List or no list?

For many years I would listen to fellow fundraisers and leaders in the non-profit world talk about their lists. It's how they were successful in planning their days and weeks, and they would speak enthusiastically about how making lists of tasks helped them be successful.

I never understood, or at least I never allowed myself to understand.

Last year I organically created a list. I wasn't thinking about it and hadn't made a decision to make the list, it just happened. It was a Friday morning and I wanted to make sure I finished certain projects before leaving for the weekend.

I got excited. The list kept me engaged and focused. A little more focused than usual. Before I headed to a lunch appointment I looked it over to see how I was doing. On my way home that day I smiled thinking about a hugely productive day.

Sometimes I need a simple reminder. Sometimes I need to take a hard look at everything I have said yes to. And sometimes I just need to know that I am on track.

Lists have helped me. Yes, I have changed my mind! These days I create one on Monday morning for the week. It includes team ideas, donor actions, event goals, time for board members, and time to be off email. Oh wait, that's for another post!

Are you a list person? I would love to hear more ideas!

Thank you for reading!

Procrastination

Not that word!

It's time we talked about this. Procrastination is taking our best efforts and turning them upside down.

I should speak for myself. Yet knowing many of you and having had honest conversations with you has led me to this post.

It is difficult to believe that we are already in mid-October. As a non-profit fundraiser, this means that I am at the start of my year-end fundraising plan. Fortunately I did not procrastinate about this, nor did my team. We were up and running ahead of time and all systems are go for everything we want to do between now and the last day of the calendar year.

It doesn't always work out this way, especially on a more personal level. Day to day actions I wanted to take that I put off. By mid-week I am under water and by Friday I can't believe it's already the end of the week as I look at all of those tasks that have not been completed.

Typically they are simple tasks, ones that wouldn't take more than a few minutes: a quick report, a touch-base with a vendor or donor, re-reading emails, doing a quick budget or doing a quick social media post. These action items add up during the week, especially if I put them off one moment for another time.

My personal worst is with email. Read an email, take action, delete it or file it. Pretty simple. This morning I have way too many emails in my box that I have read but are still somehow just hanging out. The more they add up the more I want to put them off. To be clear, not to put them off in regards to reading them, as I have read them all, but to take action on them and delete or file. I see that some I have even taken action on!

I wish procrastination only affected my email but that's not the case. It truly lives everywhere, as long as I allow it. And as long as it is present, I am not being as successful as I can be and not having as much impact as I want to have.

As simple as the solution is, here you go: Just do it. Yes, Nike has it correct. Based on personal experience, you will feel so much better about everything if you just start knocking out projects and taking action. I guarantee it. I can do that because I have experienced this and my best days are days when nothing could stop me and I simply went from one task to the next. It's possible to not let procrastination win!

I hope this helps!

Thank you for reading!

Is LinkedIn helpful?

Like many parts of social media, LinkedIn seems to have it's positive and negative moments for people. I recently have seen some peers in non-profit fundraising post about their challenges with LinkedIn and after reading all of the comments on their posts (by far negative) I thought I would share some of my experiences.

Just to be clear, I'm not an employee of LinkedIn nor am I paid to write positive things about them.

I have been on LinkedIn for many years. Two years ago I decided that I wanted more from LinkedIn and decided to put more effort in it. Before creating strategy around that I decided to clean it up. I wanted to be connected with people I actually knew, people in my field (non-profit development and fundraising) and people in fields I could collaborate with (corporate leaders, recruiters, activists). This took a while as it was before one could delete from the profile. I had to go through each profile and decide if there was relationship or partnership potential there.

All of that time totally paid off. I ended up deleting almost half of all of my connections, quickly realizing that I had too many connections with people I didn't know and couldn't think of how we could benefit each other.

I started fresh. My goals include building relationships with people in my field, those who I can learn from and those who I potentially might want to work with one day. Another goal is to engage with people and businesses who might want to partner with me and the non-profit I work for. By partner I mean that they get something out of the relationship and we get something out of the relationship, not just me as a non-profit wanting them to donate and then see you later. A true partnership. Finally, and this can be inclusive of the partnership part, I want to engage with the community around the children served by my non-profit, specifically who we are as a non-profit and why we need to exist.

