By: Katie Kinder DeBauche, Associate

“It’s almost the end of the year! When is the end of the year appeal going to be in mailboxes?”  How often have you heard this from Board members and other stakeholders; volunteers and Staff; or even clients? It’s that time again – the end of the year fundraising push – now known as “Giving Season” and it arrives earlier and earlier each year.

As you’re reading this, you, too, may be putting together your end of the year appeal to close the budget, better serve existing clients, or meet the ever-growing needs in your community. The year-end appeal mailing is the best bang for your buck – a one size fits all approach to fundraising with the goal of maximizing your time and energy and yielding greater philanthropic returns. This year, I hope you will also consider the importance of gratitude in building meaningful connections with individual donors who have buoyed us through this prolonged pandemic and have been with us even before these trying times.

Earnest and honest gratitude is philanthropy’s best kept secret. Building relationships with individual donors is key to our important work to advance philanthropy. We know we need to express thanks, gratitude, and recognition to our donors. And you know this too, of course. But do you actually do it? If not, here are two easy places to start.

Write two handwritten thank you notes a day: of course, you send out the perfunctory tax acknowledgement receipt, but the magic of a handwritten note can’t be matched. Express earnest and honest thanks and share why their investment, no matter how great or small, makes a difference for your organization and the clients you serve. My hope is you get into what I call “the thank you loop,” where you receive a handwritten thank you note in response to your handwritten thank you note. It has happened to me more than a few times.
Call a donor to say thank you: It sounds so simple, but I guarantee you that not many folks are doing this work. Be prepared to have the donor think you’re asking for more money, though. My tip is to smash together your introduction and purpose like this “My name is Name from the Organization and I’m just calling to say thank you for your donation.” Once you get to thank you, the donor’s tone will likely change. You can even throw in an “I’m not asking you for a donation – just wanted to say thank you,” if you really need it. This is an opportunity to build a meaningful relationship. Use this method as the springboard to visit with your donors and learn more about them, why they give to your organization, why this work is important to them.

But does this work? I know it sounds simple, but I have a simple answer for you: yes, it works. I once worked at a non-profit organization where a single thank you call from a donor giving a transactional gift once a year transformed into a major gift the next year. The following year, they were one of the largest individual donors to the organization. And get this – I never actually met this person in person and it was pre-pandemic. It started with earnest and honest gratitude.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I challenge you to begin this critical work to build relationships from a place of gratitude.

• A strong estimate of the construction budget plus contingency and possibly first year operations funding.
• A description of the project components and the impact it will make on the people served.
• Draft architectural renderings of the project.
• Location of the proposed construction.
• A clearly defined statement of how the project lines up with the organization’s mission.

By: Marion Lee, CFRE

For many nonprofit organizations, a feasibility study is a huge leap into the unknown.  An organization may never have attempted a major fundraising campaign for construction or endowment, or many years have passed since the last campaign. As noted in Karen Kegg’s article, feasibility studies surface information beneficial to the organization, but what do you do next?

Once a study is complete, the Board and staff should take time to assimilate the information.  Often, the urge to press forward on a capital campaign is great, and leadership does not take the time to examine the report in detail.  The feasibility study is designed to give the organization feedback on the community’s perception of their communications, relationship with donors, leadership, and value of specific programs.

Next, leadership should take a detailed look at the organization’s financial position, both current and future (2 years at least).  Board and staff should ask: At what point in the fundraising, calculating gifts and pledges, do we begin construction? Do we have funds in reserves to bridge the organization through beginning construction while pledges are paid out?  What impact will the campaign have on annual operating funds? Can we obtain a construction or bridge loan?  And finally, how are we going to manage the capital funds as they begin to flow into the organization?

Timelines.  Timelines are the next step and the one that always surprise the Board and staff.  It takes more time than any of us realize, unless you are in some area of construction, to complete a project. Architect, permits, drawings, survey, construction bid process take months to complete.  The fundraising and pledge payments pace alongside with the construction process and must be monitored carefully.

Most critical in the steps leading toward groundbreaking is the creation of a construction or facility oversight committee. Thought I was going to say fundraising committee, didn’t you? The campaign committee is dearly important but of equal importance is a committee, preferably led by a Board member who has the responsibility of meeting with the architects, overseeing the bid process, possibly hiring a project manager to support them, reporting to the Board and minding the project to completion. This is a back-breaking, time consuming, finger-nail biting job every bit as important and cliff hanging as the fundraising and just as essential.  If the organization does not have staff or Board members skilled in construction processes, this is the time to recruit some non-Board volunteers.

