Tag Archives: non-profits

My Three Month Prediction

Wilmington Trust quoted me in its Quarterly Trends Update about the state of Planned Giving fundraising. You can find it in the, “Planned Giving is Still an Important Fundraising Option” section on page two.

I’m comfortable making three month predictions. Come August, a wiser and more august prognosticator will take my place and readers will have forgotten my forecast. That feels safe.

Nonprofit Radio, May 4, 2012: Survey Savvy & Content Marketing

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Listen live or archive:

My Guests:

Paul Gearan
Paul Gearan: Survey Savvy

Paul Gearan, a partner at Professional Survey Group, explains how surveys are cultivation tools for your donors. You can increase awareness of your work; gauge willingness to support; heighten sensitivity to challenges; and get feedback on how you’re doing. But you have to do it right if you want reliable results.

Please take a moment to take the survey for this week’s discussion with Paul. You’ll find it here at the end of the guest and segment descriptions. Thank you! If you could also share it with other nonprofit professionals, I would appreciate it.

Scott Koegler
Scott Koegler: Content Marketing

Scott Koegler is our long-standing technology contributor and the editor of Nonprofit Technology News. This month he encourages you to give away high quality, interesting content through your blog. You are blogging, right?

 
 
 
 


Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Here is a link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CXHJPHR


