Los Angeles!

I'm here!

After years of dreaming to live in southern California we took the risk and made the move. We both left amazing jobs and a great life for warmer weather, more culture and of course surfing!

I am thrilled about so many incredible non-profits in the Los Angeles area doing so much for those with nothing, those in need and making huge efforts to make the area a better place to live for everyone.

I was fortunate to have so many amazing interviews with many of the organizations and on August 17th I begin my new path. I am super excited.

I am also super excited to take the rest of my days off and continue getting to know the city, as well as more surfing!

If you're in the LA area I would love to meet you!

Once I get started I look forward to creating an amazing fundraising team and once again work hard to make a difference in the lives of others.

Thanks so much for reading!

Onto my next big adventure

Although I try to keep this blog all about fundraising, this time I have to add a little bit of personal information.

Me and my family are moving to Los Angeles. This has been a big dream of ours, to be closer to the ocean and the chance to surf and sea kayak a couple of times a month versus once or twice a year. Plus, at 49, I am done with winter.

The big move happens next week, with my last day as Director of Development and Public Affairs at Urban Peak being July 2nd.

I will always feel incredibly humbled and intensely grateful to have had the chance to fundraise for Urban Peak and to support one of the most amazing program staffs I have ever seen. Ever. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on holidays, in heat, in frigid temperatures, in surroundings that most people would not even want to think about, the program staff at Urban Peak rocks it for youth with nothing, youth experiencing homelessness or on the verge of homelessness. Youth that most people would rather not even think about. Youth that in many cases have had their voices ripped from them.

There folks are my heroes. They are rock stars.

How was I so lucky to have had the opportunity to fundraise so they can do what they excel in? I have no clue. Yet I have been deeply touched. I will never be the same human being I was when I first began working here because of these people.

Youth homelessness is many times overlooked in the overall conversation around homelessness. This is one thing that has become super clear to me while at Urban Peak. The unfortunate reality is that without agencies like Urban Peak, young people who have been totally crapped on by society have very little chance of going beyond poverty, violence and hopelessness to move from a life on the streets to a life where they are housed, safe and living on their own without needing help from anyone. Like I have told many donors, if we can get into relationship with a youth living on the streets, that youth has a very big chance of not holding a sign asking for money when they are my age.

All of the successes with youth at Urban Peak happen because we have an incredibly passionate and compassionate group of people. They don't make a lot of money. They don't get recognized like sports stars. But they are the true agents of making this world a better place not only for the youth served by Urban Peak (2,385 last fiscal year) but for each one of us.

Please support your local agency that serves youth experiencing homelessness. If you are in the position to make a financial contribution to the agency you have just read about, please click year here.

And please stay tuned for the Los Angeles fundraising adventures!

Thank you for reading.

Passion for the mission

I think of this often.

Does a member of your fundraising team need to have a passion for the mission of the non-profit?

I say yes.

I bring it up often when interviewing. I believe hiring the right people for your team is the first key to a successful fundraising team. Or any team for that matter. And I talk a lot about our mission when interviewing.

After all, we serve youth experiencing homelessness, youth who have nothing. We don't do the mission or the youth any justice if we can have folks out there building relationships in the community who don't have a passion for our work.

It's not difficult to figure out in the interview process. As a fundraiser, I want my team to have as many tools as possible to take out and build relationships and partnerships with. Their work will be so much easier if they are passionate for the cause.

Another reason I want members of team to be passionate for the mission is that I will know that coming to work and rocking it will fulfill them personally. Between being personally fulfilled, working with other who are equally passionate for the mission, being empowered and supported on all levels, and working with an elite team of fundraisers they will inevitably love their work!

I would love to hear what other fundraisers think.

Thanks for reading!

I started using lists

There seems to be  a lot of solid opinions on whether or not making lists help with finishing tasks or don't help.

For years I have met folks, speaking of fellow fundraisers here, who make lists and they work from them. I always thought that this was a great idea for them and I'm glad it worked for them.

Then, last year, while preparing for our weekly development team meeting, I realized that I was one of those fundraisers who works from a list. Just like that! And I had been doing it for some time.

