The GoalBusters' "House of Philanthropy"

SUMMER 2017

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OCT. 12-14, 2017

Guiding the Future of AFP and Fundraising • Leadership Development for Fundraising Professionals • AFP Chapter Management training “The Leadership Academy was much more than you promised! I loved getting to network with people from all over, especially the people in our region. I am going to host a special session with our board to share all of the fabulous information presented at the sessions.

Thank you for an enlightening and educational conference.”

Save The Date!

More details coming soon to: afpleadershipacademy.com

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

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Mentoring

POINTS-OF-VIEW

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You Determine Your Destiny!

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The Power of Our Democracy? Philanthropy

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Unveiling the Latest, Greatest Secret for Fundraising Success

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Building Relationships: Lessons From a Veteran Leader

P H O T O - E S S AY

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Nonprofits Emerge: A Centennial Perspective

WORTH A LOOK BOOKS

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The Complete Guide to Fundraising Management

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Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond

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What’s New? Knowledge Explosion Informs Fundraising History and Practice

S P E C I A L R E P O R T : W H AT ’ S N E W ? W H AT ’ S E N D U R I N G ?

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What’s New in Nonprofit Impact Reporting?

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Q&A: How It Works (Hustle)

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Mining New Sources of Data for Donor Retention

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Advancing Philanthropy

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The Wild West of Nonprofit Facebook Advertising

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How We Do Things Around Here

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The Association of Fundraising Professionals empowers individuals and organizations to practice ethical fundraising through professional education, networking, research and advocacy.

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ASSOCIATION OF FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONALS

What Next? Four Trends to Watch What’s New? Millennials Growing a Successful Career in Fundraising Inclusion: It’s About Getting to Host the Dance Party

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Seeing Ahead

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Putting the Success in Succession Planning for AFP Chapters

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Technology Market: Evolving the Workplace

HELLO IN THERE

4300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300 Arlington, VA 22203-4168 Tel. 800-666-3863 and 703-684-0410 Fax: 703-684-0540 www.afpnet.org ADVANCING PHILANTHROPY © 2017 Volume 24, Number 3 PUBLISHER Jason Lee, Interim President & CEO

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DIRECTOR, CONTENT STRATEGY, AFP AND ADVANCING PHILANTHROPY Susan Drake Swift

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EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Chris Griffin

Virtual Reality and Nonprofit Advocacy Building the House of Philanthropy

ART DIRECTOR A. Jill Wagner, M.A., IconoGraph Designs

F E AT U R E S

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The State of Giving

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Pathways to Success: The 2017 AFP Compensation and Benefits Report

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Donors Must Trust Management Teams to Invest in and Optimize Impact

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Dispatches From the Front Lines of Fundraising

BACK OF THE BOOK

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Crossword Puzzle: “What’s New?”

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50/50 Vision

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Professionalism 2

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AFP Ten Star Gold Chapters and 2016 Friends of Diversity Chapters

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Palm Springs Stories

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One-on-One: Kay Sprinkel Grace, CFRE Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

COPY EDITOR Catherine L. Hensley EDITORIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL (APRIL 2017 TERM) Robert C. Ayles, Ian MacQuillin and S. Sanae Tokumura ADVERTISING SALES Marshall Boomer 717-430-2223 marshall.boomer@theygsgroup.com Natalie DeSoto 717-580-8184 natalie.desoto@theygsgroup.com

Readers: We solicit ideas for original articles about fundraising techniques, management strategies, successful business practices, inclusiveness/diversity and economic and demographic trends from the editorial advisory council and AFP members. Reader inquiries and comments are welcome.

Contact AP@afpnet.org.

Reprints: To request reprint permission and reprints, email AP@afpnet.org or write to the address above.

Printed in the U.S.A., Advancing Philanthropy (ISSN 1077-2545) is published quarterly by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, 4300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22203-4168. The annual subscription rate for U.S. nonmembers is $100. Periodicals postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Advancing Philanthropy, 4300 Wilson Blvd., Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22203-4168.

Advancing Philanthropy

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from the president

Mentoring

By Jason Lee, J.D., InterIm PresIDent & Ceo

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hope you had the opportunity to attend AFP’s 2017 International Fundraising Conference in San Francisco earlier this year. If you have never been to one, I encourage you to think about next year’s conference in New Orleans. “I never realized just how big—and amazing—the profession was until I went to Conference” is a refrain that we hear every year. There’s nothing like being together with thousands of your colleagues from around the world to make you feel inspired, revitalized and part of something bigger than yourself.

I experienced that feeling of togetherness so strongly this year—that despite the challenges we currently face, and a very uncertain political and cultural climate globally, we are all united by our desire to change the world. I was overwhelmed by the spirit of camaraderie and unity—that while we are all different, we share a commitment to philanthropy and to helping each other.

There were a lot of great moments in San Francisco, but one that stood out to me was the start of our Opening General Session, when we honored both our Distinguished Fellows and Outstanding Young Professionals. There were the fellows, some of our most experienced and knowledgeable professionals who have given so much to AFP and the fundraising community, and standing before them was a group of new fundraisers, the next generation, who are just starting their careers but have already shown amazing skills and dedication.

There was a sense of passing the torch—though not to suggest that any of our Distinguished Fellows are done with their careers or will no longer be contributing. Far from it! But I think Dave Tinker, one of our Distinguished Fellows, put it best: “I speak for all the Distinguished Fellows when I say that our recognition today—and everything that we’ve done for the profession—was because of someone else. Early in our career, someone took the time to speak with us, to guide us, to mentor us, to inspire us. They showed us what it meant to be a fundraising professional, and what it means to give back.”

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

It is the responsibility of every professional in any field to ensure that it remains strong and vibrant and relevant into the future. For our profession, that includes activities like constantly learning in order to keep our skills cutting edge, abiding by a code of ethics and achieving certification. We have a responsibility to expand the field and what we know, to be leaders in our organizations and to ensure that our knowledge and experience do not end with us but are passed down to the next generation.

It is that last responsibility that is perhaps the most important. While we all have our own paths to follow, much of our success in life is based on the help and experience of people we’ve met along the way—people who took the time to show us what it means to be a professional.

As I’ve read the Q&A interviews we’ve been featuring lately in our eWire newsletter focusing on advanced professionals—along with my own talks with members around the world—one commonality has appeared in every story and in every conversation. If you want to be successful, find a mentor.

As the fundraising profession grows and the amount of knowledge that resides in our field expands as well, it can be harder and harder to find your way. Am I on the right path to achieve my career goals? Am I learning the right skills and knowledge to be successful? Am I ready to take the next step? Those are the sorts of questions—along with many others—that a mentor can help you with.

Most mentoring opportunities are, of course, found at the local level, in the network of fundraisers and organizations in your community. But we at AFP International Headquarters are thinking about what we can do to provide support for mentoring programs on the chapter level and how to simply offer guidance to members for finding mentors and creating a strong mentor-mentee relationship.

With the growth of fundraising and philanthropy, the need for a mentor, or even a group of colleagues who can act as a sounding board, becomes even more critical. As advocates for all of you, AFP is committed to ensuring that we continue the most important responsibilities of every fundraiser: to encourage unity and camaraderie throughout our profession and to pass the torch of knowledge and experience to the next generation.

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You Determine Your Destiny!

By aLPhonCe J. Brown Jr., aCFre

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recurring challenge faced by many minority fundraisers is how one should plan his or her professional career. For many older professionals, we may have landed in this profession by happenstance— and failed to identify the specific career paths we hoped to attain by the end of our professional career. Today, this circumstance can and should be different. What we know is that it is never too early or too late to implement a career-planning process. Moreover, we should never permit our career aspirations to be left to the total discretion of an employer.

Just as one would rarely begin a trip without knowing the point of departure and the ultimate destination, the successful fundraiser should not embark on a calling in this profession without considering what career options lie ahead—and how one might take advantage of them.

Few people enter the workforce thinking the entry-level position they attained will be the same one they enjoy at the end of their working career. It is human nature to want to continue growing, securing promotions … and achieving financial parity along the way. This aspiration is particularly important for minorities, who frequently face an uneven playing field when it comes to recruiting and hiring.

Once, a mentor and very close friend early in my professional career said to me, “You are your best and worst critic! You are far more analytical and critical of your talents, outcomes, etc., than your employer could ever be.” What he meant was the performance standards I self-imposed were far more stringent than any employer could ever give or assign. This was among the best lifelong observations I have ever received because, as a result, I have tried never to rely solely on my employer to set my professional goals. Thus, the first step in charting one’s career path is to know thyself!

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Know Thyself!

Whether a newcomer or a senior fundraiser, it is important to assess your skill deficits. It is important for you to know what you don’t know—and then learn it!

Peruse job postings to see what skill sets are required and preferred. Today’s successful practitioner must be able to communicate effectively, have interpersonal skills and the ability to build productive relationships, have demonstrated strategic thinking ability and be highly motivated and assertive. These are basic proficiencies required. The challenge comes with matching your temperament with the type of fundraising opportunity you wish to secure. Know what your greatest competencies are!

Knowing what you value most in life also can help you chart your career path. Would your life be better served working in a small to midsized nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of youth in a community, or would you prefer raising money for the local symphony because of your love of music? Would an entry-level job at a majority higher education institution provide you with competencies needed to move up the career ladder, or would you prefer working at a historically black university or college, where you feel the need is greater and your contribution would have the most impact? The choices are many, and deliberation is mandatory!

Know the Marketplace!

There are indeed differences in raising money among organizations within the nonprofit sector (e.g., arts, social or community services, education, health and religion). One path does not abnegate working in or for another, but it is always a good idea to examine the culture within these nonprofit categories to determine if your values and interests are aligned. You can be www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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gainfully and gleefully employed, but after two years on a job, you should begin to assess whether there exists an opportunity for professional growth within your organization. If not, begin to investigate other opportunities within the sector.

It is important to examine the skills you have acquired at your current or previous jobs and translate them into the job offerings at the next level in the marketplace. While lateral moves are occasionally warranted, fundraisers on the move should look for opportunities that ensure personal and professional growth.

Keep a record of the jobs you have held, the skills you have acquired and the measurable outcomes accomplished for each. If you are currently employed, ask to take on additional responsibilities that will add value to your résumé—in preparation for your next job search. Plan ahead, and take control of your career development!

Chart Your Path!

It is estimated that the average stint for today’s fundraiser in the same position is less than three years. After some introspection and the decision that a job change is imminent, you should decide what path your job search will take.

Alternatively, you may feel you need to remain in your current position to try and improve it, to help the organization reach some milestone or to reach a professional landmark.

Regardless, you will be better served if an action plan is in place with a suggested timeline. (Finding that new job may take six to 14 months.)

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

If, for example, additional education or certification is required for you to move from a director of annual giving position to a major-donor position, investigate educational offerings that might be needed—and enroll in them. For the senior practitioner who is thinking about becoming a consultant, talk with consultants of color who have successfully partnered with or launched a consultancy. Network among your sphere of professional colleagues to determine portals for job postings, identify minority-friendly search firms and locate career coaching and mentoring for minority

professionals. In the end, you are in the best position to control and map your career development. The dynamics are positive when you guide the process.

Alphonce J. Brown Jr., ACFRE, is a consultant to U.S. and international nonprofit organizations. He founded Docere Consulting, Inc., in 2003 to serve traditional and nontraditional nonprofit organizations wanting to learn more about fundraising. He was chairman of AFP’s board during 2005 and 2006.

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Advancing Philanthropy

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The Power of Our Democracy?

Philanthropy By eLIzaBeth KohLer KnuPPeL

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t is particularly fitting that the exhibit “Giving in America” is on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (referenced in Advancing Philanthropy, Spring 2017, Page 14).

Philanthropy in the United States is vibrant and an integral part of this nation’s culture. We have one of the most mature and sophisticated systems of giving in the world. We also have a history of incredible generosity, comparatively low taxes and a tax code that currently promotes private philanthropy to address societal ills and foster our culture and quality of life in a way that the government cannot advance on its own.

While generosity and giving are by no means uniquely American (check out Lilya Wagner’s fantastic new volume, Diversity and Philanthropy), the United States has a history of great philanthropists such as former presidents George Washington and Benjamin Franklin and others such as Mary Elizabeth Garrett, Andrew Carnegie, Swanee Hunt and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. Over time, philanthropy has evolved, and in today’s world, it takes many forms, from volunteering to advocacy to financial contributions. What endures is that giving and generosity are interwoven into our heritage.

In the months since the 2016 election, there have been a number of unexpected changes. And there

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Detroit’s skyline on July 18, 2013, when the city became the largest to file for bankruptcy. More than a dozen private foundations helped protect a municipal pension fund, prevented the sale of masterpieces in the Detroit Institute of Art and, with the help of public sector partners, helped put the city onto a sounder footing (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images). are likely to be more. Whether it is the discussion of eliminating funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, national parks or particular healthcare facilities and programs, this period in American history is one of uncertainty. It may also be recorded as one of the most philanthropic—because we value the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being of our fellow beings.

It is our culture to care for one another and to give generously in ways that will feed, heal, educate, uplift and inspire. A healthy and culturally rich nation is a wonderful place to live, and it contributes to overall economic vitality.

The Value of the Nonprofit Sector The nonprofit sector serves our community. We provide for basic needs, healthcare and education. We offer a forum for the arts and civil discourse and a “place” www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

points-of-view

Culture brings people together; it is what unifies a nation and is utterly patriotic. Philanthropy is also part of our cultural ethos. for recreational enjoyment. In 2016, the sector made up 5.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and accounted for 10 percent of jobs in the United States (according to the National Philanthropic Trust).

We employ productive workers who earn salaries and contribute to our economy.

Individuals, including government officials, who benefit from our services agree that we offer significant value and are willing to pay for it. In fact, 73 percent of the nonprofit sector’s revenue is made up of program service fees, admissions and government contracts (National Philanthropic Trust). We provide services that the government has historically agreed are better provided by our organizations, or in partnership with us. The U.S. government is largely not equipped with the resources and relies upon nonprofit organizations, in partnership with private funders, to provide for basic needs, education, the preservation and stewardship of cultural treasures and to protect human rights.

Not only are patrons willing to pay for our services, they are willing to give of themselves through volunteerism and financial contributions.

Per Independent Sector, in 2014 approximately 25 percent of the adult population gave 7.9 billion hours of service worth $184 billion. Coupled with $373.25 billion in financial contributions (Giving USA) for the most generous year ever in 2015, it is clear that Americans value the goods and services that nonprofit organizations provide for the betterment of their communities.

Value to Our Democracy Money Can’t Buy Writer, environmentalist and historian Wallace Stegner said that our national parks are “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than at our worst” (National Park Service).

National, state, county and city parks are great equalizers. They are accessible and largely free, bring city-dwellers into nature, provide education and bring people of all walks of life together in community. As the custodian of our national parks and monuments, the National Park Service is the caretaker of our nation’s heritage and culture. Every day, park rangers and Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

volunteers preserve and interpret our diverse cultural resources for thousands of visitors. They provide context to American history.

The U.S. National Park Service is arguably one of the most patriotic and culturally significant institutions in our country. Not incidentally, this bureau of the Department of the Interior preserves our national culture in part by private philanthropy through its partnership with the National Park Foundation.

Culture brings people together; it is what unifies a nation and is utterly patriotic. Philanthropy is also part of our cultural ethos. Beyond the national parks, our heritage and culture are encouraged and preserved by institutions large and small. These institutions are supported by philanthropy and, in many instances, are also underwritten by government grants and contracts.

In the United States today, there is a natural symbiosis— and one that is not always readily visible—between the public and private sectors that affords for basic needs and enhances our quality of life.

In a nation where philanthropy is valued and encouraged, it is unconscionable to imagine that the federal agencies developed specifically to preserve our culture and further learning, creative thought and research would be dissolved. During periods of discussion around tax reform, presidents such as Lyndon B. Johnson and Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as members of Congress, have taken a stand favorably in support of philanthropy relative to the cost to the treasury.

Arts and humanities organizations are not the playgrounds of the elite. They are essential to American life, the backbone of our communities, the wellsprings from which our future will unfold and upon which our liberty depends. It is the partnership between the private philanthropy for these institutions and public funding that allows our culture to thrive.

In Cincinnati, where my firm’s national headquarters resides, the leaders of three visual arts institutions—all of which rely both on public and private funding—have come together with a united call to action, stating, “Cincinnati’s universities, concert halls, museums, schools and design centers are patriotism in action.

They define who we are as a people and a nation.

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benefit to the city and its pensioners, as well as to the nation, that one of America’s great collections remains intact.

Our nonprofit organizations provide safety net services, ensure the health of our communities, stimulate thought and discourse and bring us together.

The nonprofit sector is an economic driver, the keeper of our humanity, the sentinel of our culture and an innovator for our future.

What’s Next …

At 92, Betty Reid is the oldest full-time National Park Service ranger in the U.S. She is based at the World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images).

The freedoms upon which they stand are what we as Americans rise up against all invaders to defend” (Cincinnati Enquirer, April 3, 2017).

Philanthropy’s Unusual Solution We innovate. The term is so commonplace today that it has all but lost its meaning, but in Detroit, philanthropy innovated to save the city. In July of 2013, the City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy, with an estimated debt between $18 billion and $20 billion. A host of stakeholders began working together to resolve the situation, which included a dramatically underfunded pension fund.

One of the city’s principal assets was the internationally significant collection of the Detroit Institute of Art. At least a portion of the collection was at risk of being sold at auction to cover the pension payments. In an unprecedented effort, more than a dozen private foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Kresge Foundation, came together and pledged more than $800 million to help relieve the institute. This represents the first instance in which private philanthropy bailed out a public pension fund. It was also an enormous cultural and financial

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The future of our nation is unclear. Our executive and legislative bodies are behaving unexpectedly, and our judiciary is likely to be populated by appointees from a new administration. All signs point to an unpredictable future for our organizations and our sector. What are we as fundraisers to do to preserve the stability of our organizations and our ability to continue to serve our patients, clients, patrons and visitors?

We must remember what makes our culture and our philanthropy uniquely strong. We must consider our New World sensibilities brought into focus through the Old World lens of Alexis de Tocqueville in his observations about life in this country.

Namely, philanthropy is at the heart of the power of our democracy, and volunteerism is the essence of what makes philanthropy in the United States unique and great.

It is our job as professionals in the field of philanthropy to build relationships with those in our midst who seek to realize our organization’s vision for the betterment of our communities. It is our role to encourage, motivate and support the voluntary action of service, advocacy and financial support.

Elizabeth Kohler Knuppel is president and chief executive of Skystone Partners.

A former board member of AFP’s Cincinnati Chapter, she helped found the chapter’s Ethics Committee and served on International’s Publishing Advisory Committee. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Liz volunteers for the Women’s Committee of the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, is a member of Leadership Cincinnati Class 39 and the WE Succeed Class 14 and won the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce WE Celebrate Woman of the Year-Entrepreneur Award in 2015.

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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Unveiling the Latest, Greatest Secret for Fundraising Success By mIChaeL J. rosen

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Create a compelling case for mbracing innovative solutions support. The case for support to complex challenges can lead is a common fixture of capital to strong fundraising results. Innocampaigns, though not necessarily vation definitely has its place. If the for annual fundraising programs. nonprofit sector did not innovate, we would all still be mailing homogThose smart enough to have written enous “Dear Friend” letters and a compelling, inspirational case will recording the results on index cards. have a campaign road map that will Unfortunately, though, in the help them raise more money. endless quest for the next great Donors do not really care fundraising idea, many development that much about your arbitrary At age 93, legendary cellist professionals miss a great opportunity monetary goal or fiscal year Pablo Casals still practiced for enhancing results. So, let me deadline. Instead, what they want three hours a day. unveil the latest, greatest secret for to know is how their gift will make fundraising success: a positive impact. If you have a solid Master the fundamentals of fundraising. Honing case for support, you will have a much easier time your basic development skills is something you can talking about what is most important to your donors. begin immediately. It can cost little or nothing. It does Appreciate what it means to be “donornot require board buy-in or administrative approval. centered.” Most fundraising professionals will say they Yet, it can have a profoundly positive impact on your are donor-centered. It sounds good. However, these fundraising results. same fundraisers exhibit little understanding of how to Years ago, at age 93, legendary cellist Pablo Casals be donor-centered. One way to be donor-centered is was asked why he continued to practice three hours each to show donors appreciation. day. Casals responded, “I’m beginning to notice some For example, if you call donors to express your improvement.” If one of the greatest cello players of all appreciation, you’ll make them feel good while time found he could benefit from continuing to hone his enhancing your fundraising effort. Penelope Burk, in basic skills, I suggest that we can all improve by following her book Donor-Centered Fundraising, reports that his fine example. when donors were tracked 14 months after receiving Here are just some of the fundamentals you should a thank-you call, the group that received a thank-you master, inspired by poor appeals and stewardship I’ve seen call gave 42 percent more on average compared to exhibited even by major charities. similar donors who did not receive a thank-you call.

Develop your individual skills. Learn how to be During the renewal cycle, those who received a thanka better listener, a more effective writer, a compelling you call were 39 percent more likely to renew their presenter. Such skills will help you be more effective at support. every stage of the fundraising cycle.

Get out from behind your desk. If you want For example, in the past as a speaker, I typically to raise more money, go visit donors. Learn where received positive evaluations. Nevertheless, I wanted to be it is best to meet with donors. Discover how to find an even more effective presenter. So, I attended the AFP out what motivates your prospects. Know when and Faculty Training Academy, a two-day intensive workshop. how to ask for the gift. Even if your job is to focus Following the program, my speaker evaluations were even exclusively on direct-mail fundraising, you’ll benefit stronger. Despite being a seasoned speaker, I was able to from getting out and talking with some donors. Those hone my skills and become even more effective. conversations will help you enhance your mail appeals.

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

Advancing Philanthropy

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At one major university, the vice president replaced the individual offices of the major-gift and planned-giving professionals with a bullpen of unassigned desks and phones. He believed that if the staff did not have offices to hide in, they would be more likely not to stay on campus; instead, they would be more likely to go out and visit donors and prospects. The draconian move worked.

The school raised more money than ever.

Know your numbers. A shocking number of fundraising professionals, even at large charities, do not know how many donors they have, how many lapsed donors they have or how many prospects they have. They don’t know their response rates, average gifts and cost per dollar raised. Few understand the lifetime value of their donors or the organization’s donor retention rates.

There’s an old adage that says, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” While this might not always be strictly true, some solid metrics are essential if you want to understand and enhance your fundraising effort. Furthermore, having solid numbers may help

you shake loose some additional budget dollars from your chief financial officer.

As simple examples, I’ve only shared a small number of fundamentals that every fundraising professional should master. The key point is that continuing to hone your basic development skills, regardless of where you are in your career, will make you more effective.

You don’t need to wait to discover some newfangled fundraising idea. You already have what it takes to improve your fundraising program if you choose to embrace the fundamentals.

Michael J. Rosen, a past recipient of the AFP/Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy, is president of the fundraising consulting firm ML Innovations. He is also publisher of the nonprofit blog MichaelRosenSays.wordpress.com.

He can be reached at mrosen@mlinnovations.com.

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Advancing Philanthropy

Salary Results Discover what a Grant Professional earns in your state, organization type, job title, etc!

Survey data includes information for: Grant Writers Grant Managers Grant Coordinators and more!

GPA 2016 Salary Survey https://goo.gl/vgwtor www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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Building Relationships: Lessons From a Veteran Leader

By BILL stanCzyKIewICz

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undraisers can’t let personal differences interfere he formed a working relationship and then a deep when they’re developing relationships with friendship with his predecessor at the World Food prospective donors and seemingly unlikely partners, Programme, George McGovern. Morris, who considers even if those differences include surface-to-air missiles. himself “a middle-of-the-road Republican,” did not That’s the lesson learned and shared by Jim Morris, vote for McGovern when the South Dakota senator ran the former director of the United Nations World Food for president in 1972, and his initial view of McGovern Programme. Morris, who led Lilly Endowment Inc. was based on the senator’s identification with the most for nearly two decades, received the U.S. President’s liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Lifetime Achievement Award from President Obama.

Meeting McGovern changed that perception The award cites Morris’ lifelong commitment to quickly, and Morris discovered that they both shared a building a stronger nation through volunteer service. strong passion for ending world hunger.

The mood was not as serene or peaceful in “I became so ashamed of myself because I had formed 2004, when a tsunami struck Sri Lanka. Morris was an opinion about the man before I had a chance to meet dispatched by the United Nations to work with him or get to know him,” Morris admits. “When I did government leaders on the get to know McGovern, I learned logistics for delivering donated that he was a great American and a Fundraisers can’t let personal food to survivors. great patriot. That’s when I learned differences interfere when As the U.N. helicopter to never again form an opinion they’re developing relationships approached Sri Lanka, Morris about a person until I meet them with prospective donors and reacted to an order to hit the and get to know them.” floor, where he was immediately His commitment to this seemingly unlikely partners, covered by a United Nations even if those differences include approach was put to the test each security guard. The helicopter was of the nine times Morris met with surface-to-air missiles. under attack. The Tamil Tigers, Robert Mugabe, the president of fighting for independence in the Zimbabwe, who many consider a northern and eastern regions of Sri Lanka, were firing violent dictator. “Nothing in your background prepares missiles at the helicopter in an attempt to shoot Morris you for that,” Morris states. Yet, Morris negotiated and his colleagues out of the sky. agreements with Mugabe to ensure that the U.N. When the helicopter safely landed, Morris met could feed hungry people. with government officials and then announced that he “If you take time to meet with a person and then needed to meet with the people who had just tried to show them some respect,” Morris explains, “you kill him. The government leaders objected, but Morris usually can find some common ground.” insisted on negotiating with the rebel forces to discuss Morris delivers this message to fundraisers, nonprofit food relief for local residents. leaders and students, encouraging them to seek shared “When I arrived, they offered me a Pepsi,” Morris purposes and work collaboratively with each other remembers. “I met with the Tamil Tigers, and I let as well as with business and government leaders. He them know that we were interested in feeding their frequently cites his definition of leadership as “seeing people, and they agreed to let the food in.” your opportunities in their greatest context,” and that Despite the peaceful agreement, Morris adds, context can be fulfilled only by forming partnerships “When we left, we used a different route.” with others.

Less dramatically, but perhaps more deeply, Morris “Relationships are so important,” Morris says. “You learned about crossing lines of difference when never know when people are going to be able to work Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

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points-of-view

While the potential donor needs to be interested in and passionate about the nonprofit’s mission, the fundraiser and the prospect might not see eye to eye on all of the issues of the day. with you to get something accomplished.” Morris encourages fundraisers and nonprofit leaders to devote at least 30 percent of their time to meeting new people because, as he says, “Philanthropy is all about relationships.”

This maxim also is true for fundraisers who are building relationships with prospective donors. While the potential donor needs to be interested in and passionate about the nonprofit’s mission, the fundraiser and the prospect might not see eye to eye on all of the issues of the day. Morris, however, implores fundraisers to seek common ground.

