Professional Development

I read it while flying between Boston and Winnipeg. Presenting in Boston. Working with the Winnipeg Foundation (first community foundation in Canada).

Lovely stories in 3D Philanthropy. Good insights and observations from author Fraser Green. Fraser wants to help “make your donors love you by connecting with their minds, hearts and souls.” Here are some of his tips:

— Simply start slipping the words “beauty” and “beautiful into your work vocabulary when you talk to donors.

— Being clear on who you are and what you stand for matters to your donors.

— Imagine that you live to be 100. Your friends and family throw a big party. After you blow out your hundred candles (if you can!) people start to make short speeches about you. Looking ahead to that day, from where you are now, what would you want them to say about you?

Read this lovely book. Share it with your board members. Think about the three dimensions of your donors. Enjoy the stories and insights and observations and tips.

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I just spent 3 days at the Association of Philanthropic Counsel Forum. Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang and Melissa Brown were our speakers. Expert researchers. Great speakers. And then intense conversation with an intimate group of colleagues. Not a big conference where it’s hard to have deep conversation.

I’ve raved about Adrian and Jen‘s work before. Read it now! Do you and your staff colleagues (all staff, not just the development staff) know what drives donor loyalty? Does your board understand sufficiently so it invests appropriately? Read Building Donor Loyalty by Sargeant and Jay. Read Fundraising Principles and Practice by Sargeant, Shang, and Associates. Adrian is the lead fundraising researcher worldwide.

Have you read Jen’s research about social context and social identity? And what you can do to raise more money with just a few different words and phrases? Jen is the first PhD in Philanthropy and a philanthropic psychologist.

Melissa talked about fundraising costs: We have old data only. We aren’t counting the same things. Some organizations misrepresent (or do I want to say “lie”) about their costs. The sector needs to agree together and be consistent and transparent.

I urge all nonprofit leaders to read Civil Society by Michael Edwards. Mike’s book includes the following: Review of what the term means and various models of the term. Analysis of how well we are doing promoting and building civil society. History of where we have been (deToqueville, for example), what’s happened and happening in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia. And good ideas about what to do next.

Here are some comments from the book, to tempt you:

– “Civil society is simultaneously a goal to aim for, a means to achieve it, and a framework for engaging with each other about ends and means.”

– Who is “in” and who is “out” of civil society, e.g., associations (the nonprofit sector), politics, government

– Civil society creates a good society – but who decides what a good society is?

– Role of the public sphere in civil society

– Role of government and politics in civil society

– Importance of pluralism and equal access and speaking truth to power (and why inequality, discrimination, and fundamentalism are enemies of the common good and civil society)

– And so much more…Read this book NOW!

Visit www.askingmatters.com…a brand new really cool resource that focuses on person-to-person, face-to-face solicitation.

Colleague Andrea Kihlstedt (author of Capital Campaigns) and her partner Brian Saber have invented something pretty neat: a website devoted to personal, face-to-face asking. You’ve heard me say it before – and I’ll say it again – asking personally, face-to-face, is the best way to solicit a gift and the best way to nurture a relationship. Do it. Do it more and more.

Www.askingmatters.com includes tips and videos and downloadable resources. There’s lots of free stuff.

And, for a small fee, you have access to more, for example: an assessment of your asking style with an asking guide designed for your style.

Tom Ahern and I participate in Asking Matters because we think it’s good. Try it. And read the article “Making the Case for the Lowly Fork.” Yes, really!

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U.S. customers said they wanted companies to measure the following elements of service:

— Has knowledgeable employees (65% of survey respondents said this. And they said knowledgeable means “answering my questions without putting me on hold, searching for someone, or transferring me.”)

— Addresses my needs on first contact (64%)

— Treats me like a valued customer (62%)

— Demonstrates desire to meet my needs (54%)

— Can quickly access information (49%)

— Is good value for the money (49%)

— Has courteous employees (45%)

— Is a company/brand I can trust (43%)

— Treats me fairly (38%)

— Provides relevant/personalized service (31%)

Your clients and donors want all this, too. But do you provide it? How does your organization compare to these service demands?

(Source: Convergys 2008 U.S. Customer Scorecard. From Harvard Business Review, September 2009.

Here’s an important thought from a CT fundraiser: “Our profession can be so damn dry! Sometimes I feel like I’m in a room of bankers. My first career was as a start-up entrepreneur and I bring the passion for movement and change to mission-driven causes.”

I think this is an insightful and thought provoking comment. Why are you in this business? How do you behave? What do you show your donors and your staff colleagues? How do you express emotions and validate emotions?

What do you talk about with fellow fundraisers – strategies to negotiate a major gift or how to engage people in passionate conversation that follows their interests? (I hope your answer is “both!”) How do you share your case for support – like an investment portfolio or like a novel? (The answer should be more like novel. You’re telling stories, not offering an IPO.)

