20 Plus 7 Things Community Foundations Do That Drive Me Nuts!!!

1. 20 Plus 7 Things Community Foundations Do That Drive Me Nuts!!!

2. Four Goals • Have Fun Ranting on my Soap-Box • Make Sure Everyone is Disturbed/Uncomfortable At Least Once • Make Sure You Never Hire Me for Anything… Ever • Give You at Least Three Practical Ideas

3. #1 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Constantly Hearing: “We Are the Best Kept Secret in Town!” • CF Response: • Initiative Overkill: Don’t Understand Actions Create Brands • Marketing Overkill: Deserves/Receives a Separate Slide Recommendation: 1. Focus on Top 1/2 of 1% of Market… Period

4. #2 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Constantly Hearing: “We Want More Discretionary Money” • CF Response: • Clever Ways of “Coaxing” Living Donors to Give Unrestricted • Of 500 Board Members: How Many Have Living Discretionary Funds Over $25,000? • Recommendation: • Most Discretionary Funds Come From Actuarily Attractive, Wealthy, Childless Widows • 2. Some Come From Converting Scholarship Interest Into “Teachable Moments” – Be Opportunistic!

5. #3 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Marketing Overkill • CF Response: • “Fishing with a Net” • Busy is Not Productive Recommendations: 1. Stories, Stories and More Stories 2. Use National Marketing Action Team Materials – Stop Customizing Everything!!!

6. #4 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Sales Underkill • CF Response: • Sell is Not a Four-Letter Word • CF Osmosis Does Not Work • Recommendations: • Tell Them What You Want! • Focus on Ideal Donor: Strategically Align Sales/Marketing • Shift from Service Culture to Sales Culture

7. #5 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Disengaged and Complacent Board “Deadwood” • Recommendations: • Set Expectations and Hold Them Accountable • Create Actions Any Board Member Can Select – • Hosting One “Widening the Circle” Prospect Event – 5 hours • Inviting an ideal prospect to lunch or to a prospect event – 1 hour • Setting up a targeted civic club or association speech – 1 hour • Co-presenting a talk about the Foundation – 1 hour • Introducing staff to each one of his/her professional advisors – 1 hour • Personal call to welcome new donors to CF – 3 calls for 1 hour • Ask for 3-5 Hours/Year for Development and Donor Services • Commit to 100% personal giving and/or planned gift for a fund or any • CF initiative.

8. #6 Thing That Drives Me Nuts • “Being All Things to All People” • CF Response: • CF Staff/Board Genetically Can’t Say No! • Recommendations: • Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should • Refer Out “Poor Fit” Cases: Agency Endowments, Scholarships, Small Funds, Short-Term Pass-Through Funds, Memorial Funds, Etc. - Choke Them Off by Policy or Fee • Know Your Ideal Customer – If You Had to “Fire” 90% of Your Funds, Which 10% Would You Keep?”

9. #7 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Having No Strategic or Even Unstrategic Plan • CF Response: • Completely Reactive vs. Intentional • All Challenging Funds will Find You • If You Are On Your Heels, You Aren’t In Control • Recommendation: • Have a Plan and Have the Discipline/Focus to • Unwaveringly Execute

10. #8 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Hiring Too Many Consultants and Going to Too Many Conferences • CF Response: • Copy Everything That Sounds Hot • Overly Compulsive Focus on Big Foundations • Recommendation: • If You Copy an Approach, Customize for Your CF • Use Consultants Sparingly with a Targeted Agenda • Don’t Let Every Project Become Bigger Than it Needs • to Be

11. #9 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Making a Complicated Community Foundation Structure Too Complicated • Recommendations: • Think Baseball: Throw the Ball, Catch the Ball, Hit the Ball – For CFs: Get the Money, Grow the Money, Give the Money • Again, Tell Stories!

12. #10 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Community Foundations Don’t Play Well with Others • CF Response: • I am the King/Queen of My Sandbox • 2. It is only a Best Practice if We Invent It • Recommendations: • Know Other Funders and Their Priorities! • 2. Know Other Service Providers and Their • Sweet-Spots! • You Don’t Have to Steal Best Practices from the • Field – You Can Just Ask and Say Thanks

13. #11 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Obsession with Acorns – Aversion to Oaks • CF Response: • Create Acorn Funds, Youth Advisory Councils, Giving Circles, Successor Advisor Training, Etc. • Recommendations: • 1. In Point of Fact, Most Acorns Die • 2. Focus on Oaks! Top 100 Families List • 3. Coin Analogy: Quarters, Dimes, Nickels and Pennies • 4. Incent Bigger Initial Funds and Fund Growth – Language, Fees and Services