“There is nothing more fulfilling than working with unselfish people with similar passions toward the common good,” Morris asserts.

Even when the relationship starts with a surface-toair missile.

Bill Stanczykiewicz is director of The Fund Raising School and a senior lecturer in philanthropic studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. He is the former president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, a statewide nonprofit that provides professional development and data on children and youth to educators, youth workers, government officials and the media.

WHAT DOES THE AVERAGE FUNDRAISER EARN?

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Nonprofits Emerge: A Centennial Perspective By susan mennenga

I

carrying 170 surgeons and nurses who were being sent to Europe to provide medical relief for combat casualties on both sides of the war. As the honorary chairman, President Wilson urged Americans to support the work of the Red Cross by volunteering to meet the needs of the thousands of young men serving on the battlefields of Europe.

Another demonstration of patriotism and compassion for the doughboys was the forethought of two young women, Helen Purviance and Amy Owen Bradley.

Purviance, an ensign in The Salvation Army, made thousands of doughnuts daily to comfort the homesick soldiers stationed in France. Amy Owen Bradley, from Boston, began organizing Americans living in London to make “comfort bags” for the wounded French soldiers and provide recreation for the American soldiers through the YMCA. These two women, along with the thousands of American men who enlisted in the French

PHOTO CREDIT: PRITZKER MILITARY MUSEUM & LIBRARY

t is a saying of remembrance: “Lest we forget.” The United States and our World War I allies have not forgotten those men and women who served and the 116,516 who perished in World War I. The number of casualties was more than from the wars in Korea and Vietnam combined, but it is a mere fraction of the overall 9 million killed during the four-year conflict that engulfed 36 countries. As fundraisers, let’s never forget the importance of joining in our nation’s commemorative efforts honoring those men and women.

Why remember? On April 16, 1917, at 12:18 p.m., President Wilson signed the U.S. declaration of war.

The war ended 391 days later, on Armistice Day (Nov. 11, 1918). World War I prompted innovations in medicine, geopolitics and social relations. The Great War changed warfare and redrew maps from Europe to the Middle East, as well as the position of the United States in the world. Its influence on the women’s movement still resonates today.

Volunteerism surged. Americans got involved by distributing food, clothing and medicine to soldiers and civilians in Belgium and France. They drove ambulances, operated field hospitals and steered relief trucks. Some served as soldiers or pilots in the French and British armies. The American Red Cross sprang into action by deploying “The Mercy Ship,”

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military, were the catalyst for a massive volunteer mobilization when the United States joined the Allies overseas.

Business magnates Carnegie and Rockefeller began to heavily lobby state legislators for charitable tax laws to support their philanthropic endeavors in grant-making and charitable giving.

Many of today’s nonprofits have roots in World War I, such as The American Legion, chartered

by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veteran’s organization which focuses on service to veterans, service members and communities; Disabled American Veterans, a service organization dedicated to support the men and women who are wounded in war; and the American Civil Liberties Union, whose stated mission is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

Lessons of the Past As fundraisers, there is an opportunity for us to look to the past and extend our gratitude to our valorous predecessors who defined our core practices and established ethical guidelines that we still embrace today for the fundraising profession. We revel in the pride of knowing our targeted efforts to raise necessary funds

sustain the vital missions of the estimated 1.41 million nonprofit organizations in the United States. We stand proud as Americans, as humanitarians and as fundraisers, knowing that we connect to the world by telling the stories of our nonprofit organizations with pride.

Together, let’s continue the legacy of volunteerism established during World War I by encouraging current and upcoming generations to engage in local, regional and international service. In this volatile political and economic climate, it is our infectious passion and enthusiasm that propel the fundraising community at large to try innovative techniques to engage and connect individuals who understand the importance of sustaining organizations for higher education, along with services for the sick and underserved.

Continue the Commemoration I ask you to join me and the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the founding sponsor of the United States World War One Centennial Commission, as we continue to plan, develop and execute programs, projects and activities to commemorate the Great War. Each state has a World War I commemorative organization. These volunteer organizations are executing programs and activities locally to highlight the heroic contributions of those who served.

Lest we forget, it is a time not only to reflect on the past but also to honor the tradition of our pioneer fundraising predecessors who paved the way for us.

Wear your meritorious sense of valor in continuing the work that creates public value for all.

Susan Mennenga MPA, CFRE is WWI Centennial Project Manager at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library. She served as Vice President of Development at Presence Health Mercy Medical Center, and was recognized by Ascension Health for Innovation in Philanthropy, She was assistant dean for development at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health. She holds a B.A. in marketing from DePaul University and an MPA in nonprofit management from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a certified AFP Master Trainer and teaches nonprofit strategic management at Aurora University.

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Sgt. Alvin York

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DEBORAH YORK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SERGEANT YORK PATRIOTIC FOUNDATION

World War I Medal of Honor recipient

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n a recent Tuesday evening, the students working in teams in my nonprofit strategic planning class were tasked with defining the words peace and valor. The purpose of the exercise was to encourage this emerging generation to “vision” what those words meant to Sgt. Alvin York, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient.

The Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation is establishing a campaign to launch the Sgt. York Center for Peace and Valor in Jamestown, Tenn. My students are working to develop the strategic plan for this center, based on the Medal of Honor principles of integrity, sacrifice, patriotism, citizenship, courage and commitment, a tribute to the legacy of its founder.

Be heartened to know that the words of the humble Sgt. Alvin York encourage us all to keep “fightin’.” Alvin York wrote, “Then I begun to understand, not clearly yet, but kinder like. We were to be peacemakers. And it was written in the Bible, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ That was we-uns. We were to help make peace, the only way the Germans would understand. But I couldn’t help a-wonderin’ why there wasn’t some other way to get peace except by fightin’ for it.”—Susan Mennenga

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The Complete Guide to Fundraising Management, Fourth Edition By stanLey weInsteIn, aCFre, emBa, anD PameLa BarDen, DBa, CFre

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hen a book is brought back for a fourth edition, you can have confidence in its quality, and this book is no exception. The reader is told in the preface, “This is a how-to book” and “completely updated to include both online and offline strategies.” Both are true; however, offline strategies remain the book’s primary focus.

The authors ably cover all major areas of fundraising at a level appropriate for beginners, whether they are professionals or volunteers. More experienced fundraisers will also benefit from a quick read that will remind them of what they should be doing as well as provide them with some helpful templates, training ideas and statistics. Should one hope to use these statistics in defense of contested fundraising decisions, however, be warned that they are not cited. Statistics, such as what constitutes a good response rate for a direct-mail solicitation to a house list, are merely stated as fact.

The book is set up so one does not have to read it cover to cover. Chapters are divided in a sensible way, and the table of contents even highlights subtopics within each chapter to reduce the time it could take to find specific information. The authors deliver commonsense strategies that are grounded in the real world.

The reader learns best practices and the common impediments to their implementation.

Most terms specific to fundraising are well defined and should be understandable to even the most novice reader. However, two notable exceptions occur in the book’s coverage of prospect research. The authors recommend using “wealth screening software” or a “data append” to uncover wealthy prospects, but neither term is defined in any way. Similarly, while the coverage of charitable gift annuities is thorough, there is no mention of the American Council on Gift Annuities as a resource.

Even in our current era of less print, the authors champion newsletters and robust direct-mail programs.

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They make a great case for not neglecting these tried-and-true communications and also warn, “Do not be attracted to false economies; mail to as many people as possible.” They also remind us that fundraising using a telephone can work and provide step-by-step instructions for a volunteer phonathon with helpful scripts and sample forms.

Despite the inclusion of more recent strategies as well as online strategies, occasional suggestions such as “even the smallest organizations should computerize their fundraising efforts” are dated. eAppeals, social media and text-to-give are all covered, albeit briefly.

Crowdfunding receives adequate attention, and the authors highlight what issues to consider about this fundraising technique. Cause marketing is well defined, yet suggesting that “nonprofit organizations of every size” can benefit from cause marketing and using a restaurant give-back night as an example contradict the book’s overall message that efficient and effective fundraising methods should be one’s focus. Donoradvised funds are not described beyond a mere definition.

While the authors do weave in the importance of high ethical standards in fundraising throughout the book, one blatantly inappropriate suggestion stands out.

Readers are advised to grow their acquisition mailing list by pulling contact information from the membership directories of clubs and associations. Typically, such directories are expressly for members’ use to prevent this type of application. Additionally, a key element of accountability is not addressed. No guidance is given on what should be included in an official tax receipt or where the reader could find that information. This would be a helpful additional sentence or two.

Just as ethics and accountability are important, the book could not legitimately have “management” in its title without addressing the issues of budgeting and

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reporting. A very thorough sample budget process and development office budget are included. The authors also provide two templates for fundraising assessment: one brief, one comprehensive. These assessments, as well as all exhibits and other resources in the book, are available as Word downloads from the accompanying website. This access makes all the templates, checklists and matrices easy to use—no retyping required.

Those fundraising in a “small shop” can often be frustrated by the lack of scalability for some techniques and methods recommended in books and seminars. This book, however, provides content applicable to shops of all sizes and directly addresses issues specific to small shops.

It also takes the time to address how capital campaigns can differ for organizations in various industries (e.g., education, human services, religion, etc.).

The authors acknowledge that fundraising success relies on more than just a talented professional, explaining that it “has a direct relationship to the quality

of services the organization provides.” They also point out that development staff cannot achieve their goals without board and volunteer support—a truism we all know. The book is sprinkled with the reminder to focus on high-payoff efforts. With so many competing demands on time, fundraisers of all levels can use this book’s reminders and tools to further their efforts.

Stephanie Cory, CAP, CFRE, is a trainer and consultant focused on building organizational capacity through board education and implementing best practices. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Villanova University. An active AFP member at the chapter and international levels, Stephanie co-chairs the Publications/ Resources Advisory Committee and has served as a board member for AFP International, the Greater Philadelphia Chapter and the Brandywine Chapter.

HOST AN AFP EDUCATION COURSE AT YOUR LOCAL CHAPTER! • Fundamentals of Fundraising

• Donor Retention

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Contact AFP’s Center for Fundraising Innovation at 703.519.8465 or hostacourse@afpnet.org

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Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond By marK D. waLKer

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he story of my global trek begins in an isolated community in the highlands of Guatemala, where I was going to complain about only receiving one egg per day. Fortunately, my limited Spanish prohibited me from saying anything, after which I realized that, of this family of eight, I was the only one who received an egg at all.

After my first year, I was stricken with a serious stomach ailment that could have been life-threatening if several of the local women hadn’t found me and used their local remedies to break the fever. The Peace Corps moved me to another, less isolated site where a strawberry blonde girl caught my eye. Some while later, in a moment of transparency, I devised a list of reasons she might reconsider my proposal to marry, which I

generous gifts made our work possible. As a member of NSFRE (which would become AFP), I began learning all aspects of fundraising, including helping donors meet their estate-planning goals while accessing noncash assets, which would finance major relief and development initiatives.

Over the years, I’d partner with groups like Rotary International and lead tours to fifteen countries. When at Food for the Hungry, I took one young donor from a wealthy family in Philadelphia who had set up a major foundation that only gave to domestic activities. After I helped him figure out how to change the bylaws, he was able to make gifts to international organizations. I took him and two of his children to visit programs in Honduras and Nicaragua. Consequently, he made some

divided into the “She’d Reconsider List” and the “She’d Run Screaming From the Altar List” and included, “He’ll take you to one country where green monkey disease, dengue, malaria and other deadly ailments are commonplace.“ I neglected to share my list, which is probably why we’re still together after 40+ years.

After fifteen peripatetic years with Plan International, circumstances in Sierra Leone forced us to the U.S., where I used my transferable skills to raise funds for CARE International and set up their regional office in Denver. I went from representing the needs of the poor to being sensitive to the needs of the wealthy, whose

large gifts for programs in these countries, but imagine my surprise twelve years later when, working with MAP International, we received a $25,000 check from his son, who had been only eight at the time of our visit to a disaster relief effort in Haiti. This check helped me appreciate the power of philanthropy to change organizations and promote multigenerational giving.

Each chapter of my memoir provides new insights on what I learned and felt during my journey. It begins during the counterculture movement with a strong anti-Vietnam War focus. Fortunately for me, the Peace Corps offered an alternative, and after almost four

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months of training in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Guatemala, I was ready to change the world. But also, it was my world that would change after meeting my wifeto-be and taking my first consulting gig with CARE International in Guatemala.

Twenty-four photos depict many of the people and places I visited over the years, and although they’re black and white, they can be found in full color on my website (millionmilewalker.com). I provide a map of Guatemala as well as a travel map of many of the places I lived in and worked in over the years. An interactive Google version of this map is also available on the millionmilewalker.com website, where readers can click on each destination for a multislide display of the surrounding area. In the memoir, I also provide a timeline of the major places we lived and where I worked and traveled to, with a more sophisticated and detailed version on the website.

My most challenging assignment was as a country director in Sierra Leone, where we had to put a chalk mark on each part of a vehicle’s engine being repaired to be sure that when we got it back, the broken part had

leading to breakthrough giving. I used this approach successfully with large, international nongovernmental organizations like Food for the Hungry, where it changed the culture of giving and the attitude and appreciation of donors as being true partners.

My own professional development, as a member and eventually president of the Greater Arizona Chapter of AFP, included a focus on cross-border philanthropy.

Almost a third of the population is Hispanic, and Mexico is our largest trade partner, making philanthropy an area of common interest. For several years, I made presentations on global trends in fundraising at the Hemispheric Congress of Fundraising in Mexico City, where more than 400 professional fundraisers converged each year from throughout the U.S. and Latin America. We partnered with the Western Mexico Chapter in Guadalajara and provided scholarships for several of their members to attend the Hemispheric Congress. A few years later, our chapter’s mentoring program translated the materials of our programs for their use with aspiring Mexican professional fundraisers.

My involvement as a chapter leader and member of

been fixed and several other new engine parts had not been replaced with used ones. Just before we left West Africa, we asked our three children which country they liked the most, and to my surprise, they said, “Salone.”

Personally, I had been challenged by the many cultural and ethnic complexities there, but the kids rated it so highly because we’d had a small gazebo on the beach, a large monkey for a pet and the people were so friendly and caring.

Philanthropy is the focus of four chapters of the memoir, and I include my use of the “philanthropic quest,” a paradigm shift in organizational development

the International Committee took me to Vancouver and Montreal, among other places, and I formed many lifelong relationships with AFP’s best.

I dedicate two chapters of the memoir to my experience as CEO of Hagar, which works with survivors of human trafficking and has a headquarters and major program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I received a crash course on how to help women and children who have endured incredible human rights abuses including gender-based violence and sexual exploitation. I learned straight away that this work is not for the faint of heart.

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My stint with Hagar was my last full-time position, and my departure offered an opportunity to reflect on the forty-five years since I left Colorado for an adventure that would take me around the world. I’d gone from a single volunteer barely able to ask where a bathroom was in Spanish to speaking it every day of the week with my Guatemalan wife. I have very few “woulda, coulda, shouldas” and appreciate the fact that, as Paul Theroux put it, “Travel [and I’d add fundraising] is a state of mind. It has nothing to do with distance or the exotic. It is almost entirely an inner experience.”

In the last chapter, I reflect on having kicked around the world all these years, never imagining that all three children and six grandchildren would end up in the same city of Phoenix. I describe how all three of my children were born in Guatemala and learned another language as Rotary Youth Exchange students.

My middle daughter is now the head fundraiser at the International Rescue Committee, and as chapter president, I recruited her to the Greater Arizona AFP board, representing the next generation of fundraisers

in our family. My son became a successful lawyer and eventually a judge, and my oldest daughter is using her special linguistic gifts as a simultaneous translator in the court system. My wife and I focus on supporting groups like André House, which helps the homeless, and I serve as a board member of Advance Guatemala, which funds local development groups. Most importantly, we are developing the next generation of freethinkers, philanthropists and world citizens.

Finally, the two-and-a-half pages of acknowledgments in the memoir reflect the number of professionals and friends who helped me write this book over the last year and a half. It is their story as well.

Mark D. Walker, CFRE, consults and has written and made presentations in English and Spanish on various aspects of philanthropy. He’s a graduate of the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His book is published by the Peace Corps Writers group and can be found at millionmilewalker.com and most retail outlets.

AFP thanks these organizations for their generous support:

The AFP Strategic Partners program provides opportunities for leading organizations to align with AFP and its mission to support ethical and effective fundraising.

To learn more about the program please visit:

afpnet.org/PartnerList.cfm Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

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What’s New? Knowledge Explosion Informs Fundraising History and Practice We don’t know what we don’t know: Authors, editors and website to the rescue

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evelopment officers, whether leading a one-person shop or a team of 25, are pressed for time. You are driven by mailings, visits, planning for committee meetings and preparing for the next campaign, whether it be a giving day or a capital campaign. That work typically leaves precious little time to delve into literature or learn what new resources might be available to inform and guide our actions.

Enter stage right book and journal article authors, journal editors, AFP and others. Fundraising is becoming increasingly professionalized, and that is leading to a growing amount of research and body of literature being made available to inform practice. AFP members working in educational and other settings will find of interest a new journal edited by Noah Drezner, associate professor of higher education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Philanthropy & Education is a new peer-review journal. Its mission is to: Advance scholarship and inform practice around philanthropy, broadly defined, including but not limited to fundraising, volunteerism, civic engagement, alumni relations, corporate social responsibility and prosocial behavior development (www.noahdrezner.com/ philanthropyeducation).

In a recent conversation, Noah noted that “Excitement and interest is building regarding this field of study [philanthropy]. There have always been a number of dissertations focused on philanthropy, but the challenge has been converting them into information that is communicated to practitioners.

Those who have been doing research are becoming more visible because philanthropy is important to the survival of nonprofits, not just funding a margin of excellence, and now many are beginning to realize that we need to better understand how the processes work. Graduate students now want to be practitioners,

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but some other students see philanthropy as a line of research and are interested in pursuing academic careers.”

It is of particular note that Philanthropy & Education invites research about education both in the U.S. and beyond and from disciplines as varied as economics, history, law, management and religious studies. Given the potentially broad focus, practitioners around the globe have an opportunity to learn from and contribute to the literature.

Speaking of research, AFP announced in March of 2017 that overall online giving grew by 7.9 percent when compared to 2015. The data came from a report published

by Blackbaud (Charitable Giving Report: How Nonprofit Fundraising Performed in 2016). For this fifthanniversary edition of the study, Blackbaud gathered data from 6,845 nonprofit organizations that raised $23 billion (yes, with a “b”) in total dollars. Data about online giving came from 5,210 nonprofits that had $2.6 billion in online fundraising. What did Blackbaud learn?

1.

Overall giving grew by approximately 1 percent in 2016.

2.

Online giving grew by 7.9 percent in 2016 as compared to 2015.

3.

Online donations were 7.2 percent of all fundraising in 2016.

4.

#GivingTuesday online donations were up 20 percent in 2016.

5.

Seventeen percent of online donations were made on a mobile device in 2016.

It is of note that the 7.2 percent figure for online donations as a portion of funds raised is a record. While that number is still a small percentage of overall income, it is noteworthy in that the size of online gifts can be substantial. As the report notes: www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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“Of all online donations in 2016, 10% were $1,000 or more, and 41% of nonprofits received at least one online donation of $1,000 or more last year.”

Even more impressive is the growth in giving via mobile devices: 17 percent of all online donations in 2016 and the significant increase in online donations made via #GivingTuesday (up 20 percent). While it is clear that direct mail, grant-writing and major- and planned-gift fundraising are far from dead, giving days and mobile giving appear to be areas of future focus for fundraisers.

The Blackbaud report also notes that the U.S. nonprofit sector is entering a period where sustainable growth depends on embracing best practices in donor engagement, retention, and stewardship. This includes using data and analytics to drive informed decision making.” Another new publication that focuses on donor retention, stewardship and donor relations is the Journal of Donor Relations & Stewardship.

The journal was founded in 2016 by editors Julia Emlen (author of Intentional Stewardship: “Brining” Your Donors to Their Highest Level of Philanthropy, 2007, CASE) and Anne Manner-McLarty (president and lead consultant for Heurista). According to Emlen and Manner-McLarty, the journal is a: “Periodic, peer-reviewed publication available in hard copy and digital format. Within each book, contributors provide multiple points of view on a given topic. Arguments are supported by published research and case studies.

“There is an overarching emphasis on why donor relations and stewardship are important to institutional advancement, not just how the work of donor relations and stewardship is accomplished. The first book explored definitions specific to this practice. The second critiqued measurement from a number of perspectives. The third book, due in late 2017, will address the structure of donor relations work and the teams that perform it.”

To learn more, visit www.journaldrs.com.

For those readers focused on specific topics, such as developing policies and procedures or preparing for a capital campaign, AFP’s Ready Reference Series Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

publications are now accessible for free as PDFs. In addition, the AFP Publications/Resources Advisory Committee, in conjunction with AFP and series authors, is focusing on a refresh of content to ensure that these publications remain relevant in an ever-changing fundraising and broader landscape.

New books are being released almost daily. Two new publications may be of interest to AFP members.

A Giving USA Special Report (Giving and the Golden Years: The Role of Philanthropy in Aging Services Organizations, Giving USA Foundation, 2017) features eye-opening statistics about giving by elders. Going for the Gold: How to Become a World-Class Academic Fundraiser by Jeffrey L. Buller and Diane M. Reeves (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) offers interesting insights for both academics and fundraisers working together to raise funds for higher education institutions.

Finally, AFP continues to focus on publishing content that will inform the work of fundraising professionals. If you are interested in helping to further the knowledge base regarding philanthropy, please contact the staff at AFP or the co-chairs of the Publications/Resources Advisory Committee. The committee welcomes new members and book proposals on an array of topics.

Sophie Penney is the program coordinator and a lecturer for Penn State’s online Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Fundraising Leadership program. She is also the founder and president of i5 Fundraising. Through teaching, coaching and consulting, Sophie’s goal is to empower you to move into the fundraising profession, advance your career or raise more money so that your nonprofit can do more good.

For lovers of history, and those with a passion for understanding ways in which philanthropy has grown around the world, you will find of interest “A History of Modern Philanthropy,” provided by the National Philanthropic Trust (http://historyofgiving.org/). This interactive website leads the reader on a journey from the year 1500 through the present day. One of the most interesting features is the “scroll to explore” option found in each of the eras.

Clicking on each circular icon leads the reader on an around-the-world journey tracing the rich history and evolution of philanthropy.

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How often do we say in passing to a friend or colleague, “What’s new?” This issue applies that question to more than a dozen aspects of fundraising today, from nonprofit impact reporting to millennials growing new careers to rising interest in virtual reality to a higher bar for true inclusion.

We also ask, “What is enduring?” Those timeless values and practices that inspire us and guide us—like the protective love and support of one generation for another.

What’s New

IN NONPROFIT IMPACT REPORTING By

steven shattuCK

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ank Rosso, founding director of The Fund Raising School at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, once said that if you understand philanthropy, then you realize that fundraising is nothing more than a servant to philanthropy. It’s the vehicle that lets society invest in its values.

Funders and other stakeholders want to know that their charitable investments truly achieve their philanthropic goals.

There has never been more pressure on nonprofit organizations to justify their existence through the impact of their work. While low overhead costs (justified or not) as a percentage of services rendered may resonate with shrewder donors, savvy fundraisers are achieving high donor retention rates by simply communicating to their supporters, in a concrete way, how and why their donations matter.

An emotional reaction may drive the first donation, but continued financial support is often a pragmatic decision based on a desire for measurable change.

In his 2001 article, “Managing donor defection: Why should donors stop giving?” Professor Adrian Sargeant references a study by the same name. Its findings (and those of subsequent studies) suggest that “donor satisfaction with the quality of the service with which they are provided (as donors) would drive subsequent loyalty.”1 After moving beyond the most common reason donors self-report for ceasing their giving—financial inability— one could attribute the remaining top reasons to the charities’ failure to effectively communicate impact:

Why Impact Reporting Is Essential to Donor Loyalty Impact reporting is nothing new to the nonprofit sector.

Indeed, it has been a cornerstone of effective donor communications for decades, whether it be a newsletter success story, a strategically planned tour stop or a tearjerking gala video. But in the era of charity watchdog rating systems, it has gone from being an optional elite tactic to an essential best practice.

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I feel that other causes are more deserving.

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(Organization) did not acknowledge my support.

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I do not recall supporting (organization).

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(Organization) did not inform me how my money had been used.

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(Organization) no longer needs my support.

Had the donor received communications stating that his or her donation matters, is appreciated and is achieving a result, is it a stretch to imagine that they 1

“Donor Retention: What Do We Know & What Can We Do about It?” Adrian Sargeant, 2013, Nonprofit Quarterly Advancing Philanthropy

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would have continued giving? Perhaps even those who reported that they could no longer afford their support would have been compelled to carve out room in their budget for future donations.

Few would argue that the case for support is integral to any successful acquisition campaign, but the low donor retention averages running rampant sectorwide (43 percent, according to the latest Fundraising Effectiveness Project study) seem to suggest that impact reporting post-donation is not quite as ubiquitous.

If you still need more convincing, consider 2011 data from Donor Voice, which was featured in Roger Craver’s excellent 2014 book, Retention Fundraising: The New Art and Science of Keeping Your Donors for Life.

Donor Voice conducted an online, nationally (U.S.) representative survey of 1,200 recent (last 12 months), frequent (more than two gifts to cause-based charities) donors from over 250 nonprofit organizations. The donors were given a list of 32 reasons why they might continue their support, and they were asked to rank them by order of importance (in other words, which reasons resonated the most with them).

Here are the top seven reasons given by survey respondents: 1.

Donor perceives your organization to be effective in trying to achieve its mission.

2.

Donor knows what to expect from your organization with each interaction.

3.

Donor receives a timely thank you.

4.

Donor receives opportunities to make his or her views known.

5.

Donor is given the feeling that he or she is part of an important cause.

6.

Donor feels his or her involvement is appreciated.

7.

Donor receives information showing who is being helped.

The hard truth of the matter is that when a donor no longer sees the value of their gift, they will give elsewhere.

Defining Outcomes vs. Output The term impact will forever mean different things to different people. Words like impact, outcomes and output are too often used synonymously to describe results. Unfortunately, each of these words carries nuanced differences that can dictate our donor communications strategies.

I recently interviewed Jamie Levy, faculty member at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and The Fund Raising School, about the differences between output and outcomes and how organizations should strategically define both for themselves.

“An outcome is an illustration of how we are creating change, whereas an output is a simple deliverable,” Levy says. “We served 500 people, but did it matter that we served 500 people, and what was the change that occurred, positive or negative, because of the output that was provided?”

Four of the top seven responses can be directly tied to the donor’s desire to be told the impact of their gift.

