Insights Archive - Page 28 of 29

More Insights

Article

Your Guide to Increasing and Diversifying Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Revenue

April 19, 2024

Today’s nonprofits need to increase and diversify their revenue streams for sustainability. This article will help you learn how to make the most of your fundraising efforts.

Article

6 Fundraising Event Tips Your Nonprofit Needs Today

April 18, 2024

Fundraising events can bolster your nonprofit’s giving strategy if you plan and execute them effectively. Drive donor engagement, retention, and, ultimately, giving to your organization with our fundraising event tips.

SEE ALL IN: Catholic

An effective case can excite, compel, and inspire your donors to raise their philanthropic sights. It is the guiding document upon which the entire narrative of your campaign is built. However, writing this impactful story can be a daunting task, below are 5 tips to keep in mind.

Confirm your strategic priorities

Before you put pen to paper ensure that all internal stakeholders are in agreement regarding the funding focus for your organisation.
Include programmes that have a strong rationale for support and will deliver impact which can be shared with donors.
Plan out the financial requirements that you will include in your case document in order to demonstrate the strong need for philanthropic support.

Consider how your case document will be used

The case should not be a stand-alone document but rather designed with the intention of being accompanied by a personal visit/conversation from someone in your organisation.
Content should be able to be re-purposed later for proposal documents and supporting materials for cultivation activity, therefore, the language, tone, and design should be carefully developed.
Think about how you will share the document; will you use hard copies, send it electronically or both? Knowing this at the beginning may impact design decisions.

Think about the audience

The strongest case documents are written with real donors in mind and aim to give them a first-hand insight into the organisation.
Your case should include an emotional appeal for why the programmes included matter and convey the difference a prospective donor can make through participation. Using testimonials from your beneficiaries allows them to hear directly about the impact they could have.
At its core, your case should show how the donor can play a transformational role by making a philanthropic investment.

Give time to design

A visually attractive and compelling document will instantly engage a reader and portray your organisation in the strongest light.
Try to access good quality images which reflect your priorities and think about how you can tell your story with visuals and infographics to break up text and convey important messages.
Be consistent with font size, colour palette and layout to ensure a coherent look overall.

Finalising your case document

Check and check again to make sure that you are utilising the most compelling language and importantly that there are no spelling or grammar errors.
If you have time, it can be beneficial to take a few days away from the document before reviewing again with a fresh perspective, similarly asking members of your team or colleagues to review can also be very helpful.
Once you have completed a high-quality case, consider ‘testing’ it with people close to your organisation to gain initial feedback before finalising your document.

Culture: It’s complicated.

“Culture” is ubiquitous, although that does not mean it is easy to define. Instead, “culture” presents a challenge when we try to change it without buy-in from essential stakeholders. Understanding that every organization has a particular culture, whether or not stakeholders acknowledge it, is crucial in formulating a fundraising strategy. Before describing an ideal “culture of philanthropy,” it may be helpful to refer to a few underlying assumptions about culture:

All organizations have it
It’s a powerful source of communication inside and outside of the organization
It can be detrimental if not aligned with the well-being of the institution
It can – and should – be measured [1]

It should be no surprise, then, that the first step towards developing a dynamic and successful advancement office is to articulate how philanthropy allows institutions to realize key tenets of culture that they bring into reality every day.

Developing a culture around philanthropy within an independent school, especially, is a little more complicated than merely speaking it into reality. Schools increasingly rely on the generosity of current and former students as well as their families, and can be especially at-risk for missed opportunities if they do not appeal to the collective values of these stakeholders. Advancement offices have also seen improvements in external fundraising when internal stakeholders, like faculty and staff, choose to participate.

Models for Understanding Philanthropy’s Role in Culture

Independent schools operate as complex, adaptive systems, and they must if they hope to respond to the critical needs of the communities they serve. [2] Culture and philanthropy’s role in these institutions can be equally as complicated, and the consequences of inconsonance can alienate and drive away existing and prospective supporters.

Thankfully, systems thinking approaches like the Vision, Mission, Capacity, and Learning (VMCL) model, championed by Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of the Cabrera Research Lab at Cornell University, make it easier to analyze, understand, and implement a culture of philanthropy.

The VMCL model suggests that culture is derived from these four functions:

Vision: The vision is short, simple, inspiring, and measurable. It is a desired future state for your organization.
Mission: The mission describes actions done repeatedly to realize the vision. Mission statements clearly state who does what for whom, and are clear, concise, measurable, and easily understood.
Capacity: Capacity describes the critical systems essential to realizing vision and should be easily understood and measured.
Learning: Learning is the continuous process that enhances an organization’s collective ability to accept, make sense of, and respond to internal and external change. [3]

Where VMCL helps us understand philanthropic culture, Cultural Moves Management [4] helps us change it. Shifting the way stakeholders perceive philanthropy and their role in it encourages detractors to become supporters.

