The Three I's August 28, 2007 By RussBurke

In my attempts to help nonprofits raise more money using GiftWorks, I am often called upon to advise on the creation of custom fields for all manner of information, some critical, some useful and others, frankly, a waste of space. Personally, I have chosen to use most of my available GiftWorks custom donor fields to track and project the interactions my organization needs to execute for our major donors and the prospects we hope to cultivate into major donors.

Turns out, those custom fields can easily be used to track and plan for my organization's application, preparation and solicitation progress for foundation funding. Certainly in the weeks ahead I will be blogging about those setups, what they mean and how to use them. (If you gotta' know now, just visit our Help Center's free Knowledge Base and explore Customizations.)

But today, I wanted to focus on three simple but related "I" words: Introduce, Inform, and Involve. For me, these are the three fundamental steps that all cultivation boils down to. I have these steps listed as the data values allowed in my custom "Next Step" field. They take the form: Cultivate - Introduce and so on. But what do they really mean?

Cultivate - Introduce: This step could be any number of things (like, blindly sending the organization's Annual Report or some description of services) but your organization should have a specifc plan in place that more directly touches the prospect. Think about inviting prospects in for a tour of your facility and a brief chat with the CEO. And don't forget a brief staff-led community review that shares who you serve and how its going. The idea is to pique the interest of the prospect and set the stage for further contact. Here is where you begin the process of listening to prospects to better understand what concerns and motivates them. Record all that very valuable infomation in their Interactions page.

Cultivate - Inform: This step actually goes two ways. As you pursue efforts to feed prospects more details about your mission and answer their questions, you need to be 'inquiring' to dig deeper into what they care about and, specifically, what changes they want to see in the world. Again, all this needs to be recorded in GiftWorks...your efforts to contacts them as well as the crucial infomation you bring back.

Cultivate - Involve: This step is the final (but not concluding) step. With all the intelligence you've gathered about this prospect, you are now in a position to invite their involvement. This includes any activities or exchange the engages them, like volunteering, consulting, advising, and most certainly, donating. It all revolves about your "agreement" with the prospect about the change they want to see in the world and how your organization (and you) are the partners to make it happen.

By this point, you have a great deal of information that points to what and how much you should ask for and even, based on your careful recording of board and other staff contacts with this prospect, just who is best positioned to make that ask.

Major gift fundraising...actually, any fundrasing...cannot ignore the three I's. Does your organization have a plan?

The Case for Solicitation Testing August 22, 2007 By RussBurke

Many GiftWorks users work for smaller and newer nonprofits...and they're getting off to a great start. Having worked for such organizations in the past, I know how pressed most staffers are just to keep the fundraising effort in motion, especially when weighed down by the number of hats typically worn. I am asking all of you, today, to step back and consider the value of solicitation testing.  It is the key to making both solicitations and you more effective. And that has to feel good.

Recently, a colleague shared a very interesting Association of Fundraising Professional (AFP) website article with me and here I quote one small "finding" reveiewed: "People participating in phone-athons gave more than the average gift when told about a big contribution a previous caller had just made. However, if the amount mentioned is too high ($1,000 was used in the study) donors did not increase their gifts. In addition, when callers [sic] were told about a gift from a donor of the same sex, they tended to contribute more than if the donor was of the opposite sex." See http://www.afpnet.org/ka/ka-3.cfm?content_item_id=24156&folder_id=2345 .

Wow, that is fascinating data for sure, but stop to think how easily information like this can help you with your next phonathon. Of course, AFP and other great organizations are wonderful resources for great ideas but they can't replace the testing that you do to confirm these principles, and myriad others, work for your constituency.

Please visit AFP (better yet, join AFP!) and learn all you can from their rich archives. Visit other sources like Mal Warwick's website (www.malwarwick.com) and learn all you can about direct mail solicitation. These sources will stoke your thought processes about the alternative approaches you can take...and test...with your solicitation efforts.

In resource-stretched operations, especially, we must work to insure that every solicitation returns more to us than just the dollars. As GiftWorks users, you already know you'll be able to track these "experiments" by creative use of donation fields like Donation Appeal, Solicitor, the Directed/Restricted To field, or any of your available custom donation fields. OK, you know you got the tools. Now use them to give your solicitions the legs they need to carry your mission forward. 

Major Donors vs. Major Prospects August 17, 2007 By RussBurke

Lots of GiftWorks users have a group set aside for Major Donors. They are the people and organizations with a record of significant gifts to support your mission. Of course, these are not to be confused with those we wish had such a record....maybe those are your Major Prospects.

Three issues arise in this kind of discussion...what is significant, who comprises the prospect pool and how do you move prospects to actuals.

What is significant? Depends. Behind that trite answer lies a recognition that "significance" is relational, based on your current giving culture. Create a SmartList of all donation last year...look at the total count of gifts and figure 10% on the gift number. Then sort in gift size order, largest at the top, and count down the equivalent of your 10%.  If that gives you more than 100 gifts, refigure an amount based on 90% of the total dollars raised, then count down until you've accounted for that 90% dollar amount. These are your Major Donors, (By the way, if you end up with less than 25 donors represented, you have real work to do to expand that pool.)

