Innovating Nonprofit Fundraising and Social Entrepreneurship: For Impact

March 9, 2010 | Nick Fellers

I hear the following:

From colleges: It’s a hard case, we charge $35K annually and we have an endowment. People think we have all the money we need.

From everyone else: It’s not like we’re a college with years of alumni relations.

From the ‘biggies’ (who shall go nameless): We need more brand awareness. That’s how Susan Kohmen does it.

From everyone else: It’s not like we’re [insert biggie name].

From the small, nimble start-up: We’re not the big guy, we don’t have all the big guns on our board.

From the big guys: We can’t go talk to XYZ. That’s [insert red tape reason].

From everyone that doesn’t deal with kids: Kids are sexy and sell, we don’t have that. How are we supposed to compete?

From the kids orgs: Putting a cute kid on a poster is not enough, people really get after us about our measurement… how are we supposed to compute all the numbers? We’re not transactional, we deal more with emotion and subtle things that change lives.

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March 3, 2010 | Nick Fellers

The Goal of the Visit

Having the visit is not the goal.

Visiting with a potential prospect is not a goal unto itself; it’s the means to an end.

What’s the end? What are your goals? It’s so important to have clearly defined goals – especially if two or more from your organization are going on the visit together. The goal determines what you say.

I just got off the phone with a coaching client. When I asked about the goal the client said, “Well, I guess our goal would be to share the message.”

Again, sharing the message is an activity – not the goal.

In her case, we established three goals for this initial visit. May help you…

Qualify the prospect. (Financial capacity and interest).
Have her help to identify the correct players in the city to get on board.
Get her help in getting to some or all of those identified in number two.

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March 2, 2010 | Nick Fellers

Seminar ON MESSAGE – Wednesday at 1:00 ET

We’re looking to have a good virtual turnout for tomorrow’s teleseminar: How to Simplify your Message.

Wednesday, March 3 @ 1:00 ET / 10:00 PT

This is a twist on an old seminar – with new information and examples. I’m thinking of this one as a toolbox in which I’ll be sharing many messaging tools and also some presentation tool examples.

You should sign up for this one if:

You want to know what to say on a visit.
You want creative ideas to help you package the ask.
You are a fan of books like ‘Made to Stick‘, ‘Words that Work‘ and ‘A Whole New Mind‘. Teaser: Or, if you want to know why Walt Disney was the BEST. SALESMAN. EVER!

Info and Registration

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February 25, 2010 | Nick Fellers

The Gen Y Social Entrepreneur Wave: Part III

Part I was about the next generation of ‘change leaders’
Part II was an unsolicited attempt to tell you how Gen Y sees the world.
Part III is about the economy, culture and the future Gen Y could provide.

Our work has taken us to just about every corner of the planet – either directly or indirectly – in helping an NGO that works on the ground in India, China, Bolivia… you name it. I’ve been having a lot of discussions about the ‘entrepreneurial culture’ or lack thereof in other countries. Have also been talking a lot about how that will be an enduring strength for us as we work through a new economy – one in which the economic norm of the past 50 years is not what we will have in the next 20+.

Spending time in other countries provides the enough contrast to highlight that ‘American entrepreneurial spirit’ and particularly just how rooted it is in our culture and systems. For example:

Other parts of the world are really down about the global economy. I mean really down… Despite the headlines in US newspapers we still have a widespread assumption that ‘we’ll get through this’. It’s not that way everywhere else.
Our government is designed to help entrepreneurs. I know, that sounds laughable. Travel to India though – it’s billed as an enterprising and rapidly developing place. Has a lot of entrepreneurs, etc. The government and its systems are total chaos. Two of my former business partners tried to start businesses there and gave up because it was such a joke to do anything – even something as simple as incorporate.

I point to both of these examples because they’re cultural and systemic. These attitudes and systems didn’t just happen and they’re not going to change in 10 years.

So this creates a simple premise, we will continue to have one of the most entrepreneurial culture systems on the planet and we’re about to add a[nother] generation of humanity-driven individuals full of the entrepreneurial spirit.

At just the right time.

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February 25, 2010 | Nick Fellers

How to Simplify Your Message – Teleseminar Weds, March 3

I’m going to be leading a 45-minute discussion followed by Q&A in which I share several examples and ideas to help you simplify your message. Having a clear, concise and compelling message engages the board, ignites confidence on the ask and focuses your organization’s mission/business strategy.

When: Wednesday, March 3 @ 1:00 ET / 10:00 PT - Online Registration

I’ve been doing a lot of writing and speaking on this topic. For several weeks I’ve wanted to share ‘the best of’ with the For Impact community. The content is tried and tested (thoroughly) in the field but this will be my first time sharing it en masse This one is good for development staff, executive/senior leadership and board members.