Donors want to know the charities they support are effective (achieving stated goals) in a specific way (who is being helped), and they want to be thanked for that impact in a way that places them at the center of that story (part of an important cause, not merely a funder).

The remaining three represent opportunities to communicate impact: the gift acknowledgment, a two-way interaction (whether it be a conversation, correspondence or a survey response) and any subsequent interactions.

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Words like

impact, outcomes and output are too often used synonymously to describe results.

Beyond that, the definition of an outcome depends largely on the purpose of the organization and how they define that purpose.

Levy explains further using the example of a hypothetical inner-city community shelter that feeds hungry individuals who live on the streets: “An example of output may be 500 meals served a day. If the organization is there simply to provide relief, the positive outcome is whether or not that immediate need is being met.

“But if the organization’s focus is to move them from just relief into rehab and into restoration, the relief work is simply the bridge that allows them to help that individual come to a stable place so that we can then understand what is actually happening and

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begin to develop them and restore them. The output is still 500 meals served a day, while the outcome may be reduced crime or poverty rates because there are less needy people on the streets. It may also be a change in the population served, whether that’s aptitude, job placement, health or whatever outcome is being tracked.

“So, the outcomes would be different depending on what the focus of the organization is.

“Donors perceive hunger-serving organizations differently, for example, because some organizations are designed specifically to provide immediate relief service, while others are designed to provide that in addition to a continuum approach of service.

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“So, it’s critical that the donor understand the end result that the organization is trying to achieve so that if I, the donor, think that feeding 500 individuals has an outcome that looks different than what the organization is providing, I need to understand why as opposed to making my own assumption as to whether that’s good or bad.”

So ask yourself: Does our constituency truly understand our goals, and can they connect those goals to the positive progress that you’re making as an organization?

Organizations must also take care in communicating incremental increases in impact over periods of time.

For example, let’s say that same community shelter is able to serve 500 meals within a specific time period, only to boast 750 meals served in the next time period of the same length. These stats may be tempting to share with constituents, but should the nonprofit do so?

It depends.

It would be a compelling story to tell if their outcomes increased in lockstep, obviously. But if the shelter found a more efficient way to go about implementing their programs, thus reducing expenses in some way, one could argue that their impact did increase. That could also be a compelling story to tell.

But if that increase from 500 to 750 meals created no value (i.e., if it did not result in moving more individuals from relief into rehab and into restoration), it’s nothing more than an empty statistic, the kind of which is all too prevalent in the average annual report.

To come at it from a different angle, let’s say that increase from 500 to 750 meals did result in an increase of positive outcomes. If this increase was communicated to constituents but did not result in increased engagement or retention, there may be a breakdown in the channel between the donor understanding the organization’s value and how the messaging around that value is resonating or not resonating.

How Nonprofits Can Communicate Impact in the 21st Century So how can the average nonprofit begin to communicate output and outcomes?

There are numerous opportunities to do so, and thanks to modern technology and the giving channels technology powers, many of these opportunities can be automated, continually tested and improved upon.

It all starts with the donation capture mechanism.

Assuming your case for support is compelling enough to move the donor to an online donation form, pledge card or BRE (business reply envelope), you can get the prospective donor thinking about impact immediately through suggested gift amounts. Not only does suggesting gift amounts help the donor decide how much to give (less decisions = more conversions), it’s an opportunity to preview the potential impact of their gift.

Consider the form found on the online donation page of OneJustice, a California-based legal aid organization: n

$1,000.00: Bring free legal help to three Californians in need

n

$500.00: Bring two volunteers to staff a legal clinic

n

$350.00: Bring free legal help to one person

n

$100.00: Provide one person with a legal needs screening

n

$50.00: Provide one person with a phone advice call

By framing the suggestions with “Your donation can ...” the gift is not restricted to a specific fund but instead gives the donor an idea of the output of the organization and sets the stage for future impact reporting.

This theme is continued in the email confirmation sent to the donor immediately after the transaction is processed. After the requisite thank you and tax statement, the donor is told, “You brought justice

After the requisite thank you and tax statement, the donor is told, “You brought justice where it’s needed!” and “We look forward to keeping you informed about the vital legal services your investment brings to those facing pressing legal problems.”

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Not only does suggesting

gift amounts help the donor decide

how much to give (less decisions = more conversions), it’s an opportunity to preview the potential impact of their gift. where it’s needed!” and “We look forward to keeping you informed about the vital legal services your investment brings to those facing pressing legal problems.”

And in a second, more formal acknowledgment email, the donor is again told that their gift “will mean even more to the low-income veterans, kids, seniors, and families who will receive life-changing legal help this year—all because of you” and that “I [the CEO] look forward to letting you know about all the great work made possible by your kind gift throughout the coming year.”

Similarly, Chattanooga-based Partnership for Families, Children and Adults states on their online donation confirmation page that “your investment is already being put to work to build a stronger, smarter, safer future for your neighbors in need,” while Indianapolis-based College Mentors for Kids states in their autoresponse email confirmation that “your gift will help provide a caring college student mentor to a child in need.”

If these expressions of gratitude and impact strike you as generic or vague, remember that these communications are delivered within mere minutes of the gift being made. Future communications are more concrete in communicating the true impact of a donor’s gift, all while avoiding the danger found in the Donor Voice study that the donor doesn’t know “what to expect from your organization with each interaction” because an expectation has already been set that impact will be reported in the future.

The organization charity: water touches on outcomes in their autoresponse email confirmation before moving on to concrete output in subsequent messaging by stating, “Clean water transforms communities. Every $1 invested in improved water access and sanitation can yield an average of $12 in economic returns. We think that’s huge.” Donors are then sent updates on the progress of well projects their donations went toward and also “Completion Reports” when those projects are completed. These emails come with subject lines like “Projects are complete in Niger! See the impact of your generosity” and include

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stats such as the amount of people served as well as interviews and testimonials.

Impact doesn’t just have to be communicated in the context of gratitude, though. For example, the Animal Humane Society (AHS) of Golden Valley, Minn., weaves a past success story into an email appeal: “Buck, a 4-year-old stray cat, arrived at AHS after being shot in the head by a .22-caliber bullet. Amazingly, he survived but was found living in a woman’s garage, suffering from extensive wounds. Thanks to generous animal lovers like you, we had the resources to care for and treat this severely wounded cat. Your gift today can make miracles like this happen for more animals like Buck.”

Thailand-based Soi Dog Foundation deftly employs anthropomorphism in its storytelling, with an email appeal written by a service recipient. It begins with the headline, “(Donor Name), You Saved Me,” and continues: “They called me Boonrod, because it means ‘survivor’ in Thai. (Donor name), because of you, I’m the luckiest dog in Thailand! I wanted to tell you my story, so that you know what a big difference you made when you bought a billboard to stop meat traders.”

The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) uses similar storytelling techniques to drive website traffic. An email with the headline, “When I was confirmed as positive with Ebola, I thought I wouldn’t survive,” begins: “Dear (Donor Name), I’d like to introduce you to 30-year-old Mustapha.

He comes from a village in Sierra Leone that was hit hard by Ebola, and he is alive today thanks to your support.

See how you changed his life.”

The last line is a hyperlink to a page on the CRC’s website that tells the full story and includes a unique donation form.

These simple narratives demonstrate to supporters what fight it is that they’re a part of and defines them, not the organization, as change agents.

Social media can also be a powerful tool to tell impact stories.

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Take, for example, a simple Instagram post from the Innocence Project that captures the experience of a recently exonerated man buying his first set of nonprison clothes in 17 years or a Facebook post from Exodus Refugee Immigration showing artwork created by a group of Syrian women who attended art therapy after being resettled by the organization.

While these posts are meant for a broader audience, they can be effective in creating a “fear of missing out” feeling amongst viewers who aren’t yet a part of that transformative narrative.

The effectiveness of all of this content depends, of course, on whether or not it’s aligned with donor expectations. To Levy’s point, your vision of positive outcomes must be shared with the donor. It’s not enough for you to both care about dogs. Donors don’t stop giving because they suddenly stop caring about dogs.

They simply give to another dog-centric charity that not only shares their vision but whose messaging is in sync with that vision.

All of this content is a great first step toward true impact reporting, but the challenge remains for all of these organizations to communicate the outcomes of these success stories. Is there a reduction in poverty, crime or disease as a result of these outputs? Is the world becoming a better place?

Communicating output is critical, but the organizations that can tie that output to specific outcomes will be the ones who have the most compelling story to tell.

However, one must be careful with today’s advanced communication technology.

Thanks to tools like email and social media, it has never been easier and faster to communicate with constituents.

These mass-communication tools can sometimes be counterproductive to telling the right impact story to the right donor at the right time. It’s easy to fire off an email to one massive list of subscribers, but even the most wellwritten story may resonate with only a few recipients.

If you aren’t properly segmenting your data (i.e., building numerous small lists based on demographic information, frequency or recency of giving, stated interests, gift amounts or giving channels, just to name a few), you may quickly get discouraged when your impact stories fail to produce results.

After all, a loyal, multiyear annual donor doesn’t need or want the same information that a first-time donor does.

When you pay attention to giving patterns and preferences, actively get to know your donors (why they give, what their connection to the cause is) and build customized communication segments based

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on that information, your ability to tell a story that is meaningful to the recipient will increase exponentially.

Fostering a Culture of Philanthropy In order to be prepared to report on impact, it’s critical to have stated organizational objectives. If you’re a healthy nonprofit with an active board, you’re likely already there.

But beyond that, organizations must also define the outcomes those objectives are producing, positive or negative, and whether or not that change is beneficial to the cause and the vision of the organization.

Nonprofits are always producing change; the question is whether or not that change is beneficial to the cause.

These definitions should be present in your strategic plan, fundraising plan and marketing/communications plans. Without them, you’ll find yourself with very tactically oriented plans that do nothing to drive the vision of the organization.

Once you have that, and it’s being measured, you’re ready to communicate to constituents. Unfortunately, doing so sometimes also requires a paradigm shift in organizational governance.

Much has been written about the fostering of a “culture of philanthropy,” but few would argue that it requires buy-in from leadership to prioritize donorcentricity in all aspects of the organization. When the donor is viewed as the true hero of the organization from the top down, impact reporting won’t feel like a burden but a necessity.

Conclusion Output must come before outcomes, so don’t be discouraged if you haven’t reported on outcomes or don’t know the answers to those questions yet. By communicating program and services output at every stage of the donor journey, you will be far ahead of your peers in creating lifelong advocates for your organization.

Steven Shattuck is chief engagement officer at Bloomerang and executive director of Launch Cause. He is a contributor to “Fundraising Principles and Practice: Second Edition.” Steven volunteers his time for the Project Work Group of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project and is an AFP Center for Fundraising Innovation committee member.

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Q&A:

HOW IT WORKS (HUSTLE) Q: What is your main claim to fame?

A: Hustle strengthens donation-based organizations by balancing oversight with empowerment, channeling the values of the organization through the unique voices of their fundraisers and student volunteers via our 1:1 text-messaging platform.

Q: What is your competitive advantage?

A: As broadcast and social media communications have become increasingly saturated, Hustle breaks through the noise with authentic conversations on an untapped, open channel most people prefer to calls or emails.

Q: What field are you primarily working in?

A: When it comes to annual giving for higher education, Hustle reverses the declining rates of answered phone calls and opened emails by providing a new channel of communication that alumni prefer. And the results speak for themselves: Colleges using Hustle are seeing a 2x increase in participation and 3x increase in pledge fulfillment versus phone banking and email blasts alone.

Q: How does it work?

A: Organizers using Hustle can send texts on any modern smartphone or computer, and recipients receive simple text messages, reaching the greatest number of potential donors with the least amount of friction. This means that fundraisers and volunteers can use their own devices without revealing their personal phone numbers, which cuts costs, protects privacy and preserves conversations through volunteer churn.

Q: What is the value of your method?

A: As more institutions realize the value of Hustle, they shift away from scripted calls and automated emails that annoy potential donors and focus

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instead on personal conversations and long-term relationships. Higher education, nonprofit and philanthropic institutions are exceeding their shortterm fundraising goals and nurturing future gifts.

Q: Does this approach allow for a more human interaction?

A: Hustle is a departure from the past because it uses recent technological advancements not to automate fundraising but to humanize it. This engages a new pool of donors, who otherwise wouldn’t pick up their phones, with a personal touch that is both more effective and efficient than other channels.

Q: So, what is the cumulative impact of your work?

A: Hustle actually makes the world better because we boost the longevity of nonprofits, foundations and educational institutions at a time when traditional fundraising channels are seeing diminishing returns. In addition to many different types of nonprofits and political and advocacy groups, we work for a variety of schools, including state schools like Colorado State University, historically black colleges like Spelman College and private schools like Amherst.

Roddy Lindsay is co-founder and CEO of Hustle. He was a founding member of Facebook’s data science team, spearheading Facebook’s advertising measurement technology, research polling platform and Insights product. He also created the little smiley face below your Facebook status box, which allows users to share tens of billions of feelings each year.

He previously co-founded WineGlass, a wine list recognition app that reached #4 in the App Store.

He has a B.S. in symbolic systems from Stanford University.

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Mining New Sources of Data for

DONOR RETENTION By marK Brewer

I

n the book One Hundred Thirteen Million Markets of One, researchers identify two groups of people: traditionalists and what they call the “New Economic Order” (NEO). People in the NEO group account for more than 70 percent of all discretionary spending, yet the makeup of this group cuts across age groups. They found that there’s a particular language this group uses and that they think in a certain way. So why do we segment based on age or gift timing? Because that’s all the data we had, and it was better than not segmenting at all.

What if you could go beyond age and gift history to segment your donors? What if you could uncover

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hidden networks and influencers buried in your existing donor database? What if you could take the guesswork out of messaging by getting into the heads of your donors and speaking to them in ways that resonate?

The answer is in the example of Amazon, Apple and many other commercial enterprises that are using tools to find and consolidate expanded sources of data about their audiences to create rich, personalized communications and experiences.

Of course, huge tech companies have huge budgets.

But as the cost of data analytic tools and services comes down to earth, analytic insights are now becoming www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

Analytic tools can gather data in near real time, making it much easier and faster to see if your messaging is changing perceptions or otherwise motivating people. accessible to more nonprofits as they look to a future of retaining donors in a highly competitive philanthropy landscape.

Stagnant, Shallow View of Donors Today’s fundraising decisions are based largely or in part on quantitative data in our donor databases— transactional information such as gift amount, gift history, total gift volume, average gift size and how we’re doing compared to last year.

While this information is important, transactional data doesn’t give us a clear picture of donors in terms of their preferences, language, how they feel about your organization, what they’re interested in today, what they think and feel and who they know.

Jay Goulart, co-founder and chief data artist for NewSci, a data analytics provider to nonprofits, says that our view of the donor through transactional data has been stagnant for decades. He says that fundraising strategies are based on limited data, which ripples out as limitations in our strategies and effectiveness. “Our ability to sustain relationships continues to stay flat or decrease when you look at national donor retention numbers,” he says. “To me, this is a direct result of the focus on gift transactions.”

He says that by combining our traditional quantitative data with newer sources of qualitative data, we can build a more complete understanding of our donors that will give us an edge in retaining them.

“The only place any nonprofit can stand out in this crowded marketplace is to manage the relationship between points of asking,” he says.

Getting a Richer View of Donors New and cheaper analytic tools and services now allow nonprofits to dig deeper into their databases and combine existing quantitative transactional data with internal and external sources of qualitative data to build a more three-dimensional view of our donors as a group or as individuals.

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what to say and how to say it, create richer profiles of individuals, provide direction in managing the relationship between asks and help us discover hidden trends, relationships, similarities and synergies across large groups.

Analytic tools can gather data in near real time, making it much easier and faster to see if your messaging is changing perceptions or otherwise motivating people.

With this new knowledge, you can segment based on peoples’ motivation for giving—how people think, feel or act rather than by age, gift amount or last gift, or a piece of data indicating an interest that may be decades old. Segmenting on why people give provides us with a powerful platform to target our messages to their motivations, allowing us to confidently push the right messages to the right people. More effective messaging and segmenting may lead to a better strategy for keeping in touch between asks, leading to better donor retention.

Qualitative Data Adds Color and Depth According to Dave Larson, co-founder and CEO of NewSci, the numbers tell “a” story but not “the” story. “You can see from the numbers if giving is up or down,” he says. “Qualitative data adds color and commentary to numbers. With qualitative data, you start to get at some of the whys behind that.”

Hidden Insights in Personal Contact Reports If your organization has been collecting personal contact reports from major-gift officers on their visits, conversations and interactions over a period of time, you may be sitting on a gold mine of insights waiting to be unearthed. Until recently, this qualitative data has not been searchable. Goulart says, “The uniqueness of people lives in the qualitative data—the nuance of their language and what they’re interested in. It’s in the 500word personal contact reports.”

Larson says, “There is so much gold in there about how donors feel about your organization. Are they happy? Are they unhappy? Are there parts of the organization that are really exciting them, or are there

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parts that are disappointing them? Call reports are kind of like a constant survey and you start to see trends, and then that can help leaders make decisions.”

If your call reports read something like, “Nice visit,” then you don’t have much to analyze. But you can begin to direct your fundraisers to capture information that, over time, will yield benefits. Useful information for analysis includes a donor’s interests, associates and what they think and feel about your organization.

By analyzing your personal contact report data for insights, you may discover hidden patterns that help you improve your strategy.

For example, donors talk about people they know.

If that’s captured in the personal contact reports, the ability to find hidden networks and to tie people, places and things together is possible. You can also find hidden influencers who may be worth cultivating early. For example, how many of your donors know Bill Gates? There was no way to search for that in personal contact data until now.

With enough data, the analysis can help you prioritize where gift officers should spend their time today. For example, in a group of 200 donors and prospects, there may be one person who has deep connections with your donor population. You may want to get in front of this person earlier than the others.

Leveraging Social Media and Other External Data Beyond your donor database, there are many external sources of data waiting to be tapped. You’re probably already using wealth-screening data. This is a form of external data that you can use in tandem with your existing data. With the advent of the iPhone in 2007, an explosion of consumer transactional data and social media posts is now accessible to nonprofits. Personal contact reports capture the gift officer’s language, but social media captures the donor’s, giving you a more vivid understanding of the emotional content of their relationship with you. Consumer transactional data is

another source that lets you know what they’re buying, which is a view into their interests.

Goulart says, “With 250,000 alumni, how many are posting on social media daily? A lot!” So if you’re a university and you’re doing fundraising around athletics, you can analyze your population’s tweets to see who’s mentioning your school and sports teams. You can then combine that with third-party transactional data to see who’s buying athletic clothing and equipment. Through this, you can identify a specific population based on these characteristics and cultivate that group. You can court them as a group or factor in wealth-screening data to find major-gift prospects.

By capturing patterns in the language this group uses, you can craft messages that resonate with how they think, feel and communicate. “Our ability to communicate in a more meaningful way to a targeted group or individual will be based on the kind of language that they use,” Goulart adds.

Compare that with mailing a generic letter to everyone who played sports. If you get a disappointing response, you’ll have a hard time coming up with a next step that will make a difference.

Gathering Qualitative Data Through Surveys Jun Helzer, director of nonprofit analytics at Merkle Inc., says, “Qualitative data is extremely important because it gets to insights and information that the organization might not have been thinking about.”

You probably have a vision of your organization that you’d like your constituents to share. But in reality, each person has his or her own personal understanding of who you are and your impact. Richer data allows you to group people by how they perceive you so you can tailor your messaging to their understanding. While social media provides a view into this, you can also proactively collect this sort of qualitative data through surveys that ask an open-ended question to find out how people perceive your organization.

So if you’re a university and you’re doing fundraising around athletics, you

can

analyze your population’s tweets to see who’s mentioning your school and sports teams. You can then combine that with third-party transactional data to see who’s buying athletic clothing and equipment.

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Today’s analytic tools allow you to combine

data from all sources to build powerful models of individuals, better understand your donors as a group and get actionable insights on how to communicate with them.

Chris Pritcher, vice president of nonprofit data analytics at Merkle Inc., says that extracting insights from surveys can reveal donors’ motivations for giving.

He says, “If I do a survey well, I can take that and apply it to quantitative data of those people. Now I can go find people with similar motivations.”

For example, you could do a survey that includes an open-ended question like, “Why do you give to us?” This free-form data can be searched to learn that donors give because they want to make the world a better place. Or perhaps there’s a group that wants to leave a better world for their children. Pritcher says that if enough people self-identify as wanting to be a better parent, you can angle your messaging to this group to focus on how your organization makes a better world for your children. In this way, you can segment and write targeted messaging based on why they give rather than on age or the timing of their last gift.

Gathering insights like this helps take the guesswork out of messaging or throwing the kitchen sink into every communication in hopes of something sticking.

So, data analytics can strengthen our ability to connect with donors in ways that are meaningful to them.

For example, in a survey with five questions, the first four can ask for a numbered rating, and the last can be an open-ended question like, “If you had five minutes to talk to the leadership, what would you say?” Or, if someone rated something very high or very low, the survey can ask for clarification: “We noticed you rated us high/low on this question. Can you tell us why?”

Helzer says that at a basic level, you can use the analysis of qualitative data gathered this way to create a word cloud to see what’s at donors’ top of mind right now. Or you can use keywords from the analysis to segment the population.

Personalized Messaging Is the New Normal If you spend any time on social media, Google or other technology platforms, you are accustomed to getting advertising and other messages based on your interests.

This level of personalization is the new normal. Pritcher says that as donors are being engaged by commercial Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

entities like Apple and Amazon, they have learned to expect a high level of personalization. If you’re behind on personalization, he says, “It just doesn’t feel right to them. They don’t think through that Amazon has a much bigger budget than your organization.” There’s a lot of competition for peoples’ attention and share of mind. Better personalization helps you cut through the noise and be heard.

The magic of analytics is in combining diverse sources of data to get a richer understanding of your audience in order to make a meaningful connection.

Today’s analytic tools allow you to combine data from all sources to build powerful models of individuals, better understand your donors as a group and get actionable insights on how to communicate with them. These data sources provide a richer view of your donors’ interests, language and preferences.

Data analytics do require specialized tools and expertise. If you have the expertise, there are free tools that can get you started. If you lack expertise but have a budget, there are several technology companies that specialize in data analytics for nonprofits.

The journey of data analytics for nonprofits is to learn what we don’t know about our donors, what they think about us and what motivates them to give. The journey is best navigated incrementally over time. Find one area, such as surveys, social media data or mining personal contact reports, where you might benefit from a deeper analysis of existing data, and get comfortable with that before taking the next analytic step.

What are your burning questions? What keeps you up at night? Answers to these questions can help you form new questions about what you think you can learn from qualitative data.

Mark Brewer is a freelance writer and 30-year veteran of corporate technology marketing and institutional fundraising communications.

His nonprofit experience includes fundraising for higher education, senior care and social services organizations. He lives in rural Elizabeth, Ill. Advancing Philanthropy

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The Wild West of

NONPROFIT FACEBOOK ADVERTISING By mIKe snusz

F

acebook ads are a little bit like the Wild West in the nonprofit world right now. There are endless possibilities but also very few road maps to assess it as a viable retention, acquisition or engagement channel.

Fundraising professionals and nonprofit marketers are being asked to become advertisers—a role they’re likely not familiar or comfortable with.

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Nonprofit Facebook ad benchmarks are nonexistent, and fundraising best practices are still being defined.

Faced with unlimited targeting options, unfamiliar settings and ad budget decisions, fundraisers are understandably overwhelmed.

For example, if you’re a Chicago animal welfare organization planning your year-end campaign, do you target your Facebook fans, website visitors, email

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subscribers, past donors, people who watch your videos and/or people living in Chicago interested in charitable giving to animal welfare organizations? And if you target a combination of these audiences, how much do you spend on each?

Given these near limitless choices, nonprofits are often throwing money at different audiences, hoping that something sticks.

Given the uncertainty, why are nonprofits even bothering with Facebook ads at this point?

Nonprofits have seen the explosion of social ad spending in the for-profit world. They recognize the powerful targeting capabilities to reach their top audiences and previously unreachable audiences. Some have raised money. They know something is there.

They just don’t have a road map yet to maximize Facebook fundraising.

I

f you’re confused about the idea of raising money from Facebook, let’s back up a step.

It wasn’t too long ago that the idea of raising money from Facebook might have raised some eyebrows. Facebook was seen as a way to introduce and engage, not to convert.

But as nonprofits were busy building their Facebook likes and fan bases, Facebook started decreasing organic reach (the number of people who see an organization’s posts). Instead, they shifted into a “payto-play” model, where nonprofits had to now pay to reach their fans.

Social@Oglivy’s 2014 report, Facebook Zero: Considering Life After the Demise of Organic Reach, highlighted the sharp decline in organic reach—12 percent to 6 percent—from October 2013 to February 2014. Since then, other reports have shown further declines.

Nonprofits were at a crossroads. Do they continue investing time and resources into building their fan base and generating content when only a small fraction of their fan base will now see it because of Facebook’s declining organic reach?

Or, do they now “pay to play” on Facebook?

The flip side of declining organic reach was that Facebook had introduced a powerful advertising tool worthy of the nonprofit world’s attention.

While Facebook posts are only seen by your fans, Facebook ads can target people based on data they have in their Facebook profiles: age, location, occupation, college and much more.

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

An example of a Facebook ad run to supplement a fiscal year-end appeal campaign. Facebook ads can lead to direct donations and extend the reach of a campaign across social channels.

Facebook ads look like regular Facebook posts, except they have a subtle “Sponsored” label under the organization’s name and can include a “Donate” button.

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They can

target what interests people, based on what

Facebook infers from links clicked, videos watched and posts liked or shared.

They can target what interests people, based on what Facebook infers from links clicked, videos watched and posts liked or shared. Ads can retarget website visitors and lookalike audiences—other Facebook users who mirror your best constituents.

Most importantly for nonprofits, ads can target their top audiences—donors, subscribers, volunteers and event participants.

Many possibilities. Likely too many for nonprofits.

W

hile continuing to post on Facebook, nonprofits started to advertise. For some, they began by “boosting” their Facebook posts—paying so their posts would be seen by more of their Facebook fans.

As the curtain was then slowly pulled back on Facebook’s ad possibilities, nonprofits expanded ads beyond their Facebook fans to target based on demographics, interests, lookalike audiences, email subscribers and event participants.

Which brings us back to the Wild West.

Asked to become advertisers, fundraisers and nonprofit marketers often aren’t sure how they’re doing. They’re not sure who to target, for how long, how much to spend, which metrics matter and what’s an acceptable conversion rate. So it’s a guessing game.

Yes, they can reach a lot of people with Facebook ads.

But that’s what you pay for with Facebook ads: to reach people.

Would email fundraising success be defined by high open or click-through rates? Of course not. It would be measured by conversions.

Similarly, Facebook ads shouldn’t be evaluated on people reached or engaged. If nonprofits are going

Most importantly for nonprofits,

to pay for Facebook ads, they should judge them on conversions and return on investment (ROI), like other channels.

