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Zoho! Duitz dahna welcome, this is tony martignetti, the host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent and as every week, the aptly named host what a coincidence that i found this very show it’s april fool’s april one, two thousand eleven are april fool’s edition this week we’re going to be suffering no fund-raising fools on this april first you may remember first, though, last week i had back office blunders, and i’m looking jeff marston, the president of resource centers for management, explained in back off his blunders how to stop squandering money on your back office costs, and he revealed tricks to save big money on supplies, phone, energy desks and other stuff that your office needs. Also, we revisited the i’m looking recurring feature last week, we checked in with our recruiter, paula marks, and our non-profit job seeker leonora scala paula’s advice last week and a zit has every month that we’ve checked in with them helps not only paula, but you with your help’s not only leonora, but helps you also with your own search, whether that’s going on now or a search for you in the future this week. As i mentioned, no fund-raising fools on this april first day, it’s ask awareness for small shops with amy eisenstein. Amy is the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks. A guide to better fund-raising for your small development shop, and she’s going to share lots of valuable insights for opening relationships, identifying prospects, cultivating, soliciting, talking about different responsibilities for fund-raising in your small and midsize shop, and at about thirty two minutes after the hour, as always, it’s, tony’s take two, roughly thirty two. This week, it’ll be six tips to mastering your fund-raising relationships, based on a block post of mine and also a style consultant, dubbed me a profile in awesomeness this week, and i’ll share. I promise just a very little bit about that that’s, all on this week’s show after the break, i’ll be joined by amy eisenstein, and i hope you’ll stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. E-giving. Nothing. You could. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio. I’m joined now by amy eisenstein. Amy is the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks a guide to better fund-raising for your small development shop and she’s going to be with me for the hour she is the principle of tripoint fund-raising, which you’ll find at tripoint fund-raising dot com before fund-raising consulting. She helped small and large non-profits raise millions of dollars as a director of development, and as i always point out, when this is the case, that’s, the kind of experience we love on the show she’s consultant now, but she has been buy-in the development shop shops in non-profits she’s, a frequent speaker and facilitator at board, retreats she’s, also the past president of the association of fund-raising professionals, the newjersey chapter, and i’m very glad that amy’s book fifty asks and fifty weeks brings her to the studio. Amy welcome, thanks, tony, glad to be here. My pleasures go got to have you. My voice is cracked. Have you sixteen, sixteen years old going on forty nine. Let’s, see so fifty asking fifty weeks when you wrote you wrote a book, so you must have seen a problem or a gap in small and midsize shop fund-raising what was that it’s? True, when i was a one shop development office, one person development office, i should say, i really found that i was elated and in a silo and could get so sidetracked and stuck doing grant reports database management thank you notes, planning events, writing newsletters all the things that have to happen in a one person development shop, but weeks and weeks could go by without actually making and ask. And of course, as a result, i wasn’t raising much money. So i looked at the development shops around me and saw that they were having the same issue, distractions, distractions and other work that’s urgent, but not as important. Not as important as making these solicitations actually making the ask um so in a small shop on dso, we’re talking as your book does too small and midsize shops so sort of how would you define those? Right? I’m talking about shops with one development staff person or up to three, maybe or an executive director who doesn’t have any paid development staff okay, and your book is all about encouraging? Mohr asks specifically fifty and fifty weeks, and i’m not going to ask you about the formulas for fifty what counts? What doesn’t count, but we are going, you know we’ll talk obliquely about things that that relate to getting two, fifty and fifty weeks, but i’m not going to hold you to a formula. So in a in a shop that’s that size who is responsible for fund-raising and what are the responsibilities? Sure, while fund-raising is always a team effort in any size shop and so the executive director needs to be involved, any development staff that hopefully an organization has is involved as well as board members have to be involved in order for the fund-raising to go well, so really everybody has their own piece of the puzzle to dio andi, everybody plays a role and tell me what the other question waas so just what the responsibilities are, but i think we’ll get to that. That and also hoping later, to talk about what happens if you have perhaps an executive director. Who’s not comfortable with fund-raising show so well, i think we’ll dive into that there’s this time. Okay, your book is mostly about individual fund-raising right, but so let’s, just talk about how individual fund-raising fits with other types of fund-raising sure. Well, the premise is that in small shops, often the organization is focused on its fund-raising in the past, on grantwriting and events, and focus