October 25, 2019

Wow. Great. First ever. Raise more money by learning extraordinary stuff!!!!

PHILANTHROPIC PSYCHOLOGY  !!!  

A new education program for you and me! For all us fundraisers. Never anything like it before! 

Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology. On line. Starts January 13, 2020. WOW! This is an extraordinary opportunity. Learning none of us fundraisers ever learned before because it just didn’t exist! And now it does……!!

Jen Shang, the world’s first philanthropic psychologist (and still the only one, I do believe). And she’s the first PhD in Philanthropy, too. And Adrian Sargeant, the first Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Here’s the concept of philanthropic psychology (I’ve nicknamed it “phil psych”…) Phil psych focuses on how the actions we donors take make us feel. Phil psych research has shown that when people feel their giving is meaningful — and even transformative to a person’s sense of who s/he is — then those people give more and give longer.

WOW! Fundraising is growing up. Academic research and applying academic learning — and even learning about the academic learning — raises more money.

CHECK OUT THIS PHILANTHROPIC PSYCHOLOGY OPPORTUNITY!!!!

(And check out the Institute’s other education/training programs, too!)

 

MORE about Jen and Adrian…………..They co-founded the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy in the U.K. I sure hope you’re reading the research reports produced by Sargeant, Shang, and their team. Reports like:

  • Everything Research Can Tell Us About Legacy Giving
  • Great Fundraising
  • Great Fundraising Events
  • Learning to Say Thank You: The Role of Donor Acknowledgements
  • Major Gift Fundraising: Unlocking the Potential for Smaller Nonprofits
  • Measuring donor loyalty: key reasons why Net Promoter Score (NPS) is not the way.
  • AND MORE!!!!

 

 

is now offering the Certificate in Philanthropic Psychology. On line. Starts January 13, 2020.

Jen Shang! And Adrian Sargeant!

You and I do NOT NOT know this stuff. This is NOT donor-centrism. Not behavioral economics. Not anything we’ve already learned.

 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/certificate-in-philanthropic-psychology-tickets-74968393483?aff=utm_source%3Deb_email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Dnew_event_email&utm_term=eventname_text

September 30, 2019

Keeping track of your donors…and more

In the olden days, when I was a CDO, we had 3000 3×5 cards. 1 card per donor/donor family. Typed the info onto the card. (Yes!! The days of electric typewriters.) One day, someone dropped 1 of the 3×5 card drawers. Approximately 1,000 cards all over the floor. Alphabetizing by hand.

(I still have an electric typewriter in my office. You never know when what etc.!)

Now we’re in the world of databases of all types. Donors. Fundraising. Ticketing. Advertising. Do you think the horse and cow farms have databases by horse/cow names?

Can you imagine a donor/fundraising database whose purpose is donor retention?! Remember, loyalty is the Holy Grail of any business. And thanks to Adrian Sargeant, fundraisers have research that defines how to build and measure donor loyalty.

Adrian’s research was built into a computer algorithm for donor software. Bloomerang. And check out Bloomerang’s free webinars and blogs and other resources.

If you want to keep your donors (retention first…then acquisition!!!), then check out more donor research.

Cool stuff!!!

 

 

 

 

June 3, 2019

Storytelling…just some thoughts

What cool cards from Ireland’s cool company, askdirect. 

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Rudyard Kipling

“Because if we, the storytellers, don’t do this, then the bad people will win.” Christiane Amanpour

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Joan Didion

“We’re all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on.” Charles de Lint

Think about all the great storytellers you know… Fiction writers. Historians.

May 17, 2019

You can be a better fundraiser…Any one of us can!

Check out the new Fundraising Standard…… Proper professional fundraising training for every new fundraiser in North America.

So what’s this new program, you ask? The Standard is a 40 hour program of online learning designed to give participants a thorough introduction to the process of fundraising and get them started on their first fundraising campaign. It provides an introduction to the nonprofit sector and its associated fundraising ethics, before taking the lid off what we know about giving (who gives and why). You’ll also receive a thorough grounding in the science and practice of communication design and how to raise substantively more money simply by avoiding common errors that nonprofits typically make and focusing on donor satisfaction and wellbeing.

Developed by Adrian Sargeant. Faculty includes Adrian.

8-week curriculum – based on research and science and…. Online for your convenience.

Curriculum includes: Fundraising ethics. Who gives and why. (The WHY is really important!!) Donor relationships and donor retention. Designing a compelling case for support. Communication design and donor centricity. The fundraising mix. And getting the most from your database.

Visit the Fundraising Standard website. Sign up now! [Or at least darn soon!!]

January 3, 2019

Sophia and The Princess Bride

Once upon a time, there was a young girl (5 years old) named Sophia.

Sophia and her mom were watching the movie The Princess Bride.

In this one scene: Our hero Westley – and his beloved Princess Buttercup – flee through an icky landscape with many icky things chasing and snatching and and … Buttercup is mostly kinda shrieking and fluttering and doing all those icky things attributed to “girls” – that real girls (#LikeAGirl) actually don’t do so much.

Over and over, Westley rescues Buttercup from dasdardly evildoers and gruesome monsters.

Sophia is squealing and cheering as the story progresses. But…

Sophia finally jumps up and actually yells at Princess Buttercup. “Stop waiting for Westley to help you. Quit screaming and fight!”

After the story ends – of course, happily – Sophia invents a new game to play with her mom. But Sophia makes a slight variation.

“Mommy, you play Westley and I’m Buttercup. And don’t rescue me. I can rescue myself!” 

==============

That’s my kind of girl, woman, female…person.

