Charity

25 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Customer Service, Donor care, NFP, Non-profit

Allow staff to resolve issues

Do your staff have the authority to resolve issues presented by donors or prospective donors? Or, do they have to escalate most issues to you to resolve?

I recently called a US company to get an issue resolved and my call was transferred from person to person. After the third transfer, and more than 45 minutes on an international call, the “supervisor on duty” could not resolve the issue. I was placed on hold multiple times throughout the call. It was as though the issue I was presenting had never been dealt with before. The most frustrating part of the call came when the employee of this company disconnected me (this is a polite way to say she hung up on me).

My next course of action was to tweet about the matter. I simply could not understand why something so simple had taken so long and was still not resolved. The interaction on Twitter continued over the course of a weekend. It was not until Monday morning when the issue was finally resolved by someone on the corporate’s social media team who told me the matter could have been and should have been resolved by the first person I spoke with the week prior. Instead, the matter went through three people on the telephone and was blasted on social media to millions of others.

It must be frustrating to staff to not be able to resolve issues. I can tell you it is frustrating to consumers when staff of companies or organisations do not deal with issues direct. Perhaps they cannot resolve even the simplest of matters. Put the power in the hands of your staff and let them easily resolve matters before they bubble up. Escalate only the matters which cannot be easily resolved by front line staff. This will empower your staff and donors alike.

What procedures do your organisation have in place to deal with complaints or issues? How many people do your donors have to deal with before getting their issue resolved?

20 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit

If you don’t ask, you do not receive

What is the number one reason charity do not receive donations? It’s not because they lack solid programs. It is not because they do not have strong leadership and vision. The number one reason charities do not receive donations is because they did not ask. Kind of simple, isn’t it?

FundraisingForce conducts a comprehensive mystery shopping study, as well as a mystery shopping product called NP Mystery Shop. The study shows that over 10% of the charities in the study never make an ask in their direct marketing appeals – whether in the letter or on the response device.

What’s even more disturbing is some charities take the time to include a response envelope, but never tell the appeal recipient what to do with the envelope. The piece lacks a response device altogether. Response devices exist for a reason – to drive donor behaviour to giving. We have conditioned our donors over the years and years of direct marketing fundraising to expect a response device in the appeal, which is personalised and offers prompts for giving.

13 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit, Non-Profit Database, Professional development, Webinars

Stephen Mally/FundraisingForce to present two Webinars

Stephen Mally CFRE, Director of FundraisingForce, will be presenting two upcoming Webinars – the first focused on mystery shopping in the NFP sector and the second on finding the “perfect” CRM for your non-profit organisation.

19 August 2015, 12:00PM – 1:00PM: Secrets to NFP Mystery Shopper

In this Webinar, Mally will discuss the background of the study and convince you mystery shopping is critical to the Asia-Pacific NFP sector. Mally will also share the latest findings and offer you tips to:

Apply the latest findings.
Develop key performance metrics for your organisation.
Enhance customer service across your organisation.
Work toward a more donor-centric organisation.
Get involved in mystery shopping.

This self-funded study is a terrific service to the sector. Mally offers rich information for every organisation to put to good use.

Click this link to register.

26 August 2015, 12:00PM – 1:00PM: Finding the Perfect CRM for your non-profit

Does the perfect non-profit Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) or Supporter Relationship Management (SRM) system really exist?

The answer is not a yes. But, it is also not a no. The answer to that question depends on whether your organisation runs a thorough process to search for the CRM/SRM, which is the best fit for your organisation based on the following:

Size of your organisation.
Business requirements identified for your organisation.
Future growth plans and strategies.

Stephen has conducted numerous CRM/SRM searches for Australian organisations. Stephen will focus on a 10-point process organisations should follow when conducting a search for a new CRM.

Selecting a CRM/SRM may well be the biggest decision and the largest investment your organisation makes. Investing in the process and ensuring your organisation makes the right decision is critical.

Click this link to register.

11 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Donor retention, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit

UW warms this aggressive American fundraiser

I received an enewsletter from my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, last week. The newsletter header captivated my attention:

Have you reached your philanthropic goals for 2015?

The opening paragraphs kept my attention:

“The end of the year is approaching, but there is still time to take advantage of giving opportunities that will provide needed financial support for the UW as well as possible tax benefits for you.

The articles below provide options for your consideration: contact the Office of Gift Planning at the UW Foundation for more information and to get started on reaching these goals!”

The University of Wisconsin enewsletter is all about supporting the University. At the same time, the enewsletter is also about helping me to find ways I can save on my US taxes – gift planning. The University does this by making points, such as: “For example, there is no easier way to garner a charitable deduction for 2015 – and support the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the same time – than by simply writing a check! If you itemize, outright gifts are fully deductible for federal income-tax purposes (up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income). If your total gifts should exceed this limitation, the excess may be carried forward for tax purposes for up to five additional years”.

