Take the long view: donor relationships grow and last through clear and consistent communication

John Leonard, a noted writer, once famously said, "It takes a long time to grow an old friend." In the same vein, fundraisers know it takes time and effort to build committed donor support.

In this era of shortened attention spans, a big challenge over the long period is to keep communications fresh and new while maintaining consistency and clarity regarding the foundation’s purpose, activities, etc.

The solution is for organizations to take the long view and identify the overlying Vision and the underlying Core Story that they wish to communicate over the long-term. Only with this focus will they be able to continually send the clear and consistent messages that build lasting relationships.

Many organizations confuse their Mission Statement & Program Description with their Vision & Core Story, when in fact they are quite different. In the following example of a fictitious human services organization which description is more compelling?

Mission Statement:

• XYZ Organization helps at-risk youth in Example County avoid activities that are detrimental to their future with after-school programs that nurture decision-making abilities.

Vision:

• XYZ will give every child in Example County a real chance to have a brighter future. We will change lives through empowerment programs that respect each individual’s decision making power. With proven, sustainable and scalable techniques XYZ Organization will equip at-risk youth with the ability to make decisions that lead to a bright future.

The Mission Statement plainly describes what your organization does whereas the Vision forcefully tells what changes you will make in the world and provides a vivid description of how you’ll do it! Clearly, the Vision generates more excitement, is more applicable to fundraising and more useful in building donor relationships.

Similarly, the Core Story explains the important details of the cause in a way that brings sparks to supporters’ eyes. The Core Story does not replace the Program Description but rather incorporates it into a far more visual and exact description of “who” the organization is, the “reason” it exists, “how” it goes about its work, and the “strategy” that will achieve the Vision.

The Vision and the Core Story are hardly ever stated out-right in communications to supporters. Rather, these details are subtlety communicated in a myriad of ways with which most organizations are familiar. These ways can include accounts of beneficiaries’ experiences, the latest program results or even interviews with staff members. Through these messages supporters form an “impression” of the organization’s Vision and Core Story. It is this impression that supporters reference when they read about the latest news or are called upon to support the cause.

Organizations that do not actively define and target a Vision and Core Story in their communications leave far too much to chance. The impression a supporter forms of your organization’s focus, competency, and progress may not be the one you want! If you have not done so recently, ask some of your supporters what their impression is of your work. Is this the story you want them to remember?

When your communications, actions, and results consistently support a clear long-range Vision and Core Story, your organization demonstrates the focus, accountability and competency that build donor’s confidence. Supporters have the context to see how the little picture fits into the big picture, how just a small bit of positive news represents an exciting step towards the ultimate goal!

As time goes on and progress is made, relationships strengthen, excitement builds and constituents become even more motivated to do their part to achieve the Vision.

Brian Pickett assists nonprofits in developing the key components of sustainable growth. Relationships are an organization’s greatest asset, a fact PickettCRM leverages to help organizations expand their donor base. For more information on nonprofit CRM solutions please visit PickettCRM, Houston, TX.

Email to grow the donor base in a recession on a tight budget

Recessions force organizations to change how they operate, but the formula for winning, keeping and growing donors does not change. Be more focused in your efforts, improve your communications and provide more value for donors’ contributions. Your organization will be rewarded with stronger donor relationships and a growing donor base.

In today’s recession and ultra-competitive fundraising environment donors are being more selective with their gifts and more sensitive to being asked for money.

The key to winning and keeping their support is strong donor relationships.

Donors that have a strong connection to the organization are more willing to give, recruit additional donors, hold fundraising events, become committee members and join the board of directors. This all contributes to a growing donor base and additional funds for expansion of programs.

Great communication fosters strong donor relationships

How well does your organization communicate its vision? Does every dollar spent support a single story involving this vision? When was the last time you demonstrated the organization’s focus, understanding, ingenuity, professionalism, determination and resolve? How often does your organization communicate with donors without asking for money?

Building great relationships takes time and a consistent message. Successful organizations tell a single story, tell it well and stick to it. Every aspect of the organization’s external communications should fit into this story like pieces of a puzzle.

When an organization supports the core story, whether told through beneficiaries’ experiences, the latest program results or interviews with staff, it demonstrates focus and competency in its field. Donors continually see this organization as the right one to address the issue! Make your vision their vision.

Stop and assess your organization’s communications efforts. Is it time to refocus the message to ensure consistency and clarity?

Grow the Donor Base
With improved communications, your organization distinguishes and differentiates itself as unique, open and accountable.

Your donors receive details on how their donations are making a difference and they are provided additional value for their contributions in the way of close ties and more information.

