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Strategic Planning and Major Gift Fundraising

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At Spokes, we have been surprised – and impressed – by the number of nonprofit boards that have chosen to spend their summer completing strategic plans for their organizations. We know it’s not an easy choice to make when the sun is shining and the beach is only a few miles away. And, yet, we also know the vital role strategic planning plays in the success and longevity of organizations. So, for all of you who have stepped up to the plate instead of into the sand, we commend you! Please find a refreshing drink with an umbrella and toast yourself as soon as possible!

In most of the strategic plans we have helped create, there is a consistent theme of setting goals to increase revenues through major gifts. Even though evidence proves the value of major gift fundraising over event fundraising and other forms of development, lots of folks are terrified by it. It CAN be daunting to directly ask another person to make a significant gift to your organization. We understand and want to help you overcome your fears and successfully execute your strategic goals and objectives.

Kim Klein is a well-known and well-regarded fundraising expert who specializes in fundraising for smaller grassroots organizations (similar to most of Spokes’ members.) In her two-part series published in the February 2016 issue of Nonprofit Quarterly, “Starting a Major Gifts Program,” Kim shares personal strategies for overcoming her own fear of asking folks for money. Her quick tips: remember that “feelings are not facts” and make a gift of your own so that you can feel you stand “on firmer ground” when asking a donor to join you in making a gift.

Kim goes on to offer formulas and charts to guide you in determining how many gifts to seek and at what levels.  Her experience tells her that, in healthy nonprofits:

  • 10 percent of the donors give 60 percent of the income.
  • 20 percent of the donors give 20 percent of the income.
  • 70 percent of the donors give 20 percent of the income

In the second part of her series, Kim offers tips to help your nonprofit decide what types of benefits it will offer donors, what types of collateral/promotional materials to create to help solicit donors, and a few basic steps to take in cultivating and stewarding major gift donors – including sending a personal note with every mailing.

Read through Part I and Part II of the series for a quick “virtual” class in major gift solicitation. Use your strategic plan and ask donors to join you in reaching the goals you have set to better serve the men, women and children who rely on your nonprofit. This time next year, you’ll have lots of reasons for more tropical toasts!
 

Part I
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/02/11/starting-a-major-gifts-program-part-i/

Is AmeriCorps Right For Your Nonprofit?

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August will be here in a few weeks and so begins a new AmeriCorps season. Soon, thousands of young people will start a year of service working for our local nonprofits. If you’re not familiar with the AmeriCorps program, it is a division of CalSERVES often described as the “Domestic Peace Corps” (more information about the program on their website). The program is credited with cultivating hundreds of today’s nonprofit leaders.

For nonprofits, AmeriCorps offers a subsidized full-time staff person for a period of 10-12 months. Nonprofits apply to host an AmeriCorps member and agree to pay half of the AmeriCorps member’s stipend. For many nonprofits, AmeriCorps provides critically needed staffing capacity at a greatly reduced cost. However, it is an employment program and, just as in any other hiring scenario, participating nonprofits can suffer AmeriCorps “mis-hires.”

If you are considering hosting an AmeriCorps member, we’d like to offer the following tips and
suggestions to ensure that your organization’s participation in the program is as successful as possible:

1. Have a very clearly defined job description.

AmeriCorps must take the candidates who have applied for positions and match them with hosted positions. You enable AmeriCorps to identify the best possible match for your organization when you can be very clear about the skills and abilities you need. What minimal experience do you need your AmeriCorps member to bring to your organization to serve you well? What day-to-day responsibilities will they have? What end product do you hope they deliver at the end of the service term?

Stay true to your job description. It is your right and privilege to request another AmeriCorps candidate if you feel the first one presented to you is unable to fulfill the defined role and responsibilities.

2. Remember that AmeriCorps members are often new to corporate and business environments.

AmeriCorps members are mostly college students who have had minimal, if any, corporate or business environment experience. Nuances of professional behavior and dress may be unknown to them. AmeriCorps offers some training to support its members, but as a host, you will be required to offer additional training and guidance. If you are asking your AmeriCorps member to help with your marketing you may have less training to do than if you’re asking them to interface with donors or clients. Do you have time to offer the guidance and mentorship an AmeriCorps member will need to serve you well?

3. Read the AmeriCorps contract carefully to understand its terms.

Because “mis-hires” happen, it’s important to understand the terms of the AmeriCorps contracts and the amount of time allowed to exit the contract and receive a refund if the AmeriCorps member is not performing to expectations. You’ll also want to confirm the proper procedure for documenting and addressing performance issues related to your AmeriCorps volunteer and what protocol to follow when there are grounds for immediate dismissal, such as incidents of theft. What recourse do you have if suddenly your AmeriCorps volunteer stops showing up for work? Unfortunately, it happens.

4. Re-confirm that the AmeriCorps program is the right fit for your organization.

After following each of the steps above, take a moment to reflect with your board or colleagues if an AmeriCorps volunteer is the best solution for your organization’s needs. If you don’t have the time to successfully mentor your AmeriCorps candidate or if AmeriCorps candidate presented to you is not a good fit for the job, perhaps hiring a part-time employee with more work experience and the ability to work independently is a better use of your limited resources, both with respect to your available time and finances.

AmeriCorps can be a tremendous boost to your organizations productivity when you do the due diligence to support your success. Use these steps to make sure you do.

No More Sexual Harassment in Fundraising Relationships!

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Raise your hand if you are (or have been) a development professional and have ever had a donor flirt with you?

That question would be more powerful if asked in a large room of participants. My guess is that there would only be a very small group of folks who would NOT raise their hand. And, the larger majority of folks with hands raised would be comprised of both women and men.

