What Donors Want and Need
Mar/31/11 12:30 PM
By Barry McLeish
I grew up in the world of direct marketing. I love this world but as I got involved heavily in fund development, I discovered that you need to move from a world that simply measures transactions to a world that measures transactions as well as relationships.
Relationships are very important to the fund raising world and everyone talks incessantly about them. The typically stated goal is to understand the donor so completely that you can give them what they really want. Today some organizations have gone so far as to believe that donors are really desperate to have a relationship with them. This seems to me to be a largely spurious notion. Most nonprofit agencies cannot really provide all that a relationship entails – they cannot offer intimacy or much mutuality or other issues that characterize a relationship.
What can they offer?
First, we can do a good job in our service or ministry execution. Virtually every need today is over-supplied and there are literally too many nonprofits doing the same thing. The donor has power in the marketplace they have never had before.
Second, they can treat donors better than they do. Virtually every donor is smarter than we give them credit for; in fact, they are far more confident that we think as they interact with us. They are people who know they have a choice in almost everything they give to. We must learn to respect them more than the average agency does.
Third, we cannot presume loyalty to our cause in the marketplace. This type of trust has basically been destroyed. An organization cannot assume the donor will buy anything.
A new agenda is required.
I think there are two things that donors are looking for today that they don’t get enough of. The first is purpose – what an organization is really in business for. There is so much hype tied to the promotional work of many nonprofit organizations that I think donors no longer have time to wade through it all. Many organizations position themselves as being omni-competent and able to do so many things. I think donors no longer buy this. They know they have the power of choice and they often choose to move on.
The second is providing the donor with a real ability to intervene into the world and change it. We are so beat down these days as donors with choices and value statements that often seem simply not true, that to see a real opportunity to change the condition of the world with the writing of a check creates a moment of pure creativity and happiness for the donor.
My very best to you.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Besides serving as vice president of McConkey-Johnston International, one of the leading consulting firms in the nonprofit sector, Barry McLeish is co-founder of Fundraising Success Team and Raising-Support.com.
I grew up in the world of direct marketing. I love this world but as I got involved heavily in fund development, I discovered that you need to move from a world that simply measures transactions to a world that measures transactions as well as relationships.
Relationships are very important to the fund raising world and everyone talks incessantly about them. The typically stated goal is to understand the donor so completely that you can give them what they really want. Today some organizations have gone so far as to believe that donors are really desperate to have a relationship with them. This seems to me to be a largely spurious notion. Most nonprofit agencies cannot really provide all that a relationship entails – they cannot offer intimacy or much mutuality or other issues that characterize a relationship.
What can they offer?
First, we can do a good job in our service or ministry execution. Virtually every need today is over-supplied and there are literally too many nonprofits doing the same thing. The donor has power in the marketplace they have never had before.
Second, they can treat donors better than they do. Virtually every donor is smarter than we give them credit for; in fact, they are far more confident that we think as they interact with us. They are people who know they have a choice in almost everything they give to. We must learn to respect them more than the average agency does.
Third, we cannot presume loyalty to our cause in the marketplace. This type of trust has basically been destroyed. An organization cannot assume the donor will buy anything.
A new agenda is required.
I think there are two things that donors are looking for today that they don’t get enough of. The first is purpose – what an organization is really in business for. There is so much hype tied to the promotional work of many nonprofit organizations that I think donors no longer have time to wade through it all. Many organizations position themselves as being omni-competent and able to do so many things. I think donors no longer buy this. They know they have the power of choice and they often choose to move on.
The second is providing the donor with a real ability to intervene into the world and change it. We are so beat down these days as donors with choices and value statements that often seem simply not true, that to see a real opportunity to change the condition of the world with the writing of a check creates a moment of pure creativity and happiness for the donor.
My very best to you.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Besides serving as vice president of McConkey-Johnston International, one of the leading consulting firms in the nonprofit sector, Barry McLeish is co-founder of Fundraising Success Team and Raising-Support.com.
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The Match
Jan/20/11 06:10 PM Filed in: Strategy
By Barry McLeish
I was taught that to create a successful strategy in fund development or product sales, I needed to first look at what my competitors were doing - or attempting to do – and then I needed to look at ways to outdo what they were trying to accomplish either through marketplace force, advertising strength, or fundraising persuasion. If these tactics didn’t work I would then need to try to position the agency I was a part of in service or product areas that my competitors were not engaged in.