Your Major Prospects are the next 10 percent or next 25 down on the list. If you are looking to grow that list by factor other than just a pure record of giving, consider creating and populating two custom donor fields: Affinity and Capacity. Affinity ranks how close a person identifies with your mission, while capacity is an estimation of the annual giving capacity of that person. A group-based Major Prospects SmartList with those fields added by customization yields a great ranking tool that you can use and share with leadership, board or campaign cabinet. Experience suggests you should not overlook your long-term givers or your volunteers for inclusion on your Major Prospects list. Think "who cares more?"

Finally, moving prospects to donors is a complex and multifaceted enterprise with many techniques, strategies and methodologies, not all of which are sustainable over the long term. My gut tells me, at the core, that meeting, sharing and asking are what best begin and sustain relationships that result in major gifts, provided the capacity is there. In any case, for this constituency and all others, I always want to treat them like they are major donors, keeping the door open and seeding all communications with little celebrations of, introduction to's and reminders for bequests and other ultimate gifts...just in case my view of capacity is incomplete! These efforts keep my GiftWorks mailing lists and interactions humming...and so richly valuable!

From where do you gather your major prospects?

Giftworks - Not Just for Donors August 14, 2007 By RussBurke

When folks first see GiftWorks, they often believe our generic use of the term "donors" means only givers can be added to GiftWorks. Not so, of course. I always add our nonprofit's board and advisory committee members, legislative contacts and members of the press so I can reach out to them easily through the Mailing Center (keeping valuable records of what went out when). Of course, whether or not you use the GiftWorks Volunteers add-in, I always put all volunteers and event attendees into my database so I have all those GiftWorks tools to build community.

But there is one group conspicuously absent in that listing: Stakeholders. Who are your stakeholders? What is a stakeholder anyway? Let me define it as I know it: These are the people and institutions in your nonprofit's service area who share your mission or parts of your mission, who are principle supporters of or contributors to what you do, or are significantly dependant on what you do.

As a fundraiser, your responsibility as a primary advancement officer is second only to the CEO. Every contemplated change of programming, services or sites; every major fundraising campaign in the planning stages; every budget induced curtailment of services ought to be reflected against your list of stakeholders.

Who among them has a vested interest in what you are planning? Who will be impacted? How might it affect your relationships and what can or must you do now to communicate or consult. The advancement role requires a constant vigil of stakeholder relationships and nobody likes surprises.

Stakeholder matters handled in a timely, forthright and "partner-centered" way bear good fruit. The alternative litters your nonprofit's path with needless obstructions. You won't always get your way, but you will be respected for being a trusted community player.

Take some time to meet your stakeholders face to face. And keep track of those contacts and content in GiftWorks. You'll be glad you did.

Seven Years of Nonprofit Software August 13, 2007 By Steve Fafel

Tonight I'm in New York, where 7 years ago I started building the prototype for GiftWorks fundraising software. The state of nonprofit software at the time wasn't that great; interfaces were clunky, prices were very high, and the majority of nonprofits used Excel or Access to track donors and donations.

Things haven't changed too much, except that GiftWorks is a cure for common clunkiness, and it isn't expensive, but most nonprofits still use Access and Excel, and most nonprofit software is expensive and clunky. We're still committed to the small nonprofit, and committed to affordable, easy to use software. On occasion, we hear from prospective customers that they can't believe we're so affordable--too good to be true. But it is true, and it works for both our customers and our company.

We've also stuck to our values--employee ownership (20% in stock options), socially responsible practices, 20% of the company donated to a foundation in a donor-advised fund, and affordable software that anyone can use and everyone can afford.

Tomorrow I have a few meetings in Manhattan. Usually I swing by my old neighborhood in NOHO, but this time I'm sticking to the meetings, then heading for the train home. New York reminds me of how far we've come, and I get those feelings this city gives so willingly--hope, aspiration, unlimited potential. That's how I feel, still, about Mission Research. Our mission is to support your mission.

The $250 Green Computer August 9, 2007 By Steve Fafel

I found this today over at ecogeek.com--a sustainable, $250 computer. No fan, no noise, zero impact. Probably going to get one to check it out...

Blackbaud Acquires eTapestry August 6, 2007 By Steve Fafel

The Nonprofit Times reported a few minutes agao that Blackbaud is buying eTapestry for something like $25 million. I imagine Jay Love will get the majority of that, and wish him well and encourage him to do something constructive with it. But I fear for his customers.

If Blackbaud is consistent, it will kill off the eTapestry service and force its customers to convert to Raiser's Edge, as they did with Campagne's GiftMaker Pro.

My question is this: why are these companies selling out? eTapestry only had revenue of $7 million per year. Blackbaud doesn't have a compelling hosted solution, and I imagine Salesforce.com is eating into their market, despite the reliability problems they've had.

What's a nonprofit to do? Try GiftWorks, for one. And it looks as though Donorperfect is hanging in there, along with a few other competitors. If you're currently an eTap customer, please check us out, and download a free trial of GiftWorks today. You'll be pretty impressed with how usable it is, and how powerful it can be for your fundraising and mailing.

And if you stick with eTapestry and are forced over to Raiser's Edge, well, good luck. We wish you well with your new adventure, but please keep in mind that the average charge from Blackbaud is $40,000, according to their CEO.