Running a Facebook ad donor acquisition campaign? Measure it against direct-mail ROI, where it often takes spending a dollar to raise a dollar.

What about a Facebook email acquisition campaign?

Each email address is worth $12 to nonprofits, a good starting point for ROI. And if you want to convert event registrants from a walk, compare Facebook ad ROI against traditional media.

Taking an ROI-focused approach to Facebook ads provides direction during this early-adopter advertising period.

From what I see, more nonprofits are testing the waters of Facebook ads. But they often target the wrong audience with a small ad budget and conclude that Facebook ads do not work for them. Like direct mail, it takes money to raise money with Facebook ads.

While benchmarks, best practices and road maps are lacking, measuring Facebook ads using ROI will provide a familiar road map, simplifying who to advertise to, what to spend and how to maximize this exciting new advertising tool.

Mike Snusz brings 14 years of digital fundraising and marketing experience to his role as a principal consultant at Blackbaud. He focuses on helping nonprofits create digital campaigns to increase online giving, sustained giving and email acquisition, focusing primarily on email, social and P2P fundraising. Connect with Mike at @mikesnusz.

ads can target their top

audiences—donors, subscribers, volunteers and event participants.

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www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

How We Do Things

AROUND HERE By roBert e. FogaL

Personalities and Change The thread that goes through all organizational change, from the most mundane to the most complex, is that change requires interactions among individuals.

That seems to be an obvious statement. But much organizational detritus hiding in dark closets results from inadequately considering who is impacted by change, how they are impacted, how they respond and how leaders can overcome resistance to change.

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

Applying psychological type to change processes directly addresses these four issues. Previous Advancing Philanthropy articles have explored how type can benefit potentially stressful relationships. The scenarios in those articles almost always involved changes in staff or volunteers. Table 1 summarizes some aspects of type addressed in those articles. The letters S–N–T–F in the middle row of the table represent the four mental functions theorized by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: Sensing, iNtuiting, Thinking, and Feeling. Readers familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) will recognize these letters as the middle two in their MBTI results (e.g., ENFJ or ISTP).

Jung called sensing and intuiting the perceiving functions by which we take in information and learn.

Table 1. Function Preferences EXTROVERTED ATTITUDE Extroverted Intuiting

Extroverted Thinking

Extroverted Feeling

Se

Ne

Te

Fe

ACTION-ORIENTED EXPERIENTIAL

BIG PICTURE BRAINSTORMING

OBJECTIVE CRITIQUING

HARMONY EMPATHY

Sensing

Intuiting

Thinking

Feeling

S

N

T

F

PRACTICAL DETAIL-ORIENTED

SCENARIOS THEMES

LOGICAL ORGANIZED

VALUE-DRIVEN DIPLOMATIC

Introverted Sensing

Introverted Intuiting

Introverted Thinking

Introverted Feeling

Si

Ni

Ti

Fi

CATALOGING VERIFYING

VISIONARY IMAGINATIVE

ANALYTICAL PRECISE

IDEAL-DRIVEN MEANINGFUL

JUDGING

Extroverted Sensing

PERCEIVING

“H

ow we do things around here” is an apt characterization of organizational culture. We can apply it to the most mundane aspects of organizational life (for example, the stuff we have to learn as we start a new job just to navigate the office). The definition also pertains to the grandest of strategic plans and everything operational in between.

An organization typically expects that we will change at least some aspects of its fundraising program when we start a new job. Even without such expectations, we inevitably become change agents simply because we are different from our predecessors. When we arrive, things change. We are fortunate when our colleagues readily accept our ideas and suggestions. Their acceptance suggests, among other things, that they may share at least some aspects of how we view the world. (We will come back to this notion in a bit.)

Most organizational change occurs through the interactions of small groups of people. For example, introducing a new timeline for annual fund activities likely involves consultations with colleagues who are key to making the changes work. At the other extreme, something as major as an organizational merger is initiated by a small group of individuals as well. As the merger proceeds, additional small groups work on diverse issues. These or similar small groups commonly continue well into the life of the new organization as it develops its new organizational culture.

INTROVERTED ATTITUDE Adapted from the Pearman Personality Integrator

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Sensing (S) denotes a preference for practical attention to details and facts. Intuiting (N) focuses on patterns of information and future possibilities.

Jung labeled thinking and feeling the judging functions we use to make decisions and deal with the external world. Thinking (T) typically approaches decisions through logic and analysis. Feeling (F) commonly concentrates on values and people-related priorities.

Mind and Mouth Are Connected Table 2 lists some characteristic aspects of interpersonal communication for each of the four functions. As suggested above, a colleague’s readiness to accept our ideas and suggestions may indicate that we share preferenc-

What About Introverts and Extroverts?

• Considers personal impacts of ideas, information and opinions

Table 1 enriches our awareness by introducing introverted and extroverted aspects of each function. Jung called introversion and extroversion “attitudes” that identify how we orient to the world. The extroverted attitude focuses on people, things and activity outside ourselves. The introverted attitude reflects on our inner world—our feelings, facts, thoughts and hunches in our minds. We always use these preferences in conjunction with functions, creating function-attitudes. So we can talk about extroverted sensing (Se) and introverted sensing (Si), extroverted intuiting (Ne) and introverted intuiting (Ni), extroverted thinking (Te) and introverted thinking (Ti) and extroverted feeling (Fe) and introverted feeling (Fi).

Let’s look at sensing to see how the table works.

Two general characteristics of sensing are “practical” and “detail-oriented.” When sensing acts with extroversion (Se in the top row), one will observe interactions with the outer world in a practical and detailed manner.

Sensing with introversion (Si in the bottom row), in contrast, integrates “practical” and “detail-oriented” with the mental activities of cataloging (i.e., storing) information and assessing its trustworthiness (verifying).

Se is mostly associated with present-time activities, the here and now. Si is more engaged with what’s in our memories that depends on past experience. The remaining functions can be explained in a similar fashion. The extroverted variants of each function apply to interaction with the outer world around us and the introverted with the more mental, inner world.

• Makes subjective decisions based on their understanding of the needs, emotions and feelings of the persons involved

All Preferences Make Essential Contributions

Table 2. Common Communication Preferences

The Sensing Function …

• Focuses on individual facts and details • Prefers information and tasks that are organized and presented in an orderly manner • Becomes frustrated with complicated and futureoriented tasks that take a long time to complete

The Intuiting Function …

• Focuses on what facts mean/how they fit together • Prefers information introduced with the “big picture,” jumping around between tasks and ideas • Becomes bored or impatient with tasks that require focusing on details or routines

The Thinking Function …

• Considers pros and cons of ideas, information and opinions • Makes decisions based mainly on logic • Prefers calm, objective interactions, often seeing work and private life as separate

The Feeling Function …

• Prefers encouragement, often wanting connections with colleagues outside of work

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es—that is, we look at a problem or situation with the same mental function (sensing or intuiting) or use the same function to make decisions (thinking or feeling).

When someone talks about a situation in the same way we do, we likely share one or two mental functions.

We can see in Table 2 the contrasts in communication preferences within each pair of functions, sensing/ intuiting and thinking/feeling. It isn’t surprising that those who see and make decisions differently may approach organizational or program changes in ways that contrast with our own. Much resistance to change (as well as ongoing conflict) originates in the differences within each pair of functions.

Advancing Philanthropy

The starting point in benefiting from psychological type is to determine how we see ourselves in the www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

preferences under discussion. When we can name our own preferences, we can more readily identify others’ preferences and practice these questions: n

Do the people I’m interacting with see the need for making changes the same way I do?

n

Do they explain changes the same way I do?

Table 3 details how each of the functions typically participates in organizational change. The various statements provide two road maps to guide the interpersonal dimensions of change. The first lays out the information that leaders need to share with various stakeholders. This is most readily achieved by simply including in the “case for change” all the types of information in the column “Want

Table 3. How to Engage Different Preferences Preference

Want information …

Want to be included …

Se • about specifics that are happening in the present Extroverted • about how the changes will work Sensing • about what resources are available

• in testing new ways to try them out • in troubleshooting • in teams focused on real, immediate problems

Si Introverted Sensing

• in assessing how changes will affect their current responsibilities • in determining the best steps in to ensure their responsibilities can be fulfilled the new environment • in making sure nothing falls through the cracks during the transition

• that is detailed, specific and realistic • about what’s not working • about how this new way will work better

Ne • that gives exciting and challenging possibilities Extroverted • that tells about what’s going on in other places Intuiting • about what they need to know and who will work with them

• in brainstorming with others • in networking to find out what other organizations are doing and their cuttingedge practices • in enthusiastically enrolling others in the change process

Ni Introverted Intuiting

• that provides a general outline of problems and solutions • about the framework of change • about how changes will fit with their understanding of what the future will be

• in gathering information about what’s cutting-edge in the field • in discussions (written or in small groups) of connections and options they see • in developing the long-range vision

Te • that is presented in a logical, cause-and-effect manner Extroverted • about the logic behind the changes Thinking • about the goals and resources and to whom we deliver the completed project

• in critiquing the process used to decide and the decisions made • in developing a plan to achieve the goals efficiently • in evaluating the results

Ti Introverted Thinking

• that is plentiful and time to process it on their own • in analyzing the problem • about how the pieces fit together (“I need to think • in critiquing the solutions about it.”)

• in identifying what’s wrong • about the rationale for the change (“Is it logical?”)

Fe • that tells them how everyone is being included in the change process Extroverted • about how everyone feels about it Feeling • about how others will be affected and how we will support them

• in assessing the needs of people during the change process • in developing programs to support people during the changes • in everything possible

Fi Introverted Feeling

• in assessing whether the changes fit with the organization’s mission • in being a voice for integrity in the changes and the process • in quietly supporting people struggling with changes

• about the values guiding the decisions to make the change • about how the changes are congruent with their values • about how the changes fit with the organization’s core identity and mission

Adapted from Introduction to Type and Change by Nancy J. Barger and Linda K. Kirby

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

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Mary started her job as director of development at ABC Charity two weeks ago. Several months had passed since her predecessor left for a new position, and John, whose job is partly to manage the annual fund, has been without a direct supervisor for all of that time.

As an INiFeJ, Mary is developing a vision of what she wants to achieve in the next couple of years (the Ni part of her style). People are warming up to her quickly because of her ability to engage others and grow relationships (the Fe part).

Mary’s predecessor hired John about 18 months before he left. During the supervisory hiatus, John (ESeTiP) continued to do his job as he had learned it, with a bit of tweaking here and there (the Se aspect of his type). He didn’t respond much to people’s suggestions about the fund, instead sticking with what

he understood the annual fund should be (the Ti aspect).

Mary’s fundraising vision grows from what she’s learned about the community ABC serves, an assessment of the donor base and her previous experience. “Aha” moments seem to occur as random bits of information connect in her mind (Ni). These visionary moments won’t mean much to John’s Se, however. Mary typically works out the details as she goes along.

John understands the entire task by seeing all the details up front. So Mary has to parse the details of her visioning (a task that challenges her) to describe to John how each change will help increase giving.

John will be a better colleague when he doesn’t stick too much to “how we’ve always done it” (his Ti) and rather strives to translate her visioning into practice (Se).

A MINI-CASE EXAMPLE

information … ” For example, the introverted sensing preference wants to know specific details about the changes under consideration. Extroverted intuiting could care less about the details but gets excited when discussing the big picture of future possibilities.

The second road map informs the design for implementing change. The desired behaviors in the “Want to be included … ” column build on a basic premise of change management: Grow ownership in what you want to achieve by engaging in the process everyone who can impact the desired outcome. Looking at the same two preferences as above, the involvement of introverted sensing makes sure details won’t fall through the cracks. Extroverted intuiting wants to participate in brainstorming possibilities. It’s easy to appreciate how both preferences make important contributions to a change process.

Table 4. Function-Attitude Pairs and Corresponding MBTI Types

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SiTe

ISTJ, ESTJ

SiFe

ISFJ, ESFJ

SeTi

ISTP, ESTP

SeFi

ISFP, ESFP

NiFe

INFJ, ENFJ

NiTe

INTJ, ENTJ

NeFi

INFP, ENFP

NeTi

INTP, ENTP

Advancing Philanthropy

The Genius of the MBTI The creativity and diligence of Isabel Myers led to the development of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Myers successfully translated the theories of Carl Jung into the useful personality assessment that is today used universally in organizational development. Each of the sixteen MBTI types includes a perceiving function (sensing or intuiting) and a judging function (thinking or feeling)—the middle two letters of the four that identify a type. Also, each of the functions is used with extroversion or introversion.

If sensing or intuiting carries introversion, then thinking or feeling carries extroversion, and vice versa. Readers who know their MBTI type can identify their functionattitudes in Table 4.

Self-awareness contributes a great deal to our leadership abilities. Growing our self-awareness vis-à-vis assessments like psychological type enriches our ability to lead others throughout our organizations—those who are “above” us on the organization chart (i.e., to “lead up”), colleagues in other departments and those we supervise directly.

Robert E. Fogal, Ph.D., ACFRE, is a certified MBTI trainer who coaches nonprofit executives to enhance their performance and advance their careers.

He has held chief development officer positions in higher education, healthcare, senior services and religious organizations.

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

What’s Next?

FOUR TRENDS TO WATCH By eugene a. sCanLan, Ph.D.

I

’m old enough to remember when donor informareal or computer-generated spaces in almost-real three tion was kept on 3x5 cards and donor records were dimensions. Not so far away, we might be taking a major recorded on handwritten ledgers. Technology and prospect for funding a new building on a “walk” through new ways of applying it revolutionized fundraising, the planned building using VR, or we may be taking a along with almost every other part of couple considering a planned gift for a our lives. Other fields have also conreal walk around the campus while they, “ Change is the law of tributed to rethinking fundraising, using AR, see how other planned gifts life. And those who including economics and psychology. have impacted the students and facilities. look only to the past Research growing out of these and othor present are certain Behavioral Economics: er fields has helped guide our thinking Behavioral economics is a relatively new about prospects, donors, types of gifts, to miss the future.” field that seeks to apply psychology, recognition and campaigns. So, what —John F. Kennedy social and cognitive factors and trends and fields should we be looking emotional considerations to economic at next? Here are a few ideas: decision-making. The field also explores risk factors (real Collaborative Screening: Ever order something and perceived) in economic and financial decisions. One from Amazon? What happens? You get suggestions about of the findings is that financial decisions are made using other items you might be interested in. Behind the scenes, a complex combination of logic and emotion, especially Amazon, through automated techniques, is comparing you when outcomes are uncertain. One notable finding is that to others who purchased the item and feeding back to you such decisions are often irrational and based on belief items those people also purchased or even expressed an systems that may not be based in reality. Previous economic interest in. Fundraisers may soon be able to apply similar models were based on rational decision-making, but studies automated techniques to donors and donor prospects. and experiments have shown otherwise. Much of the work in this field may increasingly be applied to the Artificial Intelligence: Siri, Alexa, Google Home. fundraising profession as we seek to better understand These personal assistants may be just the tip of the artificial how our donors and prospects will decide to support intelligence iceberg coming our way. Already, law firms are our organizations. using artificial intelligence to scan contracts and other legal documents. Will we be using artificial intelligence to scan So what next? Keep alert to these and other social media sites to find people with interests parallel to trends that may soon be impacting our profession, our our organization’s mission? How else might these tools be organizations and our donors and prospects. If you used to enhance our development programs? don’t, your competition will.

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality: Augmented reality (AR) is a way to provide additional information on real things around you. Aim your cell phone at the real Eiffel Tower, and superimposed over it on the screen you see facts about its history, height, facilities, etc. Virtual reality (VR) enables you to see other

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

Eugene Scanlan retired in 2008 after 40 years in the nonprofit sector. Active in AFP at the chapter and national levels, he has authored two books and several articles on management and fundraising.

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What’s New?

MILLENNIALS GROWING A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN FUNDRAISING

By nICK KuLIK anD DustIn wILLIams

46

Advancing Philanthropy

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

L

ast year, millennials officially passed baby boomers as America’s largest living generation. But the signs of this demographic shift were already clear. From trendy coffee shops marketed as a place to work to Ping-Pong tables given a privileged place in offices across the country, our society is increasingly adapting to how millennials think and work. Every day, there are publications offering the newest formula to manage them in the workplace. But what does it actually look like to be a millennial in today’s nonprofit workforce? What steps do young fundraising professionals need to take to make an impact in their organizations and with their donors?

Now may be the best of times for millennials working in fundraising. With high-dollar campaigns becoming more common and the need for front-line fundraisers at an all-time high, rapid growth opportunities are emerging for a number of professionals, including millennials. With the increased emphasis of large organizations on acquiring more gift officers, salary and benefits packages are becoming more competitive.

Better yet, the ability to build relationships, cultivate

The lack of fundraising professionals currently in the job pool directly stems, in part, from a lack of focus on empowering current college students to explore a career in fundraising immediately after graduating.

Many students may intern or volunteer with a local nonprofit but often lack mentors who could introduce them to the possibility of a career in philanthropy. This is changing, albeit slowly, and with AFP’s Collegiate Chapter program growing and more fundraising-related degree programs being developed, we are seeing a shift in the number of recent college graduates going directly into fundraising.

Many of our young professional fundraiser colleagues found their way to this career in the more “traditional” way: They’ve happened upon it in one way or another. A recent survey conducted by AFP targeting professionals under 30 suggests that many are considering long-term careers in the profession. We took it as a good sign that only 4 percent of respondents are setting career goals with a time frame of one year or less, while over half are setting career goals at least three years out. One-fifth of respondents said that they

With high-dollar campaigns becoming more common and the need for

front-line fundraisers at an all-time high, rapid growth opportunities are emerging for a number of professionals, including millennials. prospects and ask for money has become a valuable and sought-after skill set. The real question then becomes: How can young professionals take advantage of the opportunities our profession can provide?

The fundraising industry is experiencing two major factors leading to rapid career growth for young professionals. First, there are not enough fundraising professionals to fill the needs of nonprofits, educational institutions, healthcare systems, museums, etc. In recent years, there have been upwards of eight front-line fundraising jobs open for every one candidate. Coupled with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a 9 percent growth in fundraising jobs by 2024, the opportunity for young professionals is vast. Second, many of these same organizations are dealing with the impending reality of leadership vacancies due to retiring baby boomers. Together, this is creating opportunities for experienced young fundraisers to experience accelerated career growth.

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

are strategizing for the long term—more than five years from the time of the survey. With this incredibly positive display of young professionals wanting to stay within the industry, it is important for those making a transition to fundraising to learn from those who have been doing this work for a long time.

We are both personally big advocates of finding career guidance through internal and external mentors. We have benefitted greatly from seasoned professionals who were willing to teach us skills early on in our careers, and we’re currently working with AFP’s Next Generation Committee to give tools and resources to local AFP chapters to empower their young professionals to seek the same guidance.

With the right tools, our industry can give young professionals the resources and experiences to thrive within, and eventually lead, organizations at a relatively young age. Ponder this: With the right tools, a 22-yearold recent graduate can learn annual giving, major Advancing Philanthropy

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giving, management skills, earn a CFRE/ACFRE and complete a master’s program—all by age 32! Such experience, with a demonstrated record of success, not only looks good on a résumé but more importantly is a fast track for young professionals to step up and lead the very organizations they’ve devoted their careers to.

Now, some would say that this hypothetical 32-yearold is not ready for a leadership position. But is that really true, or is it simply a bias that seems to creep through many of our organizations? Yes, someone could justify that the individual does not have enough professional experiences. But, if they have managed a group of volunteers or a small team, planned and executed an annual or capital campaign, solicited gifts and/or supported a stewardship plan to thank their donors, they’ve shown themselves to be adept at a full range of duties our field brings, a quality that good leaders need and boards are looking for. This is where the opportunity lies for young professionals. Early on,

have an interest in supporting your organization. A mentoring action plan takes a similar structure.

Start by envisioning whom it is you want to be in 10, 15 and 20 years. Once you have an idea of a desired career destination (you can have multiple!), find the person who already has your dream job. Contact them, and set up a time to meet for coffee. Why coffee?

It’s cheap (and that’s good, because you’ll be buying), and the length of time spent can be short or long, depending on the conversation. We’ve found that informal settings outside the workplace are best. And if you’re hesitant to contact the person directly, work through a mutual contact or your local AFP chapter to get in front of them.

During the initial meeting, share your intentions, and explain why you wanted to meet them. Talk about your career aspirations, and ask them questions about their journey. If you feel like this could be a good mentor/mentee fit, “make the ask” for future meetings

Once you’ve built a mentoring relationship, it’s incredibly important to

take ownership of stewarding your mentor properly. they can garner the skills and credentials necessary to be competent, informed leaders.

We would be remiss if we didn’t note that our generation of fundraisers is the direct beneficiary of those who came before us. Young professionals in many ways do not have to go to the “school of hard knocks” but instead are building upon the knowledge and expertise of previous generations. AFP’s focus on developing best practices and strategies is now giving millennial fundraisers an expedited path to being an integral part of their organization’s success.

In a recent survey of over 100 young professional AFP members, we noticed that only a relatively small percentage of respondents had sought a mentor for career advice and guidance. The implications for this are tremendous. If they’re not actively learning from more seasoned professionals, how are young professionals going to advance their careers and, more importantly, the great work that they support?

If you’re interested in finding a mentor but you’re not sure of next steps, consider creating a mentoring action plan. Think about the last time you created a cultivation plan for a prospect. You begin by thinking about the different ways to engage a donor: setting up a meeting, learning about their life and career, making an ask and then inquiring about other people they know who may

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to talk about career development and advice. Make sure to also ask about your new mentor’s goals for this endeavor. They will most likely have areas they feel particularly adept in and might want to share those with you. As your mentor/mentee relationship grows, ask about other professionals your new mentor can connect you to because having one mentor is good, but having a small group of mentors can be great!

These relationships could fast-track your career with new job opportunities, advice, guidance in pursuing certifications or continued education or an encouraging nudge to participate in an upcoming conference or professional development opportunity. Your mentor(s) has both the network and credibility within the industry to validate your acceptance into various professional circles. In many cases, this validation is a currency that mentors have the ability to loan out to mentees, which can provide opportunities to meet with leadership, present at a conference or bring information to your organization from your outside experiences.

Once you’ve built a mentoring relationship, it’s incredibly important to take ownership of stewarding your mentor properly. In fact, there are many parallels in stewarding a mentor or colleague to how you would plan and execute a stewardship plan for one of your top donors. www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

Think about your moves management process with a donor. You would probably track your communications, provide timely replies and follow up when needed. You can do the exact same thing with your mentors and colleagues! I once heard a very successful real estate mogul say that he has tracked every single conversation he’s had for years in spiral-bound notebooks. Whenever he needs to look back at conversations, lessons learned, etc., all he has to do is go back and look. While there isn’t currently a customer relationship management tool for tracking mentor relationships, maybe just think about jotting down some notes after each meeting. Not only will you retain more information, you are also asserting yourself as someone who is in it for the long haul, someone invested enough to care deeply about the interactions you have with those more seasoned than yourself.

Although it is a fantastic time to join the industry, the path to success is not simple. Young professionals need to not only gain the necessary knowledge and skills to

18 months, young professionals should consider having a long-enough tenure to show growth. With that being said, it is also important to remember that your talents are wanted all over the country. When contemplating, “Should I stay, or should I go?” remember that while not every move should be about salary, your chances of increasing your paycheck are more readily available at another organization offering a 15 percent raise versus your annual 1–2 percent increase.

The old model of staying at the same organization for 20 years is slowly dissolving. On the other hand, if you make too many career moves, you will be labeled a jumper, or you may end up at organizations that don’t fit your career values. Be vigilant in making the right long-term decision versus short-term gain.

Navigating a career is not a simple task regardless of the point you’re at. Fortunately, the fundraising industry has all of the components necessary for millennials to establish and advance themselves within the field.

Through mentorship, professional development and making strategic career moves, the future is bright for any ambitious young professional. build their career but are also up against any number of stereotypes about millennials. Most of the young professionals who responded to our survey feel that they bring new and fresh ideas to their organizations and also that their age often seems to be a factor in interacting with colleagues and donors.

It’s important to realize that young professionals may bring new and fresh perspectives to the table, but it’s equally as important for them to be bringing real expertise as well. With so many professional development opportunities out there, millennials have more options than ever to be involved with the broader fundraising community. We like to sum it up this way: Present yourself as someone who knows what they’re talking about—and back it up with real knowledge!

Employers want to see results, plain and simple. This doesn’t mean that a young fundraiser needs to close a $10 million gift (although that doesn’t hurt!), but he or she needs to display the ability to do things like consistently close large gifts, create a positive return on investment at fundraising events or increase the number of donors participating in an annual solicitation. These results build the foundation of a career.

Navigating success is also a difficult challenge. With the average tenure of a fundraising professional being

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

Through mentorship, professional development and making strategic career moves, the future is bright for any ambitious young professional.

Nick Kulik, CFRE is a major gifts officer at The University of Toledo Foundation.

Beyond his experience in higher education, he has led and participated in multiple annual and capital campaigns for nonprofit and healthcare organizations. Nick is a recipient of AFP’s Outstanding Young Professional Award and Pi Kappa Phi National Fraternity’s Thirty Under 30 Award.

Dustin F. Williams, CFRE, is the director of leadership gifts at the PKD Foundation, working with donors to fund philanthropic opportunities in research, drug development, education and advocacy for polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disease with no treatment or cure. He also serves on the Next Generation Committee for AFP and the board of East Nashville Hope Exchange.

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Inclusion isn’t about being asked to dance.

IT’S ABOUT GETTING TO HOST THE DANCE PARTY.

By KrIshan mehta, Ph.D.

R

enowned diversity trainer Vern Myers is credited with saying, “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”

What does that mean? Why does this distinction matter? How can you get everyone on the dance floor (and keep them there)? Indeed, there are a plethora of books, blogs, videos and guides to help you tackle these important questions. This brief article, however, aims to provide a few different (and perhaps new) ways to think about your role in establishing an inclusive charity.

But before you start organizing your party, let’s make sure that we have a good grasp of our terminology.

The Dance-Off: “Diversity” vs. “Inclusion” Two well-known diversity strategists, Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe, developed a pictorial representation of

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the various elements that constitute “diversity.” Imagine a cross section of a tree trunk, where at the core you have your personality, or the combination of qualities that form your distinctive character. The next ring addresses what are called “internal dimensions,” or the traits that one often thinks about when we talk about diversity, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, ability and age. The following layer, also referred to as “external dimensions,” includes the influences of one’s environment and relationships. Finally, the outer layer speaks to groupings that are created along the lines of work. These categories distinguish one group from another or, conversely, create a shared identity for certain people.

Thinking about “inclusion,” UC Davis Health’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has developed an informative chart outlining the key features of the

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

term. Imagine a number of overlapping circles, each containing an ingredient for inclusion. One of the ingredients listed is “a holistic view of employees.”

