July 29, 2019

At Elevate, Authenticity and Acceptance is one of our core company values, and part of living up to that value involves communicating honestly with our clients and with each other. But speaking up and communicating candidly requires skill.

According to a 2017 report on The State of Miscommunication by Quantum Workplace and Fierce Inc., only 52% of employees surveyed said that they always or almost always speak their minds when discussing work-related topics with their immediate supervisor; even fewer (just 47.5%) reported always or almost always speaking their minds when talking to their colleagues.

These numbers aren’t shocking, when you consider all that’s at play — and at stake! — when it comes to speaking up in a professional setting. Whether you’re reviewing tasks and deadlines with your manager, brainstorming ideas with your team, delivering feedback to a direct report, or weighing your concerns about a workplace issue, candor inherently involves risk.

WEIGHING THE COST OF SILENCE

It’s logical, then, that so many of us often mitigate that risk by choosing the path of least resistance. We either stay silent about our concerns, agree to take on more than our bandwidth allows, or simply go with the flow when the group is moving in a different direction.

The problem is, we often fail to consider the costs of silence.

• When we agree to take on extra work without sharing that we already feel overstretched, we risk failing to deliver on our promises.
• When we decide to stay quiet about a workplace concern, we risk missing an opportunity to have an important conversation that others secretly want to have, too.
• When we fail to deliver constructive feedback because it’s too uncomfortable, we rob a colleague of their opportunity to learn and grow.

CLEAR, THOUGHTFUL COMMUNICATION IS POWERFUL

Thankfully, there are skills you can build to help you speak up and communicate candidly — and candid conversations don’t have to be fraught! In fact, when done thoughtfully, having these types of conversations more often at work helps increase productivity, build trust among colleagues, and enhance team performance.

The four tips below will help you speak up about important subjects in a way that’s both honest and clear, while still keeping things positive and setting a collaborative tone.

1. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN

• Use clear, direct language. This one seems obvious, and yet so many of us try to pad our message with things like apologies, over-explaining, or the dreaded ‘compliment sandwich.’ It may feel like you’re being helpful, when in fact you’re probably just creating more confusion. As they say in journalism, don’t bury the lede. Lead with your point, be clear, and resist the urge to dance around it.
• Take responsibility for what you’re trying to say. Don’t be vague, and rely on the other person(s) to connect the dots for you. Be as clear as possible, and take full ownership of whatever it is you want to convey.

2. SET A COLLABORATIVE TONE

• Ask questions. Before you dismiss or object to someone else’s idea directly, ask clarifying questions. Not only does this help you gather as much information as possible, it also demonstrates a willingness to engage with and fully understand their ideas.
• Look for opportunities to respond with “and” instead of “but.” To be clear, I’m not saying that dissent is off the table! The main takeaway here is that using “and…” sets an amicable tone by showing respect for the other person’s point of view, even if you disagree. It sets the stage for a more productive dialogue, stronger collaboration, and better outcomes. For example: “I like that idea, and I recommend we make one adjustment.”
• Be aware of your body language. Crossed arms and furrowed eyebrows send a ‘closed-off’ message, and typing on your phone or laptop while someone is talking to you signal that you’re not fully engaged in the conversation. Do your best to offer your full attention, respect, and focus.
• Focus on what’s possible, instead of what isn’t. It’s hard (if not impossible) to have a productive conversation if you’re just shooting down ideas, without presenting any alternatives. I think Tina Fey said it best: “Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles.”

3. BE TRANSPARENT, EVEN WHEN IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE

• Manage expectations proactively, and early. This involves looking at the conversation through the other person’s lens early in the conversation and looking for any possible information gaps, unspoken assumptions, or ambiguities. When it doubt, clarify.
• Avoid the people-pleasing trap. As tempting as it can be to go with the flow or tell people what they want to hear, you’re better off painting a clear and honest picture about any obstacles, hesitations, questions, or needs you have and opening the door for honest discussion.
• Deliver bad news as early as possible. Whether you’re running late on a deadline, or you need to ask for help, resist the urge to delay that uncomfortable conversations. (We might hope that’ll make it go away, when in fact it almost always makes things much worse.) Having that conversation early gives everyone more time to recalibrate, and come up with a new plan if necessary. I think of this as ‘front-loading the discomfort,’ knowing that it will pay off in the long run.

