September 10, 2009 ADVERTISEMENT Did you know...31% of all nonprofits offer bonus compensation to the CEOs/presidents. See how they earned it in the new NonProfit Times 2009 Nonprofit Organizations Compensation & Benefits Report. Order your subscription today! Click here. In This Edition: Online: 6 Secrets To Success Of “athon” Events Capital Campaigns ... Get information in the hands of donors Major Gifts ... 4 tips for nailing the gift Ethics ... Values are a vital part of fundraising ADVERTISEMENT    Blackbaud NetCommunity Grow includes an easy-to-update content management system, professional design, sample campaigns, strategic consulting, community sharing, and individual support for nonprofits that need to up their online presence, but have limited resources to work with. Learn more and download the free white paper: Taking Five Website Staples to the Next Level. NPT Jobs NPT Resource Directory Subscribe to NPT NPT Latest Edition NPT Advertising Contact Us      Please forward NPT Instant Fundraising to your colleagues so that they can also subscribe. Tell-a-friend! Online: 6 Secrets To Success Of “athon” Events Your event participants have paid their registration fee for your “athon” program, picked up information about training and the event, and have a URL and password for their personal fundraising Web page. They now have everything they need to get started. But many people hate to ask for money, so what exactly should they do to move from participant to fundraiser? You need them to get cracking if you want to reach or exceed your fundraising goal. You can increase the likelihood of your participants being more successful by following these six best practices.  To read the complete article click here...   Capital Campaigns ... Get information in the hands of donors If nonprofits want capital campaigns to pick up steam, they better push on the gas in campaign communications, according to Charles G. Lewis, senior vice president of development, marketing and public affairs at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (LVHHN) in Allentown, Pa. And LVHHN should know -- the organization reached its $45 million campaign goal three years earlier than expected. People can’t get engaged in your capital campaign if they don’t know about it. So Lewis shared three ways nonprofits could build a robust communications plan at the recent Fundraising Day in New York hosted by the Association for Fundraising Professionals Greater New York Chapter: Campaign identity. LVHHN established its “Investing in Excellence Here at Home” campaign identity early on. It wasn’t just a catchy slogan. The organization built a logo and graphic identity with the name and incorporated it into communications. This built a brand for the campaign on materials, such as newsletters and press releases. The case for support. Create a case statement that gives all information about why the campaign is important and the key elements of projects within the campaign. Update the case statement as needed to keep donors informed about the campaign’s progress and additional donation opportunities. Public relations. Donors aren’t the only ones who should be in the campaign loop. Make sure prospects, news outlets and the general public knows about the campaign. Your public relations and marketing team should make the campaign a top priority. A comprehensive public relations plan should include organizing donor cultivation events, ensuring all materials adhere to the established campaign identity and recruiting important community members. Major Gifts ... 4 tips for nailing the gift A face-to-face solicitation of any major gift can be nerve-wracking. Add in the current state of the economy and you have a recipe for stomach butterflies, intense sweats and babbling. Preparing before the meeting can reduce your worry and increase your chances of landing that major gift, according to Barbara Ciconte, senior vice president of consulting services at Donor Strategies, Inc., in Chevy Chase, Md., and Jeanne Jacob, executive director of Goodwin House Foundation in Alexandria, Va., during the recent Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor, Md. Here are their tips: Make sure everything is just “right.” Face-to-face solicitations for major gifts should be carefully planned to work best with the prospect, from the right gift amount to the right setting. Ciconte and Jacob said that you should spend 80 percent of your time planning and just 20 percent of your time asking. Know why they want to give. Analyze why your prospect would want to make a gift. Do they have a personal experience with the mission? Do they care about their public image in the community? This could help you develop your strategy. Put everything on the table. Map out why the program is important, what plan will be in place, cost efficiencies and your successful track record. The donor is willing to make a bet on your mission with their money. Make sure they know it isn’t a gamble. Provide easily accessible information. Give donors something they can take home and look at when they think about your informational points. That can include a detailed case of support, brochures, newsletters or appeal letters. Foster a personal relationship by inviting the donor to special events, site visits and meetings with high-level staff. Ethics ... Values are a vital part of fundraising You might think of values when you are discussing family and politics. Values also have their role in the decision-making in your development office, according to Joel Zimmerman, director of consulting services CDR Fundraising Group in Bowie, Md. While values like chastity and temperance should always be in the workplace, you should try and think about other values that may help you in the development office. Patience and diligence can sometimes escape you when you are putting together an emergency appeal. And sometimes faith and hope don’t hurt when you are meeting with a potential major donor. Zimmerman discussed how your values could help your decision-making during the recent Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor, Md. Here are his thoughts: Values help make decisions. Zimmerman explained that sometimes you could be uncertain about important decision. Your values can help guide your action outcomes. Shared values are essential. A group of individuals that share the same values will be more successful, he said, beyond what those specific values are. If the group has the same values, they will always work consistently and in harmony with one another if those values are upheld. Walk the talk. Some people in the organization might say they have certain values and then act in another way. When actions aren’t consistent with statements, it seems unauthentic and people will notice inside the organization and out. Making hard choices. Of course your values aren’t going to flare up every time you have to reorder Post-its. Values can help trigger a reaction when deciding on larger issues. Create ethical practices. Each person in the development office needs to make a decision to work in an ethical manner as individuals. The organization must create an ethical environment and actions taken by the organization overall must reflect those ethics. Set it in stone, or at least paper. Zimmerman suggested two approaches to solidifying your ethical practices – either create a list of do’s and don’ts or outline a guiding values list. The first will give more concrete rules while the other can be more open to interpretation while covering a wide base of issues. 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