QR Codes and Donors

Recently, I was performing a stewardship audit and was interviewing the special event team about their use of technology and events. I asked a simple question, "do you currently use QR codes for your events or for RSVPs?" Immediately, I received two answers from the ladies, "I don't even know what that is" said one, and the other shook her head and said, "I tie bows and do arrangements, I don't 'do' technology." Strikingly, outside of the conference room we were in was a poster for their football team's fall schedule, and smack dab in the middle was a QR code. Irony is rich here folks! Now, neither of these two were in their eighties, in fact, our "bow tier" friend was younger than I am. Sigh.

So here I am discussing with you a great and free new technology, the QR code. Last month, over 5 million QR codes were scanned on smart phones in the US alone. A QR code is like a UPC code for smart phones that redirects you to a webpage, including videos, photo slideshows and more. Smart phone populations are booming and I would hedge a bet that most of your donors have one, eMarketer estimates 31% of mobile users, or 73.3 million people in the US, have a smartphone this year.

You can take any URL in the universe and create a free QR code for it by going to this website, then voila! 15 seconds later you have an image you can cut and paste and use anywhere like this one for my website-

maybe I should get it tattooed somewhere? Overshare? Lol I did this creation during a recent conference session and the whole room was magically transformed, with light bulbs everywhere thinking of the ease and possibilities!

Regardless of my bad humor, I have some great suggestions on how you can incorporate them into your donor relations activities!

1. Use them on your publications, invitations, and solicitations. They can redirect to an RSVP form, an online giving site, more information, a video about your event, the possibilities are endless and they save tons of text!

2. My friends at MSP Digital Marketing and others use them on the back of their business cards- genius!!

3. Put them on shirts, t shirts, polo shirts, give away items etc. then your donors at an event could have their scholarship student show them how they work and the image could lead them to a video of that student, a virtual campus tour, or a gratitude video- brilliant!! Don't have the money to do that on t-shirts!?--- Print them on the student's nametags!!! Free and easy and a great way for the donor and student to interact!!!

4. Trying to get a student's attention for those all elusive thank you notes, post a QR code and a mysterious note like, "I bet you won't" across campus and have it lead to a form where they can learn why this is important and submit their note- and then be entered to win something fab like an iPad- endless possibilities here folks!

5. Use one of your on campus graphic designers and have them jazz up the QR code like Cornell, Jet Blue and others are doing. As you can see the possibilities, much like social media, are endless- I would love to hear your feedback, creative uses you have seen and any questions you might have!

Cheers,


Lynne

Plaque: not just a dental issue!

We seem, as an industry to have plaque disease. Hence, this video, although in Hebrew, is very relevant to today’s discussion. When I was at Rollins College, one of the activities I undertook, with the help of my two work study students was to photograph and catalog in a searchable database every named space and plaque on campus. It took us an entire summer but was really worth it! We even transcribed the writing in case the plaque was lost. If I tried that here, I would need a small army and a decade.

You see, the thing about plaques is that they are often problematic. We seem to be obsessed with them though- take a look at this google search. Amazing eh? And how many of us have had nightmare stories where the plaque has been misspelled, or the portrait looked like a bad jailhouse tattoo. I’m the girl that when I visit any museum, hospital, university, I’m always looking at the plaques and walls to see if they’re as bad as mine! All of my vendor friends at companies that make plaques are going to groan over this, but other than for naming recognition, what purpose do plaques serve? Should we be guiding our donors and fundraisers into a different form of recognition and stewardship? Playing devil’s advocate, there exists the argument that plaques serve as a lasting legacy for the donor and the institution. Agreed, but is there a better way? I can’t tell you how many plaques I have seen “lost” or “misplaced” when renovations or office moves happen. There has to be a better way than trusting these expensive bronze weighty monuments to “Fred” from facilities.

Now, I’m not saying get rid of them altogether, what I am asking for is that we as professionals encourage those we work with to find other mediums in which to recognize and tell stories than mounted brass. I would love to hear your plaque stories, no dentist tales here please, and your thoughts on our “plaque problem”; is it time for a deep cleaning? Sorry, bad pun but I couldn’t help myself!