14. #12 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Obsession over Not Competing with Local Non-Profits: You Are So Get Over It! • CF Response: • PR Campaign to Convince Others You Aren’t Competing • Annual Operating, Membership, Sponsor Drives • Compete - Operational Sustainability is When You Don’t • Recommendation: • Relax! Tell Stories about How CFs Benefit Donors • and the Community

15. #13 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Most CFs Can’t Spell Sustainability • CF Response: • I Finally Get It: “All We Sell Are Loss Leaders!” • Recommendations: • 1. There is No Magic Asset Size… Period! • Minimum Fund Size and/or Fees Going Up • Alternative Revenue Sources Should Be Equitable • and Balanced

16. #14 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Fundraising Funds, Affiliate Funds, Field-of-Interest Campaigns and Special Events • Recommendations: • From a Development and Sustainability Perspective – These Don’t Work • From a Progammatic Perspective – These May Work • All Generate Lots of Small Gifts – and SUPERSUCK • Staff Time (again “Busy is Not Productive”)

17. #15 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Not Returning Phone Calls/E-Mails in One Business Day and Other Customer Service Flubs • Recommendations: • All You Are Selling is Trust and Confidence! • Follow Through! • Embed Customer Service Performance Standards • In Every Employee Evaluation • 4. Revisit Sales Slide!

18. #16 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Inconsistent Internal and External Messaging • Recommendations: • One to Two Sentence Elevator Speech • Exercise: • Step 1: Ask Every Volunteer and Staff Member to Describe Your CF in One Sentence to a Prospective Donor. • Step 2: Laugh or Cry.

19. #17 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Product-Based Approach Rather Than a Needs-Based Customer Service Approach • Recommendations: • They Don’t Need to See the Whole Menu • Let Prospects Talk – You Don’t • Then Create the Value Meal That is Right for Them • Again, Stories!

20. #18 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Keeping Donors Happy is NOT Enough • CF Response: Survey, Survey, Survey • Recommendation: • Focus on Perfect/Ideal Donor Characteristics and Intentionally Move Them There • Actively grants out of fund each year • Attends at least one CF function annually • Makes annual contributions to the fund • Does 100% of giving through the fund • Makes responsive grants to a CF mailing • Requests grant assistance • Refers ideal donor • Serves on CF committee or is a volunteer • Creates a planned gift • Actively co-invests with CF priorities

21. #19 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Actively grants out of fund each year Attends at least one GCF function annually Makes annual contributions to the fund Does 100% of giving through the fund Makes responsive grants to a GCF mailing Requests grant assistance Refers ideal donor Serves on GCF committee or is a volunteer Creates a planned gift Actively co-invests with GCF priorities Measure Key Foundation Outcomes, Not Everything! • Recommendations: • 1-2 Page Dashboard Reports on 8-10 Key Success Measures to Key Internal Staff/Volunteers is Usually Sufficient • Don’t Spend More Time Measuring the Thing You Are Supposed to Be Doing! • Yet Again, Busy is not Productive!

22. #20 Thing That Drives Me Nuts Poor Care and Feeding of Professional Advisors • Recommendations: • Thank Them Profusely! Board/President and Publicly and Privately • Newsletter, Annual Meeting, Web, etc. • They are Your Unpaid Sales Force!

23. Five More Things That Should Have Made the List! 1. Non-Standardization – “Exceptions to Exceptions to Exceptions” are Kryptonite 2. Meaningless Mission Statements – “We want to improve the lives of people in our region.” 3. Recognize Your Value, Grow a Spine and Price Confidently/Accordingly – “Remember, Basic Cable is $50/month” 4. Grandfathering is Taking the Grandchildren to Disney – It is Not a Prudent Policy 5. Failure to Set Expectations of Staff, Board and Donors – “Don’t Complain when They Don’t Know What You Want Them to Do!”

24. And Two More Bonus Irritations! • “Our” is a Very, Very Dangerous Word! Think about what “We made a grant from our unrestricted pool” conveys, and most importantly, doesn’t convey - #123rd lost teachable moment! And please change the word “unrestricted” to something less milk-toast! 2. “Bryan You Don’t Get It – We Don’t Have the Wealth of (Insert Larger City within a 3 Hour Drive)” Remember the “Two Kinds of Beer Story”?

25. Were The Goals Accomplished? • Have Fun Ranting on my Soap-Box • Make Sure Everyone is Disturbed/Uncomfortable At Least Once • Make Sure You Never Hire Me for Anything… Ever • Give You at Least Three Practical Ideas