|
|
On Friday night I attended an auction for the benefit of the Milagro House, an amazing organization that offers a "long-term, education-based program committed to restoring the lives of homeless women and children." I, probably like you, have attended many, many auction events over the years, and I expected this one to be the same. I intended buy some items just to support the worthwhile mission of Milagro House, but honestly, I just didn't need any more stuff.
But the event Executive Director Polly Lauer and her committee offered on Friday was not your typical auction. All of the items available for silent bidding were things needed by the people Milagro House serves. Instead of bidding on restaurant gift certificates and upscale services, we bid on a year's supply of diapers and driving lessons for a young mother seeking to achieve independence. We bid on GED courses and educational toys and electric bills. I was thrilled to see the bidding wars on such atypical items. It created a whole different vibe and spirit that was contagious, generous and fun.
Then, for every $25 in bid or increased bid you made in the evening, your name was entered into a drawing for 6 grand prizes. There you found your vacation homes and $1000 wine baskets. So, the more you bid, the better your chance of winning!
It was a great evening all around and very relevant given the economic situation and the increased awareness of the needs of others. A big thank you to Polly Lauer and Milagro House for a wonderful event - it truly was my honor to attend.
Please share any ideas you have on updating the traditional auction!
I had an unexpectedly great day today. I took a road trip with a colleague to visit one of our clients, Camp Hill Special School in Glenmoore, PA. The drive itself was lovely. It's been a perfect fall day in Pennsylvania; cool air with warm sunshine filtering through the newly turning foliage. Rolling hills, pristine farmland. Stunning. Then we arrived at Camp Hill Special School. I was expecting a traditional school building with classrooms and students, but instead was treated to a verdant campus filled with small, homey buildings. Special students walking hand-in-hand with teachers, gardens, chickens, and beauty everywhere.
The mission of the Camp Hill Special School is "to create wholeness for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities through education and therapy in extended family living so that they may be better understood and their disabilities moderated, that they may more fully unfold their potential, and that they more fully and meaningfully participate in life."
My brief tour of the campus and my interactions with the staff there indicate that they are living this mission to the fullest.
We had our meeting, talked about how GiftWorks can help them achieve their goals, and I left feeling energized and renewed in a deep way. Helping organizations like Camp Hill Special School become stronger is what I want to do. It's the purpose of GiftWorks and all our efforts.
We are all so busy and have so much to do day-in and day-out. Today I had the luxury of stepping out of the usual and remembering why I do this work and how important it is. Tomorrow may be back to the regular busyness, but I expect it will be with an extra spring in my step and smile on my face.
October is GiftWorks Volunteer Appreciation month, and I just came across a very pertinent article in fundraising guru Mal Warwick's newsletter about the often delicate topic of converting volunteers to donors (excerpt below). Certainly if someone is interested enough in your organization and mission to volunteer their valuable time, a logical next step for you is to ask for their financial support as well. To do this effectively requires that you acknowledge the volunteer's current participation in your organization and build from there.
Do comment if you have ideas or insight on this topic!
Here is an excerpt of the Converting Your Volunteers to Donors article by Deborah Block and Paul Karps:
Acknowledge their participation
Right off the bat, you want to make sure the volunteer understands you’re well aware of her existing relationship with your organization. For example, you might want to describe exactly what sort of volunteer activity the recipient’s involved in.
What’s more, if your volunteers are doing different tasks—and you’re able to personalize the letter, even it’s only on the first page—you could write segmented copy for each of the volunteer efforts.
Let’s say your group is a social service agency. One segment could be written to people who deliver meals to the homebound, another to those who staff your hotline, and another to the individuals who drive seniors to appointments. You get the idea.
The more detail you can offer to acknowledge how these volunteers help you, the more personal—and compelling—the appeal will be.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
Just as you would do with an existing donor, be profuse in your thanks and praise. After all, giving of one’s own time and energy is, in many ways, more of a commitment than “checkbook philanthropy.”
So thank early. . .and often.
Paint the bigger picture
In many cases, a volunteer may be involved in just one small portion of your group’s work. So you want to educate this person—much as you would a cold prospect—about the broader scope of all your organization does to fulfill its mission.
