NFP

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St Patrick’s Cathedral offers donation capability in-house

When I visited Washington DC recently, I wrote about the lack of donation solicitation throughout the various Smithsonian Institutions. My experience in New York City was quite the opposite.

911The 9/11 Memorial sought memberships and donations throughout the museum. St Patrick’s Cathedral sought donations throughout the church. St Patrick’s solicited donations upon entry to the church, as well as at various stations. I was most impressed with my ability to give a donation online right in the cathedral.St Pats 2

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Anniversary idea

Is your organisation celebrating an anniversary?

Check out this email I received from Uber (perhaps you received one, too?).

Snip20150603_15The email connects me to Uber’s 5 year anniversary by pointing out the months since I joined Uber, the number of times I have ridden Uber, and the city I have most frequently used Uber. It also offers me an opportunity to share this information with friends!

Clever idea. Perhaps your organisation might adapt it to mark a milestone anniversary? You could simply tie the date the donor first supported your organisation, how many times they have supported your organisation, and how much their lifetime giving.

It is ideas like these, whether from the non-profit or for-profit sectors we can adapt to suit our own needs. This is one I thought worthy of sharing!

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Finding the ‘perfect’ CRM is only half the battle for your non-profit organisation

 

Customer Relationship Management System CRM in word tag cloud

Has your non-profit acquired a new constituent relationship management (CRM) or supporter relationship management (SRM)? Did the process seem difficult? I hate to tell you, but that was the easy part. Now comes the hard part – implementing the CRM/SRM.

Most organisations do not realise they will need to review their business processes inside and out. Why? Some processes will need to be reshaped simply because they will not “fit” inside the new CRM/SRM. Other processes are antiquated and need a “remodel”. And, others have not even been invented yet within your organisation.

Most CRM/SRM suppliers will work with organisations to implement the new software in a sequential order, such as:

  • Security
  • Data conversion
  • Supporter management
  • Gift management
  • Event management
  • Other

It is best practice for organisations to develop a policies and procedures document in parallel with anyProcedures Folders Meaning Correct Process And Best Practice CRM/SRM implementation. The supplier may provide some documentation, which you will enhance for this added purpose. The policies and procedures document should be a living document, which you will make available to your end users in electronic format. This is a document you will maintain moving forward. The manual should never be “put on a shelf” and left unattended. Instead, your subject matter experts should keep the policies and procedures manual up to date any time a new procedure is developed or an existing procedure is enhanced. It is like cleaning a room in your home. Once it is clean it is easier to keep it clean than it is to start from scratch again.

Implementing a new CRM/SRM does not happen overnight and, in fact, the process from start to finish takes months. The length of time the process takes depends on a number of factors:

  • How well organised is your organisation going into the process?
  • How well developed and established are your existing processes?
  • How clean is your data?

Is your organisation in a transitional or maintenance frame of mind?

The CRM/SRM implementation is ripe with opportunity. Use the process as a renaissance for your organisation. Do not leave any stone unturned. Push the process, the supplier, and your team to truly transform your organisation.

Purchasing a CRM/SRM may be the single largest investment your organisation makes. Maximise the investment by doing it right.

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Professional development opportunities galore

Snip20150518_3We live in a country where fundraisers do not lack professional development opportunities.

The Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) Education program offers a host of courses. The 2015 semester II brochure just arrived in our letterboxes and is rich with new courses, as well as well the standard FIA courses – Fundraising Essentials, Certificate in Fundraising and Diploma in Fundraising. New course offerings include Data Analytics for the Empowered Fundraiser, Digital Storytelling for Fundraisers, Fundraising Change Leadership, and I Gave at the Office – Workplace Giving Masterclass.

The FIA courses are taught by dynamic, experienced, and diverse fundraising professionals such as Kathy John/RobeJohn, Shanelle Newton Clapham/Parachute Digital, Nigel Harris/Mater Foundation and Peter Dalton/fundraisingfutures, and Bonny Bayne and Rachael Beckett/Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). These talented professionals offer a wealth of experience as part of the content they deliver throughout the semester.

Register for these courses today. FIA is able to offer these courses in cities across Australia if we support our professional fundraising organisation.

 

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A stack of mail in the United States

MailI have not lived with my parents since 1983. I last lived with them in the US state of Wisconsin before I went away to university. My parents now live in New Mexico and have since ~1987. I visit them twice a year since moving to Australia – usually in May and December.

Each time I have visited them over the last 7 years, my mother has told me that I have “mail waiting” for me. It started with a piece or two, but it amounted to more that 20 pieces of mail this month.

