Archive for the ‘Set goals and measure progress’ Category
Action and Getting Things to Happen
Posted by: Tom Suddes April 4, 2008
Nick has shared with you some things about an A.F.E. – an ACTION-FORCING EVENT. In my last two COACHING CLINICS it hit me, again, how powerful this really is. Here are 3 quick bullets and a bonus.
- PREDISPOSITION!!! If you’re on the For Impact Platform, you know that this is a big, big deal for us. PREDISPOSITION comes before you call to get a visit… is used to set up the presentation… is even used as part of the follow-up. PREDISPOSITION is definitely an A.F.E. (especially if you tell someone you’re going to call them in the next 48 hours to set up a time for the visit!)
- DEADLINES. Disney uses the term “THE TICKET IS PRINTED” to reinforce this concept of a deadline. (They tell all the contractors, designers, etc. that this new ‘EXPERIENCE’ [RIDE] is opening on such and such a date. ‘THE TICKET IS PRINTED.’ There will be little kids and their families standing in line… on that day!)
Priorities, Projects, Programs need DROP-DEAD DATES/DEADLINES, be they real or artificial. Draw a line in the sand. Put a stake in the ground. Use whatever other cliché you want. Just use DEADLINES as an A.F.E.!
- MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES. Every single MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE becomes a wonderful A.F.E.! You can tell people you’re going to follow-up. You can announce plans, kickoffs, groundbreakings, etc. Think of your MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE as it relates to ACTION! (A literal ACTION-FORCING EVENT.)
Bonus: BOARD MEETINGS. With all due respect, every “not-for-profit” Board Meeting is a disaster. Boring. Information-driven. No engagement. The only real ‘ACTION’ is approving the minutes from the last meeting.
WHAT IF… you could literally use your Board Meeting as an ACTION-FORCING EVENT? Approve the Funding Plan! Create Leadership Consensus around Priorities! Get buy-in at the highest level on your Message and Vision!
A.A.R.
This is a military term for an AFTER-ACTION REPORT. (It has nothing to do with AARP which is a very quiet but powerful organization for old people like me.)
You’ve heard me or read me when I talk about failure… engage then plan… prototype… act now. Every time you actually DO something, it becomes a wonderful lesson…IF you actually take the time to think about what happened, debrief, and get feedback.
AFTER-ACTION REPORTS in the military are the primary means of debrief and feedback. I would encourage you to do your own A.A.R:
- After Every Visit!
- After Every Memorable Experience, Predisposition, etc.
- After Every ‘Lesson’
Special Note: In our For Impact ROADMAP, the EXECUTION component is comprised of PREDISPOSITION, PRESENTATION and FOLLOW-UP.
It this model, the FOLLOW-UP includes a MEMO FOR THE RECORD… in other words, an AFTER-ACTION REPORT! No exceptions. No excuses. There needs to be a written summary of the visit and the required follow-up/action.
There it is.
ACTION-FORCING EVENT and AFTER-ACTION REPORT
Common word?
ACTION!!!
The Only Measurement That Matters Is Money
Posted by: Tom Suddes January 25, 2008
I had a session with a wonderful Sales Team last week. They’re deep into a campaign and doing really well. Then I had a subsequent conversation (as prelude to a two-day Custom Sales Training) with a wonderful, young head of a large development operation that has just completed filling out his Sales Team and ready to begin a strong Sales/Major Gift effort.
In both case, we spent significant time talking about this concept of MEASUREMENT.
Three quick assumptions to help you understand what follows.
- You are in SALES. Great sales teams and great sales people know the need for MEASUREMENT.
- Successful achievement of any GOAL requires MEASUREMENT. MEASUREMENT is the means to determine success, accomplishment, and satisfaction.
- You get what you MEASURE. Cliché, truism, aphorism… don’t know (don’t care). I do know that everybody in the development field and in sales wants and needs to know HOW they are being MEASURED.
Here are some ideas and nuggets that might help you with this whole concept or strategy of MEASUREMENT. It’s a little long. You might want to print it out, read it later or share and discuss with your development staff/sales staff.