You see, every Monday morning I prepare for our weekly team meetings. I create a list of items I want to chat with the team about and during our meeting we go over those items. Then, that LIST becomes a check off of items I will work on for the week.

It could include meeting with a particular staff member, something to bring up with my boss, starting an event invitation or working and working on a direct mail piece.

The simple fact is that for me, starting the week with a list of items, regardless of whether or not they are already on my calendar or in notes or whatever else I use to plan, helps me considerably.

It shows me the intensity of the week.

It allows me to celebrate as I cross things off.

It keeps me focused, which does not come natural to me.

It allows to continually throughout the week check in with others about what we are working on, how things are going with those items, and how others can support.

I could on. I won't.

For me, lists work. Or should I say, a Monday morning list for the week works for me.

I have met many fundraisers and work with many fundraisers. I realize we all have our tools that support us and the successes we have. This may or may not work for you. I wanted to share it because it works for me.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

How much have I given?

This week I excitedly sent our annual giving letters to donors.

What?

Donors are busy. Their job is not to keep track of how much they are giving and when they gave. That's my job.

We start with those who donate monthly. When those donors set up a monthly donation, we ask them if it's OK that we send them an annual thank you letter as opposed to a monthly one. They love that, mainly because it saves time and money for us. So in the first week of January we send out those letters.

Then we go to our list of donors who have made multiple donations, or have donated a cash gift and perhaps attended an event. The letter spells out the tax deductibility of the event donation and includes any other cash donations, and of course the dates of the donation.

These letters help us, and the youth we serve, in so many ways.

We are not asking for a donation.

We are making a touch.

We are letting our donors know about their giving, which may or may not surprise them. I find that doing these letters adds to an increase in gift amount. It also helps in a decrease of lapsed donors. How many times have you met or spoken with a donor and their response to you telling them their last gift date is one of shock? Time flies, not only for your but also for your donors.

It's up to us as fundraisers to communicate with our donors and to support them in any way we can. Hopefully you are in good relationship with your donors and yearend giving letters will not be a surprise or something that they are not aware of!

Thanks for reading!

An awesome fundraising team

I think about this often.

As a fundraising professional.

As a leader of a team of fundraising professionals.

As a person who is responsible for raising funds so program people can do their jobs.

As a human being who is completely passionate about making positive change in the world and intensely passionate for the mission of the agency I fundraise for.

What makes an awesome fundraising team?

Several things:

People who give a shit about the mission.
People who have some sense of a work ethic.
People who aren't afraid to talk about the mission.
People who aren't afraid to build relationships.
People who aren't afraid to make a financial ask.
People who realize there is no box.
People who care about more than just themselves.
People who are creative.
People who can listen.
People who have the ability to set their own personal ego aside.
People who can lead if their in a leading position and who can mange if they are in a managing position.

This is a start.

We as fundraisers are changing the world. Our success makes a difference in whether or not the program folks can do their job, which in our case is saving and changing lives.

An awesome development/fundraising team is vital.

Thanks for reading.

A short video

I have been using video a lot ever since buying an I phone two years ago. It's a wonderful way to get a message out quickly and also an incredibly creative way to thank donors.

Today, with the frigid weather in Denver, I decided to make a video asking folks to donate to any agency that serves the homeless.

As my videos go, it is timely, informative, asks folks to take an action, and short.

I decided to make this particular video as I know so many agencies that serve the homeless were taken by surprise with the crazy winter weather that is affecting a good part of country.

Do you use video? Check it out and give it a try.

Thanks for reading. And for watching.

Human touch

I have been re-posting some of my most read blog posts lately mainly because of life being so crazy. I am back to having time to write.

And I want to write about something so very important.

That is treating your donors and supporters as human beings.

Thank them.

Call them.

Ask them how they are doing.

Ask them for their opinion on something.

Ask them to pre-read a direct mail piece that you want to send, getting their opinion.

Call them. Yes, I am writing this again.

Invite them for a tour of your facilities.

I could go on and on.

There is a reason why people donate to our causes. We need to know why. And we need to ensure that our donors know how grateful we are and that we don't just see them as a human ATM.

Short but sweet. What will you do today to treat your donor as a human being?

Thanks for reading!

A new fundraising effort

We recently began a new fundraising effort and in the first month it has been very successful, so I wanted to share some of the strategies with you.

