What...I started a blog?!? On Fundraising!

I had the best intentions with this blog to keep it up to date with activities I was doing with the Hoboken Shelter, but then my own career in fundraising in NYC picked up and all good intentions and thoughts flew out the window. HOWEVER, I am now in a place where I think I should chronicle how I am doing. 

I recently accepted a position to be the Development Officer at Pro Bono Net, Inc. and will, for the first time, supervise an employee to help put the organization on track with fundraising.  Pro Bono Net is an organization that works to increase access to justice through innovative technologies. 

I also am continuing to work guiding the Hoboken Shelter through their development efforts and hope to help them hire a part time person to help move activities along.  I will also offer my advice and counsel.

I am hoping to use this space to chronicle my trials and tribulations and seek advice and counsel as I fumble through this complicated world of fundraising!

My new employee starts on Monday so I am hoping to set a good tone as a boss and keep her busy and learning. I feel like Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, trying to decide what kind of teacher to be.

So I'll try to update weekly or bi-weekly with thoughts from the job in NYC or what actions we take fundraising in Hoboken, NJ. 

The Age Old Question: Mailing Too Much or Too Little?

Whenever nonprofits talk about direct mail or I talk with my own board, staff and fellow volunteers about mailing, the first question that allows comes up is "are we mailing too much?"  There are always a fair amount of advocates for the less is more philosophy, who hate getting too many letters from various organizations as well as stickers, trinkets and other brick-a-brack. I can, of course, understand there concerns. I tend to lean towards the side of more communications, as I tend to feel that otherwise your donors will forget about you and you should be constantly sharing.

Today Gail Perry, who I follow on Twitter @GailPerrync, posted an article to Twitter about starting the conversation - are we mailing too much?  The article suggested rather than focusing on mailing we should focus on questions like

• What do my donors expect from their relationship with my brand?
• How satisfied and committed are my donors to the brand? And, what's driving satisfaction and commitment to my brand?
• What's the "story" I'm telling my donors across all of my touches? And, what messages truly resonate with what my donors need to hear?(quoted from the article)

I think the stories we're communicating, branding, and also calls to action should be included in all our mailings - this alleviates donors feeling like piggy banks and also reminds them why they are involved in this cause in the first place, making the mailing about more than just the ask.  However, I do think the ask is a critical part of any mailing and you shouldn't shy away from stating what you need from the donor a few times a year.

In regards to the too much question, the article says that a recent industry study in 2011 revealed that if messaging was on point there was not a case of too much mailing.

Food for thought?  Do you have the ongoing discussion on too much/too little?

Blogging Blues: Creating an Editorial Calendar for Consistency

We've had a very hard time getting staff on board with regular blog posts and trust me, I know it is hard!! I haven't blogged on this blog as often as I'd like and I sometimes forget to post my regular Tuesday workouts on my fitness/food blog. 

However, for an organization, it's good to have some sense of order and regularity in your blogging.  I recently acknowledged the issue with staff and we decided to set up a calendar. However, it is very hard for program staff to make time to blog; however as we came up with ideas to help them, creating a calendar, talking through the idea and creating a draft with me, things seemed easier.

I began a rough draft based on a model from Beth Kanter, an expert at nonprofit social media, and some drafts I found online.

I've been using it temporarily and so far I've managed to fill all of February!! Yay!  I created a monthly section for us to put ideas and conferences and track holidays we may want to reference.

And I also created a weekly section where I can track:

• What week we're on
• Topic of the Blog
• Brief Description
• Author
• Due Date to me
• Due Date to Drop
• Did we push out to Social Media?

I noticed this also made me realize when I'd be on vacation in late February and to make sure the blog was due the prior Thurs COB and was posted on Friday evening to drop the next week.

How do you track your blogging efforts? And how do you get program staff to help blog?

Where's My Agenda!!??!!!

I am having an agenda crisis.  I have a small agenda or rather I keep my large and unruly agenda and things to do list in a small adorable black Coach agenda.  (The picture shows it in red but I had bought it in black to match my black stripe big C bag.) I love that agenda and come October when they tell you to order a refill I should've listened but I did not and I forgot and I asked for it late at Xmas and no one got it for me and no I've been too lazy to run up to Coach or put in the order to get one line.  I started crossing out the Sept/Oct dates and writing in the past few week's dates.