really heavily on those types of fund-raising so my book encourages organisations to diversify their funding base and branch out to individual giving, which is a huge component of philanthropic dollars in the non-profit community that they’re not tapping and right, but typically a small startup non-profit begins its fund-raising with what people understand best and actually is probably a little easier in terms of fund-raising and that is the grant writing and research not that grants are easy but can be easier than individual asking on and then also events which i think people feel they have a handle on when they get started. That’s, right, and so it’s challenging non-profits to reach out and really tap individuals, which can be harder and take longer it’s about relationship building but that’s really where the big money is, so they have to get there if they’re going to grow their shop. Okay, so the importance of making this shift from the institutional to the individual, right? Okay. And so why event let’s explore just a little bit, like a minute and a half that we have before the break? Why is event fund-raising not such a stable way of continuing and growing your non-profit to the next level? Yeah, i think that having one or two events per year is a good way of fund-raising and cultivating donors at the same time and getting the word out about your organization. But something small organizations are inundated with events. They have five, six, ten, twelve events per year, and they’re just absolutely draining. The resource is time and energy of their volunteers of their staff, and actually, events are the most expensive way to raise a dollar in fund-raising so having more than one or two is just not efficient are effective, okay? And the return on investment is quite low generally for events correct it’s the lowest return on investment of all other types of fund-raising okay, and when we returned from this break, then amy and i will delve into making that transition to individual giving from the events and institutional giving. My guest is amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks. Stay with us talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. 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Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two, eight sixty five nine to nine xero, or visit w w w died. Mind over matter. Y si dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Durney durney welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio i’m with amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks, and while we’re on the break, amy made a point that i might have misstated, you know, sort of overstated the importance of individual giving in an overall development shop, and really, the point is that you should be diversified. So please, amy, expand on that a little bit, right? I just wanted to emphasize the fact that within a small shop, when organizations are so heavily focused on grantwriting and events, they’re not diversified, but the book is about making sure that you have a diverse fund-raising plan all year long that includes grantwriting a few events, individual giving and variety of bulk mail appeals, and so it’s really about diversification and making a solid plan and sticking with it. And so yeah, so i didn’t mean to say that you eliminate grantwriting and events, but you make a transition into individual and of course, keep the other components as well. So thank you, let’s talk about a case statement because i think that’s an important for individuals want to explain what? What that is. Why it’s important? Sure, a case statement is a written document that explains basically why people should give money to your organization and why your organization exists. Why it’s important and makes the case for your for supporting your organization and developing that case, though, could be quite a challenge. I know there’s some non-profits that will maybe do ah ah long term analysis of a strategic planning to help them to build their case statement. It’s not so easy sometimes to right? That is it? Yeah, it’s definitely challenging, and once you’ve written it, what you think is a solid case statement, you should take it out and test tested on the road with several of your most loyal donors have them look at it, read it, react to it, see if it that’s why they’re motivated to give to your organization and see if it really speaks to them and make tweaks and part of developing it, and we’re spending time on because it is so important with your fear individual individual fund-raising as part of developing it, we’ve had guests that have said valuable tohave outside people, you know, aside from your board and your your fundraisers contributing to your case statement. Absolutely, yes, you want community’s perspective and input when you’re developing your case statement so that it has wide appeal, okay? And and sort of flushing out why people, why they give on dh sometimes i think non-profits find that people are giving for reasons that the non-profit itself doesn’t really realize absolutely sometimes you can be too close to an issue, and it takes the outside perspective and people who are actually giving to tell you what mate motivates them to give and that should be reflected in this written document that you’re going to show to prospective new donors. Um, and the case statement is shown sort of in what respect? I mean, how how is how is the tool house that used once you do have it crafted? Finally, how is that used in soliciting gifts from individuals? Right? I think it can be used in a variety of different ways. You can bring it with you, certainly on a first visit or a second visit and with when you’re meeting an individual for the first or second time to tell them about the organization tto learn more about them and