may also include PayWave – technology far more advanced in Australia than in the United States.

While we do not know from this article what information is passed to the charity – including whether the charity received name, contact details, and the dollar amount donated – we can certainly applaud this new technology as a safer way for people to give to your organisation than the current coin canisters at the registers or buckets at an event. In the end, this technology will require a campaign to train donors to change their way of leaving a donation. Nonetheless, put this in the innovation column and let’s applaud the DipJar company founders for their forward thinking!

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Gifts in Honour of/in Memory of are critical and sensitive

Honor-or-Memorial-GivingI have given many donations to charities to recognise happy occasions – milestone birthdays, retirements or special recognition of friends and colleagues. I also give donations in memory of individuals, including relatives or of situations where a friends’ parents who passed away. I prefer to do this in cases where I am not in the same city and cannot be at the funeral services and prefer to do this in lieu of sending flowers or some other expression of sympathy. I have had some experiences where a charity really got it right and others where I wished I had taken some other course of action.

I had to call one charity, identified by my friend because of his father’s military service, repeatedly as I attempted to make a donation in his father’s memory. When I finally reached someone, after four messages to the staff at the charity, the person tried to convince me that I meant to make the contribution in memory of someone completely different. I was asked “Are you sure you do not mean (Mr X)?” when, in fact, I wanted to make the donation in memory of my friend’s father whose name I clearly knew. The same charity took more than 6 weeks to send notification to my friend. The notification to my friend finally arrived, but with my name spelled incorrectly.

Another charity took more than 4 weeks to send notification to a friend whose mother had passed away.

There is nothing worse, as a donor, to wonder if the donation was actually processed and then to wonder if the honouree or the family of the memorialised will actually ever get notified of the donation. The situation puts the donor in an uncomfortable position. The situation becomes more awkward over time when the family may believe you did not send an expression of sympathy. Additionally, the situation becomes a bit of a nightmare when the donor and family are talking about the charity’s bad practices.

I should state that when I have given gifts in memory, there have also been outstanding experiences. One, a US hospice where a friend’s mother was cared for in her final weeks, handled the international telephone call in a superb manner, sent immediate acknowledgement to me, and, also, quickly sent notification to my friend the same day of my gift. This hospice has continued to steward me over time and sends me their quarterly e-newsletter and the very occasional request for more support.

Speed and accuracy are important in any donation and acknowledgement processing. Speed and accuracy are the two most important attributes in tribute gifts. Tribute gifts are the most time sensitive gifts your organisation accepts. When a charity fails in either place (or both) that charity is not worthy of our support.

There are 6 questions which need to be asked within your organisation to ensure you are operating the back end of your tribute program in an effective manner:

  • Does your charity have trained staff to handle tribute calls?
  • Do you process donations in honour or memory within the same day or do these donations wait for a staff person who may only work part-time?
  • Does your charity pay attention to detail and ensure spellings of names and the addresses are accurate?
  • Does notification to the honouree or to the survivors get sent the same day or do you wait until you have a lot of them to notify parties?
  • Is your notification highly personalised?
  • Do you thank the donor the same day?

Do you inform the honouree or the survivors of the contact details of everyone who makes a donation in their honour or in memory of their loved one? Doing so assists them to pass along their gratitude, as well.

Tribute gifts are a source of income for most charities. Those who decide gifts should be directed to your organisation expect the gifts will be handled with accuracy and expeditiously. Donors expect the same. Do not let anyone down.

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Training – are your staff following best practices?

TrainingWhile consulting with a client this week, I eavesdropped as one of the staff trained someone on a task. The trainer went through tasks in great detail and continued to coach the new staff person as she worked through the tasks throughout the day. The trainer was always available, offering advice and encouragement as the new staff person worked through her first 8 hours on the job. Not only was the new staff person impressive, but her trainer was superb.

Staff of many non profit organisations do not properly train and coach new staff. Instead, organisations often times offer a bit of new hire orientation and then believe that intuition will guide the new staff person through their tasks. Other organisations make the assumption that current staff follows policies, procedures, and best practices and, therefore, they are best to train new staff. My experience is 80%+ of the organisations do not have policies and procedures in place and staff who train new hires are not following best practice themselves. Staff who have invented their own way of doing things are training new hires to follow their invented ways.

Does your organisation have a policies and procedures manual for your fundraising department? Are staff who are training new hires following best practices and passing along solid practices from the start? Do you need assistance in your organisation to create policies and procedures to ensure all fundraising staff work in a best practice environment?

At the end of the day, the staff who I observed were pleased with how the day went. It was refreshing to see a nice experience unfold in front of everyone’s eyes. The organisation I am speaking about is well served by the person who was conducting the training and by this new hire.

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Include a Charity Week is this week

Snip20140911_1It’s Include a Charity Week in Australia. Charities nationwide are pushing the message to donors to include their charity in their wills. If you work for a charity and are not aware of what the Include a Charity campaign is about – the Include a Charity campaign is made up of over 140 of Australia’s charities, all working together to encourage more people to include gifts in their wills to their favourite charities.

Include a Charity Week promotes their good work and gives charities a way to work together to increase awareness and visibility of bequests.

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Making an ask in your thank you letter/receipt? That’s forward of you

ThanksI recently attended the F&P Magazine Australiasian Fundraising Forum in Sydney. I was delighted to hear a presentation by Derek Glass from Ask2, which focused on Ask2 clients who ask for an additional donation in their donor thank you/acknowledgement/receipt. I was even happier that Derek and Ask2 had some data to prove that the fundraising methodology works.

US organisations, like the medical centre where I formally worked, have been including asks in donor thank you letters for years. I remember the reaction the first time I developed an acknowledgement program and included a test of asks in the letters/receipts. Development staff thought I was, at best, out of my mind and, at worst, making donors feel less valued for a gift they had already given. What were the results? $100,000 more to the bottom line in year one.

Those of you who have seen me present know I have told organisations in Asia-Pacific they need to test making an ask in their donor acknowledgement program. I suggest a three part test:

  1. Letter/receipt with simple thanks (no ask, simply an acknowledgement of the gift and expression of gratitude)
  2. Letter/receipt with a “soft ask” (a giving envelope without any other sort of call to action)
  3. Letter/receipt with a direct ask (a thank you letter with a direct ask and a personalised response device)

There have been times when I mentioned this idea in Asia Pacific and I have received a dramatic reaction from audiences. I think they see it as the aggressive American fundraiser in me. Some say that if they suggested such a thing in their nonprofit organisation they would be directed to the exit sign. Without at least testing making a direct ask in your donor thank you letters, might you be leaving money on the table?

Do you include an ask in your donor acknowledgement letters or receipts? Let me hear from you.

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Bridge to Brisbane

Wishing all the runners a terrific race in the Bridge to Brisbane and congratulations on monies raised for charity! @bridge2brisbane #charity #nonprofit #fundraising

Be amongst those celebrated – FIA Awards

FIADo you know a fundraiser who deserves to be celebrated amongst his or her peers? Do you work for, or with, an organisation achieving outstanding results in one area or another? The Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) promotes excellence in fundraising by recognising the achievements of its members in the drive to be the best we can be as fundraising professionals.  The 2015 FIA award nominations are now open.

Nominations close 3 October 2014. Information is available on the FIA Website.

 

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