I’ve been being ‘measured’ and ‘measuring’ for almost 35 years. Here is the shorthand version of what I’ve learned:
- The only MEASUREMENT that really matters is MONEY (INCOME) raised to FUND THE VISION and SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE YOUR IMPACT. Many of you want to argue/debate this with me. (You may be bringing a knife to a gun fight.) Yes, it’s about relationships. But, it’s about MAXIMIZING the RELATIONSHIP… AT THIS GIVEN MOMENT.I’m becoming more mellow with age, but the word/concept of “cultivation” still makes me gag. Even things like “stewardship” and “donor relations” don’t work as part of your model or strategy IF there is no GIFT… no INVESTMENT… no MONEY/INCOME!!!(And you can’t deliver on your SOLUTION or BUSINESS MODEL or VISION or IMPACT.)
- ‘PRODUCTIVITY’ vs. ‘ACTIVITY’. The PRODUCTIVITY of your SALES TEAM, MAJOR GIFT OFFICERS, DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS, SENIOR STAFF or EXECUTIVE TEAM is a simple function of :HOW MUCH MONEY WAS RAISED/COMMITTED?
It is THE MEASURMENT.EVERYTHING else is an ‘ACTIVITY’. Letters. Phone calls. Visits. Presentations. Asks. Proposals. Pending Follow-Ups. - Begin with the end in mind. Covey at his finest. The application is pretty simple.How much MONEY/INCOME do you need to fund your vision and achieve your impact goals???
- MEASURE THE ‘TRIPLE NET’. [The $100,000 GUARANTEE.] I was talking on the phone with Kelly P., a former Suddes Group team member and now a development superstar with a children’s hospital. She reminded me of what I used to tell organizations 20 years ago. I guaranteed them a way to “raise $100,000″. Hire two Major Gift Officers/Development Officers. Pay them $50,000 each. I would train them in 10 minutes and guarantee that they would be able to go out and “raise” $50,000 each over the course of the year.I know this seems kind of silly because the net income is zero. (Actually, it’s a “negative number” since we did not factor in any of the “expenses” by the two development staff.)The point should be pretty obvious.
The goal of every Development Office should be to write a NET, NET, NET CHECK to the IMPACT side of the organization.
***Therefore, you need to MEASURE the entire COST OF FUNDRAISING to really be able to determine your IMPACT.
- DO THE MATH. One of the most important lessons around MEASUREMENT and GOALS, etc. is this concept of doing the MATH.
- How much MONEY (Income) do you need?
- What does your FUNDING PYRAMID (aka Gift Chart) look like?
- How many COMMITMENTS do you need?
- How many VISITS do you need to make?
- How many QUALIFIED PROSPECTS need to be in your pool/portfolio?
Special Note: If you want to look at the way we have MEASURED every campaign we have ever managed and the performance of each of our sales team members, check out the ‘GREEN SHEET’.
9 Big Board Questions
Posted by: Nick Fellers January 11, 2008
I’ve been a part of dozens of board retreats (leader/observer/participant), meetings and planning sessions in the lasts few years. A traditional strategic planning session lays out goals and actions but often fails to ask some really big driving questions.
What if we asked these questions?
- What is our purpose or raison d’etre? This is different from mission - which should be the same thing but usually ends up being more about ‘place in the world’ vs. purpose. Raison d’etre literally means REASON FOR EXISTENCE. It’s the WHY question. If you can’t answer WHY then WHAT and HOW are irrelevant.
- How can we (intentionally) go out of business? As this for the short term (1000 days) or long term (50+ years). You exist to change lives, save lives or transform lives. How often do we re-examine our activities and ask, “Can we find a SOLUTION?”I started to qualify this question - to say that it might not apply to some organizations such as schools. Then, I withdrew my qualification. Ask it anyway; see where the conversation takes you. Education is changing.