Most of your organization’s supporters are considered cultural “adopters” and tend to be the largest sub-group of supporters. They are passionate, reliable, and motivated by external and internal factors. [5] A smaller group of your supporters are cultural “leaders,” who serve as visionaries and should be enlisted as cultural ambassadors. To continue their work in advocating the culture, cultural leaders in the organization should receive ongoing stewardship for their support. Adopters, alternatively, can be transitioned into cultural leaders through ongoing investment and incentives.

Detractors of your organization’s culture are most often “fence-sitters” – they tend to be passive, undecided, and skeptical. [6] Fence-sitters are waiting to see what’s going to happen, so you want to avoid rewarding this behavior. Instead, show them the benefits of joining and adopting the culture. Use assorted communications that demonstrate for fence-sitters that on the side of corporate culture is the right place to be. They will get rewards, have fun, gain a sense of purpose and belonging, and ultimately love what they’re doing.

A smaller group are “naysayers,” who are oppositional, misinformed, or combative. [7] Because they may have legitimate complaints, naysayers should have an opportunity to share grievances. Sometimes naysayers can even become cultural proponents, but other times, leaders may confront staunch opposition to change. In this instance, they should redirect the naysayers’ energy and avoid letting them set the agenda with their opposition.

Regardless of where your stakeholders fall in cultural moves management, it’s critical to give them each the time and support needed to legitimize their experience and foster a sense of buy-in for your institution’s success.

Cultural Moves Management and Avoiding Obstacles

The case of a 100-year-old military school serves as an example to better understand potential obstacles when creating a culture of philanthropy. One particular pitfall of the advancement team at this school was not spending enough energy engaging alumni, students, and families through social media. Cabrera and Cabrera say that the most successful organizations are the ones that can easily communicate their vision, internally and externally. Independent schools can facilitate organizational learning by exposing stakeholders to a diverse array of resources like social media and online videos. Twitter and Instagram helped the school create the capacity for cultural formulation by instantly sharing essential information and updates. Once senior leadership at the military school embraced the use of these mediums and conveyed a sense of urgency around their fundraising initiatives, they actively engaged more alumni to participate in their annual Day of Giving. Cultural inculcation occurred organically, as retweets, reposts, and likes were continuously monitored and measured for their impact.

The military school was also able to mitigate the mistake of developing an overly complicated mission statement that would only confuse its stakeholders. The goal of any mission statement should be to clearly and concisely explain the actions required to bring about the change action that the school is working towards. Verbose mission statements often have the opposite effect intended. If they are too long and unfocused, the reader will have difficulty walking away with a clear sense of the school’s most pressing needs. Instead, this school simply stated its most important mandates and quickly explained why they required immediate attention and resources. Simple. Clear. Concise.

Finally, a renewed commitment from the military school to celebrate every volunteer leader went a long way toward developing a compassionate culture of philanthropy. These cultural champions were lauded and served as examples for other alumni, parents, teachers, and community members as people willing to go the extra mile to ensure that all of the school’s fundraising initiatives were successful. Creating compelling incentives such as a “Joint Chief’s Circle” or asking an alumnus to consider moving from the “Captain’s Circle” to join the “Major’s Circle” was a creative way to showcase the school’s corps of donors. When these organizational leaders were properly recognized and heralded as visionaries, they were more likely to demonstrate repeated buy-in and open new doors to engage the community in every philanthropic endeavor.

Changing Culture: The Value of Buy-In

Another example is a small independent school in Virginia where kids with ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and other differences have discovered a love for learning since the early 1970s. The vision of the school is to build a community where all students, regardless of learning differences, can realize their full potential, and their mission to provide multisensory education for each individual’s academic and social achievement is nurtured by faculty and staff every day.

Philanthropy, however, was not as easily adopted. Giving to previous annual fund campaigns fell flat, with only 20% of faculty and staff giving at any point in the school’s history. While teaching methodologies and technologies employed at the school have changed, the home that they have built in a re-purposed church has remained the same for several decades. Many of the school’s faculty and staff would be classified as “fence-sitters” when it came to a culture of philanthropy: teaching in outdated classrooms with noisy air-conditioning equipment, they were skeptical and didn’t see the value of their gift.

With new leadership and a five-year-old development department, the school decided to embark on its first-ever capital campaign to enhance and expand the campus. While philanthropic outreach is blossoming among a variety of stakeholders, faculty and staff participation presented a unique challenge for the school.

Knowing how valuable faculty and staff participation is to a capital campaign, development leaders set out to change the perspectives of their colleagues. They started by renovating two model classrooms to serve as examples for the future and then organized cultural “leaders” from the faculty to serve as volunteers for the campaign.