According to the folks at UC Davis Health, “An inclusive organization is one in which all employees are viewed and respected as whole persons with multiple identities that extend beyond the organization.” When it comes to the charitable sector, surely everyone would agree that these sorts of ingredients are important for creating a culture of inclusion, since each asks us to acknowledge and respect people’s differences while working collectively toward a common goal. The bubble on the top—a demonstrated commitment to diversity— is strategically positioned there because without it, there can be no inclusion and vice versa. In essence, we must ask, how best can people live, work and help one another across these dimensions of diversity?

Shining a Spotlight on “Intersectionality” In more recent years, diversity practitioners have unearthed a concept that was first coined by American civil rights advocate Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. The term is called “intersectionality,” and it speaks to overlapping dimensions of diversity and how they relate to one’s experiences of inclusion. The theory proposes that a number of traits will influence one’s personality and perspective.

What makes discussions about diversity and inclusion really dynamic—and sometimes very complex—is that diversity encompasses so many variables. Simply put, since people’s identities aren’t fixed to only one dimension, we cannot make any assumptions about who they are, what they are interested in and how they identify with different groups.

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In 2013, the Ontario Nonprofit Network found that 13 percent of nonprofit leaders were visible minorities and 20 percent were immigrants, compared to 26 percent of Ontarians who are visible minorities and 30 percent who are immigrants. According to the authors of this study, a similar story can be told for nonprofits and charities across Canada.

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An in-depth study conducted by the Commongood Careers and Level Playing Field Institute found that nearly 90 percent of nonprofit employees in the United States believe that their organization values diversity. However, more than 70 percent believe that their employer does not do enough to create an inclusive work environment.

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A recent report published in the Journal of Business Ethics analyzed 1,456 nonprofit boards and found that board governance can be improved with more diverse membership, but

Four Layers of Diversity The Four Layers of Diversity model created by Gardenswartz and Rowe has influenced and broadened the conversation about diversity. It sets the tone for inclusion by reflecting each person’s reality in the organization.

Who Is Hosting This Party Anyway?

Conversations about inclusion inevitably speak to broader issues about power and privilege. Who is hosting the party and ensuring everyone is having a good time? In other words, does everyone have the opportunity to fully express their ideas and influence how the organization carries out its work? Time and again, we are confronted with the stark reality that the decision-making seats tend to be occupied by those from the dominant culture. What are the unintended consequences when power looks the same across the board? Let’s look at the some of the evidence: n

According to AFP’s 2016 Compensation and Benefits Report, the average salary of male fundraisers in the United States was reported to be $88,169, while women were paid an average of $69,134.

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* Gardenswartz & Rowe, Diverse Teams at Work (Second Edition, SHRM, 2003) * Internal Dimensions and External Dimensions are adapted from Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener, Workforce America!

(Business One Irwin, 1991).

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only if the board behaves inclusively and there are policies in place to allow the diverse members to have an impact.

These are just a few of the many studies out there that, in essence, warrant a clarion call for charity leaders to address how to share and redistribute power, challenge the status quo and diversify fundraising practices and meaningfully address systemic issues that make the glass ceiling unbreakable.

Four Things to Consider for Your Next Party Ask why your organization needs a diversity committee.

Some studies have shown that by creating a diversity committee, charities are inadvertently boxing in inclusion instead of embedding it across an organization. Diversity and inclusion researchers all agree that having people pay attention to inclusion excellence within each committee can tangibly address gaps in your volunteers, donors and staff.

Tokenism is a sign that inclusion is not working. How many times have you said to yourself, “This organization needs more diversity,” and then sought someone who fits the bill so that you can tick that box? Obviously, that one “diverse” person on your board or staff does not make for a fulfilling inclusion mandate. Instead, boldly proclaim that

Inclusion Excellence

inclusion is a priority for your organization, and find people who are just as committed to inclusion as you are to help you build it. DiverseCity onBoard, a Canadian organization that trains and places diverse candidates on nonprofit boards, has a number of practical resources to help you along this journey, including information about how to conduct a diversity audit and develop inclusion metrics.

Make an investment in developing your intercultural competencies and understanding your unconscious biases. In April of 2017, volunteers, board members and staff of the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter completed the Intercultural Development Inventory, a comprehensive assessment tool that explains how individual beliefs, values and biases influence decision-making. This assessment gave people an opportunity to recognize implicit biases and sparked new conversations about how we can work toward inclusion excellence.

The facts speak for themselves, so start collecting them.

Each year in Toronto (where I work), we welcome 100,000 new immigrants. Twenty percent of women in this city were born outside of Canada, and 46 percent of them are visible minorities. Two-thirds of Torontonians speak more than one language, and 4.2 million Canadians have a physical disability. Armed with these stats and facts, I have been able to make inclusion something that I call a “fundraising imperative.” Don’t see much diversity around you? It’s important to collect evidence on this issue so that you can make the case that inclusion needs considerable attention.

The Party Never Ends It is important to remember that inclusion excellence requires attention and intention from everyone involved in your organization—from the chair and CEO to the staff and volunteers. All the studies on long-term inclusion efforts indicate that the benefits of this commitment serve your mission in various ways, from increased donor giving and great staff retention rates to developing credibility and new networks in the community. Making an investment in inclusion will have your party guests coming back for more.

Adapted with permission and modified from “The Netter Principles: A Framework for Building Organizational Inclusion,” The Workplace Diversity Network, 2000

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Krishan Mehta, Ph.D., is executive director of campaigns at Ryerson University in Toronto. He is also president of the AFP Greater Toronto Chapter and co-chair of the AFP Inclusive Giving Fellowship Program in Ontario. In 2016, he completed his doctoral studies, which explored the charitable activities and interests of immigrants in Canada. www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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ith over 2 million nonprofits in the United States and contributions totaling more than $373 billion annually, we may have created challenges for ourselves.

Are all of these 2 million nonprofits effective? In my community, there are several nonprofits that are essentially serving the same constituencies. Please note, this is not an analysis of good or bad. Instead, the question addressed here is are these similar nonprofits as effective as they should or could be considering that the funding for their shared purpose is spread over five or six organizations. Each organization can only serve dozens when, if merged together and utilizing economies of scale, a new larger organization could serve hundreds.

Mergers and acquisitions By vern are a possible solution.

The first step is to set aside the negative connotations inherent in those words.

Human resistance to change is perhaps the greatest obstacle. As we all know, change is constant and good unless, of course, it is happening to you. Either by individual choice or government regulation, mergers of nonprofits with identical missions are inevitable.

The new generation of donors and leaders is far more committed to accountability and effectiveness issues of the nonprofits they support than past generations of donors. Organizations ignore these interests and concerns at their own risk. Mergers can be costeffective and create opportunities for innovations that better serve communities.

We pride ourselves when it comes to how effective we are as fundraisers. In fact, $373 billion-plus a year and growing is a lot of money. However, what are our organizations doing with all that money? This writer spent thirty years in higher education philanthropy.

So, using that experience as a base, when a campaign raises a billion dollars or more, the questions become what does that money do, and is that money being used for the best purposes. Most concerning is the announcement of another billion-dollar-plus campaign immediately following the victory celebration for the last billion-dollar campaign.

Student debt follows graduates for decades no matter how successful their careers. And yet, we continue to use contributed funds for ever-larger buildings, athletics facilities, research endowments and scholarship endowments. The challenge is the scholarship endowments by our generous alumni and friends are not only need-based or merit-based but highly restricted in other ways, narrowing the base of students qualified to compete for those funds.

As a result, millions of dollars intended for student aid go unexpended.

As institutionally related foundations acquire more and more assets, whether contributed directly or because of investment, we attract a different type of inquiry. Over the next decade, state legislatures will continue to allocate less snyDer and less funding to higher education. They have begun to scrutinize college and university foundations with assets in the hundreds of millions of dollars as a reason to justify lower state funding, and they may attempt to legislate how funds are used, overriding donor intent.

We must continue to celebrate our successes.

However, we must remain aware of the concerns of our constituencies and shape our strategies to maximize the effectiveness of contributed funds both in the near term and far into the future.

Seeing

AHEAD

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

Vern Snyder retired as vice president for institutional advancement at The University of Toledo in 2015, serving since 2001. He is a graduate of West Virginia University, with a master’s degree in music education. He has earned Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) status as well as Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive status (ACFRE), one of only 110 individuals with that distinction. He was AFP International’s 2016 Outstanding Fundraising Professional. He also serves on the ACFRE Certification Board and is a member of the AFP International Conference Education Committee.

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Putting the Success in

SUCCESSION PLANNING FOR AFP CHAPTERS

By DavID tInKer, CFre, FaFP, anD LIsa m. ChmIoLa, CFre

I

f you’ve ever sold a house, you are sure to make all the necessary repairs to ensure it’s in the best shape possible before putting it on the market. It’s your responsibility to turn it over to the next owners in the best shape possible.

The same is true for us as leaders of our AFP chapters.

We want to be sure we are handing over the keys of a solid chapter to our successors so they may continue our good work of leading colleagues in professional development.

Oftentimes, succession planning is not considered until a member steps into a leadership role in his or her chapter, but members of all levels can contribute to the health and growth of AFP on the local level.

Chapter leaders enter their roles Jamie Tobias, Greater Atlanta Chapter one of two ways: they volunteer, or a volunteer asks them. Derek deLouché, CFRE, director of resource development and membership services at the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies in Ottawa, Ontario, says he volunteered because he was looking to be known in the profession: “I was looking to Paula MacNeil, Cape take advantage of opportunities to Breton Chapter access education and mentorship at a different level. Serving in leadership of AFP allowed me to build a network that has helped advance my career.”

DeLouché is currently serving as president of the AFP Ottawa Chapter.

Anne Bradley, CFRE, director of development at Daytop New Jersey and president-elect of the AFP New Jersey Chapter with more than 440 members, was asked to join the board by a respected colleague.

“I felt that it was something that would be a good fit for my skills,” Bradley says, adding that she found her

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chapter full of amazing and inspiring members. “I wanted to be more a part of it.”

Networking opportunities are what motivated Cindy Atmar, CFRE, now director of philanthropic resources at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, when she joined the AFP San Antonio board in the 2000s after serving on the National Philanthropy Day committee.

“I am still friends with many of the people with whom I served on the board,” Atmar says.

Some members, like Matthew Cottle, CFRE, senior director at CCS Fundraising, take past leadership experience from one chapter to a new chapter. Cottle joined what was NSFRE in Houston in the 1980s, served on the board of the AFP Western Pennsylvania Chapter and was founding president of the AFP San Luis Obispo County Chapter through the end of 2016.

Cottle felt his past experience would be helpful in starting the new chapter, which is now at 50 members.

“I’d been serving almost entirely at the national/ international level for the past 10 years and thought it was time to support the local program,” Cottle says.

Local chapter leadership also can lead to AFP International involvement. Michael Baker, CFRE, a founder and partner at M3 Development in New Jersey, says his experience as president of the AFP New Jersey Chapter has helped him in his current role on the international board. Baker says getting volunteers engaged at any level in a chapter could be fruitful for leadership development.

“Ask them to volunteer on a committee, a project, a task force,” Baker says. “It’s not just about building and developing leaders for the chapter. It’s about developing leaders for the future [in our industry].”

Advice From the Trenches on Recruiting and Preparing Leaders What do current and former leaders wish they had known before taking on their role? Some, like Atmar, wish they www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

had known more about AFP as a whole. (Often, new board members learn a great deal about the overall AFP organization through their board work as they interact more with international headquarters staff.)

Baker says he wishes he had known in the business of running a chapter that he would be disappointed in people. “The expectation is you want everything to go well and for people to do what they say … and for the most part, they do,” he says. But when life happens and leaders need to be flexible, “You have to pivot and get others involved.”

Cottle says that he wishes he had remembered an old adage. “‘Ten percent of the people do 90 percent of the work’ ... but on the other hand, an organization can’t function with only leaders and not doers too,” he says.

Succession planning and determining candidates for the board should be the role of your chapter’s Committee on Directorship. Committee members should review the board’s current composition and seek people who have expressed an interest.

Developing a line of succeeding roles has been helpful for some chapters.

“Traditionally, we have tried to prepare for one year of succession planning, but this year, we started recruiting for two years’ worth of leadership for key leadership roles,” says Dawn Koenning, president of the Greater Houston Chapter and founder of Clarity Consultants, LLC. “We recruited future chairs for our National Philanthropy Day Awards Luncheon and our Ask the Experts Conference and for the key committees so that there are significant learning opportunities for those leaders preparing for their chairmanship.”

The Greater Atlanta Chapter also utilizes committee service as a way to identify leadership, says Jamie Tobias, CFRE, major-gifts officer for the Greater Atlanta Community Foundation and AFP Greater Atlanta Chapter president.

“We try and have as many committees as we reasonably can manage. From those committee volunteers come your next chairs, VPs and chapter leaders. Our board members have a great eye for spotting emerging talent,” Tobias says.

Ken Miller, CFRE, president of Denali FSP Fundraising Consultants and president of the AFP Alaska Chapter, says they review several factors in prospective board members: n

Participation at the chapter level.

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Length of time in the profession. (He notes they attempt to have a mix of experience on the board.)

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Physical location (again, attempting to have members from areas all over the state).

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The Atlanta chapter has a diversity fellows program, in which many of the fellows are young professionals and are paired with a more seasoned professional who meets with the fellows monthly to mentor them. n

Additional areas of diversity including, but not limited to, background, gender and age.

Once a board slate is identified, Miller says the membership votes to approve the recommended slate at the chapter’s annual Alaska Philanthropy Day held in November.

The AFP Ottawa Chapter, deLouché says, has a formal nomination process and utilizes current board members to help in outreach. They ask each prospective board member to fill out a form and attach his or her résumé. The form includes AFP Ottawa’s expectations and asks them why they want to be a board member.

Each prospective board member then has a one-on-one call or meeting with the person who will be president during their term to ensure the candidate understands the direction the chapter is moving in, and so the presidentelect and candidate have a chance to compare working styles to maximize success.

Vanessa Mosley, CFRE, chief development officer at the American Red Cross Greater Cincinnati-Dayton Region and president of the AFP Cincinnati Chapter, says that their board has a month-by-month planning guide to help build a leadership plan: “[We] have built resources specific to our chapter that should make a positive difference for future chapter leaders.”

Baker suggests having a dialogue with candidates prior to the recruitment process so they understand the expectations (e.g., service, giving). “You want to leave something better than when you were there … You want to be able to have a legacy of strength of leaders that are following [you],” he says.

Once future leaders are in place, Bradley says they use meetings between the previous person and the new person to pass along knowledge and material. This provides an opportunity to brainstorm for the next year so the next person “won’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

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Keeping Past Leaders Engaged Past leaders can continue to serve their chapters informally as mentors to new board members or formally on committees to continue their involvement.

They have an institutional knowledge that can readily be shared, if they are asked, says Heba Mahmoud, director of chapter services at AFP International.

“Because of the leaders’ trainings and experience with the chapter and the international organization, they have a knowledge base that allows them to help in areas that might need assistance at the chapter level,” she says.

The Greater Houston Chapter has specifically instituted a quarterly luncheon program to keep advanced professionals engaged, Koenning says. This is separate from monthly general luncheons and in response to a member survey identifying a need for more specialized networking for more experienced professionals.

Mosley says she started an informal “Presidents Luncheon” at the Cincinnati chapter. Their chapter frequently polls past presidents for input on key strategies. Other ways the Cincinnati chapter works with past leaders include involving them as faculty for CFRE information sessions and review courses and engaging them as mentors when possible.

The Alaska chapter has a Past Presidents Council that is led by the immediate past president, Miller says. This leader then has the responsibility to communicate with and involve past presidents in various chapter events, especially Alaska Philanthropy Day.

Young Professionals Another source for future leaders in AFP chapters is young professionals. Bradley says the New Jersey chapter specifically looks to their Young Professionals Committee for future leaders and has successfully recruited a board member from this group.

In Atlanta, the chapter has two specific roles on the board for young professionals as chair and co-chair of that committee. But their participation is not limited by this. In fact, Tobias counts nine young professionals on his board, about one-quarter of the board membership.

He attests this to a focus on recruiting younger professionals starting about five years ago, around the same time the chapter became active on social media.

“The key for our chapter is engaging the young professionals early and having leadership positions for them to learn and grow into new leaders,” Tobias says.

“They are bringing great, fresh ideas. We are embracing what they bring to the table.”

The Atlanta Young Professionals Committee produces a variety of programming, including happy

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hours and targeted professional development activities.

For example, Tobias cites a recent two-hour workshop at a local improv theater for members, covering how to use improv in fundraising. “They were a great test market to see if it would be something that would be well received, and it was,” he says.

The Atlanta chapter also has a diversity fellows program, in which many of the fellows are young professionals and are paired with a more seasoned professional who meets with the fellows monthly to mentor them.

“It helps engage them with the chapter … They get a scholarship for the year to attend programs,” says Tobias, adding the program is now run by two diversity fellow alumni and gives ownership to young professionals.

The Atlanta board is also working to bridge the gap between the young professionals and more seasoned members. Tobias says the chapter established a VIP program for senior professionals, finding most engagement comes from midcareer professionals.

“They really help bridge the gap between those two generations,” he says, citing their “War Stories” program, where young professionals can hear experiences of VIP members. The session is open to all members but geared toward younger professionals.

When Succession Planning Is Challenging Even the best planning cannot prepare you for all that happens in running a chapter. Life happens. Members change jobs or even move across the country. Tobias says in recent history, they had a president-elect resign to take a job in another community.

Alice Ferris, CFRE, ACFRE, will serve as president of the Northern Arizona Chapter for the third time in its 25-year history. The challenges for their 40-member chapter include physical distance and travel time to chapter programming and events. “We don’t have a succession plan. We struggle to get people to show up to in-person meetings,” she says. The board’s current challenge is to determine whether the chapter should continue on its own or merge with a larger chapter.

That is what happened for the AFP Middle Georgia Chapter, which merged with the Atlanta chapter. Tobias says they have absorbed the approximately 20 members and are working on how to engage them, as many of these members are 75 minutes away or more from the Atlanta area. The immediate past president of the Middle Georgia Chapter is looped into the process, and there is a role for a liaison on the Atlanta board, he says. www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

Cape Breton Island formed an AFP chapter in 2014. Located in Nova Scotia, Canada, a groundswell arose among the local fundraising community there, physically located more than 800 miles away from the next closest AFP chapter, which presents a different set of challenges. Paula MacNeil, CFRE, director of development at Cape Breton University, has served as president since the chapter’s founding. In addition to some longer officer tenures, she says they’ve also worked to combine roles or have two members share a role to ensure leadership is in place.

“The most challenging aspect of working in a relatively isolated area with a small population base is that our membership is not large. Most of our members are also new to the profession of fundraising and have small shops, where fundraising is a limited portion of their overall work responsibilities,” MacNeil says.

MacNeil says creative approaches are what’s working for their chapter, such as partnering with other related organizations on activities.

“As an example, our chapter works with the local Chamber of Commerce where an annual event which inducted members into the Business Hall of Fame now also inducts members into the Philanthropy Hall of Fame. As a small chapter, we were not able to hold our own philanthropy recognition event, but working with the local chamber, we combined forces to create an event, which recognizes our community leaders in both business and philanthropy,” she says.

Training and Resources Available From AFP So where can chapter leaders turn for help? AFP International offers leadership training at both the international conference in the spring and at the Leadership Academy in the fall.

A number of chapter leader meetings take place at the international conference, including a chapter leader board workshop. The workshop consists of a two-hour session on the Tuesday of the conference, a dinner with chapter leaders and a full-day training on Wednesday.

At the Leadership Academy, sessions on general leadership topics are offered, such as a Chapter Leadership 101-style introduction to board leadership. There is also a 201-level session for seasoned board members, in which leaders learn about chapter management and AFP International as an organization. The session also includes an open forum to ask questions of peers and an overview of the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy. Leaders walk away from the advanced session with a 3,000-foot overview of the organization.

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Mosley says that she found the Leadership Academy to be very helpful for presidents-elect preparing to lead a chapter. Vincent Law, CFRE, MInstF(Dip), CEO and founder of PhilanthroKids Academy in Hong Kong and board member of the AFP Hong Kong Chapter, says he has built friendships with other chapter leaders through the Leadership Academy.

In addition to these in-person trainings, the AFP International website offers resources for board members, including a chapter management resource guide, a collegiate chapter resource guide and various chapter leader resources (http://www.afpnet.org/audiences/ chapters.cfm?navItemNumber=525&navItem Number=565#CRG).

You get back what you put into a chapter, Mahmoud says. Keep these key points in mind for success in succession planning: n

Take inventory: Look at where your board is right now. How is it comprised? Are your future board officers already serving in a volunteer capacity?

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Look toward the future: Where does your chapter want to be in a few years?

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Make sure the succession plan is a living document: Don’t just talk about it at a meeting and then file it away, never to see the light of day again.

When thinking about the future of your chapter, follow the same succession planning principles that we use for our employers’ organizations. Reach out to other chapters to see what has worked for them, utilize online resources and partake in the various leadership trainings and opportunities AFP International offers. This will help your chapter succeed long into the future.

Lisa M. Chmiola, CFRE, is director of major gifts and planned giving at St. Agnes Academy and is an AFP Master Trainer.

Dave Tinker, CFRE, FAFP, is vice president of advancement at ACHIEVA, an adjunct professor of informatics in Muskingum University’s Master of Information Strategy, Systems and Technology program and an AFP Distinguished Fellow.

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Technology Market:

EVOLVING THE WORKPLACE By mIChaeL nILsen

PHOTO COURTESY OF LYNNE WESTER

(This is the first in a series of occasional columns about the expanding technology fundraisers are using in the workplace and what options are available to charities.

These columns won’t provide reviews but will give readers a sense of what is out there and how fundraisers are effectively implementing technology to support and augment their everyday work.)

I

f you’re a fundraiser and the issue of technology comes up, you’re likely to think of databases and social media—systems, programs and devices that will (should!) help make your fundraising easier and capable of reaching more people effectively and efficiently.

But technology is having just as profound an impact on our workplace itself and how we work, including communications, data-sharing and the preparation of documents and presentations. And some of it integrates so easily into our typical workday routine that the average person (read: donor) isn’t likely to notice.

Take, for example, Tides Canada, headquartered in Vancouver, which works to help Canadians secure a

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healthy environment in ways that promote social equity and economic prosperity. Call its offices, and you wouldn’t realize that they do not have any phone lines.

Tides Canada transitioned to Skype for Business just this year, and it’s installed on its computers and all staff members’ smartphones. Instead of spending money on phone lines, the organization invested in ensuring its building had sufficient Internet access to make the idea work effectively.

“It’s been a great change and allowed us to be more mobile, share screens and generally be more productive,” says Melissa Leite, senior development coordinator for Tides Canada. “We did have to engage in some significant training, but the system is seamless, and donors don’t even notice unless I specifically set up a call with them. Best of all, our setup with Skype for Business has been more cost-efficient than using phones, and with a lot more features.”

Moving to the Cloud Of course, any discussion of technology and its impact on the workplace has to start with cloud-based computing. You’ve probably heard of it, and more than 90 percent of charities are using the cloud, according to a survey by Techsoup Global of organizations in 88 different countries, though companies are using the technology mostly in very limited ways. (If you’re afraid to ask, and you shouldn’t be, cloud-based computing refers to the accessing, storage and usage of data and programs over the Internet instead of using your computer and its hard drive. The “cloud” simply refers to the Internet and is a better image than a bunch of vacuum tubes!)

The Techsoup Global survey found that charities are mostly using the cloud for email (55 percent of charities www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

say they use it for that purpose) and social networking (47 percent). And there’s still a number of charities (36 percent) that say they don’t intend to transfer a significant portion of their operations to the cloud, with another 11 percent planning on the change taking more than three years.

In contrast, Dave Tinker, vice president of advancement for ACHIEVA in Pittsburgh, Pa., has seen his organization move completely from Microsoft Office to Google Drive and integrate the cloud into almost all of their operations. He cites the ability to retrieve information and files at any time, and from any location or device with a connection to the Internet, as transformative for his organization.

“Because my agency has many sites in a multicounty region, it was important that everyone could use the same system,” says Tinker. “Cloud-based technologies have allowed us to do just that and keep the same computing capabilities we had with desktop versions of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. The move also saved us money on server costs, as well as freeing up our IT staff to work on other projects since they were no longer needed to constantly maintain our own servers.”

Convenience and Cost One of the biggest benefits of new technology—and the widening availability of technology—is the seemingly constant reduction in the costs of such technology.

Nonprofits can save money (and often a lot) by switching to cloud-based or other technologies, and at the same time, the decreased costs of technology may open up new opportunities as well.

For example, John Dawe, president of Dawe Consulting in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., notes that the integration of video conferencing using Google Hangouts has changed the way organizations communicate with their teams and constituents.

The technology is integral to working with Equality Pennsylvania’s geographically diverse board and staff.

The group holds some of its regular “face-to-face” meetings without the necessity of costly travel. The group has also used technology to hold telephone town hall meetings, group updates with key constituent groups and some donor meetings. Dawe notes that many donors have appreciated that the organization is not spending lots of travel money when these meetings are possible online.

But communication is just one way technology can transform organizations, and the possibilities are

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endless when one starts thinking creatively. Lynne Wester, founder and principal of Donor Relations Guru™, brings up this idea for your next fundraising event: Embedding iPads into each table’s floral arrangement, so attendees can easily follow along with the presentation and access other information about the organization and its cause.

“There is a lot of technology out there that can dramatically affect the way we work,” says Wester. “But one of the great challenges of our sector is that most organizations don’t have a great way of training people about technology. We’re often given new programs—or if we’re lucky, new smartphones—and told to ‘Go to it’ with very little or no training. Given the resources of most organizations, fundraisers are going to have to get into the habit of taking the lead and being proactive in finding what kind of new technologies are out there and what we can best make use of.”

Dawe agrees, but urges that fundraisers and nonprofit leaders should be concerned and cautious about the integration of technology and information security. “The first thing we think of is typically financial transaction security and the care and management of credit card transactions,” he says.

“But we must also be concerned about confidential donor information, personnel data and public-facing information.”

Dawe noted that in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, the author talks about how leaders use technology. It is not simply as a solution to a problem but as an accelerator to take existing best practices and increase effectiveness by standardizing processes and driving engagement. Collins asserts, “When used right, technology becomes an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it.” Great companies refrain from adopting technology because it’s trendy. Each tool they choose to leverage is carefully selected.

Amazing transformation is possible through technology, and even changes in basic, fundamental areas such as communications can bring about significant impact. Fundraisers should not be afraid to experiment and move forward with new technologies, but not without good planning and solid fundamentals.

Michael Nilsen has been with AFP for more than 20 years and serves as the association’s vice president for communications and public policy. He helps lead a variety of programs related to AFP’s advocacy, public affairs, awards and media relations work.

