Our team at TWB Fundraising is thrilled to announce the launch of our new name, brand, and website. Developed through a collaborative process that involved examination of our values and goals, this rebrand goes well beyond a change in logo and colors. It represents a strategic evolution that showcases our unique leadership, adaptability, and innovative spirit. It marks a significant milestone expressing our unwavering dedication to making a positive impact in the nonprofit sector.
Continue reading to learn more about why we’re so excited about our brand transformation.
Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt and boodleAI are excited to announce the first major gifts coaching program incorporating AI technology to analyze real-world prospects and donors.
Back in the “before times,” glittery galas were unquestionably a fundraising staple in the nonprofit world. But of course, the pandemic turned everything topsy-turvy, and virtual events became the name of the game.
With donor-advised funds (or DAFs), donors can make a contribution to a fund and receive an immediate charitable tax deduction. The fund can grow tax-free, while the donors can distribute gifts (or grants) to nonprofits from the fund over time.
Donor-advised funds are managed through a sponsoring organization, which commonly are commercial investment management companies or community foundations.
A recognized leader in animal conservation and welfare, Born Free USA is a national advocacy nonprofit that also manages one of the largest primate sanctuaries in the United States. The organization is global in reach and has partnerships with Born Free UK, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
Born Free USA is seeking a dynamic and passionate Director of Development to strategically drive national fundraising efforts and build a comprehensive fundraising program. The Director of Development will serve as a thought leader and partner to the CEO, the Board of Directors, and the Senior Leadership Team, as well as lead and manage a team of three development professionals.
Responsibilities will include:
Spearhead Strategic Growth • Build a sustainable and diverse fundraising program that encompasses individual, corporate, legacy, and institutional giving strategies • Inspire, motivate and support the philanthropy team • Engage in data-driven analysis and decision-making
Track Performance • Establish metrics to measure progress toward fundraising goals • Regularly report on the progress of the comprehensive development strategy • Work closely with leadership to establish and monitor budgets, set budgetary expectations and ensure employee understanding of departmental and organizational finances
Strengthen Brand Awareness and Innovation • Create synergies and opportunities between Born Free USA and Born Free Foundation (headquartered in the UK) to maximize the potential of the Born Free brand and what it represents • Stay abreast of emerging philanthropic trends, and analyze and recommend innovative new fundraising activities
Born Free USA’s international connections combined with its commitment to Compassionate Conservation sets it apart from other wildlife charities. Click the button below to learn more.
The Wetlands Initiative (TWI) designs, restores, and creates wetlands by innovating, collaborating, and employing sound science to improve water quality, habitat for plants and wildlife, and our climate. TWI is tackling exciting new projects across the Calumet region in Southeast Chicago and Northwest Indiana, including turning a vast floodwater detention corridor into a natural and scenic asset for communities.
Aspire is a nonprofit organization that makes boundless inclusivity possible for people with disabilities. Since 1960, Aspire has been recognized as a leader in providing bold, pioneering services to individuals with disabilities and their families in the Chicagoland community. Their programs include:
Aspire is a nonprofit organization that makes boundless inclusivity possible for people with disabilities. Since 1960, Aspire has been recognized as a leader in providing bold, pioneering services to individuals with disabilities and their families in the Chicagoland community. Their programs include:
IFF partners with nonprofits across the Midwest and enables them to achieve their missions, support their communities, and increase their financial stability. The Vice President of Resource Development position is an exciting opportunity for an experienced fundraiser or nonprofit manager to play a pivotal role in the organization’s cultivation and stewardship of funder relationships, shaping strategy and leading and supporting outreach efforts to raise grant funds from a diverse funder base that includes foundations, banks, corporations, government, and others interested in partnering with IFF.
Are you a seasoned fundraiser, grant maker or philanthropist who is passionate about helping Generation Z become leaders in philanthropy?
Does the opportunity to bring your community a powerful program that prepares high school students for a lifetime appreciation of, and involvement in, philanthropy excite you? The Three Pillars Initiative (TPI) is looking for volunteers to help expand its powerful program of teaching the art, science, and business of philanthropy to the next generation.
Continue reading to hear what former TPI Board Member Risa Davis, TPI graduate/current Board Member Sydney Rayburn, and current TPI Senior Sam Zimberoff have to say about their stunning experiences being a part of TPI.
Are you a seasoned fundraiser, grant maker or philanthropist who is passionate about helping Generation Z become leaders in philanthropy? Do you care deeply about bringing a program to your community designed to prepare high school students for a lifetime understanding of and appreciation for philanthropy? The Three Pillars Initiative (TPI) is looking to recruit a cohort of volunteer Program Champions who will help them expand this vital program.
