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Joan Flanagan

Fundraising does not determine the health of an organization. The health of an organization determines its fundraising success. Joan Flanagan. Module One. Presenter and Developer Dr. Khalifah Ramadan 716 812-1404 kramadan@aol.com. GRANTS FOUNDATIONS GOVERNMENT CORPORATE. O R G A N

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Joan Flanagan

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  1. Fundraising does not determine the health of an organization. The health of an organization determines its fundraising success. • Joan Flanagan

  2. Module One • Presenter and Developer • Dr. Khalifah Ramadan • 716 812-1404 • kramadan@aol.com

  3. GRANTS FOUNDATIONS GOVERNMENT CORPORATE O R G A N I Z A T I O N CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS IN-KIND DONATIONS FEE FOR SERVICE MEMBERSHIP DUES INDIVIDUAL GIVING SPECIAL EVENTS

  4. Giving USA 2005 • How much total money was contributed by Americans in 2004 to all types of charitable organizations? • Nearly $250 billion

  5. How Much Came From The Different Funding Areas? • Giving by Bequest – 8% • Giving by Foundations – 11.6% • Giving by Businesses, Corporations, and Corporate Foundations – 4.8% • Individual donors – $187.92 billion (75 % of all funding)

  6. Hot Tip:Raising Funds is About Building Relationships and Networks

  7. Module 1: Case Development and Articulation Building an Integrated Development Plan

  8. Four Elements of an Integrated Development Plan • Case Materials • Budget • Operational Plan • Annual Calendar

  9. Process for Developing the Plan • Review what documents you already have – or just created from Strategic Planning

  10. Process for Developing the Plan • Call the full development staff together to help generate an overall statement expressing your department’(s)’ vision and goals regarding donor and fund development including: • Relationship building with your members/donors • Movement of members and donors into increasing levels of financial and mission commitment • The benefit to the community that will be achieved through your increased development activity • How successful capacity building will benefit your agency

  11. Process for Developing the Plan • Identify an “IDP Team” who will be responsible for guiding the planning process (cross-departmental) • For each portion of your plan, consult the related materials and begin looking at how they can support your plan

  12. Defining Case: It Starts with Case Materials Kept Internally • “Case” is the sum total of all the reasons why someone should support you -- often called the “case for support” • It is the informational backdrop from which all development and fund raising materials are derived • Materials are tailored to respond to the interests and values of a potential donor • Case materials include all the information about your agency that someone might want to know

  13. What You Need to Create (or Find in the Files) to Build a Case • Mission statement • Vision statement • Values statement(s) • Goals and Objectives from the agency’s strategic plan • Description of your programming philosophy and your programming

  14. What You Need to Create (or Find in the Files) to Build a Case • Description of your community outreach and programming, and your community partnerships • Description of your facilities • Anecdotal and statistical evidence of your impact in your community/communities • Description of your system of governance including annotated lists of members

  15. What You Need to Create (or Find in the Files) to Build a Case • Description and lists of your staffing, with resumes for key leaders • Financial information regarding sources of funding and allocation of funding • History of your agency: the founding, the founders, the heroes, the lore • You have a checklist with these “items” -- put one or two people in charge of the hunting expedition; ask appropriate people to create missing materials

  16. Why Do You Need All This for Your Integrated Development Plan? • To create a reservoir of case information that can be updated and drawn on easily and frequently • To create a primary resource for positioning your asks and your new community communication • Because “systems liberate” – if you do it right once, and keep it updated, it will be a tool that you can use over and over • Because it is really tiring to have to reinvent the entire wheel every time you have a funding opportunity

  17. What Do You Do With All This Once You Have it Together? • Dedicated file in the computer with password access • Hard copy in a centrally located binder so people can read, edit and use • You don’t have to make it “read” like a single document: it is intended to be a compendium of the bits and pieces you need for a variety of development purposes

  18. What Do You Do With All This Once You Have it Together? • Schedule updates for case materials based on timing, changes or accomplishments • Encourage use of these materials by marketing and outreach as well as by development

  19. Next Step: Translating Case Materials into Case Expressions Taking the Case to Major Donors and the Marketplace in General

