'2' in TEN

'2' in TEN is underway.   The committee have met and the Chapter 1 executive have approved our work and so it is a goer.  For so many years I have seen Fundraising Conferences deteriorate and simply become a opportunity to talk about the same things over and over again ad nauseum.  the '2' concept is different.  Yes we talk about fundraising but it has at it's heart personal development.

The best way to make better fundraisers is not to teach them how to 'do' fundraising better, but to teach them the skills that will help them in their personal relationships, at work, at home and simply to become more comfortable in their own skin.  Making better people will indeed make better fundraisers.

It is locked in and the dates are 16th 17th July 2010.  I am looking forward to it and I have no doubt that it is going to be a great Event

Who says "Fundraising is all about the people"?

When you are hiring people as fundraisers what do you look for?  The conventional current wisdom seems to be that we ask a few basic questions that revolve around; ‘What have you raised?’, and what seems to be the current inane question ‘Can you do the ASK?’

While I was in the UK one of my colleagues from London almost had a fetish to tell you every time that you saw him how much he had raised since he had been a fundraiser, I can still see the glint of pride in his eye when he told me that he had reached the £6 million mark.  Then there are those who proudly trumpet their financial success in the bio’s that fill up the pages of conference brochures; almost as if it was a sole personal accomplishment.  I would agree that there are times when all the skills that we have developed as fundraisers are crucial in getting the greater dollar for our organisation, that all those hours we spend with each other talking fundraising will give us insights and advantages in increasing our share of the philanthropic dollar.  


One of my most enjoyable appointments was one where we did win a number of Chapter awards and even a national award, and I really enjoyed getting the pats on the back and the awe it generated in some of my colleagues (I wish!) when we got up on the dais to receive it at the National Conference.  However the real story is that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and everything fell into place around me.  It really was an award for other people than it was for me.  It also could depend on what organisation you are with.  We are all familiar with those charities that tick all the lovely soft cuddly emotional hooks and then there are the charities where you have to explain in detail, sometimes teach people how to pronounce the name, before you get to tell them what it is you want.  ‘How much money have you raised’?  is not just as simple as it sounds, but we still see the bio’s that tell in every ‘gory detail’, how much someone has raised.

So what do you look for in a fundraiser?

I have had the dubious privilege to sit in the interview rooms of a number of HR consultants looking to fill fundraising positions.  Almost universally you will be in a small room with round table and three chairs, with a sheet to fill in your details and a promotional pen from the recruitment organisation.  There will be windows that can vary from none to a panoramic view of the city that seemed to indicate that I would rather watch the view than engage in any sort of conversation about future employment.  Then there is the ‘record’ that you have to put on and repeat what you have written, that often they have in front of them that is possibly unread.   Plus all the other questions that have to be asked and trying to make that elusive contact with someone who you may believe is treating you just like a number.  I also have little doubt that often they sit there and ask questions in their mind that have as a possible basis; “how can I tell them kindly that they have no show with this position?”  And then that inane question; “Can you do the ASK?”

Over recent years with the apparent lack of effective members of Boards who have failed to ask for financial support because they give of their time and ‘they are really clever people’.  The role of ‘asking’ has fallen on the shoulders of those long suffering people we call fundraisers, you and me and a whole lot of other people as paid employees without fully knowing what is required.  The question is usually asked of us by people who have no understanding of how the process works and what I see as a general passing of the buck down the line to the next person in line who has ‘Fundraising’ as a KPI rather than a development role in the organisation.  I was in one appointment where I did ‘the ask’, and all the board members said no!  Was I successful in doing the ask?  Yes.  Was I effective at getting a result?  No; this possibly poses questions that there is another criteria that we should look at rather than the bland, inane question; “Can you do the ASK?”

How often have we as fundraisers enthusiastically propounded in text books conference presentations, seminars, workshops that fundraising is more about people than it is about money.  I would be one of those people who believe that this should be the holy grail of what we do.  So why is it we spend so much time on the end result of a relationship without giving our full attention to developing that relationship?  Yes of course we do talk about donor development but the vast majority of it is related to the process of upgrading them rather than on the development of the individual. 