Below, TPI Founder Rick King talks about why he founded this youth leadership development program. Rick is also the Chairman of Kittleman & Associates, a nonprofit executive search firm based in Chicago.
I’ve always been bothered by the characterization of philanthropists as those who are rich, powerful individuals who give millions to their favorite charities. I strongly prefer to take a much broader perspective, defining philanthropists as people focused on improving our world by contributing any number of resources in lieu of personal wealth.
Reframing the term philanthropist as based on values rather than simply money offers an equal opportunity for everyone to embrace and practice it. As someone who has devoted my professional career to making a difference, I wholeheartedly believe that the sooner we start cultivating a philanthropic mindset in the next generation, the better. That’s why I launched the Three Pillars of Philanthropy model in 2010, starting with 12 high school students in Oak Park, Illinois.
Remember back when pretty much everybody came into the office, every day, to do their job, whether they were a vice president of development or a grant writer or a program manager?
No two snowflakes, or people, are exactly alike, so why do we spend a lot of our time looking at donors as lines of data or dollar signs?
We lump them into boxes, like major giver, planned giving donor, and capital campaign prospect. These terms mean nothing to the donor; are self-serving for us (nonprofits); have us short-changing the donor’s capacity; and often don’t get us where we’re trying to go.
Particularly in this challenging fundraising environment – donor retention rates falling, donor confidence waning, cost to acquire new donors rising, and non-profit lay-offs, turn-over and program cuts – we must think outside the box to view donors comprehensively; not in categories, but as our partners and believers – real people we can build relationships that both the donor and our organizations value.
So, you and your development team are planning for the transition to a new President or Executive Director and you may be wondering, “How should we proceed?” or, “How can we be proactive and take initiative?”
Proactivity can greatly reduce the stress of a transition in leadership. When your team takes the initiative to introduce your new leader to their role in development programming, you are setting up your organization for long-term success.
This year has been rocked by events that highlight America’s racism and income inequality. For many of us who are white, it has also been a year of soul searching, and of making sure that our fundraising work doesn’t contribute to the very system of bias we’re working to eradicate.
Often, our habits are not only perpetuating classism/racism, but also cause us to overlook individuals who would make wonderful board members, donors, and stakeholders.
Of course, there are many actions needed to take to become an active ally. Here are six important steps to get your organization started:
The underlying principles of fundraising have remained unchanged for decades. Even as the nonprofit landscape changes, core concepts like the importance of donor relationships and outreach are not going anywhere. However, the application of these principles has changed dramatically over time, especially with the rise in digital technology and online fundraising in recent years.
In mid-December, MacKenzie Scott’s record-breaking gift of $4.2 billion benefitted 384 charities, two of which are TW&B clients. We spoke to these organizations about their reactions, plans, and how this gift will change their futures.
During the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, facing multiple unknowns, we pondered whether life would return to normal. Now, as vaccines promise to bring the pandemic under control, we can begin to speculate about the year ahead.
2020 has been a year of curveballs and adaptations, many of which will no doubt carry into 2021. After serving more than 50 nonprofits through this year’s challenges, here are our predictions for fundraising in 2021.
As the final weeks of the year fly by, many of us are ready to close the book and start back up again in January. But don’t wish the time away—there’s still plenty your development team can accomplish in this crucial fundraising window!
Your strategic plan presents a bold vision and calls for a campaign to make it happen. A feasibility study is the logical next step. But what happens if leadership gets cold feet?
This is the second in a series of articles Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt is publishing in response to questions we’re getting from our clients and other nonprofits in our community. This week, we’ll be answering the question:
This is the first in a series of articles Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt is publishing in response to questions we’re getting from our clients and other nonprofits in our community. This week, we’ll be answering the question:
In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the media was abuzz with talk about a “new normal.” As charitable giving rebounded and dollar totals exceeded pre-recession levels, we were tempted to believe things really had returned to normal. But then we began to see the subtle differences of that new normal: growth in overall giving was increasingly being driven by large donors, popularity of donor advised funds diverted dollars away from front-line nonprofits to intermediaries, and giving from mid-level and small donors continued to erode.
Given the turbulent state of our world, there’s no shortage of overwhelm amongst the nonprofit community. Development teams, especially, are faced with the challenge of maintaining some level of stasis in a time of social, political, and economic uncertainty.