We want to raise $300,000 in six months for a specific project. We want to raise $50,000 per month.

It's important to have a clear goal right from the start of the campaign. It's also important to be able to express how exactly funds raised will be used. We covered these two items before we event started with the planning of the fundraising effort.

Similar to a capital campaign, I believe it's important, regardless of how much money you decide you want to raise, to have several people in mind to help support the campaign. As we were deciding when we would kick off this effort we created lists of who we would make personal asks to and who would be on the list for a direct mail piece. After going over ideas of how to present to major donors, we decided that one third of the revenue would come from major gifts. That would be our goal. That meant that in six months, $200,000 would need to come from all of our other donors and those who are donating for the first time. Every organization will be different in how this breaks down. The important thing is to have the conversations with your team and form a strategy.

We decided to begin on April 1st which as you know is also April Fools Day. It also would be the half-way mark of our fiscal year and give us exactly six months to fundraise.

"No joke - we need to raise $50,000 this month".

You get the idea. On April 1st we rocked it with social media and ensured our direct mail piece landed. We also did an email blast.

Everything we did connected back to the fact that we need to raise $300,000 in the next six months, that we wanted to raise $50,000 each month, and exactly what we were using the money for.

Everything was planned out before we began. We met several times as a team and even brought in some long-term donors. Our strategy was clear. We tried asks out on different people, including ones who knew very little about our organization or our mission.

It's working.

I'd like to add that this is one experience. Every non-profit has their own stories and strategies around fundraising campaigns and efforts. This is just ours.

I hope this benefits some of you!

Thanks for reading!

The special event is not dead

Our organizations largest financial fundraiser of the year was last week.

It was a dinner.

I hope I didn't already lose you.

It was also a time when we honored an individual, a business and a civic/faith group for all they have done for us as an agency and the youth experiencing homelessness we serve.

I can imagine what you might be thinking: another fundraising chicken dinner.

I know.

This my first time planning this event. With a little over a year here and the experience of being at the dinner last year, I wanted to make some changes and take some risks.

Yep, risks.

Taking risks with an event, especially your biggest event, is not always a feel-good task.

All of the risks we took were focused on making the event more about our agency and the youth we serve as well as trying to reduce the expense budget.

Instead of hiring one of those amazing companies that does check-in and check-out and gets all of your guest information, we asked staff to do that.

Big, famous emcee? We asked staff to do that.

Expensive video company? You guessed it. We asked staff to do that.

During our live ask we had staff and volunteers greet each guest as they committed to a donation. The guest was handed an envelope with the amount they had just raised their number for. Over 90% of those who made donations filled out the enclosed information for the donation and handed it back to us.

Our check-in and check-out processes worked. No lines. Just amazing staff greeting those who allow us to do our vital work.

In the end we beat budget while cutting our expenses by 43%. We can now tell our supporters and future sponsors of this event that for every dollar that we spend on this event we raise five.

Take risks. Make your special event about you and your mission. Every single detail goes back to your mission. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for reading!

Using video for fundraising

I have been creating a  lot of videos lately in an effort to not only fundraise but to build stronger relationships with our donors.

Here's an example of one I did this morning:

I must admit that this morning I was sleepy and freezing cold but I think the message I was trying to get across is loud and clear.

I did this with my iPhone 5. It's simple and costs nothing.

I have made videos to ask for an urgently needed item, to make an ask for donations and to invite people to an event. I have also made videos to thank people as a group and specific videos for just one donor that I email then for a special thank you.

Imagine how your donor feels when they open their email and there is a video from you just for them to thank them for their donation!

I recently created a Vimeo account. We'll see how that goes. Our agency currently has a YouTube account and I highly recommend that!

Give it a try. Post it on your groups Facebook page and see what your supporters think. After a month or two of many videos, I asked our supporters what they thought about them and if they thought that I was doing too many. The feedback was a resounding "we love them and keep it up"!

Give video a try. You have nothing to lose!

Don't be afraid to share your mission

I have been wanting to write a post about this for some time.

Then this morning I saw an encounter between one of the youth we serve and one of our staff.

