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Grip & Rip Leadership for Social Impact: a review

March 21, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Wayne Elsey photo

Author Wayne Elsey

If you enjoy reading books about leadership, or inspirational books, you will recognize a lot of what Wayne Elsey does with his brief book Grip & Rip Leadership for Social Impact.

Using a catch-phrase to brand his books. Listing traits and qualities that make a good leader. Relentlessly focusing on the individual and what you can do, not the structure of the organization you work in, and not the political or economic constraints you face.

The great thing about this book is that makes it seem so simple to start improving things where you are right now. And the drawback of the book? It makes things seem so simple.

The Best Thing in the Book is the Stories

I don’t remember Elsey’s seven principles right after I read them, and I don’t think it would make much difference if I did. They are pitched at too general a level to be of much use day to day. For me, and I suspect for many nonprofit professionals, the best part of the book will be the stories.

Michele was hired to work with major donors, then assigned to write grant proposals. Her boss forced her to lie about the organization’s budget. Terrible leadership!

The VP of Development at another nonprofit was told it was impossible to send out acknowledgments within 48 hours. She tested by doing the work herself.

She asked for a couple hundred unopened donation envelopes delivered to her office. Then she personally set time aside to see how long it would take for her to open the envelope, scan the information, look up the donor in the database, key in the necessary information, check amount, and create a batch.

By doing it personally, she found a way to do it faster. Model leadership!

Transforming a Nonprofit via Servant Leadership

Elsey advocates something called “transformational servant leadership,” but he doesn’t really explain it. If you want to grasp the concept, Tripp Braden’s blog Developing Serving Leaders is a better place to start.

But Elsey makes clear that you’re not going to get anything worthwhile done unless you do it as a team. I admire what he does in chapter 12, where he shows how a leader can empower the team she or he works with. For example:

  • If you want to change your colleagues’ attitude, model the change yourself
  • Support their work by investing in their training and professional development.
  • Set clear expectations, provide resources, and hold people accountable.
  • Encourage experimentation, and learn from failure.
  • Pay a living wage so your staff can make a commitment to their work.

Figuring out how to do these things would take a longer book. But Elsey has given us some good places to start. If you are NOT someone who usually reads leadership manuals or inspirational writing, you needn’t linger over it, but you should read it, take notes, and put the good ideas to work.

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Thank-You Thursday: Make It Personal

March 17, 2016 by Dennis Fischman 1 Comment

donor impact

Tell a story to show the difference the donor made

Previously, I told you how Global Giving made me decide to renew my donation for Nepal earthquake relief, only one week after I first gave. They won me by telling me the impact my donation is already making.

I’m a junkie for that feeling of making a difference! And I’m not alone.

One of the biggest reasons donors renew their support for your organization is that you tell them what difference their donation makes. And one of the biggest reasons they stop supporting you is that you don’t tell them what you did with their gift (and all the good that happened as a result).

But what’s the best way to make the impact of their donation seem real?

Making the Impact Personal

Northeastern University told my friend Amy Wyeth the impact her donation made. Or more exactly, Nicole Bourque told her.

Nicole is a Northeastern student who dreams of becoming a Physician Assistant. She called Amy on the phone, thanking her for her donor renewal. She followed up with an email, and told Amy her story.

“I grew up in a small town in southern New Hampshire, where people watch out for one another,” Nicole said. At the university, she was president of a student body that drew attention to the ways our health system serves some people better than others. In her career, Nicole plans to bring primary medical care to communities that don’t have enough healthcare.

Nicole thanked Amy personally for the chance to attend the university.

Without the financial support of donors like you, many of the scholarships I received would not exist. And I would not have been able to pursue my education here.

Amy was impressed. Wouldn’t you be? Here is a real person, feeling the impact of Amy’s donation right now, and thanking her. What better proof could a donor ask for that their gift was making a difference?

