Best practices

11 Aug 2016

Stephen Mally Alumni, Best Practice, Best practices, Charities, Charity, Data enhancement, Data hygiene, Engagement, Non-profits, Nonprofits, Stewardship, Supporters, Telemarketing

Best practice call from University of Queensland

I received my annual call from University of Queensland (UQ) this past weekend. It’s no secret I am a big fan of UQ and the manner in which the Advancement Office handles donors. As is typical with the UQ call each year, the call Saturday was a mix of stewardship, data enhancement, solicitation, and data hygiene.

Kudos to UQ. Why? Read on.

Engagement

The call opened with the student, a female, asking me how my Saturday morning was progressing. During the conversation, she wove in a question about the weather in Sydney and compared it to the weather in Brisbane. This ice breaker and idle chit chat was a nice approach and allowed the student caller to determine I had a few minutes to spend with her and to further figure out I was willing to converse. She moved into her own plans after her graduation in November. She shared the fact she and her partner are considering a move to Sydney. We talked about the expense of living in Sydney compared to what she is used to in Brisbane. The caller asked if I had any advice to her about her career and her life after graduation. Once I shared my advice and said “you have lots of time to figure it out, you are only 22 years old”, she shared advice she had received from others and she asked me my opinion on the advice she had received. This was solid engagement.

The student then turned to business.

Stewardship

The caller thanked me repeatedly for my past support and talked about the difference it makes to the lives of UQ students. She spoke first-hand about the education she has received and how this has positioned her well for life after graduation.

Data enhancement

She then asked what caused me to support UQ, recognising I am not a UQ graduate.

Solicitation

The caller then asked if I could please consider renewing my past support. When I asked the dollar amount, she shared the gifts I have given each year over the past several years. I renewed the support.

Data confirmation/editing

The caller confirmed my address, email address and other contact details. Had something been erroneous, she could have updated their CRM on the fly.

Stewardship

At the end of the call, the student thanked me profusely for renewing my support. She informed me I would receive a thank you receipt and a thank you video via email soon. Within 24 hours I received the thank you Email, containing a video that will warm the heart of anyone.

Most universities use student callers to contact alumni and friends to seek their support. It’s not rocket science. My university calls one time per year. The nostalgia the call from my alma mater stirs is what works so well.

I think all types of non-profit organisations can learn from and employ this technique. Each non-profit organisation should think about the who, the how, and the when aspects of this type of call:

Who is the best audience to call your potential supporters? Clients, patients, or volunteers?
How will the calls occur? Are you supplying the callers with the kind of data, the script, training, and other tools they need to have these types of natural conversations?
When will the calls occur? When is the best time to call your audience? Is there a time of year when these calls work for your organisation?

Getting the who, how and when correct makes the why – why should donors support your organisation – an easy sell.

By the time the UQ student caller got to the solicitation in this call, there was no question I understood the why. For UQ it is all about the supporters connecting with their student body. I could not have exited the call without renewing my support. A beautiful experience.

14 Jul 2016

Stephen Mally Best practices, Fundraising, Nonprofit, Polices and Procedures

Fundraising organisations lack policies and procedures

Does your nonprofit organisation lack a comprehensive policies and procedures manual? No? Join the thousands of other NFPs who, likewise, lack a policies and procedures manual. It is an epidemic.

Why do organisations lack a dedicated policies and procedures manual?

Perhaps the following are reasons:

Lack of time to create the manual.
Lack of a person responsible for the creation of the manual.
The manuals are viewed as a less than fun (often viewed as boring) activity to create.

A policies and procedures is an essential component of any fundraising operation. The manual will be a reference point and will guide staff toward best practice operations across the department.

A solid policies and procedures manual takes time (usually about 2-3 months to create) and dedication to create. In the end, it can be fun and rewarding to have in place.

17 Mar 2016

Stephen Mally appeal, Best Practice, Best practices, BHA, Bush Heritage Australia, Confirm, Edit and Enhance

Bush Heritage Australia asks for the full information

I received Bush Heritage Australia’s (BHA) latest appeal this week. BHA always have pleasant looking packages and I was most impressed with the appeal’s response device.