Cheers,
Lynne

Giving Societies

A few weeks ago I was fortunate to speak at the Southeastern Donor Relations Conference sponsored by ADRP. There was a wonderful donor panel populated by some generous philanthropists who also were great characters. We really enjoyed listening to them tell about their relationships with giving, etc. At one point an attendee stood up and asked the panel how they felt about giving societies and which ones they belonged to. The grande dame of the panel grabbed the mic and said soundly, "Well, I am a proud member of the International Floral Designers and the Elite Floral Designers of America." Everyone in the room zoomed around, and glances were caught, while most of us were thinking that her "miss" of this development question brought home an important point, most donors don't know that they belong to a giving club or society that we have created, manufactured and branded for them.

We spend countless hours discussing giving societies on listservs and at conferences and yet I have never heard a donor say that they increase their giving or give so they can be a member of a giving society. My friend Paige went to great lengths to redefine her giving societies at Carnegie Mellon and has had much success with them. She simplified them and made sure that for everyone she created, she had meaningful benefits that met the donors needs. How many of you can name all of your giving societies and why they are each important and what benefits are received? I didn't think so. I think giving societies are often over hyped and under staffed, with many levels and confusion about what exactly it means. So the question then is how do you do them well? Here are some of my tips:

1. Don't create one if you don't have a clearly defined purpose or goal and know that this vehicle will work for your donors. What's wrong with just stewarding them well without giving it a fancy name and logo?

2. Keep it simple. I have three societies, two of which are currently working well and one which I am developing. A million dollar plus cumulative giving society, a planned giving society, and coming next a consecutive giving society similar to the Carolina Circle I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

3. If you delve into societies make sure you have the time and resources to do so. Under promise and over deliver, the reverse can be tragic. Nothing is worse than a splashy launch and not having a good product to back it up- anyone remember Pepsi Clear?

4. Be very careful about your benefits and quid pro quo IRS laws, CASE standards, etc. Make sure you get your list reviewed by legal so you're not digging yourself a ditch.

5. This related back to a practice I always employ, survey your donors first and find out what is important to them, does a society matter to them? What are their needs?

6. Make sure that you make the number of people in each society manageable, ensuring that if they are to get something hand signed by your president or CEO, that it indeed is possible, exclusivity doesn't mean thousands of people getting the same thing.

7. For the love of all that is good in the world, stay away from items/tchotckes, one caveat, I have seen lapel pins and nametag identifiers used well. Items cause tax problems, logistical and shipping issues and donors don't give to get. What is most meaningful to them is personalized notes, insider access, and clear communication.

I hope these guidelines help you and I look forward to an open dialogue about what is working for you and what isn't. I welcome your comments and questions.

Cheers,

Lynne

Donor Relations Professionals- Just like Swiss Army Knives and American Express

I'm going to start today's blog with a story. My dad, as many of you know, is a great guy. He taught me many lessons growing up, one of which is to always be prepared. He never leaves his cabin at the top of the mountain without two things, a super duper Swiss Army knife and his American Express card. Now he also brings his cell phone, but historically it has always been those two things.
This directly leads to today's topic: donor relations as a profession. When I travel to speaking engagements and consultant jobs, I often hear the following, "I work in donor relations, so I don't have a seat at the table" and/or "No one treats me as a fundraising professional." And now for the tough love. Is this something you perceive because it is true and what have you done about it lately?

So, here we go with my philosophical list of tips and advice on this topic- feel free to comment below.

1. Know your role and how you fit into the overall fundraising operation and picture. If you don't understand how important and essential donor relations is, how are you going to communicate that to others? Can you define Donor Relations and Stewardship? Do you know the key components of each and the difference between the two? If you don't, how do you expect anyone else to?

2. As my friend Paige says, "don't bring your lunch into work in a Victoria's Secret bag and expect to be taken seriously." I love this because it sums up a great deal about donor relations as a profession, if we want a seat at the table, we MUST look and act like we belong.