Don’t Wait for Next Year

It’s always a good time to thank people for their gifts–and it’s always a good time to start working for donor renewal. Tell personal stories that show impact when you:

  • Automatically acknowledge an online gift
  • Send a thank-you letter within a week of the donation
  • Send a welcome series of emails following the initial donation
  • Publish your newsletter
  • Post to social media
  • Meet your donors face to face

What’s the best story you know that shows donors how they’re making a difference?

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Fundraising Tuesday: Remember My Gift. I’m Not Joking!

March 15, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

you forgot meOne of my favorite knock-knock jokes starts out sounding like it’s not a joke at all.

“Dear friend, will you always remember me?”

“Yes, I will always remember you, Dennis.”

“Will you remember me tomorrow?” “Yes.”

“Will you remember me next week?” “Of course!”

“Will you remember me next year?”

“Yes, I will remember you next year. I will remember you forever.”

“Okay…knock, knock.” “Who’s there?”

(Making a sad face) “Aw, you forgot me already!”

You laugh–but do your nonprofit organization’s donors say, “You forgot me already?”

They might–if you send them the same fundraising letter that you send to someone who’s never, ever made a donation before.

How to Show Donors You Remember

Let’s assume you’re calling your donors by name in the salutation of your letter. And getting the name right! Not doing that is the quickest way to lose a donor.

You still need to show your donor that you know the person behind the name.

Donors don’t want to be just names on a list. They want to know that when they gave, you noticed. How can you show them that?

  • At least, you can say to them: “Thank you for your gift of $100 on December 22.”
  • Better: “Thank you for your gift of $100 on December 22 to help low-income families pay their heating bills.”
  • Better yet: “Because you gave a generous gift of $100 on December 22, one family in our town had heat all through the winter.”
  • Best of all, tell them a story about the difference their donation made:

Jackie and John were afraid that their three children would have to sleep in their coats and under an inch of blankets this winter. They had only enough money to heat their apartment through the end of January. But your generous gift of $100 on December 22 helped them keep the heat on all the way to March. Jackie and John thank you, and so do we!

Now, here’s another way you can help.

What It Takes to Remember Your Donors

In order to send the right letters to the right people, you have to find out about those people, and what they care about.

Who they are

The simplest thing to find out is whether they are donors or prospects. In other words, have they given before or not? If you have any kind of database, it’s easy to find out which is which. Separate the two lists and send them different letters.

(This sounds like a no-brainer. You wouldn’t call your spouse on the phone and talk as if you were arranging a first date, would you? So why would you write your loyal supporters as if they were people who had never given before? But when I looked at all the fundraising letters I received at the end of 2015, 60 out of 90 letters I received used exactly the same language to me that they would use to someone who had never given them a penny! You can do better than they did.)

Most databases will also let you find your LYBUNT and SYBUNT donors (“Last Year But Unfortunately Not This Year” and “Some Year But Unfortunately Not This Year”).  People who used to give, gave for a reason. If you can figure out that reason and write your appeal accordingly, you may get them back–but not if you treat them like they never gave, or the previous gift didn’t count!

What they care about

Let’s face it: only a few people give because they care about your organization. You. Your mother. Who else?

sleep-under-covers-759x397Most donors give because they care about the people you serve (like the family who didn’t need an inch of blankets to keep from freezing last winter). And probably, each donor cares about some clients and some issues more than others.

Just like you separated out your donors from your prospects, you should be able to separate out the people who give to keep the heat on from the people who give to make sure the kids have summer jobs. The difference is, your database can tell you their donation history. For their interests, you have to do a little detective work yourself.

How many letters?

So, you could send separate letters to donors, past donors, and prospects, varying by their specific interests. And you might want to do that. It’s not a whole new letter you have to write each time: it’s tweaking the elements that let the recipient know you remember him or her as a person–not an ATM.

It’s not a huge amount of time, and it’s not a huge amount of money (especially if you send some of those messages by email). And it could bring a lot of donor renewals, making more money than you spend!

But if you choose to do just one thing differently after reading this blog, choose to write a different letter to donors than you do to the world at large.

Knock, knock.

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