Emphasize the need
Once, of course, you review the big picture—so the reader gets a full understanding of who your group is and what you do—you’ve set the stage to explain exactly why you need additional financial support. And, as always, the more specific the better. Focus on programs, services, and the people who will benefit. Not operational needs, like paying the rent or utility bills.
Don’t be shy about stressing your group’s fiscal responsibility and your cost-effective use of volunteers—something the recipient can certainly relate to. “Even so,” you might say, “the need is so urgent, I’m reaching out to you today.”
Take the next step
As in any fundraising letter, you want your Ask(s) to be direct and straightforward. There’s no beating around the bush: Don’t just ask for the volunteer’s support and/or help. Ask this person to send a gift.
Because you’re writing to a volunteer, you can approach the Ask in a very similar fashion to how you might write to a current donor. In other words, you can combine a thank-you with asking the reader to do even more to help your organization. Something along these lines: “That’s why I want to thank you for doing your part to keep our local rivers clean. And why I want to ask you to take the next step in your dedication to preserving our environment—by sending a generous gift today to Save Our Waters.”
A final (cautionary) word
One final thought about converting volunteers to donors. However much you try to craft that perfect mailing, you may still find yourself fighting a losing battle. Many people volunteer their time precisely because they can’t afford to make a gift. Or they just may not be direct mail responsive.
So don’t get discouraged if your results don’t match your expectations. And instead of going for the gusto on the first shot, perhaps test a segment of your volunteer base to see if a conversion package makes sense economically, particularly when compared to using cold acquisition—but direct mail responsive—lists."
Every other Wednesday I teach a GiftWorks Campaign Management course to our customers. And every other week I get the extreme satisfaction of hearing people have the Aha! moment.
Do you know that moment? When you finally see the big picture that brings clarity to all of your busyness? When you have a major insight that can bring everything you do to a higher level?
Here's how the Aha! moment often comes about when teaching GiftWorks Campaign Management.
First, we review the GiftWorks definitions of Campaigns, Funds and Appeals and how nonprofits can plan and chart their fundraising efforts better in light of these definitions. Your campaign is your overall fundraising objective - from an Annual Campaign for your operating budget to a multi-year Capital Campaign for a new building and new programs. GiftWorks Funds align with your budget line items - General Fund for unrestriced operating and specific funds for restricted purposes. GiftWorks Appeals are established for your specific means of asking for support - each mailing is an appeal, your phone-a-thon is an appeal, an event can be an appeal, or a series of direct asks can be an appeal.
Then we show how we can set up the plan in GiftWorks and ensure that resulting gifts have at least these three fields (Campaign, Fund and Appeal) captured consistently.
Now we get to the fun part: By planning and tracking this information in GiftWorks, you have new power to actually understand what is happening in your organization. In just a few clicks, you can see how your phone-a-thon is trending from year to year. You can know which solicitation letter generated better results. You can see which activities are effective and which might be a poor use of your valuable time. You can check in seconds how your board's annual giving is trending and see if your staff has met their 100% campaign participation goal. You can tell if your active volunteers are more likely to donate than your inactive friends. And on and on.
When people see that they can actually have the power to UNDERSTAND and KNOW and make their important decisions accordingly, that's when the Aha! moment occurs, and it's a great feeling.
We’re declaring October to be Volunteer Appreciation Month. Why? Because volunteers can be an organization’s greatest resource – if managed, leveraged, and appreciated properly.
Intellectually, we all know how important volunteers are to our nonprofit work. But day in and day out, we often fail to tap in to this rich vein of talent and support. Recent studies show that nonprofits have a very difficult time retaining volunteer talent.
What's to be done? First, there needs to be an organizational commitment to leveraging volunteers to their fullest. In order to rally your staff around this, it's quite helpful to fully understand the impact volunteers have on your organization which requires good measurement. Second, decide to learn to manage volunteers just as you would manage any other critical function in your organization.
Of course, you need tools to properly manage, measure and scale your volunteer program. GiftWorks Volunteers can help - from capturing volunteer skills and your organization's volunteer needs, capturing volunteer and project hours, to providing the means to recognize and communicate with your volunteer team. GiftWorks Volunteers is an add-in to, and completely integrated with GiftWorks Standard and Premium editions.
