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: Constituency Service
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…
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…
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…
Writing Contact Reports That Matter
One of the most important and yet most misunderstood responsibilities of a development officer is to write helpful prospect contact reports on a consistent basis. Most development folk understand that they should write contact reports, but only some recognize why they are so vital to effective fundraising, and even fewer grasp how to write them well….
The Human Storyline
Advancement professionals regularly are looking for ways to “better tell our institution’s story.” I have written in the past about how better storytelling alone won’t lead to larger gifts. Instead, I’ve suggested that the concept of story-listening is a much better way to go about attracting larger gifts. It is the donor’s story that is…
A Resource for Gift Acknowledgement Letters
I once worked for a President who was known to say, “we can never say thank you enough to our donors.” A wonderful sentiment for 501(c)3 leaders and advancement professionals to embrace. And, as important as it is to thank donors often, it also is important to thank them in meaningful and customized ways. For…
Communication Frequencies
At what communication frequency do you most comfortably operate? Do you resonate most on the email frequency? Or maybe it is the face-to-face frequency? Or the phone frequency? Or the text frequency? Or the social media frequency? Or possibly there are still a few out there who resonate most with the touch-intensive letter frequency. Most…
It’s Always Personal
Today it seems we constantly are bombarded with claims about “personalized” or “individualized” customer service or patient care. Take a look at a hospital billboard on your local highway and it appears they will create a care regimen just for you. Or head to a university’s website, even one with over 25,000 students, and it…