The interesting part of the May mail stack is there were only two pieces of mail from charity. Those pieces came from a conservation group and they were premium packs – address labels! If I want to, I could send lots of letters out with my parents return address! The remainder of the mail was for mobile phone offers (3 pieces), catalogues for clothing (3 pieces), replacement windows (3 pieces), life insurance (5 pieces), and blank cheques from my United Airlines credit card encouraging me to transfer balances from other cards (6 pieces).

You might suggest 20 pieces of mail in ~4 months is not a lot. You are right. Nonetheless, 20 pieces at an address I never lived, in a state I have only spent short holidays in, is quite puzzling.

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The Joys of Moving

to moveI am moving house. Where am I moving? I do not know.

Sounds unsettling? It is!

I have simply not had time to find a new home and I needed to vacate my current place due to a pending sale of the unit. The removalists showed on Saturday, packed my belongings, and loaded them onto a truck…to storage.

But, there is so much more to a move. Because I do not know where I am moving to, I had to complete a Mail Hold Service with Australia Post. When I determine where I am moving to, I will complete a Mail Redirection. As you know from my previous posts and articles in F&P Magazine, no charity I support has performed data hygiene since my last move and I know this because Australia Post continues to forward my mail sent to my former Sydney address. It will be interesting to see if charities find me now!

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What have your volunteers done for you lately?

Group of people saying ThankWhat have your volunteers done for you lately? Wrong question. What have you done for your volunteers lately?

It is National Volunteer Week in Australia. Every organisation needs to assess what it is doing to recognise volunteers and volunteers need to think about what organisations are doing to recognise the time they give to those organisations. Volunteering Australia gives us 101 Ways to Recognise Your Volunteers including 13 key ideas to celebrate National Volunteer Week

  1. Give a certificate to commemorate anniversaries of involvement.
  2. Take photos of volunteers ‘on the job’, imprint a ‘Thank you’ message and frame them – then give them to each volunteer.
  3. Hold special ‘thank you’ or social functions in honour of volunteers.
  4. For long-standing volunteers, collect coins in the amount of hours contributed, place them in a vase tied with a royal blue ribbon and present to them at a special afternoon tea.
  5. Have a morning tea with testimonials to the volunteers from recipients of services.
  6. Give them a mug with logo or ‘thank you’ motif.
  7. Create bookmarks for the volunteers with an acknowledgement of appreciation for work contributed.
  8. Hold a BBQ for your volunteers.
  9. Run a Volunteers Breakfast.
  10. Give a pat on the back: Trace your hand on plain paper and cut out. Write, ‘Here’s a pat on the back for _________________. Thanks for all you hard work.’ Invite staff or anyone else that has contact with the volunteers to make one in recognition of the service of particular volunteers. Hang them all together for visual impact.
  11. Create Volunteer buttons and pins
  12. Arrange discounts for your volunteers at local shops.
  13. Celebrate formal recognition events such as International Volunteer Day and National Volunteer Week with dinners, teas, dessert buffets, etc.

Some might seem basic or a little hokey; however, at the end of the day, isn’t it about taking a minute to say thanks and trying to be creative enough that the volunteers accept your thanks with appreciation for being recognised. Too few organisations take the opportunity to say thank you. It might be too late to action many fo these ideas this week during National Volunteer Week. But, what about hand written thank you note or simply a personalised mass Email sent to volunteers with a big “THANK YOU”?

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Uber ready with emergency appeal – ChildFund Australia get’s the gold star 

Most Australians went to bed on Saturday night having already heard of the devastating earthquake and avalanche in Nepal. We woke up to learn of the growing numbers of people killed, injured or left homeless. The images from Nepal were heart wrenching to see.

Snip20150426_11Because the Nepal Earthquake disaster happened over the weekend, the staff of most international aid charities was away from the office. Nonetheless, Childfund Australia, worked to get an appeal out on Sunday morning. I suspect more would have matched this pace had the disaster occurred on a weekday.

How do charities like Childfund Australia get an appeal out so quickly? I am not on the inside, but I would venture to guess they are…prepared. Prepared by having segments pre-built and ready to simply refresh. All Childfund had to do was to write some copy, match the copy to the segments and push the urgent appeal out to supporters to raise the money needed to support the people in the heart of the disaster region. One might argue the EDM is not glamorous looking; I would argue the look and feel of this email is exactly what the moment called for and demonstrates the urgency of the message and the need for money now.

How ready would your organisation be if you needed to get an appeal out literally within hours? Think about whether you have the tools in place to outperform your counterparts at Childfund Australia. Some Australian organisations take weeks and, even months, to get a tax appeal ready. Change your readiness to be more like the Childfund model.

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Gifts in Memory and Gifts in Honour should be easy and painless to give

バラの花束People want to support charities when someone they care deeply about has died and they also want to do the same when there is a momentous occasion such as a milestone birthday, retirement, wedding, or other happy moment.