I use both the monthly calendar and the day to day section. In the day to day section I write to do lists for the day and big items fill up the weekend.  I use the agenda to track my training for races, to keep track of Shelter meetings and events, to track work activities and progress and to try to organized when on the weekend I may finally get around to my resume and my thesis. (Let's hope it's not never!).  At any point in time you can find training calendar tucked in the back with formal plans.  A MILLION post its with to do notes, phone numbers to follow up on for Shelter activities, notes from non-profit trainings I attended, usernames I need to remember, lists of cool races I want to run and things to do.  Since we don't have formal hours at work each night I print from Outlook my calendar for the next day and put in my agenda accordingly.  With my new role stepping in as Development Manager from more an associate position, I find it nice to start/conclude each day with going over the list of to-do from the Outlook Calendar and adding to it as needed.  I recently redid all my files so that they were color-coded to match the color-codes I'd used on the Development Calendar. While at home I am completely disheveled - though I think my partner is my crime is much to blame for this - I think that systems and order in the workplace make it easier to move forward. I took my boyfriend's advice and have a notebook for notes, one for to dos (plus my daily calendar printout) and a section for phone messages. I also have to-do lists and calendars posted on my desk.  So far so good. While this may be overkill, I realized quickly that we had few notes on where items were other than from my boss' memory.  I wanted to make sure that we had the system's in place to manage activities so anyone could follow along.  We'll see how this comes along.  I just have to make myself keep to the system rather than follow the easy route and let it slack. 

I can't wait to go get an agenda for work so I can continue to put in early meetings, activities and try to carve out time for myself and personal needs like attending to school, career training, and the Shelter.  I also find myself totally slacking about training at the gym so I quickly need my agenda back and to formalize a training calendar. I am sure I could do all these things online or put them in my phone (sometimes I do) but I like the feeling of writing things down and I love post-its most of all and being able to put in phone numbers to follow up with and tracking to do lists. And people still use business cards - where do those go  - AGENDA!!

Do you use an agenda?  Do you miss it when it's gone?  hoping to get to Coach this weekend!

End of Year Waltz on Facebook

The End of Year is always a busy time for fundraising.  Getting in end of year donations, mailings, thank you's and of course keeping up with social media and emails to both thank donors and get those last donations.  On the now working NJ Path to work  I put some thought into what to say to both thank our supporters and still try to trigger a few dollars because the clock strikes midnight. Since in my organization and those I work with (the Shelter) email usually need to be approved and lists are not easily accessible, Facebook and Twitter represent great ways to get the word out.

However, as we put together our messages, it's a real waltz to both thank donors and remind them "Get in those last minute dollars!" While some people think that we (fundraisers) just slap up Facebook messages and get to play on the Internet for a job, those of us that do this everyday know that we are constantly thinking about how to get the best response, target our audience, grow our base, figure out how to turn this into a fundraising tool, etc.  We carefully craft messages to coordinate with our activities, appeals, holidays, events, etc. So the end of year message is the pinnacle of our SM year.

I snagged a line I liked from PP for the Shelter asking volunteers and supporters why they supported the Shelter after a fellow volunteer had posted a thank you at 8am this morning (I was doing my dishes!).  I also pulled a quote from the volunteer we honored at our 30th Anniversary event. I already love the responses that have been posted and it's been shared on other pages.

Hoboken Shelter

“Every single time I go into The Shelter I hit the reset button. [Volunteering] is very therapeutic.” - Todd Kinney, 30th Anniversary Honoree. Why do YOU support the Hoboken Shelter?


Later I plan to cut and paste Jaclyn's winter note into a Facebook note and paste that up.  I'd like to pull from it how many people were helped.

For my regular job, I had previously pasted links to our Annual Report and asked about resolutions to do more pro bono work so today I went with a list of our major projects and a link to our donation page. Later I plan to post a thank you and happy New Year pic.

How are you thanking and getting your message out to donors for the end of the year?  What have been your favorite New Year's posts?

Hoboken Post Sandy Shelter Status: Twitter Lifeline

Hurricane Sandy hit Hoboken with tremendous force, ruining homes, cars, and belongings, leaving many without power and putting residents and their belongings on the street. It's devastating and I wish the best to all those who need to rebuild after the storm.  We were lucky and escaped with minimal damage and only spent about 5 days without power.  In the storm's aftermath, we've been trying to return to work as normal but crazy transit commutes have certainly made that a struggle.  And today we battle yet another storm - one that is threatening wind, rain and possibly even snow.