Most importantly, the campaign was about meeting a participation goal, not a dollar amount. This aligned with the school’s collaborative values, and the campaign’s elements spoke to the needs of faculty and staff and their students.

Early “adopters” of the capital campaign were rewarded with fun incentives for participating: the Head of School hand-delivered morning beverages, participants enjoyed a special adult-only lunch, and teachers were given a flexible hour for joining the effort. “Fence-sitters” – and possibly a few quiet “naysayers” – witnessed the shift happening among their colleagues and began to reconsider their own attitude towards philanthropy.

By the end of the campaign period, 100% of staff participated, demonstrating unprecedented endorsement towards the capital campaign.

Key Takeaways

The objective of cultural moves management is to encourage detractors to become supporters. From the real-world successes and challenges of these two independent schools, we identify important takeaways to align primary and secondary academic culture with philanthropy:

Philanthropy must be rooted in the organizational culture to resonate with donors.
Leadership sets the foundation for a positive overall and philanthropic culture.
Values must be communicated early and often to students, parents, and members of faculty, administration, staff, and teachers.
Measuring desired outcomes, like participation or elevated giving, will strengthen perceptions of culture.

So, how strong is your culture?

One simple test is to ask your essential stakeholders what your mission statement is. If they cannot recall, then it might be time to revisit how your school communicates its strategic vision. When your stakeholders can recite your mission without hesitation, that is a good indication that your organization is well on its way toward developing a culture of philanthropy, thus empowering your school to mold the leaders of tomorrow.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page.

[1] Cabrera, Derek, and Laura Cabrera. Flock Not Clock: Design, Align, and Lead to Achieve Your Vision, Plectica LLC, May 29, 2018. Print.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Think Water. (2015). VMCL: Build an Adaptive Organization. Retrieved from: https://fyi.uwex.edu/programdevelopment/files/2016/03/VMCL-Guide.pdf

[5] Cabrera, Derek, and Laura Cabrera. Flock Not Clock: Design, Align, and Lead to Achieve Your Vision, Plectica LLC, May 29, 2018. Print.

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid

When working with a 2,000-year-old institution, there is a tendency to think that there is nothing new under the sun. This way of thinking is often magnified in a parish setting where staff and volunteers have served for many years and are accustomed to working with limited and often antiquated resources. Many parishes still rely exclusively on bulletin and pulpit announcements to communicate with parishioners, but there are a variety of newer technologies available at relatively low cost that can dramatically enhance the effectiveness of parish communications, particularly during a fundraising campaign.

Some of these tools include email systems that can send thousands of personalized messages in a few seconds, electronic survey forms, recorded phone messages, and mass text message services. These resources allow a pastor who might have hundreds or even thousands of families in his parish to engage every parishioner dynamically.

As parish leaders take the first steps to implementing these programs, they should bear in mind that technology is not meant to supplant personal encounters; it is meant to facilitate them. By incorporating new tools into a parish’s communications and fundraising plans, pastors and volunteers can reach out to a large audience of parishioners in ways that are both faster and more personal than previously imagined.

The Challenge

When parish leaders consider the possibility of adopting new tools to engage parishioners, they generally focus on three challenges:

How will we implement something new with our limited technological background?
Once we do set something up, who will manage the system?
Will the results be worth the investment of time and money?

The first step to overcoming these challenges is very often simply being open to trying something new. The second step is sitting down with someone with deep knowledge of these tools and best practices to gain an understanding of how to move forward. From there, the technology is actually simpler than one might think. If someone can use a smartphone, type into a Word document, and make a list in Excel, he or she can likely manage one of these resources.

Case Study: Saint Rose of Lima in Newtown, CT

During a recent parish capital campaign at Saint Rose of Lima Church in Newtown, Connecticut, CCS worked with the pastor, parish staff, and campaign volunteers to design a plan that introduced new communications tools to a traditional parish fundraising model. This plan enabled the campaign, We Stand With Christ: An Invitation to Faith & Fellowship, to engage over a third of Saint Rose’s 3,600 families in a personal and dynamic way in less than five months’ time.

Getting Started

At first, the pastor, Msgr. Robert Weiss, was reluctant to try these new tools in large part because he was unfamiliar with them. However, Msgr. Weiss quickly recognized that to engage such a large parish in a short period of time would require some new ideas. Saint Rose had some experience with Constant Contact, an email automation platform, but they used Constant Contact almost exclusively to communicate with religious education and youth group families and not to communicate with the parish at large.

During a campaign feasibility study, the Saint Rose staff collected more than 2,500 parish email addresses and 4,195 phone numbers (including 1,358 cell phone numbers) from the parish database and through an in-pew update of contact information.

“The online feasibility study enabled us to receive responses from over 900 parishioner families, the results of which gave us a clear direction for the campaign,” said Msgr. Weiss. “Tracking requests, pledges, gifts, and even those not able to participate in the campaign helped move the campaign forward in a very orderly fashion.”