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No. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio for may fourth twenty twelve big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent i’m your aptly named host i do hope you were with me last week, i couldn’t stand knowing that you had missed, get monthly givers and strategic organizations, raised more money, get monthly givers was bob wesolowski the president of caring habits, and he helped us get habitual monthly donors through electronic funds transfer. A lot of people know that as ft that was pre recorded, a tte philanthropy day two thousand eleven and strategic organizations raised more money. My guest was starita ansari, president and chief change officer at msb philanthropy advisors. She encouraged you to organize thoughtfully around your mission, looking strategically at your inputs, outputs and outcomes to boost your fund-raising revenue that was also pre recorded at philanthropy day last year. This week, survey savvy paul gear in a partner at professional survey group explains how surveys are cultivation tools for your donors. You can increase awareness of your work gage, willingness to support it, heightened sensitivity to challenges and get feedback on how you’re doing. But you have to do it right if you want. Reliable results and content marketing. Scott koegler is our long standing technology contributor, he’s, the editor of non-profit technology news, and this month he encourages you to give away high quality, interesting content through your blogged you are blogging, aren’t you between the guests, tony’s take to philanthropy jargon, do you speak and write in terms that people can understand? You can use hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us on twitter were also on linked in i’ll say more about that later on, tony’s metoo right now we take a break, and when we return, i’ll be joined by paul gearan for survey savvy. Stay with me. Yeah, you’re listening to the talking alternative network. No. 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, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, 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. 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 a lawrence h bloom two, one, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. 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 dahna durney welcome back with me now is paul gearan. He is a partner in the professional survey group. He has extensive experience in survey design, online surveying market research and social science research. His career has been focused around research and data analysis for the past twenty years, and i’m very pleased that his practice brings him to the show. Paul garin, welcome. Thanks, tony. Thanks for having me. It’s. A pleasure to have you how useful are surveys for small and midsize charities? You know, i think for a lot of organizations, they really provide some core informations that oftentimes people within organizations kind of our internal debates about and there’s not always great clarity with what some of assumptions are being made. And i think research with particularly donors and stakeholders, but also uses of charitable charitable services give you a lot more specific. Clary on whether your fulfilling the elements cia mission that are most critical to you and most critical tier donors. So i think in that regard, you know, this becomes critical information not only to kind of get a sense of an evaluation on how you doing now, but also if you’re involved in long. Range planning and trying to look toward the future of how you should evolve on dh. Part of what you said is you could resolve some internal differences about the way things might be going or the way things should go. So maybe some of those internal arguments can be resolved this way. Yeah. I mean, i think that’s one thing that, you know, it’s funny, because when you work with people who say what we know all this we know we know we know exactly, you know how people feel about us or you know how we’re doing, and we know what our strengths and weaknesses are, and then you start to talk to different people in the organization. You find out very different assumptions with many people. So part of part of the problem might be unwillingness toe do the survey because then you have reliable information and your opinion might end up being the wrong one. Yeah, and that becomes a challenge for us is outside consultants and how to be able to do the research that they get away that’s not biasing any particular perspective and be able to present it in a way that people understand and take, you know, internalize that taking an understanding and continue to to think about things because we were we don’t have an agenda, we want to get to what what reality is and i think that’s one benefit of sometimes of having another group that’s outside your own organization do the research because you don’t have a kind of bias voice, right? That objectivity just you have to be willing to recognize that your side of the argument might be the loser exactly and, you know, like with everything we try, destruction is not, you know, presented that there’s winners and losers, but there are certainly times when you come down on a certain side and things are unambiguous when you, when you survey people and, you know, eighty percent say they don’t they don’t think you’re doing a very good job of this particular element of of your portfolio of services that you know, that that’s meaningful, that that’s pretty undebatable and one of the survey questions that we ask and i want to thank you for designing our first professional survey. Thank you very much. It’s usually it’s usually the hack job that i do, thank you thank you for for lending your services to the to the survey before the show, and one of the questions we asked is how satisfied are your key donors and stakeholders with the performance of your organization? Currently and three, two thirds said either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied. But then roughly one third, about twenty nine percent said i’m not sure, so they’re not there there’s some uncertainty there about what their donors and stakeholders think about how they’re doing. Yeah, and i think that’s, you know, that’s where we you know, where we come down in terms of how important this is, if, you know, a third of people really don’t have a good sense of that, you know, how do you move forward and know that the measures you’re taking the programs you’re supporting, the way you’re administering it all the way you’re going out and trying to get external support for our right and are going to be solid going forward? It’s certainly difficult to know if you don’t have some kind of reed and even the kind of very, very southside, somewhat satisfied, you know, that kind of comparison, although i think when you just research you find most people are somewhat or very satisfied, but, you know, is the bigger bucket very satisfied? Because those are the passionate people, supporters, those of the people that, you know, i really going to stand by you in the long term, somewhat somewhat satisfied, you know, they’re going to be the kind of people that i got more loosely affiliated affiliate in terms of long term, long term support. So you know, those those ki kind of things we bring to the table and be able to kind of say, you know, hey, yeah, eighty percent of your people your donors or somewhat are very satisfied, but, you know, only thirty percent of very satisfied and that you want to see flip, you want more people that kind of passionate what’s called top box, okay, right, i got you so yeah, so so don’t be so satisfied with somewhat satisfied, exactly what’s outside it is you’re doing fine, but in a world where, you know, people have a variety of different ways where they could distribute this support and all, i’m sure deserving causes, you know, being in a somewhat satisfied bucket doesn’t really distinguish you. Got, you’re ok, and in our survey was about forty three percent were eyes felt that their donorsearch stakeholders were very satisfied, there’s about twenty nine percent somewhat satisfied we have just about a minute before break, you can also be surveying people outside your donors and stakeholders, right? Amore amore, broader audience, maybe just your community? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, i think, whether it be local community, if you can, a local organization or we’ve done work for international organizations that we’ve done national studies forward to get kind of general population awareness. So for example, if you’re, you know, organizations say your aa group focused to its animal protection there’s a lot of those kind of groups out there, you know, where do you fall in terms of visibility compared to those other organizations? And what could you do to perhaps increase that? Where do you need to? Kind of kind of do your messaging? You know, what were the vehicles for communication and also one of the important messages that you need to get out there you can connect with? Ah, wider population. That may be more supportive of your group when there’s other competition. Come on. I hate to say competition, but not-for-profits. But obviously there’s people in the same space, all doing great work and believing in the organizations you know, that want support. We’ll take a break. Paul. Paul here is going to stay with us. We’re going to continue talking about surveys and survey savviness, so stay with us. Co-branding think dick tooting getting depicting you’re listening to the talking alternate network, get in. Nothing. Good. 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 hunters. People be better business people. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative that come mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. 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. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. I’m leslie goldman with the us fund for unicef, and i’m casey rotter with us fun for unison. You’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio. The ladies said it for me, so i don’t have to say big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Paul, we were just talking about maybe surveying beyond your immediate donors and other stakeholders. But when you, when you do survey dahna people who are committed to you, it sounds like i mean, there could be some value around helping you to focus your mission in your core. Yeah. No, i think when you, when you talk about people that are closest to you, there’d be a core donors or donors in general or other stakeholders like, you know, people in the legislator that might legislative that might be supportive of you. You know, other advocates in the area that the different kinds of stakeholders beyond just a donor base, too. Yeah, but i think that’s where, you know, you really get a sense of people that know you well that care about the cause that are a little bit more discerning. And even the research you might be able to split those people out to where your core people, who were the people that know you best and who are kind of people providing regular donations cubine may not be tracking his services in consul here’s the core people were, and i’ve done that kind of research before. We’ve is it? Okay, here’s, the stakeholders that really know you well, what do they think of you? What does the kind of broader base of support think ofyou and kind of look at that? But i think that’s where you really get are we on our mission? Are we feeling the promises that we were making to the community that we’re serving into the people that supported think that if if they don’t, then you’re in real trouble? So if you find out that you they think you’re kind of falling short on a couple critical pieces of your mission, well, it’s, time to reflect and see is that a statement of messaging in information? Or is it truly a deficit in the services you’re providing? This could also be valuable in doing strategic planning. I mean that’s basically everything you’re saying could could contribute to a strategic planning process. Absolutely, because i mean that that’s the element we’re dahna only checking on how you’ve been doing, but what are the existing are you keeping up taste with the existing needs of the community, the population just serving so you may have done a very good job continue to do the job in your basic mission, but are there new challenges in us space that air coming up that maybe you’re not keeping apace with fast enough that, you know, for five years down the road, you that’s going to be the critical area that they would like you to see serving? So, you know, it’s a matter of how we doing now, but, you know, looking forward, one of the critical issues moving forward that maybe, you know, obviously you just think about the last he isn’t changing economic landscape suddenly the needs of people and in the nation at large, in the world at large have changed quite a bit, so you can imagine tryingto strategic plan five years ago when everybody the economy was hail and going full steam and and how that changed so dramatically and how you might need to change your kind of perspective and outlook long term as an organization, if you’re gonna serve people that now might be having additional challenges that didn’t. Exist a few years ago. What about just surveying aboard? I mean, could you use this as a way to anonymously gather opinions of just your board members? Absolutely, you know, always tricky because, ah, few key comments on they reveal their name, but that’s kind of one thing that again sometimes using outside organizations helpful because we can kind of get that and not only kind of, you know, clean the data such that, you know, we present things back to people so we can be sure indemnity, but also kind of educate, like, how do you use this information? But absolutely, we’ve done that kind ofthing, not boards employee research is are the people in your organization believing that you are on on on the beam with what your mission is with what your services? And sometimes we done both rose, since we’ll survey kind of outside populations donor, and then inside populations are those consistent, you know, people seeing problems that the outside world is seeing that are a sign of future issues are going to struggle with or vice versa, you know, you guys think, you know, internally, we think we’re doing great, but externally there’s a gap there, and perception and let’s talk a little more fund-raising too, you could use this tio test some different fund-raising messages, couldn’t you? What resonates best with donors protection? Actually, you know, one of the key kind of components in determining your messaging and fund-raising whether you’d be even if you think kind of educational institutions, colleges, secondary school, things like that. Um, do you kind of lead in your messaging with what makes you distinctive and unique, or do plead with the messaging that will have a broader appeal to a wider audience in the example sometimes uses, imagine that you’re either an all women’s college or a college with a long a particular religious tradition. And are you trying to kind of narrowly focus on people who value those things above all else, or you trying to kind of go out to a broader population and get a bigger, more diverse set of people in your in your school with which those lead messages might not be the most buy-in including and appalled, but how can a survey be used specifically in that example, then? Well, you can do is you can put out a variety. Of different messages and test the desire ability so say we describe a certain organization in certain with certain keywords and messages. He’s, how desirable would be that organization terms of you supporting in donating money for that organization? Then you have on the group of messages which both of which may be true about this organization again if it’s done anonymously and people don’t know the organization’s even more helpful than that. So i’m thinking, okay, so if you don’t know, the organization has done kind of blind like that, you know, to what degree and that’s kind of more talk more general population study, uh, how desirable these other set of descriptors? And then you get an idea about for my example for you, you’ll find out, is that the quality