what they’re giving interests are why? They might be interested in your organization and let them have it as a take away so that it can re emphasize your conversation and fully explain and writing. Why your organization’s important? But you would never well, i’ll ask it this way. Would you ever just say male or email a case statement to someone in lieu of a meeting? No, i mean, that defeats the purpose of the relationship building component. I mean, i guess there probably are exceptions for an organization that’s fund-raising across the country and perhaps doesn’t have the resources to send staff for board members to visit donors, you know, in other states, yes, you could develop a long distance relationship in those cases, i would mail it, but usually you want represented in person, you know, because you want to be having a conversation with talk about those relationship building steps, but it’s a zoo suggested sort of leave behind, right? Tio personal conversation? Sure. Okay. Um, so, let’s, since we’re talking about those personal interactions, those personal meetings, how do you start, too? Develop the people that you’re going. Teo asked to meet for you. Meet with you. So if you are doing just events and an institutional grant grantwriting how do you start to develop a list of people that you can hopefully talk to her at least start, you know, start to ask to talk to right? Well, there’s four steps in the fund-raising process on the first one is identification identification of new prospects or potential donors, so when you’re starting out an individual giving program, aye, the first thing i have organizations do when they’re trying to do this is look in their database, and hopefully they do have a list of supporters and previous donors, and so looking for two things in that database, one is obvious to most people it’s, their largest donors, although i cautioned them toe look at cumulative giving all that over the course of the year because if you’re looking at one time gif ts you may have somebody who gives multiple times over the course of the year, and even though none of their individual gifts are large once you combine them, obviously they turn out to be a larger donors than some people who donate one time during the year, but also important is to look in your database for loyal donors if you have any longevity or history donorsearch history in your database, safer five or ten years of giving anybody who’s given for more than five years in the last five or six years, even if their donation level is lower, i would consider a high priority of somebody that you want to get to know so that those so your databases one way hope hopefully you have some donordigital records to look at other ways. Of course they’re going to your board members and finding out who they might know who might be interested in getting to know your organization. So so the board’s roll wait, why don’t we start to talk about that? The board’s role in fund-raising you’ve just touched on one important part of it bringing people to the organization absolutely a huge part of the board’s, responsibility and fund-raising is what we say call opening doors and introducing people to the organization boardmember czar, the ambassadors of the organization and there to sort of spread the word tell the community about how wonderful your organization is, really talk it up and introduce people to the executive director and development staff and the organization. In general, that wouldn’t necessarily have those connections if it weren’t for the board members. So if you’re going to make this shift no into individual giving, you need to have bored support, absolutely. And what if? What if you sort of get bored support for the concept? But then when it comes down to asking the board members who do you know who can you bring to the next event? Who can you bring to meet the executive rector there, then reluctant to do it? What do we do? Right? I think it’s a major challenge that lots of organizations face getting the board members bought in and involved and engaged, and so there are a couple of different things to do. Won is a lot of board training and coaching, board retreats and development and talking about it so that people start to feel comfortable with the idea of introducing people to the organization, but also making sure that they understand that this is donor-centric fund-raising and we are not going to be asking people for money who don’t show an interest in the organization it’s really about communicating their passion about the organ ization to their friends. And colleagues and neighbors. And if those people respond positively that they’re also interested in the organization, then we can take it down the road of a potential donation. But it’s not like every but name that they bring to the table is going to get asked for donations. Some people just aren’t going to be interested and that’s okay, so you have to raise that comfort level with your board, and you can do that in the way. As you mentioned. Yeah. Okay. In developing again. We’re talking about identifying the prospects. Can a list of people who have come to your events cannot be a place to start? Absolutely. And we would look at those people who have given they might fall into that category or people who’d come to other events, possibly fundraisers or non fundraisers. And they should definitely be added to the list. Do the records. You alluded a couple times to the donor database. Does it have to be a computer database? Suppose this is a small, really small shop, and they’re not that sophisticated, you know, maybe they have index cards or something like that. I mean, if you worked with that, what? Do we do? Yeah, this day and age, i think that everybody should be computerized at this point, even if it’s microsoft access, which is a