I am a big fan of Geoffrey Gittomer who is a marketing Guru from the states who is over the top in just about everything he does and says, but so much of what he says is proven common sense in any field of endeavour.  One of his latest regurgitations is “All things being equal, people do business with people they like.”  This is not rocket science friends, but how often do we spend time getting to know people so that we get to like them and possibly in the process they might like us and the organisations that we represent?

One of my fundraising hero’s is Kent Dove who is one of the Guru’s from the Indiana School of Philanthropy.  I sat through a master class of his one time and it was all about managing and using fundraising staff.  He saw a fundamental flaw in looking at a person’s fundraising history and how much they have raised, where they have worked, but took a completely different view.  His view, and I believe him, is that most of the stuff we do in fundraising is based around process and can be taught.  When you are looking for people for any position you look for integrity, intelligence and energy.  With these characteristics you can teach them to do anything. 

Am I ‘having a go’ at our FIA education system where we have taught people over many years how to fundraise?  Am I calling into question the effectiveness of our skills 1-3 and all the multifarious offerings that are made around Australia every week?  Yes and no!  Why is it that after all these years we are still arguably, one of the most transient of professional populations with what seems to be an exciting group of new people entering the profession and  a plethora of old stagers, but seemingly, to my observations very few in the middle looking for Skills 3 and the development of their careers?

The recent Chapter 1 two day event; ‘2’, was an attempt to bring in the intense people skills that we often call Personal Development.  There was a mix of ‘Toolbox’ sessions where the practical sessions of some of the disciplines of fundraising were outlined well with enthusiasm, energy and professional expertise.  The presenters were asked not to make them 45 minute talk fests, but we looked at ‘how’ the session was presented in equal proportion to the information that was presented.  Each presenter in this session was asked to speak for a while explain the template that was included on a data stick and then respond to questions to ensure that the delegates had a good understanding of their subject.  This worked well and was well responded too.

The Personal Development side was a different side to much of what we have done in the past.  We started with an expert in networking who, over breakfast highlighted the need to build relationships into a prospect who may be a potential customer, client or donor.  We had a Life Coach who described her journey and in describing a point in her life 8 years ago when on her way to work in a senior corporate appointment, looked in the mirror and asked herself the question ‘Am I living the life that I want to live?’  We have all been there and possibly asked ourselves the same question.  We had someone who enlightened us with energy and enthusiasm and we heard about the importance of right thinking and positive affirmations around all that we do.  Personal Development is not just about ‘personal’ development, it also about developing relationships with others, in our case; donors.  What are some of the things that we can learn from others so that we can develop relationships to get closer to ‘The Ask’?   It will also help us to focus again on what we are doing all this fundraising for to be effective at developing such effective relationships with potential supporters, so that they support you without having to be asked.

Now wouldn’t that be something!

Great Assumptions

5 Great Assumptions

Ken Burnett is one of the Fundraising Guru’s from the UK and has travelled extensively since he published his book, ‘Relationship Fundraising’. It was not a new concept but it was published at a time when people were starting to get over-awed by technology and our profession was, to my mind, becoming overly professional and slick.

I found these the other day and thought that they may be of help to us

The Five great Assumptions that Underpin Effective Fundraising

1. Donors usually are generous caring people

2. They are intelligent and so know when they are being taken advantage of

3. They expect to be taken seriously

4. They are individuals, therefore are varied in their interests, habits and responses

5. They are most likely to respond better when they get from us what they want top receive, rather than getting from us what we want them to receive

Makes good sense doesn’t it?