3. Back to the Swiss Army knife and the AMEX. You must be indispensable. My dad and mom flew here to NYC to visit and he went to perform a simple fix in my apartment and because he couldn't take his trusty Swiss Army knife thanks to the TSA, he was at a loss for his "go to" solution. Although, I made sure that his AMEX didn't go to waste here in the city! You MUST be your leadership's go to solution when in a pinch. My friend Darnell and I observe that some Donor Relations professionals are out of the office for vacation for 4 or more weeks and we chuckle at the idea of this! Can you imagine being so dispensable that you aren't needed for that long? Most of my VPs would have gone bonkers and so would I thinking of the important conversations, meetings, and work, we were missing!

4. You need to be a strategic thinker. Donor Relations is no longer the reactionary field it once was; now we must take the role of leading the organization's strategy with its constituents in partnership with leadership. If you don't have a strategic plan for donor relations at your organization, you are far behind the curve. Remember, we are all swimming in the same philanthropic ocean, and if I do it better, then the current streams my way. Perform a stewardship audit, benchmark best practices and next practices, attend a conference, host a regional gathering of others in the field, hire a consultant to give you an outside perspective. The key here is- Do Something! Your leadership will respect you and thank you for it, it shows initiative, it is no longer good enough to just keep to the status quo and keep your head down and not make waves.

6. Say NO! It is perfectly acceptable for you to set boundaries with your program, as long as you have backup for your decisions. We as a profession and personality are mostly people pleasers and "yes" men and women. It is time to stand up and be noticed that indeed, while you are like a Swiss Army knife, you have specific functions, skills, and talent areas, and should be used for those, this would all be clear to your colleagues and leadership if you had that strategic plan. After all, have you ever used the toothpick from a Swiss Army knife to saw a branch? I thought not, the toothpick says "no".

7. Prioritize. You can't be everything to everyone, and if you have to make a decision as to who to say no to, ask your leadership to help you prioritize. This will garner you respect and save you from being labeled a Martyr in your organization, a label that for a long time Donor Relations has held proudly. Well, no longer, a savvy professional knows when to ask for help and leaders respect and admire that.

I hope these tips help you when you think of yourself as a Donor Relations professional. I would love to hear your comments or questions. Cheers, Lynne

Consecutive/Loyalty Donors

As I was preparing myself for my upcoming travel schedule- back to back trips, including speaking at the ADRP/SEDRC in Raleigh, NC; I received a great piece of mail right before I put my mail on hold for the 7 days. I am a proud supporter of my alma mater, The University of South Carolina. And every year, I make my annual gift. After I make my gift, I receive the usual receipt and acknowledgment, but I also receive something special, I am a member of the Carolina Circle, something USC reminds me of every year. I receive a postcard and the back of it is a vinyl decal, when I had a car these decals were proudly displayed on my back window along with my gamecock club membership decal, now that I take the subway, they reside on my fridge or office bulletin board, a constant reminder of their acknowledgment of my consistent giving. The Carolina Circle is for those of us who have given consistently, at any amount, for the past three years or more. This simple gesture enhances in me the feeling that USC values me and knows that my gift matters, its just good donor relations. And so that leads me to ask you, what are you doing for your consecutive donors? Do you know who the are? How many you have? What do they "look" like? If you haven't thought about these folks, I challenge you to take a new look. Every time I visit with one of my consulting clients during their donor relations audits, this is one of my consistent areas of focus.

Here are some reasons for focus you might not be aware of:
1. Consistent donors are the BEST planned giving prospects. Period.
2. Consistent donors are usually present at many of your events, and make sure to support you in their community.
3. Consistent donors make GREAT volunteers, spokespeople and helpers.
4. They are deeply committed to your cause and I would argue that telling their stories is MORE valuable than your "major donors".
5. Consistent donors make GREAT focus groups and survey folks. They have been around for a while and can tell you what has worked and where you can improve.
6. The ROI on these efforts is HUGE. Remember its 7 times cheaper to keep the donors you have happy than to go out and acquire new ones!

So now we go back to the central question, what have you done for them lately? If you hesitate or have no idea, this might be a good time to start recognizing them. You don't have to create a society or a big to do around them, but you should recognize their importance and build this group into your strategic donor relations planning.