In “To a Mouse” Robert Burns writes: “the best-laid schemes o’Mice an’ Men gang aft agley” a rather bleak outlook on a Mouse’s capital endeavor to which we would answer back “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,”

Benjamin Franklin.

By Marion Lee, CFRE

Donors were generous to local and state nonprofits at the end of 2018.  At least, we think so, because we received quite a few calls and emails from friends and colleagues asking anew a question that has surfaced regularly for us since about 1992.

“How do we handle the transaction fee charged by the credit card companies?”

In 1992, credit card companies offering frequent flyer miles for airline and other travel became the rage, and in San Antonio donors began making significant gifts to charities using a plastic card.  In 1992, the San Antonio Library Foundation received one of its first major credit card gifts of $15,000 for the new library to be charged in February of each year at $5000 per year.  (You know, back in the days when you caught your finger in the imprint machine and had to remember to call each year to get the new expiration date.) There were no cvv numbers and we were just so excited to get the gift that the transaction fee was negligible but something brought to our attention by the bookkeeper later with a growl.

As we know, donors enjoy the convenience and perks (points, cash back, miles) that they receive when making a gift with a credit card.  In an age when most donors under the age of 40 years will not consider making a gift unless it can be done by credit card and crowd funding through Big Give is popular, this is a question that should be addressed quickly and backed up with a standing policy.

Nonprofit organizations enjoy the quick receipt of funds through credit transactions and, in the cases of gifts paid over months or years, the credit card process simplifies the process and reduces administrative work, but, that pesky fee can take a significant chunk out of a gift. Transaction fees vary by company; we found 2.25% up to 3.80%, and sometimes also have other fees.

In addition to our own sage advice, we decided to take the question of dealing with credit card fees via a mini email survey to a group of active professional development officers, executive directors, and foundation representatives.  Thirty people were asked to participate in the survey and we want to express our thanks to the 22 friends who responded.

Our survey participants represent a variety of organizations and ages.  36% work with human service organizations, 18% represent higher education, 18% consultants, 14% work for local foundations, 9% from the arts and 5% from animal services. Ages ranged from mid 20s to late 60s, with the majority (36%) in their 40s/50s.

Of those surveyed, 32% of the participants have a software system that will capture credit card gifts, and 9% are seeking a system. Network for Good was recommended as a superior system several times.

Now for the big reveal: 59% of those surveyed said that the credit card transaction fee is the cost of doing business; 41% feel that the donor should be asked but not required to cover the fee and of the group who voted that the transaction fee is the cost of doing business, 41% are under the age of 50 years.

Our common goal is to make the giving experience easy, fulfilling and pleasant for our donors. Avoid injecting guilt into the conversation or online statements and, above all, begin the process of calculating the cost of doing business into your budgeting and, regardless of the decision you make, make it thoughtful and transparent.

Amplify Austin and the Big Give SA are two of the largest annual crowd funding efforts in our area.  The fund drives continue to achieve record numbers of donors and dollars for agencies throughout South Texas.

The 2019 Amplify Austin Day was held February 28 – March 1, giving the city a 24-hour period for the community to help local nonprofits via various social media outlets. The 2019 total of $11,221,087 topped the 2018 total of more than $10.3 million.  In total, 746 nonprofits were supported by 31,108 individual donors this year. Throughout its seven year history, Amplify Austin has raised more than $57 million for hundreds of local organizations.

San Antonio’s crowd funding effort, Big Give SA 2019, is slated for Thursday, March 28.  Last year more than $5 million was raised for area nonprofits in its annual 24-hour day of giving.  The Big Give encompasses Bexar and 13 additional counties throughout South Texas and gives area donors an opportunity to support their favorite causes.  Since 2014, 188,937 donors have given more $20 million to more than 2,000 nonprofits through the Big Give.

By Covita Moroney, CFRE and Joyce Penland, CFRE

With nearly 59 years between us as development officers, we had a conversation recently about what 20/20 hindsight has afforded us as we look at our efforts to connect with donors, board members, and other significant investors in the organizations we have served.  We hope this conversation encourages development officers, particularly those new to the profession or new to a position, to “make the most important thing the most important thing” and that’s building relationships with donors.

Covita:

As a development director I always found it a challenge to make sufficient time for donors, and I never really solved the problem. I went into positions where the department was either nonexistent and had to be built, or so dysfunctional that I had to build a team and/or system. In hindsight, I would let the chaos “be” and spend the time with the board and donors.

Joyce

I agree.  The internal issues work themselves out, but you can never replace the time you spend with your donors or members of the board.  In one position, I didn’t take my own advice and regret the time spent on things that ended up being inconsequential.  That’s not to say you ignore a staffing issue or blow off the annual fundraiser but staying focused on donor visits is essential.  The challenge for all of us is how to make it happen.