Read this delightful book. Watch this cool movie. Cult status.

Check out William Goldman: American novelist, playwright, screenwriter. (Died 11-16-18.) Some of his other work: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Marathon Man.  A Bridge Too Far. All the President’s Men (Adaptation of the Bernstein/Woodward book). And so much more.

And for the writers out there, here’s what Goldman said…. “Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound.” [William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade.]

October 8, 2018

Double your donations!! Are you interested?!!!!

A NEW masterclass for really greedy nonprofits … March 4-6, 2019.

New research shows how to double donations. How cool is that?

And guess who your instructors are? Adrian Sargeant and Tom Ahern.

Where? Someplace improbable, like Lord of the Rings or The Game of Thrones improbable (hint: Scotland, on scenic and legendary Loch Ness; in a venue with a Michelin-rated chef; includes a single-malt whisky-tasting bar to encourage deep, peaty conversations)

 Who’s attending? Well, first of course, there’s YOU … and then there are your other high-performance, really-worth-knowing classmates … and these two experts who speak internationally to rapt audiences … trapped in a small-class setting.

So, yeah, there’s science.

But mostly you get friendly, encouraging, cheer-leading-even (Tom has a story of high-school hijinks), prayerfully supervised, critiqued-by-experts PRACTICE.

It’s a 3.5-step process:

  • You come up with stupid ideas.
  • You come up with better ideas.
  • You come up with breakthrough ideas.

And you’re launched … into the next stage of your career’s advancement … the one where you make WAY more money for your charity employer. 

What’s it like being there?You sit, casually dressed, in an old hunter’s lodge, above Loch Ness. That’s your classroom.

Dress warmly if you like to be outdoors. It’s March; in the very midst of some of the most spectacular hiking country on earth (if that’s you).

Also a great place to read a novel by the fire. Or write some of the deepest, most moving pages in your diary.

Also a great place to walk a few meters … and then hurry back into the bar for a double of that one you liked so much last night.

Just click here.

June 25, 2018

If those people only knew how great we are…

I know you love your organization. I hope that’s why you work there.

But just because you love your organization does NOT mean that I will love your organization. AND OH MY GOSH… If you educate me, that won’t make me love and give either.

Real life is NOT NOT NOT like the movie Field of Dreams (If you build it, they will come!) NO NO NO NO… And no matter how visible you are and how much you think you’ve educated me… I won’t fall in love.

People pay attention to what interests them. For example, I’m not interested in sports of any kind…ever never never ever!! Even when my alma mater is playing. My alma mater where my parents met and my dad taught and and and…

I know how awful the environmental mess is. I believe in global climate change. I believe we humans are deeply fecking (Irish) up stuff. But I don’t give much to the environment. That’s not my favorite cause.

Your visibility — trying to shove me hard into awareness — does NOT NOT NOT make me a donor.

Just read Jeff’s blog: How Awesomeness Syndrome can torpedo your fundraising. Then watch the Awesomeness Syndrome video imbedded in Jeff’s blog.

 

June 5, 2018

Ah neuroscience… So useful for fundraising.

Surely every single fundraiser knows that giving a gift is not a rational decision. In fact, most decision-making is based on emotions. Sure, we might rationalize it within seconds, but even the rationalizing isn’t rational!

Dr. Antonio Damasio “…[A]t the point of decision, emotions are very important for choosing. In fact, even with what we believe are logical decisions, the very point of choice is arguably always based on emotion … we are living an illusion of conscious choice.”

Dr. Antoine Bechara, leading authority on the mental processes behind decision making: “What if sound, rational decision-making in fact depended on … emotional processing? The studies of decision-making in neurological patients who can no longer process emotional information normally suggest just that … I will make the case that decision-making is a process guided by emotions.”

Want more information on all this?

  • Read Keep Your Donors: The Guide to Better Communications and Stronger Relationships (2008. Ahern and Joyaux)
  • And read Tom Ahern’s books and newsletter.
June 12, 2017

Amazing thank-you letter

Another amazing letter from Ashley, Executive Revolutionary from RIUDL.

Sounds real. Like Ashley actually wrote it.

Hand-written note at the top on the front page. Yes! It’s a 2-page thanks letter. Can you imagine?

Tells a story about Genesis, 11 years old when she arrived in Rhode Island USA.

Later in the letter, in bold: Your gift of $2,500 on 3/1/2017 is helping create more stories like this.

Next sentence: In a single year your generosity allowed us to go from reaching just over 100 to well over 1,000 students. No joke.

And check out this P.S. “This letter doubles as a tax receipt and a pick-me-up. Becuase of you, young people like Genesis are that much closer to becoming policy makers. And I have doubt they will wield that power to do amazing things. Thank you for setting them up for success. Onward and upward!”

WOW.

 

May 8, 2017

A thing from Tom Ahern

I really like Tom Ahern’s work…his donor-centered communications stuff. (And yes, I really like Tom Ahern personally.)

He has such a great newsletter.

But do you ever read his personal blog? Apart from his blogs about his gardens or barbecue or vacation trips or…. And he sometimes (more and more often) personally blogs about his life’s work (donor comms).

I think this “business blog re: donor comms” is spot on. And really lovely. Beautiful really. “The skeleton of a direct mail letter.”

Such very good points. Such a clear list of the architecture of the letter. So charming. And such beautiful writing on his part.

He’s such a beautiful writer. Did you know he has an MFA in creative writing from Brown University? And is a published poet and short story writer?

Do read his personal blog about that letter for your donor. Just follow the steps.

Thanks, Tom. Love, Simone (or Sim One as the t-shirt says).

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