In other words being on LinkedIn for me can't be all about me.

Additionally, like all of social media and most things that end up being good for you in regards to goals, I need to work it. Seriously work it. That doesn't mean being on LinkedIn 24/7. It simply means that I need to be proactive if I want results or if I want to feel it's worth my while. On LinkedIn that means adding posts and articles that might benefit my connections and/or my goals, liking peoples posts, engaging with their posts (writing a comment), introducing people and sharing job openings/searches.

In the last two years my LinkedIn experience has totally changed. I hope what I have shared can be helpful to you! My LinkedIn profile is here if you would like to check it out.

Thanks for reading!

Individual giving - thanking donors

When boards and non-profit leadership talk about fundraising, individual donors are typically, and easily, talked around or even not thought about. Meanwhile, so many of us have donor retention rates under 40% and direct mail response rates are under three percent. I can see why many in our world don't see the intense value of individual donors, or even think that there is a way to increase the amount of individual giving for their non-profit.

Although I subscribe to the philosophy of donor-centered giving, I'm not even writing about that. I think many non-profits have a lot of work to do even before they start working within the ideas of being donor-centered.

Here's an example. A few months ago I attended a luncheon that was a fundraiser for a popular LA-based non-profit. It was my first time attending one of the events and I was blown away by what they presented, so much so that I made a donation.

First donation to them ever. I felt so good about being part of their incredible impact.

Time when by and one day we received their newsletter. It reminded me that I hadn't received a thank you letter or a tax letter yet. 

More time went by, and six weeks after I made the donation I received my thank you/tax letter.

Six weeks! Seriously? I couldn't believe it.

Even though I am now on their mailing list, I don't feel any more a part of them as I did before I made the donation.

I like what we do at the non-profit I fundraise for. Once we see a donation we call the donor to thank them. This happens within 24 hours of receiving the donation. Then a thank-you letter goes out within three days. Three days is the absolute latest it will go out, that's our goal. It doesn't mean that we don't do all we can to get the letter out earlier.

Individual giving can change your mission and impact. It's much more sustainable than corporate giving and even foundation giving. Growing your donor relationships will be totally worth your while. You can start by thanking them.

Thanks for reading.

Staying focused in LA

I recently celebrated my one year anniversary at the non profit where I head development and communications here in LA. Time flies when you're having fun.

The longer I am in LA, the smaller the city I came from, Denver, feels.

LA is huge. Our agency serves the entire county. That's a county of some ten million people. And 32,000 kids in foster care, the population we serve.

It can become overwhelming if you let it. When those feelings start for me, I go back to basics.

Like passion for mission.

An abused kid is an abused kid, no matter where she lives.

Homelessness is a societal issue everywhere. It's in the news a lot here in LA because the homeless population is very visible. Yet those calling the streets and alleys home are not any better off than homeless people anywhere else.

The non-profit community here is huge, and the corporate philanthropy is not huge. Similar to many other cities.

What has worked in this amazing, magical city for me as a development person and fundraiser are the same things that worked for me back in Denver: relationship building, passion for mission, and donor-centered fundraising.

Whenever I get overwhelmed I jump back into these basic tenets of my work.

In general, many development people and fundraisers for non-profits get overwhelmed. This is why the average time in position is only 14 months. This is why so many of us are looking for jobs.

When I stay focused on my basics, things are good. When I move into other people's negative opinions, lack of passion for mission, or frankly anything that I have no control over, things get messy.

When I stay focused, everyone benefits, including me, the abused kids we served, and all of those who are passionate about serving those kids.

Thanks for reading!

One priority today

Recently in our development team meetings we have been talking about our priorities. Not just as a team, but individually.

As each team member talks about what they are working on for the week, they share with the team their main priority for the week.

Just one.

It's so helpful. So powerful. Just one priority.

Cancel out the noise of the daily craziness and think about what one thing you want to rock today. Make a solid choice to go for it today. Don't let anything or anyone get in your way.

This cam make a huge difference for any development team, but the idea of focusing on one priority isn't exclusive to non-profit fundraising.

Go for it.

Thanks for reading!

One in five children

This is one of those posts that will typically not get a lot of reads. When I write about topics like poverty, hunger or HIV/AIDS, many tend to skip the post.

I will keep this post short.