This “wisdom” often served me well. However, I wonder if the conventional wisdom of yesterday is no longer the right approach today and in fact, may be leading me astray?
Increasingly I am becoming convinced that, in organizations I am a part of, it is the honest assessment of their unique capabilities that helps me the most. Strong capabilities can lead me as a development director or marketer to look at an organization's current and potential donors, decide where the agency and stakeholder can grow together (or not), the way the capabilities of the organization allow this to happen, and the subsequent opportunities that might enable them both to evolve together.
This is a mouthful. It simply asserts however that, even if you have a great cause, it still might not attract individuals the way you think it should. Your agency’s capabilities must be integrated with each other and must support the overall goals and strategies of the organization. Your organization’s capabilities should dictate what you can and cannot do strategically. You only do what you can excel at because in doing so you deliver maximum value to those you are collaborating with. To enable this to happen, you must be remarkably honest in your evaluation of your agency’s capabilities because they help determine who you can attract to your organization as a donor and who you will not.
In fact, a capabilities strategy is neither static nor complacent. Your organization is evolving all the time through the people you hire and the programs you both abandon as well as the new ones you implement. To achieve this tight match between strategic direction and capabilities requires a focus that few nonprofit agencies have. However, to be able to discern your firm’s capabilities will give your agency an advantage few enjoy.
Let me encourage you to pursue an HONEST assessment of your capabilities -- and then determine just HOW those match up with your donors' values and concerns. Seeking the perfect match with individual donors -- especially your major donors -- could be the difference between your success and failure.
I was taught that to create a successful strategy in fund development or product sales, I needed to first look at what my competitors were doing - or attempting to do – and then I needed to look at ways to outdo what they were trying to accomplish either through marketplace force, advertising strength, or fundraising persuasion. If these tactics didn’t work I would then need to try to position the agency I was a part of in service or product areas that my competitors were not engaged in.
This “wisdom” often served me well. However, I wonder if the conventional wisdom of yesterday is no longer the right approach today and in fact, may be leading me astray?
Increasingly I am becoming convinced that, in organizations I am a part of, it is the honest assessment of their unique capabilities that helps me the most. Strong capabilities can lead me as a development director or marketer to look at an organization's current and potential donors, decide where the agency and stakeholder can grow together (or not), the way the capabilities of the organization allow this to happen, and the subsequent opportunities that might enable them both to evolve together.
This is a mouthful. It simply asserts however that, even if you have a great cause, it still might not attract individuals the way you think it should. Your agency’s capabilities must be integrated with each other and must support the overall goals and strategies of the organization. Your organization’s capabilities should dictate what you can and cannot do strategically. You only do what you can excel at because in doing so you deliver maximum value to those you are collaborating with. To enable this to happen, you must be remarkably honest in your evaluation of your agency’s capabilities because they help determine who you can attract to your organization as a donor and who you will not.
In fact, a capabilities strategy is neither static nor complacent. Your organization is evolving all the time through the people you hire and the programs you both abandon as well as the new ones you implement. To achieve this tight match between strategic direction and capabilities requires a focus that few nonprofit agencies have. However, to be able to discern your firm’s capabilities will give your agency an advantage few enjoy.
Let me encourage you to pursue an HONEST assessment of your capabilities -- and then determine just HOW those match up with your donors' values and concerns. Seeking the perfect match with individual donors -- especially your major donors -- could be the difference between your success and failure.
Do NOT Pull Back...
Dec/28/10 12:30 PM Filed in: Marketing
By Barry McLeish
It is clear many non profit organizations are suffering financially. Even in the final quarter of the year when many donors tend to give - if they are going to give at all – a large number of agencies are in trouble. The empirical data suggests that cumulatively organizations are down financially about 6% but many more are down much significantly more than that.
As hard financial times threaten everyone and becomes part of the “new normal” it is not unusual for agency executives to begin to cut fund development and marketing initiatives, cutting everything from field rep slots to direct mail acquisition efforts to brand building initiatives.
While there is always pressure to cut anything and everything that is moving during hard financial times, many successful for profit organizations do just the opposite. Instead of cutting their operations across the board, they aggressively boost their marketing and advertising expenditures during economically challenged times.
Why?
When many organizations are cutting back, those that aggressively go after the attention and investment of customers – both current and new customers – often win greater market share. They stand out by their activity pattern. Couldn’t the same logic work in the nonprofit world?