Tax savings illustrations are plentiful, such as: Example: If you are now in the 33 percent income-tax bracket and you itemize your deductions, a $1,000 gift to UW-Madison by December 31 will save you $330 in 2015 taxes.

Does this seem too aggressive of an approach for your organisation? American fundraisers are used to this straightforward approach. I wonder how it would fly in your charity?

I love my university. And, I love this approach.

6 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Donor care, Donor stewardship, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit, Stewardship

Treat complaint calls like a gift

None of us like to get complaint calls or negative feedback. In fact, we hate it when someone complains about our non-profit organisation. People might complain about the mission of our organisation, the services we provide, or some other matter.

Each of us needs to treat complaint calls like a gift. Complaints calls are an opportunity to reconnect with the person making the complaint and to address issues within our organisation.

Some pointers when receiving complaints:

Respond the same day the complaint is received.
- Even if your first response only tells the person you are investigating the matter and sets an expectation as to when the person may expect a full response.
Show gratitude when the complaint is received.
- Let the person lodging the complaint know you appreciate their feedback.
Fully investigate the complaint.
- Gather all the facts in order to respond intelligently.
The customer is always right may not always be right.
- It is OK to point out the facts to the customer without shifting blame to the customer or making the customer out to be the issue.
Respond in the most personal manner possible.
- If the person lodged the complaint on Twitter, send a direct message to ask them for contact details in order to call them. If the person wrote via email, try to send them a personal note via Post or, again, call them. Often times the personal touch will diffuse situations.
It is OK to escalate, but empower staff of all levels.
- It is acceptable to escalate the response to those at the top of the hierarchy, but you also must empower staff of all levels to resolve issues.
Exam internal systems and protocols.
- Improve performance, so another individual does not repeat the complaint in the future.
Track complaints in your CRM.
- Tracking in your CRM will allow you to measure and monitor patterns.

In the age of Twitter, TripAdvisor and other forums, complaints are prevalent. Using them as an opportunity to re-engage with the person and also as an opportunity to “fix” issues within make the complaint well worthwhile.

4 Aug 2015

Stephen Mally Charity, CRM, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit, Non-profit suppliers, Professional development, Webinar

Stephen Mally presents upcoming Webinars

19 August 2015, 12:00PM – 1:00PM: Secrets to NFP Mystery Shopper

Apply the latest findings.
Develop key performance metrics for your organisation.
Enhance customer service across your organisation.
Work toward a more donor-centric organisation.
Get involved in mystery shopping.

This self-funded study is a terrific service to the sector. Mally offers rich information for every organisation to put to good use.

Click this link to register.

26 August 2015, 12:00PM – 1:00PM: Finding the Perfect CRM for your non-profit

Does the perfect non-profit Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) or Supporter Relationship Management (SRM) system really exist?

Size of your organisation.
Business requirements identified for your organisation.
Future growth plans and strategies.

Stephen has conducted numerous CRM/SRM searches for Australian organisations. Stephen will focus on a 10-point process organisations should follow when conducting a search for a new CRM.

Selecting a CRM/SRM may well be the biggest decision and the largest investment your organisation makes. Investing in the process and ensuring your organisation makes the right decision is critical.

Click this link to register.

30 Jul 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Donor care, Donor stewardship, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit, Stewardship, thank you notes

Just say ‘thank you’

Snip20150730_2 I received a thank you email from a charity this week – the McGrath Foundation. The subject read “Thank you, Stephen, we couldn’t have done it without you”. McGrath Foundation was not asking for money. The Foundation did not ask me to take any action.

The McGrath Foundation simply thanked me.

We do not thank each other enough in our personal and professional lives. Charities do not and cannot thank their donors enough. Too often, we as fundraisers have our hand out making an ask for a gift rather than our hand out to thank the donor. Often times a simple thank you will generate an additional gift and even a larger gift.

How often does your charity send a thank you to donors without making an ask? Have you picked up the telephone to thank a donor and to simply check to see how they are doing? When was the last time you wrote a hand written thank you note to a donor instead of sending an email? Go the extra mile (kilometre) and see the difference it makes.

McGrath Foundation placed a subtle message in their thank you email – the email told me they are halfway to their goal of 110 nurses. I interpret this line as a simple update. I might read that and believe McGrath want me to make a contribution to help the Foundation achieve the goal. I might read it and feel the need to help. McGrath Foundation hopes I feel gratitude by this email and, at the same time, no doubt hopes it generates some needed income. This stewardship email may be a wave as part of a campaign. Nonetheless, the focus of the email is on expressing appreciation and it makes recipients feel good.