We serve youth experiencing homelessness and youth on the verge of becoming homeless. 98% of the youth we serve have experienced some type of trauma. Many of them feel safer on the streets than they did at home.

In my short time here I have met some amazing youth.

And the work our staff does is not always pretty. I hear the "F" word often, and when a traumatized young person is trying to express what they need it does not look like a scene from the "Sound of Music".

Having given hundreds of tours here, I realize that what happens here does not always leave a good taste in someone's mouth. Our work is vital. Our staff change lives every day. I would even say that they save lives every day. They give hope to someone who has none. They give a voice to someone whose voice was stolen from them with brutal violence.

This is the reality of our mission.

And I try to talk about it with donors just as much as possible. I also spend a lot of time bringing donors here to see for themselves the amazing work our staff does.

As fundraisers it's vital that we tell stories. I believe that it is also vital that we tell a variety of stories. Not just the "Sound of Music" stories but the brutal, raw, reality-based stories that are so ingrained to our work.

Homelessness is not pretty. Nor is sexual trafficking, rape, drug abuse, alcoholism, prostitution, physical abuse and many other horrible things that happen to youth you are experiencing homelessness. These are important parts of our stories because they show the "why".

Success comes in many forms. The obvious ones would look like a youth entering our shelter, moving into their first apartment, celebrating a few weeks clean. The not so obvious ones look like a youth walking into our drop-in center for the first time, a youth looking at a staff member directly in the eyes, a youth breaking down.

Don't be afraid to share your mission, to share the stories of what really happens at your non-profit. You might be surprised in the affect it has on those who support you.

Thank you for reading.

Rock it in January!

Sometimes I think January can be the new November.

Or whichever the second-biggest fundraising month is for you.

Several years ago I began making a concerted effort to spend the last few days of the year connecting with as many donors from the previous year who had not yet given during the current year.

Of course that type of effort can really happen all year, and in my development office it does. Still there are those who really don't respond until the end of the year.

The first year I did this we reached out to hundreds of donors. Many board members helped with calls and it made for a lot of excitement at the end of the year.

What I learned was not only did we increase giving for the last week of the year, but because of all of the connections and conversations January became our second-biggest fundraising month of the year!

In a fundraising world where everyone is always so "busy", our best successes can come from simply doing what we do best: engage with donors.

This year our team is all set to to completely engage the last two days of the year. We will be full force with lists and email addresses and phone numbers all ready to ensure that every donor has an opportunity to support us before the end of the year.

Between the phone calls, two email blasts and a gorgeous postcard that landed the day after Christmas, my hope is that we are definitely on people's minds as they consider a year end gift.

And it doesn't end at midnight on the 31st. On January 2nd we are right back, engaging, answering questions, thanking, expressing our gratitude. By the first full week in January we have the opportunity to connect with people about our upcoming Gala, our goals for the new year, our excitement of successes in the past month and pretty much anything that will help us engage with our donors.

Happy New Year! My wish is that 2014 is filled with peace, love and more passion for fundraising!

Year end giving

If you are like me, you might be wondering how the heck did we already arrive to mid December?

I mean seriously, wasn't I just on my summer vacation?

What happened to fall?

And is Christmas really only two weeks away?

If you are also like me, and a fundraiser, your winter/year end appeal mailed over five weeks ago. You have sent out a ton of thank you letters and you have sent out a friendly reminder to those who have not yet responded to your appeal.

I always look forward to the last couple weeks of the year. For me it means a lot of conversations with donors and the opportunity to share my excitement about our mission and the successes and challenges we are having with people we are in relationship with.

It's an exciting time. It can be stressful, but doesn't have to be.

If I have rocked it during the year, meaning if I have built relationships with donors, reached out to lapsed donors, thanked everyone promptly and have told them how we spent their money, then the last couple of weeks of the year can really be spent just checking in with people.

Yes, Ms. Jones, I also can't believe it's already almost the end of the year. Time not only flies for you, it also flies for your donors. Many people I speak with just can't believe that I am speaking with them about the year end campaign.

Have fun. Engage with your donors. Don't stress. Each conversation creates a stronger relationship for you and your organization.

Thank you for reading!

Would someone please return my phone call?

Getting a message like this is a fundraisers worst nightmare.