The connections you build with supporters are stronger and more current. This is the time to ask for their support.

Referrals, larger donations and more frequent donations are all more likely after organizations have built these solid donor relationships. Campaigns can be designed to expand the donor base leveraging current donor support. Both contribute to your organization having a sustainable and growing donor base.

Be Cost-Effective
Clearly this formula for communicating with donors to generate their support can be applied in many ways, but the most cost-effective is with email, eNewsletters, and social networking websites like Facebook. This medium is valuable in key ways:

Prospects and donors are on the Internet all the time! Speak to them where they are.

• It’s cost-effective to create and deliver messages.
• It is flexible which allows for timely topics to be discussed.
• It allows for easy targeting. For different prospect & donor segments, send messages that address their specific interests or concerns.
• It’s relatively easy to get feedback to make your messages more valuable.

Organizations that succeed in growing their donor base in this difficult environment are poised for accelerated growth when the economy improves so it pays to take on the challenge.


Brian Pickett assists nonprofits in developing the key components of sustainable growth. Relationships are an organization’s greatest asset, a fact PickettCRM leverages to help organizations expand their donor base. For more information on strategic CRM solutions please visit PickettCRM, Houston, TX.

Go from putting out fires to putting in infrastructure

Today’s topic is essentially a high-level how-to for getting out of scattered effort and into a result-oriented approach to building a diverse, sustainable, and growing donor base.

Some people thrive in an environment where crisis flourish, there are always more things to do than hours in the day, and long-term means "by next week." This post is not for them.

Generally speaking, healthy organizations put in place the infrastructure to achieve long term prosperity versus pursuing the crisis (or opportunity) du jour.

In fundraising, creating a diverse, sustainable and growing donor base does not happen by accident. With time being a rare commodity only a focused effort that constantly builds upon work already completed can produce the donor base being sought. In short, it takes great “infrastructure.”

With good infrastructure organizations focus their efforts on those things that achieve the greatest success at the lowest cost. A new opportunity can quickly be put in perspective and the choice to pursue it or not is properly balanced between the short-term gain and the long-term goals of the organization.

For individual fundraisers the results are reduced distractions, saved time, improved donor relationships, and momentum to achieve greater success year after year.

For organizations, the results of good infrastructure can be improved fundraising with greater diversity, higher renewal rates, lower costs, decreased risk, and better results across the board. Not to mention, your staff will be thankful for the less stressful work environment.

So for a fundraiser, what is good infrastructure and how do you get it?

Vision:
Define your BAHG (big, hairy, audacious goal). Get Zen-like and tell us where and what you are going to be in the far off future! Doing so gives your team something to shoot for, provides perspective for every decision, and gives donors a chance to connect for the long-term.

Mission, Values, Beliefs:
Who you are and what you do. Telling everyone from donors to staff to executives the “who, what, and how” of the organization creates accountability and fosters teamwork.

Strategies:
Now that you have your Vision, Mission, Values, and Beliefs outline the big picture strategies associated with everything you do. Think of it like this: “these efforts are going to get your mission accomplished!” At this point you'll want to add a couple lines about the diverse, sustainable and growing donor base you're pursuing.

Management Framework:
Collectively, this is the playbook that defines the tactics you’ll use to execute your strategies. Processes, milestones, and measurement systems are all defined in advance so you can monitor your progress and make adjustments as you move forward.

Tools & Technology:
These are the tools that amplify and support your people, processes, and resources. Investing in the productivity of your people saves time, improves accuracy, and gets better results across the whole team. For fundraisers, think CRM, email, and website.

Implementation
Transition your team to the new “way” of doing things where every move supports a common directive comprised of everything we've just discussed. Change can be a very disruptive process and should not be taken lightly. Whole books are written on managing change so I won’t attempt to sum up the best practices in two sentences. Hints are easy though. Here’s one: involve your team in every step of the process to get their “buy-in.” Having contributed to the new solution they’re more likely to use it.

Operations
With your new Vision, strategy, protocols, and tools in place “Be” the organization you want to be! It will feel new and different at first but as each day goes by the team will gain more confidence.

Maintenance
Run the protocols you defined in the Management Framework to measure and support your new “way.” Also, continue to involve the whole team by periodically asking “how well this working?” and “what can be improved?”

Now that you know the components of good infrastructure and the roadmap for getting it, the limiting factors are time, expertise & change management. Hire the right consultant to facilitate the transition and this short-term expense will produce many years of gain and a healthy, sustainable, and successful organization.

Brian Pickett helps business & nonprofits with the key components of sustainable growth. Relationships are an organization’s greatest asset; a fact PickettCRM leverages to help organizations expand their customer/donor base using Strategic CRM Solutions. Houston, TX based for more information visit www.PickettCRM.com.