of faculty and staff and teachers and ability to develop your own individual kind of curriculum and and, you know, looking at the social and personal development that person will be the things that test out best and things about a particular religious affiliation although may not test our poorly aren’t going to be the core values of the wide group of people you can use those secondary messages to say because we have this tradition, we are unique position, so so then you can even use surveying toe helpyou sequence is your messages exactly, and so that’s what we’ve done, that exact thing with the you know, imagine the front page of your website or the front page of your of of of your kind of guide book, or whatever written materials you produce being those upfront primary messes, and then you think about what the secondary and we’re the tertiary ones because you don’t want to run from your uniqueness, either. I think it’s important to feel like you have unique ways to contribute, but you need to tie them into the core values of the population just serving, or the people that made support you in order to truly make a connection with a wide audience if you want to get to a very narrow base, well, that’s a different story, but for the most part, people are trying to exit chadband their scope and expand their flexibility in terms of either who they serve or who supports them just going back. Teo mission focus. One of the questions you asked in the survey was, how confident are you that your donors or other stakeholders are clear about your mission on dh? Everybody said either completely confident or moderately confident, but teo related to the point that you made earlier. How does brooke break out the first and second, only about a third were completely confident in two thirds were just moderately confident that people who know the organization are clear about what the organization does, right, and that’s and that’s, you know, going a key difference. We’ve done the research study for, you know, a local organization in new england that was doing prodding a variety of different services to local community, including, um, shelter and providing food services, heating and utility helped and things like that and, you know, they were kind of known for two key things, and they had a suite of fourteen of fifteen services that they were really proud of and and felt like that gave them a unique kind of very wide based impact on the community, but when you surveyed their donors, they were known for a couple key things and, you know, i think they want to feel like they had a much broader on. Understanding among the people that are supporting them and their stakeholders of what they really do. All right, paul guerin is a partner at professional survey group. You’ll find their sight at professional survey group dot com and we’re talking about survey savvy let’s talk a little about some of the nuts and bolts. What? What are the variables that go into determining how to do your survey? Well, you know, i think this, you know, there’s three major kind of modalities actually collected information that’s phone based research, online research and paper surveys come in person interviewing as well, but paper serving as kind of died out a little bit, but phone and online being the biggest and online, certainly in the last decade, really taking course. So one of the kind of determines is, well, how can we get to our population? Do, for example, do we have pretty good e mail, pop penetration or accessibility so that we could do something online? Do we not? Then we’re going to have to do a phone based survey will i’m sure phone his phone is quite a bit more expensive exactly that, you know, we do a lot of online, because, again, we’re trying to build on south getting, you know, a broad base of information for people with costs issues, and one thing i do kind of tell in organizations is there’s there’s a difference between sophie was well, if we go out to online that’ll bias up sample because the only people that are online a lot, our people check their email. Well, that may be true, but what are we trying to achieve here? You know, we can actually do this study for, you know, a fifth of the cost if we go online and are you really going to get that different information? Are you trying to pinpoint whether a certain question is seventy percent of seventy five percent or you’re really just trying to understand that here, the things people think we’re doing well, what is the kind of top bucket of things here’s? The things we’re not doing so well on the actual specificity of the data is not particularly critical in terms of well, yeah, maybe it’s a little bit biased in one way or another, but you can actually pull off the research financially by using your online they upleaf except with were also in that example. Isn’t it relevant whether the email using the active email using population is going tio have some some bias toward the objectives of the survey? I mean, does it really matter that a lot of people check the email? Eso they’re going to be the ones who will have a greater propensity to answers that really matter to the purposes of your survey and your charitable work and that’s kind of one of the first things we talk about with you, let’s, let’s talk through the ratification. So if i find out, for example, a group says, you know, we have about fifty percent emails, i said, well, who do you have e mails? Well, it’s, mostly people, you know, younger, ok? So then age could be a legitimate buy-in factor. And so then i said, well, you know, given that, you know, if we look at your donor and then the actual kind of looked at the percentage of monetary support you’re getting, you find out that eighty percent of the forty and over well, we’re not going to want to exclude them from the study in that particular case, it’s worth saying okay, maybe we do a mixed methodology of phone and online. Or maybe we do phone it’s worth that. So there’s certainly a circumstances where i would say, you know, in this particular circumstance is biased and there i was i would say, you know what? For what you want to know, it’s. Fine to get read elearning online population that’s that’s. Okay, what’s the i gotta move on a little bit. Paul what’s the reliability across you mentioned phone, email and and paper surveys are they do they vary in terms of reliability. They vary in terms of kind of, i think what i found actually study on several years ago in a previous lifetime, but that phone research people tend to be, well, one thing briefer because you in-kind getting getting them stirring the phone researches it’s more active and you’re actually pursuing people to prove spade in the research. The downside that is that sometime you’re catching people that’s a very narrow window, which is kind of catch them on the phone and do this as on online or paper, they could do it at their own leisure. So sometimes you get very truncated responses, particularly if you asking kind of open ended items about that require commentary? We’ve also found that people tend to be nicer on the phone, so if they’re rating you on a scale of one to five it’s harder to say something bad, it’s harder to be a negative on the phone. Yeah, so not that it doesn’t happen, but you tend to see the scores being slightly higher on the phone, an online or paper where you don’t have that what’s called a demand characteristic, you know, social expectation of being nice, okay, so that that’s a big difference i’ve seen between phone versus the other two methodologies is this is this something? And we have just, like three minutes or so before before we have to end all this talk about serving, but is it is it something that charity khun i could do on their own? If we’re going to a short survey, can they can they do this and be successful? You know, you know i at they can, you know, i think there’s always caveats about making sure that you have, you know you’re asking questions in the right way you’re not biasing your questions in a way they’re going to get you information. That is what you want to hear and not necessary. What these actuality but there are tools out there like surveymonkey and bloomerang that are going online. Survey tools that are relatively easy to use if you just have a short survey it’s not that complicated you want to get a bunch of yes, no questions or some commentary you khun go use those those were relatively inexpensive. Certainly this free virgins of them. But even the kind of pay versions they are very, very inexpensive her month way you surveymonkey for the for the show’s a sze yu know exactly. You know that, you know? And for a lot of needs, they can solve them. You know, if you want to get a quick read on you can pop out a survey monkey auras bloomerang survey tia population. You could certainly do that yourself. They’re fairly easy tools, tio. Okay, but then if you’re going deeper like this is part of a strategic planning process or you’re not sure about the mission focus that you should be you should be engaged in for the next over the next five years. I mean that is more detailed, and you want to probably have someone professional helping, so you’re eliminating biasi? Yeah, i think if you’re going to get into that depth and really talking about shaping the way your organization is currently are going to operate in the future, then you need to really we’ll get somebody to kind of look atyou survey and like what we do with lot of they will say, hey, what what role do you want us to play here and what you know? And we could do that with what, what? But you have? And at minimum, let’s, look over your survey and say, well, you know, that question isn’t going to get what you want, it’s going toe it’s going toe secure the issue more than going to clarify all i have to stop because we have just a minute and i want i want to talk about getting feedback, is it? Is it wise to share survey results or to tell people that you’ll share the your your findings with them like everything it’s, context dependent, i bias towards sharing? Yes on i think thinking on how you’re going to do that because i think especially when you’re you’re serving people close to you, either your own employees or donors. They’re gonna have an extra day. Shinhwa what happened with this information? What did you do with it? What did you find? And what is he going to be? Action. So i’m very biased whenever is appropriate. Find a way to share the information. The main information, the survey, maybe you don’t need to share everything. Maybe something’s a kind of nuance that you wantto kind of work on internally. But i think some of the main things not only what you found, but what you’re going to do with it. I think that is a great power. It makes people feel like, well, there’s a reason i did this research and i contributed because now the organization i care about is utilizing an unproductive went. Paul garin is a partner in professional survey group. You’ll find them at professional survey group dot com. Paul, thank you so much for being a guest. No problem, tony. Have a nice day. Has been a pleasure. Thank you. Take your right. Now we take a break when we returned. Tony’s take two on philanthropy jargon. Stay with me? You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Geever 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 on montgomery taylor, and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt. Y at r l j media. Dot com 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. Dahna 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 before scott koegler joins me it’s time for tony’s take to my block this week is philanthropy jargon. If you google philanthropy jargon generator, you’ll see what got me thinking about jargon in the non-profit community it’s a random collection of now nhs verbs announce adjectives and verbs, but not in that order, though thinkit’s, verbs, adjectives and now nes andi it’s a little disconcerting. I think that somebody, somebody thought there’s so much jargon in philanthropy that they should create a generator to help you create, create your own if create something, if you if you’re at a road, block your mental block and you just can’t think of the right phrase, put in a random jargon phrase and and you don’t have to define it because people don’t define jargon so that’s little disconcerting. Um, got a lot of comments on this on this post over a dozen some people use it. Teo, i think some people use jargon to sound smart, which is unfortunate, but there was one comment or someone uses jargon to screen for expertise because hill, he’ll ask people what they’re lie. Bunt and sideburns rates are and leibrandt is someone who donated last year, but not this year and a side bunt is someone who didn’t donate it in some year, but not this year, keeping myself out of jargon jail, of course, so he uses it to sort of screen that’s interesting, but generally i think you want to communicate so that people understand what you’re talking about. The jargon generator, i think, is fun, but you wouldn’t want to use it as your dictionary as your when you’re writing to donors or ah, potential funders. So post is called jargon. The post is called philanthropy jargon it’s on my block also on my block is a connection is a link to our linked in page we’re now on linked in. You can communicate with us there. Tell us what you like about the show don’t like about the show, maybe some show ideas or some guest ideas, please share that with us on our linked in page, and you’ll find all of that on my block at tony martignetti dot com that is tony’s take two for friday, may fourth, twenty twelve, the eighteenth show of the year, and i hear the phone buzzing. There is scott koegler scotty. How you doing? I am here, tony, how you i know you are doing well, scott koegler, of course, is our long standing tech contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news. We’re talking this week about content marketing. Scott, what is content? Marketing? Uh, content marketing. You know, i actually don’t like that particular title gave it to me. Okay. I know. I gave you the guy stabs me in the back in the first sentence. What can i say? All right, well, i’m calling you out. It was your type. He changes. Mind you’re entitled change minds. Go ahead. What do you what is this thing that we don’t have a name for? Well, we have we actually have many names for it. I prefer using something like authority marketing because the point of this kind of thing is that you write stuff and you you send out articles that our authoritative in your particular space authority marketing says has such gravitas to it. It does. It does. Actually. Sounds like it should be jargon. No, but the point is that what you want to do is you want to give people something to read that that’s not anything new that’s, you know, newspapers and everything else that’s been published forever. I want to do that, right? So we’re encouraging people to block is that? Is that where we’re headed? That’s part of it? Yeah, that’s, uh, we’re encouraging people to put out information that the people that they want to talk to are interested in knowing about that’s, that’s it, or whether it’s blogging, uh, whether it’s, uh, you know, paidcontent, uh, whether it’s, maybe even aggregated content, which we can talk about also, which is actually pulling information from other locations, and then writing about it. Okay, thank you for defining that keeps self out of jargon, general. So we’re very jargon sensitive this week. You can tel i i hear that. All right, i get the get the keys. I’m i’m on the trigger. I’ve got a hair trigger. So, content marketing authority marketing. Um, let me just talk a little bit about what i think content marketing is okay. It’s actually been a bad name for me because it’s, uh, it’s really it’s being used by what’s called content farms, which are sites that, like examiner dot com maybe to a smaller degree, but they they pay very little to their their authors. And the and the point of little writing is to get keyword rich maybe keyword overblown articles, because then then they sell advertising space, right? They shall advertising space against those. And until recently, google, you know, could be fooled into paying a lot of attention to a site that had a whole lot of appropriate word. All right, but not great content and cheating the writers. And that