A few simple ideas:
1. A postcard like USC's, with or without a decal or magnet.
2. A special email or video for them. A communication that let's them know they are valued and you know who they are and why they matter.
3. Invite them to the same events your major donors are invited to, remember its the thought of inclusion that matters for them.
4. Feature them and tell their stories in your publications, have one of them speak at your next event, etc. A lifetime of good will is headed your way, and other donors will identify with them more than they can the mega million trustee type donor.
5. Run a thank a thon just for them. Have staff, volunteers, students, anyone call them to thank them, and JUST thank them(lol), for their loyal support and devotion to your mission!

NOTICE: I didn't say mail them a random tchotchke or have an event just for them. That's not the idea here folks, if you need to clean out your closets, do it some other way, if you want another event to plan, find a different strategy- honest tough love. :)

Now I ask: What are you doing? What would you like to do? I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions!

Cheers,
Lynne

New Year, New Ideas?

As the end of the fiscal year quickly approached last week, I was thinking about what it meant to have a new year, at Yeshiva, I get to celebrate three each year, the Jewish new year, the calendar new year and the fiscal new year- try to keep that straight in your head!! The nice thing about the new fiscal year is that it often allows us to begin to think about or implement new ideas. The trouble with that is that for many of us, innovation in our bureaucratic organizations can be very challenging and sometimes impossible.
In order to help with this effort, I created a presentation called "Dancing on the Edge: Pushing the limits of Innovation in your Program". When I presented this topic at the CASE Donor Relations conference, there was standing room only and a crowd that was receptive and open to my way of thinking about the way we can effect change. If you are the kind of professional that is happy with the status quo, warning, this post isn't for you. This post is about how to become an advocate of innovation, someone who can then deliver that message to leadership with a vested interest.
For many years now I have been seen as a leading innovator in the field of development and donor relations, this didn't happen by accident, I make a conscious effort to have innovation at the forefront of everything I am and everything I do. So below you will find a link to my slides and I will expound on a few key steps to success here.

1. You MUST own being innovative and plan for time to do so. If you don't, no one else will. It is your job to look at a process and be able to ask the question, How can I make this better?. That is the core of the innovative spirit. Set aside time in your busy schedules for innovation, if you don't you will continue doing the same old things over and over.

2. Understand innovation. Innovation is when a good idea meets implementation. You must define what better looks like and how you will strive to achieve it. It is wonderful to have a visionary idea, but if it is not able to be implemented, what is the point?

3. Do a risk vs. benefit analysis. What is this? As my father would put it, "its a pro/cons list silly." You need to balance the equation and make sure that the new innovation is worth any risks involved. There is NOTHING wrong with calculated risks.

4. Embrace failure, in fact, give it a big hug and a smooch! I learn more from my failures than I Ever have from a success!! We have to stop being afraid to fail, and I will put this in its simplest terms, if you fail, no one will die. Thankfully what we do is powerful and meaningful and does a great deal of good in the world. However, thankfully, we don't hold anyone's lives in our hands like say, uhm, a brain surgeon or rocket scientist- did you like those creative examples?- I thought so.

5. Innovation is possible at EVERY organization, I have yet to find a leader, both in my daily work and on my consulting trips, who, if you present them with solid ideas and a plan for implementation, does not want things to be better. If you are reading this and shaking your head saying, "you don't know my VP/boss" this thought is for you: maybe it is not your message but it is the messenger. Tough love, yes. But it applies to everyone, even me. I talk candidly that I am not everyone's cup of tea, however I know my strengths and weaknesses and often have other people present my ideas to leadership because I know that they are the right person to perform the approach. In football it's called an end around, in the military it's called flanking, take your pick!

6. Finally, and most importantly, innovation is not about YOU. Check your ego at the door. If the idea gets credited to a lunar eclipse or to another team member, who cares!? It makes the organization better, if you are working in non profit and don't understand that by now, get a job in the for profit sector, Steve Jobs pays well for innovations. I will happily let anyone take credit for any idea I come up with if it benefits us all in the end. Then, I quietly go back to my office and give myself a high five and add the innovation to my resume and move on to the next!

Click here for the presentation.