Covita

And the number one reason someone hasn’t donated to our organization is we never asked them! It’s an irrefutable fact that if you don’t ask, they won’t support your cause.  I know of a donor who said recently about a nonprofit, ‘If I don’t hear from them, I guess that means they don’t need my help.’  There’s no way that a person will give unless we ask them, no matter how much money they have.  I have a friend in the one percent rank, and when philanthropy comes up, I’m aware of how thoughtful and careful she is about her philanthropic decisions.  She has great admiration for the development people she hears from…but there’s no way she would call a random nonprofit and say, ‘Don’t you want some money?’

Joyce

It’s also a challenge in smaller shops when executive directors and boards hobble development officers by placing too many demands on them…and that keeps them from making visits. Development staff members are often the nonprofit’s “concierge” figures, doing all manner of hosting, touring, etc. Too often development directors also have to handle public relations and marketing efforts.  They’re expected to craft the newsletter, write for the ED, promote the nonprofit in the community, keep the board minutes, plan and execute the special events…and, oh by the way, make visits to donors.  That’s a lot of hats to wear.

Covita

There are two ways we make it worse for ourselves.  The development director often puts demands on himself/herself and we have that dilemma because we are overachievers, we have a high level of self confidence and we have a psychology that makes us believe we can raise lots of money.  We go into the job with the knowledge of what to do, but on top of that you’ve got your own self expectations.  Then we are rudely awakened when we also have to manage a staff.  But do we ever talk about that?  HR management is HUGE, along with marketing, etc. and grant writers who miss deadlines and you have to mentor and coach them.  The second dilemma is when you discover the department isn’t functioning well and you have to get systems running well.  I always said, “I’ve got to get my rain buckets placed so when it starts to rain, I’m ready!”  For me, that translated into having my staff go through 30 hours of software training.  But looking back, ‘Did we ever spend 30 hours scheduling donor visits?’  You really have to understand gaps of staff knowledge and correct them.  That’s a literal example of my own experience.

Joyce

I recently read on the AFP website that the average American donor receives nearly 18 messages — eight mailings and 10 emails — from nonprofits in a typical week, based on a study of the Grey Matter Research team in a series of reports forThe Donor Mindset Study.  These messages didn’t include social media, texts, advertising or other forms of communication.  This bombardment of messages to our donors and prospects must feel overwhelming.  So we need to ask ourselves, ‘What separates us from other nonprofits?’ and we need to make our messages very personal. More importantly, we have to get out from behind our desks and go see our donors.

Covita

This is where we acknowledge the beauty of making a phone call and finding time with donors can be FUN.  You find something you know will resonate with the donor and that’s a guaranteed way to break through all the other messages…because YOU’RE the one who calls them.  You say, ‘I know you’re in love with this program…and we finally got funding for the new XYZ–fill in the blank.’  It’s our jobs to know who we need to engage with and get to know.  As a new hire, especially, you can call and say ‘I’m the new development director and I‘d like to get to know you.’  So how do we replicate that newness, that enthusiasm and curiosity on both sides of the coin, for board members and us the fundraisers?

Joyce

I think it comes down to carving out the time and not letting anything else take precedence, putting our donors and prospects first, turning off our cell phones, listening to them, and allowing them to tell us why they support our organizations.  Some nonprofits definitely do this right.  Stewarding donors well is in their DNA.  Yet we continue to hear from donors about agencies that don’t spend time with them but still expect them to write a check each year.

Covita

I heard about an organization where the development director was never around and the board and staff grew very upset because she was never in the office.  A year went by and suddenly all these huge gifts came in and they wondered why?  It was because she was out there spending time getting donors to renew their gifts. In an ideal world it’s a balancing act between managing staff and programs and seeing donors.  Because I can control the responsibilities in the office…the newsletter, for example…I can schedule the time.  But it’s hard to control the interaction with donors.  It may take 2-3 phone calls to get on their calendar.  So, in a way, we feel a sense of accomplishment when we do the administrative tasks.  But we have to try to achieve balance.  And with all those competing messages from other nonprofits we have to break through that by making our personal contacts really personal.  Call or email them to go for coffee, attend a rehearsal, or invite them for a tour…make up an opportunity if you have to!

Have a tip on how you’ve been successful balancing donor visits with other responsibilities?  We’d like to hear from you!

By Shelby Atherton and Marion Lee

The Giving USA figures are out for 2017 and there is good news!  Giving in 2017 rose to more than $410 billion, topping 2016 figures of more than $390 billion.  While this appears to be great news, with a 5.2% increase in giving (not inflation adjusted), there are some trends that bear a closer look. So, let’s begin by looking at the data.