sounds terrible. Alright, that’s not a terrible, especially since i’m late i’m against. All right, um, good. So the other side of content marketing, which i call authority marketing, is creating articles. However you do it, whether it’s yourself, blogging or whether you actually pay somebody to write for you what co-branding information and putting it out there for people that you know, something, they’re interested. In actually reading, not just the google will find it and bring it up in search results because it’s much better people actually go to your site because they want to go to your sight because he has a reputation on dh that is not stuff that’s necessarily touting your good work. Oh, i mean, it could be stuff that’s valuable in because it’s related to what you do write an interesting that way? Yeah, think of it as a cz yourself, if you’re mean, you know, we know what you do, and we know well, i know some of the things you do, and so what are the things that people would write about and publish that would bring tony martignetti to a website, you know, on it may it may be about non-profit but it may also be about creating, uh, creating audio’s shows that draw audiences and maybe that’s related to non-profit or not. So you really need to know your audience that’s really big key, okay? And i want to say that generally i’m an example of what not to do so i appreciate you using man’s example of what should be done or who could. Be done could be let’s, not goes for us should, but generally people would be wiser to take the course opposite mine and self deprecation is one of those things that comedians really like to get into. I do that’s true, but we know that most charities don’t blogged, right, isn’t you have an article sixty nine percent don’t block and yes and that’s true. And you know what? I think what happened is that over time and i’m talking about the last now ten, twelve years blogging got to be, you know, everybody blogged, um and so, you know, it was your block and your mom read it and that kind of stuff, and it turned out to be pretty useless for most people because they may have written something, but nobody cared. Yeah, and so i think that the blogging that name blogging got a bad lap for a while. And so whether let’s just talk about content creation rather than block. Yeah, because there are other ways to do it to youtube and other ways that you mentioned before, lots of ways and content, as you just kind of alluded to is not necessarily their word it could be what you’re doing right now. The audio shows it could be video, it could be animation, even it could be a whole bunch of things, but the point is to get something that’s that is interesting to to the people you want to talk to so that they then say, g i and, you know, wonder what tony’s got going on today. I think i’ll go over and check in sight, right? Right? And then they’re rewarded at least at least fifty percent of the time that they find something that they like. You don’t have to hit one hundred percent not going to hit on percent, all right, all right, okay. And a way of just tow bring the show. That sort of full circle may be a way of finding out what your stakeholders may be interested in is to survey them and also to find out where they are, whether they’re whether they’re active in social media or more active. Just an email. Yeah, exactly, right, exactly. Because the way you’re going to deliver it goes to your point of knowing your audience, right? And just because you have an audience that you talked to primarily by let’s say email doesn’t mean that you can or should ignore the social media. I’ve got a couple of websites that i managed and i do content creation for them, you know? So so i’m kind of in the business and every time that we publish an article, we also sent out a tweet and a facebook update and they linked in update and those go automatically so anybody who’s looking at us from any of those locations in addition to the weekly email that we send out, has the opportunity to see what we’ve done and you know their choice. They come read more about it or not, but at least they’re getting notified, right? And the interconnectedness between all these social media properties, the one you need, the ones you’re named and you might put flicker in there also can be very much automated, right? Right with a with one exception of google plus which is not yet still released their their a p i that allows automated system’s supposed to for them? Yes, jack, you are shows social media manager regina walton doesn’t outstanding job of knowing how to do all those interconnected ah messages. But it’s it’s really not very hard now and then, but that’s the key is sometimes you can’t automate everything. Sometimes you just have to have, you know, somebody put in the time in order to do what’s, right? Absolutely. I just i don’t want to discourage people thinking you have to have a social media manager in order to make these interconnections it’s valuable because i’m producing so much, but you can’t do it on your own, too, right? Absolutely. Let’s. Talk a little about aggregated content you mentioned. What? What? What does that mean? It sounds like way. Don’t have tio write everything on our own. Yeah, they were produced everything or whatever aggregating content and stealing stuff. Okay on dh aggregated, aggregated content. Basically what? Here’s the here’s. What happens? You get a google news feed on our ss feed, you monitor somebody’s block that you know, has good stuff that you like and let’s say that tony wrote a block that i really, really like. It makes a lot of sense for us. My my leadership would probably like to read that. So i got a choice. I could just copy and paste it into my sight, which tony probably wouldn’t appreciate, right? That’s very bad. And not only that google. Well, actually, uh, take us down for that now it won’t take us down, but they’ll they’ll decrease our popularity because they say, hey, this is already than publish whyyou republica interested? Okay, they know they don’t really care about the fact that you plagiarized um, but they do care about the fact that it’s not original. Okay, so what i would do with that is i would write, you know, maybe a couple street who’s that tony martignetti wrote this really interesting post about jargon this week on his block. If you want to read it, click here. So what that does is it gives me something to comment on, and it lets my readers say, cheese. Not only does scott put out this stuff that’s interesting to me, but he’s also bringing me things that i may not have known about from other sources. So this is really a good way snusz to be to find out things that i want to know and what it does for tony, of course, is it brings another reader to tony site it’s really a good wayto work, aggregated content understand very, very organic way of bringing people to your site on give it back by by giving them value. Right? Excellent. Scott taylor, of course. The editor of non-profit technology news, which you’ll find at n p tech news. Dot com in which at which point we actually do all of those things that i just described. Okay, you conceive an example of it there. Thank you. For ah, what had been a segment called content marketing but became authority marketing. Thank you very much, scottie. Thanks very much. My thanks. Also to paul garin for being a guest this week. Next week. Five bullets to a better oh, we, uh oh, my. Cutting him off a little. Scott, you still there? I’m still here. Okay, uh, i’m i’m wrapping up the show five minutes early, so you and i still have time to talk. I’m still grateful to paul garron, but it’s, i’m looking at the wrong segment, so we’re going to take a break and hope everybody stays with us and scott you especially, i’m here. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free second reading. Learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit, you’ll hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. Hi, this is nancy taito from speaks. Been radio speaks. Been. Radio is an exploration of the world of communication, how it happens in how to make it better, because the quality of your communication has a direct impact on the quality of your life. Tune in monday’s at two pm on talking alternative dot com, where i’ll be interviewing experts from business, academia, the arts and new thought. Join me mondays at two p m and get all your communications questions answered on speaks been radio. 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. Talking. Welcome back to the show, and as i’ve made the point earlier, we i definitely an intern on this show, so i have somebody to blame from steaks like the one i made right before our break. S o if you know someone who wants to be blamed constantly for my mistakes, please have them send me their resume, and that sounds like a really great appeal. I’m sure i’ll get a ton. Um okay, scotty let’s see, i’m here. Yeah, different the different platforms that we might use different properties that we might use for our authority marketing have different personalities, right? I mean, you might not necessarily do the same thing on twitter that you would on facebook on dh versus linked in certainly, although the social media platforms have a whole lot of commonality to them, but right, twitter is only going to take, you know, a sentence and maybe a picture where is facebook could take more than that lengthen could take more than that. Google plus could take significantly more on that. Actually, you can publish directly on google. Plus, i don’t particularly mentor recommend that, but it’s people have done it on the menu. That’s interesting. I’m sorry. I just ask, why? Why do you say that about google? Plus what? Why not putting fresh content directly on google? Plus, um, google plus is like a hyper blogged in that the content rules by very quickly and so it’s very difficult to them find something of interest down there if it’s kind of rolled off of your screen. So okay, so not like, uh, it’s like a regular blonde or an online publication where you’ve got a nice kind of a content management system, brings things to the front, keeps him there for some starita time and then actually could be found easily in the published right. And and i think the length of articles is a big differentiating factor. If you have anything longer than a few sentences, you really don’t want a post directly on social media. Okay, you want your own, you want your own space, you want your own space, and then you wanna leverage the social media that has the first paragraph, maybe or on a link back to your your own content site. Okay? And sort of wrapped up in everything we’re talking about. Is that the same? Content can be used in different ways. I mean, on dh lynette singleton, who is on twitter often retweeting the show on dh lynette, thank you for doing it today she is at s c g the number four non-profits on lincoln on twitter if you wanna follow her, um, makes the point that, you know, one one piece of content can be used across lots of different platforms in different forms. Absolutely. I’ve even multipurpose, um, that has gone, taken an audio podcast like yours and has transcribed it into text. Oh, interesting on and then what? And then they just post that really? Okay. That’s interesting. Yeah, i can either be edited, so that was more of on article or serious of articles or can be just posted as it as it goes. I think they successful way to do that would be split it up in the articles, post them as content and maybe even link back to the recording of the show. So there’s, somebody prefers to here, they can still hear it, and i could see a value. And that would be you’d get some search engine value from the transcript because search engines can’t. Search audio. But all those words that are in the transcript would be searched if that’s exactly right. And there there are many ofthe offshore overseas services that will transcribe at an unbelievable rate. So, you know, i may not be perfect, but it’s it’s enough to get to get online and get it, maybe useful enough for someone to say. Yeah, i see what he’s saying, but i prefer to hear it so they click onto the the audio stream. Got it right. Okay, but again the point, multi multi purpose ing your your content coming and going back to the earlier guest ball. Gearan a survey could be something that is used as authority marketing. Absolutely. Because what you doing in that place is getting your readership to become the authority. And people like, you know, they have there. They’re their word and their opinion. I would caution we do surveys for some of my properties as well. And there is there’s a survey burnout where you just continue asking people for their opinion and well, you know, at the first couple of times they really like it. Especially if you give them feedback and write an article. About what? What they said. But if it’s too long or more continuous or too frequent, you’ll notice, uh, extreme drop off your respondents. Yes. Okay. Okay. We’re going to leave it there for for for real this time. Scott koegler as you heard multiple properties he’s, a land baron on the web and again the editor of non-profit technology news, which is that n p tech news. Dot com that’s one of his property. Scott. Thank you very much. Thanks, tony. Talk to you later. It’s been a pleasure. Let’s. Try again next week. Five bullets to a better budget. Paul connick stein. Principle of mission first finance knows how to create a budget that is aligned with your work and is a useful planning tool and he’s going to share what he knows that’s, that’s important doesn’t really matter much what he knows he’s gotta share it and he’s going to do that next week. You can check us out on facebook. You can check us out on linkedin. We’re on youtube also the youtube channel name israel. Tony martignetti because some young guy from boston stole the the tony martignetti so i’m real tony martignetti and you’ll find a lot of interviews on that youtube channel. Khun, listen, live our archive for the archive, you goto itunes, which is non-profit radio dot net. You can listen there, and you can subscribe so that you can listen any time on the device of your choice. On twitter. You can follow me, i’m at tony martignetti and the show’s hashtag is non-profit radio. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is our line producer shows social media is by regina walton of organic social media, and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules on our first remote will be starting in june next month. I hope you’ll be with me next week. Friday one to two p, m eastern, at talking alternative broadcasting, which is always at talking alternative dot com. Co-branding think dick tooting. Good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network, get him. Duitz good how’s your game. Want to improve your performance, focus and motivation? Then you need a spire athletic consulting stop. Second guessing yourself. Move your game to the next level. Bring back the fun of the sport, help your child build confidence and self esteem through sports. Contact dale it aspire, athletic consulting for a free fifteen minute power session to get unstuck. 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Looking to meet mr and mrs wright but still haven’t found the one want to make your current relationship as filling as possible, then tuning on thursdays at one pm for love in the afternoon with morning alison as a professional matchmaker, i’ve seen it all with distinguished authors, industry coolers and experts on everything from wine to fashion. Join us as we discuss dating, relationships and more on talking alternative dot com. Are you fed up with talking points, rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology no reality, in fact, its ideology over in tow no more it’s time. Join me, larry shot a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the ivory tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s. Really going on? What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me. Very sharp. Your neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven new york time go to ivory tower radio dot com for details. That’s, ivory tower radio, dot com every time. I was a great place to visit for both entertainment and education. Listening. Tuesday nights nine to eleven. It will make you smarter. No. Talking.