During the storm, we were one of the last to lose power and I kept up to date with friends and "the boken" on Twitter and FB, learning where the water was, what was flooding, and seeing incredible pictures of the damage.  We found at close to midnight our garage was flooding and ran down to move boxes, bags of soil and old clothes and trees to save the garage. See picture above.  The water came in a lot stronger just after this picture was taken.  Notice our lights were still on.

While on Twitter and FB, I kept tabs on the Shelter since I handle most of their social media efforts. It was really nice to see how many were asking about the Hoboken Shelter and what they needed and if they made it through the storm okay. We've added about 20 new fans who consistently asking what they can do to volunteer and what they can bring by.  We are lucky as a community to have such supportive friends of the Shelter. Fortunately, the Shelter did not have flood damage and they didn't lose power until Tuesday morning.   You can see how many people are asking about food and such below.

In talking to Jaclyn, the ED, after the storm the Shelter did need help . They had gone through many supplies, taking in so many of our poorer neighbors.  And with another storm approaching they need all the help of the community.  Last night I found an article online interviewing Jaclyn about storm prep for Winter Storm Athena as well as what they needed. Mostly coffee and sugar as well as paper goods.  Thanks to the Hudson Reporter for providing the info which you can find here.

Wishing everyone a calmer time in the weeks to come as well as a speedy recovery. #HobokenSandy

Fundraising Lunch: 5 Easy Ways to Jump Start Fundraising With Program Staff

I presented these 5 easy points during a staff lunch at Pro Bono Net on my past experiences creating a culture of philanthropy at the organization and encouraging program staff to be past of the fundraising. (Aside from making them stuff invitations and fold tickets during crunch time!) 

The goal was to start a conversation about how development could be more transparent about the fundraising work we are doing and how we could encourage the program staff to participate in fundraising. Here is an article from EJewish Philanthropy by Stephen G. Donshik, D.S.W.,which captures how much we as a staff need to participate in good stewardship. I also used this article on top tips for creating a culture of philanthropy to formulate my top 5 tips. Whenever I go to AFP meetings or events related to fundraising, I recap what I learned for other staff and I do that for the Shelter Development Committee.  I think training and current trends is critical to being good fundraisers.

 
 

1.       Identifying Donors

You’re pounding the pavement and talking about your programs, who’s taking the bait?

Program staff that do outreach may have the best opportunities to talk to potential supporters.  For example, I worked at a small shop where it was hard to do outreach, but much of our staff was doing outreach as part of their job. They took a fundraising lead when they found someone who was a potential candidate and wanted to donate, do an in-kind collection, or event. They would direct them to development and stay on as a point of contact. Frequently, these relationships developed into fundraising events and donations.

2.       Talking with Donors

No one can describe programmatic work as well as the people who do it – so they should.

When talking with donors, it helps to have supporters meet the program staff. For example, I frequently took along programmatic staff to luncheons and events where we’d meet donors or if donors came to the office, I set time aside for them to meet program staff.  The beginning steps of any stewardship plan is about building the relationship, having program staff speak passionately about what they do is a great way to immerse donors in your cause.  

3.       Cultivation and Sharing

I think this is the most important step in stewardship. Once you develop a relationship with a donor, program staff, board and development can help steward, and it doesn’t always have to be an overwhelming process.  For example, at one organization I worked at, one of our major donors to education was very interested in current trends, so the education department would send over new fliers, blog posts and articles that our donor might find interesting and I would forward them along – it helped increase the EOY gift.

4.       Share Stories

It may be something as simple as telling development about an interaction you had or putting something in an email.  It can really sell the organization if development staff can start with “You know I was just talking with someone about this very issue, they mentioned XYZ”.

5.       Share your Vision

Have an idea? Don’t hesitate to share.  My colleague, Pam and I have spoken with program staff and started a quarterly call and some ideas have become successful proposals. 

I recommended a few sites (I could have included a lot more but decided to aim for a half dozen) I check regularly including:

Association of Fundraising Professionals (New York Site)

Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog 

The Fundraising Coach 

Getting Attention Blog

Joyaux Associates

Ahern Communications Ink

Amy Eisenstein - Tri Point Fundraising