- What would you do with $100M? Or pick a number that is a factor of 10x higher than anything you’re thinking about now. I attended a board retreat last weekend as a board member for Road of Life Cancer Prevention for Kids. With $100M one board member said she would get laws changed to make health education mandatory at an earlier age and another said we should invest in longitudinal studies to understand how health prevention impacts kids. Those are two VERY DIFFERENT priorities and we aren’t doing either right now. Ultimately, the question helped to build consensus around focusing on EDUCATION.Until the question was asked, every debate was about incremental tactics, not vision or even, I would argue, strategy.
- What strategic partnerships can we pursue? You have finance committees, development committees, marketing committees, campaign committees. If anything, I would like to see a partnership committee. Better yet, just a commitment to partnerships as a core priority (DNA) of the organization.I haven’t seen the numbers in a while but we’re somewhere in excess of 2million nonprofits and many more socially focused businesses (all For Impact). Current structures and strategic planning questions focus on bloat, not partnerships. We’re all trying to make a difference so let’s make a commitment (financial resources) to exploring this full time.
- How can we maximize our impact? Simple and open-ended… but not asked enough.
- What are we best in the world at? Jim Collins has made this conversation prevalent in the last few years (revisiting the Hedgehog Concept). It’s ultimately a question of priorities and focus. Consider finding the one thing you do very well and FOCUS on that.I can’t tell you how important this discussion is for your staff. It helps them make decisions about grants, programs, staffing, etc. Equally important is identifying those things that you’re not good at.Side note: I am a big Marcus Buckingham
believer. He tells you to focus on your strengths. Our strength at For Impact is in-person training, facilitating and coaching. We’re focusing on ways to do more of that in 2008 (live, via web and on-demand).
- Should we grow ‘wider’ or ‘deeper’? It’s a scope of services question. Ultimately a lot of ’strategic planning’ comes down to this question. Do we add more depth to our current programs (make them longer, more available, etc)? Or, do we expand our scope of services (diverse offerings, expanded continuum, etc.)? Refer back to question six to help you frame this debate.
- How much money do we need to achieve our vision? What usually happens: we spend time tweaking funding goals based on last year’s results. It would be of huge value [to everyone] if we knew how much money we really needed to accomplish our vision (annually or over time via a campaign initiative).Reflecting on this, I would say that this question is often asked in preparation for a campaign but it is not asked in relation to our operation (annual). Why not? Instead, we set a number and then allocate it (budget)… every year.
- What is our business model? Or, what business are we in?
I think this goes along with several other questions and relates to strengths, focus and priorities. It also adds clarity and could even become part of your message.
I think these questions would also SOLVE a lot of the problems I hear about every day:
- Board engagement / Staff communication: Iit works both ways.
- Board meetings: If we’re on board about the big stuff it raises the level of the conversation. I think a lot of the comments I hear about board members being too detail focused or staff members seeming unfocused is resolved when we can communicate about and focus on the big picture.
- The proverbial rat race: Incremental thinking gets incremental results (some times).
From Yoga Practice to Funding Practice
Posted by: Tom Suddes December 18, 2007
Three things hit me in
the last 24 hours around this one word of ‘PRACTICE’.
- MY YOGA
‘PRACTICE’. At the end of class last night, we were
reminded to keep up our ‘PRACTICE’ during the holidays.To ‘PRACTICE’ yoga means that you never really
stop… it never ends… it’s a lifelong ‘PRACTICE’…a literal journey.
Same thing is true when you ‘PRACTICE’
medicine or law or accounting.More importantly, we need to
make ‘LIFE’ our ‘PRACTICE’. - NOTRE DAME
BOXING. In a conversation with this year’s captain, we
were talking about the schedule for our six weeks of training
beginning January 15th. It really is about the
‘PRACTICE’ (training)… not about the fights
themselves.As I remind all of the participants (225 guys and
100 young ladies), this is a sport that you really, really need to
enjoy/love the TRAINING (PRACTICE).At the very most,
assuming you win all of your fights (the prelim, the quarters, semis
and the finals), you will have fought for 19 minutes! Think
about it. Over half of these boxers will ‘lose’ in
their first bout, which means they will have actually fought for
real in the ring for a total of 3 rounds or 3 minutes and 45
seconds!!! (Many of them won’t even make it to the third
round.)In sports,
there is this wonderful idea of enjoying the ‘PRACTICE’(TRAINING). In fact, the better the athlete, the better the team,
the more enjoyable the PRACTICE.How can we apply this to our
lives? To our careers? - ‘PRACTICE’ vs. ‘PLAY FOR REAL’.