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hello in there

Virtual Reality and Nonprofit Advocacy

By BraD LIChtensteIn

I

f you attended the 2015 Davos World Economic Forum, you flew to Switzerland. But in Switzerland, you were transported to another world, where you met a young Syrian refugee named Sidra. You joined her in a Jordanian refugee camp of 84,000 souls, witnessed her school in a makeshift classroom, watched as she and her friends anticipated fresh bread from an improvised bakery and found yourself on the outskirts of the camp, where she and a few friends played soccer. You never left your seat. Virtual reality (VR) took you there.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was so taken by “Clouds Over Sidra” that he insisted the experience be shared at the Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in Kuwait two months later. The conference organizers expected to raise $2.3 billion.

In the end, they raised $3.8 billion. According to the communications director for UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), one out of every six people who saw the film donated, twice the normal rate.

This was not an aberration. Way back in 2012, the “early days” of this iteration of VR (VR has been around since the ’50s), journalist Nonny de la Peña and her company, Emblematic Group, debuted “Hunger in LA” at the Sundance Film Festival. And even though the graphics were not nearly as sophisticated as they are today, the scene of a man collapsing from hunger in a food line in Los Angeles moved people to tears. It also moved people to donate $2.4 million at a gala fundraiser.

What is going on here?

Let me take you back to an ordinary day at the food co-op here in Milwaukee, where I live. I was shopping and ran into Kelly Fitzsimmons, now one of my business partners at Custom Reality Services, our VR company.

A serial entrepreneur, she and I had met on a panel about storytelling and business. Since then, for almost a year, she’d been trying to get her husband, Jeff, and I together to talk because Jeff was “messing around with some funny cameras.” There in the baking supplies and gluten-free aisle, we finally met, and I coaxed out of him

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the discovery that he was tinkering in VR. At the time, I was making “Be Visible,” videos for Planned Parenthood featuring women sharing their stories of abortion. Jeff described what we now all associate with VR: immersion.

Imagine a world all around you. I leapt at the idea of creating an experience that would put you in the shoes of women seeking abortion services and having to navigate through anti-abortion protesters, a scene that unfolds hundreds of times every day across America.

A project was born. “Across the Line” debuted at Sundance in 2016, created by our company and Nonny’s.

I’m sharing this with you because there’s something at work that is causing donors to escalate their giving after seeing “Clouds Over Sidra” or “Hunger in LA” or countless other VR experiences. A veteran film editor friend who saw our piece sums it up nicely. After he watched our approximately eight-minute experience, he came out with the headset, his eyes wet with tears, and declared, “You did it!” What did we do? As he put it, and I’m paraphrasing, “We documentary filmmakers [my trade for the last 23 years] try to find moments that move you in a 90-minute film, but in just eight minutes, you moved me beyond what I could have imagined.”

Of course, I was flattered. But more importantly, he demonstrates what is so powerful about VR. Done well, VR immerses you in a world and in a swath of emotions. It gives you a point of view that is radically different than what you experience with conventional films. And it does it in a short period of time.

“Pencils of Promise” is another success story. It raised almost $2 million in a single night to support schools in Ghana. Not only was it immersive, it took hundreds of people someplace they likely would never have visited on their own. It showed donors exactly what their money was accomplishing by landing them in a classroom in Ghana, with kids and teachers. With VR, they understood what their support could accomplish more than any lecture, slideshow or video could have conveyed. This time, it took only 90 seconds to provide donors with a compelling experience of how their dollars would change lives. www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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There’s something else going on too, and this might not last as VR becomes more commonplace. But for now, when there is VR in the room, it is a spectacle. You get people talking by handing out headsets, such as the Samsung Gear VR. Planning and executing a moment in the program when everyone silently watches a film and then shares the moment of return to the real world emotionally impacted is magical. Not only can VR take you on a journey like no other, watching people do it is fascinating. Besides the “look around” experience, there is also the “walk around” experience. Using an HTC Vive puts you in a 3D volumetric space where you can walk around. For instance, in the last scene of “Across the Line,” you are a woman who must walk through and by anti-abortion protesters shouting at you. You literally walk around in real life. Picture an area near the entrance to an event where everyone must pass. Lines queue up for the VR experience. A monitor above the attendees’ heads shows what the participants are seeing.

You hear participants react, see them moving around as if the world they are navigating is real. They reach for things and step gingerly over a VR curb by a street. You may see tears or exhilaration the moment a participant takes off the headset. Even if you don’t get a turn, you know you are witnessing something special.

It’s not about the technology alone, though. There’s a measurable difference between compelling storytelling and, well, let’s say it: boring. I will venture to say there are two essential ingredients to compelling storytelling in VR. First, a deep appreciation of the modality. Storytelling in 360 using any of a range of techniques, from video to computer animation to videogrammetry, still requires engaging subject matter. You need a character or set of characters that interests audiences and some kind of dramatic tension. There are many ways to accomplish this, but just like in documentary, a recitation of information by a talking head or otherwise is not engaging in any medium. I have seen too many examples of this to count. I think some are the result of “story by committee,” which happens when an organization with expertise in fundraising and delivering services tries to get into the storytelling business or tries to overmanage a filmmaker they’ve hired.

The other mistake I’ve seen is attempting to transfer conventional storytelling techniques and elements to the 360 sphere. For example, I’ve seen flat video appearing on parts of the sphere with text elsewhere. Or I see action that takes place only in front of you rather than being conceived as filling the entire sphere in a beautiful or inventive way. I see missed opportunities to take advantage

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of sound design that woos you to notice what is happening in different directions.

What this means for fundraisers and nonprofits is that VR doesn’t come cheaply. In fact, budgets are often about half of what a feature documentary may cost in order to create an effective eight-minute experience. It is easy to spend north of $200,000–300,000 because of the cost of preproduction, the technology and the postproduction it requires, as well as the computing power necessary.

But don’t fret. That’s not always the case. Visit the front page of The New York Times on any given day and you can see the “Daily VR.” These 360 videos are short, sometimes very compelling and much cheaper. If your goal is to deliver an experience that is quick and more a slice of a moment rather than a layered story experience, you may not need to spend gobs of money. We made a 360 video of Milwaukee’s silly Polar Bear Plunge into Lake Michigan for less than $3,000. Sometimes that will do the trick, and if shot well, it can be very enticing.

In fact, one of my favorite VR experiences was a Daily VR in The New York Times that puts you lap level with an engineer in a wheelchair as you move through the crowded New York City subway, exploring how accessible the physical environment is. I can imagine this simple piece becoming the centerpiece of a fundraising campaign or awareness campaign for more accessibility.

There are so many rich possibilities for VR, from engagement campaigns to surgery, mindfulness training, pain relief, posttraumatic stress disorder treatment and improving police-community relations. The technology is improving by the minute, and the distribution is getting more prolific as headsets get smaller and cheaper. There will be more convergence between augmented reality and virtual reality and our daily lives.

We are at the very beginning of this phase, but forecasts predict 25 million headsets sold in 2020. It’s wise to dip a toe in, at least, and learn what virtual reality might be able to do for you.

Brad Lichtenstein is an awardwinning filmmaker and president of 371 Productions. He has won two duPonts: one for the recent Al Jazeera America series Hard Earned (produced

by Kartemquin Films) and another for his 2001 film, Ghosts of Attica (produced with Lumiere Productions). His first virtual reality film, “Across the Line,” about accessing abortion amid hostile protests, premiered at Sundance in 2016.

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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Following the Path to Donor Nirvana: The Six Realizations Approach

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Small Shop Success: Building Your Development Dream Team

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March 8, 2017 The Use of Virtual Reality in Fundraising Presenter: Brad Lichtenstein

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March 20, 2017 Powerful Events Where Philanthropy Thrives: How to Engage New Donors with Four Vital Audience Development Strategies Presenter: Kathy Kingston

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I Wish I’d Thought of That 10 Years Ago! Launching a Successful Legacy Program

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Rock It! How to be a Great Manager and a Fundraiser at the Same Time

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Mission Possible: Get in the Door and Get What You Came For

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Storyliving: Creating Transformational Donor Engagement Experiences to Inspire Major Gifts

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September 18, 2017

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You Can Do It: Research at Your Fingertips

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hello in there

Building the House of Philanthropy By aLICe L. FerrIs, CFre, aCFre, anD James s. anDerson, CFre

JIM ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY © HOPI EDUCATION ENDOWMENT FUND

“T

hat’s not how it works,” Jim challenged.

Driving out to the Hopi Nation in northern Arizona in 2007, we were discussing fundraising concepts that we were planning to share with our friends at the Hopi Education Endowment Fund and The Hopi Foundation. The Hopi Nation is a geographically vast and sparsely populated area in northeastern Arizona.

As we worked with this Native American community, we were learning that certain principles weren’t fully translating to this rural and diverse population.

The issue at hand was the donor pyramid. Developed originally for campaigns in predominantly educational institutions, the donor pyramid is a frequently cited illustration of how donors should increase their giving to an organization. In the classic donor pyramid, contributors begin supporting an organization with small, first-time gifts and then progress to repeat gifts, major gifts, capital gifts and planned gifts. Over recent years, many have disagreed with the model, and we were no exception.

“That’s not how it works on the farm. That’s not how it works out here. You rarely help someone the first

The House of Philanthropy

time by handing them cash. The first thing you do is you show up,” Jim continued. “You pitch in, you carry your bucket of water. If you’ve got a truck, you drive it. If you’ve got some food, you bring it.”

We began to focus on the different ways that donors support an organization without contributing cash and realized that our challenge was not necessarily the donor pyramid but the kinds of giving that were not captured in it. Over time, our model evolved into the “house of philanthropy.”

The Foundation At the base of the house is the culture of philanthropy.

Every community has some form of philanthropy, but they may define it differently, depending on their cultural values. To be able to understand the context of a community’s giving, you need to examine their vocabulary for philanthropy, their definitions of mutual benefit and their currency of giving. For example, the Hopi have three words that clearly articulate philanthropy: sumi’nangwa, nami’nangwa and hita’nangwa. Sumi’nangwa means to come together to do activities for the benefit of all, out of a compelling desire and commitment to contribute or return something of value or benefit to the society. Nami’nangwa means to help one another or give aid in times of need, without having to be asked to do so and without expecting compensation for the deed. Hita’nangwa means taking the initiative to take care of something without having to be instructed, asked or reminded and regardless of whether anyone will notice your effort.1 These fundamental values clearly influence how fundraising can be done within the Hopi culture and define how a contributor is connected with the organization. Furthermore, these values reinforce that being present and working to better the society as a whole is more valued than just making a cash donation. http://www.hopifoundation.org/the-hopi-way/values

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www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

hello in there

The Pillars Supporting the house are four pillars of “noncash” contribution: volunteer time, in-kind service, transactions and goods. These four pillars represent the various ways a donor may choose to engage with and support the organization without making a traditional cash donation.

In the case of volunteer service, they are investing their personal time to support the work of the organization or the people at the organization. All donors take actions dependent on various motivations. In the case of volunteering, donors may be contributing their time because they may not have discretionary financial resources. But sometimes volunteers are there because of respect or loyalty to those running the organization. They want to help and be a part of the team. Perhaps they volunteer because they want to be directly participating in the work. They may choose to volunteer because of the social interactions they get to enjoy by being present. There are also those donors who volunteer before giving cash so they can learn more about the culture of the organization.

If someone provides a service for an organization that the organization would otherwise pay for, that expense savings is the same as cash. Few capital campaigns are completed without in-kind contributions from contractors. Electricians, painters, plumbers and carpenters may all choose to support an organization by donating their skills for free or at discounted rates.

Any individual with skills or resources may choose to contribute services. From the company that donates porta potties for your special event to the consultant who trains your board for free, these in-kind services often are cash equivalent.

Transactional donations deliver a tangible benefit to donors. They may purchase a product such as a raffle ticket, a box of cookies or something from a silent auction. Or they may buy a ticket or pay a registration fee for an event that benefits the organization. They may make that purchase even if they have zero interest in the work of that organization. Every gift a nonprofit receives exists on a spectrum from transaction to philanthropy. An organization may put on a concert or host a “fun run,” at which they will have many people who may never invest in the organization again. Purely transactional gifts may never repeat. There will be, however, some who decide to participate because of the cause and who are more likely to invest again.

Sometimes, donors give you “stuff”: goods or items that either the charity needs for its work or that can sell Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

for a return. An organization may run a “secondhand” store that needs a delivery truck. If a local car dealer donates that truck, it is the same as giving the organization tens of thousands of dollars.

The tax-deductible nature of gifts categorized in the pillars may vary, and donors may remain in the pillars for their whole relationship with a charity.

The Roof Moving up to the roof is a more familiar model of cash gifts. There are small cash gifts, ongoing gifts, onetime large gifts, multiyear transformational gifts and intergenerational gifts. Small gifts may be a one-time contribution triggered by a natural disaster, a request from a friend or a random gift online and may never be repeated. Ongoing gifts may be small or large and are repeated consistently, such as monthly giving programs.

Multiyear transformational gifts are significant gifts for that donor as well as the charity and may vary in amount from organization to organization. Finally, intergenerational gifts are what are traditionally known as “planned gifts,” but we find this terminology more applicable across cultures.

In the House This house doesn’t indicate a progression up, nor does it indicate a particular entry point. Donors may begin at any point in the pillars or the roof and may not stay. Perhaps it is a one-time visit, or maybe the donor moves in. What we’ve captured, however, is that all giving, regardless of how it is done, is important to the overall structure, and it is all built on a culture of philanthropy.

Alice L. Ferris, MBA, CFRE, ACFRE, is founding partner of GoalBusters, providing outsourced development for small nonprofits; integrated fundraising, marketing and strategic planning; and customized education and training.

Alice chairs the Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive board and is a member of the CFRE International board. James Anderson, CFRE, partner, GoalBusters, migrated into the nonprofit arena in 2005 after two decades in sales and sales training. Jim specializes in marketing strategy, social media, sales, sponsorship and board training. A past honoree as Northern Arizona Fundraising Professional of the Year, he has been a CFRE since 2013.

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The State of Giving

By Ben mILLer

T

he 2016 Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s (FEP) numbers are in. America’s nonprofit organizations posted a 3 percent gain in revenue of $267 million over 2015, according to the FEP’s annual survey. This survey is based on data collected from 10,829 organizations by DonorPerfect, Bloomerang, Neon and eTapestry. The more than 10,000 nonprofits raised $9.129 billion in 2016, due in part to a slight (0.6 percent) increase in the number of 49,421 donors who gave.

The report illustrates that although there was a 3 percent gain, the size of the organization influences the amount of increase experienced. It revealed that organizations raising $5 million or more posted a sizeable gain in revenue of 14.6 percent, while organizations raising less than $100,000 had a negative rate of growth of -10.4 percent. All organizations raising $100,000 or more had revenue gains, and the percentage of that gain increased directly with the size of the organization.

FEP’s annual survey also highlights the number of donors and revenue lost by donors lapsing or downgrading compared to increases from new, recovered and upgraded donors. In 2016, for every $100 gained, $95 was lost, and for every 100 donors gained, 99 were lost.

The survey also produces a Retention Supplement, based on the Growth in Giving (GiG) data. The 2016 FEP supplement reports that, overall, donor retention has been declining steadily since 2008, from 50 percent to 45 percent.

In addition, the supplement notes that an organization’s age also appears to influence donor retention. Those nonprofits in operation for five or less years had an average overall retention rate of 40 percent compared to organizations in operation for 30 years, whose retention rate was 46 percent.

This means it will be increasingly difficult for nonprofit organizations to increase annual gift revenue without relying heavily on new or lapsed donors. New donor acquisition costs are higher, and their retention averages 27.76 percent compared to repeat donor retention at 64.8 percent.

Balancing the expense and porous nature of new donors with the stability of existing donors to meet long-term growth-in-giving goals is a real challenge for many organizations. The first step in meeting this challenge is to understand an organization’s own donor retention performance and then compare that performance to the industry.

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Nonprofits are now in the digital age of big data, which makes it possible for AFP to report fundraising trends across the industry using real data contained in the National Fundraising Fitness Statistics data set. It also is possible for all nonprofits to compare their fundraising results with these AFP GiG and FEP national statistics. Nonprofits can conduct this comparative analysis and set benchmarks for their future performance.

The first step for any nonprofit to conduct its own results evaluation begins with the Fundraising Fitness Test, a free Excel-based tool that provides reports of more than 100 different metrics (see www.afpfep.org/Tools). Fitness test reports also provide national averages for each of these data points for use by nonprofits of any size or history of fundraising.

Behind all this data and its informative analysis is the joint program of AFP and the Urban Institute, who began this collaboration with FEP in 2006. These efforts were expanded and coordinated in 2013 into the Growth in Giving Initiative by AFP, the Urban Institute and DonorPerfect. These expanded research efforts also are fully supported by pioneering data management firms Bloomerang, Neon and eTapestry, all of whom provide anonymous, real-time gift transaction data.

This collaboration is led by an all-volunteer group chaired by Erik Daubert, ACFRE. Members include Jon Biedermann (DonorPerfect); Jay Love (Bloomerang); Bill Levis (Urban Institute); Nathan Dietz (Do Good Institute); Randy Fox (Philanthropic Service for Institutions); Ben Miller (DonorTrends); Jeff Gordy (Neon); Lori Overmyer (Goettler Associates); Jim Greenfield, ACFRE; and Cathlene Williams, Ph.D., from AFP. This group of professionals is committed to the GiG and FEP’s overall mission: to increase philanthropy’s share of America’s gross domestic product (GDP) from 2 percent to 3 percent.

Benjamin Miller is an entrepreneur drawing upon degrees in mathematics and systems engineering to optimize database marketing strategies for the nonprofit industry. Over the past ten years, Ben has helped raise billions of dollars first as director of analytics for CMS and now as chief analytic officer for DonorTrends, LLC. www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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Pathways to Success: What the 2017 AFP Compensation and Benefits Report Reveals About Fundraisers and Their Careers

By CathLene wILLIams, Ph.D.

I

n her 2002 book, Careers in Fundraising,1 author Lilya Wagner provides some case studies of individuals who have either sought fundraising as a career or have made the transition from another profession. She asked a number of successful fundraisers to share the stories of how they got into fundraising.

Many of those she interviewed began their careers in a different field and became involved in fundraising as a result of passion for a cause. Only one of those interviewed began her career as a fundraiser when she graduated from college. All said they learned “on the job” and from professional associations and associates.

Today, more and more students are learning about careers in fundraising through degree or certificate programs in universities around the world. Although many people currently working in the field became fundraisers after a successful career in another profession, an increasing number enter the field immediately after completing a degree in nonprofit management.

Background Before Fundraising According to the 2017 AFP Compensation and Benefits Report, 16 percent of respondents from the United States and 20 percent from Canada entered the profession immediately after completing school. A significant proportion came to fundraising from a public relations/marketing background (U.S., 14 percent; Canada, 17 percent) or from business (10 percent).

Ten percent of Canadian respondents listed sales and 10 percent of U.S. respondents listed education as their primary fields prior to fundraising.

More than a quarter (28 percent, U.S.; 27 percent, Canada) of those responding were under age 25 when they began their fundraising careers. Approximately the same percentage entered the profession between ages 25–29 (26 percent, U.S.; 27 percent, Canada) as between ages 30–39 (25 percent, U.S.; 29 percent, Canada).

Lilya Wagner, Careers in Fundraising, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.

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Asked whether they have taken continuing education programs or graduate courses (certificate, master’s or Ph.D.) related to fundraising, nonprofit management or philanthropy at a college or university, 43 percent of respondents said yes. Eleven percent plan to take courses in the future.

If we break this down by age group, we find that more than 60 percent of respondents who are 65 and older have taken this type of fundraising training (62 percent, U.S.; 67 percent, Canada), as well as more than 40 percent of 55 to 64-year-olds (44 percent, U.S.; 50 percent, Canada) and more than 40 percent of 45 to 54-year-olds (42 percent, U.S.; 52 percent, Canada). In the 35 to 44-year-old age range, 48 percent of U.S. and 37 percent of Canadian respondents have taken advanced fundraising training, and in the 25 to 34-year-old range, 42 percent of U.S. and 39 percent of Canadians have taken advanced training. Thirty-one percent of U.S. and 20 percent of Canadian respondents have taken training.

Breaking down the responses by years of experience in the field shows that in every category, at least a third and often more than half of respondents in both the U.S. and Canada have taken advanced training. As one would expect, those with the fewest years of experience in fundraising are the most likely to be planning to take courses at a college or university in the future.

Motivation to Become a Fundraising Professional The 2015 Diversity and Inclusion Survey Report, produced by AFP in cooperation with several other organizations,2 asked an open-ended question: “What motivated you to become a fundraising professional?”

The 2015 Diversity and Inclusion Survey Report was published by AFP in partnership with CFRE International, the African American Development Officers Network, the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, Native Americans in Philanthropy and the Grant Professionals Association (February 2016).

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Who Was Surveyed?

In the first quarter of 2017, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) conducted its 17th annual compensation and benefits study.

The study was conducted via a Web-based survey instrument, and respondents were asked to report on their salary, benefits and job satisfaction for the calendar year 2016.

The sampling frame for the study was AFP membership in the United States and Canada as of Jan. 1, 2017. At that time, there were 32,880 active members in the member database. All active members in the United States and Canada with email addresses were polled. A total of 23,868 members in the U.S. and 3,306 members in Canada successfully received the emailed survey. (Note: There is some chance of bias in that those with no email address were not surveyed. The decision to limit the survey to those with email addresses was based on cost-effectiveness and efficiency in data collection.)

A total of 2,791 AFP members (1,738 in the United States and 294 in Canada) submitted usable responses by the time the survey closed, a response rate of 7.3 percent for the United States and 8.9 percent for Canada. An analysis of the demographic characteristics of both groups of respondents indicated that they are fully representative of the AFP members in the United States and Canada.

We would like to thank the AFP members who took the time to complete the survey to make the 2017 AFP Compensation and Benefits Report possible.

A majority of respondents mentioned altruistic reasons: passion for the mission (32 percent), a desire to help others/give back (9 percent), a desire to make a difference (9 percent) or a desire to work for a nonprofit organization (9 percent). Twenty-six percent cited more practical reasons: wanting a career change or feeling unfulfilled in their previous jobs (13 percent) or because fundraising appeared to be a good career choice (13 percent). An additional 15 percent said they “fell into” fundraising because they were in the right place at the right time or it was part of their job.

The 2017 AFP Compensation and Benefits Report found that the primary reasons for choosing one’s current position were (1) the position offered more challenge or

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scope (24 percent of respondents) and (2) the position provided an opportunity to do more meaningful work (23 percent of respondents).

Finding and Negotiating for One’s Current Job Individuals who hold a CEO or CDO (chief data officer) position were the most likely to have used a recruiter in the job search process.

Those who hold CEO positions are the most likely to have an employment contract in the U.S. (32 percent of CEOs responding). In Canada, 60 percent or more of respondents in all staff positions reported having an employment contract.

A higher percentage of those who used a recruiter reported satisfaction with their salary negotiations than those who did not use a recruiter.

Consultants who are principals of their own firm, as well as CEOs and CDOs, were the most likely to feel they negotiated effectively for their salary.

Working Environment/Job Satisfaction Asked about their degree of satisfaction with various aspects of their work, respondents ranked these factors as shown in Table 1.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they have thought about leaving their job in the last year. The most frequently cited reasons for leaving a job include to earn a higher salary (43 percent), for more responsibility and authority (39 percent), “because I am frustrated by the work environment” (32 percent), because of greater career opportunities elsewhere (26 percent) and for more interesting or challenging work (25 percent).

Asked about current plans for their fundraising career, about half (49 percent) plan to serve in their present position indefinitely. Twenty-one percent would like to move to a higher management level at work, 3 percent would like to have different fundraising responsibilities in their jobs, 13 percent would like to move to a different fundraising organization and four percent would like to leave fundraising for a different field.

Individuals in the youngest age category and with the fewest years of experience were the most likely to report that they plan to leave fundraising for a different field.

Non-Caucasians in both countries were slightly more likely than Caucasians to report they plan to change positions or leave fundraising for a different field.

When asked about diversity and inclusiveness in their organizations, 79 percent of U.S. respondents and 75 percent www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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Table 1: Average Ratings of Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction, 2016, All Respondents (Scale: 1 is very dissatisfied; 5 is very satisfied) Alignment of my interests with the organization Relations with other volunteers Relations with co-workers Respect from community members Alignment of job with my work skills and expertise Variety of work Autonomy in doing my work The schedule of my working hours Relations with supervisors My fundraising career overall Job security Relations with board members Ability to balance work with my personal life Realistic expectations for my work performance Amount of recognition received for work Training opportunities available to me My current workload Adequate support services to do my job Opportunity for advancement

4.57 4.48 4.48 4.46 4.46 4.41 4.34 4.32 4.30 4.25 4.15 4.15 4.10 3.96 3.91 3.90 3.79 3.51 3.38

of Canadians said they agree or strongly agree that inclusiveness is a priority. Eighty-five percent of U.S. and 81 percent of Canadians agree or strongly agree that they feel welcomed and a part of the professional organizations to which they belong. Twenty-nine percent of U.S. and 43 percent of Canadian respondents feel that the number of ethnically diverse fundraisers has increased in the last 15 years.

Turnover The average U.S. respondent has worked for 3.2 employers as a fundraiser. In Canada, the average is 3.6.

The average number of years per employer (turnover rate) is 3.9 in the U.S. and 4.0 in Canada.

Salaries and Benefits Men continue to earn more than women in both the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., the overall average pay gap has consistently been $12,000 or more since 2002.

In Canada, the compensation gap narrowed significantly in 2007, with only a $3,353 difference in salaries.

However, in 2008–2016, the gap was significant ($9,000–15,000).

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

The gender pay gap for CEO and CDO positions in 2016 was about $8,000 for CEOs in the U.S. and $15,000 for CDOs. In Canada, the gap was approximately $8,000 for CEOs and $9,000 for CDOs. Those who reported that capital campaigns are their primary responsibility had the highest average salaries in the U.S. ($80,155), followed closely by those who work primarily in major gifts ($79,750). In Canada, the highest earners are those who reported face-to-face fundraising as their primary responsibility ($97,500), although the number reporting was only five. Those who primarily work on capital campaigns earned an average of $88,333.

Within the six regions of the United States, average salaries for all survey respondents ranged from $68,090 in the north central area to $74,636 in the northwest region. Within the three regions of Canada, average salaries for all respondents ranged from $65,468 in the eastern provinces area to $75,314 in the central provinces.

The possession of a certification credential correlates positively with salary. In the United States sample, CFREs reported average salaries more than $21,000 higher than the average for respondents with no certification. Those who hold the ACFRE reported average salaries more than $27,000 higher than noncredentialed individuals. The following table shows that relationship.