As the number of novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. continues to climb and markets react, many nonprofits are wondering what the impact will be on their fundraising programs. TW&B’s consultants – many of whom ran campaigns and large-scale fundraising programs during the last financial crisis – offer their advice.
Your organizationis preparing to launch a campaign – that’s exciting! But are you wondering how you can possibly coordinate and sustain a complex, multi-year, large-scalefundraising effort to achieve a successful result? That’s where your campaign plan comes in.
In the third part of our series, TW&B client Skills for Chicagoland’s Future shares how they use data to drive their day to day decisions. This is a guest post written by Kirsten Powers; Vice President, Development; of Skills for Chicagoland’s Future.
Skills for Chicagoland’s Future’s mission is to create demand-driven solutions for employers to get the unemployed and underemployed to work. We work to close the workforce skills gap and move the unemployed into open positions by directly responding to the hiring needs of employers. To best advance this mission, a culture of data has been essential to our organization from the beginning. An early iteration of our organization, Chicago Career Tech, operated as more of a traditional train-to-hire program, but data showed that placements from accounts that were more demand (employer) driven had 20-25% higher placements than traditional, classroom-based workforce. This data drove the organization to reorganize, recruit a new board and staff, and emerge as Skills for Chicagoland’s Future in 2012. Since then, data has continued to hold an essential role in the growth and impact of Skills. Over time, the data Skills has collected has helped us focus on:
Addressing variables to drive increased numbers of placements
Focusing on quality jobs (and what defines those, e.g. pay, hours, opportunities to advance)
Diversifying into new industries
Understanding factors that affect retention
Defining what “job ready” means to different employers
How to add value to the workforce system by being uniquely positioned as an intermediary (e.g. feedback to / collaboration with CBO partners)
Tracking retention numbers, placement numbers, and outcome metrics has also led to positive program changes that better further our mission.
Networking with a Purpose The Development Leadership Consortium Continuing Fellows Reception – January 31, 2013
In no small part, the DLC was created in 1994 to help young professionals in the field of development – or more accurately, advancement – begin to develop utilize a professional network. Succeeding generations of our alumni may or may not have learned to continue this enterprise, but there is not a lot of evidence that they have optimally used our own organization as a device for doing so, hence this evening’s reception.
It seems that I am continually reminded of the vital importance of volunteers in fundraising. Frankly, I can’t think of a single campaign in which I have been involved over the years that did not boast at least a few very active, engaged volunteers. Obviously, campaign leadership is critical to success, and volunteers who play such an active role are essential to the enterprise. But, the importance of volunteers goes well beyond leadership roles.
When I first became involved with fundraising some 25 years ago, it was more of a career that one fell into by chance. Personally, I was introduced to the world of development through an internship and quickly discovered that there were a lot of things I liked about the work, and it was a good match for my personality.
Is your organization on track to reach its annual fund goal this year?
If your organization is not meeting its annual fund goals, TW&B can help determine how to get your program on track by broadening your base of support and maximizing the total yield from current constituents.
The TW&B Annual Fund Assessment is a chance for your organization to take a step back from the day-to-day scramble to determine what limits your program from reaching it’s true potential. Chances are, the key to unlocking your program’s potential is hidden in your data and we’ll start by evaluating the qualitative data on your existing effort.
I’ve worked with several organizations in the past year to help them find chief development officers. When I review candidates for fundraising positions, I look to see how the characteristics they exhibit during a job search will transfer to their work in fundraising. In every search, there are always a handful of candidates that stand out from the pack.
We don’t always agree! I’m not talking about my wife and I, or my 16 year old (we almost never agree!). I’m talking about my colleagues at Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt. I’m talking about when we consult together.
We usually work in teams during our consulting engagements. This enables the client to always have a “go-to” consultant at the ready, even if one of us is traveling or booked. Many times, however,we work together with our client, participating in client meetings together, helping develop strategies together. During these activities, we find that we sometimes agree, but sometimes not. I think the client really benefits when we don’t necessarily agree.
Historically, planned giving and fundraising campaigns have had a somewhat rocky relationship. There is sometimes a dismissive attitude towards planned giving (and, by extension, those making planned gifts) from the principal and major gifts departments of development. This attitude usually stems from the rather erroneous assumption that those prospects opting for planned gifts really are “getting off easy,” and that development shops that promote planned giving enable major gift prospects to take the easy way out.
We have been working with a number of organizations recently that are in the midst of a strategic planning process. I believe strongly in the importance of this type of planning. Without it, it seems to me that institutions have a very limited time horizon for decision-making.