  20. Case Expressions (Case Statements, Proposals, Brochures, etc.) • Consistent messaging (from “entry to exit” and through the pipeline) is a major goal • All messages are drawn from the internal case materials • They are tailored for specific purposes or audiences but have the same core theme and positioning

  21. Case Expressions (Case Statements, Proposals, Brochures, etc.) • Case expressions are written to meet the interests and needs of the audience or purpose • In pledge it is on-air, in direct mail in a letter, at a special event in the PR and information provided, in major giving, this is often a proposal or a presentation; in planned giving, this may be a brochure

  22. Case Expressions: The Message Framework • Focus on results/impact, not agency needs • Emphasize investment opportunity, not obligation to give • Convey the idea that a gift to you is really a gift through you into the community • Promote social investment and values-based return, not premiums provided in exchange for a gift

  23. Case Expressions: The Message Framework • When “urgency” is part of the message, it is the urgent need to provide community outreach, an familiar partner and excellent programming – not the urgent need for money • No apologies (or guilt trips) when asking for money; instead reflect pride in the way the agency is meeting community needs and providing quality programming for children and adults

  24. Case Expressions: The Message Framework • Consistent messages throughout all parts of the agency: from direct mail to the website to special events promotion that each embody the messaging shift • Purpose of outreach and materials shifts from making a sale to building a relationship: your agency will change from being a vendor to being a strategist and facilitator in building long term investor relationships • Refresher: The 3 Stages of Development

  25. Three Stages of Development FormativeNormativeIntegrative Who Vendor Facilitator Strategist What Product Relationships Growth Partnerships Skills Sales Marketing Building/Maintaining Relationships Results Making Building Assuring continued a Sale Relationships growth

  26. Check Up: What Will Need to Change in Your Messaging? • Think of the messages you are now sending (from all parts of the agency). How well do they align with the points just reviewed? • Closely Somewhat A big gap! • Are the messages used in three stages of development so you are consistent in the community? • Yes No Somewhat • What key changes will you need to take to bring your messages into an alignment with the principles? Mark the one with greatest priority. • Reposition “urgency” Emphasize “through” not “to” • Focus on impact Begin downplaying premiums

  27. A Donor-Centered Universe • We have to meet donors’ needs even while they are meeting ours. • We have to shift our world view from what we see in our mirrors to what we see through our windows. • The shift in case positioning is designed to provide more obvious messages with which donors can connect. Anecdotal research done in 2000 for High Impact Philanthropy provided this information about 21st Century donors:

  28. Donor Centered Universe • Donor-investors invest in organizations where they see or find: • Issues (they care about that reflect their values) • Involvement (to the degree they want to be involved) • Impact (the difference you are making and how you measure it – transparency and accountability are no longer optional)

  29. Donor Centered Universe • Ideas (what are you doing that’s new? Can you solve the problem or provide the resource? What is your vision?) • Investment (high return on their values; great management of their social investment)

  30. Check Up • What do you know about your current or potential donors? • Lots Some A little Not much at all • How well are you positioning your agency as a viable social investment partnering with the community to meet critical educational, cultural, health or other needs? • Very well Good OK Not well

  31. Check Up • Are your current messages to potential or current donors “donor-centered” or “agency need-centered”? • Donor-centered Agency need-centered • Of the five “I”s, which three are you the best at communicating, offering or acting on? Issues Ideas Involvement Impact Investment

  32. Mission, Vision, Values: Integral to Effective Case Expressions • Reminders: • Mission = why you exist • Vision = what your agency wants to become or do, and what will happen in the community as a result of your agency’s vision • Values = shared beliefs within an organization and with donors and members that frame decisions, actions and the measurement of outcomes

  33. Remember The Role Mission Plays in Donor Motivation • Connects with donor values • The mission is often why donors feel the “click” • Measure mission alignment: premium-based membership drives often do not embody mission, leading to “donor dissonance” • “User emotion” + “Agency functionality” = mission language • If you are struggling with your mission, work to complete the sentence: “We exist because…”

  34. Vision: The Bridge from Membership to Major Giving • Donor growth goes through four stages: impulsive = new member habitual = renewed member thoughtful = donor careful = major/planned donor • Donors need to get excited about a vision in order to move up that ladder • Shared vision grows members into investors and is the “glue” for the relationship

