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What Your Nonprofit’s Emblematic Story Says about You

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Your organization may have many success stories to tell. I hope it does! but what is your emblematic success story?

emblem, n. an object or its representation, symbolizing a quality, state, class of persons, etc.; symbol. 

Spiderman emblemSome emblems are visual. When you see the image at the right, you think, Spiderman–hero–using his powers for good.

Some emblems are stories. Can you tell a story about your organization and a time it succeeded that will let people know who you are and what you’re all about– as clearly as the costume does for Spiderman?

An Emblematic Story about Preventing Homelessness

The Somerville, Massachusetts anti-poverty agency CAAS prevents people from being evicted and becoming homeless. When I worked there, I heard this story.

A Brazilian family came to the Portuguese-speaking Housing Advocate at CAAS, Sylvia, for help. They had fallen behind on their rent, and their landlord wanted to evict them. They wanted to stay.

Sylvia looked at the rent the landlord was charging them. She was horrified. “This rent is much higher than the market rate!” she told them. “No wonder you couldn’t pay it!”

“We didn’t know that,” the family said. “We don’t speak much English. The landlord comes from the same part of Brazil that we do. We thought we could trust him. We didn’t think he would take advantage of us.”

“But he did,” Sylvia said. “You don’t really want to stay there. You want to move somewhere with a reasonable rent that you can afford.”

“Fine,” the family said, “but who is going to take us as tenants when we’re five months behind on the rent?”

Sylvia swung into action. She arranged free legal services for the family. In court, the judge ordered them to pay what they could immediately, and he gave them three more months of living in the same place before they had to either pay in full or face eviction. That was three months extra for them.

After the hearing, the landlord was fuming to his lawyer in the hall. “You told me I would get these people out right away!” Sylvia sensed the chance to make a better deal for the family. She grabbed them and their lawyer and the landlord and his lawyer and started negotiating. Finally, they agreed:

  • The family would pay what they could, as the judge had ordered.
  • They would stay in their apartment for only one more month.
  • The landlord would forgive all the back rent.

And Sylvia helped the family apply to Catholic Charities for assistance paying first and last month’s rent at a new place they could afford. Instead of facing homelessness, they would be housed stably for the long term.

What Your Emblematic Story Says about You

Now, consider what you know about CAAS from this story.

  1. The agency hires staff who speak languages besides English.
  2. It serves clients who were born in the U.S. and clients who were born in other countries.
  3. It partners with other agencies to get legal and financial help for the people it serves.
  4. It doesn’t just stop at the problem that’s being presented (the threat of eviction). It recognizes and tries to solve the underlying problem.
  5. Housing advocates at this agency think creatively and advocate boldly.
  6. Like Spiderman, they use their powers for good.

What is your emblematic story? What does it say about your organization?

TY Thursday: Thankful for Nonprofits & Their Allies

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Last week I sent out my heartfelt thank you to nonprofit organizations. Nick Morpus at Capterra has published a list of seven reasons why we all should be grateful to nonprofits:

  1. Kindness begets kindness. Nonprofits inspire individuals to do good too.
  2. Nonprofits address problems that are too stigmatized for politics, often more quickly than government can do.
  3. There’s a nonprofit for everybody. Just ask.
  4. Nonprofit staff sacrifice a lot to bring about change. Too much, in fact. Thank them in the coming year by supporting higher salaries!
  5. Nonprofits bring communities together. It could be the broader community, or it could be creating a community out of people who care for the same issue.
  6. Nonprofits foster an appreciation for the arts. And not only arts nonprofits. Many the youth program makes poetry, music, drawing, or videomaking a part of people’s lives.
  7. Nonprofits teach us humility.  As Morpus says, “Nonprofits not only provide aid to those in need, but they also provide perspective of just how good our lives truly are.” (And that’s true even if we are the ones in need.)

Thanks also to organizations that serve nonprofits

It’s easy to cheer the do-gooders. It’s harder to remember the people who make the do-gooding possible.

So today, I want to express my gratitude to:

When we talk about nonprofit work, we rightly put our clients first, and feature or front line direct service staff second. These people and what they do make the best stories. They show how our nonprofit is making the change in the world that is its reason to be, in the first place.

Once in a while, though, look behind the curtain. See the allies without whom nonprofit work would be difficult or impossible. Today, I say thank you to them. Enjoy your Thanksgiving Day!

Sent Your Fundraising Appeal? 3 Things to Do While You Wait

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Waiting for the mailYou’ve written the best fundraising letter you can: maybe, the ideal appeal letter.

It’s in the mail. The donors will get it next week.

Now what? Is there anything you can do besides waiting for the mail? (Or the online payments, of course.)

Yes! Here are three ways you can follow up on that fundraising letter: by phone, by email, and by social media.

Follow Up with a Phone Call

Even a polite voicemail message increases the chances that your donors will renew their support for you this year. But there are worse and better ways to make that phone call.

The worst thing you can do is to call someone who doesn’t want to hear from you by phone. My wife and I tell everyone who calls us, “We prefer not to give over the phone. Mail us.” If they call again, we send our donations somewhere else. And there are lots of people like us!

A good way to reach out is by having a well-trained volunteer call and start by thanking the donor for their past support. Give the donor a sense of accomplishment: “Thanks to you, twenty children had lunch every day this school year.” Tell them, “Your help is still needed.” Ask for a specific amount.

It’s even better if the caller is a donor like them. “Thank you. Here’s what we did together.” Better still if the caller is a donor AND a board member. You’re complimenting your donor by letting them know they’re worth the board’s attention and time.

The best, the absolute best thing you can do? Find a friend of that donor to make the call. Someone who knows them well and can speak to them from the heart about how much they appreciate the donor’s gift. When your friend is grateful for your donation, of course you have to renew!

ET, Phone from Home?

Now, to my mind it’s a real toss-up whether it’s better to ask your volunteers to call from their homes or get them together for a “phone bank.”

  • Ask them to call from home and it’s more convenient for them, but they may forget… and you may have to work harder to find out who they reached and who they didn’t.
  • Invite them to call together and you create camaraderie among those who show up, and you can be on hand to answer any questions, live…but fewer people will volunteer in the first place.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Do what fits your organization the best.

We’ll talk about using email and social media to follow up your fundraising letter in future posts. For now, happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

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