Archive for the ‘Build a funding model and funding plan’ Category
Real Strategic Partners
Posted by: Tom Suddes April 23, 2008
Nick did a terrific role play at Training Camp last week using the ‘LCB OPPORTUNITY (CLOSE)’.
That’s when we do LEADERSHIP CONSENSUS BUILDING… right there on the visit!
Nick did a wonderful job of bringing a ‘Community Bank’ in as a TRUE/REAL STRATEGIC PARTNER!
There was a YMCA Executive Director in attendance. It struck me that groups like the YMCA and YWCA (and many other For Impact orgs) can make incredible use of this word STRATEGIC PARTNER .
It’s more than a “BIG GIFT “. It’s about a REAL… STRATEGIC… PARTNERSHIP… with a REAL… STRATEGIC… RETURN!
Think about it. You’re the YMCA. You already have “CORPORATE MEMBERSHIPS”. A company pays to “join” the Y and position it as an “Employee Benefit” .
Take that a huge step forward. (THINK BIG.)
WHAT IF… a corporation became a REAL STRATEGIC PARTNER???
They made a HUGE INVESTMENT… with a HUGE RETURN. The Y provided the BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP… as part of their Strategic Partnership! The Y sent health professionals and trainers to the company!
The corporation as STRATEGIC PARTNER would treat this as an INVESTMENT… IN THE COMMUNITY! IN THEIR EMPLOYEES’ HEALTH! And, in their BOTTOM LINE!!!
This is not just about YMCA’s. It’s about ALL For Impact Organizations that can think differently and think big about the potential of STRATEGIC (COMMMUNITY) PARTNERSHIPS.
Yeast For A Stalled Campaign Effort
Posted by: Nick Fellers January 17, 2008
I’ve spent the last two days with a start-up high school in the midwest (founded in 2003) trying to help re-energize a $10M campaign effort that’s stalled at $1M. Following the two days I asked the school and volunteer leadership to identify their biggest epiphanies from the two days. What started out as feedback turned into a learning framework…. shared here with permission for your vicarious thinking and learning (and maybe a little bit of [our] pride).
[The first person statements come from the director of development]
- Before we were thinking about making presentations. Now we think about conversations.
- Before, our main point was we needed a building. Now we focus on the vision of the school. We’re thinking bigger. We’re talking about why someone would want to make an investment in this. It’s about the vision, not the building.
- Before, our thinking was about giving levels. Now, we’re raising the levels and thinking about investments.
- Before, we didn’t know what to say or how to approach our master prospect list. Now, I know what to say and now I know how to approach those people.
- Before, we had an internal administrative concern that if we go after the building, we’d cannibalize our operating budget. Now, we have a total view, a comprehensive approach that includes building our vision, planning for the future, and maintaining our current budget.
- Before, I was the only guy! There was a high level of gray area and confusion about our roles. Now, there’s clarity. Everyone is encouraged and wants to be used.
- Before, everyone was expecting me to figure it out. Now, the Board is excited. We’re not just meeting our bare needs.
- Before, there was concern that we didn’t have a clear, consistent, and compelling message. We didn’t have this before, but we’re closer now.
- Before, we couldn’t figure out our funding plan. We didn’t see how we could do it. But now we do!
- Before, we didn’t have enough involved champions. Now we’re getting great involvement. They are stepping forward. This wouldn’t have been possible before, because we had no plan, no ideas on how to work with the champions. We now know what they can do.
- Before, we didn’t know how to tell the story. Now we know we need to show the story.
- Before, there were higher expectations of videos. Now those don’t seem as important. We see the value in simpler, different, more interactive presentation tools. It’s less presentation and more discussion.
You are a Matchmaker
Posted by: Tom Suddes January 7, 2008
I just read there are 303 million people in the U.S. at the start of this year.
• A lot of these people NEED HELP.
• A lot of these people WANT to HELP.
Your mission (and it’s not IMPOSSIBLE!) is to MATCH the people who WANT to HELP ( THE SOLUTION ) with the people who NEED HELP ( THE PROBLEM ).