Harley's, Starbucks, Club Med & Guinness

I have been reading some very interesting stuff of recent weeks and a lot of it revolves around taking business to the next level. Tom Peters is a business Guru from the States and I have been reading his take on the Tragedy of the ‘Common’, and he suggests that we need to take what we are doing to another level to reap the rewards of our efforts. In business he says that there needs to almost be a universal change from the term ‘customer service’ even if it is prefaced with exceptional or great or fantastic and use the word experience. We do not provide good customer care we give them an experience. He uses illustrations that many would be familiar with and turns them on their head and asks us to think about what it could mean for our organisations.

He talks about the fact that Harley Davidson does not sell motor motorcycles. Starbucks do not sell coffee. Club Med does not sell vacations, and Guinness does not sell beer. Think about it for a minute. One of the head honcho’s at Harley Davidson says that they “do not sell motorcycles they sell experiences. The ability for a 42 year old accountant to dress up in black leather, ride through small towns and have people afraid of him” It’s not the motorcycle its the experience.

Starbucks have identified a third place; it’s not home and it’s not work, but it’s the place that our customers come to find refuge. They have transformed the innocent cup of coffee into a Starbucks way of life. Club med is more than just a resort, it’s a means of rediscovering yourself, or inventing an entirely ne “me”. Guinness, as a brand is all about community. It’s about bringing people together and sharing stories.

Now when I think of how my organisation, and many others in the Not for Profit sector, markets itself I get very worried because so much of what we do is grounded in ‘old fashioned’ thinking that is not keeping up to speed with current thinking.

I am going to give some serious time and thinking as to what we should be doing in the near future, let me encourage you to do the same.

If you come up with anything let me know.

Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast

I was talking with one of the senior team at Gloria Jeans Coffees last week and she made a memorable statement as we discussed the different ways leaders can view the challenges facing their teams. Sadly it’s something many organisations don’t seem to understand- “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. I couldn’t agree more.

Now, I’m not one of these leaders that describes themselves as being a “big picture person” in an attempt to gloss over a lack of attention to detail. In fact, I love strategy. I enjoy problem solving. I care about scoring every point I can, not just winning the game.

But if I had to choose between culture and strategy as my primary weapon there is no contest. I will choose culture in a heartbeat.

1. Culture Is Soil
The culture of every organisation is to its team what soil is to the plants that depend upon it. Focusing on strategy without addressing culture is rather like planting a palm tree in a swamp. No matter how good your strategic initiatives may be in their own right, the likelihood of their sustained success comes down to culture more than just about any other single factor. I’m no horticulturalist, but it’s common sense that unsuitable, barren or toxic soil will eventually kill even the best plants. The leader that ignores culture is often the same person who rants about the ineffectiveness of their team, blames HR for poor hiring, moans about “Gen Y”. Their team are stunted, fruitless and impotent. And culture is their silent killer.

So what’s the true condition of your soil?

2. Culture Is Life Blood
The culture of your team is its life supply. Its essential role, like blood in your body, is to bring life to every area and to carry away the toxins that would otherwise destroy it. For better or worse, when a team is injured they bleed the true culture. Who we are when things go against us says everything about our actual values, regardless of what mission statement we put on our website. A healthy organisation has potent culture pumping through its veins, mostly unseen yet nourishing every part. No hardened managers blocking arteries. No internal bleeding quietly draining life away.

So do you need a blood test?

3. Culture Is Ideology
If we elevate strategy without giving attention to culture, we’ll win the battle but lose the war. Down through history the empires that have truly altered the world as we know it were those who ideas, world view and beliefs impacted the cultures that came into contact with them. The best teams have a pervasive passion about them. They get the big “why”, and as a result “what” and “how” tend to flow quite naturally. When we live our values its easier to develop people because everything we do and say is part of their training. Great ideology creates a contagious culture.

So what’s your infectious ideology?

From http://www.theleadershipcoach.com/

Artful Leadership

I spend a lot of time in second hand book shops. There is something magical about reading a book that already has someone else’s notes in it, that has been underlined and thumbed with an intimacy that speaks volumes about the person or people who have read those words before.