Table 2: Average and Median Salaries* by Certification, U.S. Respondents

CFRE

Average Median Salary Salary 2016 2016 $87,274 $84,500

ACFRE

$93,077

$96,250

12

FAHP

$53,000 $53,000

1

No Professional Certification

$65,890 $60,000

1,259

Number of Respondents 306

* Mean and median calculations exclude the top 5 percent of highest income cases to avoid skewness error.

In Canada, the possession of a certification credential correlates positively with salary. CFREs reported average salaries $25,000 higher than the average for respondents with no certification. The following table shows that relationship.

Those who work as fundraisers in higher education tend to have among the largest average salaries in both the U.S. and Canada ($79,226, U.S.; $90,438, Canada).

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Table 3: Average and Median Salaries* by Certification, Canadian Respondents

CFRE No Professional Certification

Average Median Salary Salary 2016 2016 $91,344 $85,000 $66,339

$62,116

Number of Respondents 72

n

Eighty-eight percent receive prescription drug coverage.

n

Sixty-nine percent receive vision insurance.

Among other health benefits provided to Canadian respondents are the following: n

Sixty-eight percent receive employee assistance program (EAP) benefits. Of these, 56 percent indicated that 50 percent or more of EAP premiums were paid by their employer.

n

Fifty-nine percent receive direct medical expense reimbursement (other than premiums).

n

Fifty-one percent receive restorative dental benefits.

n

Forty-one percent receive dental insurance for orthodontics.

n

Forty-one percent receive supplementary longterm care insurance.

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* Please send this...

Other high earners are those involved in international development/overseas aid in the U.S. ($80,289) and consultants in Canada ($86,438).

In the U.S., 91 percent of respondents answered yes to the question, “Does your organization provide medical insurance or other medical payment plans?” For 72 percent of respondents, managed care plans (health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations or point of service plans) were the primary benefit delivery system. Forty-three percent of respondents cited basic hospitalization/major medical as an available option.

In addition to basic medical coverage, dental insurance, prescription drug coverage and vision insurance were among the most common optional benefits offered to respondents. n

Eighty-one percent were offered dental insurance.

n

Sixty percent were offered prescription drug coverage.

n

Sixty-nine percent were offered vision insurance coverage.

Ninety-one percent of Canadian respondents answered yes to the question, “Does your organization provide medical insurance or other medical payment plans?”

Eighty-two percent reported their organizations provide basic hospitalization plans, and 67 percent reported their organizations provide major medical benefits. Seventyone percent indicated that 50 percent or more of their medical insurance costs were paid by their employer, while 11 percent said their employer pays no health insurance premiums.

In addition to basic medical coverage, dental insurance, prescription drug coverage and vision insurance were among the most common optional benefits offered. n

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Retirement plans are offered to 85 percent of U.S. and 65 percent of Canadian respondents.

In response to a question on leave policies, 95 percent of United States and 96 percent of Canadian respondents said they receive annual leave, 85 percent of U.S. and 89 percent of Canadians receive medical leave, 68 percent of U.S. and 77 percent of Canadians receive bereavement leave, 26 percent of U.S. and 43 percent of Canadians receive professional development leave, 29 percent of U.S. and 35 percent of Canadians receive unpaid parental leave, 26 percent of U.S. and 49 percent of Canadians receive paid parental leave, 5 percent of U.S. and 13 percent of Canadians receive sabbatical leave and 5 percent in both countries receive other leave.

Ninety-three percent in both countries reported that they receive other employment benefits, including payment of professional dues (71 percent, U.S.; 69 percent, Canada), group life insurance (60 percent, U.S.; 72 percent, Canada), disability insurance, cellular phones, parking and tuition reimbursement. Many organizations also support employees’ work on volunteer boards and committees (31 percent, U.S.; 24 percent, Canada).

Cathlene Williams, Ph.D., is a consultant specializing in curriculum development, project management and business writing. She is a former AFP staff member and is currently a consultant to AFP for ACFRE, research programs and other professional advancement projects.

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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Donors Must Trust Management Teams to Invest in and Optimize Impact Overemphasis on Grant Restrictions Reflects a Lack of Trust in Nonprofit Management Teams and Risks Undermining Organizational Performance Longer Term

By Dave PoLICano

N

onprofits are in a bind. They have limited resources, relatively few earned-income opportunities and then on top of it, they are held to stringent parameters as to how donor gifts can be allocated across their organizations.

This not only adds an administrative burden but also an unintentional operating rigidity that limits an organization’s ability to invest in core infrastructure and be innovative in experimenting with new solutions for generating impact. Without proper communication and effective upfront negotiation and internal coordination to establish that credibility, the implicit inference is that donors do not trust their management teams to use donated funds in the best way to achieve impact.

An unrestricted dollar does not mean unrestricted accountability. Firstly, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the American Institute of

Instead of achieving their desired outcome, these requirements hamstring management teams and limit their ability to invest in one of the most important assets of any organization: its people. Lower salaries, limited benefits and underinvestment in infrastructure and systems result in higher turnover and an emphasis on recruiting certain types of backgrounds more because they can “afford” to work in the sector instead of being the most qualified candidates.

Nonprofits face serious long-term consequences when overhead is underinvested in across both administrative and programmatic departments.

Ironically, one of these consequences is potentially less in-house sophistication and oversight related to internal controls and processes that may drive some of the rationale for such specific restrictions on donor funds.

In 2004, the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy

Nonprofits face serious long-term consequences when overhead is underinvested in across both administrative and programmatic departments.

Certified Public Accountants have standards and guidelines for how funds are counted and how they are reported in addition to the further scrutiny undergone by accredited accounting firms as part of a 990 preparation or independent audit. While it can be difficult to trace how donor funds were used from audits or 990 filings, many major donors ask for some form of impact reporting and representation illustrating the use of their funds, although it may be inconsistent or idiosyncratic. However it is represented, donors should be more interested in the multiyear impact of their dollars and hold management teams accountable to that level of performance rather than whether they spent the requisite amount of money in a respective budget-line item.

Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

along with the Urban Institute Center on Philanthropy and Indiana University, after a five-year research study, concluded that low overhead investment clearly undermines impact.1 Despite some movement from industry watchdogs, such as Guidestar, who have stepped away from a clearly delineated 80 percent of an organization’s budget being spent on program expenses and 20 percent on overhead, donors are still hesitant to give management teams more leeway in how they spend grants.

The unfortunate longer-term implication is while a dollar may not go to immediate programmatic needs because it is reinvested in administration, systems or https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/files/research/nonprofit_ overhead_brief_3.pdf

1

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From a strategic standpoint, there may be shifts in approach or a redetermination of the best way to allocate fundraised dollars for the most sustainable impact at an organization. personnel, management teams also lose the ability to optimize investment in the broader organization.

This chronic underinvestment over time will only serve to undermine the actual purpose and impact the organization was mandated to achieve.

From a strategic standpoint, there may be shifts in approach or a redetermination of the best way to allocate fundraised dollars for the most sustainable impact at an organization. With restricted grants, management teams are at times either perversely forced to focus on “suboptimal” areas of an organization’s mission because of the restrictions on available funds or alternatively unable to invest in new areas because grants are restricted to another program type that may not be generating attractive impact returns. This is critical because unlike a comparable for-profit organization, nonprofits are much slower to pivot, slower to combine and merge and are more restrained in trying pilots or innovating their business models. This structural rigidity could also hamper efforts to attract a diverse and engaged talent pool longer term.

Grant restrictions requiring funds to only be spent on “program” versus “overhead” creates a false dichotomy that for-profit firms are rarely, if ever, held to when raising money. Use of proceeds for “general working capital” or “marketing and branding development” is perfectly legitimate in the for-profit space but shunned in the nonprofit sector, even though these same needs are woefully underserved. Some examples of the material difference in the use of proceeds disclosures are noted below. Additionally, constraining investment in areas such as financial controls, IT infrastructure and data security could exacerbate the issues the restrictions are potentially trying to solve. Organizations with underinvested infrastructure and limited resources are also burdened by the administrative costs that come from tracking a multitude of grants at a very granular level, something rarely seen in the for-profit sector.

Doug White, philanthropy adviser at Doug White Advisors, has worked on both sides of the donor/ nonprofit relationship, and he notes that nonprofits put themselves in difficult positions because they don’t negotiate properly upfront when accepting restricted grants. White observes that donors can’t be blamed

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for having restriction requirements, and nonprofit organizations need to take a thoughtful approach to broadening the restrictions as part of the negotiation to support the aims of both sides. Development teams and fundraisers should feel comfortable maintaining integrity upfront in requiring flexibility to allow for a donor’s dollars to generate the intended impact. Nonprofits are recommended to have formal gift acceptance guidelines that include the minimum dollar amount to qualify for a designated gift and who should have authority to accept the gift if not part of a capital campaign directed by the organization. This helps provide additional controls and structure to mitigate the temptation to accept larger gifts as is without negotiating. Longer-term fundraising with smaller dollar amounts may require a catalyst like a specific campaign, but that would be more driven by the organization’s prerogatives, not at a donor’s behest.

White offers an example of a nonprofit providing educational services to underserved youth nationwide and a major donor requiring their dollars be restricted solely to a specific state. In most cases, nonprofits accept the initially offered restrictions to secure the donor funds. The risk is that keeping the restriction that tight might result in dollars not being used as quickly or efficiently if few students participate who are from the specified state. Instead, the restriction should be structured to prioritize funding so that, at any point, students from the restricted state receive funds first, but if there aren’t any students from the state, the organization can allocate to other locations in need.

Development teams need to be creative and comfortable moving the dialogue with a donor to achieve donor aims while also affording an organization flexibility to serve broader programmatic aims. While this may be better suited for face-to-face dialogue with major donors, corporations and foundations, the ability to curate messaging to a larger pool of smaller donors through digital mediums can position fundraising to be more flexible for an organization.

Fundraising teams can enhance these capabilities by considering the following: n

Taking the lead in optimizing coordination with finance, operations and senior management: It is crucial for these departments www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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to work hand in hand with their fundraising teams. Open dialogue, information transparency and investment in seamless data architecture can move the conversation from debating what the “right” number is to how to tell a compelling narrative, identify trends and continue to refine data extraction from the field. Finance and other departments can assure fundraisers that their main goal is securing funding, not spending the money raised, but more touchpoints and transparency will give both teams the opportunity to coordinate effectively so reporting to donors isn’t a surprise on the back end. Additionally, having credible data will provide comfort to prospective donors upfront as part of the negotiations. Senior management’s input is crucial in providing the larger context and key performance indicators that bring the vision together through donor reporting and marketing. n

Leveraging diversity and creating a center of excellence: Fundraising teams should have both experienced fundraising professionals but also those who have varied backgrounds and are great cultural fits. There is a lot of opportunity for fundraising teams to become centers of excellence for the organization by establishing core requirements the team needs to effectively engage with outside stakeholders as well as bringing learnings from the field in-house that will inform how the organization can better position itself within the service area. If done effectively, for example, requiring reporting of a certain quality should impress upon other departments to continue evolving and improving their processes to produce accurate information on a timely basis. Fundraising teams can be critical links in creating quality outcome reporting that resonates with current and prospective funders. The more fundraising teams can be part of the feedback loop from funds raised to reporting outcomes, the better coordinated and credible the organization will be to stakeholders.

Increasing fundraising sophistication and encouraging organizational integrity may go a long way toward giving nonprofit management teams the breathing room they need under the parameters of restricted gifts. Ultimately, the basis for this type of investment is well intentioned but implicitly shows a lack of trust in a management team’s ability to effectively allocate grant money across an organization Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

to generate the most long-term impact. Fundraising teams that can utilize quality reporting and reliable sources of data and build a diverse staff of creative analytics will establish a new level of trust and credibility among interested donors. Furthermore, donors and nonprofits need to work together to either remove or broaden restrictions on donor dollars, and donors should invest with organizations they want to partner with for the long term. In this way, both parties’ goals can be achieved, and the strength of an organization can shine on those in need.

Dave Policano (@dpgate06) is currently an independent consultant providing financial leadership, business operations and strategic advisory services to nonprofits, social businesses and forprofits. He has over 10 years of experience in investing, advisory and operating roles leading teams, problem-solving and offering strategic insights to help companies grow and innovate.

Have you read the digital Advancing Philanthropy?

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Dispatches From the Front Lines of Fundraising

I

f we could take a giant “selfie” of AFP members, you would see nearly 10,000 member organizations in more than half a dozen subsectors, making a difference across America from the arts to zoological parks. Three of these subsectors account for a majority (62 percent) of AFP member organizations: education, health and human services.

Moving from the macro to micro, as economists like to put it, we share here the stories, albeit abbreviated, of two individuals on the front lines of these “Big 3” fundraising arenas. The tribulations and triumphs of other AFP subsectors in other regions will be featured in future issues.

At The Ohio State University, President Michael V. Drake’s 2020 Vision plan calls for $200 million in efficiencies and another $200 million through innovative funding strategies, with $100 million dedicated to support need-based scholarships. And that is just for starters.

Patty Hill-Callahan, vice president of medical and health sciences advancement at Ohio State, supervises 90 staff tasked with raising funds for the Wexner Medical Center, which provides $170 million in charity care each year. Her universe includes not only several hospitals but also the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, Richard J. Solove Research Institute, Richard M. Patty Hill-Callahan Ross Heart Hospital, Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute and Ohio State’s health science colleges.

Her responsibilities are numerous, but Hill-Callahan is calm. “We are in a post-campaign mode, having celebrated a successful campaign closure in October (https://news.osu.edu/news/2016/09/29/but-forohio-state-campaign-tops-3-billion/). We continue to raise more money and clarify our priorities. The Wexner Medical Center is hitting its stride among its peer academic medical centers,” Hill-Callahan says. She and her staff must devise and find donors to underwrite a plan for its growth and development.

“We work a lot around culture,” says Hill-Callahan.

“We really believe we need to put a high operating

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premium on that. We want to make this a place where we work and grow, a happy, healthy place to come to work. We are transparent, and we celebrate successes.

Once a month, I have coffee with staff, discuss operating principles, and have an open Q & A. “Another important aspect is that we are developing career paths for all our gift officers. It’s great for gift officers to receive nice pay increases, but it isn’t life-changing until you know your career path, are mentored, learn and grow.”

An additional priority Hill-Callahan is emphasizing is “better analytics on our donors.” She mentions private companies like Amazon and Stitch Fix. The latter asks participants to take a 45-minute survey when they sign up for its personal clothes-shopping service. “I wish we knew that much about our donors,” says Hill-Callahan.

“I am often saying we need to take more of a business approach.”

There is yet another area she and her staff are rethinking, and that is “how to use our volunteers.”

She wants to train more of them to lead discussions on disease and train them to become advocates for Ohio State’s staff and solutions. “Volunteers can do meaty things, helpful and meaningful to us,” she says.

“You matter because of who you are. You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but to live until you die.”

—Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the first hospice

Care Dimensions, the largest hospice and palliative care provider in Massachusetts, is all about responding to community needs and caring for families. Founded by a handful of volunteers in 1978, it has grown to serve 800 patients every day.

From its grassroots origins in Danvers, a small community in Boston’s northern suburbs, it now serves people in 90 communities. This year, 500 employees and more than 400 volunteers will care for more than 5,000 patients in their homes, in nursing homes, hospitals or at the Kaplan Family Hospice House. In addition to hospice care, they offer palliative care and support for patients living with serious illness. They provide bereavement counseling and support for almost 7,000 people a year. www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

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“Care Dimensions has become the premier provider of hospice and palliative care services in the state,” says Mary Doorley Simboski, ACFRE, Care Dimensions’ vice president of philanthropy. “We are working to bring philanthropy to a level commensurate with the care Mary Doorley we give patients. For much of its Simboski history, the organization has benefitted from the spontaneous generosity of grateful families. We are focusing on increasing retention to transform one-time donors into a deeper commitment to our work. It requires us to look at our case for support in a new way. We have to take very personal experiences and express them as a benefit to the community at large,” Simboski says.

Tools such as the AFP’s Fundraising Effectiveness Project are valuable to an organization like Care Dimensions.

“We understand why donors make an initial gift to our

organization. We now need to identify appropriate ways to continue the relationship with them and grow the program,” says Simboski. That can be a challenge in an organization largely funded by Medicare and private insurance.

“Philanthropy is the driver of the programs that make us who we are, providing programs such as music therapy, pet therapy, bereavement support and others that improve patients’ quality of life. This allows us to bring services to patients and families that are otherwise unavailable.”

It can be a challenge seeking support for hospice and palliative care in a healthcare environment driven by “cures.” A few years ago, the board of directors changed the organization’s name from “Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston” to Care Dimensions.

“It’s a better expression of our work and the full breadth of our services. This work is about living well, for however long it is.

“This is joyful work,” Simboski says. “We help our donors meet the staff and the volunteers, and they make the case for us.”

YOU UPGRADE YOUR PHONE REGULARLY… WHY NOT UPGRADE YOUR CAREER?

AFP’s Fundraising Principles and Practice gives you the theories, skills, best practices and an actual fundraising plan to take you from flip phone to state-of-the-art.

NEXT REGISTRATION DEADLINE: JULY 12, 2017. ENROLL AT: AFPNET.ORG/EDUCATION Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

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back of the book

The “What’s New?” Crossword Puzzle This puzzle covers the waterfront, incorporating recent events and future happenings, from the AFP ICON conference to faith and hopes for the years ahead. The solution is on p. 79.

ACROSS 1 5 10 11 12 13 14 17 19 21 23 24

MYLES MELLOR THEME CROSSWORDS/WWW.MYLESMELLOR.COM

25 27 29 30 32 33 35 36 37 40 43 45 46 47

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Author of Lean In, Cheryl ____ It was named AFP’s Outstanding Foundation for 2016.

Stimulating situation Shows presenting new solutions They promote new business.

Innovative AFP’s Fundamentals of Fundraising, for one Canadian leaf Printer paper size Admit (2 wds) Path forward “Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot go through a particular ___ .... ” Ann Saddlemyer Often shared opinion ___ of the trade Mustachioed Simpsons character Flanders Virtuoso Fun ___, often used as a fundraiser Neighbor of Ga. Designer Anna Provide with financing Give basic training to a new employee Additional Capital with a capitol Memo intro Donating money to equal another donor’s contribution Month when AFP’s San Francisco conference starts

Advancing Philanthropy

DOWN 1

2 3 4 6

7 8 9 15 16

Communication channels that are having an increasing impact on fundraising professionals’ activities (2 words) Gets closer Life-work ____ Regeneration 1,000 runners ran for charity to the top of it, to honor the 9/11 First Responders (3 words) Hopes for the future Hoped-for proposal answer Recently developed lighting technology Many, many years Raise money on the Internet through appeals to diverse groups and individuals (2 words)

18 20 22 26 28

31 32 34 37 38 39 41 42 44

Contact, in a way In spring, it generates new growth.

Sound-picture-related, abbr.

B&B Keynote speaker at AFP’s San Francisco Conference, ____ Shahid Is up to the task One-day-only email request for donations on a special day Lane, briefly Electrical resistance Have faith in, with on Cambridge bigwig Prefix for “angle” or “cycle” Extended family member, briefly Golden state, for short www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

back of the book

50/50 Vision: Things Still Seem a Bit Blurry A professional fundraiser’s personal giving experience yields new insight into giving and donor relations

By CheryL a. Brown

E

arly in 2011, I knew I wanted to do something special for my upcoming 50th birthday.

While most plan big parties, cruises or special vacations for this significant coming-of-age, I was planning how I could give back in a world where there is so much need.

I’m an average, hardworking, middle-class woman with a passion for so many causes. Like many of you, I simply want to make a difference. A fundraiser since age 16, when I hosted a carnival for Jerry’s Kids, I knew that giving back was in my blood.

In February of 2011, I made a promise to myself to give $50 each to 50 organizations by my 50th birthday on July 30. I did the math, and my celebratory giving would total $2,500.

I designed a flier to be included with each gift. I wanted to let each recipient know they were one of the “chosen 50” I was honoring to mark my 50th birthday. I decided that five of the “gifts” would be random acts of kindness.

Selecting 45 organizations to receive gifts wasn’t an easy task. I had a handful of organizations I had traditionally supported, so they were at the top of my list. Since I live and work in neighboring towns, I knew I wanted to give in a broader geographic area. I asked friends and colleagues about organizations they support and which they would recommend.

Why write about this now, five-and-a-half years later?

Many others have done similar things, so this wasn’t really that unique. However, the experience was priceless to me as an individual, a community member, a donor and as a professional fundraiser. I was not fully prepared for all the different types of responses (and nonresponses) that I received, or for the feelings stirred in me about giving and receiving. Everything I had always believed about fundraising was now being viewed through a new perspective.

I had the opportunity to see donor relations through the giver’s lens.

I wasn’t expecting anything in particular in return, just the simple acknowledgment letter donors are accustomed to receiving a few weeks after making a gift. In reality, the Summer 2017 / www.afpnet.org

responses I received were as unique as the organizations I supported. Some never sent any acknowledgment at all.

Some sent their standard thank-you letter or note, while others sent a personalized message of gratitude with a happy birthday message. One organization didn’t even cash the check until almost a year later.

I began, and continue, to question my personal philosophy about giving. Was $50 enough? Should I have given five organizations $500 each? Or should one worthy organization have received the full $2,500? Did I make an impact?

I believe that one of the reasons for my success in fundraising over the years has been my heartfelt message to people to “Give what you can. Every dollar counts.” I believe this to be true in the core of my being, but I did not experience the appreciation of this through my own celebratory 50th giving initiative.

As a fundraiser, I have always believed—and believe now, more than ever—that it is our responsibility as fundraisers to treat every gift, no matter the size, with the dignity and graciousness that it deserves.

When someone chooses to give to your organization or mission, it is a heartfelt choice, whether they give their last $20 for the month or their entire $20,000 retirement check. The giving spirit is the same. My own experience confirmed my commitment to fully appreciate each gift and giver in a prompt and personal way. Every giver has a story, and every gift enhances the mission of the recipient. My renewed vision is to value them all.

After earning her B.S. in education from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, Cheryl A. Brown began her program development and fundraising journey. She is a seasoned professional fundraiser who has worked in higher education, healthcare, nationally recognized not-for-profits and public libraries. Currently, she works for a community foundation, where she assists individuals in reaching their philanthropic and legacy goals.

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Professionalism 2 By vern snyDer

T

he assignment is to point out what makes a particular fundraiser an exceptional fundraising professional. Well, if I’m following the instruction, many, many wonderful professional fundraisers don’t get the recognition they deserve.

Without deliberately trying your patience, I ask you to follow along to better understand exceptional fundraising professionals.

All of the exceptional fundraising professionals this writer has encountered over a thirty-year career share the common trait of empathy. They view each donor, colleague, friend as a unique individual. These exceptional fundraisers demonstrate an almost uncanny understanding and care for each individual’s concerns and issues. They focus on that individual prospect, donor, colleague in a singularly effective way that builds a long-term relationship of respect.

Each exceptional professional possesses an eye for detail and a focus on what is important to a particular donor or prospect. These pros take time to know preferences, to learn about the families and interests, all of the details that demonstrate legitimate interest and respect. These wonderful professionals ask the questions and truly listen to the answers. The most important common trait of these exceptional people after empathy is their ability to be active listeners. The little things matter to the exceptional professional.

All of the professionals celebrated in this essay are also the busiest people but with more than ample amounts of time for everyone they encounter. They are as interested in the success of their colleagues as their own success. It is service to the profession of fundraising that sets these exceptional people apart. These fundraisers are students of the profession, mentors to their colleagues, and teachers. They understand the vital role we all play in the culture of philanthropy.

Service to the community is a hallmark for these professionals. Despite their busy professional lives, these individuals understand the importance

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of being part of their community, not just of their community. They bring their experience, expertise and knowledge of volunteering and leadership to assist the entire community.

Recently, this writer encountered a colleague who spoke at great length about how put upon they felt.

They lamented those duties that kept them from being “out there” seeing people—duties like thank-you notes, working with colleagues and constantly teaching their bosses about the importance of philanthropy. In that encounter, this writer understood the difference between a fundraiser with a job and the meaning of the exceptional professional. Exceptional pros pay attention to details, have time for everyone and are the exemplars of our profession.

Finally, the exceptional professionals are the leaders who are shaping or will shape the future of philanthropy. They are committed to the success of the organizations they serve. This commitment to success is built on a foundation of the highest ethical standards.

There is no room in their activities for winks and nods.

They insist on the details. They dot i’s and cross t’s.

Most importantly, they have time to explain every point, clarify every concern and anticipate issues.

Exceptional people are inspirational. They are also the role models for each of us.

Vern Snyder retired as vice president for institutional advancement at the University of Toledo in 2015, serving since 2001. He is a graduate of West Virginia University, with a master’s degree in music education. He has earned Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) status as well as Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive status (ACFRE), one of only 110 individuals with that distinction. He was AFP International’s 2016 Outstanding Fundraising Professional. He also serves on the ACFRE Certification Board and is a member of the AFP International Conference Education Committee.

www.afpnet.org / Summer 2017

back of the book

AFP Ten Star Gold Chapters and 2016 Friends of Diversity Chapters AFP Ten Star Gold Chapters

• AFP MN, Southern Minnesota Chapter

Congratulations to our 2017 Ten Star Gold Chapters.

These awards honor those chapters that have accomplished many of the key objectives outlined in the Strategic Plan.

• AFP NC, Triad Chapter • AFP NC, Triangle Chapter • AFP NM, New Mexico Chapter • AFP OH, Central Chapter

• AFP AK, Alaska Chapter

• AFP OH, Greater Cincinnati Chapter

• AFP AL, Alabama Chapter

• AFP OH, Greater Dayton Region Chapter

• AFP AR, Northwest Chapter

• AFP ON, Greater Toronto Chapter

• AFP BC, Vancouver Chapter

• AFP PA, Eastern Chapter

• AFP BC, Vancouver Island Chapter

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• AFP CA, Golden Gate Chapter

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• AFP CA, Santa Barbara/Ventura Counties Chapter

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• AFP WI, Greater Madison Chapter

• AFP FL, Suncoast Chapter

• AFP WI, Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter

• AFP GA, Greater Atlanta Chapter • AFP KY, Greater Louisville Chapter • AFP LA, Greater Baton Rouge Chapter

The “What’s New?” Crossword Solutions

• AFP LA, Greater New Orleans Chapter

From p. 76.

• AFP MB, Manitoba Chapter • AFP MD, Western Maryland Chapter • AFP MI, West Michigan Chapter • AFP MN, Minnesota Chapter

Index to Advertisers Donor Perfect (donorperfect.com/AFP) .........inside front cover Crescendo (crescendointeractive.com/seminars) ...................p. 4 Appeal Maker (appealmaker.com) .................................................... p.12 Grant Professionals Association (https://goo.gl/vgwtor) .... p.12 IUPUI The Fund Raising School (tfrs@iupui.edu) .............................................................inside back cover Japs-Olson Company (droth@japsolson.com) .............ack cover

Advertisements and advertorials in Advancing Philanthropy do not constitute, nor should they imply, an endorsement by AFP.