Philanthropy Jargon

A Lot Of Jargon courtesy of kevinspencer on Flickr.
When someone creates a website to make fun of your profession, you have a perception problem. Fundraising has been so blessed.

Take a look at Philanthropy Jargon Generator. It’s a random selection of verbs, adjectives and nouns that creates such embarrassing phrases as “define emerging program criteria” and “target inclusive governance.”

Many of the combinations sound plausible. How disconcerting.

On Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio we have Jargon Jail. I strive to keep my guests out of prison and get them on parole quickly. We boast a low recidivism rate, though I do have trouble with the regular contributors from time to time. They tend to talk back to their jailor.

Do the people you talk to understand what you’re saying to them? Institutional funders? Individual donors? Your colleagues?

I’m consciousness raising. Let’s target extended low-bandwidth models. Got a favorite?

Nonprofit Radio, April 27, 2012: Get Monthly Givers & Strategic Organizations Raise More Money

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Listen live or archive:

My Guests:

Bob Wesolowski
Bob Wesolowski: Get Monthly Givers

Bob Wesolowski, the president of Caring Habits, helps you get habitual monthly donors through electronic funds transfer (EFT). Who are the best prospects and how do you ask them? How do you upgrade donors and when should you say “thank you”? (Pre-recorded at Philanthropy Day 2011, hosted by the Westchester County chapter of AFP.)

Starita
Dr. Starita Ansari
Starita Ansari: Strategic Organizations Raise More Money

Starita Ansari is president and chief change officer at MSB Philanthropy Advisors. She wants you to organize thoughtfully around your mission, looking strategically at your inputs, outputs and outcomes, to boost your fundraising revenue. (Also pre-recorded at Philanthropy Day 2011.)


Top Trends. Sound Advice. Lively Conversation.

You’re on the air and on target as I delve into the big issues facing your nonprofit—and your career.

If you have big dreams but a small budget, tune in to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio.

I interview the best in the business on every topic from board relations, fundraising, social media and compliance, to technology, accounting, volunteer management, finance, marketing and beyond. Always with you in mind.

Sign-up for show alerts!

“Like” the show’s Facebook page, and join us on LinkedIn too.

Make sure to tune in at 1pm ET on Friday and you can share your observations on Twitter by using the #NonprofitRadio hashtag on Twitter.

Here is the link to the audio podcast: 089: Get Monthly Givers & Strategic Organizations Raise More Money.
View Full Transcript

Transcript for 089_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_20120427.mp3