If you are in Development… you need to be both a MATCHMAKER and an OPPORTUNITY PRESENTER.
If you’re a Volunteer Leader, you need to both encourage and help the staff with this MATCH.
If you’re SENIOR STAFF (Executive Directors, Presidents, VP’s, etc.), you need to motivate and support your Development Team and your Volunteer Leaders to make this MATCH.
IMPACT drives INCOME .
MATCH INVESTORS ( THE INCOME ) with those in NEED ( THE IMPACT) … and you can change the world.
Your Board is not Responsible for Fundraising
Posted by: Tom Suddes October 10, 2007
Reader Beware: This is a rant. It’s contrarian. It goes against everything you’ve been taught, read and believe. It is also TRUE. FACT. REALITY.
YOUR BOARD IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR FUNDRAISING.
There it is again. It’s out there. Get over it.
- STOP whining that your “Board doesn’t understand that they need to raise money.”STOP complaining that your “Board won’t give or get.”STOP moaning about “asking my Board for names and only getting a few back.”
Three times in the last week, with three really, really good FOR IMPACT ORGANIZATIONS, I have heard all of the above and more.
TELL IT LIKE IT IS.
I shared the following with a group of Executive Directors of a really good FIO last week. One of them looked up after I was finished and said, “Finally, someone is telling it like it is.”
*In fact, one of the best Executive Directors I have met says her Board members all buy LOTTERY TICKETS… as their funding strategy! It would be funny, if it wasn’t so sad.
- ‘TRUTH’. In Book 4 of Metaphysics, Aristotle stated, “To say of what is that it is, and what is not that it is not, is TRUE.”‘FACT’. Less philosophy, and more business-like, are the words of a friend and former mentor Jeff Bernel: “You’ve got to FACE THE BRUTAL FACTS. Anything else is delusional.” (This is backed up by a ton of other business thinkers including Jim Collins’ story about the Stockdale Paradox.)’REAL’. Our own REAL experiences with thousands of Boards and tens of thousands of Board members.
The TRUTH… the FACT… the REALITY is that:
YOUR BOARD IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR FUNDRAISING!
- Your Board doesn’t WANT to ‘fundraise’.In fact, Your Board HATES to ‘fundraise’.Your Board would rather spend thousands of hours on a ‘SPECIAL EVENT’ (that’s not ’special’, not an ‘event’ and raises $1,600…) than ask their friends for money. (Actually, they’d rather crawl through broken glass.)
And they are RIGHT!
To ignore this reality just leads to:
- FRUSTRATION - for you and your Board.STRESS - for you and your Board.UNHAPPINESS - for you and your Board.
THE SOLUTION
I’ll keep this rather SHORT… SIMPLE… and SWEET.
- IMPACT: If your Board is ‘ON BOARD’ rather than ‘ON the BOARD’, they are involved with you because of your IMPACT. They are NOT there because they want to be ‘fundraisers’.Therefore, get them INVOLVED and ENGAGED around your IMPACT. They are on your board for a reason, so engage their talents and abilities to maximize your organization’s IMPACT. Good things will follow…
- CHAMPIONS: Stay focused on your ‘CHAMPIONS’. They are the ones who will lead you to the proverbial ‘Promised Land’. Your Board, as a WHOLE (read ‘MOB’) is worthless (except maybe for rubber stamping some fiduciary gobbley gook).It’s all about the INDIVIDUALS on your Board and, particularly about the CHAMPIONS! As I love to say, “Give me three CHAMPIONS and we will exponentially outperform any ‘BOARD’… 10 fold!”
- ROLE. Every single Board that Nick and I have worked with, without exception, has a fuzzy, ill-defined ROLE vis-a-vis INCOME.We know one thing that is absolutely NOT their role… ASKING THEIR FRIENDS FOR MONEY!Here is one simple, short, sweet way to look at your Board’s (FUNDING) ROLE.
- CHAMPION… Your CAUSE and ORGANIZATION.