I found one a few years ago that is called ‘Leadership is an Art’ by Max DePree. It is not a along book, neither is it new so it does not have the more modern language of recent management or leadership ‘speak’, ‘The seven secrets of great leaders’ or ‘The 15 steps to being a creative leader’ or even ‘How to be a successful leader’. In its stead it makes excellent use of ‘the narrative’; the story telling about what Leadership involves and the ‘Tribal Story Telling’ that sometimes happens around the water cooler or in the lunch room. There are some amazing stories that speak about how a company or its leadership can be successful without resorting to a list of ‘do this and you will be successful’; very refreshing.

He tells the story of a city in America who would invite business leaders from around the country to look at their state and invite them to transfer their operations there or do more business with them. As part of this promotion he talks about one committee where they were discussing how they could dress up a particular facility that needed some dressing up. Some well meaning individual suggested that they put pink ice in the urinals. Strange though this may sound they were quite serious but the writer took it into another and related a question that was asked of him as one of the main leaders in his company; “what is one of the most difficult things that you personally need to work on?” His response was ‘The Interception of Entropy’

He was using the word in a very loose way and for him he explained that what leaders need to learn is to recognize are the signals of impending deterioration. He then goes on to list a number of things that are signs of this condition. Among them he talked

• A tendency toward superficiality
• No longer having the time for celebration and ritual
• When people stop telling ‘tribal stories’ or cannot understand them
• When problem makers outnumber problem solvers
• Leaders who seek to control rather than liberate
• Manuals
• Leaders who rely on structures instead of people
• Etc etc

The list goes on and if we were looking at some of the organizations that we are familiar with I guess we could come up with a lot more. His final statement is that we need to beware of putting ‘Pink Ice in the Urinals’.

Those of us who have positions of leadership in an organization could take note of some of these signs and address them before it is too late and we daily fill our own urinals with pink ice.

So much has been said about leadership that a single definition is hard to come by but one of his quotes resonated with me, in that he simplifies it into two responsibilities. The first is to define reality and the last is to say thank you. How simple is that? But he goes on to say that in between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor; that sums up the progress of an artful leader.

Philosophy of Fundraising

I am not sure where this came from or how long it has been hiding on my computer but I thought that it was worth dusting off and sharing. Yes it is North American but read past that and understand the principle and I am sure it will be worthwhile.
'Fletch'

J. F. Smith Group's Philosophy on Fundraising

Fund-raising is a team effort – it takes every person in the development office working together to achieve your goals and objectives.

Formula for Success:

BP + CS x E = SBasic Principles plus Common Sense times Effort equals Success.

Basic Principle #1 – Always ask for a specific dollar amount. This is the greatest mistake made in fund-raising today.
Basic Principle #2 – Major on the majors – do not major on the minors. Try to stay focused on prospects who have the inclination, ability, and willingness to support your organization.
Basic Principle #3 – People who are involved in your organization tend to become committed to it and the dollars follow their commitment. Therefore, individuals, companies and foundations who are identified as major prospects should first be invited to become involved in Your organization’s programs or committees.
Basic Principle #4 – Your solicitation success rate increases with the number of preliminary meetings you have prior to making the “ask”.
Basic Principle #5 – Volunteers are essential to your overall fund-raising success because they duplicate your efforts and volunteers give more than non-volunteers.
Basic Principle #6 – Never make a solicitation request without written (proposal) justification.
Basic Principle #7 – Development officers should be evaluated on the number of contacts, solicitation requests and dollar amount of proposals presented – not on the amount of money they raise.
Basic Principle #8 – Stewardship is necessary if you are going to cultivate and build a relationship with a previous or current donor.
Basic Principle #9 – The first gift a person, company or foundation makes is generally their smallest gift.
Basic Principle #10 – Development officers should always carry the President or Board Chair on major solicitation calls. Prospective donors always want to hear from the decision makers.
Basic Principle #11 – There is no shortage of money – just a shortage of great big bold ideas (projects) where the prospective donor feels his/her contribution can make a difference.
Basic Principle #12 – Always “sell” what the prospective donor wants to “buy”.