4. PREVENT AND LOOSEN GRIDLOCK

• Suspend judgment, and get curious. Sometimes hard conversations get stuck, when everyone is locked into their own point of view and the group keeps talking in circles, without listening or making forward progress. Forbes calls this gridlock, adding that it “leads to defensiveness, criticism, withdrawal and in some cases contempt—four signs of a complete breakdown of communication.” One way to loosen gridlock? Shift from a judgmental mindset to a curious one, where you seek to understand the other perspectives in the room and find ways to connect them.
• Use empathy to move the conversation forward. While many think of empathy as a “soft” skill, it can also be a secret weapon for having more productive, efficient conversations. When you’re stuck at an impasse with a colleague or team, consider questions like: what are their true, underlying objectives here? What can you suggest that meets those needs, without encroaching on your own bandwidth or boundaries? Don’t be afraid to think outside the box, and get creative. This gets easier with practice.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Below are a few resources we recommend, if you’re interested in learning more about candid conversations:

• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown (book)
• Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler (book)
• Crucial Conversations (training)
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott (book)
• Radical Candor (podcast)

June 26, 2019

As a non-profit, chances are pretty good you follow a familiar pattern to generate funds. The annual mega-fundraiser is crucial, and you rely on grants to support key programs. Maybe you’ve even found an elusive corporate sponsor to provide some additional stability.

You do it because it seems to work well enough, and you know it’s a good idea to have diversified revenue streams to reduce risks to sustainability. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, to have more consistency and predictability—and the ability to keep expanding your base?

What Most Nonprofits Get Wrong

There’s another source to explore—one that non-profits often overlook.  Individual donors can provide continuous, reliable funding that grows over time.  However, many organizations don’t invest resources in pursuing recurring contributions in any meaningful, systematic way.

Instead of tailoring their approach, they target everyone using the old annual appeal, or a combination of the traditional newsletter and updates on a variety of social media platforms. These efforts target broad, generic audiences, and they fail to engage current or prospective donors in ways that develop lasting, rewarding, personal relationships. In the end, not enough of the “right people” are hearing what non-profits have to say. And, if they do, it’s going in one ear and out the other.

Shifting Your Mentality, and Getting Personal

Nonprofits that take this approach are effectively viewing donors as objects rather than as people.  It’s easy to see existing and potential contributors primarily as cash, checks and credit cards—not as individuals with interests, preferences, and personalities.

It’s understandable—that’s the way it’s always been done. But not knowing who’s behind the money can make it incredibly difficult to connect with prospective and existing donors on a personal level. Even the most experienced nonprofit professionals can struggle to determine who they should be approaching, how to effectively reach their audiences, or what messages will resonate with them.

The solution? Get familiar with the donor pool!

The concept is simple: Find out who’s most likely to donate, where they get their information, and what makes them tick. Then, target those people through customized media and messaging over the entire life cycle from initial contact to conversion to retention.

In practice, it is more of a strategic commitment for non-profits than what many are doing now, but the returns are entirely worth it. The inevitable question, of course, is how to go about this.

5 Keys to Developing Tailored Messaging That Resonates with Your Donors

• Collecting—Having high-quality data on the demographics, economics, psychographics, and behaviors of your donors and prospects is critical. If you can obtain information on the donor pool, you can segment the population and estimate both giving potential and likelihood of contributing.  This is how you “meet the people.” Explore your current donors first, and then expand to the general public through surveys and/or focus groups.

• Profiling—The data you collect can allow you to profile selected segments by building representative donor “personas” of individuals you want to engage. This is how you get to know the people you want to “befriend.” Give them a face and a name, and lay out the details using the information you’ve gathered. Test your profiles by running them by subsets of the segments they represent.

