It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. On behalf of FundraisingForce, I want to wish everyone stateside and around the world a very Happy Thanksgiving!
FundraisingForce has much to be thankful for – especially our customers. To those of you celebrating, have a safe and wonderful holiday. To all of you – thank you!
Several weeks ago, I wrote about an important day of the year – #GivingTuesday. In fact, I would say it is my favourite day of the year because this campaign brings a boost in charitable giving worldwide. We see a boost in giving of volunteer time and of donor financial support all across the nation.
This weekend, in the United States, is a weekend of indulgence. Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the US, a day when people indulge in amazing food prepared by love ones. Thanksgiving is followed by the biggest retail-shopping weekend of the year. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Next Tuesday, better known as #GivingTuesday, is a terrific campaign to promote the opportunity for people to give back to their communities and support the charities they love.
Mark your calendars for 2 December – #GivingTuesday. Give your time next Tuesday to a charity of your choice. Give a little extra gift to a few of your top charities. Make a major gift to charity you have been pondering for a while. I plan to act on my own suggestion and give a financial contribution to each customer @FundraisingForce has worked with in 2014. I challenge every supplier in the non-profit space to do the same. Additionally, I am planning to donate hundreds of toiletries to a Brisbane homeless organisation in hopes those toiletries will help a lot of homeless people in need.
There are dozens of ways in which you and your organisation may be involved in #GivingTuesday. It is not too late to get involved in this campaign and movement. Together, let’s make 2 December the biggest #GivingTuesday ever.
It’s mid-November and we are already starting to see the countdown of the number of days until Christmas. As part of my personal tasks of things to do now is start organising my holiday card list, so I can get my “best wishes” sent to friends and family.
But first, I need to find the cards I plan to send. This week, as I started looking, I noticed quite a few charities are selling holiday cards with their branding, including their name and logo. Being the in the philanthropy sector, I always gravitate to purchasing these kind of cards. There is an extra feeling of goodness when I know some percentage of the sale of the cards is going back to a deserving charity. Additionally, I get to spread the word of the good works of these charities to all whom I send the cards.
This year, you will find a few organisations have their cards available though newsagents (Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Multiple Sclerosis), while others are found at Australia Post (Starlight Children’s Foundation, Lifeline and Careflight). I encourage all of you who are sending cards this year to consider choosing cards associated with a charity. It could be one you already support with donations or take this opportunity to choose a card from an organisation that is new to you as a supporter. Buying holiday cards might just be the small thing that pushes you off the fence to become a financial supporter for the charity.
In addition to buying and sending these affiliated holiday cards, consider supporting organisations that produce fundraising calendars. Many organisations produce a calendar for their cause. I found a firefighter calendar that benefits the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Children’s Hospital at Westmead Burns unit Firefighters calendar.
It’s also important to consider this as a moment where you can learn a bit more about the mission and projects of the charity for whom you sending the cards and maybe make a cash donation as well.
And since Christmas and New Year’s come EVERY year, if you currently work for a non-profit organisation, you might consider producing one of these items next year. It could be a new way for you to connect to the community and bring more donors and dollars to your charity.
I received a newsletter in the mail from a Melbourne charity this last week. The newsletter is a beautiful full colour piece; full of images and stories about the good work the charity is doing around the world. The stories are motivating and might even influence someone to get involved. The charity included a blank envelope in the mail piece. There is no call to action. The blank envelope does not offer recipients a clue about the course of action the charity wants the recipient to take. Is the assumption the recipient will send a cheque in the mail? In fact, the blank envelope only confuses the recipient.
Make an ask in every treatment you mail or email your supporters. You do not have to make a hard ask in the piece. The Melbourne charity should have, at the least, included a giving envelope in the piece I received.
I might suggest this charity create a test – test a letter with a direct ask against a giving envelope to see which performs best. The letter/direct ask might contain an ask ladder tailored to the segment.
I am putting my money on the fact both of the approaches in the test will outperform a blank envelope hands down!
Giving Tuesday – a single day where each of us in Australia come together, along with the rest of the world, to give back to charities deserving of our support.
This year, on 2 December, Australian businesses, not-for-profits, charities, community groups, families and individuals are being encouraged to join a global movement and celebrate a day of giving to kick off the giving season. It’s called #GivingTuesday.
#GivingTuesday was started in 2012 by New York’s 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation. The concept was, and still is, simple. The US has a day for giving thanks – it is the fourth Thursday of every November and one of the biggest public holidays of the year – Thanksgiving Day. The following day (and often times late night on Thanksgiving evening, is the largest retails tore shopping day of the year – called Black Friday. The following Monday is the largest shopping day of the year on the internet – Cyber Monday. So, the concept was born to create Giving Tuesday as a means to drive giving back to charity! Together, different sectors were rallied together to ‘give back’ and support local not-for-profits, causes and communities. The inaugural #GivingTuesday saw over 2500 not-for-profit and business partners participate in different ways that not only resulted in awareness being raised of key issues but also a significant increase in giving on that day.