Furthermore, planning gives the organization an opportunity to review and reconsider its mission, vision and values. Perhaps most importantly, particularly from a fundraising perspective, strategic planning affords the opportunity to engage key volunteers and board members in an absolutely vital institutional activity, to weigh-in on the organization’s future direction, and to “own” the final planning decisions right along with the in-house management team.
My son, Christopher, a sophomore at Oak Park River Forest High School, is in his second year on the school’s water polo team. Chris has been a competitive swimmer since he was six years old, when Elizabeth and I enrolled him in the famous Dynamo Swim Program in Atlanta, where we were living at the time. He continued to swim during elementary and middle school on the local YMCA team, as did his sister, Cameron, who was captain of the girls swim team at Oak Park High School this past season. We think that swimming is a great sport for kids, as it teaches them discipline and self-motivation. What you don’t learn in swimming, however, is team work.
As an old fashioned fundraiser who grew up before the advent of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter I recognize that at times I may be behind the curve when it comes to utilizing the latest technology in our industry. I barely understand this blogging stuff, and have to rely on younger and wiser individuals within our firm to help me post these missives. Just this morning, I received an email on my phone, promoting a new giving technique to be used as an application on one’s iPhone. Imagine installing such an app, and then using it whenever the mood would strike you. Amazing stuff!
Hopefully some of you took the time to read a recent story in the New York Times about the upcoming shut-down of the Minitel System in France. The article related that this system, which was a pre-curser of the Internet, provided French families with connections to restaurants, doctors, movie timetables, and all sorts of information for which we now rely on the computer. Apparently, one of the last bastions of Minitel use has been the dairy farmers of Brittany, who have avoided moving to the computer, but now find themselves with little choice, since the Minitel system is about to be shut down for good. Some worry that the farmers are likely to go back to using hand-written registries to maintain records of their herds and to keep track of their business.
I’ll admit it. I’ve been slacking! It’s been a few weeks since I last sat down to write this blog. In the interim, I have traveled a bit, met with clients, played a few rounds of golf and hung out with my family. So yes, I have been remiss in not keeping up with my writing assignment. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking about it. In fact, just like when I put things off in college, I have been thinking about it a lot!
One of the things about which I have been thinking came to light just the other day. I drove a friend of my daughter, Cameron, up to Lake Forest College on the north shore of Chicago. This friend wanted to look at the College, and I just happened to be going in that direction. It was fun to be back on the Lake Forest campus, where I served as vice president for development in the early eighties. Much of the campus is exactly the same (right down to the carpet in the administration building, which needed replacing when I was there and still does!). The College, however, has made a number of important physical improvements, including a beautiful addition to the Donnelley Library and a major addition to the student union. All in all, the campus looks great.
Regardless of your institution’s reliance on strategic planning as a regular part of institutional governance and management, your case for support will be far stronger if it is based on a recent and thorough review of direction and priorities.
Additionally, many institutions have a difficult time getting their board members to focus on the need for a campaign, and their respective roles in making it a success. Often, this is because the board is put in a reactive position to the institutional objectives presented rather than having a sense of ownership, as their fundamental role requires.
Like any relationship, donor relationships are built over time – you don’t usually begin a relationship with an ask up front—rather, you build slowly, cultivating the relationship, gaining the trust of the prospect and building confidence in your cause.
Budgeting for fundraising should include estimating both contributed revenue and fundraising costs in order to arrive at projected net contributed revenue. Follow the steps below to build a successful fundraising budget for your organization.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
In the forty years I have been working in development, the past two decades as a consultant, I have witnessed a significant shift in the degree of reliance on – and even the use of – volunteers in fundraising.
It may be difficult to imagine this, but when I began my service in this profession, it was generally considered unbecomingly aggressive for a staff representative to make an independent solicitation of a prospect. At the very least you took a volunteer along with you.
One of our roles as consultants is to help our clients maintain focus on long-term strategy. The pressures of the day-to-day tend to force most institutional leaders to resort to short-term solutions.
Part of our responsibility is to always be thinking months ahead, preparing our client to face the challenges that lie just around the corner. We also bring a broad base of experience in the larger marketplace to institutional leaders, which can help them to recognize—with time to make adjustments—some of the inevitable challenges they will face.
We’re betting that most of the following will be questions you’ll have to face in one way or another over the next few years, if you’re not facing them already.
Aside from their responsibilities for self-perpetuation, and the selection and oversight of administrative leadership, the two fundamental responsibilities of a not-for-profit governing board are to assure that their institution makes continued progress in the furtherance of its mission, and to guarantee the availability of the financial resources necessary to do so. Both of these latter charges come into sharp focus in relation to capital campaigns.