perfectly fine database to start with, it does not have to be a fund-raising software database that you paid for that’s, right? And so actually was at a client yesterday, and they have their donordigital basin access and for right now, that’s fine that’s more than adequate for the size organization that they are, but i was concerned and ask them if they’re donorsearch files were in boxes in paper, and i was relieved to hear that it wasn’t and microsoft access which it should be computerized this day and age several weeks ago, on a regular feature that we have where scott koegler he’s, the editor of non-profit technology news, comes on and talked about technology for non-profits and many shows ago several shows ago hey talked about cloud computing and how there are there are companies that have cloudgood based fund-raising software with ad on modules, maybe for events and for finance. Obviously, security is a concern, but i was surprised to hear that the cost of those is quite affordable, even the smallest shop it’s true, actually, lots of those internet based or cloud based. I don’t really know the difference, but software programs they charge by the number of records, and so if you have less than five hundred records or thousand records, they’re very inexpensive and totally affordable. That’s identification. So what? What did you say is the next step after identification is cultivation, innovation and how often or what are what are some steps around cultivation? Now that we’ve got? We’ve identified some people, sure, so cultivation is the relationship building process in between when you’ve identified perspective donors and before, of course, you asked them for money so it’s getting to know the person on dh, educating them about your organization. But the important part about cultivation, i think, is that it’s not one way it’s, not just the organization or a representative from the organization telling the donor prospect all about the organization it’s really asking lots of open ended questions about that perspective potential donor to get to know them, too. So examples of cultivation activities would be going out to coffee, the executive director or development staff or boardmember with that perspective donor xero organization, if that’s appropriate, it would bring be bringing them to an event, whether it’s a fundraising event or ah graduation or something that your organization does on a regular basis. So those air, different types of cultivation activities, i’m with a b eisenstein, and amy is the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks and she’s also the principal of tripoint fund-raising tripoint fund-raising dot com. Amy, a lot of charities have really sort of heartstring missions, and so that if they can bring people in to see the work that they’re doing, i would think that that’s gonna be really valuable. Absolutely, i mean, if you can bring people on a tour that is some of the best ways to cultivate donors to really learn about them, but also have them learn about your organization. So if you’re a school or an environmental organization, or if you have something to show that’s a wonderful way, hospital is a wonderful way to show prospective donors exactly what you d’oh it’s a bit more challenging with other organizations, such as a domestic violence shelter. You wouldn’t have anything to tour because it’s a confidential location and you have to be a little more creative with your cultivation opportunities, but you can definitely do it for all different types of organizations and let’s, talk about the details of this so let’s say you had a willing board. Okay, so on the ah boardmember has identified let’s, say three or four people what’s the process for from getting that person from what we’re called, what you’re calling identification to cultivation, who asked them who invites them to come? And you’ve already identified lots of things you could invite them to, but how’s it actually done sure well, in the ideal scenario, if a boardmember identifies somebody, a friend or a colleague has somebody that they would like to introduce to the organization, you would have that boardmember call and invite them either to coffee with the exec director or the development person or to the event or to a tour. So in the ideal scenario, a boardmember would reach out to their connection and invite them tto learn more about the organization and whatever way, in a less than ideal situation weather when a boardmember perhaps doesn’t know the person you want to cultivate, maybe a donor, a private prior donor to your organization boardmember could still reach out on call or development person or eggs negative director could call and say, you know, we want to thank you for your prior giving, and we’d liketo get to know you a little bit more. Introduced you more to the organization update you what have you on? Bring them in that way. Do you find that let’s say, for this first cultivation meeting that that something group setting is better because it’s less off putting to the person, or is it better to try to meet them individually and get them to get to know them one on one in that first instance, yeah, i think you want to do a combination of activities is probably the most appropriate, and it is going to depend on the individual if they’re willing to meet one on one that’s, a great way to introduce them to the organization. But if they’re more comfortable coming to a group activity that’s perfectly appropriate, too, so so maybe have, ah, couple of things to choose from. I mean, when you’re actually someone’s, actually making the invitation, maybe there’s a couple of things? Yeah, absolutely. I have three or four things on my list in front of board members you know the upcoming events, so one possibility is a tour. One possibility is the next fund-raising