How can you get involved? #Giving Tuesday already offers you the basis for a marketing campaign and encourages your organisation (charity or supplier) to do the following:
Activate your community of supporters for #GivingTuesday and give them a fresh way to give. Or maybe you’d like to give back to them and find a way to say thanks or highlight the work that your volunteers do.
To get involved:
FundraisingForce is a #Giving Tuesday partner. How is our company involved? We have been promoting #Giving Tuesday throughout the year on Twitter, Facebook and our blog and we will continue to promote #Giving Tuesday up to and including the day of this important event. Additionally, on #Giving Tuesday we will give a donation to each and every customer we have worked with this year since our company launched. It’s our way of saying “thanks” this holiday season and our way of ensuring we give back to organisations who have entrusted us as a leading fundraising consulting firm in Australia.
Whether you represent a charity, community organisation, or a supplier to the NFP sector, get involved in #Giving Tuesday now!
It’s called “the race that stops the nation”. In Australia, today is the Melbourne Cup. And many of us will pause this afternoon to watch this horse race with friends and colleagues. For some, it’s a public holiday; for others, we simply might not return to working in the afternoon.
If our role is fundraising for a charity, we are also in a race today – one to hit our goal or target by 31 December. So, the first Tuesday in November is when we are coming down the stretch to the end of our calendar year – and, for most of us, halfway through our financial year. Whether we are in the back stretch or home stretch, we want to come in first and take home the cup!
Since many of us will put a wager on the race today, I thought I’d play ‘punter’ and give some tips for being the winning jockey in your race to raise dollars for your non-profit.
Bonus tip: don’t forget a special message and effort to your LYBUNT and SYBUNT groups.
Doing any of these things today may ensure you a win, place, or show. But I’m hopeful you will go for the trifecta and do all three. Only by taking some chances and being aggressive down the stretch will you get over that line ahead of the others. And within your organisation – everybody wins – you and your charity!
The stores are already filled with Christmas items. I walked by a large office building in Melbourne last week and it was decked out for the holiday season complete with very large Christmas trees, lights, and the works. Each year I wonder which charity will be first to send their Christmas appeal. It is highly probable the charity to win this “contest”, to be first in my letterbox, will be The Salvation Army (the winner the last several years). But, hold on. Not this year. This year’s winner is QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (QIMR).
The pack, which was received on 30 October 2014, contains a message on the carrier to ensure everyone knows this is their Christmas appeal. The packet also contains: A two-page letter, a note from a woman named Stacey Edwards about her mother’s journey with breast cancer, a fact sheet about breast cancer, and a terrific response device. The response asks me to update my contact details and offers me a host of ways to give a gift including BPay, phone, URL, and FAX. Note the photo of Stacey and her children with Santa on the response device.
Congratulations to QIMR. The winner of this year’s first of the lot!
With tomorrow being Halloween, it’s likely a few parents will be helping their children dress up in costume, be it Star Wars, a superhero, or a princess, and taking them around the neighbourhood knocking on doors for the annual tradition of “trick or treat”.
In a way, every day is Halloween for charities. Where potential donors walk up to our doors, ring the bell, and when we answer the door instead of us handing out a “treat”, they hand us a donation. But it’s not as easy as sitting and waiting for that knock on the door. We have to work to get the donors to walk up, ring our bell and give their philanthropic support. Are we doing enough to get them to knock on our door or are they just walking by and going to the next place?
One year I was at home in my unit with a huge bowl of lollies waiting for the bell to ring. About 3 children came just as the sun was setting, but that was it. Not one more knock the entire night. When I investigated by going outside, I realised my neighbour was not home and had all their lights turned off, including up the walkway to both our units. It looked like no one was home at either place. A dark house is not too inviting to children on Halloween. And I was left with masses of leftover candy. It was very disappointing.
The following year, I did all I could to get as many children as I could to walk up and knock on the door. I made sure all the lights were on, I included coloured light bulbs, I played spooky music out the window and used a flashing strand of lights in an upper window. And sure enough, the number of families and children who stopped at my house went way up. But I also had great chocolates and candy to give away because I wanted the people who stopped at my house to tell other people “go there, it looks spooky and he’s giving away the best stuff.”
What can we do to make our charities look inviting to potential donors and not look like dark houses? We have great “goodies” to give them – stories of our great work and success!
First, what if a potential donor does physically walk through the door of our organisation? What do they see? Can they tell it’s our non-profit? Do we have appropriate signage? Is our logo visible? Is it neat and clean?
Are we ready to give them a tour of our organisation? Also, do we have printed material to give to them?