I recently lost a friend who was an important part of the charity sector and a wonderful person. I visited this friend in a Sydney hospital throughout his illness and I thought it fitting to give a gift in his memory to that same hospital. I wanted to not only give a memorial, but I also wanted to recognise the superior nursing care he received at the outstanding healthcare institution.

When I logged onto the hospital’s website to make the memorial gift, I was challenged to find where to donate. Once I located the tribute section, I was most surprised I could not make the gift online. Instead, I was asked to mail, FAX, or call with my memorial donation. I gave up. A day later I was fortunate to learn this man’s sister and friends had set up a memorial page. This site, on the EverydayHero platform, made it easy for people internationally to make a gift.

It saddened me I was not able to easily and efficiently make a gift to the hospital.

One of the best memorial giving scenarios I witnessed was giving to a hospice part of Legacy Health in Portland Oregon. When I made a gift in memory of a friend’s mother cared for by this hospice, not only was my friend notified quickly, but I received a hand written thank you not within a week at my Australian address. Additionally, to this day, I receive various electronic communications from the hospice. Most of the asks from the hospice are in recognition of donor’s day, nursing month, or some other occasion.

Evaluate your tribute program. It might be time to make some adjustments so you do not lose people who want to give.

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Innovation + Not-for-Profit = Odd Couple?

Innovation and technology concept in tag cloudLet’s be candid. We do not often hear the words innovation and not-for-profit used in the same sentence. Charities are not known to be forward-thinking and are often times in the shadow of their for-profit counterparts as a result.

Australia Post and GiveEasy have conducted a study to determine which Not-for-Profit organisation are truly the most innovative through the Innovation Index – Australian Not-for-profit Sector 2015.Snip20150329_49

The Innovation Index – Australian Not-for-Profit Sector 2015 is a study of the sector’s current innovation capability. The Index report is a compilation of a survey of more than 744 professionals working across the NFP sector from every Australian state and territory.

Organisations were measured according to their capacity to develop and deliver innovation according to seven key vectors:

  • External Collaboration.
  • Internal Collaboration.
  • Innovation Focus.
  • Openness of Culture/Vision.
  • Organisational Velocity.
  • Rewards/Recognition.
  • Stakeholder Centricity.

The ten most innovative not-for-profit organisations in Australia, according to participants in the study, are:

  1. Movember.
  2. Oxfam.
  3. CharityWater.
  4. World Vision Australia.
  5. Beyond Blue.
  6. Thank you Water.
  7. Getup!
  8. Salvation Army.
  9. McGrath Foundation.
  10. Fred Hollows Foundation.

According to the study, the following offer insight into what innovation in a NFP organisation looks like:

  • Mid- to large-sized organisations employing 11-100 staff.
  • Ones that have national and/or overseas footprint (not one state).
  • Working in the environment, lobbying or youth sectors.
  • Treat beneficiaries and the private sector as important as front line staff and management as sources of innovation.
  • Developing over half of their innovations from outside the organisation.
  • Working hard to bring in new funding.
  • Financially rewarding innovation activity (not just paying it lip service).
  • Has a publically stated innovation policy that all employees know about.
  • Building their own apps as well as just being on Facebook and Twitter.
  • Hiring staff across all age groups including under 25s and over 50s.
  • Focused on retaining employees for 4 or more years.
  • Running a budget of $500-$1m or $2m-$10m.
  • Enjoying a rising budget.
  • Continually getting funds from new sources.

Does your NFP display the above attributes?

The study offers our sector areas in which the sector as a whole may be more innovative. Those areas, include:

  •  Internal collaboration within organisations in the sector needs to be improved.
  • Effective collaboration with stakeholders is a key driver of innovation – the sector overall needs to work harder to solicit feedback from external stakeholders on a regular basis.
  • As in the corporate sector, setting aside time to innovate is a challenge – but it is a necessity if the organisation is to innovate effectively. Those organisations that make time for team members to work on opportunities beyond the daily urgencies reap the rewards.
  • It appears that the status quo of NFP organisations is challenged infrequently. In a world where disruption is rife, and most industry sectors need to justify their customer value proposition frequently, it would be expected that the NFP sector would be more self-questioning.
  • Organisations need to be receptive to change, and agile in their response.
  • While a very high number of people believe that it is important to be innovative in their organisation, there is little or no reward for innovation in the sector – either financially or through promotion.
  • A NFP might be expected to have a very high focus on its stakeholders. Only 63% believe they have a deep understanding of the needs of their stakeholders.

The above is  summary lifted directly from the Innovation Index. To learn more and to gain greater detail, download a copy today. Special thanks to GiveEasy and Australia Post for conducting the study, offering insights into our sector, and identifying areas for improvement. Congratulations to the ten NFPs recognised from their peers as being the most innovative. The Australian NFP sector has much to learn from studies such as this one.

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