• Mapping—Personas provide foundational “journey maps,” which describe individuals’ status, thoughts, and feelings, and identify opportunities to facilitate their progression from contact to conversion to retention. This is how you “walk with the people” as they become familiar you’re your non-profit.  Get a team together, grab some sticky notes, and have some fun with it!

• Customizing—The journey maps will inform your outreach approach, guiding the content, format, media, incentives, calls to action, access points, etc. at key milestones.  This is “leading the people” to introduce yourself and the problem, make them want to learn about you, help them to help you, and give them what they need to give again.  Focus on reaching, informing, and making things easy for your target audiences.

• Measuring—You’ll want to know when your strategy is successful and adjust it when it’s not. By using web-based platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, HubSpot) it’s relatively easy to gather and analyze metrics on, for example, who’s viewing your content and how they’re responding. If something isn’t working—if you’re not connecting, the messages aren’t resonating, or people aren’t following through—fix it.  A little fine-tuning goes a long way.

How does this look in practice?

One nonprofit focused on poverty did this by asking its current donors how best to connect with them, segmented the audience, and then handed things over to teams comprising internal staff and external “customers” to create “snapshots” of the most promising groups—names, faces, and personal “stories.”  These teams then “walked the walk,” stepping through each prospect’s journey from contact to conversion to retention.  Marketing and Development took the resulting maps to design and execute targeted outreach strategies, focusing on messaging, media, and delivery channels they were confident would reach and resonate with prospects.  Pushing out “before-and-after” stories through videos, blogs, and other media to the social platforms these audiences used was a key part of the approach,  and the organization more than doubled contributions the next year.

Personalized “relationship marketing” changes the individual donor game for non-profits. It makes it easier to forecast with confidence and helps to maximize gifts that keep on giving.  And, it works for nonprofits of all sizes.  While it’s a big undertaking and it’s helpful to have a dedicated, innovative Marketing and Development staff, that isn’t completely necessary—with a little outside help, even smaller organizations can do this with executive leadership and program personnel.

For many organizations, individual donations can be a significant part of a diversified funding strategy, even if the results haven’t been there in the past. Let’s face it. Newsletters often tend to go unopened and tweets get lost in the crowd. But investing in a targeted individual giving strategy can have a significant return on investment.

There’s money to be had, but there are faces, names, and personalities behind each dollar. Taking the time to get to know them leads not only to more dollars raised for your programs, but also to strong, long-lasting relationships with your donors.

What to do next:

Read our article on this topic, Anatomy of a Non-profit Donor
View the related presentation, Targeting and Retaining Better, Long-lasting Donors 
Contact us at info@snowflakellc.com or +1.540.931.9943
Visit us on the web: www.snowflakellc.com
Follow us on Twitter: @snowflakellc

Tom Morley is Founder, President, and Managing Director of Snowflake LLC, a Certified B Corporation® consultancy dedicated to helping organizations transform lives and build communities through strategic planning and organization, people, and marketing strategies.  He worked for more than 15 years as a senior leader with “Big 4” firms BearingPoint and Deloitte Consulting before launching Snowflake in 2014, with the goal of collaborating with non-profits, governments, and responsible businesses to bring about social change.  Over the course of his career, he has worked with over 75 different clients across sectors and industries, in the US and abroad, advising and supporting them in their efforts to accomplish greater things for the greater good.

For information on Snowflake, please visit www.snowflakellc.com or e-mail info@snowflakellc.com.

May 23, 2019

In our previous post, Where Do I Start with Corporate Partnerships?, we spoke with longtime consultant Derry Deringer on why and how your nonprofit should go about forming strong partnerships with corporate entities.

In this second part of our interview with Derry, we dig deeper into what corporations want out of a partnership and how you can go about finding out these answers.

