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TY Thursday: Nonprofits, Thank by Offering Help

March 31, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Help from my friendsIn the nonprofit world, we talk about our donors as “friends of” our organization. But when they hit a rough patch, do we act like friends to them?

Think about what you do for your personal friends when they fall sick, or lose their jobs, or have a death in the family. Do you:

  • Send a card, or flowers?
  • Cook a meal and drop it by?
  • Do something nice for their kids?
  • Refer them to good doctors, or employers, or other helping professionals?

There’s no reason our nonprofits can’t do that too.

How Nonprofits Can Offer Help

Sending a get-well card to a donor who is seriously ill is a gesture that’s always appreciated. Make sure to have people sign it personally–as many people who know the donor as possible!

Sending a sympathy card also matters, a lot. I can tell you that from personal experience. When my brother died in October 2014, clients and colleagues reached out to my wife and me, and every one of them made us feel surrounded by love.

(Be careful with flowers, however. Some people are allergic, and it’s not a Jewish custom. Sending a food tray might be better. Ask someone who knows the mourners well–and find out if they keep kosher, or halal, or eat only vegetarian or vegan food, too. You want to give them something that actually helps!)

If you have a program for children, then it’s a natural to offer the children of the donor’s family a free pass, or transportation, to do something fun for them. Adults need time to themselves sometimes, and that’s a gift you can give the whole family.

And you or a partner organization may be able to give your donor legal advice, or healthcare, or assistance accessing the legal, health, housing, or food benefits they need. The anti-poverty agency where I used to work did just that for a longtime donor and for a friend of a Board member.

What Not to Do

When a longtime friend of your organization is having a hard time, that’s the wrong time to ask them for money. If common decency isn’t enough reason for you to check your campaign calendars and take people recovering from surgery or people in mourning off your list for once, think of this: do you want people to think of their loved one’s death every time they think of you?

If the donor is really a “friend of” your organization, then treat him or her like a friend.

 

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Hate Fundraising but Love Making Friends? This Book’s for You

April 24, 2015 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

What if joining a nonprofit’s Board meant doing things you love?

Hildy Gottlieb

Author Hildy Gottlieb

Hildy Gottlieb thinks that’s what it should mean. If you’re on a nonprofit Board of Directors and find fundraising next to impossible, run out and get her book  Friendraising: Community Engagement Strategies for Boards Who Hate Fundraising but Love making Friends (2nd edition). You’ll be glad!

Very few of us find it a thrill to ask people for money (and they are mostly on staff, not on the Board). But many of us like to:

  • Learn more about how our favorite organization changes lives
  • Have coffee with a friend and catch up on what we’re doing
  • Write a letter to the editor
  • Interview a local leader about community needs
  • Have a party!

We in the nonprofit sector sometimes shy away from the things we love. We have the puritanical attitude that if we’re having fun, we must not be doing the right thing. It’s time to get over that–for ourselves and for our our Boards.

The 89 strategies that Hildy suggests in Friendraising are not frills. They are necessities! Each of these enjoyable activities is also vital for building the relationships that bring you suggestions, volunteers, partners, and money.

The book includes brainstorm sheets that will help Board members think of people–and not just “rich people”–they could be turning into friends of the organization, and sample questions to ask. It also offers many charming examples from Hildy’s own experience creating the first Diaper Bank in the country. Her stories will inspire you and show you that you, too, can strengthen your organization by doing the things you love.

Friendraising is the biggest part of fundraising. Share on X As a Board member, this book will help you find a way to make friends for an organization that suits your personality.

If you’re an Executive Director or a Development Director, you can use it to help your Board members become excited, active, and proud. Then “the ask” will be up to you, and it will be easy…because you’ll be speaking to a friend.

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