The federal government released poverty numbers this past week.

One in five children in California live in poverty.

One is six children in the US live in poverty.

No matter why you read my blog or why you connect with me personally, I ask you to please consider these numbers.

So much wealth. So much privilege. Yet so many live in poverty.

As fundraisers and people who work with non-profits, we can take action. We can also build bridges with communities whose main mission is not ours, and become stronger. We can find connections with our work to poverty, to hunger and to class. In the Los Angeles area, where I live, it is not difficult to see hard-core class distinction.

If you would like more information on poverty in the US, please click here.

Thank you for reading.

Tips for the fundraising professional's job search

I am on day 14 in Los Angeles.

A quick personal note (which I try to stay away from on my fundraising blog): We moved here after years of wanting to be in southern California for the warmer climate, the culture, the food and of course to be able to surf more often!

Being a fundraising professional on a job search in a city where nobody has ever heard of you isn't an easy task. Yet for some amazing reason I have had the chance to interview for some pretty incredible non-profits doing life-changing work in the Los Angeles area.

I wanted to pass along a few tips I do during the job process here. Some of these I realize are just :

Do not be in a hurry.

Get very comfortable with working with recruiting firms, especially ones who don't necessarily show that much respect for fundraising professionals or non-profit professionals as a whole.

Focus on getting in front of those who would actually hire you. This means rocking it through the recruiters.

As with any job, write an eye-opening cover letter specific to the position. Remember that you want to get in front of the person who will actually decide to hire you.

Be early to your interview.

Study the budget before the interview. For fundraisers this is crucial.

Don't promise the world. Focus on your past experiences and successes.

Dress for success.

Have a list of seven professional references that includes folks who you have reported to, who have reported to you, board members and professional contacts.

I think that's a good start!

Thanks for reading!

Take a walk! With a donor!

Every year The Community First Foundation sponsors Colorado Gives Day, an online giving day created to increase giving in Colorado to local non-profits. Typically the second Tuesday in December, this day of giving has completely exploded into a $20 million + fundraising day for Colorado non-profits.

Each year I like to ride the coat tails of this day and have some sort of event. This past December we planned #WalktheBlock, a 24-hour walk to shine a light on youth homelessness through walking. We partnered with Saint John's Cathedral and for 24 hours walked around the Cathedral. We had a RV supplied from a donor, had lots of food and drink donated, and for 24 hours we walked, talked, laughed, visited and most importantly, got people thinking about homeless youth.

I was surprised by how many of our donors swung by to walk a few blocks. Some called ahead and asked if we needed anything, others showed up with food and drink. It was certainly an amazing day for us and for the youth we serve.

Something that I was not expecting happened. With so many donors coming by I had the chance to take a walk with many of them. Some walked for five blocks while others walked for longer. Each time I walked with a donor I finished feeling like our relationship had just been catapulted to another dimension.

It didn't matter what we talked about. It could have been about why we were walking or how the day was going. Many times it was about their day, their family, something personal about them.

And I learned. So much more about them than I could have ever possibly learned from a phone call, a site tour, or seeing them at a special event.

We had many successes that day. Learning so much more about so many of our donors certainly was on the top of the list.

Take a walk with a donor. Listen. Let them talk.

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.

$86.00

In a casual check-in with one of my co-workers, she told me that we had raised $86.00 from eBay sales the prior month.

$86.00

For many of you reading this, there may be no cause to celebrate. Indeed, many people might have chosen to not read this post because of such a low number in the title.

A couple of months ago we began selling items on eBay. We also began the process of letting our donors, volunteers and supporters know that they could donate to Urban Peak from items they sell on eBay.

Our first month we received a direct deposit of $1.26.

Now we are up to $86.00. And that is only from what supporters have sold online. With no effort on our part. Sellers on eBay can choose to donate anywhere from 10% to 100% of the sale to a non-profit.

This is huge to me.

This is how an entire new way of fundraising begins.

This is what the creation of a new budget line item looks like.

$86.00.

Of course we are late onto the eBay bus. But we are super excited and cannot wait to see what happens. Not only do we get the opportunity to raise money in support of our mission serving youth who are experiencing homelessness, yet imagine the brand visibility we get when folks are buying and selling on eBay.

This is just the beginning.