event, and one possibility is coffee with the executive director and sort of let them throw them out. What, however, the conversations going and invite them, and then if the person doesn’t want to come tto one they can say, well, how about something else? Andi just didn’t like thirty seconds or so we have before the break. I suppose i don’t want to come to anything supposed, the person says no, do we ignore them from now on? Or is there some other way we can still try? Yeah, i think definitely putting them on your mailing list so that they start to receive hopefully newsletters or emails about upcoming events, your annual report, those type of things and then trying again and six months or so they may have changed their mind, maybe their schedule was busy or whatever the case may be, i would give it a few more tries before stopping completely. Okay, excellent that’s a great leading to what we’re going to talk about after the break and after tony’s, take two, which is some of the direct mail, the bulk solicitation, a cz you call them in the book. My guest is amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks. And fifty weeks after this break, it’s, tony’s, take two. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhance your current marketing effort. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile marketing. Their motto is we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy contact them today. Admission one one media dot com hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business, why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour. It’s time for this week’s edition of tony’s take two my block post is called six tips to mastering your fund-raising relationships, my block is that m p g a d v dot com, and i want to touch on just three of them. Last week, i talked about three talk about three others quickly today, and you can always read mohr at the at the at the blogged getting out of the office if you’re talking about fund-raising relationships and my guest today, amy has made this point. If you’re too distracted by administrative tasks or sometimes volunteer, you know, sort of committee work, then you need to do what you can’t extricate yourself. Delegate, plead with your boss, stop volunteering, maybe so that you can spend more time out of the office, actually developing relationships that lead to the types of activities that amy and i are going to be talking about solicitation and then stewardship so spend time out of the office if your if your job is fund-raising you should be out of the office, i think more than half the time and there are a lot of people who think, you know, seventy five percent of the time you should be on the road, meeting people where they work, where they live, where they play to build those relationships, make introductions i love to see, and i always encouraging clients to use the non-profit thatyou’re fund-raising for as a leverage to bring people in and and connect them. So in events are you introducing donors to other donors and they don’t necessarily have to be in the same same profession? I guess they could be that there could be synergy there, but they don’t necessarily have to be they both people because they’re at your event love your work, so get them talking about your work. Are you introducing not only donors to donors but prospects to donors? Who better to tell the story of the great work that you’re doing? Then somebody was already supporting it? And who better to encourage additional people to do that? So be willing to make those introductions use the organization as the connection point and you’re the connector on dh. The third one i’ll talk about is just, you know, be good to people, if this is fund-raising relationship building, people like to be treated with respect and, you know, i blogged about and talked about a few weeks ago multitasking when you’re on the phone and how off putting that can be and how insincere it comes across on the phone, you want to avoid things like that, and i think basically just treat people the way you’d like to be treated, and that will help you in building sincere, honest relationships. And of course, we all know that, you know, people give to charities they love that are represented by people who they like, and they’re more likely to like you if they feel that you have ah, that’s sort of a sincere, honest relationship with them. So the blood and the block post is six tips to mastering your fund-raising relationships. And the other thing i wanted to mention is just that a style consultant image consultant friend ofmine dubbed me a profile in awesomeness, and you could see a video about that on my block. The post there is called i’m a profile in what that is tony’s take two for friday, april first and with me waiting patiently. As i talked a little longer than i usually do for tony’s, take two is amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks and principle of tripoint fund-raising amy, welcome back from that verbose break. Thank you, tony. Amy was able to go to the bathroom, go get coffee, came back with some danish lunch for the whole office in the time that i was talking to tony stick too. So we left before the break, talking about those starting to think about direct mail and and book solicitations. So what? What what advice do you have around thinking about using direct mail? Okay, so i’m going to get to that in a minute, but i just want to go back for one second to something you just mentioned in tony’s take too, and that is about being out of the office fifty or seventy percent of the time. So i think that that is accurate and appropriate, where you might have a major gifts officer or somebody who’s working on individual solicitations full time now, in my book, we’re talking two small development shop people who are doing everything