2017 contributions by donor type – total is $410.02 billion

• 70% Individuals – $286.65
• 16% Foundations – $66.90
•   9% Bequests – $35.70
•   5% Corporations – $20.77

2016 contributions by donor type – total is $390.05 billion

• 72% Individuals – $281.86 billion
• 15% Foundations – $59.28 billion
•  8% Bequests – $30.36 billion
•  5% Corporations – $18.55 billion

Contributions in dollars increased overall in every donor category

• $4.79 billion increase from Individuals
• $7.62 billion increase from Foundations
• $5.34 billion increase from Bequests
• $2.22 billion increase from Corporations

The percentage of individual donations decreased by 2% but there was an increase in the percentage of contributions to Foundations and Bequests, each by 1%, therefore, the percentage of direct individual gifts to charities actually decreased in 2017, for the first time in 15+ years, yet the amount from individual donors increased.  These figures show that the nation’s  baby boomers are moving on to the “great donation station in the sky” so bequests to charities have increased by 1%.  Thus, more gifts are coming in through planned giving, and living donors are banking their charitable dollars in private vehicles.

On the other side of the coin, the percentage of gifts to:

• Religion, Education, and Public Society Benefit (voter education, civil rights, community and economic benefit) all decreased by 1%, while
• Gifts to Grantmaking Foundations and Health increased by 1%

Which translates into a:

• $870 million decrease for Education from 2016 to 2017, and a
• $300 million decrease for Public Society Benefit from 2016 to 2017

Although the percentage of gifts to religion decreased, the amount given in this category increased by $4.43 billion. In other categories, giving increased by:

• $3.26 billion for Human Services (% of giving remains the same from 2016)
• $5.09 billion for Gifts to Private Foundations and Advised Funds
• $5.13 billion for Health
• $940 million for International affairs
• $1.3 billion for Arts, Culture, and Humanities (% of giving remains the same from 2016)
• $780 million for Environment/Animals (% of giving remains the same from 2016)
• $750 million to individuals

Now it is your turn. Every year we present this data and include our analysis, but this year, we would really like to hear from you.  As you read through the data, jot down your ideas, concerns, trends that you see and send them to us at info@leeplus.local.  We will compile your responses and publish them in our next newsletter.  Pride of authorship is yours so make sure that you let us know if we can attribute comments, etc. to you. 

(Lee+ Associates extends our gratitude to summer intern, Shelby Atherton, for her assistance in reviewing the Giving USA data and for helping author this article.)

By Priscilla Guajardo Cortez, J.D., M.Ed.

Summer is quickly approaching and for many that means FUN!  For nonprofit organizations, especially the development staff, it means FUNdraising!

During the summer months, nonprofits typically experience a slowdown.  Donors and board members take vacation and programming is often scaled back.  The summer is an excellent time for the development team to take advantage of the quiet and plan for the rest of the year.

Here are 10 things development teams can do to make the most of the summer slowdown:

1. Get organized.  This is a great time to bring your database up to date and ready for upcoming donor appeals.  The first half of the year can be busy, so take the time to add those contact reports, update donor information, and identify your next moves.
2. Evaluate.  Mid-year is a good time to assess your progress toward achieving your annual fundraising goals.  If you need to revise your development plan’s strategies and timelines, there will be plenty of time to do so to ensure success.
3. Ask.  Get the competitive edge by sending out a summer donor appeal.  Many nonprofits will wait until the holiday season to do so.  Let your donors hear from you now and avoid getting lost in the year-end flurry of asks.
4. Research.  Use this quiet time to do thoughtful research on prospective donors.  There are many ways you can do this now.  Mine your own database for major gift prospects or go online to find out donor giving information and wealth markers.
5. Visit. Not everyone takes a summer vacation.  Don’t be afraid to call upon your donors and set up visits!  You may be surprised how many will be available and interested in talking with you.
6. Prepare.  Start writing that end-of-year appeal and/or impact report now and give yourself time to refine it.  Writing when not under the pressure of a deadline can result in a more thoughtful and creative message or product.
7. Gather. Gather client success stories and photos to include in upcoming communications to donors and prospects.
8. Refresh.  Refresh your website with new client stories and photos so that there is consistency in your communications.
9. Host.  Encourage Board members to host small house parties to invite their friends and neighbors to learn more about your organization.
10. Market yourself.  Use this time to stay connected and share your achievements.  Send emails or post on Facebook to keep donors engaged and informed of what lies ahead.

Your organization’s services are needed year-round so we encourage you to take advantage of the summer and avoid missing out on opportunities to encourage and inspire philanthropic support by doing just a few of the activities described above.

Most importantly, go out there and have some FUN while fundraising this summer!