Elevate: Thank you again for sharing your insights from the decades of experience you have. I want to spend a little bit of time going over how to engage a corporation and what they are thinking of. In your experience dealing with corporations, what are the key considerations or factors that corporations care about when they partner with a nonprofit?

Derry: Here are questions businesses are asking when considering partnership:
• How well does it align with our business needs?
• How well does it align with our culture?
• How much do our employees care about this cause or nonprofit?
• What does the CEO or if a local decision the region head think about the opportunity?
• What is our budget this year and over the partner period and is partnership a priority with our community giving/affairs policy?
• What issues in the community are most important to us as a business and why?

Elevate: Two key metrics that are often measured in corporate partnerships are the marketing value and programmatic impact. In your experience, do you think corporations care more about impact or marketing value?

Derry: This varies from business to business. These are very good questions to ask business directly when you are in the very early stages of courting business partners.

Elevate: I see. Every corporation wants some form of marketing usually. Do you find that corporations prefer certain types of recognition or marketing when they engage in corporate partnerships?

Derry: Generally, interest in recognition on event programs and signage has decreased, while interest in recognition on digital platforms has increased. Recognition preference can vary. Survey or talk to your current business donors. If you don’t have business donors, identify areas, industries, or links to businesses that make a good match for potential donors (ex. the employers of loyal individual donors). Ask for their preferences (without asking for money). The questions will be appreciated and would count as a relationship cultivation touch point.

Elevate: Speaking of relationship cultivation, the question I think many nonprofits always struggle with is who is the best person to talk to or get in touch with when establishing a corporate partnership?

Derry: Good question. This varies. Imagine a half dozen possible contacts and a half dozen to a dozen giving possibilities from a large business. Understanding how to navigate the contacts and giving opportunities is the art of corporate giving. Here are some possible contacts. There are others depending on the industry and size of the business.

Assistant to or the CEO
Head or officer in Community Affairs
Head or officer in Community Relations
Head or officer in Corporate Foundation
Head or officer in Government Relationship
Head or officer in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
Head or officer in Marketing

One just has to research, talk to employees and develop the skills to get to the right person. So talking to the right person is one important factor and another very important one is the decision -maker and decision making process. Asking these questions can save you time and frustration. This is where hiring a consultant/coach can help you build these skills and work with you to advance your relationships with your actual business donors.

Elevate: And just to clarify, what do you mean by the ‘right’ person to cultivate? How do you know when you’ve found the right person?

Derry: So, the “right” person or group is ultimately always the decision maker, right? Your goal is to have a direct relationship with that person or someone who is close to that person. Sometimes a group makes the decision. The art of corporate engagement is asking good questions and engaging with company staff in a productive way to learn about the inner workings of the program and decision making. For example: tell me more about how the corporate giving program works. Who heads that program? What’s the process for vetting nonprofits?

You might have different decisions makers for different giving programs in the organization. For example, HR might decide on workplace giving, whereas the CEO and executive team might decide on partnerships and the marketing head may decide on event sponsorship. A lot of knowing when you’ve found the right person comes with practice and experience. Be bold and keep pursuing it and asking questions.

Elevate: I’ve seen many cases where a nonprofit’s board consists of a number of their corporate partners. Is it a good thing for corporate partner’s representatives to be a part of a nonprofit’s board of directors or advisory board?

Derry: Yes, it helps. Good partnerships have shared culture, values and community interests so it makes sense for a partner to have someone on the board or advisory group somewhere. Also, the more ways that a nonprofit engages a business in giving cash, in-kind or services (time, expertise, network etc.) the higher the chance the business and its employees will continue to give.

Elevate: Can you give us some examples of innovative ways you have seen nonprofits engage corporations in their work?

Derry: I saw a regional technology company partner with a homeless shelter. They had a few executives on the board who provided management expertise and played a leadership role in successfully recruiting a new development director. In another case, a Fortune-500 food company gave cash and technical support to help a humanitarian NGO promote and grow entrepreneurship (food trucks and stands) and self-reliance in Bangladesh. I’ve also seen a small business donate computers and cash while the staff volunteer as teachers to low-income adults learning computer skills to secure higher paying jobs.

