fundraising

Millennial fundraising epic FAIL

June 1, 2011 By Benjamin Mohler

Typically, this time of year I see fundraising appeals from educational organizations, faith-based groups preparing for summer mission trips, and health-related (education/advocacy/research) groups that sponsor an athletic event (e.g. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team In Training). Over the past four months I’ve received about eight fundraising appeals representing five different organizations. Of these, five have been through social media or in electronic format and stand out in my mind, but not as best practice examples.

Social media and the viral fundraising campaign is highly lauded among large national organizations with high name recognition and stellar reputations. However, a major shortcoming of peer-based appeals is that the responsibility for relationship building is transferred from professional fundraisers to an inexperienced volunteer. A trend I’m seeing among the disappointing appeals is a lack of volunteer fundraising training by these well-respected organizations (or perhaps volunteers are ignoring their training).

The downside of this is that even if a person I know sends me an e-mail or Facebook message asking for my support for their upcoming mission trip or walk-a-thon, I’m unlikely to be receptive to the request if it’s the first time I’ve heard from that person in five years.

As Millennials seek to make a difference, it should be the responsibility of non-profits to engage their volunteers in training to make clear the importance of genuine cultivation and stewardship as a preface to effective asking and engagement. Volunteer training should not focus just on building endurance for the upcoming marathon, but should also spend some time educating on the strengths and weaknesses of permission marketing and their responsibilities as volunteer fundraisers.

Where should these volunteer training programs to start? I recommend the Donor Bill of Rights and the Code of Ethical Principles and Standards.

How to Build a Philanthropic Plan

May 2, 2010 By Benjamin Mohler

Over the past several months I have been participating in the mentoring program with my local chapter of AFP. The majority of the meetings with my mentee have focused on helping her articulate a case for support and building a philanthropic plan for the organization’s integrated strategic plan.

To extend the value of the work done with my mentee to others looking to improve their strategic planning skills, we will spend the next several weeks breaking down the parts of a philanthropic plan. The philanthropic plan typically consists of five basic parts. These parts build on one another as your plan progresses to give your strategy clarity. The early sections give detail so that the latter sections can concentrate on providing a concise road-map of actionable items to achieve your development goals.

As with grammar, these parts are listed below to simply to provide structure and a general guideline, but rules are made to be broken (provided you understand the rules and the reason for them). These parts include:

Organizational Context – mission, vision, history, values
Philanthropic Environment – fundraising resource audit, SWOT analysis
Philanthropic Goals – strategic, financial, timetable
Philanthropic Strategy – cases for support (audience, case, and implementation)
Benchmarks – staff performance metrics, strategic, financial

Next: Organizational Context

Fresh set of eyes

June 20, 2009 By Benjamin Mohler

This post is an open request for feedback from people who have never worked for a nonprofit and are inclined to say “philanthropy” is an awkward word.

I remember when I first started working in the nonprofit sector. I entered the third sector workforce thinking of it as a short-term thing… you know, until I found a real job. However, I stuck with that first job for five years. During that time I learned that nonprofit organizations are no less professional than the private sector.

According to my boss at the time, I made important contributions to the organization. He frequently reminded me that the reasons he hired me were because I had the technical ability and personality to do the work, but mostly important – I brought a fresh set of eyes to the organization.

Having spent the better part of the past ten years as a fundraiser, board member, consultant, member of nonprofit professional societies, and student of philanthropy my “fresh eyes” are getting tired. I run the risk of developing tunnel vision. Buzz words and the “body of knowledge” are my blinders.

The following requests are directed to those with questions about nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, or any of the words nonprofit professionals throw around. Since you have the fresh eyes, I need your help.

I need you to ask what we do, why we do it, and how it impacts the public and private sectors.
I need you to ask questions that challenge nonprofits to be transparent, accountable, and innovative.
When request for your philanthropy of time, money, and talent arrive in your mailbox, inbox, or through some other media, tell me what you like.
If these requests don’t ring true, tell me why.
When you see a nonprofit do something you like please share and explain what resonates with you.