With this list, the parish was well-prepared to implement some new communications vehicles.

E-Survey

During Saint Rose’s feasibility study, in addition to 76 one-on-one meetings, nearly 900 parishioners were able to offer their feedback on the parish’s campaign plans through an electronic survey. Msgr. Weiss sent a personal invitation to every parishioner for whom the parish had an email address, and about 35% of those invited participated in the e-survey.

Personalized Emails

Following the feasibility study, Saint Rose launched its capital campaign with a working goal of $5 million. From the early stages of the campaign, the parish made good use of its Constant Contact account to engage volunteers, initiate personal visits, and communicate with the broader parish community. Msgr. Weiss emailed parishioners who had indicated that they would be willing to serve as campaign volunteers to invite them to an orientation, and he sent a preparatory email to each family who would receive a call from a volunteer about a personal visit.

“Emails were sent as a way to educate and engage parishioners throughout the campaign. To have access to lists of donors, pledge and gift information, and to be able to track payments has made the project move forward in a very positive way,” said Msgr. Weiss.

Using email during the quiet phase of the campaign dramatically improved the speed of communications. Rather than waiting for letters to arrive by mail and then hoping they had been read, campaign leadership knew immediately when an email had been read, and a volunteer could follow up with that parishioner within hours, not days. This strategy allowed Msgr. Weiss and campaign volunteers to have a personal visit with over 330 parishioners before announcing the campaign.

During the public phase, Msgr. Weiss sent regular updates on campaign progress, and he used targeted email messages to encourage those who had not yet replied to make their pledge. He was even able to include a direct link in the email to pledge online.

Voice Broadcasts

Twice during the public phase of the campaign, Msgr. Weiss recorded a message that was broadcast to every parishioner’s phone number. Recording the message itself was as simple as dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail, and the broadcasts proved extremely effective at encouraging parishioners to return their pledge cards. About 30 percent of parishioners who were called answered live (the others received voicemail messages), and many commented on how much they appreciated the personal touch of hearing Msgr. Weiss’s voice.

Announcement Weekend Check-In

On the weekend, Msgr. Weiss announced the campaign publicly, Saint Rose organized the distribution of personalized campaign materials after every Mass. This “old school” approach was enlivened with a “new school” twist: Saint Rose rented iPads for its volunteers to use an app called Zkipster to check in those parishioners who picked up their materials. Once checked in, parishioners automatically received an email thanking them for picking up their packets and encouraging them to return their pledge cards by a certain date.

The tech resources for the weekend cost about $1,200, and by Sunday evening, Saint Rose had distributed personalized campaign materials to 626 parishioners. Of that group, 70% made a gift to the campaign, totaling $3.4 million. In fact, in just the 10 days following the announcement weekend, Saint Rose raised about $1.5 million. Furthermore, those parishioners who received materials after Mass were 10 times more likely to make a gift to the campaign than those who received material through the mail.

Text Message Reminders

In the final days leading up to the parish’s in-pew commitment weekend, Msgr. Weiss sent a brief text message to every parishioner who had not yet made a pledge with a reminder to bring his or her pledge card to Mass that weekend. The ease and instantaneousness of text messaging allowed this message to be sent a few hours before the weekend’s first Mass. Over the course of commitment weekend, the text message reminder proved very effective: nearly four times as many parishioners brought their pledge card from home as those who filled out a generic card in the pew.

The Results

The use of new technologies during Saint Rose’s campaign enabled Msgr. Weiss and parish volunteers communicated personally with the vast majority of Saint Rose’s 3,600 parish families. Because the tools Saint Rose used could track in real time who had received a message or made a pledge, communications could be further personalized based on whether a parishioner had already made a gift or was still considering a commitment.

These new tools enabled the campaign to proceed with speed and precision, and they helped to keep excitement high during the public phase of the campaign. Ultimately, Saint Rose exceeded its initial campaign goal by over $1 million, raising about $6.1 million on their $5 million working goal.

Moreover, by the close of Saint Rose’s campaign, both Msgr. Weiss and two parish staff members were exceedingly more familiar with the technological resources available to them. This experience enabled them to engage more effectively a small committee of parishioners who had formed to focus on enhancing the parish’s overall communications strategy. Partially inspired by the success of the campaign, Saint Rose is now working to develop a new parish website and to expand its social media presence.

Three First Steps for Any Parish

While the case study of Saint Rose’s campaign demonstrates how a parish can implement a comprehensive communications strategy to enhance its fundraising efforts, parishes can begin taking advantage of these new tools for a variety of purposes. Even if a parish is not preparing to launch a fundraising campaign, implementing these tools can facilitate broader parishioner engagement and potentially lay the groundwork for more personalized campaign communications down the road.