I hope these tips help you the next time you come up with the next improvement or innovation for your organization. As always, I am open to criticism and comments, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Project Managing "Mission Impossible"

Hi everyone- so sorry for the lag in posts! As some of you know it is the end of the fiscal year today for lots of us!! In addition to back to back donor relations and special events conferences where I met fabulous new friends, I was recently given the largest and most pressure packed project to manage in the past 6 days. Let's see here, how can I describe the particular hell I have been working on lately?  I figure combined, my team and I, a core group of four put in solid 14 plus hour workdays and countless hours on the train and at home reviewing the documents. There are a few key lessons that I learned during this crisis project management and I want to share them with you.

1. Have a plan- my plan started in the shower at 5am, trying to come up with a list of resources we would need and what it would take to get the job done. Then I broke that out and began to assign those parts to the staff I had that were best suited for that role, my task was primary project management and quality control, I had someone in charge of spreadsheets and data, someone in charge of logistics, and another in charge of obtaining supplies and general needs. Dividing the work helped us have clear roles and responsibilities and also played to my staff's strengths. My admins also enjoyed watching me take lunch orders and running to get coffee and soda when the caffeine and sugar had run out, no job was too big or too small for any of us, including me.
2. Communication is key, every day twice a day, the leadership wanted written updates, so before these happened we met as a team to ensure that we could give them sound updates of our progress. I was constantly on the phone or emailing those in charge ensuring they knew of our status, sanity, and progress.
3. You need to have built relationships BEFORE the crisis or project hits your plate. My team worked tirelessly side by side, with the mantra of "we can do this" we reached out to our key contacts and pulled in every favor in the book to accomplish what my VP called "mission impossible".
4. Be clear about your obstacles and where you need help. There were many obstacles to our success in this project (most of them were people). Every time I faced one, I went to the leaders, the ones who handed down the edict to "get r done" and told them of my obstacle, phone calls from "on high" were made and the obstacle disappeared. You must be truthful and non dramatic, don't make this about you or the person, keep it project focused.
5. Be prepared for the unexpected. Mid way through the project, another division decided that the project was "too much to handle" and dropped their portion back on my office. My staff was agile and focused, we already had a plan of attack for our work and enacted our plan for their division's portion seamlessly.
6. One of the largest lessons came from someone in charge of our operations who I really look up to, I was at a breaking point and someone in another division was being uncooperative, so I thought I would go to her to "vent". Instead, I learned a valuable lesson- there is no point in venting if you don't want something done about it. 30 seconds later the uncooperative party was told in no uncertain terms to "get with the program". I didn't need to vent, I needed action, and this leader made me see and realize that my venting was unproductive whining.
7. Have quality control standards. At the beginning of this project we all sat down and addressed our biggest potential pitfall, a simple mistake made due to time and pressure constraints. We are all human, but there was no room for error. Everything was reviewed three times, with the final review being mine so I would own any errors. We found mistakes, we corrected and moved forward.
8. Make your expectations of your team up front. I communicated to them that everything else in our lives and work was no longer a priority, lunches and breaks disappeared, chit chat and socializing with others became mute and we all just buckled down. To ease the tension, there was plenty of bad greasy food, loud 80s music, and horrible jokes at our own mistakes, but everyone in our unit and elsewhere knew this was our sole focus.
9. Tensions can and will erupt, my associate director and I got into a spat, over what we still haven't figured out yet, lol. But at the time we were both overworked, frustrated, and on edge. Apologies we said, we cooled down and the work continued, it wasn't personal, it was the geyser erupting and it actually helped push us forward. Crap happens, its how you deal with it and where you go from there that is important- PS- she won the fight- lol 10. Finally- celebrate!! We bought celebration candy and kept it in the fridge waiting for the moment that I had been waiting 7 days for, sending the email to the big bosses that we had accomplished the impossible. We danced, we sang, we hugged and high-fived, the sense of relief was palpable.
And later, we will do a post mortem to learn what we could have done better, how I could have been a better leader and to review our accomplishment.
I hope this helps those of you when you are assigned those impossible projects in the future and reminds you of those times when you just weren't going to make it!!
I look forward to your comments and to hear your stories as well! Have a great end of the fiscal year and long weekend for some of you!!

Cheers,

Lynne