One version of leadership posits the leader as a know-it-all. This is the supremely confident individual who has most all the answers and always knows a direction for future growth. The strongman (or woman) model. However, under this form of leadership, team trust is rarely optimized, which means that team effectiveness is rarely optimized. In…
Category: Branding
The Donor Awareness Matrix
A key aim of our advancement work should be to gain deeper awareness of our donors (and prospective donors). What do they believe about our institution? What is their motivation to volunteer? To give? What are their specific reasons for engaging with us? How would they describe their values? What other organizations do they support…
Where, Who, and How
“What makes us distinctive or different or unique as compared with other institutions like us?” This is a question that Board members, administrative leaders, advancement folk, and others ask regularly and with some measure of irritation. The regularity of asking this question stems from the fact that our answer is fundamentally important to our marketing,…
Comparisons
One institution has a president who is deeply embedded in the advancement process, enjoys engaging with donors, and is good at this work. Another institution has a president who doesn’t enjoy advancement nearly as much and, instead, prefers spending time leading other institutional issues rather than being with donors. One 150-year, 4-year institution has a…
Asking Your Way To Becoming Distinctive
Our daughter is in the final stages of her college search and selection process. She has participated in virtual events, on campus events, Zoom calls, email exchanges, and other communications with a number of colleges and universities. As she is narrowing her list, our family is now visiting a few of these wonderful institutions for…
Confusing Brand With Effectiveness
You may work at a prestigious and nationally (or even internationally) known educational, healthcare, or social service nonprofit. Or, you may work at a local, small organization without a lot of general brand recognition. Neither of those settings help predict the effectiveness or sophistication of your advancement program. Institutions with strong brand recognition, larger teams…
When Being “Efficient” Is Not The Primary Goal
Supermarkets price milk and eggs (and turkeys during Thanksgiving) below, at, or just above their cost. These items (and others) are called “loss leaders” or “leader priced items.” Every time you buy milk or eggs, your local supermarket is, most likely, losing money on that transaction. If one were to analyze a supermarket’s value by…
AIM To Communicate Effectively
If your goal is to educate, engage, and delight more donors, friends, supporters, or funders through communication vehicles, ask yourself if the AIM of your message is on point. For every written solicitation, every webpage, every special events invitation, every magazine article, and every newsletter story, etc., ask yourself if what you are communicating is:…
Is “Hard Data” The Best Way to Make Your Case?
In building a case for support for our institutions, advancement professionals typically rely on one of two approaches: a fact-based, quantitative, logical approach, or a story-based, qualitative, anecdotal approach. Depending on the predilection of the author of the message, a reader or listener quickly can see a fondness for one approach over the other. If…
What Are You Promoting?
The ineffective advancement professional promotes their institution. The average advancement professional promotes what their institution does. The artful advancement professional promotes why their institution does it.