Fundraising on Commission

The yiddishe velt is the last stronghold of commission fundraising and, no, that's not good news. 

Commission-based fundraising is shunned as unethical in every sector of the non-profit world, and for good reason. 

This article by Kim Klein for Grassroots Fundraising Journal is a very complete overview on everything that's wrong with our meshulach centric fundraising.

One important point that I feel was omitted: A fundraiser that makes his living from commission knows that his own relationship with the mossad is temporary. He therefore has every incentive to make sure that the donors are his and not the mossad's. This is the dark side of the (only half-true) people-give-to-people mantra. 

Innoculation

I spend a good deal of time dealing with "what if" questions:

What if he gets offended?

What if he's in a bad mood?

What if his business is hurting?

These nagging questions a natural part of our "fight or flight instincts" that seem to shift into high gear before an ask. The way to deal with these types of pitfalls (both real and perceived) is through "inoculating."

Cutting to the Chase

In my years in PR and fundraising, I have learned one lesson that has stood the test of time and has proven to serve its masters infallibly:  People Need Clarity.

This demands that we communicate in a concise and direct way.


Tact and elegance are helpful, but secondary. After all, you and I know a few too many tactful and elegant fundraisers with outstanding shut-off notices.


Concise. 
Direct.

With apologies to email

I've had a very big change of heart.


I use to be very down on email as a means of reaching out to donors, or for any means of respectful communication for that matter. I have relied on good, old-fashioned letters for "real" communication. I still believe that writing letters to donors and prospects is dignified, effective and -frankly- impressive. 

But lately, I've come to owe a number of breakthroughs to email. Too many to ignore. In many cases, the prospect himself asked that email be the principal method of contact at all stages of the game--even solicitation.

Bad Attitudes

Let's say that your organization enjoys a good deal of notoriety, lots of grass roots support, and is known for being effective and well-run. Surely there's nothing that could stand in the way of successful fundraising, right?

Right...?

Actually, in spite of the many finer aspects of many mosdos, there is a terribly strong poison that will turn advantages into liabilities every time. Bad attitude.

I met with board members of one such mosad to discuss how they could boost their fundraising which, to my utter surprise, has been disfunctional for a number of years. They are known for being a "class act" kind of organization, and I was more than a little dumbfounded when it seemed that a few basic and essential fundraising elements were not in place - but could easily be. 

Raising Money from Jews

This article by Bob Aronson is very well done.

Honestly, I'm not as down as he is on the frame of mind of most yiddishe mosdos:

"Most Jewish fundraisers earnestly believe that the organizations they work for are so important that they are automatically entitled to the donor’s money...

"Jewish fundraisers are too bus focusing on themselves and what they want as opposed to what the donors want. Non-Jewish organizations don’t make this mistake...

"[Cultivating donors]  depends on face-to-face appointments and the development of long-term relationships of trust and mutual respect... This, more than anything, is problematic for Jewish fundraisers, who have monthly quotas to meet, gifts to close and annual campaigns to complete. They simply do not have the time, or often the skill, to develop relationships with donors, especially new ones."

I think he'd have to agree that any hospital or university fundraiser wouldn't last till lichtbenchen if he had to raise money for your average Boro Park mosad. The needs of aigeneh are very many, very urgent and very personal.

The Development Professionals I have met from mainstream organizations enjoy a level of support and resources that yiddishe fundraisers have never, ever known. The differences are so profound that I believe it's wrong to compare the two.

That said, this is totally on the money:

"As Jewish fundraisers, we must continue to follow our hearts. But to be successful, this is simply no longer good enough. It’s one reason why there are so few successful Jewish fundraisers and every organization is scrambling to find one.

"The rules have changed, but we’re still living in the 1970s. It is imperative that we adapt, change our organizational goals and train our professionals differently, or we’ll face a future of increasing anachronism and irrelevance."

Read it.

Simple Simon

Years ago I gave a substantial (for me, at least) gift to a charity that I had a long-standing personal relationship with. I was happy and proud to give, and really wasn't expecting anything other than a nice "thank you."

Sure enough, a letter came about six weeks later. I suppose the letter contained nice regards from the organization, but I never really found out. I struggled to read through five lengthy paragraphs (must've been 10 pt. font) that covered everything from the origins of the organization, to its activities and how it makes the world a better place. The large blocks of text, spanning subjects that were (almost) superfluous, made this "thank you" letter burdensome and unreadable.

What would have rekindled that warm, fuzzy feeling I had when I first gave the check? Something much, much more simple. Something like: "Dear Yosef, I can't thank you enough for your gift. I so appreciate your friendship and support." That would've about sold me.

Where's My Check?!

I once had the opportunity to proof a proposal for a friend (and executive director) who was soliciting a certain "Mr. Moneybags."

Clearly, a great deal of time an money had been spent on making this proposal razor sharp. It was beautifully written, tons of pictures and graphics. Detailed reports about all of the programs and activities. Beautiful!

Just one problem.

Nowhere in the proposal was there any mention of a request. Nowhere. I flipped through the whole thing again, just to make sure that I wasn't losing my eyesight. It's as if this organization suddenly had no problems whatsoever, and just wanted to let Mr. M know that everything was a-ok! I found this very eye-opening.

Since then, I encourage all of my clients to mention money first, whether the conversation is initiated via phone, e-mail, letter, whatever. Yes, it's counter-intuitive in our line of work, where tact and ambiguity are our left and right hands. But the "money thing" needs to be out there right away.

"Wait! What?! Then he'll be able to turn me away outright?!" you exclaim franticly.

That's true. And that's his prerogative. And that's why we don't get emotionally involved with new prospects when our "hit rate" is about 1:20. But still, that's called getting off easy, compared to spending time, money and bitter tears on man that has no intentions of coming through for you.

The Numbers Game

Everyone knows that fundraising is a numbers game. Meeting with 20 people is good, meeting with 200 is better. And if we could just have the emotional and physical energy to go door-to-door selling our cause - hey! - what could be better?!

Actually, that's not fundraising. That's what here in NYC they call schnoring. You might as well be wandering through the garment district with a tin can trying to build the Jewish Homeland in Palestine. Charity, fundraising and the American public have all come quite a long way since 1947. So has the "numbers game".

Modern Dance & the Haiti Earthquake

Do you believe in your cause?

Really?

I had the opportunity to sit with a successful individual who lent his time and resources to an NYC dance school. This guy was unreal. Aside from being fervent supporter of the school (his daughter had been a student years ago), he was a committed, active member of their board and was involved in prospecting and soliciting donations.

"Really? Dance?" I asked naively, "How do you pitch dance in today's world...?"

"What exactly does that mean...?" he shot back, somewhat agitated.

My save: "You know. Today's world... Tsunami, Haitian earthquake. Many donors think the arts are secondary to some of the hot crisis issues."

"They're wrong."