- INVITE… Others to be ENGAGED.
- INVEST… with a COMMENSURATE COMMITMENT.
The Simple Idea that Changes Everything
Posted by: Nick Fellers August 11, 2007
Last week Tom and I were with a Benedictine prep school in New Jersey. We were discussing the importance of focusing on top prospects in the development plan when one of the board members asked this question:
“What type of results should we expect if we visit with each of our top 100 prospects?”
Being the ‘helpful outsider’, I gave that wonderfully ambiguous answer: “It depends.”
After thinking for a moment I was able to offer an epiphany that was a bit more insightful…
I’ve never been with an organization which made a commitment to focus on its top 10 prospects that wasn’t completely and totally transformed (in ways beyond funding results).
That’s a long-winded epiphany — I will restate: If you focus on your top 10 prospects it will transform your organization (period).
This is a simple (not easy) idea that changes everything.
The secondary epiphany is that most organizations gloss over their top 10 prospects to make selective visits with prospects 11-100 (if and when they’re making visits).
Why aren’t more organizations transformed by their top 10?
- They don’t stop to ask the question, “Who are our top 10 prospects?”
- It’s easier to focus on prospects 11-100.
- They give up on the top 10 at the first sign of uncertainty. (eg. “The prospect did not return our phone call… she must not be interested.”)
- They have not yet committed to ’sales’ and are therefore not out making asks.
- They have ‘top of the pyramid’ call reluctance because:
- They can’t communicate the vision/mission/message.
- They haven’t been trained to sell and therefore fear messing it up.
Action:
- Make a commitment today to focus your energy on your top 10 prospects.
- Make a commitment to visit with them, share the story, and present the opportunity within the next year.
- Don’t back down from this commitment*.
- E-mail me (nick@forimpact.org) on August 13, 2008 with your transformational success story. I would be equally interested (and very surprised) to hear from you if you truly made this commitment and weren’t wildly successful in your funding efforts.
*If you have encounter any of the challenges above join us at a training camp to remove the challenges [more powerful than a plug; it’s a statement of action].
CEOs and Development
Posted by: Tom Suddes November 25, 2006
Case Currents published this great article 10 years ago for senior staff and administrators. In a nutshell, here it is:
There are 12 qualities that make a nonprofit Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Executive Director a GREAT partner in the Fundraising/Development Department.
- Vision and Leadership.
- A nonprofit CEO should have:
- A well-articulated vision of where the institution can go
- Goals to achieve the vision
- A credible strategic plan for meeting the goals
- Good leadership and good management of resources will inspire prospects to invest.
- Commitment to the Institution. A CEO should truly believe in the institution’s mission.
- Commitment to Development. The CEO should make fundraising a personal and institutional priority. Development should organize, develop a strategy and keep the fundraising program on track.
- Integrity and Honesty. Moral fiber is essential in a CEO. The consistency (or inconsistency) of responses to issues, questions, and problems will show up over time.
- Perseverance and Patience. Virtually every major “Ask” follows many years of cultivation. The CEO should be prepared to spend long periods of time in pursuit of a gift.
- Optimism. The ideal CEO believes success is possible and keeps perspective–and hope–when minor setbacks occur. Fundraising requires a positive outlook and a long view.
- Communication Skills. All CEO’s should learn how to speak effectively to large groups, small groups, a TV camera, and individual constituents. Being a good listener is also critical.
- Energy and Pacing. CEOs should work with their staff to pace themselves and handle their schedules wisely because of all the extra events, meetings, and calls after normal working hours.
- Openness to Advice. A CEO and Chief Development Officer CDO should be a team with complementary strengths. They should be able to share advice and ideas often and easily.
- A Sense of Humor. A CEO can relieve everyone’s tensions by seeing the humor in situations that go awry.
- Creativity. When the original plan for a solicitation falls flat, a creative CEO can keep the door open for another proposal.
- Understands “who should” and “how to” ask for money. Sometimes a CEO will make “the ask,” and other times a volunteer will be the primary solicitor, while the CEO supports the ask. Good CEO’s understand this duality.