With all of the time we spend on campaigns, donor cultivation, lapsed giving, planned giving, corporate giving and special events, there are still so many other options out there for us to look at and see if we can do something with them.

Sometimes it's fun to not really think or act outside of the box, but to simply act as if there is no box.

If you raise money on eBay for your organization I would love to hear from you. We are in the early stages, yet we all believe that we can go very far with this idea of raising money from the millions of people who sell and shop on eBay. Generosity is alive and well online and I want to be  apart of that.

Thanks 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

Relationships are the key

I use the "R" word a lot.

Peers on my fundraising team have heard this word so much that they incorporate it into many of their conversations and actions.

Fundraising isn't about a check. It's not about a response to a direct mail appeal or a company saying that they will purchase a table at your annual Gala.

Fundraising is all about relationships.

Having a problem with lapsed donors? You wouldn't be  alone. Many non-profits aren't even paying attention to those donors who once used to financially support the organization but for some reason stopped.

Having a challenge with taking a one-time donation to a long-term donor? I wonder how many non-profits are even paying attention to this.

Fundraisers are vital to the mission of a non-profit. I hear all of the time that fundraisers are too busy to do this or that. Too busy to call a donor. Too busy to actually sign a thank you letter. Yes, I was honestly shocked when I received a thank you letter letter from a local major non-profit I had donated to and the signature was pre-printed on the letter. Seriously?

We cannot be so busy that we don't make time for relationships. Relationships are the key to any fundraising successes we will have.

And you have time for them!

Every donor receives a tax letter/thank you letter. Call them the second you receive their donation!

Send something to a new donor. Perhaps a note signed by the board or perhaps an invite for a tour.

Use all of your social media to thank a corporate sponsor.

Sign every thank you letter. Add an additional note.

Call a few donors every week. Not for an ask, just to check in.

Build relationships. You won't regret it.

Thank you for reading!

Were you just laid off?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a pro on what to do when you leave the office or meeting room you were called into to get the news that you no longer have a job. I just experienced this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. When I was laid off I had an amazing network of friends and colleagues ready to help and support, and a lot of what I did (and am doing) came from their suggestions.

No matter how much good you know will come from this later, it is not a good feeling when it is happening, especially, like many who will be reading this, if you totally rocked it at your job and were the most loyal employee ever.

First things first. Create a personal email address. You most likely will already have one and perhaps you can use that, but not if the address is something like IloveBlackSabbath@hotmail.com. No, this address has to be a little more professional as it will be the address you use to let professional colleagues and friends know that you have just been laid off. It's also the address you will use to send out resumes. I created a gmail account.

Next, create address books within the account. I have one personal and one professional. I also have one for my "inner circle" of professional contacts, those who I have a wonderful relationship with and I know will support me with a lot of energy in finding a new job.  Once you have an inner circle address book go ahead and create a short email to them letting them know that you were just laid off and that you would appreciate it if they could keep an eye out for any positions they think you my enjoy. If you know exactly what you are looking for, let them know. NOTE: These same people are the ones you will be meeting with within the next week or so for moral support and guidance. They will rock your world.

As soon as you possibly can file for unemployment. In Colorado the process is online and it took me less than 10 minutes. From the time you apply to the time you get your first check it could be several weeks, maybe over a month. So the quicker you do it the better. And once you have applied read the instructions! There are several other things you'll have to do, none of which take a lot of time but are important in the process of you getting your benefit.

Social media can make a HUGE difference with your job search and with getting the word out that you have just been laid off.

Create a LinkedIn account. It would be perfect if you already have one. I already had one and it has bee incredibly helpful. I have been able to search jobs as well as get help around my resume and cover letters. I keep my connections informed on what I am doing and many reach out to see if they can help. Some online application processes allow you to log into LinkedIn from their online application and download all of your resume information. Let the folks on LinkedIn know what you are looking for. It's OK to ask for help!

I would say the same for Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is of course a little more personal. Let your friends know what is going on. Not a day passes that someone on Facebook doesn't let me know of a job they think I might love. On Twitter I have a personal account and a professional account. The professional account is just that, and I use it to make connections and let friends there know about what has happened and what I am looking for.

More to come. Thank you for reading! My email address is fundraisingdan@gmail.com