I often times blog about the need to confirm, edit and enhance. When in contact with a supporter, nonprofit organisations must – confirm their contact details; edit erroneous contact details; and, enhance their record by seeking missing details. In this appeal, BHA have asked for my home phone, mobile, Email and date of birth. BHA have also filled in any details already known, which in my case includes my mobile, Email and date of birth. This prevents me from having to give the details again (nothing is more annoying) AND it allows me simply to confirm or edit anything wrong.

Notice BHA have placed “already on database” instead of putting my actual birthdate on the date of birth line. You might wonder why? I thought it was a clever way to perhaps not offend some or even alarm others by putting the actual date on the piece. Perhaps I am wrong?

BHA often have best practices in place. This response device is no exception.

What do you ask for on your response devices? How do you confirm, edit and enhance?

7 Jan 2016

Stephen Mally ADMA, Australian Direct Marketing Association, Best practices, Charities, Charity, CRM, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Database, Deceased, Deceased registry, Deduping, Deduplication, Fundraising, FundraisingForce, Non-Profit organisation, Nonprofit, TABR, The Australian Bereavement Register

Mailing to deceased? Your non profit organisation lacks best practices

There is nothing worse than sending a deceased person mail. First, it stirs up emotions when a loved one receives a letter addressed to a person who has since passed. Second, it sends a message that your non-profit organisation lacks best practices. I recently posted, on LinkedIn, about the number of charities not taking the extra steps to remove deceased from their CRM/database – reactively or proactively. The post received a high number of comments. Perhaps it was a little too close to home for some.

This past month, I visited some people in the US in the state of Florida. The husband of the couple visited was the executor for an estate. Let’s call the deceased Mrs Bloggs. Mrs Bloggs has been deceased for more than five years. Yet, the household continues to receive charity mail in her name. Again, Mrs Bloggs has been deceased for more than five years.

What’s even worse is this household has notified the charities of her death. The couple have returned notices in the response envelopes with the response coupons. In some cases, charities have been notified 2-3 times. These same charities, and others, continue to mail to Mrs Bloggs.

The charities are risking offending the survivors, as well as their reputation through poor processes, wasted materials, and postage.

US charities have an even bigger advantage over Australian charities in that the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) exists, which is national register of deaths. When someone passes away in the US, it is a requirement the death is reported to the US government. The end result means all deaths are documented on the SSDI. US charities have access to this list to screen their database through a variety of suppliers.

In Australia, the Australian government does not yet have anything compared to the SSDI. Yet, Conexum has The Australian Bereavement Register (TABR), which is a strong product and increasing in capabilities each year. Additionally, suppliers will match your database against the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) list of deceased individuals. This list is developed via notifications sent to ADMA. Any person may document a death via the ADMA website or we may call or write ADMA direct.

Charities have a responsibility to do the following:

Reactive documentation:

Document notifications of death in their constituent relationship management (CRM)/database. When charities are notified of deaths from survivors:
- Document date of notification, method of notification, and date of death.
Notify list brokers of deaths. Pass information to list brokers when charities are notified of deceased parties on various lists rented or received via exchange.
- Notification to list brokers should include date charity notified by next of kin, method of notification, and date of death.

Proactive documentation:

Screen your non profit organisation’s CRM/database using SSDI, for US charities, or TABR, for Australian charities.
- Screen at least one time per year. Better yet, screen prior to all major mailings.
  - Screen your CRM/database, plus any lists rented for acquisition purposes.

Acquisition Preparation

You would never rent thousands of names without deduping them against your database to ensure you were not marketing to existing donors. Take it a step further. Whenever your organisation rents or exchanges names via a list broker, ensure you de-duplicate all known deceased from your CRM/database. Save your organisation the embarrassment of mailing to known deceased people despite the fact the lists may be dirty from a broker or from a charity. Then, report deceased back to the broker to save your colleagues from embarrassment, as well.

Those of us who work for charities have been on the receiving end of the calls when people are upset because we have erroneously mailed to their deceased loved ones. If everyone takes an active role, in the New Year, in terms of deceased processing, we can vastly improve processes and ensure we decrease the number of times deceased persons are marketed.

Need help with your deceased processes? FundraisingForce assists charities globally to improve deceased processes and others. Contact us today.

11 Sep 2014

Stephen Mally Best practices, Charities, Charity, NFP, Non-profit, Non-profit suppliers, Staff retention, Training

Training – are your staff following best practices?

While 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.