24 Jul 2015

Stephen Mally Charity, Charity data, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, NFP, Non-profit

The Wilderness Society asks for change of address

I received an email from The Wilderness Society (TWS) this morning. The Email from TWS suggested they had a piece of returned mail sent to me at my Brisbane address and they sought my new contact details.

Impressive. TWS is the first charity to ask for my new address! Their business process must be to send this automated email to anyone for whom they receive a piece of returned mail. I took immediate action, applauded them in my response, and sent my new address details.

Kudos to TWS for best practice.

22 Jul 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Charity data, CRM, Data cleansing, Data hygiene, Donor retention, Donor stewardship, NFP, Non-profit

Three steps to better data hygiene

This last week I was fortunate to be part of a talented panel of speakers talking about data at the Australian Event Manager’s Forum. This Forum meets once a quarter to talk about case studies and issues relating to the NFP sector and to event management.

I shared with 60 people in attendance the fact I receive a call each week from a non-profit organisation asking for help in finding the “right fundraising software” for the organisation. The charity wants to find software that will deliver not only in the event space, but across the organisation. For some organisations, FundraisingForce conducts constituent relationship management (CRM) searches to find the right fit.

Conversations can be had about the requirements of the organisation in order to find the right fit. But, put aside the software for a second and think about the practices that exist (or are likely absent) across the organisation.

Too few in the charity space focus on the detail in a single supporter record in the database. We are too busy worrying whether the software we own does this task or that task. We are too busy completing transactions and tasks (i.e. booking a donation, getting the tax appeal out) that we do not take the time, while in possession of a supporter record, to do what I have called CEE a record.

Change of Focus – Day to Day/Hour by Hour Data Cleansing

C – When in possession of a supporter’s record, no matter who you are in the organisation, Confirm the contact details with the supporter or Confirm the record is complete when you simply open a record to view information.
E – Edit anything in the record the supporter tells you or you view as incorrect.
E – Enhance anything in the record you see missing. Mobile phone numbers and email addresses are missing from about 70% of most charities supporter records.

Do the above day to day, hour by hour.

Monthly Data Cleansing

Once you have the day-to-day practices in place, you must focus on the masses. First, at the close of each month, someone on your team must troll the data base to look for known issues – incomplete records – addresses missing a post code, addresses missing a suburb, state, titles missing, etc. Make this one person’s job.

Cleaning up the house once a month makes it a lot easier for major clean-ups.

Annual Data Cleansing

Your organisation needs to perform Data Hygiene at least once per year before a big mailing or event.

Data Hygiene is the practice of cleansing the data, using a service provider who will access the Australia Post National Change of Address, NCOA, file on your organisation’s behalf. The service will also use other data sources and may enhance the data to offer you dates of birth, phone numbers or other enhanced information valuable for major gift and bequest efforts.

Why do annual Data Hygiene? I have over 300 charities in my direct marketing mystery shopping study. I have lived in three apartments during the time the study has been underway. Some charities are mailing me at my address 3 apartments ago. I only receive the mail because I continue to renew my mail redirection service with Australia Post. Most Australians only renew their mail redirection once at best, if at all.

Of the 300 charities in the study, only 3 have found me at my correct address.

What do the other 297 charities do when a person does not file a mail redirection service? What do the other 297 charities do when a person does not continue to renew the mail redirection?

Why don’t charities conduct an annual Data Hygiene process? They put it in the “too hard” bucket. They put it in the “too expensive” bucket.

Too Hard

It is “too hard” if you do not understand the process. If you tried it once and it was “too hard”, find a supplier in the market to conduct the process and document it for you once. We can then transfer the knowledge to you to make it easy and allow you to be self-sufficient each time thereafter.

Expensive

I don’t buy this argument. It is very expensive to acquire a new donor. Sure Data Hygiene costs NFPs. But, it is less expensive to run a data hygiene process than it is to acquire a new donor. It is less expensive to do the Data Hygiene process annually than it is to continue to mail pieces, which do not reach their intended recipients.

Unless you practice good Data Hygiene, the work done in terms of event fundraising, donor acquisition fundraising, and other areas do not matter.

16 Jul 2015

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Donor-advised funds, Fundraising, NFP, Non-profit

Forbes Magazine highlights donor-advised funds

A donor’s planning for retirement includes not only retirement savings to maintain a great lifestyle, but also charitable giving in their retirement. A June article in Forbes, focuses on donor-advised funds. Donors pull out 5% a year from the gift fund, making grants to mostly local charities. Donor-advised funds allow donors, even of modest means, to “do it like the big foundations”.

To read more about donor-advised funds, view the Forbes article here.

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