The Nonprofit Sector’s Most Pressing Issues: The C-Level Exec’s Point of View
Joe Boland[Editor’s note: This part one of a three-part series on a session from the 2010 New York Nonprofit Conference held Aug. 24-25. View part 2 in next week’s edition of the FS Advisor and part 3 in the Sept. 14 edition.]
Fundraisers from all walks of life are encountering many challenges these days, but what do the C-level executives see as the most important issues facing the sector? At the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation’s 2010 New York Nonprofit Conference, three top nonprofit executives joined moderator Tom Harrison, president and CEO of Russ Reid, to discuss these issues in a two-part session, “Cracking the Shell: Open Dialogue & Discussion With America’s Top Nonprofit C-Level Executives on the Sector’s Most Pressing Issues."
Here is what Angel Aloma, executive director of Food For The Poor; Danny McGregor, chief operating officer at Greenpeace; and Atul Tandon, executive director of the International Network and executive vice president of investor relations at United Way Worldwide, shared during the first part of the session.
Branding
Harrison kicked things off by saying that “increasingly, we see nonprofits hire for-profit people for branding, which is a dramatic change from the past.” Harrison said overall this is a good thing because people won’t give to your organization unless they know it’s there. However, he pointed out that sometimes there’s a conflict between the brand people and the fundraising people. “What happens when they clash?” Harrison asked the panel.
“Very important is compromise,” Aloma said. “Data is vital as well. Use the data for your arguments. What works?”
Aloma relayed the story of a controversial image Food For The Poor had in its newsletter. The brand people didn’t want this image of a person looking like she had lost her humanity included. It was a very emotional image. Even Aloma himself didn’t think the organization could show this, but it was a powerful image.
Instead of just killing it, Food For The Poor had a discussion with everyone involved with the newsletter and came to a compromise that it could send this image if the newsletter was filled with facts about what the donations can do to help save people like this. “It turned out to be our highest-grossing newsletter,” Aloma said, emphasizing the importance of compromise.
He said that first and foremost, “you must protect fundraising.” As long as branding doesn’t interfere with the mission, it’s a good thing, but fundraising comes first.
“Donors speak logically but give emotionally,” he added. “If people don’t call and complain, you’re not doing a good job. We tracked our complainers. Donors who complained about certain packages actually gave more to those packages.”
For Greenpeace, branding is a touchy thing — people tend to “either love us or hate us, with really no one in between,” McGregor said. With that in mind, McGregor said the key for Greenpeace is to educate staff on changing the message for different people. For example, the organization is moving away from using the term “nonviolent actions” because “many people hear the word violence and associate it with us.” Greenpeace now focuses on articulating its communications carefully.
As far as things such as the use of color and logos for branding, McGregor said to test everything, see the impact and use the facts to make the final decisions. “Resolve issues in branding through demonstrating what the implication is of each decision,” he said.
Tandon shifted gears a bit, suggesting that when branding is involved, nonprofits ask themselves what the organization’s business strategy is. “What is your enterprise strategy? Who is your donor, and what do you want to strive for?” he asked. “On the brand side it’s all about be, do, say — be aware and make promises of what you’re delivering after you figure out how to deliver it.
“Use strategy as the basis of your argument,” he added. “As far as application is concerned, your brand is not universal. What are our four or five audiences, and how do we communicate differently to each? Your branding and fundraising should be principles-based and outcome-based.”
Harrison added that donors want to understand your work and how it’s relevant to them. But that’s harder than it sounds. “Stop being arrogant and focusing on what’s important to us; focus on what’s important to donors,” Harrison said. “Are you going to give donors what they want, or what you want?”
Message control
An audience member chimed in: “Brand is so hard to manage these days because of the cyber world — social media. How do you combat that, combat people you don’t control?”
“We are talking about controlling what we can’t control,” Aloma said. “By the very definition, we cannot control that. Social media has made our work more rewarding, but also infinitely more difficult. Monitor the conversations, but manage what you respond to.”
Aloma then offered these guiding principles:
- You have to be truthful — this is non-negotiable.
- Within each truth, there are some things you can’t do legally — know the rules and laws.
- Speak to each different audience according to its language, but within your brand.
- You always have to think about how you can be flexible within the inflexible truth.
McGregor said Greenpeace spends lots of time with volunteers and staff on what the organization is about and gives them broad guidelines about the brand. However, he stressed, “you have to let go of some control. If you aim to be truly innovative, you have to reconcile that.”
Justifying costs
Harrison next posed the question of how you respond and what is needed from the staff when the board of directors says fundraisers are wasting too much money on snail mail because the world is going digital.
“Understand truly what the value of each channel is, and explain why you invest in it,” McGregor said. He also proposed asking yourself how you can generate more income. “Have a finance committee going through what makes money, how it makes money, what the lifetime value is, metrics, ROI, where to invest,” he added. Then use that detailed data to explain why direct mail — or any other channel for that matter — is a good investment. Let the numbers do the talking.
“Get data information on a regular basis proactively,” Harrison agreed.
Tandon added these suggestions:
- Show me the numbers.
- Are we optimizing expenditures?
- Are we maximizing ROI on total investment? The best way to do that is to diversify channels.
- Staff must know the data like the back of their hand.
Check back next week for part 2.
Case Study: One of the Largest Church's Purpose-Driven Mobile Program
Shane Neman[Editor's note: This article is a summary of the presentation, "Saddleback Church: How One of the Largest Churches Nationwide Has a Purpose-Driven Mobile Program," presented at the DMA 2010 Nonprofit Mobile Day last Thursday.]