Elevate: Interesting. Sounds like there’s a quite a variety of partnerships out there. My final question for you today is whether you think it is a good idea to approach a corporation that does not have any sort of corporate giving or social responsibility program in place. Do you think this is an opportunity or a concern?

Derry: Good question. If the company doesn’t have any corporate giving program in place, you’ll want to see a lot of interest and motivation from the leadership. If you don’t have that from the start, likely not to be worth the effort investment. If they do have a program, make the case for your nonprofit being the better choice when they review renewing their partnerships or adding a new one.

Elevate: That’s a good principle to go by. Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us. This has been an extremely enlightening discussion that I’m sure many of our readers will find helpful as well.

Derry Deringer is principal of Deringer Consulting which was launched in 2011. Previously, Derry was Director of Corporate Relations at WFP USA. He brings twenty-five years of experience with nonprofit, business and international organizations. Deringer Consulting helps executives and teams grow faster with better fundraising and better strategic planning. His favorite work is helping clients accelerate growth through a unique blend of coaching, consulting and facilitation methods. And the best place to start with every new client? … right where they are. Schedule a call with Derry today! 202.494.9170 | derry@deringerconsulting.com

May 22, 2019

Corporate partnerships have become a subject of increasing interest to both nonprofits and corporations alike, with many economic and business arguments being made for why a business should incorporate social elements into their business strategy.

Nowadays, most large nonprofits have their own corporate affairs department dedicated to the sole purpose of establishing such partnerships.

Today, we are happy to have with us long-time corporate partnerships consultant, Derry Deringer, to share more about how you can set up such corporate partnerships and what goes into making a successful partnership.

Elevate: Hi Derry, thanks for joining us today.

Derry: My pleasure.

Elevate: Perhaps to start off, could you tell us why corporate-nonprofit partnerships have become so popular. What sets these arrangements apart from other avenues for giving to a nonprofit?

Derry: Today more than ever, nonprofits are seeking to diversify revenue streams to assure long-term sustainability. Corporate partnerships provide that additional source of support since many nonprofits start off or have traditionally grown through foundation grants and individual donations. What sets these partnerships apart from other avenues is that a nonprofit can benefit from many sources of support from a single entity, for example: employee giving, executive level board placement and straight cash gifts.

Elevate: That makes sense – there’s definitely a lot more diversity with how to engage corporate donors as opposed to private foundations and individual donors. And how should a nonprofit prioritize or decide what it wants or should be getting out of nonprofit partnerships?

Derry: Prioritizing or deciding what you want from a corporate partnership is identified by a mixture of what the nonprofit needs in terms of cash, in-kind and service resources, what your corporate donor audience wants to give and what is realistic for the nonprofit staff to implement over the partnership period. I would gather information in that order and refine the list as you go. A better question to ask during this exercise is – what the nonprofit wants to get out of the partnership and what the partner wants to get out of the partnership as well.

A common mistake of a nonprofit is to look to the business to define the partnership. You take the lead with very large dose of curiosity and empathy for what the business wants and needs.

Elevate: So what you’re saying is that it is better to be clear on the partnership parameters or conditions that your nonprofit will offer before engaging in talks with a corporate partner. How narrowly would you define your partnership parameters?

Derry: I’m a big fan of first being clear on partnership parameters before officially pursuing partnerships. But you can certainly engage your corporate donors and community as you are identifying and creating your parameters. Just be clear about the purpose of the meeting or call. Also important to have beforehand is your gift acceptance policy.

For partnership parameters, I recommend a timeline, minimum cash support requirement and the large building block activities and benefits. How broad and narrow to get with the activity and benefit parameters has a lot to do with what staff can realistically implement and what partners see as the most valuable.

Elevate: In your experience as a corporate partnerships consultant, what are the top 3 ways that corporations like to give or partner with nonprofits?