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Congratulations to the 2016 Friends of Diversity Chapters!

The Friends of Diversity designation recognizes those chapters that have accomplished many of the key objectives outlined in the advancing diversity strategic goal. This designation encourages chapters to perform specific activities designed to increase diversity within fundraising and public awareness of the importance of philanthropy in all cultures.

• AFP AB, Calgary & Area Chapter • AFP AB, Edmonton & Area Chapter • AFP AK, Alaska Chapter • AFP AL, Alabama Chapter • AFP AL, North Chapter • AFP AR, Northwest Chapter • AFP AZ, Southern Chapter • AFP BC, Vancouver Chapter • AFP BC, Vancouver Island Chapter • AFP CA, Desert Communities Chapter • AFP CA, Golden Gate Chapter • AFP CA, Greater Los Angeles Chapter • AFP CA, Greater San Fernando Valley Chapter • AFP CA, Orange County Chapter • AFP CA, Santa Barbara/Ventura Counties Chapter • AFP CA, Silicon Valley Chapter • AFP CA, Yosemite Chapter • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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AFP DC, Washington DC Metro Area Chapter AFP FL, Central Chapter AFP FL, First Coast Chapter AFP FL, Nature Coast AFP FL, Palm Beach County Chapter AFP FL, Suncoast Chapter AFP GA, Atlanta Chapter AFP HI, Aloha Chapter AFP IL, Central Chapter AFP IL, Chicago Chapter AFP IL, East Central Chapter AFP IL, Rockford Area Chapter AFP KS, Greater Wichita Chapter AFP KY, Greater Louisville Chapter AFP LA, Baton Rouge Chapter AFP LA, Greater New Orleans Chapter AFP MA, Massachusetts Chapter

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AFP MA, Western Chapter AFP MB, Manitoba Chapter AFP MD, Maryland Chapter AFP MD, Western Maryland Chapter AFP MI, Greater Detroit Chapter AFP MI, West Michigan Chapter AFP MN, Minnesota Chapter AFP MN, Southern Minnesota Chapter AFP MO, Mid-America Chapter AFP NC, Triad Chapter AFP NC, Triangle Chapter AFP NJ, Southern Chapter AFP NM, New Mexico Chapter AFP NV, Las Vegas Chapter AFP NY, Genesee Valley Chapter AFP OH, Central Chapter AFP OH, Cincinnati Chapter AFP OH, Greater Cleveland Chapter AFP OH, Greater Dayton Region Chapter AFP OH, Northeast Ohio Chapter AFP OH, Northwest Chapter AFP OK, Eastern Oklahoma Chapter AFP ON, Canada South Chapter AFP ON, Greater Toronto Chapter AFP ON, Ottawa Chapter AFP PA, Eastern Chapter AFP PA, Greater Philadelphia Chapter AFP PA, Western Chapter AFP SC, Central Carolina Chapter AFP SC, Lowcountry Chapter AFP SK, Saskatoon Chapter AFP TX, Greater Dallas Chapter AFP TX, Fort Worth Metro Chapter AFP TX, Greater Austin Chapter AFP TX, Lubbock Area Chapter AFP TX, San Antonio Chapter AFP TX, Texas Plains Chapter AFP VA, Hampton Roads Chapter AFP VA, Shenandoah Chapter AFP WA, Advancement Northwest Chapter AFP WI, Greater Madison Chapter AFP WI, Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter

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Palm Springs Stories

By BILL BaLLas

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n 1976, I read Studs Terkel’s oral history masterpiece, Working. Since then, as a fundraiser, consultant and college instructor, the idea to use Studs’ interview and editing methods to illuminate philanthropy intrigued me.

Palm Springs and its immediate surrounding area are unlike most places. It is estimated that “during the season” (approximately December through May), 11+% of America’s wealth lives there. Some reside in the area full time, while others have vacation homes, timeshares or rent homes or hotel rooms. Each is there to enjoy the climate, culture and desert life.

My purpose is to record an oral history of the region’s donors, recipients, volunteers and nonprofit staff in Palm Springs who find meaning in giving to others. While the “devils” and “angels” that affect philanthropy anywhere are present, a few unique to the desert emerge as well. Hopefully, you will find that the interviewees’ words reveal the values and human spirit where you live, work and play too.

As Oscar Wilde quipped, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

In my case, I proudly agree. Thanks, Studs.

And thank you, as well, for advancing civil society wherever you may be.

—Bill Ballas, MSML, CFRE

The Interviewees Bob Beginning his second year as executive director, Bob has invested much of his time in strengthening the Cathedral City Senior Center’s financial position. A man of both high IQ and EQ, Bob is a retired high school English teacher who required that his students read Terkel’s Working. Bob is in a popular local restaurant known for its variations on hamburgers, and he is extolling the virtues of tithing and sharing his take on karma.

Scott It is an unusually warm and sunny morning in a place known for its bright and genial weather. Scott is relaxing with his “morning joe” and savoring a chocolate muffin.

We are at his favorite coffee destination in downtown Palm Springs, seated behind the shop on its lawn, a park-like setting. We are among dozens of other patrons and their pets, a few blocks from the Palm Springs Art Museum, where Scott worked for many years.

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Jim Known as “the accountant to the stars,” Jim is a medical marvel. He has overcome a dozen major medical maladies and traffic accidents that often prevent lesser men from physical activity. Ever cheerful, Jim and his best friend, John, ruminate about philanthropy and the joys of giving during lunch after a recent round of golf. The day was blustery, and the golf hard. The conversation is easy.

John No one loves golf more than John. No one. And few love St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, or Danny and Rosemary Thomas, as much either. John sits across the table from Jim and occasionally comments between spoonfuls of chowder drawn from a shallow bowl. John is a large, physically imposing man whose generosity is well known by many, including the employees of Augustine Casino.

Susan It is midmorning in Palm Desert, and Susan has fixed buttered biscuits and tea to share during her interview.

Susan speaks softly but with passion, and she physically resembles the late actress Annette Funicello. A retired school counselor, she gets her “counseling fix” by volunteering with The Ophelia Project. She mentors girls in middle school and helps them increase their sense of self-worth to maximize their potential.

Robert McKechnie, M.Ed. Former English teacher, school counselor and school administrator An avid swimmer and current executive director When my partner (now husband) and I first got together more than 28 years ago, we ran up an impressive and oppressive credit card debt. At the same time, I was reading self-help books on a variety of subjects, including prosperity. Prosperous people, I learned, are generous. Many of them tithe without being part of a religion with that requirement. In an

effort to become more successful with our finances and pay off our debt, we decided to tithe.

Unfortunately, we could not give 10 percent of our net income at the time. As a result, we changed the 10 percent to 1 percent and systematically started to give small amounts to nonprofits. I should say very small amounts. This creative approach seemed to work quite well.

The next thing that happened was truly miraculous.

I unexpectedly inherited slightly more than $100,000.

After the shock wore off, we paid the full credit card debt, purchased a condo in Palm Springs and relocated.

We also pledged to never again run up credit card debt.

Finally, we upped the 1 percent tithe to 10 percent.

That was 1996. Since then, we’ve kept our pledge about the credit card debt and the tithing. One more thing: We’ve definitely maintained a more prosperous way of life over the years since we put our decision to tithe into place.

I appreciate this opportunity to tell our story about tithing. Right action needs to be known and modeled.

One of the main teachings in the 12-step way of life involves giving. The giver, it suggests, benefits as much or more than the recipient of the gift.

I would like to add that one requirement of citizenship involves offering financial support for organizations that do the work the government can’t or won’t do. Much of this work is necessary in a civil society that expects to sustain itself into the future. It needs support. We’re willing to provide this support.

One could keep in mind that the giver benefits as much or more than the recipient of the gift.

Scott Schroeder, MA, CFRE Vietnam-era veteran and fundraising executive (ret.), Palm Springs Art Museum Enthusiastic arts supporter and golfer After college, I [went] into the military during the Vietnam era. Then graduate school. After graduate school, I had to find [my] first real job, and it was a difficult time in the market. Eventually, I ended up

As Oscar Wilde quipped, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

In my case, I proudly agree. Thanks, Studs.

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The greatest satisfaction is the people you’re working with and the donors. Once you stay with an org for a [few] years, you build up relationships—especially with donors. with an offer to work for a fundraising consulting firm in New York City. I became an account executive and learned what fundraising was all about.

My first professional challenge came while working at the consulting firm. My duties required me to get on the phone and call funding sources and schedule interviews with them for the accounts I managed. But, because I [represented] multiple nonprofits, I would often call the same foundations. To get the information required of me, I had to make the foundations think I worked for their client, the grant recipient, and not my employer. So I would make up anonymous names and say I worked for the grant recipient when I really didn’t. I hated that, and soon found work with a nonprofit.

What drew me to philanthropy was I thought it to be a very noble profession. It spoke to my personal values. In my case, I grew up with the arts and was especially attuned to [the arts], so when I was offered the opportunity to go to the Brandywine Conservancy & Art Museum in Pennsylvania, it matched with my personal interests. I was there for 27 years before taking a similar job with the Palm Springs Art Museum.

The most pleasure of working in philanthropy is not necessarily getting a certain amount of money or accomplishing a certain goal. The greatest satisfaction is the people you’re working with and the donors.

Once you stay with an org for a [few] years, you build up relationships—especially with donors.

Probably the most memorable thing a donor ever said to me was “I will pledge $5 million over five years.” That was one I didn’t see coming. It was not a direct ask; it came from the donor, where I didn’t feel like a salesman. It was a surprise [gift] and meant to be anonymous. It was a wonderful revelation that people make gifts and you can be part of the process. In this case, I think the board chair and the people at the museum who befriended him made him feel special and important, made him want to be a part of us.

I am an eternal optimist and think philanthropy is going to continue. We have a tradition and a culture of philanthropy that’s passed from generation to generation, and it is a wonderful thing. People

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feel good giving to others. Obviously, philanthropy changes. That’s healthy.

To me, philanthropy is a core value of society, communities and for each individual to the extent they feel philanthropic. It’s what makes people like me want to be in the profession of facilitating philanthropy. It is really important to communicate [that] philanthropy is a core value and not just a transaction between two parties. And we must recognize and respect each philanthropist for what they do.

Jim McInerney Former roller derby announcer and White House staffer (Bush 41) “Accountant to the Stars” (mostly retired) and avid golfer We took over the business from my father, and he had 78 clients. Their average age was “deceased,” so the older clients were thinking about giving. Maybe they didn’t have any kids, or maybe their kids were making good money. Either way, they wanted to leave money to charitable organizations.

Obviously, when I first meet a client, I always, always emphasize giving to their church, favorite organization, whatever, because it’s a tax write-off for most people.

Not all, though. Some people don’t have a Schedule A that they must fill out. I tell them, “If you don’t make enough to have a Schedule A, then everything you give is plain old giving.”

I find that many people, even though they don’t have a Schedule A, still list their [donations]. I tell them, “You didn’t quite make enough [to list on a Schedule A], but keep on giving because it’s very important, since many charitable orgs can’t make it unless people give.”

Over the years, when people would come in and ask about planned giving, they’d heard a little bit about planned giving, so I’d sit down and explain how it works and how it could benefit them. Usually, people wanted to give to pay something back—especially to colleges or something that affected their life. For example, I have one client and he and his wife, who

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went to USC [the University of Southern California], wanted to set up a foundation to benefit USC. Their kids already had plenty of money, so [the parents] went to their kids and asked them, “Do you mind if we set up a foundation for USC?” The kids said, “No, that’s a great thing, so do it.” And they did. That’s the way it usually works out. They give to something that has affected their life.

I don’t know how many of the proposed changes to the tax code (e.g., the charitable and standard deductions, tax cuts for the wealthy) and spending cuts will get passed by Congress, or how they may affect philanthropy. If Republican proposals do get passed, it is going to affect everybody. The rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer.

I hate to say this, but I am a flat-tax believer. We’ve been trying to get that through for how many years?

It’s not going to happen. I’ve found through my years of doing taxes—and I had a high-end clientele—that, yes, they gave, but not all would tithe. Yet, my low gross earners almost always gave at least 10 percent.

John Kelleher, CFRE Raised more than $2B during his career Professional gambler and passionate golfer Growing up, my parents were always involved in helping other people. I didn’t come from a wealthy family, but at Thanksgiving and other times of the year, my father would be involved with the Lower Order of the Moose, a fraternal organization, and I would always see him getting Christmas baskets of gifts together.

My parents would play Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus and give away gifts locally. Back in 1963, they even played Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus on an American Airlines flight from LA to Chicago on a trip to visit my sister. They asked the airline if they could give children gifts on the plane, and the airline said yes. The pilot was also involved and rocked the plane in flight, as though Santa and the reindeer had landed on top of

the aircraft. My folks went up and down the aisle giving candy canes to everybody. They put Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus in first class, which my parents had never been in before or since. And they did that with American Airlines for about six years.

So I got involved watching them. I went into the political arena after getting out of college and was volunteering for the first live telethon for St. Jude’s Research Hospital in Los Angeles. My political career ended because my boss did not win higher office, but I had an opportunity to be interviewed for St. Jude’s and ended up running the LA office for almost five years.

During that time, I worked for Danny and Rosemary Thomas almost on a daily basis. Danny and Rosie gave hundreds, if not thousands, of hours a year and would never take any compensation. Danny would pay for his own expenses for travel, whatever.

I love St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Danny and the dedication he had to build a hospital second to none in the world for childhood diseases, and working with Rosemary and many other people—what an opportunity for me.

Another gentleman I was very close to was Charlton Heston—seeing his dedication and love and [marching] with Martin Luther King. In the ’60s, for a major actor—one of the top actors at the time—to stand up with Martin Luther King and say, “Civil rights are the rights of everyone,” took a lot of guts.

I love helping people. Giving is a beautiful thing.

Philanthropy is an opportunity to enjoy life, give back and to [invest] in the future. Being able to see the hospitals and other institutions that we helped build [while a consultant] is also very nice.

Values are important. Being able to help people who are less fortunate … just being nice to one another makes the world better for everyone. Just like Jim said, I think the rich will get richer, and the poor poorer.

My wife and I have never been shortchanged by the amount of giving that we have given. There is a value that you can’t put in dollar signs.

Values are important. Being able to help people who are less fortunate … just being nice to one another makes the world better for everyone. Just like Jim said, I think the rich will get richer, and the poor poorer.

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Helping others was instilled in me by family. They taught me to think of the other guy—to imagine what the other guy is thinking right now or to imagine what they’ve been through.

Susan Rivers, M.Ed. School counselor (ret.), active volunteer and donor Enjoys sculpting and creating visual art As I think about my giving, it’s because of my high level of empathy. I can relate to a lot of people, or at least imagine what they must be thinking in certain circumstances. Not that I’ve experienced it myself, but I think my imagination could have taken me there.

Because of that imagination, I like to help people— maybe relieve some stress or take away a little bit of pain, or make their day good in some small way. That is why I volunteer and donate to charities.

Helping others was instilled in me by family. They taught me to think of the other guy—to imagine what the other guy is thinking right now or to imagine what they’ve been through. To be aware of what difficulty the other person might have been through.

My father was an Episcopal priest. My mom was an RN. I think we grew up observing them attend to others. They were certainly not wealthy, so their time and talent is what they gave most often, especially my dad. Mom was being a mom and raising two kids, and she’d contribute as much as she could, but Dad made a vocation out of it.

What motivates me to stroke a check are [causes supporting] children and young adults that help a young person in some way, especially if they’re foster kids or come from circumstances that are very fragile. Then, if I can help, even if it’s to buy a hamburger, I like to do it.

As a school counselor, I had a student whose parents would punish her by not feeding her, so I would make sure she had breakfast every day. I had kids where, just

like any other teacher, I would use my own money to buy games to establish or reinforce role-playing. I’d also purchase stickers and other small items to reward solid citizenship and good behavior. Students didn’t have to be perfect, but their heart had to be in the right place. We’ve helped students with college tuition here and there and lent money on occasion.

Kids like to give too. Once I formed a contest at the middle school where I worked. The contest called for teachers to turn in a photo of themselves when they were in middle school and for students to match up as many teachers as possible with their old picture. The reward for the winning students was a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble to give to their favorite teacher.

The kids got so excited about the contest and winning because they were able to do something nice for a grown-up.

I think kindness is a type of philanthropy. Kindness gives one another dignity—no matter the person’s circumstances. Unless they’ve been known to hurt other people. Then you’re hitting another side of me that doesn’t feel very philanthropic at all.

Bill Ballas has a master’s degree in management and leadership from Western Governors University and holds post-graduate certificates in nonprofit management from Virginia Commonwealth University and strategic marketing from Cornell University. Bill is also a Certified Fund Raising Executive and an instructor in the nonprofit management program at the University of California, Riverside’s Palm Desert campus.

I think kindness is a type of philanthropy. Kindness gives one another dignity—no matter the person’s circumstances.

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Kay Sprinkel Grace, CFRE How many years have you been involved in the nonprofit sector? As a volunteer, for 50plus years. As a professional, 37 years. I volunteered as early as high school, although I didn’t know it was called the “nonprofit” sector! And then at Stanford, I volunteered for the Model UN and other related opportunities.

Two years after I graduated, after living and working in San Francisco, I married and moved to Southern California—by that time, I was the volunteer class agent for my Stanford class—and then I was recruited to be the chair in our community for what was then called Community Chest (United Way). That was my first real “up close and personal” experience with fundraising for community impact. I went to graduate school at USC [the University of Southern California] and taught school while also volunteering to host a radio show on a local Los Angeles station. Later, returning to the San Francisco Bay Area with three small children, I continued graduate school (M.A. from Stanford) and became an administrator with my school district, only to be let go in 1979 due to declining enrollment. I consulted for a while in school improvement planning, but my friends at Stanford, where I had continued to volunteer in successive leadership roles for five different programs, encouraged me to take up fund development as a profession. “What?” I thought. “Get paid for what I have been giving away all these years? What a concept!”

And it was a brilliant suggestion. I found my first fund development job with a children’s services agency very near Stanford. The board gambled on me to be the director of development and marketing because many of them had worked with me as a volunteer at Stanford. How fortunate I was! Their support was lifechanging. In 1979, I received Stanford’s highest award for volunteer fundraising, the Gold Spike, and less than a year later, in January of 1980, I had my first job in development at the Children’s Health Council in Palo Alto. I have never looked back.

How did you get involved in the nonprofit sector and fundraising? Was it planned, or did you “fall into” it? Answered in the first question!

What do you consider the greatest challenge(s) in your work? In my current work as a consultant, I would say the greatest challenge is to help organizations stay relationship-focused when the pressure is on them to raise money quickly. They turn to events, social media/crowdfunding and other “quick fixes” and feel they cannot take the time to build relationships that will produce greater revenue and satisfaction over time.

Another challenge is that many in the sector continue to come from scarcity rather than abundance, and that diminishes the mission and vision. One of the ideas that I advanced in my first book, Beyond Fundraising, is that people give to organizations because they meet needs, not because they have needs. This idea continues to change people’s thinking about fundraising. It is often what will be quoted back to me when I ask for key takeaways from a workshop. Messages of desperation do not raise money. Look at the organizations that raise the most money and the biggest gifts: universities, hospitals, museums. They do not come from scarcity.

They tell donors about the abundant impact of their work and why an investment in their work will advance the donor’s values and the community’s resources.

Another challenge is board engagement. I believe, along with Chait/Taylor/Ryan at Harvard, that what we call “poor board performance” is really lack of clarity by boards regarding their purpose. As we have become more professional, we have moved them gradually into the role of monitor and critic and not into the role of partnering with us in solving problems. The Harvard study comments that board members are relegated to doing the “work of the board” rather than being tied into the mission/work of the organization. Our fear of board micromanagement has created a chasm in many cases. This has become a key focus for me in workshops and talks, one I connect to the program I developed years ago for engaging board members, “Triple A” (Ambassador, Advocate, Asker), which builds board confidence, motivation and engagement.

When did you join AFP? In 1980, shortly after starting my first job.

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Please describe the most interesting, challenging and/or meaningful gift you ever obtained from a donor. What made it so memorable, and how did you go about getting the gift? In a community

known for its wealth and materialism, some parents came together and were determined to create a high school where values like community, diversity, integrity, excellence, courage and compassion would be the core

Lifetime Highlights: implementation of a major-giving initiative that involved 110 public television licensees across America and Puerto Rico. The three-year program was successful beyond estimation, increasing revenue and improving board engagement.

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Receiving the Henry A. Rosso Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Ethical Fundraising from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IU in 2013.

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Receiving the Distinguished Fellow recognition from AFP (2016, awarded in 2017).

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Publishing my first book, Beyond Fundraising, in 2007. And before that, having the courage to take a seven-month sabbatical in 2005–2006 to finish it.

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Mentoring a number of professionals who are growing, thriving and leading in our profession. I derive great joy from seeing them flourish. I feel it is part of my legacy!

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My work as part of a team of five that has created a “Leaders of Tomorrow” program for NGO [nongovernmental organization]/ civil society rising and established leaders in Central and Eastern Europe. The program gained three-year funding from the Mott Foundation and is enrolling participants from eight countries for a one-week, intensive session at a retreat center near Bratislava, Slovakia, followed by a year of mentoring (each of us has three to four participants assigned to us) and a follow-up leadership summit.

Working with two colleagues from the Czech Republic, one from Slovakia and one from Canada has been superb. As we head into our third and final year (2017–18), we are looking for opportunities to scale the program and its impact. Exciting!

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The incredible encouragement I received from an early age that I could be whatever I wanted to be. My parents were my cheerleaders. I dedicated one of my books to my mother (who died in 2006, just shy of 98), and my memoir is dedicated to my father (who died in 1998 at 90). All my life, they were stabilizers. I have nothing but joyful memories.

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I was fortunate to come from a family of strong pioneer women. One walked across the Isthmus of Panama with two small daughters in 1849 as part of a mule train. Another crossed the Plains in a covered wagon. The merger of those families gave me an unusual amount of energy and will that has driven my nearly insatiable quest for the next thing on the horizon. My grandfather was advised by his father to always “Keep driving towards the light.” I have followed that advice. It must be the reason I love to travel! Recent trips include Patagonia and the Galapagos, as well as more traditional destinations in Europe, Africa (where I did a dawn balloon ride over the Serengeti, a true highlight!), Canada and 23 trips to Australia over the years.

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There have been other awards, offices, recognition and experiences that are the kaleidoscope of my life, and I am so grateful for everyone who encourages me to “keep on keeping on.” Many of my Stanford classmates and I are still connected, and we have a motto: “Retired? No, rewired.”

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Receiving Stanford University’s highest award for volunteer service, the Gold Spike.

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Watching my three children (and their wives) and four grandchildren become amazing people pursuing their own unique journeys into the future.

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Having several of my architectural photographs in an exhibit in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (years ago), and purchased for a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Being named in 2004 as the lead external consultant to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the creation and

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of the curriculum and programs. Their energy was remarkable, but they were off to a slow start in spite of many community meetings. They engaged me to do a feasibility study, and we did identify some solid gifts they solicited, but one of the interviewees, while indicating a generous six-figure gift, also wanted to get involved. We created opportunities for him, and for others, to get involved in advising on the various aspects of the school curriculum and resources (e.g., technology, arts, athletics, etc.) as they evolved. He was greatly engaged in one of the advisory groups, and after his first gift, he began giving more, until his giving had reached $3 million. But, we were still not at the goal we needed to begin construction. Then, he reached out to me for a meeting. He asked me what an “angel” (funder) looked like, and I described what an angel for this project would “look” like. I knew he had another donor in mind, but I also knew that many of the attributes I described could be said about him.

That was a Saturday, and by Tuesday, when I joined the board chairs/founders for a dinner meeting, there was a very expensive bottle of wine on the table. I said, “What’s the occasion?” The donor had realized he was the “angel” and had agreed he would increase his gift to $15 million (he told them I made him do it!)—with only one catch. We had to raise $10 million as a match in a several-month period. And we did. And the school was built. It thrives. And the donor remains anonymous, but not in the hearts of those of us who know.

What do you consider the most essential characteristic that fundraisers must have? It is hard to pinpoint one. I think flexibility is critical, because ours is an unpredictable (from day to day, the good and bad) career with immense rewards if we can just roll with it. I believe that we are essentially problem-solvers, and that is a strong characteristic present in those who succeed—seeing all sides of a problem before jumping at a solution and understanding always that we are dream brokers who listen for the dreams of our communities and match them with the dreams of our organizations.

What is the best career advice you ever received?

Three pieces of advice. One from my Stanford development office colleagues who, in 1979, said I should get a job in the sector. The second was Rick Moyers, now a foundation executive but then with the National Center for Nonprofit Boards (BoardSource), who told me in 1994 to get my first book done! He said he would send me flowers if I agreed to talk to Wiley.

I did, and he faxed me a drawing of a bouquet. I took a sabbatical the following year and finished writing the book. It was such a great piece of advice, and I will always be grateful to him. I have written six books since, but Beyond Fundraising remains the most reflective of my philosophy, strategies and insights. The third was from friends, now sadly gone, who told me to start my own consulting business in 1989. They said they knew I could do it. Their encouragement made all the difference.

Anything else you would like to add? I am very passionate about philanthropy and give much of the credit to my early mentoring by the late Hank Rosso, founder of The Fund Raising School (now part of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University [IU]), and the encouragement given to me to become a leader in the profession by the late Robert Payton, first executive director of the (then) Center on Philanthropy at IU. Two giant thinkers and believers. I was also deeply influenced by the work of and friendship with the late John W. Gardner, co-founder of Common Cause and Independent Sector, with whom I spent many hours in the twilight of his life, gathering his wisdom and celebrating his impact. All three challenged me to be better.

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What do you think is the most overrated characteristic of fundraisers? When I hear people say, “I would not be good at this. I am simply not a salesperson,” I realize they have somehow succumbed to the idea that we are pitch-people. We are not. We are dream brokers. We are facilitators of value exchanges in our communities, advancing our community’s values and the values of our donors. That is the true return on investment. We are not salespeople.

What is your motto? To do what I love, with and for people and causes I care about, and to share my values, gratitude and hope as long as I am able.

What do you hope to do that you haven’t done yet? Something that has nothing to do with the nonprofit sector: I have been trying to finish writing a novel and a memoir that has travel as the motif. I am determined to finish them both.

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STRATEGIES that

SUCCEED In a new role in a remote land, Bishop David Mahaffey recognized that his clergy training had ill-prepared him to mobilize funds. Through The Fund Raising School, he learned to sort through the cloud of ideas to successfully articulate needs and exceed funding levels.

Learn more and register for courses at philanthropy.iupui.edu

“ Fundraising is like looking at the pieces of a puzzle, and you know you have all the pieces, but you have no idea how to put it all together. Now, I know how to put it together.�

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