Saddleback Church serves the Southern California community through more than 200 ministries, eight worship venues, a variety of counseling and support programs, Bible studies and seminars, local and global outreach programs, and a broad network of small groups meeting in local homes. It is one of the largest churches in the United States. Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback, is well-known beyond his church. His book, "The Purpose Driven Life," has sold more than 30 million copies. In January 2009, Warren delivered the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration ceremony.
Saddleback aggressively experiments with new technologies. If something doesn’t work for the church, the costs are so low that it can move on. And as one of the largest churches in America, it has the scale to show that what it tries works or doesn’t work.
Why mobile? As Doug Hart of Saddleback said, “We want to be where people are, and mobile is where people are.” People are distracted. Whether you’re a brand or a nonprofit, you’re fighting for every person’s attention. Text messaging is one of the best ways to cut through the clutter.
Saddleback started off by adding text message polling to services on major holidays like Easter. Those services are broadcast on XM Radio and streamed on the Web. Text messaging allows those outside of the church itself to become active participants in the service.
After a successful test, Saddleback took the polling a step further. Polling on its own was meant to build community cohesiveness. The next step was to use text message polling as the initial "touch" of its new member engagement process. When the audience members responded to the poll question — in this case about their spiritual state of mind — they received a text back, asking them to respond with their e-mail addresses to learn more about Saddleback. If they responded to the prompt, and many people did, that information was passed via Ez Texting’s API into Saddleback’s own communication system. Depending on the answer to the response to the spiritual state poll, people received target e-mails.
The point of this was to figure out the best way to engage potential members. The poll had four answers, and there were four engagement paths. Instead of blasting the same message at people who are considering the organization from very different levels of interest, Saddleback customized the message.
All of this happened in less than a minute. People did this, watching or listening, with their mobile phones in their hands. They texted in, the response came back in seconds, they chose to e-mail and the next time they checked their e-mail, the message from Saddleback was there waiting for them.
This is an advanced implementation of text messaging, but the costs are extremely low. Text messages on a platform like Ez Texting start at 5 cents and go down quickly. Incoming messages through most providers are free. If a nonprofit organization has a Web developer in-house, this is not too difficult to set up. Outsourcing it isn’t cheap, but it isn’t incredibly expensive either. Every nonprofit has a different budget, and different goals, so each will implement text messaging in different ways. But the important takeaway is that this is something you can be doing on your own, right now.
Americans sent 1.5 trillion text messages last year; about a quarter of Americans have given up their landlines. Text messaging is the communications medium of choice for an increasing number of Americans. Text messaging is fundamental to the daily routine of the next generation of donors and members. To build community and to recruit new members, text messaging is an option every nonprofit should explore.
Shane Neman is CEO of mobile marketing platform provider Ez Texting.
10 Ways to Keep Your Major Donors Happy
Joe BolandMajor donors are invaluable for any fundraiser, and retaining them during these tough economic times is more critical than ever. At the 2010 Bridge Conference held in National Harbor, Md., July 26-28, Martha Schumacher, president of Hazen Inc., and Katie Jett Walls, manager of individual giving at Capital City Public Charter School, provided 10 stewardship tips to live by in their presentation, "How to Keep Your Major Donors Happy."
1. Communicate effectively
- If a major donor specifically requests that you send her all communications by mail — and never call or send e-mails — respect her wishes and make sure you do just that.
- Emphasize quality over quantity.
- Never miss an opportunity to re-establish organizational credibility.
- Surveys work. They give you the information you need to understand each major donor's individual needs and desires. Plus, it's an engagement device.
- Provide incentives for filling it out.
- Include surveys with other mailings such as your newsletter or acknowledgments.
- Keep it short and simple.
- Beyond galas and parties, invite them to VIP phone briefings, site visits and virtual gatherings online. Those who attend bond with the organization, and those who don't feel like they're part of the in-crowd for being asked.
- When you send communications, highlight the program that means the most to that specific person.
- Individualized updates take a lot of time and effort, so start with your top 10 donors and some other key stakeholders.
- There is still nothing more effective than a warm, personal, handwritten thank-you note. Some donors may prefer e-mail acknowledgments, so accommodate them accordingly.
- Public recognition may be important to some donors as well.
- In the annual report, donors turn to the donor recognition pages and look for their names. Make sure their names are there and spelled correctly.
- Award certificates, plaques, room/building name opportunities, etc., for those that reach certain gift levels.
- Further public recognition includes small, medium or large events where your organization can leverage key donors' commitments to encourage philanthropic support of others.
- Listen to your donors and respond in a meaningful way. This establishes trust and credibility for the long term.
- Ensure that you are looking at each of your communications based on your specific audience.
- If a particular communication is going to online donors, send it by e-mail. Direct-mail donors, send it by mail.
- Think simultaneously about audience groups and individuals.
- Who represents your organization most effectively — CEO, board chair, program officers, all of the above?
- Don't make assumptions, and don't become paralyzed by organizational challenges.
- Put your best foot forward for major donors.
- Senior leadership modeling
- Ambassador training for board and staff
- Emphasize donor giving cycle
Are You Ready for the Holidays?
By Margaret BattistelliSure, it's a little early to be thinking about how many shopping days are left until Christmas … but fundraisers surely are well into their campaigns for end-of-year giving. The September issue of FS features an informal roundup of ideas provided by a handful of fundraising pros on how to make the most of the giving public's natural desire to help during the holidays.
We received more responses than we could fit into the print issue of the magazine, so we'll be running an expanded version of the story online next month. Please let us know if you have any pointers for your fellow fundraisers when it comes to communicating about the importance of end-of-year giving. E-mail me at mbattistelli@napco.com.
Peace & blessings
Margaret Battistelli, Editor-in-Chief