A Refreshing Approach To Funding
For Impact provides fundraising training, coaching and resources. Founded by nonprofit maverick, Tom Suddes, we share the processes we've used to raise more than $1,000,000,000 for nonprofit causes.
Learn more.The Year of Authenticity
Posted by: Tom Suddes January 7, 2008
(Almost) everything I read over the holidays was talking about ‘AUTHENTICITY’ as the buzz word/watch word of 2008.
- In politics . Many op-ed pieces and articles were referring to 2007 as a year of “cynicism”… and that the key to voter connection in 2008 was going to be AUTHENTICITY . (I know. ‘Authenticity’ and politics is an oxy and a moron. But wouldn’t it be great to have our politicians be authentic, sincere, real, etc.?)
- In business . Management gurus, authors and business leaders are all touting the value of being AUTHENTIC .Jim Gilmore and Joe Pine (authors of one of my favorite books The Experience Economy
) just came out with a brand new book titled Authenticity. What Consumers Really Want
- In life . I read some fascinating books over the holidays on entrepreneurism and the entrepreneur’s life. One of my favorites is LIVE WHAT YOU LOVE: Notes from An Unusual Life
Soooooooooo………. make 2008 your year of AUTHENTICITY in your Organization. In your Development/Investor Presentations. And in your Life.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Authenticity and Simplicity
Posted by: Tom Suddes January 7, 2008
AUTHENTICITY is one of the centerpieces of our FRAMEWORK for PRESENTATIONS.
As Nick is always telling our workshop and training participants, “You just can’t go wrong if you are AUTHENTIC (REAL).”
AUTHENTICITY means being REAL . HONEST. CANDID .
Simply put, it’s being SINCERE !
The people you’re with know right away whether you’re “selling snake oil” or SINCERELY PRESENTING AN OPPORTUNITY that has VALUE to both the GIVER and the RECEIVER!
I read somewhere 25 years ago (I think it might have been Dennis Waitley) that the word SINCERE means ” without wax” ( Latin sine = “without”, cera = “wax”) . It had something to do with marble and sculptors and the way they would “fix” any flaws or mistakes that they made by filling in the mistake with wax.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...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.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...$2.0M + $2.0M More
Posted by: Nick Fellers January 4, 2008
Harvest is over and we’re sitting at $2.0 million with $2.0 million more right outside the door. Within the next 2 weeks I think they’ll be in in a big way. Many others are watching. The momentum that will be created by $3.5 to 4.0 million will be huge. Thanks for all your training and guidance!
Tim McGree, President
La Salle High School - Yakima, WA
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...$100,000 Commitment Out Of Training Camp
Posted by: Nick Fellers January 3, 2008
Nick and Tom, some good news to report since last month’s training camp. Bishop Hendricken High School received its largest Annual Fund gift - $100,000 matching gift from a distinguished alum. I give you both a great deal of credit for giving me the tools to make this happen.
Denny DeJesus - Development Office
Bishop Hendricken High School. Warwick, RI
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Jimmy V. And The Rule Of 3
Posted by: Tom Suddes December 27, 2007
I had an opportunity to catch the replay of Jim Valvano’s famous ESPY Awards speech from 1993. (I caught it when I was working out while watching a little bit of a Notre Dame’s basketball game at the Jimmy V Classic.)
He began this incredible 10-minute presentation by stating that he “didn’t know how much time was left…” because he was fighting cancer. He went on to say that he’s a very “passionate and emotional man” and he wanted to share some things…
And, the ‘3 THINGS’ he shared all had ‘3 THINGS’!!!
*Just so you know, I love the RULE OF 3. It’s used in media, broadcasting, sales, presentations and so much more. All Jim Valvano did was reinforce this for me… in a very emotional and positive way.
- The 3 THINGS we should do every day:
- LAUGH
- THINK
- MOVED TO TEARS (EMOTION)
Jimmy V. said “THAT’S A FULL DAY!”
- (Another) 3 THINGS we should think about every day:
- WHERE You Started…
- WHERE You Are…
- WHERE You’re Going To Be…
- The Lombardi/Valvano Locker Room Presentation around “THESE 3 THINGS”:He talks about his first pre-game speech as a ‘head’ coach with Rutgers Freshman Team. He ‘practiced’ his talk which he had ‘borrowed’ from Vince Lombardi. It went like this:
“All eyes on me.
We’ll be successful this year if we can focus on These 3 Things:
- Your FAMILY
- Your RELIGION
- And the GREEN BAY PACKERS!!!”
Jimmy V’s closing is a great way to end ‘07 and begin ‘08.
“DON’T GIVE UP. DON’T EVER GIVE UP.”
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...WSJ on ROI
Posted by: Nick Fellers December 20, 2007
An article in the Wall Street Journal this morning
Doing Due Diligence On Your Donations
(subscription)
As Charitable Giving Grows, So Do Services for Donors Who Want Evidence that Their Money Is Having an Impact
“Donors can readily compare charities from a financial perspective: how much an organization spends on administrative costs or fund raising, for instance. But givers, especially younger, business-minded ones, now tend to want more information on how successful a charity’s programs are in addressing the issues the charity sets out to resolve…”
The article goes on to debate methodology. I would contribute that simply making a commitment to communicating your ROI - however you do it - is imperative - even if only (in some cases) it can only be done anecdotally. The challenge (currently) is not how we evaluate and communicate impact but if.