Second things next

Engage the Spirit

An organisation needs to offer each employee the opportunity to ‘bring their passion to work’. To in some way enable the employee to say of their work ‘This is who I am and this is what I do to make a difference in the world’. This is possibly the most difficult aspect of developing an effective organisation. Where each employee feels that their particular skill is recognised as part of the whole, and wants to contribute to the whole. Is this something that you can put in a job description?

In another country I knew a fundraiser who every time I met him he would proudly tell me how much money he had raised. He expressed great pride in what 'he had achieved'. Now we all know, and most Fundraising HR Consultants live by the motto that you can learn all about a fundraiser by asking the question "How much money have you raised?" Is it really that simple, or complicated, and have we as fundraisers fallen into that trap as well?

A few years ago I heard the American Fundraising Guru, Kent Dove, talking about who do you hire for your fundraising staff. Something that many fundraisers ned to know and he was really fantastic. He didn't say that you need to employ a fundrtaiser who has raised a lot of money, nor did he say that you need to employ fundraisers who have had lots of experience in lots of different organisations. He indicated that there are three things you look for in employing new staff.

You look for Integrity, inteligence and enthusiasm.

I was once quoted as saying 'there is no rocket science in fundraising'; and I am sure that there are rocket scientists somewhere in the world who are saying that there rocket science is not as complicated as fundraising, but Kent dove gives us a new look at fundraising qualities. It is vitally impoortant to learn as much as we can about the poracticalities of our profession, but we would do better to do all we can to engage the spirit of the fundraiser to the organisation.

Success in Fundraising is not just about getting people to give you money, but I see it as more about capturing their soul, so that they feel as passionate about our organisation as we do. Thats when success kicks in.

First things First 2

Owning the Profession

The second aspect of a successful fundraiser or a fundraising department is a strong commitment to the profession. Much has been written about the benefit of professional organizations have in the fundraising mix, and it is sad when people always seem to put into the category of ‘What do I get out of it?’ style of question. As a career choice I have been tremendously fortunate in to a degree in that I am able to choose what I do. Possibly from many years of experience but also because I look at my career as an active choice. I am not a fundraiser because it is the best paid job in the world. I am not a fundraiser because I love the sound of the Ching-Ching of the cash register, It s because I am committed to my organizations goals and I am committed to my profession. There are many organizations who actually run on donated funds and without our profession would not be able to be of benefit in the community.
So for me the two prongs of for future education is a passion for the profession and a deeper commitment to the organization. If you can put those two things in place then your career will take on a new dimension and your fundraising will become more effective.

First things First

In all fundraising organizations there need to be more than just a ‘fundraising department’. I have often said that for fundraising to be effective it needs to be a whole organization culture rather than just a single department. However there are lots of things that are needed to be an effective fundraising department.

Owning the Business

This is basic. Raising funds for the sake of raising funds is an empty experience akin to simply working to get a pay check. I know that it happens and that very few of us actually look in the Bathroom mirror in the morning and say I am really looking forward to going to work today, even though it is a great ideal. Likewise it is an ideal situation that enables us to actually be focused on what our organization does and to have that as our primary focus within the realm of what we do. “I don’t raise funds I enable our frontline support staff to do what our mission statement says we do”. I once worked at a hospital where some of the research was funded by us actually developed a new treatment for a particular condition, it was a world breakthrough and we, in fundraising, took great pride in saying ‘WE’ were part of the team that did it. And … the researchers at that particular place were happy to acknowledge that without the funding from the fundraising department it would not have happened and so it really was a ‘we’ experience.

A fundraising department that is separated from the bottom line of what we are raising funds for becomes a ‘Pawn brokers shop’ and all we do is money-raising. Once you have become engaged with your organizations mission you have gained one of the two vital components of becoming an effective fundraiser.........