Well, one of them. At least to me.

As one who works daily to build strong relationships, when I hear a message like this I cringe. It doesn't say much about the value of a relationship when a donors call or email is not answered quickly.

On my team, our rule is within 24 hours. Return a call or respond to an email within 24 hours. Of course a call that came in at 5pm on Friday means a Monday return. I'm not crazy. I'm simply paying attention to building a lifelong relationship with our donors.

It is critical. It says a lot when you return a call quickly. It says even more when it takes you a couple of days.

I know, you're busy. So is your donor.

Return a call soon. Respond to an email soon. This will change your relationships with donors for the better. They know you're busy so the quick reply means even more.

While I'm on the subject I'll share a few other ways I like to communicate with donors.

Every Monday I change my voice mail. I let folks know which days of that week I am in and which days I'm not in. I would like to get to changing my voice mail every day yet for know the weekly change works.

I use my "out of office" for email not only when I am out for a day or more, but also on days when I know I am going to be slammed.

I also have sued my "out of office" email to support a campaign. For instance, leaving a message that says "I hope you received our Winter Appeal. If you didn't please let me know." can remind a donor to make their donation or entice someone to ask about donating.

A lot rides on our being successful in relationship building. The entire mission of our non-profit depends on our success. The people we serve depends on it.

Thanks for reading!

Dan
dan.hanley@urbanpeak.org

The "What can you do for me?" relationship

I work for an organization that serves youth experiencing homelessness and youth on the verge of experiencing homelessness. We serve in in every way, from bringing food, clean underwear and other necessities to them wherever they are on the streets to providing emergency shelter, GED training, transitional housing, employment training and placement, case management, mental health services and so much more.

Some mornings I have to step over youth you have camped out overnight in front of our door way as I make my way into our building. The youth we serve come from trauma-filled lives, lives that have included sexual trafficking, drugs, alcohol, sexual, physical and verbal abuse and many things that you just don't want to read about right now.

Fortunately, there are thousands of people, companies, places of faith, foundations, civic groups and governments that want to support the youth we serve. These folks support us in so many ways. They might have different reasons for supporting us (every donor has their own very personal reason for supporting us) and in the end they all wish to give hope to the hopeless and a voice to the voiceless through our organization.

If you have been in fundraising for some time, you might be able to relate to what comes next.

Then there are those people who call me or send me an email, and I get at least one of these a week, and begin by saying how much they love our organization and then quickly move into wanting to do something "for the kids". I know that they mean the youth we serve who are ages 15 -24. They want their group to meet our youth, they want to "help" our youth, etc., etc.

I call this masking.

Someone masks as one you really wants to help our organization, and after being presented with the myriad of ways they can do that, passes on all of them.

They really want something from us. They want to know if we can support them.

A recent caller wanted to help, had never been here, and couldn't make time to come down to see what we do. Too busy.

I get that. We are all busy. Seriously.

If you want to make a difference in the world and support a non-profit, make sure that your support is unconditional in that you have considered this and truly want to support the non-profit, without any benefit for you. Businesses and organizations that want to purchase  table sponsorship for an event or sponsor an entire event obviously probably want to get something out that and when someone is donating $10,000+ I want to make sure they get something too.

Volunteering for a non-profit and financially supporting a non-profit changes the world. We need more people who want to change the world with us and less people who want to know what non-profits can do for them without care of who a non-profit serves.

Thank you so much for reading!

Is your year-end appeal out?

I am already getting year-end appeals in the mail at home.

Hopefully, your agency's appeal is either already out or is at least at the printer.

Mine is at the printer. My goal is always to have it mailed the first week of November, yet creativity got in my way and it took a little longer.

I have learned over the years that an annual appeal needs to go out in early November. There are those that send it in late October which I think is great too. Gone are the days when a year-end appeal is mailed the first week of December.

So your appeal is out and you're done, right? No way!

Follow up is crucial for a successful appeal. I realize that is you are mailing to 10,000 folks, connecting with all of them after they have received the appeal would be nearly impossible. Our year-end appeal is going to 1900 donors. One week after the appeal mailed we start calling donors to make sure they received the appeal. Just another touching point. We do this with volunteers, and it makes a huge difference. No ask, just confirmation that they received our appeal and asking if they have any questions.