Why is it that development professionals change jobs every few years? In our profession, we’ve come to expect high turnover, with new hires staying only an average of 16 months at a time.
If you have ever had a conversation with a real estate agent, you are undoubtedly aware of the three rules of purchasing real estate—location, location, location. Well, what is a truism in real estate investment could be modified slightly to identify the three rules of major gift fundraising — relationships, relationships, relationships. Let me explain.
When the Great Recession hit in 2007, many financial advisors were telling investors to stay in the market in order to, eventually, benefit from an anticipated rebound. But that’s the world of investing. In the nonprofit world, this advice would prove to be nearly impossible to follow.
With a decline in the economy, giving also declined. Reduced funding meant that we had to take a hard look at our budgets and make some tough decisions. Many nonprofits were forced to reduce staffing and resources for development operations.
According to the Giving USA report released last week, giving has finally surpassed the high from before the recession. When we’re working with clients, we’re seeing a renewed sense of optimism, and that’s exciting. But how can we make the most of this upward trend to strengthen our development programs and, ultimately, our organizations?
Our firm recently hosted a group of recently minted chief development officers for a one-day conference designed to assist them in their adjustment to the corner fundraising office. The day was spent hearing from experts in the field, individuals who ran non-profits, who had served in top fundraising positions, even a search professional who recruited chief development officers. Feedback on the session was extremely positive and we intend to offer this conference again in the near future.
Who did you include in your last planned giving mailing? If you just mailed to the usual list of donors, chances are you’re missing out.
Our clients North Park University recently completed the most successful campaign in its history. While performing our post-campaign assessment, we examined all of the bequests they’d received during the campaign. We wanted to see to what degree past giving is an indicator of future likelihood of receiving a planned gift, and if there was a relationship between the amount of historical giving and the size of the planned gift.
Do you and your organizations CELEBRATE your donors?
I’m not referring to acknowledgment, recognition or stewardship, but actually celebrating their role in advancing the mission of your organization. Oftentimes nonprofit organizations get mired in the processes and procedures related to gift acknowledgement and recognition systems. Those are important elements of a successful development operation and should not be taken lightly. But by celebrating the gifts bestowed upon our organizations from our varied donor constituencies, we develop stronger, sometimes lifelong, relationships.
By now, most nonprofits are aware that measuring their organization’s impact is a critical step in securing funds from donors. Still, nonprofits struggle to determine what they should be measuring – and how? In order to effectively communicate your organization’s impact to potential donors, you’ll need to properly measure and define your impact in a quantifiable way. One effective way to achieve this is through tracking your indicators and outcomes.
Getting your wealth screening data back can be exciting – look at all those high-level prospects! Yet after the initial enthusiasm wears off, we often see clients with wealth screening data that languishes in an Excel spreadsheet, forgotten in the day to day business of fundraising. Since wealth screening data ages quickly, it’s important to maximize this investment as soon as possible.
I have been spending the last few days in Southern California, accompanying my daughter, Cameron, on a new student weekend at Occidental College, where she intends to enroll in the fall. OXY is a beautiful place, a lovely campus and just the kind of college I was hoping Cameron would choose. And needless to say, for a competitive swimmer, the thought of swimming (and sunning) outdoors year-round must be extremely attractive. If I was heading off to college these days, I’m not sure Galesburg, Illinois would be on my list of top locations to spend four years!
When I was a young development officer, I worked for 5 years at the University of Nevada in Reno. Now, this is the REAL University in the system, not the basketball factory down in Las Vegas! The University of Nevada has a medical school and preeminent schools of mining and agriculture. This place was and continues to be the real deal.
Fundraising was pretty new at the University, and we all wore a number of hats. One of mine was to oversee a major fundraising gala for the academic programs at the University, kind of a counter-point to the huge events held in support of the University’s athletic department. One year, a local hotel (in Reno, they are hotel-casinos) offered us the opening night performance of a revival of a big Broadway show that was coming to town–“Hello Dolly,” starring Carol Channing. Of course, we jumped at the chance to raise academic funds from what we knew would be a very popular event.
I’ll admit it. I tend to be a difficult donor. It’s not that I am an unusually bad person. I don’t constantly ask for favors, request premiums, or bug development officers at institutions to which my wife and I contribute. I do, however, tend to be critical when I see fundraising operations fail miserably in their treatment of donors.