In our third training session with Ohio’s College Access
Network, we challenged the College Access Programs to go out and
make VISITS and JUST ASK. One wonderful young lady who is Executive
Director at a program shared a story of how she went out and made
her first three visits… and viewed them as “JUST
PRACTICE”. She didn’t even call on her ‘best
prospects’, but rather on people who have no association or
relationship with her program.She got one $10,000
commitment and two $5,000 commitments!!!
She is a
very talented ‘program’ person who runs a strong
organization. But, as she says, she didn’t have any
fundraising experience’ and didn’t really want
any. The idea of going out to “PRACTICE” made all the
difference in the world for her.
My closing thought is
that a ‘PRACTICE MENTALITY’ provides a “nothing
to lose”… “it’s just practice”…
“there’s no pressure” attitude.
We
should all operate like this in ‘08.
What You Say is Driven by Your Goal
Posted by: Nick Fellers November 1, 2007
Change say to ask.
You have to know what you want (clearly) as an outcome of the visit to know what questions to ask.
Example goals for a visit:
Goal: To leave [discovery] visit with clear understanding of whether or not this is a fit for prospect.
Q. What are your top giving priorities?
Q. (After outlining project) Is this something you would want to support?
Goal:Clear idea of project’s rating around capacity and relationship.
Q. Assuming we got you to the site and you loved the project, could we have a conversation around a lead commitment ? (Question asked after addressing what a lead commitment would mean)
Goal: Get a committment from strong relationship (eg. board member)
Q. What do we need to do to help you come to decision?
My questions are direct (but authentic) and driven by the goal. I will not leave a visit until I have what we need re: the goal. This could be a commitment/decline, interest/not interest or a clear road map for action. One of my goals for every visit is always tied to building and/or maximizing the relationship at that given moment and for the long term.
If you identify the goal of the visit you will ask the right questions.
See also: We’ve outlined 50 power questions and transition questions. These are available as part of the $1Million Dollar Ask - shared free with WOW Email Membership. If already a member, resubmit your info for link.
100 Visits in 18 Days
Posted by: Tom Suddes October 31, 2007
Jim Yoder is one of my closest friends (since our days together at Notre Dame) and a former partner of The Suddes Group. Jim has been running/managing large campaigns for over 20 years. He is currently working on a $1.5M Campaign for Economic Development (over 5 years) in a small community in North Carolina.
He has spent 3 DAYS…
EVERY OTHER WEEK…
FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS
working on this Funding Initiative.
He has made:
100 VISITS!!!
100 VISITS… 100 SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER, FACE-TO-FACE, EYEBALL-TO-EYEBALL PRESENTATIONS… IN JUST THOSE 18 DAYS!!!
Oh, and by the way, Jim has never met any of those prospects/potential investors personally before he made that visit… AND he Presented the Opportunity for them to make an investment (JUST ASK) in almost every single instance!
I told Jim that 100 visits in those 18 days was more than most Development Officers and Major Gift Officers Make in a year.
HOW MANY VISITS ARE YOU/YOUR ORG MAKING THIS WEEK???
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].
The Return on Investment, Energy and Relationships
Posted by: Nick Fellers April 12, 2007
Here are some thoughts on this concept of RETURN… RETURN ON INVESTMENT… RETURN ON ENERGY… RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS…
If you’ve been following the For Impact MESSAGE in any way, you should be familiar with the VOCABULARY CHANGE of ‘donor’ and ‘donation’ to ‘investor’ and ‘investment.’
And, obviously, you would know what every INVESTOR wants from their investment: A RETURN!
