Having a Community Breakfast

After a few months of planning, our annual Community Breakfast is only a few weeks away. The excitement is building, especially because this will be my first one with my new organization.

I'm sure you've been to a breakfast like this. It's a wonderful way for a non-profit to take just an hour of someones time and give the the basic 101 on your organization, your mission and your successes. Ours is a fundraiser, and it's one of those where we offer a free breakfast and then ask for a meaningful gift at some point during the breakfast.

Some of you might be thinking, "oh, another event" and not in a good way. I guarantee you that a community breakfast can be fun in many ways and is a wonderful way to re-engage donors, introduce your mission to new potential donors and raise money all at the same time.

When we decided the general time of the year that we wanted to have the breakfast, we went to hotels and asked for space and a plated breakfast price. I have found that when you give the hotel the the opportunity to pick a date that works best for them, then that can relate to a less expensive breakfast.

Once the date and location were settled, I took this information to a board meeting. I told them that this is a huge opportunity for us to show what we do to potential new supporters and to raise money. I also told them how many table we wanted committed and by when we wanted them committed. Then I asked each board member to commit to hosting a table, which meant they would be in charge of filling one table at breakfast.

Because of that presentation and then a week filled with calls to known supporters, we were at 80% of our table goals in two weeks.

It's a free breakfast. Sure there will be an ask, and the ask is for an incredible cause.

We built energy and excitement around the event. We maintained consistent communication with all of the table captains. We began a list of people who wanted to attend so we could plug them into tables of captains who did not have their table filled.

I get even more excited just writing about. A room filled with 450 people, all a mix of levels on how they support us from never having heard about us to having donated and volunteered for years.

Have you had a community breakfast?

Thanks so much for reading!

Creating your amazing fundraising team

It's not easy.

Sometimes in my career people have told me that maybe I should lower my expectations.

Seriously.

No way.

My expectations are not that crazy:

Hire the best fundraisers.

Create the most exciting, healthy fundraising team.

Rock it with relationship building.

Build lifelong relationships with donors, funders, community leaders and business partners.
Bring the brand to the entire community.

Honor everyone.

Excellence in everything we do. Superb communication. Respect. Integrity. Keeping our eyes on the prize not only around fundraising but also on the mission of our organization.

Having honest conversations with staff, the team and donors is crucial.

I look for all of this when hiring new team members. I look for passion for our mission and for fundraising, successes in fundraising campaigns, relationships within the community and a personality that shows me they are ready to join an incredible fundraising team.

Our team had a development retreat yesterday and as I looked around the room all I could do was smile at all of the passion and professionalism in the room.

It's possible to create an amazing fundraising team. Make sure you have the right people in the right positions. Empower your team. Support them and listen to them.

And then go out there and rock it!

Thanks for reading!

Don't stop believing

A donor cancels lunch.

The company that bought a Gala table last year said no this year.

A board member doesn't return your call.

The government grant is not going to happen.

You spilled your coffee on your keyboard.

The website got hacked!?!?

It's not always easy. I think if it were, I wouldn't love fundraising as much as I do.

Every day we might deal with one or more of what I listed above. Sometimes all of this could happen in the first hour of your day!

In my time of being a fundraiser I have walked through many a dark moment, or at least it seemed like a dark moment at the time. The reality is that people will say no sometimes. I don't think it means no, never. I think it means that at that particular time it is not good for them to give, for whatever reason.

The deal for me is that I wholeheartedly 100% believe in the mission of the organization I work for and the people who work there making sure the mission is fulfilled every day. No matter if that grant comes in or if a donor says yes or no, we are still going to have youth experiencing homelessness that need a meal or a cot to sleep on or help studying for the GED. That's what we do, and as long as I am truly committed to that and keep believing that this mission is so worthwhile, everything will fall into place.

I also reach out in tough times. I have a list of other fundraisers that I can call or email and say hey, I'm having a tough morning. Or, I just received an email from a donor and I don't know how to respond. Just reaching out and having a conversation with someone who does what I do and has experienced what I am experiencing at that moment is a huge help.

And it's important for me to support other fundraisers.

So let's rock it! Today I am working on my spring appeal and working on a lapsed donor campaign. I am also going to reach out to several donors just to check in. I have my coffee in hand, my music play list on and am ready to ROCK IT!

For all of the fundraisers reading this, thank you for what you do!

And thank you for reading!

Where have your past donors been?

I could also title this post "What to do with lapsed donors?".

After being unemployed for a month, this past week I began a new adventure and am experiencing all of those joys that come with starting all over in development and fundraising. It didn't take long for me to start taking a look at lapsed donors and what they look in the overall realm of moving forward with an incredible fundraising effort.

My definition of a lapsed donor is a donor who had given up to a certain year, and then last year did not give.

There are most likely hundreds of books and articles written on how to keep lapsed donors low or how to "deal" with them.

First things first. To me, make sure your fundraising plan is solid in connecting with current donors so that the likelihood that they become a lapsed donor is low. A couple of things I like to do is to thank the donor ASAP for a donation. I also like to let them know within a few months how we spent their money. Exactly. As a donor myself, I love knowing that the money I donated went for a homeless dog's spay or neuter, a meal for a hungry person or simply support for the overall operation of the agency.

The more time and energy we put into creating and nurturing relationships with those who financially support us the less time and energy we have to use in trying to figure out what happened to them.

All of this being said we are all still going to have a number of lapsed donors.

I already have a list of those who donated to us in 2011 but not in 2012. Some were just late in giving and made a donation in January of this year. For those left, I have a plan. I am sharing names with the development team, with board and with other staff. I am going to ensure that we reach out to all of these donors to check in. Being an agency that serves youth experiencing homelessness, I seriously doubt that a donor has become angry with us, but one never knows. many times all it takes is a phone call to check in, which to the donor is a reminder of something they have been meaning to do!

Before long, donors get used to being communicated with, and not just when being asked to give. It is a terrible day when a donor thinks that the only reason you are calling is to ask for a donation.

I will keep you posted on how our lapsed giving efforts go. Thank you so much for reading!