Yesterday, March 1, we received an acknowledgment for a $500 gift that my wife and I made to a Chicago-area animal-care organization. It was a nice note, although admittedly it was pre-printed, and I really doubt if the CEO signed it, since she knows us, but referred to us as Mr. Brandt and Dr. Holland. But hey—this was only a $500 gift—probably not worthy of much more personal attention, right?
Is your fundraising team using analytics to enhance its strategy? It’s an increasingly popular buzzword these days, but it might not always be clear what goes into it or how it can improve your program.
In the world of fundraising, analytics encompasses a variety techniques that use data to analyze donor engagement, research prospects, predict donor behavior, evaluate your development program, and project future fundraising performance.
In the past ten years, social entrepreneurship has grown from a theoretical model to an outright trend. We’re seeing more and more techniques from the business world applied to resolving cultural, social, and environmental issues. This hybrid model is, in concept, a win-win – creating a profitable business that changes the world for the better. The emergence of high-profile Social Impact Bonds in recent years is part of this trend. While they’ve created a lot of buzz, a lot of us in the nonprofit world have wondered how – and how well – do Social Impact Bonds work?
Today’s donors are more independent, more engaged with how their gifts will be used, and more demanding about how nonprofits treat them and their contributions.
For all of us who work at TW&B, spending time on a client’s turf is essential. On site visits, personal meetings, and any other form of direct interaction with the real-life places in which our clients operate is critical for us. This interaction is key for us to shape a case for support, discover fundraising challenges and opportunities, and to develop a plan to advance each organization’s mission. In the case of TW&B client, Cofan Survival Fund (CSF), the “turf” is 1 million acres of the Amazon tropical rainforest in Ecuador, for which the indigenous Cofan Tribe has legal management authority and in some cases, legal title.
When it comes to giving, ultra-high net worth philanthropists and their mega-gifts grab the spotlight. Not long ago million-dollar gifts made the headlines. No longer. Now it’s multi-million- and billion-dollar gifts. In fact, two gifts larger than one billion dollars stole the Giving USA headlines a year ago, credited with pushing total charitable giving past the $400 billion mark for the first time.
I am regularly reminded of a brief talk that our former pastor gave when someone new joined our church in Atlanta. This talk, directed ostensibly to the new member, was really a not-so-subtle reminder to the entire congregation about the importance of supporting the church–the importance of giving.
After he spoke of all of the activities that one could participate in, and all of the important missions that the church undertook, he would talk about the role of congregational giving in making all of these things possible. He would use this great phrase…”it’s not about having to give, it’s about getting to give.” In other words, giving was an opportunity, and members, new and old, were being afforded this opportunity on a regular basis.
As June winds down and summer kicks into high gear, many nonprofits are also closing in on the end of their fiscal year. Whether your year ends June 30, December 31, or on a more creative date, many fundraisers put most of their focus on getting to that finish line.
Chances are you’ll have a lot to be proud of, but while it’s important to celebrate your accomplishments, it’s equally important not to let the celebration last too long into the new year.
Momentum is your friend. It’s understandable to want to catch your breath after sprinting to the finish line. But your new year will be much less stressful if you follow these four tips to help you get a good start at the beginning of the year.
The #MeToo movement is a global phenomenon, raising awareness about the pervasiveness of unacceptable behavior in a multitude of settings. And the nonprofit world is not exempt.
If you look for them, you will find numerous reasons why your campaign cannot possibly work. There may be valid reasons to delay the start of your campaign, but the following are not among them!
This is a guest post written by Kim Becker Cooper of DonorSearch. DonorSearch is a strategic partner of Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt.
The National Basketball Association has long griped over how to decide the league’s best player. The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is supposed to go to the league’s top player, but there’s argument over what the word ‘valuable’ means.
Is the MVP the best player on the best team? Is he the most irreplaceable player on a team that would be much worse without him? Is he the player who has the most memorable games and moments, despite lagging behind others in certain metrics?
As with crowning the NBA’s MVP, discovering your best fundraising prospects does not boil down to a single piece of criteria.
There are several qualities that can help identify the potential donors who can give the major gifts that will lead to your organization’s success.
Despite the last minute December scramble, the yearend squabbling in Congress brought good news to the philanthropic world. The American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) went into effect at the beginning of the New Year. The bill positively affects the taxing of charitable giving. Congress and the Obama administration debated for months about changes to and/or the possible elimination of charitable deductions. It is now up to not-for-profits to reassure their donors that the new bill does not restrict, or place caps on charitable deductions. While lawmakers argued that the Bush-era tax cuts only benefited the extremely wealthy, nonprofits maintained it was these donors that often keep small charities afloat. Middle-income families make significant contributions, of course, but not enough to fuel capital campaigns. Not-for-profits will need to spend this year promoting incentives, and encouraging wealthy donors to stay engaged and active.