Then, the first or second week of December we send a reminder to donors who have not yet replied to the appeal. The reminder is a colorful postcard bringing a friendly reminder.

Board calls? You bet. Board members can help by calling donors, especially their friends. Another idea is to have the printer drop off all of the appeals before they are made and invite board members to come by and write a personal note. This of course would have to happen in October if you want your appeal out by the first week of November.

I would love to hear what you're doing for your year-end appeal!

Thanks for reading!
dan.hanley@urbanpeak.org

Keeping my eyes on the prize

We have all heard this before.

In fundraising, the prize is our budget. We have to ensure that our agency (or whoever we are fundraising for) gets to the amount of revenue that is in the budget.

I do that by constantly creating, growing, nurturing and sometimes letting go of relationships.

Relationships are key to the success of my development plan and to my goal of getting to the prize. When I put focus and energy into relationships, challenges I seem to be having go away.

When I lose focus and start getting bat crazy about this thing or that thing or this person or that person, I totally take my eyes off of the prize.

I do this a lot. Not all of the time and certainly not most of the time, but I do get drawn in to drama, sometimes drama of my own making. There is honestly no place in fundraising for drama. It is toxic.

Less drama, more eyes on the prize.

Get that year end appeal out.

Thank the donors who donated yesterday.

Meet with my team about what we are all working on, even though we just met a couple of days ago.

Call a donor just to chat.

Put some time into the fundraising dinner.

Ask team members if they need any of my support to ensure success in what they are working on.

There are many things we have no control over as fundraisers. In the end, we have to raise money. In the end it's the relationships we have created that matter.

Now you've seen what my list is to keep my eyes on the prize. What does your list look like?


Thank you for reading!

We fundraisers have to be nice

Being nice pays off. And for many of us, it's just the right thing to do.

When I was laid off in January and in the midst of a job search, I would say this often. I seriously felt that being nice to people had paid off for me as I had so much much support and so many invitations to interview. Sure, I feel that I am a great fundraiser, but who wants to hire someone good at something if they are not a good person?

In fundraising one would just assume that fundraisers are nice. At least to donors.

Unfortunately that is not always the case.

It doesn't take a lot of energy to be nice. I actually believe it takes more energy to not be nice.

So what does being nice look like?

Respect everyone. Donors, staff, clients, volunteers.

Rock it with real kindness. To everyone I just listed above.

Do what you say you're going to do. If you can't do something, don't say you will.

Return a call or email within the same day.

Say thank you. Say it often.

Don't judge. We never really know what is going on with someone. I try to allow folks to have tough moments, offering any help is always good to.

Assume the best intent. Not easy, and it totally makes a difference.

Now that I have written all of this I realize that we all know when we're showing kindness and being nice and when we're not. It's pretty clear.

Our kindness pays off big time. It pays of for us, for our non-profit, for our mission and for those we serve.

Thanks for reading.

Talk with your donors!

This past week I got yet another call from a nice guy who works for a fundraising company and wanted me to talk about hiring them to help us with our donors, especially with retaining donors and finding new donors.

There are a lot of companies out there who do an amazing job in supporting fundraising efforts for non profits.

But there are some things that you just have to do for yourselves. 

If you are fearful of speaking with your donors, of getting to know them and their vision for your non profit (and making sure it matches their personal vision) then you might want to try another field.

Don't hire someone to do something that is so vital in fundraising as speaking with and working with your donors.

For me, this is one of my favorite things about fundraising. I love getting to know our donors, asking them why they first got interested in us and our mission and making sure they know everything they want to know about how we are doing as an organization and the successes we are having within our mission.

Don't be afraid. I know, that sounds weird. Just pick up the phone and go from there.

Here's an example for something you can do today, right now:

Pull a list of donors who made a donation last September, but have not donated since.

Listen to your "pump me up" song.

Make the call, letting them you wanted to check in with them as this is the time of year they normally make their donation and you'd like to let them know what your organization is up to.

Offer to send them a newsletter, annual report, etc.

Done.

You can also leave a voice mail.

You can do it. Your organization, your mission and those you serve depend on you being able to talk with and engage your donors!

Thanks for reading!