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T-Shirt Premium Jazzes Up
Fundraising
By Michele Donohue and Mark Hrywna
If you could put your donors’ names up in lights, you
probably would do it, right? That might get a little pricey.
Would they settle for their name on the back of a T-shirt,
alongside the names of great jazz musicians? Donors to KCSM-FM
91.1, a community jazz radio station in the Greater San
Francisco Bay Area, liked that idea.
Almost 9,000 lapsed members of KCSM-FM were offered a renewal
for $80 -- twice the regular membership fee -- in a direct mail
piece this past October. For $80, donors also would receive a
KCSM T-shirt with their name on the back, alongside the names of
jazz legends like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Duke
Ellington.
To read the complete article click
here...
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offer bonus compensation to the CEOs/presidents. See how they
earned it in the new NonProfit Times 2009
Nonprofit Organizations Compensation & Benefits
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Planned
Giving ...
Overcoming potential objections to
bequests
People always have excuses for anything. Your
significant other just forgot the dishes were in the sink. Your
coworker always hits traffic Monday mornings. And your teenagers
didn’t know 200 people would show up to a “small
party” they threw the weekend you went away.
And some donors will always have excuses for
putting off their estate planning, according to David Whitehead,
chief development officer at AARP Foundation, and Jay
Steenhuysen, partner at Covenant Calls.
Whitehead and Steenhuysen talked through some
of the excuses at the recent Bridge to Integrated Marketing
& Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor, Md. Once you
know the upcoming excuses, you can talk your donors through and
show the barriers are all in their head.
Here’s some tips:
-
Avoid the thought of death. No one wants to
think about their own mortality. Explain that estate planning is
about the donor’s life and legacy, not their death. The
donor is making the choice about how they are remembered before
they pass.
-
Not enough money for a plan. Some donors
might think they don’t have enough money to think about
estate planning. But it’s not about the money --
it’s about exerting control and choosing personal
representatives for medical choices, guardianship for any minor
children and an executor who will protect the donor’s
wishes.
-
Overwhelmed by detail. Whitehead and
Steenhuysen recommended focusing on goals instead of tasks.
Divide the estate planning into several manageable parts.
Sometimes donors should hire advisors to help with the
details.
-
Never hired professional help. Just because
you never hired a plumber doesn’t mean you will allow your
house to fill with water from a broken pipe. Explain to donors
what the roles professionals, such as attorneys or financial
advisors, can play in getting estate planning in
order.
-
I have an old plan. Ask your donors if their
plans are older than 24 months. Two years can be a long time for
estate plans – there can be births, deaths, inheritances
or donors could have moved. Donors should be aware that some
circumstances render plans ineffective. It may be time to
take a second look. |
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Major
Gifts ...
6 ideas for connecting with big
donors
Your major donors have always been
important to your organization. You should be cultivating
major donors to stay with the mission and make their feel secure
about their major gifts, according to Sarah Burdi, assistant
vice president of Falls Church, Va. based InovaHealth System
Foundation, the largest nonprofit healthcare system in the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Burdi gave some tips about reaching out to
major and planned gift donors at the recent Bridge to Integrated
Marketing & Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor,
Md.
- Identify the donors. For InovaHealth
System Foundation, a major gift donor is classified as $25,000
or more. Define what a major donor is for you and cultivate
those relationships accordingly.
- Develop your message. Your communications
should tell donors who you are and what makes your nonprofit
stand out. Highlight why you are the organization they should be
donating to and never underestimate the power of
stories.
- New ways to connect. Direct mail and
e-newsletters are dynamic outreach pieces in your
communications. But think about developing stewardship
activities. For example, InovaHealth has a lecture series that
donors can attend. Reach out to your donors often and
deliberately.
- Customize the major donor experience.
Burdi explained that your focus should be on individual
patients, not your list. Lumping all donors together
doesn’t allow for personal relationships that blossom into
philanthropic efforts.
- Engage major donors based on interests.
Some donors would like to know more about the
organization’s leadership. Some might be interested in
your facility or operations. For example, Inova has
President’s series and physician tours. Tailor those
special touch points for the donor.
- Talk to the major donors. Don’t just
communicate out. Ask your major donors how they are doing and
what they feel about their relationship with the organization.
Seek their opinions about how to enhance the relationship or
ideas for the organization.
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Boards
...
Talking to your members to go get
cash
Board members usually aren’t born fundraisers. They
might have different reasons for accepting a board position,
such as a personal connection to the cause, but board members
should realize fundraising comes with the territory.
But development staff can help board members navigate the
fundraising landscape by charting a course for the ask,
according to philanthropic consultant Carol Weisman from Board
Builders. Weisman outlined what board members should know before
going in for a solicitation at the recent Bridge to Integrated
Marketing & Fundraising Conference, in National Harbor,
Md.
- The pyramid of solicitation. The most effective ask usually
happens face-to-face with the donor with individual contact or
get a group of potential donors together, then online or direct
mail.
- Set an example. Board members should write out their own
checks before asking for donations.
- Know the talking points. Some donors may argue why they
shouldn’t give. Your board member needs to be prepared
with counter points to persuade the donor to give. Arm them with
the information and prep them before any solicitation
meeting.
- Tag team. Your board members usually aren't professional
fundraisers. Try to set up a meeting with a donor that includes
a person from the development department and the board member.
That way the professional can step in if the board member is
drowning.
- Sharing is caring. Why should the donor be interested in the
campaign? Sometime personal stories can help generate interest
and emotional connections. See if a board member will share a
story with a group of donors. It may sway a donor to give a
gift.
- No means not right now. Some donors will tell you no. But
that doesn’t mean you should never solicit them again.
Find out why they said no and try to develop a better donation
fit for a future solicitation.
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