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Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host it’s friday, april twenty seventh twenty twelve i sincerely hope you were with me last week. I’d be devastated to learn that you missed the to melanie’s. Melanie schnoll begun from morgan stanley we talked about how to look good when you’re recruiting board members and die end of the day. Melanie west from the wall street journal writes the donor of the day column. She and i talked about how to pitch her to get your donor’s covered in that column this week. It’s get monthly givers bob wesolowski, president of caring habits, helps you get habitual monthly donors through electronic funds transfer. You may know that as ft, who were the best prospects and how do you ask them? How do you upgrade donors? And when should you say thank you that was pre recorded at philanthropy day two thousand eleven, hosted by the westchester county chapter of a f p also today, strategic organizations raised more money. Starita ansari is president and chief change officer at msb philanthropy advisors. She wants you to organize thoughtfully around your mission. Looking strategically at your inputs, outputs and outcomes to boost your fund-raising revenue that’s also pre recorded at flying through the day last year on tony’s, take two between the guests. I don’t know what’s going to be on my block this week because i’m recording in early april, but i will look back at a few recent posts. You can use the hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us on twitter. Right now, we take a break and when we come back, give monthly, get monthly givers, stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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. 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 crawl. Offset. Two, one, two, nine, six, four, three, five, zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom, too. One, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. 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. Yeah, geever. Oh! Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on tony martignetti non-profit radio. Now i have pre recorded interview get monthly givers, and here is that welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of national philanthropy day, hosted by the association of fund-raising professionals westchester county chapter with the edith macy conference centre in briarcliff manor, new york. I’m with bob wesolowski he’s, the founder and president of carrying habits, which is dedicated to building and operating monthly e-giving programs with elektronik funds, transfers and bob’s conference topic is techniques in monthly giving bob wesolowski welcome. Thank you very much. What do non-profits need to know about just generally before we get into details about monthly giving? What? What are they not doing that they ought to be doing? Perhaps? Well, i think the big secret for for this group is that many organizations have heard about monthly giving programs. Goodness knows they’ve been around since the early nineteen eighties, but many organizations have stayed away either because they think they need to be larger or because they think they need tohave more technology to do it successfully and that’s just not the case. Okay, so what can the smaller organization due to encourage monthly gift? Well, i think there are two groups within the smaller not-for-profits i think in in every case all organizations have a core group of constituents. They essentially make a contribution every time you ask. They may be donors, they maybe board members, they maybe folks who are somewhere in between. And so the first thing that will do is help the client identify who those particularly loyal donors are and work with them first. Ok, so loyalty is where you want to start in developing your prospect. That’s, right? Monthly giving that’s, right? I think we live in a world of finite resource is in a in a perfect world. You could send solicitations to all of your donors all the time. But with with finite resource is you have to pay, choose your battles, all right? And when we’re looking at loyalty, which i’m sure is determined by the consistency of the giving that’s correct over many years over is that right? Not necessarily. I think typically when you start to look at a group that says, where should we go? One of the things that will look at is data over the last twelve to eighteen months and will help to identify those donors who have made perhaps two or three contributions over the last twelve to eighteen months and that’s generally pretty good starting point, all right, and only interested in the size of those contributions or does it could be very small and still qualify as a prospect? Duitz this process is geared mohr towards lower donors, donors whose annual giving might be, at a minimum twenty five to fifty dollars, and certainly no more than five hundred dollars. And the reason we put a limit on five hundred dollars is that in many cases, once you get into that kind of atmosphere, those donors are mohr important, they feel more important, they need to be stroked a little bit. Mohr and in general, they don’t like the anonymity that goes with the monthly giving program. All right, are we interested in ages that important in developing our prospect pool? The only if a number assuming non-profit has the well i know relies a lot don’t, but assuming they do have a jj age is an important consideration agent demographics is important when you consider whether you’ll all for the donor, a recurring credit card contribution or a recurring funds transfer contribution. Okay, but the key factor is loyalty to the organization. Once you’ve got that loyalty than their candidate, once you start to look at the demographics, then you’ll have an idea as to whether you want to offer your donor’s credit card or funds transfer or both. Ok, maybe we’ll talk about how to segment in in a few moments, all right, so we’ve developed our prospect pool. We know we don’t have to be a large organization, we don’t have to have special technology and sophisticated technology. What do we do now? We have our prospects pool identified. We have found that most organizations get involved with this through a direct mail campaign. They’re certainly larger ones that do telemarketing, but direct mail is generally the best way to start with us on dh it’s a simple, simple ask the kind of thing that these folks duel the time now there’s some clients who may d’oh three or five four direct mail appeals per year, there are others who do eleven or twelve buy-in if the group is doing fewer solicitations per year, let’s, say, three or four, we’re certainly not going to suggest that they devote one entire repeal to monthly giving. What we would suggest is that this is included as an option. On the other hand, if a group is doing ten or eleven or even twelve direct mail’s solicitations in a year, there are so many going out that in that case, it’s generally far easier to dedicate one of those solicitations to a direct mail campaign. All right? And if it’s not a dedicated direct mail piece about monthly giving, can it be a simple as as a ps yes, in a letter. So how would we would we work that a little? Well, i think what what happens is that and it’s kind of interesting if you go back and look at the pbs and the npr market has, in contrast, goodness knows they’ve been doing this for the better part of two or twenty or thirty years. And i think where a lot of those organizations tend to fall down is that they look at the program in terms of the benefits to the donor. It’s easy. To do no cheques to write no stamps, to buy no trips to the to the post office, in fact, they are particularly core reasons to contribute to an organization. All giving is his mission mission based. And so the first place to start in that solicitation is if you become a monthly geever you help us lower our administrative expenses, if you become a monthly giver, you give us income that we can rely on month tomorrow. So there’s, this kind of fund-raising is no different than any other fund-raising we don’t, we don’t rely on the ease of giving when we’re saying send us a check, you know, or there are, or the ease of giving in other ways, i mean it’s, it’s, mission driven, it’s, almost love of the organization. And by the way, here’s an option that happens to be easy. That’s. Exactly right. Ok, so we can do this in a ps we could say your gift this your gift could be a recurring gift. Would you then include a form for people to fill out? Or is it better to drive them to a website toe? Have them sign up there for monthly giving. Or what’s the best. You certainly want to include the form because donors tend to respond to the media in which you, you contact them. If you give them direct mail, they’re going to respond to direct mail. If you contact them with an email blast, they’ll respond on on the web. Okay, so you certainly want to do that it’s also important to because over the years the banks have been particularly effective in convincing donors of and organizations about how wonderful credit cards. In fact, we have seen changes so that there are different requirements to enroll a donor with funds transfer as opposed to credit cards. That is to say, if somebody wants a recurring gift with a funds transfer that is out of their checking account or savings account, there needs to be a signed authorization in place for credit card you can simply click through. Yes, this is what i’d like to dio and it’s over and done with the garden tending the ending the ending ding, ding, ding you’re listening to the talking alternate network, get in. E-giving you could 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. Dahna hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading. Learn how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. 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 am montgomery taylor, and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio, twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m kate paler, executive director of dance, new amsterdam, and you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Yeah, let’s, go back to something you mentioned earlier about age being a factor in whether you’re asking someone to do the credit card or the electronic funds transfer from a from a checking account. How does that how does to break down across ages? In in general, what we have found is that donors who are younger, better educated, maura, fluent mohr, disposable income i prefer elektronik giving that is to say, credit cards. Donors who are older, less well off clearly go for funds, transfers. And so, for example, if i would look at a typical catholic client where the age of the donor population might be average about seventy two, seventy three years old, i wouldn’t be surprised if seventy percent of the donors gave with funds transfer as opposed to credit cards. On the other hand, if i was to look at an organization like the union of concerned scientists or some of the other groups, you might expect to see a fifty fifty split. Or you might even see sixty, forty or seventy thirty split in favor of credit cards. And is that just because the older population is less comfortable revealing credit card information? That’s. Exactly. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And in fact, we in an interesting side note we were work with a church congregational church up in aa connecticut. On one of the things they found is that the five o’clock service every day, every sunday was the one that was most crowded. They would have a couple of hundred people in there. That was the one with the younger folks and their role in their thirties. They all had the three year old, four year old five year olds. When it came time to pass the plate around. Even though that’s where most of the commissioners were, those collections were the lowest. Everybody had debit and credit cards. When we introduced a monthly giving program for them, contributions went way up. Where do you find roughly the age demarcation line between willingness to do it by credit card or preferring the electronic funds transferred by checking account. Roughly. Where does that age breakdown? Somewhere in the fifties? Okay. Okay. All right. So we were, uh we were talking about the marketing of really, the solicitation of this direct mail is your preferred method. Can you can you can this be successful? By through email solicitation or that that was not, it certainly can. And in fact, one of the things that i’m going to talk about my presentation today at the conference is that there are any number of organizations out there who have one line giving capabilities and somewhere along the way, someone suggested that they include a monthly giving option in there. Some of these groups would would argue that because they allow monthly contributions, they have a monthly giving program. I would differ with that because in many cases, yeah, you have monthly monthly donors out there, but it’s not really a programme groups don’t know what to do with them, they don’t know how to solicit them, they don’t know how to upgrade, they don’t know how to include them in their program. So it’s just starting to feel their way through. I’m with bob wesolowski, he’s founder and president of caring habits. We’re talking about monthly giving, and i want to tie this into something that i saw about doing earlier here on the exhibit floor, bob was fly tying and he’s a fly fisherman and he’s going out on sunday, we’re interviewing, we’re talking on. A wednesday and bob your comment was that the if you if you do your own fly tying, you’ll pay more attention to what the fish are are after is that? Did i get that right? And that’s exactly right? Okay, and i see an analogy in fund-raising i think if you’re if you’re writing some of your own feels you’ll think more about what your donors and prospects are interested in hearing. That’s true, i think you have to know your donor’s a lot better if you’re going to be writing the copy yourself. Okay, so we’re fly fishing for ah moflow e-giving donors we are okay. We’re looking for the players out there and and i’ll confess that when i saw above on the exhibit for doing the fly fishing time fly tying, i thought he was making jewelry. I thought he was a jewelry maker because he had these precise little tools and a light and a little vice holding his the piece he was working on. I thought you were making hearings, but no, not this time. That’s how much of a sportsman i am right? My head is somewhere in a jewelry store. Let’s, see? So then we now have our donors. How how do we thank monthly donor? Do we thank them every month? Is that annoying? How do we go about stewarding these donors that we now have? We have seen a distinction between our religious clients and non religious groups in terms of how they thank donors. I think by and large, if you look at the religious organizations that we work with and that’s roughly fifty percent of our clients, they feel compelled to send a written acknowledgement every month. Even though these charges will appear on the donor’s, a credit card statement or bank statement, thes groups have been doing these hand written acknowledgments or some kind of acknowledgement for decades and it’s very difficult for them to get away from it. On the other hand, when we look at the non religious groups, i think there’s an implicit understanding by the donors that this’s recurring they do not want to get thanked every month. And so, as long as they see that acknowledgement on their credit card statement each month that’s. Fine. I think the other thing that also happens for some of the larger religious groups is they may start out on that path of giving monthly acknowledgments, and in some cases it may take a year, two years for five years in some cases where they finally get enough negative feedback from the donors who say enough alr right, we know it’s gonna happen every month. Save your time saved savior effort. Don’t bother with this stuff. We know it’s going to happen. What about an annual thank you letter? Something like that right at annual is absolutely very important. Very important. You guys, i think you don’t want to be the organization that that cultivates and solicits and obtains a monthly giving process. Donor-centric to say thank you. Just i know the gift is going to come, so why don’t i have to say thank you once a year? Yeah. And i think what’s really important about it is that once you get a donor who becomes a monthly donor, i think it enables you to change the nature of the relationship. If if you look at a group that’s doing four five direct male contribution solicitations each year, every solicitation is give me give me give me it’s it’s a constant ask once you have. That monthly donor, you know, that they’re going to be there for years in most cases, and so you don’t need that constant ask you can begin to provide mohr programmatic information and begin that upgrade process. Okay, so that’s important too? So someone starts at ten or fifteen or twenty dollars a month. Over time, you’d like to be able to upgrade them. Tio i guess twenty five or fifty dollars? Absolutely. And when is the right time to start that conversation after they’ve initially committed to the monthly donation monthly gift? When is the right time to talk to them about the possibility of upgrading? In our opinion, that needs to be either on their anniversary or a program anniversary and let me provide an example, i think you know, if you’re going to be doing sending these things out let’s use example again afore five direct mail solicitations in a year, you don’t want to be as a fundraiser, you don’t want to be in the position of having all of these anniversary’s coming up throughout the year, so typically what a client will do is is group everybody in and say june one, march one that that’s going to be our anniversary date so everybody who was in the program, graham as of that date that’s their their anniversary program and later on today, i’m going to be doing this this presentation with a client buy-in pat chambers daily who’s with the dominican sisters in amityville, long island and the way said they set up their program, they do the solution solicitations every march. All right, donors tend to enroll somewhere between march, and by the end of may or june, they’ll get a group in there on let’s say, we’re in march two thousand eleven. March two thousand twelve will be their first year anniversary because they consider march to be their anniversary month. And then when their two year anniversary march of two thousand thirteen, everybody in the program gets an upgrade, and so they’ll figure the two years into the program, the donor’s comfortable with with what they’ve seen there in the fold. And now you can begin that upgrade process. Okay? And how much is it appropriate to ask them to upgrade to or do you give options? How does that work groups do it in different ways? But if if you’re a small local not-for-profits it’s. Not uncommon to ask for ten percent or flat. Twenty percent. Great. When? When pat started her program nine years ago, it was simple. Would like everybody to upgrade twenty percent. Okay, um ah. Is it appropriate to ask the donor tto decide how much they’d like to upgrade? Or is it better to give them a target? Teo shoot for it depends on the resource is available. There are a lot of clients out there. Smaller organizations that just don’t have the resource is toe late. Laser in specific e-giving amounts. Okay, from a direct male perspective. That’s. Right. So if they’ve got the capability to do that, then certainly they will laze iran e-giving amounts. If it’s a smaller organization, then they’ll simply go in with that percentage amount. Okay, for center, ten percent. Ok, how do we handle the fees there? Are there going to be fees that the charity is going to be paying on these credit card transaction shins? How do we handle that? With respect to the crediting of the donor? Do they get credited for the net or just or the gross gift? As an analogy? Let’s take a check deposit if a donor writes a check to a not for profit, not for profit does not deduct any banking fees associated with that. They credit the donor for the full amount, and the same is true for monthly giving programs. Okay, if i give if i give ten dollars, i get credit for ten dollars and you’ll get credit for a hundred twenty dollars for the year. That’s exactly right? And any banking costs is simply their cost of doing business. Ok. All right, what else should i be asking you that? What else would you like to convey about the annual giving one of the monthly monthly giving one of the things which is also very, very important about this is that, um, assuming the client is brave enough to go out with these upgrades and i say brave enough because often what clients will find is that the average upgrade amount going from a one time donor-centric upgrade amount that we’ve seen over the last twenty some years is about an eighty five percent upgrade. So a lot of times and not for-profit will look at that and say, oh, my goodness, look at tony. That’s more money than we ever thought we would ever get from that guy s so when it comes time to upgrade their say, how, how is it possible that he could give more and so there’s an awful lot of reluctance. Once we get the client over that hump, there are two parts to that successful upgrade. The first is to ask, but the second part is a soft ask, which says, i’m sorry, i can’t upgrade my monthly contribution at this point, but i’d like to make a one time contribution. Typically, clients find that when the donor makes that one time contribution, it is as large or larger than what the upgrade amount would have been. They back off from that simply because there’s a bit of reluctance to make that long term commitment at that point, but they still want to make the contribution to the organization so it’s important to give that option absolutely and in fact, one of the things that pat’s going to talk about today when she finally started providing donors with that soft ask the onetime contribution on there, she has found that in every year that she’s done that and it’s been eight years in a row. There have been sufficiently large contributions that they have paid on their own for that appeal. Okay, excellent. What concerns you, bob about? About? Ah, annual giving monthly giving. I’m sorry, whillans e-giving that we haven’t talked about what? Well, maybe looking into the future. What? What concerns do you have for non-profits that are that are doing this for thinking about doing this, particularly for smaller organizations. One of the real concerns that we see is credit card security and credit cards are excellent. Yeah. Over the last seven or eight years, the credit card company, starting with visa and mastercard, including amex and discover, have put in place a set of security standards. Pc i the payment card security standards, which govern everyone who touches a credit card. Processors like ch i not-for-profits software manufacturers, hardware manufacturers and everybody who touches a credit card has to live by the standards. One of the things we find, particularly among the smaller groups, is a rather cavaliere concern about credit card security. They’ll get the credit cards in, they’ll process them. They may not keep them in a locked vault area. Now we have a credit card number. We have its expiration date. Women. Maybe maybe we have the secure code on the back. That’s. Exactly. Religious code. All right. So now these pieces of paper let’s say hopefully they wanted some kind of standard form. But now what we gonna do with these forms? What are people doing? What should they be doing? Well, what they should be doing, what we counsel is to keep those forms for about sixty days, because that will give everyone involved an opportunity to process the contribution and let the donor sayid on their statement. So that’s that’s one poke a bit and just mentioning that now we’re keeping it for sixty days, keeping it secure. So we walked. It should be locked out on someone’s desk or in an inbox. Right? That’s. Exactly right. What some clients are also doing is doing a two part form for their needs where they will have the name and address in the mount of the contribution on the top of the form and on the bottom they’ll put the credit card number and the expiration date. And after it’s processed, they’ll cut off that bottom portion of it. And do a confetti cut through a shredder on the sensitive information. And even i like to really get into detail a confetti cut, not a not a quarter inch strip cut that it’s got people could piece together in five minutes of will. Okay, we have just about a half a minute left. What else did you want to say about the security issue? The other part is that under no circumstances should any credit card information ever be entered onto a pc and excel spreadsheet a database, because when machines get old, they get tossed in the trash. And who knows what happens to those hard drives? Bob wesolowski is founder and president of caring habits, which is dedicated to building and operating monthly giving programs with electronic funds transfers. And we also know that he’s, a sport fisherman and expert fly tire bob wesolowski. Thank you so much for being a guest. Thank you for having me. This has been tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of national national philanthropy day hosted by the association of fund-raising professionals, westchester county chapter my thanks to bob wesolowski for that interview right now, we take a break. And when we returned tony’s. Take two. They didn’t even think that shooting, getting, thinking thing. