NFP

22 Sep 2014

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

Dip a credit or debit card to Donate?

One 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!

16 Sep 2014

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity data, Customer Service, Donor care, Donor stewardship, Fundraising, Gifts in honour, Gifts in memory, Memorial donations, NFP, Non-profit, Stewardship, Tribute giving

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

I 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.

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.

11 Sep 2014

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Donor care, Donor intent, Donor stewardship, fundraising conferences, NFP, Non-profit

Include a Charity Week is this week

It’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.

9 Sep 2014

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, Donation Receipt, Donor acknowledgement, Donor care, Donor thank you, Fundraising, fundraising conferences, NFP, Non-profit, Non-profit suppliers

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

Thanks I 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:

Letter/receipt with simple thanks (no ask, simply an acknowledgement of the gift and expression of gratitude)
Letter/receipt with a “soft ask” (a giving envelope without any other sort of call to action)
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.

28 Aug 2014

Stephen Mally Charities, Charity, NFP, Non-profit, Non-profit suppliers, Quality assurance, Telemarketing

An awesome telemarketing call from a charity

An awesome call from a charity. Am I nuts? Whoever says such a thing?!

I received a wonderful telemarketing c Do Not Call Forces Philadelphia Telemarketing Firm To Close all from Seeing Eye Dogs Queensland on Monday evening. I love these calls – especially when the caller provides a good quality experience for the recipient!

This caller identified herself from Apple Marketing Group. She really made me feel appreciated for my past financial support, stated a strong case for support, and encouraged me to give a regular gift and to become a “super” supporter. In the ask, she described the benefits of giving at this level.

You know what else I liked about telemarketing call from Seeing Eye Dogs Queensland? The Apple marketing Group employee did not make me feel uncomfortable, I did not feel pressured, and she respected my time. It was truly a conversation between two individuals – the rare type of telemarketing call from a charity or supplier. In the end, she left me with a very good impression of Seeing Eye Dogs QLD, the organisation’s services, and my ability to make a difference.

The following day, I received another call from an energy company. The caller, hard to understand, had to repeat his pitch to me three times, he made me feel as though I was incompetent because I am using the wrong energy supplier, and I never fully understood his pitch. I ended up telling him to please take me off their list.

Does your organisation monitor your telemarketing agency? Most agencies will allow you to listen in to various calls throughout your programme so you might applaud people like this particular caller and correct issues or misinformation on other calls. Telemarketing is not an inexpensive channel. You owe it to your organisation to monitor calls and to make such monitoring part of your quality assurance.

8 Jul 2014

Stephen Mally Elevator pitch, Fundraising consultant, Mission, NFP, Non-profit, Passion

Do you have an elevator pitch?

elevator-pitch Do you have an elevator pitch for your organisation? If someone asks you what your organiation does or why they should fund your organisation, are you prepared to give a succinct few lines? Many staff and some volunteers might struggle with this task. It is something we all need to be able to do with ease.

Practice this at home in front of the mirror. <Name>, what is it that <Organisation Name> does? Rehearse your response, offering it with the most passion and excitement, and include the following:

<Organisation Name> is:

Best known for….
Serves the following…
Last year, <Organisation Name>…
With over <count> of people living with <name of condition>, <Organisation Name>….
In the end, our ultimate goal is…
Did you know that <Organisation Name> discovered…

Think of how long it takes you to ride an elevator from the first to the tenth floor of an office building. That is the amount of time (or even less) you can capture someone’s attention, Make use of the time so you are ready at a cocktail party, at a dinner, or, even in an elevator, to pitch your organisations in a clear, concise, and passionate way.

The FundraisingForce elevator pitch is the following:

FundraisingForce was founded as a boutique consulting firm serving organisations and fundraisers in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. We only hire the most experienced consultants who have worked in the non-profit sector so you can be sure we have walked in your shoes and resolved challenges like yours before. Customer service is at the core of every engagement. Your mission is our business!

What’s your elevator pitch?

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