And are we ready to accept a donation from them if they want to give us a “treat”? Do you have a donation form ready to hand them?
Second, what if a potential donor walks through a ‘virtual’ door, by calling or clicking on our website? Does the person answering the phone know where to direct a potential donor? Does our organisation have a mission or purpose statement that is easy for all staff to repeat to potential donors? Or know examples of those success stories?
On our website, is it easy to make a donation? Is there only one ‘door’ for them? Imagine if children were “trick or treating” and they had to keep knocking on door after door to get their candy? They would leave and go to the next house with only the one door.
Third, we can make sure we have a coordinated effort with our direct mail and our electronic direct mail. Do we have all the elements we need to get that donor to walk up and ring the bell? I had inviting walkway lights, spooking house lighting, and eerie music together as a package. Not just one or the other.
Do we have the right content and message; layout and design; reply device with all the information we need to collect?
When we think about it, it’s scary how unprepared some of us may be for potential donors or how many donors just walk by our organisation because it’s too ‘dark’ and not inviting. Or we don’t have all the elements working together to make them want to stop and donate. Or the ‘treats’ are not good, so they tell others “skip that place”.
This year, let’s have “treats” for our potential donors and they have “treats” for us, too.
I visited McGrath Fou
ndation last week and saw an application for an affinity credit card – a McGrath Foundation branded card – in the lobby of the Foundation. I was very surprised to see this application.
Perhaps I should not have been so surprised to see the McGrath Foundation card – McGrath, like countless other breast cancer organisations, are the best at branding merchandise and, particularly, within the “Pink” cause. Likewise, McGrath Foundation is creative in their fundraising, has a strong brand and loyal supporters, and has great potential as an organisation. But, I was surprised because it is not a common occurrence to see any affinity cards in Australia.
Non-profit Affinity credit cards are very big in the US and the UK. One will typically receive such offers in the letterbox, as well as find the card offers across university campuses, hospitals, cultural institutions, and charities alike. Often the cards give a portion of the annual fee back to charity, as well as a percentage of the cards use and other perks.
The McGrath Foundation credit card offers those who sign up an opportunity for a low interest rate, coupled with the fact the card issuer donates half the annual fee each year one holds the card to McGrath Foundation. The even more attractive value proposition is the pride you will have by carrying something branded McGrath Foundation in your wallet and each time you use the card you are promoting your affinity to the McGrath Foundation!
Does your non-profit organisation have an affinity credit card? Does it make sense for your organisation to investigate whether to develop such a relationship with a bank in order to offer one? What terms would your organisation expect should you negotiate a deal with a bank for an affinity card? What might we learn from our non-profit counterparts in the US and UK who have already embarked on such ventures? Better yet, perhaps we can use the McGrath Foundation as an Australian model?
Some non-profit organisations I work with invest heavily in their staff’s professional development, while others only invest in senior level staff (if they invest at all). Turnover is extremely high among charitable organisations and for a variety of reasons – compensation, stress levels, lack of appreciation and, yes, lack of growth opportunities. Lack of growth opportunities includes a lack of investment on the part of the organisation in professional development courses, conferences, webinars and similar activity. Simply put, staff become frustrated with the lack of investment and move on to more promising opportunities as a result.
How much does your organisation invest in the professional development of each staff member (not just senior level staff) on average across the financial year? Consider these areas:
Managers who only invest in their own professional development, or who limit it to those who surround them at the management table, are doing a gross disservice to their organisation.
If you do invest in staff to attend a professional development activity, how does their experience get translated back to the workplace and how, if at all, do they communicate about the course with their team members? Some managers expect their staff to present at the next all staff meeting and to share knowledge gained. This does two things – passes knowledge gained onto others and also promotes the fact you, as a leader, have invested in your team members. In the end, it shows to your team, and your counterparts in the sector, you are a good manager and a solid leader.
I spoke with the CEO of a hospital foundation a few months back about the dollar figure his organisation invests per staff person across a financial year. He told me $1,000 per staff person per year is invested. He reminded me not every staff person uses the allocation and some use more than others (if they attend the FIA Conference, for example, and one or two FIA breakfast sessions).
I would venture to guess this particular organisation reaps the benefits of the investment made in staff professional development through areas such as staff retention, staff recruiting and, above all, fundraising revenue. This particular organisation has grown significantly over the last five years due to the leadership of the organisation and, it’s safe to assume, the investment made in colleagues who work at the foundation.
Many people do not realise the FIA awards scholarships to members to attend courses. Likewise, not all professional development courses cost money to attend or to participate.
The next time a staff person resigns or you have difficulty recruiting, take a look at what you have allocated for professional development and what you, yourself, have done in terms of professional development over the last year. Perhaps the lack of investment in professional development is causing you impact beyond some simple budget savings?