Below is short version of an excellent article written by retired volunteer organizer Ellie LaCasse discussing how technology can help you improve your volunteer program. Read on and please share any thoughts you have on fully leveraging volunteer talent!
Using Technology to Gain and Retain Volunteers by Ellie LaCasse
Volunteers may be your organization's greatest resource. In fact, volunteers bring something invaluable to your organization, more than just their dollars, but their time, their interest, their loyalty and their ability to evangelize your mission to others in your community. Committed volunteers, helping with your work and representing you in the community, are priceless. Indeed, volunteers are likely to become your most consistent and, in time, major donors. But if you're not using technology to reach them and coordinate your volunteer efforts, you may be missing a large and growing segment of potential volunteers.
Today's volunteers are no longer content to sit and stuff envelopes on Thursday afternoons. They put a high-value on their time and abilities and want volunteer assignments that tap into those talents and reward them with the satisfaction of having provided meaningful work. To succeed, you must develop ways to find, fulfill, and satisfy your volunteers.
You may not be a sophisticated computer or web user, but you can be sure that the majority of your volunteer audience, both in your community and beyond, is using technology for their personal and business lives. Here are a few ways that you can use technology to improve volunteer efforts for your organization.
1. Collect specific data about your volunteers. It is critical to a not-for-profit's success to have systems in place for managing volunteer skills and abilities, as well as volunteer jobs and opportunities. At a minimum, you should invest in some type of a database for these areas. There is no other effective way to manage this important function.
2. Match volunteer talents with organizational needs and activities. Just as important as recruiting volunteers is retaining them. With your volunteer database, you'll need the ability to manage projects and volunteer jobs and match volunteers to jobs and projects. You'll also need to be able to record what jobs people have performed in the past, what skills they possess that you have and haven't used, and check that you've found a job for every volunteer you can. If you keep your database up to date, you'll even be able to brush up on John Jones' volunteer history before you meet him for lunch.
3. Schedule and track projects. Use your software to manage jobs and opportunities as well. You don't want to schedule five volunteers to help with an activity and then only have enough work for two of them. All five will feel that you and your organization are unorganized and perhaps their skills could be better used elsewhere, and be reluctant to sign up again.
4. Keep in touch with your volunteers. Likewise, you should use your software system to contact volunteers. While this is most easily done via e-mail, you might also consider a personalized, handwritten note to those people connected to an event, or even a regular volunteer newsletter. You can alert committee members of an approaching meeting, updates on an upcoming event, or let them know how many pledges have registered for your upcoming walk-a-thon, transmitting not only information, but motivation and a sense of community. You can even put out a call when there's a sudden unforeseen need for emergency food preparation or data entry or help with a move. Make sure to acknowledge the importance of volunteers to your organization and community with fresh success stories.
5. Recruit volunteers continually. Recruiting new volunteers can start on your own website. Provide on-line job descriptions, sign-up/registration, volunteer outcomes on your site, and keep them up-to-date. Create a special volunteer section where you highlight and thank your volunteers. Publish a monthly report of volunteer hours.
6. Personalize your volunteer requirements. Both on your site and on the Internet, you have the opportunity to put a real face and voice to your appeal. You can use photos, maps, even voices or music to bring your story to life. Unlike the limitations of a paper brochure, you can vary and change your image(s) daily in order to provide more depth and breadth to your message.
7. Link to social networking sites. Many not-for-profits are expanding their reach even more boldly with the use of interactive web tools like MySpace and Facebook, blogs, and discussion groups. Maybe you even have a volunteer who might like to tackle this kind of outreach. This is a great opportunity to build an online community, to engage more people in your cause, resulting not only in volunteers but donations and increased awareness.
When people ask us why GiftWorks is different than other software, we typically reply "because it's easy to use and it's very affordable." These GiftWorks attributes are certainly differentiators. We hear daily from organizations who invested (and continue to invest) large sums into fundraising software packages that no one really understands or can actually use. We also hear daily of nonprofits struggling with the inadequacies of Excel as a donor management system. We gladly welcome these organizations into our ever-growing community of GiftWorks enthusiasts (now more than 9,000 nonprofits across the globe!).
But GiftWorks is more than easy-to-use and affordable. Why? How? Because we embrace the power of simplicity in everything we do.