A CEO should also:
- Make the CDO a part of the policy team.
- Trust the CDO and delegate authority.
- Provide adequate resources.
- Handle differences in private.
- Support and encourage the staff.
- Offer candid and constructive criticism.
- Make decisions in a timely fashion.
Your Funding Plan Supports your Case
Posted by: Nick Fellers November 21, 2006
I’ve been a road warrior the past two months. For schools, entrepreneurial start-ups and other organizations a big epiphany continues to be the idea that your funding plan actually is part of your case for support.
To me, the funding plan is the HOW behind the big picture dollar goal and the big picture dollar goal is what you need to deliver on your vision. So, in essence, this is HOW you will deliver on your vision. Is that important? You bet!
I’ve found that most organizations don’t have a funding plan.
Three simple action steps here:
- Determine the dollar amount you need for both operations and projects. What is the lump sum? Do the math! 80% of organizations can’t answer this question.
- How many investments would you need - and at what amounts to achieve this goal?
- When? (One year? Three years? Five years?)
The funding plan does a few things as it relates to your case:
- It makes it believable
- It shows a potential investor how she/he would fit into the funding vision.
- It also illustrates that you’re not just picking a number out of the air - there is logic.
Extra bonus: There are times when you can actually ask the potential investor, “Where do you see yourself in this plan?” Then, you let THEM select a dollar level.
Casting and Funding a Vision (intro)
Posted by: Nick Fellers September 13, 2006
This introductory teleseminar offers a condensed version of our popular 1/2-day introductory worskhop. Change the way you FUND your Vision with these simple nine guiding principles that range from the For Impact vocabulary to the introduction of the Major Gifts Process.
This seminar is led by Nick Fellers and is 38 minutes in length.
Intro Seminar
MP3 File | Download Call Notes
No More Special Events
Posted by: Nick Fellers September 20, 2003
With special, special thanks to Tom Peters, the man who WOWs me with almost every thought. Yes, the man is a crazy, contrarian, disruptive exclamation point! Which is why I love his thinking.
This is much longer than most of my WOW Emails … but it’s a pretty big “epiphany”
(both mine and Peters’ word). In fact, this WOW Email is itself meant to be
a “Memorable Experience“. As you read deeper, I’m
even hoping it could be a “Transforming Experience“.
I urge you to share it with your Board, your Development Committee, your “Gala”
Committee, your Golf Outing Committee, your Auction Committee. In fact, share
it with everyone and anyone who has ever had to go to a “nonprofit …
fundraising … function“!
Here goes.
NO MORE “SPECIAL EVENTS”. NONE! NADA! ZIPPO! (Not even “One
Big One”, which I used to recommend.)
WHY?
- Special Events are NOT special!
- Special Events are NOT even events! They are time-consuming, staff-burning, volunteer-abusive activities.
NO MORE SPECIAL EVENTS!!!
I always ask the question, “How many of you want to do MORE Special
Events?” I have yet to see a hand raised from thousands of participants.
Admit it. Your “Special Events” are not! They’re the ’same old, same old’ … for you and for your “customers/constituents/stakeholders/prospects/potential investors/ investors”.
NO MORE SPECIAL EVENTS.
The goal of For-Impact leaders within a World Class Development
Office is to create “Memorable Experiences“!!
I have now gone from a “function” (in the old, old, old days)
to a “Special Event” (that is not really special) … to “MEMORABLE
EXPERIENCES“!
For-Impact Organizations are all about “MEMORABLE
EXPERIENCES“.
I was “there”. I just couldn’t get the right “word” I was looking for. Tom
Peters found it. I added Memorable to ensure you could
distinguish the difference between a Memorable Experience
and a “not so special, not so event”.
We spend 1,000 man/woman volunteer hours to raise $1,400!
Have you ever actually stopped and asked those “volunteers”
if they wouldn’t rather just give you the $1.40 an hour?
Have you ever actually stopped and asked your staff if they
have more productive ways to spend their time than coordinating
all these events?