Here are three strategies that any parish with a list of phone numbers and email addresses can begin to implement immediately:

Send a personalized email from the pastor or other parish leaders to all parishioners on a regular basis (weekly, biweekly, or monthly). Depending upon the frequency, the email might contain a spiritual reflection, a Q&A, an update on parish activities, or a witness from a parishioner.
Record a message of gratitude from the pastor around Thanksgiving or the parish’s patronal feast and broadcast it to all parishioners’ phone numbers. Pastors who have tried this strategy have been overwhelmed by the positive response from their parishioners.
Send a text message announcement before a special event to parishioners’ cell phone numbers. It might contain a reminder of the Christmas or Holy Week Mass schedule or encourage parishioners to attend a parish festival.

In a world where parishioners of every age are increasingly tech-savvy, parishes can gain much by implementing new communication tools.

CCS Fundraising is a strategic consulting firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change. To access our full suite of perspectives, publications, and reports, visit our insights page.

More Insights

Article

Your Guide to Increasing and Diversifying Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Revenue

April 19, 2024

Today’s nonprofits need to increase and diversify their revenue streams for sustainability. This article will help you learn how to make the most of your fundraising efforts.

Article

6 Fundraising Event Tips Your Nonprofit Needs Today

April 18, 2024

EXPLORE ALL INSIGHTS

An institution’s mission cannot be fulfilled if its governance and financial health are not aligned. Money cannot be raised if the people in charge have been placed in a position to fail from the beginning. The stakes of having the right people at the top are high in all nonprofit sectors, and as organizational leaders, it’s important that we help them succeed.

Revenue for nonprofits is primarily steered by financial gifts that come from the board. When you factor in board members who make introductions and help request gifts, the board’s total fundraising impact is even greater. Regardless of what your mission is, or how many board members you have, there are three actionable practices to use right away that will ensure that your board will be successful in raising funds.

1. Identify and Recruit Strong Fundraising Board Members

The strongest boards include people with a variety of backgrounds and skill sets. Requesting gifts might not be for everyone, but just as the inclination to give is a common requirement for board service, the inclination to ask is also important. Organizations of all sizes should look for potential board members who are willing to help with fundraising, along with donor stewardship and cultivation.

How do you know who will be willing to ask? Develop opportunities to “test” potential board members. Advisory boards, alumni organizations, campaign committees, or smaller task forces focused on a specific issue are excellent ways to get to know volunteers and see them in action. Like a job interview, this kind of role also gives the volunteer the opportunity to see if a higher-level leadership role is right for them. Both the organization and the volunteers should know what they’re getting into before the official board service begins.

Look for volunteers who, first and foremost, are committed to your institution and your mission. Beyond this, identify potential board members who are comfortable with the idea of fundraising. Those who give to your organization regularly, attend events, and are generally comfortable in conversations about their own support are most likely to be willing to visit with others. Some volunteers bring other talents to your board and may not be familiar with fundraising but are willing to learn. Include some fundraising education and orientation in all volunteer opportunities to test the waters with your volunteers and see who might be willing to become more involved from a fundraising standpoint.

2. Set Expectations

Your board members have many responsibilities and fundraising is a priority. It is important to set expectations from the outset and reinforce those expectations throughout the year. Clearly communicate that a critical ingredient for powerful impact is funding brought in from the board, either through their individual gifts or through securing funds from others. Sometimes, we are inclined to apologize for fundraising, but it’s important not to present fundraising in a negative light or downplay its importance compared to other roles on the board.

Fundraising is an “inside/outside” function. The campaign experiences of successful organizations reinforce this idea. People closest to the organization need to lead the way in financial support so it builds momentum and confidence when you begin to reach out to the broader community. No one is closer to your organization than the group charged with its governance. There are many ways to engage your board members in securing their gifts, including through annual giving, or event sponsorship. You can also implement a strategy where every board member commits to targeting a multi-year leadership gift.

For any strategy, it is paramount to outline your fundraising expectations in the beginning. Incorporate fundraising into the formal board roles and responsibilities, and review this in your new board member orientation each year. Remember that the board chair needs to lead by example—he or she sets the expectation that fundraising is an essential component of the board role at your institution.

3. Onboard Them Properly

Orienting and training board members to engage in fundraising is essential, not only to build their confidence, but also to ensure that the right messages are being shared.

Asking for gifts can be daunting. You need to educate board members about the process and train them in best practices. One or two (or more) dedicated orientation sessions will give you the opportunity to share the language board members should use to be successful and help them understand how to handle the questions or objections they are likely to encounter. Use these training sessions as opportunities to share the most important message points of your institution or campaign, to ensure that all volunteers are on the same page. Don’t be afraid to use games and role play— acting out different gift request scenarios will help your board members prepare for all types of conversations.

Following these orientation sessions, make sure your board members are equipped with the tools they need for success. A suite of training materials might include a volunteer handbook, contact sheet, overview of best practices, and frequently asked questions.