Software Design: In designing and enhancing GiftWorks, our team is constantly considering the intersection of functionality and simplicity. How can we take important nonprofit activities, and make them less complex and easier to comprehend? Instead of a building bucket of features, we've tried to consider how people think and work and to design the software intuitively around nonprofit work processes. If you try GiftWorks, you will see that you can easily create a highly-targeted list and then flow right into a letter or an email to this list, or flow right into a highly-targeted report analyzing the data from this list. Very simple, very powerful.
Working with Customers: We respect our clients and prospective clients and do our very best to exude this in all of our interactions. We recognize the critical work nonprofits perform in the world, often under the most challenging circumstances. Bottom line: From sales to customer support, we strive every day to treat our clients the way we like to be treated. A simple concept with powerful potential.
Pricing: Yes, GiftWorks is affordable. We believe that great software should be accessible to all nonprofits. GiftWorks works very well for established, mature organizations, and it's important that those with smaller budgets can have the right tools too. You'll also notice all of our pricing is available on our website - we have nothing to hide and want to make it simple for nonprofits to have all the information needed to make important software decisions.
Our Company: GiftWorks is made by Mission Research, and we are a mission-driven team. We are passionate about creating simple, yet sophisticated tools to empower nonprofits to build and cultivate their community of supporters. Most of us have worked in non-mission-driven environments and know we have something special at Mission Research. And like our nonprofit clients, we know it is a privilege to have work you truly believe in. When you love coming to work every day, and you know your work is making a difference, is there anything more simple and powerful?
One of the best things we have done here on the GiftWorks team has been to cultivate great partnerships with nonprofit consultants across the US, Canada, Australia, and beyond. These relationships have enabled the GiftWorks word to travel well beyond where we can go ourselves. These consultants are able to provide hands-on help to nonprofit organizations looking to rise to the next level, and we are so appreciative when GiftWorks is part of that process. Check out some of the things our partners are doing and saying:
Laura Huth, President and CEO of doGood Consulting in Urbana, Illinois, is hosting a large database open house in October for nonprofits in her region. “Too many nonprofit organizations use programs like Excel or Access to store and try to manage information on their donors, special events, and volunteers. It’s laborious and can be error-ridden.” said Laura. “GiftWorks is a high-powered, low-cost, and easy-to-use system that can literally transform nonprofit operations, fundraising, and success.”
Mark Saffren, CFRE, of m3Development in Manorville, NY, contributes great content to help all of our clients think strategically. Check out his article from our June enewsletter here.
Duke Speer, of Park City, Utah, is a true GiftWorks guru and evangelist. He is a very frequent contributor to our GiftWorks User Group on Linked In. He and his colleague, Meeche White, of Ideal Solutions, represented GiftWorks at the Utah Nonprofits Association conference last week in Salt Lake City (that's Meeche in the photo below!).
Karen Schaller is a database expert in Exeter, Maine, who recently started her own practice after many years with a large firm. She provides our team with super candid and spot-on advice and recommendations on how to continuously enhance GiftWorks. She is a great advocate for the day-to-day user of GiftWorks and we know to listen, very closely, to what she tells us.
Susan Lucas of Third Sector Consulting based in Sydney, Australia, is making sure GiftWorks is known Down Under. Susan's energy and advocacy are wonderful and so appreciated - we are all excited to meet her in person when she visits us in Lancaster, PA on October 7 and 8!
Finally, please meet our Consultant Advisory Group here. This talented group provides our company with insight and advice on a daily basis for which we are extremely grateful.
Yesterday I wrote about Pennsylvania's budget impasse and its affect on nonprofits. I also mentioned that PANO is leading the nonprofit advocacy effort in Harrisburg and is the unifying force for the sector in an extremely difficult time in our state.
Your state likely has a nonprofit association too. Are you a member? As a partner of many state nonprofit associations (see below), our GiftWorks team has seen firsthand the benefits membership provides. These organizations are the leading advocates for the nonprofit sector in terms of public policy. They keep you informed and represent the sector's interest in the regional, state and federal government. The importance of this function should not be underestimated as seen in our state of PA.
Also, your state association can provide you with leadership training, collaboration and networking opportunities, product and services discounts, and access to a plethora of resources that can make your organization stronger.