A well-known adage (and every day media) tells us again and again: “sex sells.” Fundraising is essentially the sales function of a nonprofit corporation. So, perhaps it was inevitable that we would see increasing trends in fundraising professionals being hired because they are attractive or incidents of donors who make inappropriate comments or physical contact towards fundraising staff.

Driven by human nature or not, it needs to stop. There is no room for sexual harassment in any arena – and most especially in the nonprofit arena where we work to protect and support the most vulnerable segments of our society. To allow ourselves to be objectified or diminished for the benefit of our organization’s cause is at best hypocritical and, at worst, physically and emotionally dangerous.

Ending sexual harassment within the fundraising arena must start with the nonprofit organizations. We cannot control the behaviors of others who behave inappropriately, but we can consistently and consciously make choices to minimize the opportunity for sexual harassment to occur and control our reactions to it when it does.  For example, at Spokes, we’re in the process of reviewing our personnel policies and have identified two new policies we will add to support our staff in navigating donor relationships. The first will require that any and all meetings with donors regarding their support of Spokes will be scheduled during regular business hours in a public space appropriate for a professional discussion, unless otherwise approved by the CEO. There is generally no need to schedule a professional meeting with a donor on the weekend or in the evening – especially at a bar. And, no Spokes staff will be allowed to drink alcohol during such meetings. If the donor chooses to order a glass of wine or a cocktail, he/she is entitled. The fact that a staff person refrains from ordering alcohol subtly reinforces that he/she is participating in the meeting in a professional – and only a professional – capacity. It also protects a staff person’s ability to safely and quickly remove him/herself from a meeting that devolves.

Another option may be to set a policy that a minimum of two people always meet with donors. A recent Chronicle of Philanthropy opinion piece, “Stop Tolerating Donors Who Sexually Harass Fundraisers” by Arminda Lathrop offers additional ideas and strategies for ending harassment in the development field. Read her full article here to learn additional steps you can take to protect your employees, your donors and yourself.

Help for Best Hiring (and Firing) Practices

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PICMaybe it’s evidence that our economy is really improving and our organizations have more resources to make long-overdue budget and program to expansions? Or, maybe, as our society ages, more longtime volunteers and donors are making the “ultimate gifts” through generous bequests in support of critical operating needs? Or, maybe, volunteer and employee turnover continues to reoccur and has us looking for solutions to end the cycle that plagues our organizations? Whichever the reason, Spokes has received a rash of recent inquiries and requests for assistance in hiring new employees (especially executive leaders), staff restructuring and mergers. In response to these inquiries, we’re pleased to offer a few quick resources and announce the launch of our new Executive Search Services!

Hiring a new employee can elevate your entire organization when you hire the “right” person. Likewise, it can be downright treacherous and cause lots of expensive and collateral damage for the organization and other staff when you hire the “wrong” person. “Background Checks Vary but Need to Be Robust and Fair” by Eden Stiffman, an article recently published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, offers some practical considerations for researching a candidate before making an offer. Suggestions include using a third-party to conduct a verified background check and establishing a formal policy regarding if/how social media will be reviewed as part of your candidate evaluation. Read the full article here.

NOTE: If your organization would like to conduct background checks on candidates, remember that the California Association of Nonprofits has discounted services available to its members. Your insurance provider may also have cost-effective options for you. And, if you have a payroll services contractor like Paychex, you may have access to employee screening services through your payroll processor. Remember to budget these checks into your search and hiring costs as they can be expensive.

Often, hiring a new employee is proceeded by the unfortunate reality of dismissing another one. The best practices for dismissing an employee due to reorganization are different from the best practices of dismissing an employee for performance-related issues. Read the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s article, “Advice: How to Know if it’s Time to Fire an Employee” by Pratichi Shaw, to learn what steps are best to take for your specific situation. And, the Chronicle’s article “Terminating an Employee: Handling the Aftermath in Your Organization” also by Shaw offers additional advice to help guide your organization through the after-affects of any employee changes.

Looking for a little more hands-on help? Spokes may have just what you’re looking for! We’ve recently finalized and launched our NEW Executive Director Search Services to assist you in finding your organization’s next great leader. We offer a full suite of services from soliciting and evaluating candidate applications to facilitating your interview and decision-making processes. Services can be provided “a la carte” or comprehensively, based on your organization’s unique needs. For more information, please complete our online consulting inquiry form or call our offices at 805-547-2244.

Hardest Part of Board Member’s Job?: Orienting a New Executive Director

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Imagine starting a job where you have 5 or more bosses with whom you meet once a month. They are thrilled to have you on board – relieved, really – because they haven’t been intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization and they know that there is lots of work to be done. Staff is glad to have you on board, too, and is anxious for direction.  Where do you start?  How do you make sound strategic decisions when you’re still trying to figure out where the bathrooms are located and remember everyone’s name?
This scenario may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, but, sadly, it replays in nonprofits of all sizes again and again, year after year.  The “costs” of replacing a key executive in any type of organization are costly because of the requisite learning curve. Flattening that learning curve is especially important for nonprofits – both because they are working with fewer resources than their for-profit counterparts and because the services they offer are critical to clients who rely on them.  Ironically, right at the moment that the board of directors sighs with relief after hiring a new executive director, that’s when the real work needs to begin.
In their article, “Boosting Nonprofit  Board Performance Where it Counts,” published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, July 16, 2014, Lisa Walsh, Libbie Landles-Cobb and Leah Karlins offer 5 specific strategies for nonprofit boards to employ to help a new executive director transition more successfully to your organization:
  1. Do your homework in order to hire well.
  2. Collectively set the new leadership agenda.
  3. Get clear on goals.
  4. Go slow on orientation to go fast on the job.
  5. Make performance management routine.
For more specifics about each of these recommendations, read the entire article here.

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