Announcing PickettCRM

I am excited to announce PickettCRM, a new consulting business to improve the efforts of nonprofits.

What differentiates PickettCRM from other consulting firms is our focus on one of the biggest challenges facing all organizations:

What is the most productive means to find, win, and retain donors?

Our solutions are called Strategic CRM Solutions as they combine a number of standard Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools into one solution to answer the question above.

Strategic CRM Solutions are composed of:

• Vision & Marketing Concept
• Strategic Plan & Management Framework
• CRM Software
• Website Design & Development
• Email Marketing & Communications
• Project Management & Technology Support

Together they are more valuable than the sum of their parts.

We are ready to work with nonprofits that want to:

• Grow / Increase Income
• Reach a Broader Audience / Find New, High-Quality Prospects
• Keep Donors Happy & Involved
• Lower Costs
• Generate Sustainable & Predictable Income
• Increase Productivity
• Make Strategic Improvements
• Build a Brand and Reputation

Keep PickettCRM in mind for projects of this nature. More information can be found on our website at www.pickettcrm.com.

Best Regards,
Brian Pickett
PickettCRM, Inc

Successful fundraising on a tight budget

On a tight budget, the most cost-effective ways to increase donations from individuals are:

1. Focus on Current Donors
Small improvements in the rate of renewal can make a big difference to the bottom line. Do you have a regular eNewsletter? Does it work for you? A valuable eNewsletter can keep current donors feeling appreciated, informed, engaged and involved. The value you create with informative messages pays off the next time you ask for support.

2. Build a Brand
The number one asset you have in building a brand is your vision. A short, simple message about how your organization is going to change the world provides a rallying cry for your constituents (new and old). What is the Big Goal your organization is going to accomplish? If you don’t have a vision yet, get started!

3. Get the Word Out
In today’s world, almost all of your current and potential donors are online. The Web gives you three excellent, cost-effective opportunities to get the word out.

First, foster outreach within your current donor base. With online tools to refer-a-friend or ask for sponsorships it easy to help the organization grow.

Second, step-up your website. Most prospects find themselves on your website soon after hearing about your cause. Is your website compelling? Does it engage potential donors? Is it professionally done? Your website is a direct reflection on how you approach your programs. If your website is not useful and exciting for potential donors they often miss the value of your programs or worse discount your ability to get anything important done. Investing in your website enhances all your outreach efforts.

Third, use email. Email messages are an inexpensive and easy way to encourage grassroots networking.

How many supporter emails do you have? Not enough? Send a postcard asking for their email. Most donors want to hear about the results of their donation and email is the cheapest way. Include an offer or give-a-way if you think you need to sweeten the deal.

Lastly, leverage your vision statement and revved up outreach efforts to gain press coverage and drive traffic to the new website. Include media outlets on your distribution list and you never know when your nonprofit might end up in the news.

Tie it all together and you have a larger more active donor base that is helping you find new sources of funding. What does that do? It further grows the donor base and you have a larger more active donor base that is helping you find new sources of funding. The wonderful cycle continues!

When the economy turns around your organization will have a boat full of supporters whose contributions will rise with the rising economic tide.

Voila! That is successful fundraising on a tight budget.

Previous Post: Fundraising in times of economic turmoil

Brian Pickett helps nonprofit organizations leverage technology to expand their donor base using Strategic CRM Solutions. Houston, TX based for more information visit www.PickettCRM.com.

Fundraising in times of economic turmoil

In times of economic turmoil, nonprofits are not spared the recession. As funding becomes less reliable, nonprofits try to maintain their current funding level on an ever tightening budget. No easy feat! Unfortunately as so often happens, programs are scaled back and the social benefit of the organizations drop.

Nonprofits that successfully fundraise on a tight budget can keep their programs running at top speed.

How do they do it?

Create a new fundraising event? Expensive, and risky.
Apply for government grants? Not if you need the money fast.
Reach out to new foundations? Maybe, but they are also feeling the economic downturn too.

The key to successful fundraising on a tight budget is to focus on donations from individuals.

Grow your base of donors! Collectively, contributions across a larger donor base can make up for each person’s generally smaller donation (it is an economic downturn after all). In addition, these new donors are likely to refer other donors, corporate sponsors, and foundations giving you new opportunities to make up for funding lost from other sources.

Next up: Successful fundraising on a tight budget

Brian Pickett helps nonprofit organizations leverage technology to expand their donor base using Strategic CRM Solutions. Houston, TX based for more information visit www.PickettCRM.com.