Agenda Points:

* Why a simple message?
* Frameworks and tools you can use to simplify your message.
* How to apply message to engage the board
* How to apply message to identify new prospects
* How to apply message to maximize funding relationships
* Message Examples: Napkins, Engagement Tools and more

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February 24, 2010 | Nick Fellers

The Gen Y Social Entrepreneur Wave: Part II

Read part I and Part III

I’m still a young pup but squarely at the end of the Gen-x era, which offers a pretty cool vantage point from which to reflect on upcoming Y-generation.

This part of my thinking is framed from questions I often get from boomers, usually leaders of organizations, that want to know what’s “wrong with kids these days”.

“They’re always looking for the next job.”
“Job security used to be a selling point, it’s like they don’t even care.”

I try to bridge the gap… I think we have to start with a completely different foundation to understand what lies ahead with this next generation and realize not what’s wrong but where there is immense potential for any group, company or organization.

Imagine you are 24 years old today. From the time you were 16-18 and beyond you’ve seen some interesting things that have framed your worldview:

The dot-com crash & the housing bubble. Most generations see one big bubble and this generation has seen TWO by the time it’s entering the ranks of the real world. If you’re 24 your “adolescent to adult life” has been capped by bubbles.
Enron / Detroit. You’ve seen big institutions crumble and vanish. Both because of mistrust and the changing world. Either way, the idea of trusting an institution is not something you disagree with.. It’s not even something you comprehend – you haven’t really seen a model in your lifetime.
The Great Depression is lost (probably). Your grandparents probably didn’t live through the great depression.
Those of us in our 30’s and certainly those older all had someone in their life that was impacted by the great depression. I know this shaped my parents and hence me in a way that has always made me/us a little ‘on guard’ or live with throttled optimism. Not all a bad thing but just very different, I would imagine if you never had this experience shaping you directly the throttle for optimism could be wide open.
9/11 – You were all set to take on the world, go to college, get a job… An event happens that forced so many of us to take pause and search for meaning and purpose in our lives.
The web. For your entire ‘social life’ you’ve never not been connected to the web. You’ve never been more than a computer screen removed from anywhere else on the planet. It used to be that young adults were encouraged to ‘get out of town’ so that we would see some more of the world. The experience would open our eyes and make us think bigger about possibilities. Gen Y has ONLY lived beyond the walls of town, it’s ONLY wired to think bigger about possibilities….

Generally speaking, it’s not that this generation ‘doesn’t want a job’ or that they are lost on the internet. It’s that they are wired to see a bigger picture – one constructed in the ‘world is flat era’ — and more possibility with fewer restraints that we may have had because of our need to live within the walls of institutional safety. They aren’t shunning the systems we know, they just don’t know them – at all.

This is a generation that favors cool projects — full of meaning — over ‘career jobs’.
This is a generation that only knows the entrepreneurial spirit, not much by choice but more because the inverse of this spirit – whatever that may be – isn’t defined.
This is a generation that isn’t charting a course for retirement, 401k benchmarks and social security. Absent of this mode they are more free than you and I to think about meaning, purpose and significance.

This is a potential cocktail for that I think results in this new generation of social entrepreneurs — how the rest of us ride the wave is something we’ll have to figure out but it should be fun.

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February 24, 2010 | Nick Fellers

The Gen Y Social Entrepreneur Wave: Part I

Talking about social entrepreneurship in our sector is like talking about clean energy in the energy sector… tons of chatter and conceptually, not new. Up until recently I’ve dismissed much of the conversation as ‘change chatter’.

To be clear, I LOVE the concept of social entrepreneurship… the idea of people thinking creatively and with an entrepreneurial attitude about changing the world! I actually feared (and maybe still do) that all the hype will elevate to a level of buzzword jargon (and maybe it has).

Lately, I have a new perspective on ‘change chatter’. And this perspective is that it IS our future. Social entrepreneurship (esp the young SE’s) will define or re-define the ‘change sector’. It will probably continue to wash away traditional lines of not-for-profit and for-profit and continue to organize around ‘for-impact’ or any other jargon – I’m open.

Last summer I had a chance to be with Robert Egger in New York. He shared a narrative about how the activism of the 60’s and 70’s gave rise to today’s nonprofit sector. The passion that was seen in the form of protests and marches matured to result in much of the nonprofit sector growth in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

This got me thinking about all this ‘social entrepreneur’ stuff and ‘change chatter’. From Ashoka to David Bornstein’s book to the Stanford Innovation Social Review… a lot of stuff. From what we, at The Suddes Group, are seeing in-the-field there is CLEARLY a swell from those in their 20’s.