Most importantly, remind board members that you are here for them. Feeling supported by the institution and professional staff will convince volunteers that their time is well-managed and they are not in this alone. Give them the confidence to be successful, and celebrate their successes—large and small—with them.

The Signs of a Successful Board Plan

You’ve identified, engaged, and recruited the best board prospects
You’ve set realistic expectations
You have their commitment, and you have helped them understand the successes and challenges of your organization
Your board has a solid foundation, and your organization will be able to implement a fundraising plan that will be a driving force toward a positive and powerful impact for good!

More Insights

Article

Your Guide to Increasing and Diversifying Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Revenue

April 19, 2024

Today’s nonprofits need to increase and diversify their revenue streams for sustainability. This article will help you learn how to make the most of your fundraising efforts.

Article

6 Fundraising Event Tips Your Nonprofit Needs Today

April 18, 2024

SEE ALL IN: Primary and Secondary Education

More Insights

Article

Your Guide to Increasing and Diversifying Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Revenue

April 19, 2024

Today’s nonprofits need to increase and diversify their revenue streams for sustainability. This article will help you learn how to make the most of your fundraising efforts.

Article

6 Fundraising Event Tips Your Nonprofit Needs Today

April 18, 2024

SEE ALL IN: Catholic

The success of a capital campaign depends on several factors. One of the most important is to get your effort off to a strong start, which is most effectively accomplished by securing large, pace-setting gifts. Securing early, significant support provides the initiative credibility. Early success, in turn, inspires confidence in solicitors, creating momentum that results in more major gifts.

In the quest to attract large gifts, especially early in a campaign, challenge grants are a unique approach that, when executed properly, result in several large gifts in a brief period of time.

A challenge grant is a (semi) conditional significant gift made by a donor or group of donors that is fulfilled when others step forward to support the campaign at a specific level and/or by a specific deadline. There are a myriad of ways in which a challenge can be used to support a campaign. A few examples include:

A challenge tied to participation levels. For example, the College of the Holy Cross has successfully conducted a 50% participation challenge over the past three years.
An existing gift used to attract a new or larger gift. For example, the chairman of the board of a large social service organization offered to match all seven-figure gifts from new donors to kick off a $50 million campaign.
Dollar-for-dollar: For example, a large East Coast academic medical center concluded its annual fund drive with a $100,000 match from a member of their board to ensure that the effort reached its goal before the end of the year.
Two-for-one: For example, this strategy is highlighted in the following profile of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church’s Kirkland Challenge.

Challenge Grant in Action: The Kirkland Challenge

In 2014 one of CCS’s client partners, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, effectively leveraged a challenge grant to launch the Major Gift phase of its $12.5 million Generation to Generation restoration campaign. The first pledge received a $2.5 million commitment from a family of noted philanthropists who encouraged the church to leverage their support in any way that could help the campaign. When presented with the option of issuing a challenge, the family was enthusiastic about the idea.

The challenge was branded The Kirkland Challenge in honor of the former Senior Pastor, Bryant Kirkland, who would have been 100 years old at the time of the launch. Several scenarios on the implementation and timing of the challenge were considered, but ultimately a two-for-one match for all gifts of $25,000+, not to exceed $1.25 million (1/2 of the $2.5 million pledge), was chosen. The challenge took place during the major gift phase from January 1 until the public launch of the campaign on March 3.

An overview of the challenge was developed and presented to the Campaign Co-chairs and the Senior Pastor for approval. The donors were then briefed and also approved of the church moving forward with the challenge.

A two-page challenge flyer was developed as a supplement to the solicitation material being used by the Major Gift Committee, the team of church members recruited to solicit gifts of $25,000 and above. The Kirkland Challenge was announced at the major gift committee training in early January and volunteers were briefed on how to present this opportunity to the church members they were assigned to visit. Talking points included:

A unique opportunity to triple the impact of their gift ($25,000 pledge + $50,000 match = $75,000 worth of impact).
A limited window in which to participate – before March 8, prior to the public announcement.
An important mechanism to raise the sights of members.

Progress was continually tracked, with each committee meeting and action memo offering an update on the challenge, including reminders on how to use the challenge to motivate donors.

Impact

The challenge was a tremendous success. During the seven weeks of the challenge, the church received 36 commitments totaling $1,260,000, and an average gift of $36,000.

Further, it had positive impacts on all involved. The volunteer committee embraced the challenge because it offered them an additional talking point when speaking with prospective donors. The challenge not only allowed the campaign to raise additional funds, but it also motivated donors and volunteers to adhere to the prescribed timeline; motivating the campaign to remain on track. Donors were provided with a strong incentive to elevate their level of support to meet the challenge.

Lastly, the challenge was a unique way to steward a donor critically important to the church by further involving the donor in the campaign in a way that elevated the value of a historic gift to the campaign.