I know that there is more at play in the nonprofit world here than this simple logic. When times are difficult donors evaluate their giving more stringently, saying “yes” to some nonprofit agencies and “no” to others. Priorities and values can often shift dramatically and in making these shifts, donors can create both new organizational leaders as well as new followers.
However, in spite of the tendency to want to pull back and hunker down, I think the worst thing a nonprofit agency can do during times like these is to pull back its promotional efforts and become more of a commodity, looking and sounding like everyone else.
Use this time to become very close to your donors and customers. Differentiate your organization by speaking into different niches that may be underserved in the marketplace and grab the attention of new potential donors. Most importantly, constantly remind your stakeholders of the value that their gift is giving to not only those they want to help and need the help, but the value they accrue to themselves.
During these final days of the year, I wish you my personal best and I hope that you will end the calendar year in the black.
It is clear many non profit organizations are suffering financially. Even in the final quarter of the year when many donors tend to give - if they are going to give at all – a large number of agencies are in trouble. The empirical data suggests that cumulatively organizations are down financially about 6% but many more are down much significantly more than that.
As hard financial times threaten everyone and becomes part of the “new normal” it is not unusual for agency executives to begin to cut fund development and marketing initiatives, cutting everything from field rep slots to direct mail acquisition efforts to brand building initiatives.
While there is always pressure to cut anything and everything that is moving during hard financial times, many successful for profit organizations do just the opposite. Instead of cutting their operations across the board, they aggressively boost their marketing and advertising expenditures during economically challenged times.
Why?
When many organizations are cutting back, those that aggressively go after the attention and investment of customers – both current and new customers – often win greater market share. They stand out by their activity pattern. Couldn’t the same logic work in the nonprofit world?
I know that there is more at play in the nonprofit world here than this simple logic. When times are difficult donors evaluate their giving more stringently, saying “yes” to some nonprofit agencies and “no” to others. Priorities and values can often shift dramatically and in making these shifts, donors can create both new organizational leaders as well as new followers.
However, in spite of the tendency to want to pull back and hunker down, I think the worst thing a nonprofit agency can do during times like these is to pull back its promotional efforts and become more of a commodity, looking and sounding like everyone else.
Use this time to become very close to your donors and customers. Differentiate your organization by speaking into different niches that may be underserved in the marketplace and grab the attention of new potential donors. Most importantly, constantly remind your stakeholders of the value that their gift is giving to not only those they want to help and need the help, but the value they accrue to themselves.
During these final days of the year, I wish you my personal best and I hope that you will end the calendar year in the black.
Strategic Uncertainties
by Barry McLeish
I have met many donors in the last year who believe that events in their lives can no longer be controlled the way they once were. This has led some to a type of despair and others to question their values and beliefs.
I believe this general perception of a loss of control is most likely going to continue in America amongst many individuals, including some who are your organization’s donors.
As a consequence of this lack of perceived personal power, the level of complaint as well as a persistent negativism in America is also on the rise. There are obvious reasons for this type of concern. Tremendous job insecurity is omni-present; in the past three decades income for the poorest fifth of Americans has risen marginally, while income for the richest fifth has risen by substantial amounts; and housing prices have fallen almost uniformly across America.
How do we relate to our donors during this time of upheaval, personal loss, and anxiety?
Listen to your constituents more than you ever have before. Become the master of the short conversation with them and look for data points that you did not realize before. Likewise, during a time of crisis shortcomings in your organization’s strategy often become obvious. Fix these errors quickly.
A series of questions, honestly asked and answered, can help put your strategy back in focus:
1. Is your organization still on mission or have you allowed “mission creep” to influence your strategy?
2. How is societal adversity affecting your donors’ values and their desire to be involved with you?
3. Are your assumptions about your donors still right, or has societal turmoil invalidated your basic strategic premises?
4. Have you engaged your employees, key stakeholders, and board members in face-to-face debates about how best to reach your donors and influence them while collaborating with them?
Most importantly, don’t waste time if your strategy needs to be put back on track.
My personal best to you in the days ahead.
I have met many donors in the last year who believe that events in their lives can no longer be controlled the way they once were. This has led some to a type of despair and others to question their values and beliefs.
I believe this general perception of a loss of control is most likely going to continue in America amongst many individuals, including some who are your organization’s donors.
As a consequence of this lack of perceived personal power, the level of complaint as well as a persistent negativism in America is also on the rise. There are obvious reasons for this type of concern. Tremendous job insecurity is omni-present; in the past three decades income for the poorest fifth of Americans has risen marginally, while income for the richest fifth has risen by substantial amounts; and housing prices have fallen almost uniformly across America.