they’re doing the grantwriting the event planning the newsletter, writing and all everything in between and so they’re going to have a much smaller portfolio of individual donors. So they do need to be out of the office asking a fair amount. But they are going to be in the office more than perhaps someone who’s asking for individual gifts as their full time job. Okay, excellent. Thank you for keeping that in context. And also, teo, to keep things in context, we want to be sure that people understand that your book is about not at campaign consultant, not campaign fund-raising or major gift fund-raising but it’s more about building the your initial list or your annual fund list. That’s, right? And so right. I just wanted to clarify thank you. Clarify the point that this individual asking that were encouraging people to do is really about increasing and enhancing your annual fund. It’s not about going out and getting major gifts or campaign gifts for the first time. You’re trying this stuff, so it might be a five hundred dollar donation or five thousand dollars donation towards your annual fund and that’s perfectly good to dio with individual asking. Yeah, yeah. And of course, the definition. Of a major gift varies by organization, but if we’re talking to a small shop oppcoll a sze yu said yu know fifty or even five hundred? Maybe even fifty dollars might be a sizable gift when it’s the first one that the individual has made right. And yes, we’re keeping things in context here and amy’s keeping my feet to the fire, keeping me honest, okay, so let’s talk so let’s talk about using direct mail or the book you call them book solicitations, right? Bulk solicitation, so by that i mean both traditional male as well as email. So i just think it’s important for small shop organizations to be continuously in contact with their supporters, their donors, their list via email and traditional male, and have unorganized calendar at the beginning of each year of when they’re going to be sending out email solicitations and when they’re going to be sending out mail solicitations and not just have it randomly happened when you happen to get to it but have a planned out schedule in advance on dh with the price of mail and email these days. There’s really no excuse for non-profits don’t not to be. Emailing their donors it’s so cost effective, but also it’s critically important to continually have some sort of system of mail solicitations as well traditional mail solicitations. Okay? And actually next week’s guest is going to talk about email marketing and best principles in the practices and email marketing. So now we’ve moved from we’re moving now from cultivation to solicitation, the next step in the fourth step process, right with individuals? How do you write that letter? Let’s get started, we’ll have lots of questions for you, but how do you write the letter that asks for support? Okay, so we’re talking about bulk mail, so you’re talking about a letter, but if you’re doing the individual solicitation, you’re going to do it face to face, so we’re going to talk about two different things bulk mail, letter? Absolutely. I hope most non-profits have their end of the year campaign, and that would come as a mail solicitation and so having a well written letter, obviously from very basic things like no grammatical errors, no spelling errors, but really, that tells the story of your organisation, what you accomplished that that year and some success stories, individuals, success stories. Even more importantly than all the statistics of your organisation, but talk about that one individual whose life you really impacted, so that goes a long way. Okay, do you have ah, is there a rule? Or do you have a rule about the length of the solicitation and what should be in the in the mail? And again we’ll get we’ll get to the individual face-to-face too, but showing his book male what do your tips about length and inserts and things like that? Yeah, i think opinion varies on length of letter, you know, i’ve heard everything from one to two to four pages i think is good strong one, two, two page letter is my personal preference, and you absolutely need to include a business reply envelope, something for people to send back their donation in s o that’s critical, don’t send the letter without a reply envelope, because the donations just won’t come back and and so we’re talking about the traditional male but also email it’s important teo email, solicit your donors and as well. Of course, more and more people are giving online these days, so you need to have a link that brings them to a place where they can donate right online with a credit card and there’s so many affordable options these days to donate with credit cards online. There’s no excuse for a non-profit not to have the ability to have people donate to them online with a credit card. How would we go about getting those email addresses since this is our this is our initial foray into individual giving? Where do we get that from? Yeah, i think start building your list by asking your current list in the mail for their e mail addresses. You’ll get a few that way asking for board members to start collecting email addresses of friends and family that want to receive your emails collecting them every time you do an event or an outreach or give a tour. Of course, you can only solicit by email or send e mails to people who willingly opt into your list so you don’t want to be sending e mails or spamming toe anybody that doesn’t opt in to your list, but collecting them that way, just like you would collect traditional emails, are addresses and add them to your database. Okay, who should? The letter or the e mail come from that’s. An excellent question. I think that you can change it up. Ideally a volunteer. So from a boardmember you’re bored