Are you asking donors for something? Or, are you inviting donors to participate in something? Asking suggests a power imbalance and that you hold the donor’s giving capacity in high esteem. Inviting suggests a partnership and that you hold the donor in high esteem. Giving has significant benefits for both the giver and the recipient….
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My Best Wish
As we steam toward another year end, full-tilt in the “Season of Giving,” it’s easy to let the busy-ness of development work become all-consuming. So much to be done. And, all on a deadline of December 31. During this hectic time, my hope is that you and the members of your team will take time…
Avoiding Advancement Commodification
The primary goal of advancement programs should be to create conditions which encourage donor generosity. Generosity producing conditions – be they through direct mail letters, phonathon calls, special events, or face-to-face visits – lead to donor experiences. If these experiences are inspiring, energizing and/or encouraging for our donors, generosity is more likely to follow. So, how…
The Problem With Metrics
Performance metrics in development are important. CEOs and Board members want clear indicators which depict the value of our work. Savvy donors expect to see institutional efficiency. Even the government is poking around in the finances of non-profits like never before. However, we make a huge mistake when we make metrics our focus. Much like…
The 3 Appraisals
It’s not uncommon for a gift officer to tell me that she knows very well the organization’s major donors. When I happily follow-up this assertion with a few questions, I sometimes learn what is really “known” is the origin of the donor’s wealth and little else. In some instances, very little of import is understood…
3 New Relationships
When we attend conferences, we are often encouraged to “take home 3 good ideas and implement them.” If we do that, we are told, the conference will have been of high value. Focusing on the content to gather up 3 good ideas is fine for the short term. If the presenters and the content are…
Allowing Your Board to Lead
Who do you attract to your Board? “The heavy hitters,” I heard recently when I asked this question. “These are people of influence and affluence.” Great! To our Boards we attract leaders from business, the clergy, political players, and other people of social and financial importance. And then, if we aren’t careful, we take…
The 3 Meetings
As much as we may wish not to admit, meetings matter. The types and number of meetings you hold is a key component of your development program’s infrastructure. Too many meetings and the team doesn’t have enough time to visit with donors. Too few meetings, or meetings with no understood purpose, and a team, within…
Ego
A few years back I had the good fortune to meet Bruce Heilman in a University of Tennessee graduate course. Bruce was president of the University of Richmond from 1971 – 1986 and is credited with elevating that institution to one of national prominence. I won’t go into the story here but what he accomplished…
The Unique Giving Proposition
Our friends in the marketing world long ago came up with the notion of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Simply put, the USP is the impelling reason why a customer would choose one product over another. It is that “thing” that gives a company’s product or service a distinct advantage over the competition. It may be…