How do we relate to our donors during this time of upheaval, personal loss, and anxiety?
Listen to your constituents more than you ever have before. Become the master of the short conversation with them and look for data points that you did not realize before. Likewise, during a time of crisis shortcomings in your organization’s strategy often become obvious. Fix these errors quickly.
A series of questions, honestly asked and answered, can help put your strategy back in focus:
1. Is your organization still on mission or have you allowed “mission creep” to influence your strategy?
2. How is societal adversity affecting your donors’ values and their desire to be involved with you?
3. Are your assumptions about your donors still right, or has societal turmoil invalidated your basic strategic premises?
4. Have you engaged your employees, key stakeholders, and board members in face-to-face debates about how best to reach your donors and influence them while collaborating with them?
Most importantly, don’t waste time if your strategy needs to be put back on track.
My personal best to you in the days ahead.
The Emotional Bank Account
By Barry McLeish
Do you remember how Stephen Covey in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People used the phrase “emotional bank account” to describe the amount of trust individuals can build up in relationships?
When nonprofit agencies – or their development or marketing officers - are in a panic for quick funds, or are hurried in their approach to fund development, they often seek to withdraw more relationally than has been built up through their urgent appeals for funds. I have learned the hard way that relationships require a regular and constant deposit in the form of relational building activities if they are ever going to survive and prosper.
The good news is that the relationships you and your organization make with individuals can have a transformative effect upon them, upon you, the attitudes you have towards each other, and the way you involve yourselves with each other.
The bad news is that it takes more time to build these relationships than most of us ever believe it will. Because most marketing and development directors inherit their strategies from previous administrations, if the previous administration did not spend much time building relationships on behalf of the organization, or simply did not budget the necessary time to accomplish this task, you and your organization are going to be hurt tactically and relationally.
You and I live in a world of urgency and immediacy. This cultural fact mitigates against building long-term relationships. And yet, long-term relationships allow nonprofit agencies to not only survive in downturns and times of economic instability, they also allow organizations to thrive and grow. The “emotional bank account” you build with long-term friends allows your agency a type of latitude that short term relationships do not have. These friends stay involved longer, give more than others, tell their friends about your organization, and stay involved during times of crisis and abundance. They simply are invaluable.
Making the tactical decision to build these types of relationships alters the way you work strategically. Allowing these friendships with their intrinsic values to mature over time provides an organization with durability and a better future by allowing donors and friends to build a legacy with the organization, create an impact, and do something that is truly substantive. Frederick Reichheld author of The Loyalty Effect suggests, “The growth of any organization is simply the accumulated growth of the individual relationships that constitute it.”
Today in our lives there is a habitual tendency towards the short term. Reverse this trend in your organization and you will create a relationship reservoir that will continue in the life of your organization long after you are gone.
Do you remember how Stephen Covey in his best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People used the phrase “emotional bank account” to describe the amount of trust individuals can build up in relationships?
When nonprofit agencies – or their development or marketing officers - are in a panic for quick funds, or are hurried in their approach to fund development, they often seek to withdraw more relationally than has been built up through their urgent appeals for funds. I have learned the hard way that relationships require a regular and constant deposit in the form of relational building activities if they are ever going to survive and prosper.
The good news is that the relationships you and your organization make with individuals can have a transformative effect upon them, upon you, the attitudes you have towards each other, and the way you involve yourselves with each other.
The bad news is that it takes more time to build these relationships than most of us ever believe it will. Because most marketing and development directors inherit their strategies from previous administrations, if the previous administration did not spend much time building relationships on behalf of the organization, or simply did not budget the necessary time to accomplish this task, you and your organization are going to be hurt tactically and relationally.
You and I live in a world of urgency and immediacy. This cultural fact mitigates against building long-term relationships. And yet, long-term relationships allow nonprofit agencies to not only survive in downturns and times of economic instability, they also allow organizations to thrive and grow. The “emotional bank account” you build with long-term friends allows your agency a type of latitude that short term relationships do not have. These friends stay involved longer, give more than others, tell their friends about your organization, and stay involved during times of crisis and abundance. They simply are invaluable.