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, getting anything. Cubine 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 lebowitz, 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. Dahna hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. 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 am montgomery taylor, and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Welcome back, it’s, time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour. I don’t know what’s going to be on my block this week because i’m recording this show a couple weeks early in an early april so here’s a romp through some recent posts, two of them our irs is helping you. I was on my block. Iris has some good education courses and webinars on their site, which is called irs stay exempt, and one of those courses is applying for tax exemption that’s something that we get a lot of questions about. How do i create a charity? What’s the first step? What’s the second step and applying for tax exemption is one of the irs is seventeen minutes web courses a short lesson on getting your five o one c three designation so that you’re exempt from federal income tax and donations that people make, too. You can earn an income tax charitable deduction, another one of their courses on their site is unrelated business income, and i’ve also talked about that here, with jean takagi and emily chan are regular legal contributors again. The irs site is called iris stay exempt. And their links to all this on my block, which is tony martignetti dot com another post from february was respect small donors. I used the example of the new jersey institute of technology that got a five million dollar gift from ah couple that had given just twenty five dollars, a year, and they have been doing that for about thirty years, and j it was very smart to always thank them and developed a relationship with them, and they’re turned out to be a five million dollar gift in the state of the survivor of the and that couple. So a very good tale about respecting small donors. Both those posts are, as i said on my block at tony martignetti dot com, and that is tony’s take two for friday, february twenty seventh, seventeenth show of the year. Now i have a pre record interview with starita on, sorry from the same conference as the previous interview, and here is my interview with her on strategic organizations. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of national philanthropy day, where hosts are the association of fund-raising professionals, westchester county chapter we’re at the edith macy conference centre in briarcliff manor, new york my guest now is starita ansari. She is president and chief change officer at msb philanthropy advisors, and her topic today is why a strategic organization is key to fund-raising success starita welcome. Thank you for having me, it’s. A pleasure. What is a strategic organization? The strategic organization is an organization that understands that passion is not enough in order to fulfill. The mission is an organization that looks at inputs, outputs and outcomes, and make certain that the day today activities are in line with the strategic direction, de fulfills the mission, and eventually, the vision. Okay, inputs, outputs and outcomes. What? What are and organizations inputs. Inputs as an example. Staff finances the thinking, the human capital, the output would be let’s say it’s a homeless oh, program. Okay, so the output would be we fed one hundred homeless people arika but that’s not solving homelessness. That’s a service. But the outcome with would talk about how many people we have placed our strategy and our success and eradicating homelessness. Best outcome. That sounds like there’s going to be quite a process in doing this strategic thinking to become a strategic organization. What what? What is that process like? How does how does this planning and thought process take place? First, one of the core values would have to be critical thinking, being able to evaluate trends in the market and and trends within the community that you are serving. The other piece is making certain that the people that you hyre particularly from a fund-raising perspective is not purely measured on how many dollars that are raised, but whether or not those individuals understand the mission and can communicate the passion. So what that means is that the people who you hyre strategically aligned with the mission and that you look beyond the job description. But you look at the talents that people have that khun strategically aligned with the mission, creating a team based a t jik culture that you would have to assess almost at every staff meeting. So staff meetings are not a discussion about activities. Staff meetings are a discussion about the strategic plan all right? And we’re going to we’re going to talk in detail about some of the things you just raised. But how does all this relate to successful fund-raising? Because that’s, your that’s, your topic out strategic organizations are ki tto fund-raising success philanthropist want outcomes, not outputs? Philanthropists want a return on investment philanthropists i do not want organizations that are chasing after grants to keep the doors open then therefore those organizations ends up mission drift, whether it’s, individuals, funders or the government everyone once out comes, which requires people to be very strategic and cost effective and an efficient that’s what strategic planning does it lets you be cost effective and efficient, and how you’re using money to get where you’re going earlier. Guest on this show has been dr robert penna, who wrote the non-profit outcomes toolbox. Are you familiar with his work and that that book i am not okay is outcomes, assessment or outcomes the attention that outcomes air getting that’s really pretty recent wouldn’t you say within just the past, i don’t know three toe four years or so where outcomes have become so much part of the non-profit dialogue? Yes, before passion and services, you’re doing good and feeling good for decades for generations, that was that was enough, right? That was, that was enough. And then all of a sudden the outcome started creeping in after the enron situation and now it’s ashley, part of the playing field, and so our appeals cannot just be appeals that have you no shows the single female head of household living in a homeless shelter calling on someone’s heart we have to do more than that. People in people are moving from s not meaning services, but s meaning solutions, and another guest has been ken berger, the ceo of charity navigator there now, and other other organizations as well that rank or or assess mission effectiveness for non-profits paying much greater attention to outcomes than then had been in the past, so this is all pretty recent dialogue. But who’s who’s responsible for the strategic planning process is that the executive director’s, that the board is a combination is that the i don’t know, chief fundraiser, the school of thought and theory that msb philanthropy advisors proposes is that strategic planning should be an inclusive process and that you create a culture where everyone understands from the janitor threw the chairman of the board the direction that the institution is going. But most importantly, if someone works for a nonprofit organization that doesn’t have a strategic plan, well, then the vp of institution advancement or director development should push the agenda and create the culture because it’s going to be expected of that person when they are soliciting gifts, particularly the major gifts and a plan gives people want to know where is my money going? Not just today. Three, four, five years from now. So everyone should be involved in the strategic direction for the organization. How do we trickle this down too? You mentioned even the custodian. How do we trickle it down? And then also, how do we continue it? This understanding with people who come to the organization years after a couple of years. After the strategic plan, they couldn’t have been a part of it. They weren’t part of the organization. How do we continue the trickle down the culture and continue it? What i’ve done in my career is that i value everyone when the janet of buildings and grounds you takes the time to talk with everyone internally, to let them know the direction you’re going with your fund-raising you never know who has a relation, shin ship somewhere back and help with the plan that you have for raising money in terms. That’s how you let everyone know part two of your question times what happens when someone comes aboard and after the procedure plan has been developed? I believe in allowing people to bring their talents to the table, show them this a t jik plan and welcome insight that’s one of things i think is important to our success is that we have to move to a model and non-profit sector where evaluation is not punitive and that everyone can have can give a fee back to how the ship is is moving through the waters, and so a new employees should be able to provide feedback and lend insight, but how khun the plan then accommodate that when the person is new to the organization everyone knew presumably is going to have their own insights. How does the plan continue forward if it’s constantly being altered with new in new insights from from new employees? What a plan is not being altered. The goals and objectives are the same. What will alter is additional talent that comes to the table to move the goals and the objectives forward. So everyone, the alumni, the community, the politicians, everyone will know the direction that your institution is moving and everyone hopefully will embrace it and bring what they can to the table. Okay? And if they’re not embracing the mission and the goals, then they it’s probably not the right fit to be working at the organization. Is that right and that’s the point i was making before when people hyre individuals purely based upon pon how much money they’ve raised versus not just the money they raised, but their passion and their understanding, the mission, the goals and the objectives of whatever going backto homes, eradicating homelessness? Well, let’s talk about the hiring process since we’re headed there. How do you ensure that you’ve got someone who is going to be committed to the the mission of the of the organization? When does that does that start out at the advertising stage of the interview stage? The resume screening stage? How do we do this? Make sure we’re getting the right people. We’re going to be as committed as everyone else in the organization, i think it’s important at the job placement stage for and this is going to be challenging. Okay, organize a challenge is good, though it helps us achieve for organizations to be transparent in terms of their core values. That way, you know whether and not that what’s of interest to that individual is of interest to you. Okay, so if there’s space i mean, does this belong in a job advertisement or you really start this kind of transparency at the interview stage? When you’re talking to people the first time you should be on your website, your mission statement should be on your website things that that that demonstrate your vision should be on the website and so people could say, ok, my passion is is social justice after i’m committed to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender issues, black and brown issues. Disability issues, issues of women. I’m committed to making the world a better place for everyone and valuing everyone and valuing, it said. And we’re talking about sort of coming out in the hiring process. Hyre talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free second reading. Learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit, you’ll hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. Hi, this is nancy taito from speaks. Been radio speaks. Been. Radio is an exploration of the world of communication, how it happens in how to make it better, because the quality of your communication has a direct impact on the quality of your life. Tune in monday’s at two pm on talking alternative dot com, where i’ll be interviewing experts from business, academia, the arts and new thought. Join me mondays at two p m and get all your communications questions answered on speaks been radio. 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. Talking all calm. Metoo yeah, for may, i would hyre individuals that demonstrate some type of passion, an experience in that area, in addition to being a plan giving officer clearly so clearly, technical expertise is necessary, but your point earlier, it’s not sufficient, correct. Dr starita. Dr starita ansari is president and chief change officer at msb philanthropy advisors, and we’re talking about how the strategic organization succeeds in fund-raising. What about staff meetings you mentioned earlier? It sounds like you’re unsatisfied with the typical staff meeting in a non-profit she’s, laughing. Now you can laugh out loud. I correct, okay. How? Why? Often, people come to staff meetings with a list of things that they’ve done since the last staff meeting. People should come to staff meetings with things that they’ve done to make gold one goal too, an assessment of how long it took to fulfill gold, wine and gold, too. Looking at gap analysis, are we going to meet the delivery ble on the on the time? God, i’m sorry got now on this show, we have drug in jail, so gap analysis it’s okay, you didn’t know, but you’re you’re treading lightly, you’re shutting closely to it. Um, what is a gap analysis on your strategic plan? There you have a critical path, which are the things that must occur in order for goals one and two to happen and let’s say action item three does not doesn’t occur then that puts puts the other goals at risk, gap announces is is looking at where things are falling through the cracks, where there may be human capital gaps because we haven’t hyre someone for position and how that gap is going to impact our ability for the delivery ble and what i’m saying is that staff meetings should should be analytical and should focus on what’s not working what is working and should be so and we should. Celebrate celebrate our successes as opposed to oh, i met with someone at ford foundation i maybe the program officer danny casey, i met this. I meant that i sent out seven proposals it’s clear, now that that sort of really even may be shallow meeting doesn’t promote the work of doesn’t promote the mission orientation in the goal orientation that we’ve developed around our strategic plan, it just becomes a list of activities, like you said, and that’s, what happens? People go through this a teacher planning process, they hire consultants, and the plants sits there, and no one opens the plan to make certain that is involved in the day to day activities, right? So no more of that let’s go around the table until we’ve done in the past two weeks. O r one week since the last meeting. All right, she’s e-giving the hatchet scientist across her neck, which is that’s not i hope it doesn’t mean end the interview. No, i don’t trends you mentioned being ableto assess trends in the marketplace where the non-profit exists. How does how does one how does your organization do that? One way is if you’re in a community. And i’ll stick with homeless, okay? And, you know, there are x number of shelters in manhattan get a sense of what they are doing, what they’re doing well, maybe opportunities for collaboration, what’s your market advantage, what you are doing well, that they’re not doing well. So when you speak to funders, you can communicate your market advantage. Was the trends in terms of homelessness what’s happening because of the economy? There’s an increasing number, single female heads of households that are homeless? What does that mean when a mother and her children are in a shelter? That wasn’t the case before the economy. So that’s a trend that we bets if you’re in the industry, you should be able to communicate the impact that that trend has over the past three or four years on the children in terms ofthe moving around and the ability to perform well in school, because that night in the same school, in terms of nutrition, how does all of that have have an impact on the population that you’re serving? And are we talking here about the executive director of the agency? Or could this be shared with the board? This this type of being out and looking at what’s happening in the community were, i guess, i’m asking, where does the responsibility life for this? In my opinion, the executive director, senor presidente, is the chief fund-raising officer. Okay, if that person is not comfortable being the chief fund-raising officer than the vice president for development, should equip that person with the tools that he or she needs to rise and fly, which means that development officer, or the advancement officer, needs to give the president of ceo the that data, and take the time to train the board on that information. So when they’re doing friendraising, they can speak about the value that their program brings to the community. We have just about a minute and a half left. Starita how about in performance evaluation? We’re looking at employee performance. How does this all work within that? Snusz egypt planning should be part of everyone’s job description oh, really, okay, i think everyone should be responsible, and i think people should be critical. Thinkers and fundraisers should strategically decide who they’re going to cultivate, why they’re going to cultivate that individual what’s the strategy. Look at a question. Which is working? Listen, i’m an annual fund person which works for my institution, is it the fiscal year end appeal over calendar year and appeal so that’s the evaluation piece, and then you take that and you apply that information to your strategic plan on how you’re going to move forward. Okay? Dr starita ansari is president and chief change officer of msb philanthropy advisors. We’ve been talking about the strategic organization and how important being such is, uh, leads to success in fund-raising starita, thank you very much for being a guest. Thank you. It was enjoyable. I’m glad my pleasure. You’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of national philanthropy day hosted by the association of fund-raising professionals, westchester county chapter. My previously recorded interview with starita ansari my thanks this week, teo, both bob wesolowski and starita and also to the westchester county chapter of a f p the association of fund-raising professionals, especially their philanthropy day organizer, joe ferraro. Next week i’ll be back in the studio on west seventy second street with paul gearan from professional survey group. How do you use surveys as a prospect cultivation tool? Had you craft your surveys? Tto learn what others think about your work i may call that survey satisfaction or maybe survey simplicity or i don’t know, serving up surveys. I’m not sure if you have a suggestion, i’ll take it, but you know i love a liberations, scott koegler keg lor will also be with me he’s, our tech contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news. Keep up with what’s coming up! Sign up for our insider email alerts on the facebook page. 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It’s Planned Giving, Not Product Giving