I’m reminded of double training camp alum - Tracy Elliott. Before committing his life to the For Impact sector he was a banker. In his current role as executive director he sends out quarterly bank (impact) statements to investors. These ‘bank statements’ include total number of lives saved/impacted, families served, and other stats. The statement then outlines ‘your investment results’. Pretty cool, pretty powerful and pretty effective in demonstrating how money is having an impact.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...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.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Where Do We Find New Prospects?
Posted by: Tom Suddes December 13, 2007
In our work with thousands of ‘nonprofit’ organizations, staff and volunteers, as well as sales teams in the business world, this is the most FREQUENTLY ASKED (BIG, BIG, BIG) QUESTION:
“WHERE DO WE FIND NEW PROSPECTS?”
It’s almost always followed by this comment:
“OUR OLD PROSPECTS ARE TIRED OF GIVING. (Or tired of buying.)”
THE BIG ANSWER:
“IT’S THE WRONG QUESTION!!!”
It’s not about ‘NEW’ PROSPECTS…
It’s about the ‘BEST’ PROSPECTS!!! And, it’s about MAXIMIZING RELATIONSHIPS… with these BEST and most QUALIFIED PROSPECTS!!!
The reason many of you are looking for ‘NEW’ prospects is because you believe:
“We have gone to the well too many times.”
“We can’t go back to our best prospects for more money.”
“We are taking advantage of our current relationship with our top prospects.”
To this, I would add 3 other thoughts coming from your current top givers that I also believe are very fair:
“I want you to get other people involved besides me.”
“I want you to broaden the base of support.”
“I don’t want to be the only one funding this organization or this project.”
While ‘expanding your base’ and ‘bringing in new relationships’ is important to your organization, it’s not the ‘ANSWER’ to your funding challenges!!!
I’d like to challenge your thinking with this idea:
LOOK IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD! Stop ’searching the world’ for new prospects/ fresh money. Before you figure out how to get to Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or the Walton’s…look to your own CHAMPIONS who have the strongest interest in your Cause and your Case.
Here are 3 stories to re-inforce this idea of ‘YOUR OWN BACKYARD’.
Russell H. Conwell wrote one of the most powerful and motivational classics of all times… “ACRES OF DIAMONDS.” (First Published in 1921) Conwell actually gave his speech entitled “ACRES OF DIAMONDS” more than 5,000 times… and earned enough in this effort to help found Temple University!
Here are summarized versions of 3 STORIES in the book that I hope will have a huge IMPACT on your thinking about ‘NEW PROSPECTS’.
GOLD. In 1847, a man who owned a ranch in Northern California heard that gold had been discovered somewhere in Southern California. He sold his ranch to a Colonel Sutter, and then went south to search for gold and riches, never to return.
Colonel Sutter put a mill on that stream. One day, he discovered flakes of gold in the spill off. Sutter’s discovery, in 1849, started the CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH!
DIAMONDS. An old Persian farmer was desperate for riches. He sold his farm, collected his money, left his family and went off in into the garden to drink. As the camel put his nose in the shallow water of the garden brook, the new owner saw a flash of brilliance and reached in and pulled out a diamond (in the rough). This discovery became the famous diamond mine of GOLCONDA!
OIL. In Pennsylvania, another farmer sold his farm to take a job with his cousin, who was looking for coal oil in Canada. He, too, was searching for wealth… in other places.
According to the county records, the farmer sold his farm for $833.
The new owner found oil… on that same farm. That oil was eventually
worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and this discovery became the
PENNSYLVANIA OIL FIELDS!
*I hope the moral in all of these stories is clear and evident.
‘FUNDING YOUR VISION’ is usually about your TOP 33 INVESTORS… and perhaps your BEST 300 QUALIFIED PROSPECTS. Many of these top prospects are most likely sitting right in front of you… right now! (Not literally, but pretty darn close.)
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Focus On 33 (Top) Prospects
Posted by: Tom Suddes December 12, 2007
Nick and I did a session last Thursday on QUALIFIED PROSPECTS. One of the best comments/feedback was from a wonderful Social Entrepreneur with whom we’ve been working for quite a while.
She said, basically, that while everything she heard/learned in the one-hour teleseminar was good stuff… the most important thing to her was the REMINDER re: FOCUS ON YOUR TOP 33 PROSPECTS!!!
That feedback reminded Nick and me that sometimes we just don’t emphasize this enough. Sooooooo…….
FOCUS every ounce of your ENERGY and TIME on your TOP 33
BEST RELATIONSHIPS/ MOST QUALIFIED PROSPECTS/POTENTIAL INVESTORS!!!
You only need 33 great RELATIONSHIPS to totally TRANSFORM your organization. (Literally, to change the way you do business.)
You will have success beyond your wildest imagination!
ACTION: DETERMINE, very quickly, who are your:
- Your Top 3 Champions
- Your Top 10 Best Prospects
- Your Next 20 Potential Investors
- (total = top 33 prospects)
Then, GO VISIT WITH THEM IMMEDIATELY!!!
BE AUTHENTIC. You can’t screw up. Pull a Nike. Just (go) Do It!
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...-
Just Added
Tom Suddes Video sharing the For Impact Point of View