president or the fund-raising chair, but it can. Some of them can come from the executive director, but mostly volunteer. You’d rather see a volunteer someone who’s already supporting in a different way. Absolutely. Okay, let’s, talk a little about the face-to-face solicitation. Ah, now, i know you have a lot of ideas about that in the book. What were your thoughts initially about that kind of meeting? Yeah, i think you know, when people talk about not wanting to fund-raising especially boardmember zor volunteers, this is actually the part of fund-raising that they think of as all fund-raising it’s, the ask and it’s only a ce, you know, one moment in time, one meeting as a compared to the whole fund-raising process. And so we need need to really break it down and simplify it for board members and volunteers who are going to be helping with this. But basically, it should be done in a face-to-face setting, not over a meal, preferably as many people newbies make the mistake. Of wanting to go to a restaurant because they think it’s great to go to lunch, but it really is challenging when the waiter interrupts or you’re trying to chew or eat or decide whatever the restaurant can be loud and their comm in the, you know, hearing issues, so it’s also it’s a public place and you might be talking about you’re going to be talking about, which will get two dollars in dollars and cents, right? So a meeting in the home or office of the person that you’re asking if if they’re willing to that’s where they’re most at ease, but otherwise in the organization’s office, or maybe at the board member’s office, where everybody feels comfortable, sort of neutral territory and set up that meeting to have a conversation about asking them, inviting them to support the annual fund and hopefully a boardmember will be with you explaining that they already supported the annual fund. Amy eisenstein is with me. She is the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks when we come back from this break, we’ll talk more about the individual face-to-face solicitation stay with us talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Buy-in i really need to take better care of myself if only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up eyes thisyou, mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine to nine xero, or visit w w w died mind over matter. N y c dot com do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhance your current marketing efforts. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile marketing. Their motto is. We do whatever it takes to make our clients happy. Contact them today at mission one one media dot com. Talking dot com. No. Welcome back. We’re talking about small and midsize shop fund-raising with amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks and amy before the break, we were talking about that individual solicitation meeting. Um, who should be in that meeting? Yeah, ideally, it should be a boardmember and the executive director that’s the ideal scenario for an individual meeting. But whoever has the best relationship with the person you’re going to be asking for money needs to be there on dh two is the right number it’s easier to have a conversation with three people than it is just one on one and that way? Also, somebody from the organization can be listening and asking good questions while two people dialogue okay on dh. So aside from the board, members should be the executive director or the fundraiser. Ideally, it should be the executive director. The executive director is the visionary of the organization and the face of the organization, and if you’re asking someone for a substantial donation at whatever level, they will want to be hearing from the executive director, if the executive director either isn’t available or is unwilling or is not the person the relationship has been built with then it can be a fund-raising staff person. What do you think about rehearsing this meeting beforehand? Yeah, i think rehearsal is really important. We do role playing with clients all the time before they get ready to go for an ask board members definitely need to be coached and practice with role playing and no who’s going to be doing which part of the meeting the meeting needs to be introduced and the ask needs to be made and you need to know in advance, who’s going to be doing what? Okay, so you’re not stepping on each other and looking sort of amateurish, right? Okay, plus, do you find the rehearsal? Just reduces people’s anxiety about it or doesn’t make the more anxious but it’s still necessary to do. Yeah, i think for the most part, it relieves anxiety because they know what to expect. Some people are just going to be nervous, no matter what you d’oh. But after one or two asks, go well, then they’re not nervous anymore than it’s fun. Excellent. And it ought to be mean, right? Because we’re trying to get support for a mission that we all love that’s, right? It should be fun. You make a very important point in the book about after the actual ask is made. So a person who’s asked for a dollar amount or arrange what’s what’s your point there that you’re very precise about in the book. Yeah, after the ask is out on the table, the askar is need to be quiet, i assume that’s what you’re referring neo-sage once you ask say, i’m asking, will you please consider joining me? Dahna in supporting the after school program in the range of two thousand dollars that’s the ask? Then you have to be quiet. The person that speaks first, as we say, loses, and so if you speak first, you’re likely to backpedal and say, oh, i know that’s a lot of money during the period when the donor is thinking about what they were just asked to do. The oscars need to be quiet because i’m sorry i dropped your brothers want make sure people are saying this is the hesitation