  35. Values Basis of Major Giving • Values are the shared beliefs that lead to long term investment • People only give to, ask for, join or serve organizations whose values they share • Values are the basis of issues, and issues drive 21st Century philanthropy • We uncover and develop shared values through our messaging, stewardship and outreach/interaction with members and donors • Shared values are the basis of donor loyalty and retention

  36. Benefits of this Approach in All Case Expressions: A Review • Attracts members for the right reasons (the true premium is the experience) • Helps retain members and convert them to donor-investors • Develops common language points among all fund raising and marketing programs and allows tailoring to specific needs or audiences • Gives a consistent message to the community about your agency and its impact

  37. Internal and External Messaging • Internal markets • Messaging within the agnecy is as important an early step as external marketing • Be sure there are not two levels of commitment to the new way of looking at the message and the market (internal and external) • External markets • Members, donors, community partners, institutional funders and other social investors in the agency

  38. Tailoring the Case • Process driven by special or on-going need (e.g.) • Annual report • Proposals • Website updates • Brochures for campaigns or giving programs • Process involving staff and volunteers • Gain consensus by committee, but have a single writer • Volunteers, with guidance, can be very effective helping you in the development of case expressions

  39. Articulating the Case for Support To Attract Donor-Investors • Start with key management staff and the board or other lead volunteers mastering the new messages • Integrate into programs to begin changing the perception of your agency • Evaluate your current published materials and devise a plan if they need changing as budget and other resources permit

  40. Articulating the Case for Support To Attract Donor-Investors • Check the messages you post on your website: are you communicating the mission, vision and values you want people to share? • Evaluate your “boiler plate” foundation proposals and grant applications: are they consistent with the new messaging?

  41. Articulating the Case for Support To Attract Donor-Investors • Focus your personal interaction with prospective and current donors in cultivation and stewardship activities • Stay “on point” when making solicitations (don’t backslide to presenting the needs you have rather than the needs you meet)

  42. Evaluating Your Case Expressions • Windows, not mirrors: review case regularly to ensure consistency with community needs • Implement a system for keeping case materials current and case expressions lively and on message: invite honest internal and external feedback • Involve donors in the feedback: this strengthens relationships • Revisit values with board and staff at least annually and then compare what they generate as key values with what you are communicating to the community

  43. Impact of New Messaging on Agencies: Change is in the Air • Shift in case positioning will signal a shift in the way the agency views its members and donors (as investors) putting a new priority on longer term relationships and investments • The vision incorporated into the case also conveys certain changes that will be taking place throughout the agency as major giving resources are increased and strengthened • All messages should convey the excitement and impact that additional resources will generate for the agency

  44. Check Up:Messages and Change • Are you ready to start conveying “new messages” in your case expressions? • Yes No Already started • What resources will you need the most to make the shift? Help with change Help with case development Facilitation of a board and/or staff session on messaging

  45. Summary of Key Points • Case expressions are varied and tailored; they are drawn from internal case materials • Case materials and expressions need to be reviewed and updated regularly • Mission, vision and values are the platform for all case expressions • Nearly all case expressions going forward will require new messaging • Involvement of staff and board in creating, evaluating and articulating the case is key

  46. Checking In Are there questions about the content?

  47. Implementation Assignment – Module 1: Using your Board and Volunteers in Case Development

  48. Implementation Assignment for Module 1:Using your Board and Volunteers in Case Development • The development (or refinement) of your case for support is a key part of your integrated development plan (materials creation and gathering; case expressions). • While the “hunting and gathering” of information will be done by staff, the board or other committed volunteers play a key role.

  49. Implementation Assignment for Module 1:Using your Board and Volunteers in Case Development • We have provided a meeting agenda in the binder if you need a guide. • Get the board members together with key administrative and development staff for a meeting that will focus on the following areas related to the material covered in Module 1

  50. Implementation Assignment for Module 1:Using your Board and Volunteers in Case Development • Agency mission • Agency vision including vision for the community • Agency values as presented in materials and programming and how they can be conveyed in ways that reflect new messages designed to attract major donor-investors

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