“But our Special Event (Auction/Gala/Dinner/Newspaper Sale/Golf
Outing) … is DIFFERENT! We ‘raised’ almost $100,000!”
Yeah??? Do you remember your funding GOAL? ???
Again, you spent a huge amount of volunteer time and energy … AND months and
months of staff time … AND you actually “grossed” $100,000.
Simple business principle: You must deduct ALL costs and expenses from your gross dollars! Yes, that includes your staff time! When you do that, you actually “net” $35,000! Or, in other words, it cost you 65¢ to raise $1.00!!!
AND … (this is the worst)! No one who was at your event “experiences”
anything about your For-Impact Organization! They leave with their auction paddle,
a few golf balls, miscellaneous “stuff” … but no mention of WHAT you
do, WHY you do it or HOW you do it!!
ACTION: Use the “EXPERIENCE” word
to help:
- Communicate your STORY! …
- Share your VISION! …
- WOW the “audience” with what you do, why you do it and how you do it …
I know you think I’ve “lost it” (again!) “You and Tom Peters are both
whacko crazies who throw ideas at us that sound good (even exciting) but they
can’t be acted upon!” I can hear you now: “We can’t do that
… we’re a nonprofit”! “We have no budget”! “Our volunteers won’t go along with
that”! “We’ve always done it this way!” “The Committee expects it.”
Etc., etc., etc. (Think “Sacred Cows”, “whine with your cheese”, etc.)
Blow it up! Abandon it! Re-imagine it! Turn the “Sacred Cow” into hamburger!
I know many of you (and your organizations) see this move from “Function” to
“Special Event” to MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE as a HUGE
LEAP!
It’s not.
Here is the HUGE LEAP: TRANSFORMATION.
From “Special Event” to “Memorable Experience” to
a “TRANSFORMING EXPERIENCE“.
It’s just not “special”. It’s not even just “memorable”. It literally and truly
and actually TRANSFORMS the people through the “experience“.
My first real “experience” with a “Memorable Experience”
was at Notre Dame. Jim Frick and Fr. Hesburgh were so far ahead of the curve
when they began “fly-ins” to Notre Dame. The numbers were staggering: 111 people
brought in. 107 commitments. Over $100 million of commitments (on $130 million
campaign). It was about the “experience” of those who were flown in
for the weekend. Private jets (in 1975!) Mass at the Log Chapel. Dinner on top
of the library with all the lights on campus turned on. Customized tours of
areas of interest, etc., etc., etc.
If any of you have ever been to an American Cancer Society RELAY for Life Experience,
you know what a Memorable Experience is. Twenty-four
hours around a track with luminaries and survivors and families is a MEMORABLE
EXPERIENCE! It’s a moving experience! It adds to the “story”!
They still call it a “Special Event” but that’s because of the size of the bureaucracy.
They’re actually running Relay for Life as a skunk works entrepreneurial venture
separate business unit. Is it working? They raised $275 Million last year; and
hope to raise $1 Billion in the next three years.
Here are some Hewlett Packard WHAT IF’s:
WHAT IF … you are a For-Impact Organization?
WHAT IF … you have a social entrepreneur’s mentality?
WHAT IF … you use creativity, not money?
WHAT IF … you bought into this whole “Memorable Experience”
thing?
WHAT IF … you carried it beyond your ‘events’???
WHAT IF … everything you did in your World Class Development
Office was a Memorable Experience?! Your Annual Report?!
Your Mailings?! Your Leadership Society WOW Packets?!
Your Recognition Events?!
WHAT IF … you turn a simple “tour” of your facility or new
building or whatever into a MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE???
This is what the Red Cross is doing in Maine as they move from a simple “event”
in their new building to a truly Memorable Experience
… which shows off the building as the “place” where they provide
training, services, and administer disaster relief. (They’re
not only going to invite Qualified Prospects/Investors but their families,
spouses and children to see the WHAT,
WHY and HOW of the American Red Cross in their community!!!)