I love doing feasibility study interviews. That may surprise you. As a senior member of our firm, I guess I could have bowed out of the interview process a long time ago, assigning them to junior members of our firm. Interviews take time and preparation, and they often require travel. So why be so enthusiastic about doing them? Because, for me, a feasibility study interview is the closest thing in our business to the part of the fundraising process that I have always liked best…major giving. Let me explain.
North Hall at Lake Forest College is an old residence hall. My guess is that it was all men or all women–these were the days before co-ed living facilities on college campuses. The building was renovated in the fifties or sixties to house the College administration. Business office on the first floor, President’s Office on the second, and the alumni and development office on the third. On the fourth floor, which was never really renovated, the old dorm rooms house file cabinets–one after the other, full of alumni records. Every bit of information is in those files, from the student’s original application to the College to any note or letter that was ever sent to him/her as an alum of the College. The files fill a number of the rooms on the fourth floor of North Hall, and I can tell you that it is a bit disconcerting to be sitting in an office on the third floor, thinking of all that weight one floor up. Hey, it’s an old building! I often sat there wondering when that file cabinet with Richard Widmark’s file (he was a graduate of the College and a former acting teacher) would end up in my lap! Trust me, it is hard to concentrate with thoughts like that running through your mind.
All nonprofits should make donor stewardship a top priority because it boosts your organization’s donor retention rate. Beyond simply being more cost-effective, maintaining a highly engaged donor population goes a long way to fuel your nonprofit’s growth. Donor stewardship practices reduce the need for new and costly outreach efforts, increase donor satisfaction, and build a dedicated base of support invested in the success of your nonprofit.
I recently attended a memorial service for a woman with whom I worked a number of years ago. She was a key volunteer at one of the institutions that I served when I was younger.
These events are never easy. This one was certainly sad, but it also celebrated a life well-lived. This woman not only supported our institution, she also clearly made a life out of supporting those non-profit organizations and institutions that were important to her and her family. Many of the attendees at the memorial service had worked with her on one or another of her charitable activities. It was a recognition that she had made a difference in her life—that she had “done good”.
By now, most of us have heard of Marie Kondo’s theory of tidying up – if an object doesn’t “Spark Joy” it should be discarded. But it might also be time to apply those same principals to your fundraising strategy. How many times have you added something to the fundraising calendar because of an article you saw, or a request from a board member, or because another nonprofit was doing it? Over time, those activities add up – filling your schedule with action items that might not even be meaningful to your donors. How many of these activities are actually “Sparking Joy?”
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
Nonprofits that typically rely on revenue from special event fundraisers, grants, and direct mail programs may be unsure of how and when to develop an individual major gifts effort.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
Effective boards are a result of the alchemy of many factors: advocacy, engagement, securing resources and giving gifts, strategic thinking and planning, asking hard questions, supporting the leadership, not getting in the weeks or meddling with staff decisions, and camaraderie and respect amongst the board members themselves, just to name a few.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
This term “donor centered fundraising” is used a lot in the fundraising world. The term was brought into popularity by Penelope Burk in her book of the same title,in which she defines donor centered fundraising as “an approach to raising money that inspires donors to remain loyal longer and give more generously.”
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
It’s a question we hear a lot from nonprofit fundraisers, especially as we approach the end of the fiscal year: Should I ask donors who have already given for second gifts?
Amazon Smile and other “donation from purchase” are often popular with boards and staff who might be uncomfortable asking for gifts. It seems so easy – people are already doing their holiday shopping online, and this way your organization benefits, too.
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
As I gently descend into my golden years, some things keep coming to mind that I repeatedly test myself on, and I want to share them with you. The following five recommendations absolutely do not constitute any sort of fundamental commandments; they are simply items that, if you give them some priority in your life, can help make you more successful and, ultimately, happier.
This year it is impossible to ignore – Giving Tuesday has become a real organizing and motivating force for non-profits and their donors to focus on the joys and impacts of giving. In Illinois, as in so many other states, organizations like the Donors Forum are putting their messaging muscle and fundraising tools to the service of their local non-profits.
When preparing for a campaign, nonprofits have two main options to consider — capital campaign (also called a focused campaign) or comprehensive campaign?
A Three Step Guide for New Nonprofit Leaders in a Competitive Environment
You’ve just overcome the competition and were offered the leadership position at your nonprofit organization of choice. But, if you believe that you’ll walk in to find a smooth running development operation, a culture of stewardship, a pristine database and technology system, absolute financial transparency and a Board that is fully engaged in the philanthropic process — you should re-think that assessment.