Making the tactical decision to build these types of relationships alters the way you work strategically. Allowing these friendships with their intrinsic values to mature over time provides an organization with durability and a better future by allowing donors and friends to build a legacy with the organization, create an impact, and do something that is truly substantive. Frederick Reichheld author of The Loyalty Effect suggests, “The growth of any organization is simply the accumulated growth of the individual relationships that constitute it.”
Today in our lives there is a habitual tendency towards the short term. Reverse this trend in your organization and you will create a relationship reservoir that will continue in the life of your organization long after you are gone.
Time to Reframe
Aug/30/10 12:43 PM Filed in: Development, Marketing, Strategy
By Barry McLeish
Raising money is hard. In fact, older fund raisers tell me it is as hard as it has ever been. What’s more, these conditions may be like this for years in the future. It’s not unusual for fund development officers to make 8 to 12 telephone calls trying to get to a decision maker. Tactics and strategies that worked in the past often do not work. Many donors seem to flee when fund raisers call.
For many organizations it may be time to rethink how they sell and do business.
When most organizations face economic obstacles they often concentrate on improving their causal products and organizational processes and strategies. The hope is that by concentrating on new products and reorganizing what systems and processes an organization has, these new offers to the public will capture their imagination in a way previous ones did not and turn the economic tide.
This type of response looks inward and tries to answer the questions at hand by fixing the organization first. Though not necessarily wrong, perhaps there is another side of the coin to be explored. Could not as much be gained by looking externally – outside of one’s organization and its leadership – and taking a hard view at one’s environment and the public the organization hopes to serve? What are the major shapers of the future as they relate to your organization? What visions and strategies will be required to take advantage of the environment?
Here is an interesting story - still being played out - that illustrates this:
I work with a large successful resident year-round camp. Its attendance numbers this summer slipped a fraction below what the leadership projected. This situation gave them pause and we had a series of conversations around the topic of refining some programs, improving customer service activities, and amplifying their marketing tactics.
Something else happened: the day camp the organization runs in a nearby city grew by almost 80%. We were stunned! However, the environment spoke in unmistakable ways. More families had both spouses working. Those working were also working part time jobs. There was no time to take care of the children and they had to be put somewhere. The camp was a trustworthy neighbor to the City, had a great reputation, and had a history of local support. When the situation demanded it, the Camp was there.
There’s more to this story: some of the City fathers have asked the Camp to run an after-school program for young people who are between school and waiting for their parents to come home from work.
The environment for this organization has changed in ways they could not have predicted nor expected. Consequently their way of doing business, their programs, and their marketing plans have changed. All because their environment spoke to them and they listened.
Raising money is hard. In fact, older fund raisers tell me it is as hard as it has ever been. What’s more, these conditions may be like this for years in the future. It’s not unusual for fund development officers to make 8 to 12 telephone calls trying to get to a decision maker. Tactics and strategies that worked in the past often do not work. Many donors seem to flee when fund raisers call.
For many organizations it may be time to rethink how they sell and do business.
When most organizations face economic obstacles they often concentrate on improving their causal products and organizational processes and strategies. The hope is that by concentrating on new products and reorganizing what systems and processes an organization has, these new offers to the public will capture their imagination in a way previous ones did not and turn the economic tide.
This type of response looks inward and tries to answer the questions at hand by fixing the organization first. Though not necessarily wrong, perhaps there is another side of the coin to be explored. Could not as much be gained by looking externally – outside of one’s organization and its leadership – and taking a hard view at one’s environment and the public the organization hopes to serve? What are the major shapers of the future as they relate to your organization? What visions and strategies will be required to take advantage of the environment?
Here is an interesting story - still being played out - that illustrates this:
I work with a large successful resident year-round camp. Its attendance numbers this summer slipped a fraction below what the leadership projected. This situation gave them pause and we had a series of conversations around the topic of refining some programs, improving customer service activities, and amplifying their marketing tactics.
Something else happened: the day camp the organization runs in a nearby city grew by almost 80%. We were stunned! However, the environment spoke in unmistakable ways. More families had both spouses working. Those working were also working part time jobs. There was no time to take care of the children and they had to be put somewhere. The camp was a trustworthy neighbor to the City, had a great reputation, and had a history of local support. When the situation demanded it, the Camp was there.
There’s more to this story: some of the City fathers have asked the Camp to run an after-school program for young people who are between school and waiting for their parents to come home from work.
The environment for this organization has changed in ways they could not have predicted nor expected. Consequently their way of doing business, their programs, and their marketing plans have changed. All because their environment spoke to them and they listened.