Literally, out of nowhere, we’ve had a number of new young-social-entrepreneur-movement-type-orgs pop up on our radar – either they’ve attended boot camp or we’ve met up with them in the field.

Sparkseed
PEPY Ride
The Unreasonable Institute
Better World Books (BWB hasn’t been to boot camp but Xavier, one of the founders was my first business partners at Notre Dame so I stay close with Xavier).
Invisible Children

As a side note, if you ever get to hang out with any of these orgs or any other Gen Y social entrepreneurial orgs – do it. Incredible energy, passion, enthusiasm. Pretty damn refreshing.

It’s cool to think about the nonprofit sector as we know it today and think about the DNA injected from the chatter of the 60’s and 70’s and then think about what it will or won’t be in 10-15 years.

Who cares how one defines ‘social entrepreneurship’? I’m up for the downstream effect of the ‘chatter’. Here comes a generation that only knows of the world as flat and one that isn’t caught up on for-profit or not-for-profit but going at the goal to save lives, change lives and impact lives in the best possible way…. That simply by using the word ‘entrepreneurship’ entertains an entirely new vocabulary and way of thinking.

They’ve already given a cache to the movement. In and of itself, that is an achievement. We have two new Notre Dame grads working with us The Suddes Group. When I came on board ten years ago (also out of ND) people seemed to look at me with pity for ‘wanting to spend my life with charities’. Pat and Mark – they’re like rock stars – jumping into the new world of social entrepreneurship!

Read The Gen Y Social Entrepreneur Wave: Part II

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February 23, 2010 | Tom Suddes

Ignite the Creative Fire!!!

I just spent some wonderful time with the President of a College of Art from Ireland.

She’s a creative and visionary superstar… who is going to make the proverbial Quantum Leap with the College!

Somehow, we started talking about red hot ‘TALENT’… both externally (Advisors and Board) as well as internally (Directors and Staff).

That led to a quick synapse jump for the Old Guy to CIRQUE DU SOLEIL. That, in turn, led to a terrific book that should be able to help all of you IGNITE THE CREATIVE FIRE!

The book is THE SPARK by Lyn Heyward and John U. Bacon. It’s a terrific book on creativity and talent. I truly believe you’ll love this book, filled with ideas and nuggets and inspiration.

Here are some powerful words in the Forward by Guy Laliberté, who’s Founder and CEO of Cirque Du Soleil, with more than 3,000 full-time employees, artisans, technicians and managers around the world. Read more

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February 22, 2010 | Tom Suddes

Citius, Altius, Fortius

FASTER. HIGHER. STRONGER.

CITIUS. ALTIUS. FORTIUS.

Olympics have been pretty captivating. I haven’t had much chance to watch, but what I’ve read and the little I’ve seen have been a lot of fun.

Read a very interesting article over the weekend about how the Olympic motto of “Faster. Higher. Stronger.” … is “becoming an aphorism”. According to the article, the human body is reaching its maximum potential, unless augmented by gene therapy, drugs or equipment improvements.

This is certainly not true in the world of SOCIAL ENTRENEURISM and FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES!!!

It is still very, very, very possible to go much FASTER. Much HIGHER. Much STRONGER. (And all without drugs or improved equipment!)

GO FOR THE GOLD! (Or the Silver. Or the Bronze. JUST GO!)

*Interesting note about “extreme outliers”. It seems like in the last 100 years, because the athletes have now come from all over the world, there are very few “extreme outliers” still out there.

I would suggest, on the other hand, there are some serious “extreme outliers” available within the For Impact and Social Entrepreneurial World!

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February 21, 2010 | Nick Fellers

Boot Camp 2010 dates set – June 22-23

We’ve just posted the dates for our 2010 Funding Boot Camp – June 22-23 at Eagle Creek farm, our headquarters in Columbus, OH.

We’re going to take the boot camp to a new level of ‘nicheness’ this year and focus even more on the visit. Of all the learning modules we incorporate, feedback, experience and results continue to reinforce that people get the most out of learning HOW to make the ask [approach/flow] and knowing WHAT to say/ask.

This is going to be a great environment to train new hires or for old hacks to sharpen their skills.

Over the last three years we’ve also started to have a lot of repeat attendees. At first I thought this was a signal that maybe we weren’t teaching very well However, repeat alums are emphasizing that they get a new level of ’sales mastery’ with each attendance — so this year we’re introducing alumni pricing.

Unlike in years past we’re only doing ONE boot camp this year. It will sell out (limit 60).

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