period and what might i had asked her do if if they if they do blurt something out, right, right, they’re likely to back pedal, so you’re right after you ask, you need to be quiet no matter how long it takes for the person you’ve just asked to respond, whether it takes ten seconds or so five minutes, they need to think about it, process it, and you need to be ready to listen to whatever they have to say. Whether it’s yes, no, or maybe we’re going to assume that you’re asked goes well, and the person gives in the range that they were. They were just solicited because i want to spend a few minutes thinking about the next steps stewardship saying that important thank you, what’s your advice there, let’s, say it’s now that we’ve just left the meeting what’s our what’s our what? How do we start stewardship right after the meeting ends in success? Sure. Well, of course you’ve thanked the donor right before you’ve left them for the meeting. But then you go back to the office and you craft thank you note and maybe you have a draft of one written advance, but the thank you note should go out soon after the meeting. They probably haven’t handed you a check in most cases. So it’s thank for the thank you for the meeting, and we’re excited that you’re, you know, committed to supporting this activity or project or whatever, and we look forward to talking to against soon or whatever the case may be. Or you can give even details about the gift that they’ve just promised to make. And then, of course, another thank you needs to go out after the gift comes in, but thank you can be done in many ways, in person, by phone and e mail all sorts of ways by multiple people. Okay, so not just the boardmember who invited the person or not? Just the ceo, but multiple multiple thank you’s from different people. Sure, especially if there were two people at the meeting there should be. Thanks. You know, a written formal. Thank you from the organization can come from the boardmember or the executive director and the other one can call and thank or send an email. Sure. Okay. And how about after that? Now the gift has been received. We wantto cultivating the person. Probably for their next gift. Whenever that might be. We’re not everything about the timing of that. But just so how do we continue? Stewardship so that we can lead into cultivation again cultivation in seoul station again? Sure, you know, clearly you want to be inviting them to other cultivation of events, but in terms of thanking the person in six months or a year, whenever is appropriate, you want to write to them, thanked them again, and let them know what their money has done for the organization and that’s, a really critical piece that lots of organizations either forget or missed and that’s letting the donor know how important their gift was to your organization after it’s been used. Okay, what the actual outcome was in terms of maybe telling a story about the person who had helped. I mean, in that kind of detail, absolutely. If you can do that, or say what the organization’s been able to accomplish with their donation and others, you know, many times their donation hasn’t funded the whole program, our project, but thank them for their donation and the part that it played in making your organization a success this year. I also like the idea of remembering the gift anniversary, the one year point from the time that the person made the gift. What do you think about that? Yeah, i think that’s a great time, except for that you may be at that point ready to ask them for their next gift, so maybe six or eight months in, you want to thank them for their gift again and let them know how it’s going or what it’s being used for, and so that at that year point, you’re ready to ask for the next gift. Okay? And that is where we have to leave it from. Getting from the first gift to the next gift. And my guest has been amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks a guide to better fund-raising for your small development shop and she’s also the principal of tripoint fund-raising at tripoint fund-raising dot com amy, thanks very much for coming to the studio. Thanks, tony it’s been a pleasure to have you next week. As i mentioned earlier email marketing, my guest will be dave pulis principle of granite partners and he’s going to share five elements of effective email marketing and have tips for list hygiene. You shouldn’t want to be working with an unhygienic list that sounds gross, he’ll keep your list clean? I hope you’ll be part of that conversation next friday. Keep up with what’s coming up on tony martignetti non-profit radio. Sign up for our insider email alerts on our facebook page it’s, facebook dot com, of course, and then just the name of the show. While you’re there, please click like and become a fan of the show itunes, you can subscribe, download automatically download and listen on the device of your choice. Iphone, ipad, other tablet computer, that’s all at non-profit radio dot net, we’ll take you to our itunes paige, the creative producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is claire meyerhoff, our line producer and the owner of talking alternative broadcasting is sam liebowitz. Our social media is by regina walton of organic social media, who texted me during the show i’m gonna have to admonish her about that. The text during the show booker t and the mgs composed our theme music. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I hope you’ll join me next friday one p m eastern here on talking alternative broadcasting at talking alternative dot com hyre hyre miree dahna. I didn’t think you did a good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network, get in. E-giving good. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. 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