WHAT IF … it went beyond your Development Office??? To your
organization?
- Your reception (area or receptionist) was a Memorable Experience?
- Your introduction to your stakeholders was a Memorable Experience?
- Every “Moment of Truth” (from Jan Carlson) was
a Memorable Experience?
WHAT IF … every Board Meeting was a MEMORABLE
EXPERIENCE? Now you’ll get attendance! Now you’ll get people who
actually enjoy going to Board Meetings vs. the same old boring information
dissemination that exists at most Board Meetings.
(I speak from some personal experience here. I’m on the Board of one of the
finest For-Impact Organizations in the world. Its cause is unbelievable. Its
staff is the best! Its founder and key Board members are truly exceptional!
And … its Board Meetings are dull, boring and forgettable. Who wants to drive
45 minutes to a “Board Meeting” to “review the financials” … to “listen to Committee
Reports” … to, occasionally, “hear about our impact???” No
ONE.)
Here’s the tip/idea/lesson: If you could make every one of your Board Meetings
a truly MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE … with PARTICIPATION
… FEEDBACK … ACTUAL CONTACT with those you
serve, those who deliver, those who partner,
etc., wouldn’t that be awesome?
A Special, Special, Special Note!
| MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES require Creativity! Innovation! WOWs! Artists! Mavericks! Which means … You cannot create Memorable Experiences with the same group of volunteers who have run your not-so-Special Events for the last ten years! You cannot create Memorable Experiences if they are led by your Accounting Office … your Finance Office … your HR Department!! Think artists! Think theatre! Think young! (Give that new staff person a chance to show off their creativity!) |
If you’ve ever been touched by the Suddes Experience, you know I love to change your vocabulary … change the way you think … change how you speak and then act.
Here are some closing thoughts on old words and new words that could help you “get it”.
(But, remember the immortal words of Kevin Kelley, another great thinker/writer: “It’s much easier to KILL an organization than to change it substantially.”)
OLD
- Special Events
- A “Nice” Function (Read Gala, Golf Outing, Fundraising Dinner, etc., etc., etc.)
- A Motorcycle
- Shoes
- A Cup of Coffee
- A Costly Airplane Ride
- A Circus (with 3 Rings and some Animals)
NEW
- Memorable Experiences
- A Knock Your Socks Off … Incredible WOW … Transforming Experiences!
- The Harley Davidson Experience
- The Nike Experience
- The Starbucks Experience
- The Southwest/Jet Blue Experience
- *The Cirque Du Soleil Experience
*If you have not been to a Cirque Du Soleil “Experience” … go to one as soon as you possibly can! They’re in Vegas. Orlando. Multiple road shows around the country. You cannot attend a Cirque Du Soleil performance and not understand the word “Experience“.
I want you to think about these three things:
- Memorable Experiences as a truly transforming idea. (Change the Way you THINK!)
- Memorable Experiences as a very big deal in your For-Impact Organization … and within your World Class Development Office! (Change the Way you OPERATE!)
- Memorable Experiences as an incredible PREDISPOSITION IDEA … and a mantra for PRESENTING THE OPPORTUNITY. (Change the Way you FUND!)
This last is pretty exciting! It turns a Not-So-Special Event into a Memorable Experience … which is then used as PREDISPOSITION to PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY!
(I know you’re tired of WOW! But I truly believe this is a WOW!)
This PREDISPOSITION is a big, big, big deal! Think about your Memorable Experiences as perhaps the BEST way to predispose for the presentation of the opportunity!
*Again, that means your Memorable Experience has to be tied directly to your For-Impact Organization’s reason for existence … (as opposed to an event tied to Golf or Gala or Dinner!)
Here’s the proverbial (SIMPLE) bottom line. Create Memorable Experiences!
Make them a showcase for both your cause and your organization!
Turn them into unbelievable PRESENTATION TOOLS … perfect PREDISPOSITION … and the OPPORTUNITY!!!
-
Just Added
Tom Suddes Video sharing the For Impact Point of View