Key Takeaways

Challenge grants are the ultimate endorsement of your initiative, as they validate your vision, confirm the case, heighten philanthropy, motivate leaders, and drive energy.

Some guidelines to follow when formulating your next challenge grant are:

Identify a qualified prospect for whom a challenge would resonate.
Determine the parameters based on your needs.
Solicit the donor positioning the challenge as a central aspect of the gift.
Secure the donor’s buy-in. Demonstrate the impact both on the campaign and the organization. Share the vision for the campaign with the donor so that they understand how the challenge fits in.
Develop a plan to implement the challenge. The plan should include a timetable, promotional material, and talking points.
Promote and track the challenge’s progress.

A successful campaign requires momentum. It is the result of dynamic leadership, and inspiring, pace-setting generosity. Challenge grants are an excellent way to leverage the former to inspire the latter and set your next campaign on the right path.

More Insights

Publication

2023 Philanthropic Landscape, 12th Edition

August 29th, 2023

Featuring essential philanthropic research from all major sources in the industry, this exclusive report examines key themes in American philanthropy and the latest data on giving by US individuals, foundations, and corporations.

Publication

Philanthropic Climate Survey Report, 4th Edition

January 14, 2021

CCS’s fourth-edition Philanthropic Climate Survey report provides a snapshot of how more than 1,000 respondents from across the nonprofit community are persevering amid challenges, evolving their fundraising tactics, and planning for 2021 and beyond.

EXPLORE ALL INSIGHTS

There are countless strategies to be successful in the fundraising industry. From building lasting relationships with prospects and stewarding donors, to successfully planning and executing gift requests, there are always steps to take to maximize your results.

Recognizing the importance of each fundraising strategy, something often overlooked is the importance of managing yourself. Based upon our experience working with development professionals across all nonprofit sectors for the past seven decades, one fact is glaringly clear: Managing time and actions effectively makes the difference between a spectacular fundraiser and one that merely gets the job done. While these points may seem like common sense, it can be difficult to put all of these practices into action. However, with a little focus and planning, a good fundraiser can follow these eight guidelines to become great!

1. Prioritize the activities that bring in the gifts.

Of course, we all must write reports, complete paperwork, and make coffee, but try to make a concerted effort to prioritize the tasks that will have the highest return on your time investment. Write down the top three-to-five revenue-generating tasks that must get done today and do these FIRST. When you get to the end of the day, the tasks that remain should be those that do not raise money—not the important, productive tasks that would have raised money had you gotten to them. Prioritize meeting with or calling prospects and focus on tasks that will lead to a gift (e.g., writing request letters, assigning prospects for volunteers to contact, conducting a ‘meet our CEO’ event with top prospects, stewarding donors, etc.). Contacts, events, and visits lead to gifts. The more you can conduct, the more gifts you will secure.

2. Sitting at your desk doesn’t raise money.

The working world has trained us to sit at our desks, in our swivel chairs, for 8+ hours to be considered “working hard.” However, as fundraisers, you can get a lot done away from your desk. Effective fundraising professionals are rarely in the office because they are meeting with donors, asking for gifts, and raising money. Do not fall into the trap of being glued to your desk – get out there, make connections, and increase support for your organization!

3. Set aside 45 minutes DAILY on your calendar to make phone calls.

Whether you make follow-up calls to prospective donors, set up in-person meetings with prospects, ask for gifts over the phone, call your board members/volunteers, or call donors to thank them for their gifts, one of the most productive uses of your time is getting on the phone with your constituents. Make time for it.

4. Get out of your comfort zone.

“The level of your success is directly proportional to the number of uncomfortable conversations you have.” – Sir Richard Branson, entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.

Does picking up the phone make you a little bit nervous, so you keep putting it off? Are you afraid to meet that “whale” of a prospect because you’re afraid he or she will say no? Do not wait until you are motivated and comfortable, because you’ll spend all year waiting! Just pick up the phone and start dialing. Take every opportunity to step outside of your comfort zone. That is the only way to continuously improve.

5. Do things one step at a time.

Most organizations have annual fundraising goals. But what does this mean on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis? Work backwards from your goal and set weekly, measurable goals for your (and your team’s) activities. To walk or even run, you must take one step at a time. Without knowing how many steps per day to take, it is unlikely you will reach the end of the year having reached your desired destination.

Do you need to raise $1 million this year? Look at your donor database. How many people will you need to ask, and at what gift request levels, to meet your goal? Extrapolate this over 12 months, even 52 weeks. How many calls and visits do you need to make per week (or per day) to reach your goal? Establish measurable benchmarks for activity, stick to them, and measure your performance against them.