Donors want their giving to make a difference. They want “their money” to have as much impact as possible, which is why they care about nonprofit overhead. Caring too much about overhead, however, has led donors to conclude that less spent on nonprofit operations means more spent on those being served.
We recently had the pleasure of working with Molly Philosophos and Liz Condon at Hephzibah Children’s Association. Hepzhibah Children’s Association provides group homes and foster care for children from abusive or neglectful homes. Hepzhibah also offers family services and award-winning daycare.
No matter the goal, if you’re looking to dive into a campaign to help you expand, we applaud you! But do you have everything in place to begin? Ensuring campaign readiness will help you to prevent any setbacks during your campaign.
As you prepare for a capital campaign, there are a few criteria you want to be sure you meet before you dive in. Use the checklist below to help you determine if you’re ready for a campaign, or download the printable version here.
Congratulations to your organization for having the forethought to employ an intern to assist in your development program. Too often we see the intern being viewed as a burden rather than a mutually beneficial opportunity. Keep in mind that an intern can learn a great deal about development and your organization while undertaking some short-term projects that you just haven’t had the time to complete. This “on the job” training can help to groom a potential new employee, or at least help the intern determine if development is the right career path for him or her. In many cases it can be a Win-Win experience.
I was interested to read the story in Crain’s Chicago Business this week about the $30 million contribution given to DePaul University by Chicago businessman and philanthropist, Richard Driehaus. One sentence in the article particularly caught my attention. “DePaul’s president broached the possibility of the large gift with Mr. Driehaus in June.” If that sentence is accurate, it suggests that this very significant contribution followed a path similar to many other transformational gifts over the years. It reinforces something that those of us in the major gift business have known for awhile…that large gifts and commitments often take considerable time.
A lot of organizations make some pretty big assumptions about their development programs. These assumptions might sound like: “We need to increase our corporate gifts,” or “Planned giving just doesn’t work for us.”
Nonprofits frequently look at their own previous fundraising results to plan and strategize. But the truth is, it can be a challenge to see what’s working, or what you’re not doing so well, until you have an understanding of how you stack up against your peers.
Think about it. Pretend you are a college student, registered at any given institution, taking most of your courses online with the blessing of the school. Soon, you begin to hear that there are some really interesting classes offered by other institutions that will give credit toward your degree. Then you learn that there are a lot of these courses that you can take for much less money than the tuition your home campus is charging. Then you realize that you can take all of your courses online, from a variety of schools, for a lot less than signing up to attend a traditional campus based institution, even if it offers online courses and accepts others. Granted, the ultimate degree won’t be as recognizable, or as prestigious as the traditional system we have known in this country, but then again, perhaps that’s not what counts anymore.
As all of us are aware, we live in an age of rapidly changing communications systems, and this is causing an unending series of changes to our society – not merely our practices, but how we relate to one another. Written letters have given way to e-mails, and e-mails are yielding to texting. Shared land lines are disappearing in favor of cell phones, and smart phones now mean that many people no longer even answer a mobile call unless its necessity has first been justified in a text message. The social consequences of this include such things as a reduction in the depth and thoughtfulness of interpersonal communications in exchange for vastly increased frequency and breadth of contact. The trend is most obvious among the Millennials, but it is not uncommon to see people of any age busily thumbing away throughout dinner in very nice restaurants, oblivious to their table partners.
“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Leroy “Satchel” Paige
I have been struck lately by a fact so distressing that I am reluctant to share it here. I guess I should consider myself lucky that so few seem to be reading my blog!
The fact is that I am getting old. Oh, I can hear you now. “Of course you are getting old. We all do.” Or, “what was your first clue?” Well, it isn’t only that I have lost distance on my driver. It’s not just because I go to bed at 9 pm and wake up numerous times during the night. No, what has hit me hard on this aging issue is noting that just about every development officer with whom our firm works is now considerably younger than me! Ouch!
You will never achieve a 100% success rate in recruiting successful volunteers, despite everyone’s best intentions. However, you can increase the likelihood of your success by carefully considering and assessing your candidates before you ask them to serve.
When seeking volunteers to help you solicit gifts to your campaign, look for individuals who have as many of the following characteristics as possible:
In our weekly column, consultants with decades of nonprofit experience answer your questions about fundraising, boards, strategy and more. To ask a question and be featured (anonymously!) in the column, email your questions to info@twbfundraising.com.