How can our work be dry? Our work is full of the interests and emotions of others – and our own.

Evaluating the performance of development staff is not about money.

I could be the best development officer around (and I was darn good, by the way!) But if program quality is weak (and it was, by the way), then fund development is tough. In a bad economy, fund development is tough, too.

So what criteria do you use to evaluate the performance of your development staff? You evaluate things like this:

— How effectively does your development officer enable volunteer performance, including that of board members?

— How effectively does your development staff apply the documented knowledges required in good fund development?

— How effectively does your development officer communicate the body of knowledge / best practice in fund development to staff colleagues, board members, other volunteers?

Consider the criteria you use to evaluate the performance of your CEO, other senior management? Things like: oral and written communications, planning and budgeting, working well with others. More things like: representing the organization well in the community, recruiting and retaining staff.

But how about the money, those important charitable contributions, you ask?

— First, how effectively does your development officer lead the budgeting process to set an appropriate charitable contributions goal? (I’ve blogged before about the many variables that affect setting the charitable contributions goal.)

— Second, how well does your development staff control the controllable variables, compensate for the uncontrollable variables (e.g., economy), communicate the trends and implications to the organization, and build the capacity of the organization to maximize charitable contributions?

So those are today’s thoughts. Maybe one of these days, I’ll develop a performance appraisal process for development officers. See my job description for the chief development officer. See, also, my performance appraisal for the CEO, which can help you develop your own performance appraisal process for the development officer.

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Instead of thinking you have so little power, step up to the plate and own the power that you have. Frederick Douglass observed that people don’t give power to you, you have to take it.

Fundraisers and development offices have lots of power, since they produce money. (I’m convinced that your colleagues think you actually print the money in the basement! So use this positive position!)

This just in from a colleague in Cohort 18 at Saint Mary’s University, Minnesota, where I teach in the Masters Program in Philanthropy and Development: “There has never been a greater ‘aha’ moment than the moment a Director of Development fully understands fund development and the empowerment it gives to transform an organization. This is me! I feel I have finally absorbed fund development’s entire complexity but simplicity – and the importance and capacity of a Fund Development Committee and its implantation into my organization.”

My colleague goes on to say: “Everything involved in fund development is linked and connected … to make a healthy philanthropic culture. Also key is to embrace leadership and be strong enough to break through our tradition of our dysfunction to finally have a means to accomplish our mission.”

Take your power. Use your power well. Use fund development as a powerful and good force to change how your organization works. Use fund development and your position to explain what needs to be in place, how everything is connected, and how dysfunction harms forward movement.

Quit complaining about your board members and other volunteers. Quit complaining that they don’t know what good governance is. Quit complaining that they don’t help with fundraising.

Staff is responsible for effectively enabling board members to do the right stuff. When you feel like complaining, look in the mirror first. Who’s responsible? Probably you.

What’s enabling? Giving people the power and the tools and the support to get the job done. What are the key functions of effective enablers? Here is a partial list:

1. Transmit the organization’s volunteers.

2. Engage volunteers in the meaning of your organization.

3. Respect and use the skills, expertise, experience, and insights of volunteers.

4. Provide direction and resources, remove barriers, and help develop skills.

5. Articulate expectations and clarify roles and relationships.

6. Communicate (which includes helping people transform information into knowledge and learning).

7. Encourage people to question organizational assumptions and ask strategic questions.

8. Ensure quality decision-making.

9. Anticipate conflicts and facilitate resolution.

Read the whole list of enabling functions in the Free Library of my website. Read Chapter 5 of my book Strategic Fund Development to learn the details. You’ll find what it takes – your skills and attitude – to be an effective enabler.

You want volunteers to do the right stuff? Then you have to do the right stuff first.

I believe that all fundraisers must serve on a board. I believe that all executive directors must serve on a board. And that means you! No matter how busy you are.

How can a professional expect to work well with board members if that professional doesn’t know what it feels like to be a board member? How can you as a fundraiser effectively engage and manage board members as they help with fund development activities? How can an executive director complain about a weak board? How can I as a consultant give advice to boards about fund development or governance or strategic planning?

You know the old saying:

You have to walk in someone else’s shoes to know what their experience feels like. I was a better fundraiser and executive director because I served as a board member. I’m a better consultant because I serve as a board member (and have served as an executive director and a development officer).

When you serve on a board, you can ask yourself: How effective is the executive director at getting me to be an effective board member? How effective is the executive director at enabling this board to do the proper thing? How effective is this fundraiser at helping me overcome my discomfort in fund development? How effectively does this fundraiser engage the board in strategy, not just tactics.

When you serve on a board, you can reflect on your own performance as an executive director and a fundraiser. You identify the things you dislike and like about how the staff treats you and enables you as a board member. Then you can transfer that knowledge to your own work as a staff person.

Get on a board now! Always serve on a board when you work professionally in the nonprofit / NGO sector.