We all know that there is strength in numbers - joining your state nonprofit association or the national council will make your organization stronger and strengthen the power of the nonprofit sector as a whole.
Here is a directory of nonprofit associations: http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/salocator for your reference.
GiftWorks is very proud to partner with and be recommended by: Arkansas Coalition for Excellence, Colorado Nonprofit Association, Connecticut Association of Nonprofits, Hawai'i Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations, Idaho Nonprofit Center, New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits, New York Council of Nonprofits, N.C. Center for Nonprofits, North Dakota Association of Nonprofit Organizations, Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizaitons, South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations, and Utah Nonprofits Association.
Here in Pennsylvania, we still don't have a state budget. Without going into the politics of the situation, the result is that many PA nonprofit organizations are unable to receive earned reimbursements for services provided and other state funding. While at some unknown point in the future, some funding and most payments will come, but until then, there is a cash flow crisis. How many organizations have the reserves or lines of credit established to cover 3-4 months or 5-6 months of unexpected shortages?
In Pennsylvania, the PA Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO), has been leading the advocacy effort in Harrisburg. The importance of having a cohesive voice for the nonprofit sector is never more important than in times like these. More on that topic later, but please visit their site if you want to learn more about the budget impasse and how you can help.
Here is a letter to the editor written by Maureen Powers and Tina Nixon, co-chairs of the YWCA Mid-Atlantic Region, describing very well the issue at hand.
"Since the passage of the Governor’s Stopgap budget, State budget negotiations have stood at an impasse. State workers are now receiving paychecks, but organizations and agencies with contracts with the state are still not being paid for their services. During this recessionary time, this adds to the severe economic distress nonprofits are already under.
As Co-Chairs of the YWCA Mid-Atlantic Region, we are witnessing the impact the lack of a state budget is having on the 24 YWCAs in PA. YWCAs provide childcare for thousands of low-income families daily that is subsidized through the state. We also operate domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers that are almost wholly dependent on government grants, and we certainly cannot refuse these crisis services to victims of crime because of inability to pay. However, because we currently are not receiving payment from the state for services provided and may become unable to pay our staff, these services and others are at risk of shutting down.
As one example, at the YWCA of Lancaster, we continue to provide child care for 300 children daily, counseling and accompaniment for sexual assault victims, parenting education for low functioning parents, and youth services that are costing us $100,000 per month for which we are not receiving our expected and earned reimbursement. School is starting, and there is no state money to subsidize childcare for babies of teen parents who want to finish high school.
Some YWCAs have exhausted their reserves and their lines of credit. If the state does not pass a budget promptly, they will have no recourse but to lay off staff and suspend programs. This will only add to the number of unemployed people in PA, and deprive communities of essential services.
And in forcing us to use our own reserves or lines of credit, the state is essentially using nonprofits as a bank. We are virtually “lending” the state money at no cost to the state, but at a loss to us, as we will not be reimbursed for interest payments and fees incurred.
We urge our representatives and senators to abandon their intransigent positions and focus on resolving an intolerable and unworkable situation. Posturing for a certain constituency may enhance an individual candidate’s political image, but it damages the underlying fiber of the community and exacerbates an already difficult situation for our most vulnerable populations.
The issues involved in the budget are the same today as they were in May and June, and could have been resolved then as well as now. In the name of democracy, we call on the state legislature to put an end to this injustice charading as political debate."
Sincerely,
Maureen Powers Tina Nixon
Co-Chairs
YWCA Mid-Atlantic Region
More breaking news from the GiftWorks Team! We have just expanded our ongoing offer and partnership through Techsoup to encompass nonprofits with annual operating budgets up to $100,000. Starting now, nonprofits with an annual operating budget of up to $50,000 can purchase one license of GIftWorks Standard through Techsoup for only $25. Organizations with budgets between $50,000 and $100,000 can purchase one GiftWorks Standard license through Techsoup for only $99.
Our partnership with Techsoup is part of our mission to empower all nonprofits with the best tools to perform their important work (yes, that means GiftWorks!). We take this mission very seriously and are thrilled to expand our Techsoup partnership to make GiftWorks more accessible for these smaller and newer nonprofits.
We hope you or a nonprofit you care about can benefit from this offer. Please spread the word and visit www.techsoup.org to get started!
|
 |
|