And, as a For Impact Leader or Social Entrepreneur, you know that you can DELIVER on that RETURN.
There is another ‘RETURN’ that Nick and I use quite often that seems to really grab people’s attention: RETURN ON ENERGY.
This particular nugget should be pretty self-explanatory. What (exactly) is your RETURN on ENERGY? (In this case, ‘ENERGY’ means both physical and mental TIME and FOCUS.) Is the end result worth the ENERGY? Are you working on your Top 3% or still expending a lot of (wasted) energy at the bottom?
*This concept is explained and expanded wonderfully in a great book by Jim Loehr called The Power of Full Engagement
Loehr’s premise is very simple: It’s all about MANAGING YOUR ENERGY… NOT YOUR TIME.
Special Note: I believe this RETURN ON ENERGY concept applies both to YOU and your INVESTORS / CHAMPIONS. (They are also expecting a return on ENERGY, not just a return on INVESTMENT.)
As I was pulling this together, it hit me that the first return may be the RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS. I never really heard anyone talk about it this way, but if you think about it, the RETURN on a RELATIONSHIP could be a way to talk about both RETURN ON IVNESTMENT and the RETURN ON ENERGY.
Again, I believe this RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP applies to both YOU and your FOR IMPACT ORGANIZATION, and your STAKEHOLDERS, INVESTORS and CHAMPIONS.
Are you actually maximizing the RETURN ON RELATIONSHIPS? Are your top prospects and potential investors clear about their RETURN ON THE RELATIONSHIP? And, finally, can you use this whole concept of ‘RETURN’… on the RELATIONSHIP… on the INVESTMENT… on ENERGY… as a way for you to get TRULY FOCUSED???
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.
Master Prospect List - QPI Rating System
Posted by: Nick Fellers July 10, 2006
Internet Explorer users, right-click and ‘Save Target As’ to download to your desktop.
| Directions:We have used this tool to run hundreds of campaigns and major gifts initiatives. It’s simple and powerful. Rate your top prospects to create a master prospect list in descending order of importance. Then focus all your time (literally) on your top ten prospects — you will be amazed by the results.
Each prospect receives a rating in each category 1-5 (5 being the highest). You need to determine the rating system for each category that makes the most sense for your organization. If you are a two-person organization with a low budget a major gift may be $20,000. If you’re the American Cancer Society you may be looking more at $1M. |
| Capacity | This is the prospect’s capacity to make a major gift.You must decide what constitutes a major gift for your organization .Generally, it is a gift level that is worthy of one-on-one time with a prospect where you develop a specific return-on-investment for the gift.This is not an indication of what you think the prospect will invest in your organization - it is an indication of what you think the prospect COULD give. | |
| Relationship | This is an indication of this prospect’s relationship to your organization OR CAUSE.If this prospect is on your board it should be a five (5).If, for example, you are the American Cancer Society, and this prospect is a cancer survivor, the rating should be a five (5) even with no gift history .Develop a rating system to account for each number 1-5 that makes the most sense for your organization. | |
| Timing | Generally timing is always a five (5) unless you have specific knowledge otherwise.For example, we just received a major gift commitment last week … move down to a three (3). | |
| Gift History | What is this prospect’s giving history to your organization?You might determine that a five (5) on the rating scale indicates lifetime giving of $100,000+ or ten consecutive years in your Leadership Society. | |
| Philanthropic History | This is a measure of the prospect’s general willingness to give.Has he or she supported other organizations?Is it a foundation (5)? … or does this prospect have short arms and deep pockets (1)? | |
| QPI | Qualified Prospect Index:The sum weighted total of ratings in each of the five categories.You need to visit with anyone 90 and higher today! | |
| Relationship Manager | This is the person within your organization that manages the relationship — does not have to be the point of contact but must responsible for thinking about this prospect every day. | |
| Natural Partner | This is a person, internal or external to your organization that has the closest relationship to the prospect. |
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Just Added
Tom Suddes Video sharing the For Impact Point of View