Warning courtesy of Martin Deutsch on Flickr
Planned Giving practitioners and theorists stress donor-centered fundraising. But some with an interest in Planned Giving are out to push products, irrespective of whether they’re right for your donors. Don’t let your charity, your program–and your donors–be compromised by these folks.

This has been bothering me for nearly four years, when I started to see it trending upward. The “it” is people who sell financial products calling themselves “planned giving consultants” or something similar.

In fact, they aren’t consultants at all. They’re salespeople. Typically their products are life insurance or commercial annuities, but the menu may vary. Some sell multiple products.

What offends me most about this community of salespeople is that “donor-centered” to them means “Your donors all need the financial product I sell.” It’s just amazing how a seminar led by a life insurance specialist of this ilk will conclude that everyone in the audience needs more life insurance. I’ve been in such programs.

Amazing too that in meetings with a charity’s leadership, life insurance forms the basis of the “planned giving” program these “consultants” pitch. I’ve been in such meetings, screening for self interest to protect my clients from those offering to help the Planned Giving programs I’ve created. This kind of help my clients don’t need.

What I’m describing does not impugn all financial product brokers. Most are ethical and don’t purport to be any type of fundraising consultant. I regularly include a life insurance broker in panel programs I manage for clients.

Life insurance and other commercial financial products certainly have their place in the discussion of estate and retirement plan charitable gifts.

Here’s my point: those who sell the products are not Planned Giving consultants.

Protect your charity’s reputation. Protect your program’s integrity. Protect your donors’ plans. Give a gracious “No thank you” to specious offers of help from people whose real interest is selling financial products.