6. Ask for help.

Even with your stellar team of fundraisers, you may still need help reaching your goals. Leverage your board of trustees by asking them to identify prospect connections, bringing them on gift request visits, and requesting their assistance in opening select doors. This group is a critical asset to your fundraising success, so use them. Recruit a team of volunteers to help: those who will visit prospects and request gifts, phone-a-thon volunteers, or volunteers who help free up your team to ask for more gifts. A successful fundraising operation is a symphony of many moving parts. Recruit your team (staff, board, volunteers, and consultants) and purposefully manage their efforts for the greatest impact.

7. Carve out time for thinking.

It’s easy to get caught up in daily tasks without thinking about the big picture. Clear time on your calendar to think about your strategy. Which actions are yielding the most results? What is the most effective way to leverage your time and your team? Are your tasks getting you closer to your desired outcomes? Is your plan the right one to achieve your long-term goals? To work smart, you must carve out time to think.

8. Evaluate and adjust.

Which elements of your plan worked? Which ones did not? Adjust and continuously tweak your strategy. There is always room to improve – those fundraisers who are introspective and identify these opportunities are the ones who get better.

If we said that 100 other miscellaneous tasks will not arise daily, we’d be kidding ourselves. But purposeful, strategic management of your tasks, giving priority to those that lead to gifts, will help you more effectively raise funds for your organization. Get out of your office, meet with your constituents, and secure support that fulfills your organization’s mission. The keys to success are in your hands!

Four Corners is a basketball play made famous by legendary University of North Carolina coach, Dean Smith. Essentially, four players stand in the corners of the offensive half-court while the fifth dribbles the ball in the middle (see: Diagram A below). The basketball is passed between the point guard in the middle and the four players making up the corners. This “pre-shot clock” strategy— called the Four Corners— is meant to stall a game by denying the defense a chance to regain possession, and ultimately guarantee a lay-up for the point guard.

Likewise, how can fundraisers guarantee a win in a capital campaign? The answer will make Dean Smith proud: rely on the “Four Corners of a Campaign”: case, leadership, prospects, and plan.

Point Guard (1): You

As the Development Director or Campaign Director, you have the ball and are tasked with managing the capital campaign. It is your job to direct the case for support, volunteer leaders, potential prospects, and overall campaign plan. You oversee all movement from these corners and are constantly analyzing the landscape, or the “basketball court,” to determine where to act next.

Corner (2): Case

After your case elements have been determined, start building the arguments surrounding why this campaign is needed and how you intend to achieve its goal. A strong case for support will always clearly highlight the necessity, not just the desire, to further the mission and work of an organization. The “ball” should be passed back to the case throughout the entire campaign. Once finalized, always revert to the case for support, reminding your organization and donors why these dollars are needed and what you anticipate being the impact.

Corner (3): Leadership

The point guard relies on and guides the leadership in any campaign effort. For true success, the volunteers need to be engaged, regularly updated, and tasked with next steps. Leadership is critical when developing the case and creating and implementing the campaign plan. Campaign leaders and volunteers will also be the main source of interaction and activity with prospects/donors. Passing the ball to campaign leadership, and ensuring they pass the ball to another corner, is critical in campaign movement and will ensure progress.

Corner (4): Prospects

It goes without saying— prospects/donors are the bread and butter of securing dollars. As a prospect moves through the different stages of Moves Management, the point guard/campaign director must always align eyesight with what can be the next Four Corners move. While researching new prospects, or working with long-time donors, always be thinking how the case (Corner) relates to a prospect or could interest them. Perhaps a campaign leader (Corner) has connections with a certain prospect? Or perhaps they could create a unique opportunity or event for a prospect? While working with prospects (Corners), it is imperative to collaborate quickly and often with the other players on the court.

Corner (5): Plan

The campaign plan and individual division plans are the first things written for a campaign. This is the lifeblood of any project. Every action that happens with the other corners must be checked with the plan to ensure all activity is aligned and driven with the campaign purpose. No matter the stage of the campaign, always revert to the plans for guidance.

The goal of the Four Corners is to always keep the ball moving across the corners and, when executed properly, guarantee the point guard a lay-up. As complex campaigns take off and begin to maneuver through the strategic offense and defense of fundraising, it is important to continue moving your actions between the case for support, the campaign leadership, the prospects, and the campaign and division plans.

And best of all, there is no shot-clock!

More Insights

Publication

CCS Philanthropy Pulse

February 15, 2024

The 2024 CCS Philanthropy Pulse report serves as a guide for fundraisers, offering insights into the modern strategies nonprofits employ for development and highlighting avenues for fundraising success.

Article

Your Guide to Writing a Compelling Case for Support

January 30, 2024

The case for support provides the foundation for your entire campaign. An effective case can excite, compel, and inspire your donors to dream big and raise their philanthropic sights. In this article, we share some common mistakes made when writing a case for support in fundraising and steps to follow.

EXPLORE ALL INSIGHTS