Derry: Businesses want to give in ways that are aligned as closely as possible to their business needs and that provide benefits that they are not able to get by other means. So, I’ll share a top three in that context and in no particular order:

• Giving cash, in-kind or combination that allows product exposure with a new audience;
• Employee engagement that increases fulfillment, loyalty and meaning to their day job. Types can be a volunteer day, executive on the board or technical advisory role; and
• Long term (say 2-3 years) partnerships that blend a mixture of giving and benefits around a single nonprofit or cause that allows the company to get a deep and broad understanding and give a more meaningful contribution and impact over time.

One business may care a great deal for getting their employees involved in a cause. Another may only care about getting their product in front of a new audience. I start with my full inventory list of ways to give, then work on developing a good relationship with the right contact in order to ask open-ended and context questions until I get a clear view of what is most important to the business.

If you have a corporate partner program, you may only have a handful of partners. So we aren’t talking about dozens of business partners.

Elevate: That is very enlightening. Do you have any useful tools or resources for helping nonprofits to decide on these parameters?

Derry: I suggest the development director and Executive Director collaborate to do a brainstorming excise to develop a list of the most compelling and actionable partnership benefits the organization could provide within their gift acceptance policy. Consider having a facilitator lead a meeting to bring out the best from the group. Bring together select key staff and other stakeholders like donors and board members. Get 10 – 15 people together and have productive hour meeting to get down a solid list then refine it. I do have my own personal resources that I have developed that I am happy to share with nonprofits who approach me.

Make sure to read part 2 of this interview, where we’ll ask Derry for more on what corporations want out of a partnership, and how you can go about finding out these answers.

Derry Deringer is principal of Deringer Consulting which was launched in 2011. Previously, Derry was Director of Corporate Relations at WFP USA. He brings twenty-five years of experience with nonprofit, business and international organizations. Deringer Consulting helps executives and teams grow faster with better fundraising and better strategic planning. His favorite work is helping clients accelerate growth through a unique blend of coaching, consulting and facilitation methods. And the best place to start with every new client? … right where they are. Schedule a call with Derry today! 202.494.9170 | derry@deringerconsulting.com

March 21, 2019

In part one of this series, we talked about why building a successful grants program means playing the long game – one that requires patience, perseverance, and resilience.

This post breaks down exactly what it means to build resilience in your grants program and the specific steps you can take to start moving in the right direction.

Step 1: Build resilience and put yourself in the right conditions

(Last wine analogy, I promise!) The pinot noir grape has a very thin skin, giving it a beautiful ruby color. Its transparency famously allows it to tell the truest story of the conditions it faced that year (i.e., the soil and the climate). It can survive in high heat and deep cooling (but only to an extent) and doesn’t do well in overcrowded plots.

The pinot noir grape can be resilient—but only if a winemaker understands its strengths and weaknesses and uses that information to put it in the best possible conditions.

And then it just sings.

As grant writers, we too have to learn how to put ourselves in the best possible conditions for building funder relationships and developing strong proposals. The trick I have learned, after surviving tons of declinations, is to learn from them and even lean into it.

First: request and honestly consider funder feedback. Funder feedback is one of the most valuable resources in a developing grants program. Thinking that, “Funders/foundations just don’t get it”, or, “We have zero chance of winning this,” will never result in improved cultivation or relationships—and certainly won’t help you win more grants. But seeking feedback and reflecting on what can be legitimately improved upon is key to your success.

Sometimes, asking once is not enough. After the initial declination, funders may say that they can’t or won’t provide feedback. But don’t give up. Wait a month or so and ask again. Respectfully request a conversation so that you can better understand how their funding priorities align with your work.

The worst that can happen is that they say “no.” I know this is not comforting, but hopefully it does give you a little bit of confidence that there are only so many outcomes. And you can’t control their decision-making—only your own preparation. For many funders, it can take more than one application to break through, and plenty of foundations do not have the human resources to speak with all potential applicants. 

Step 2: Lift up your genuine strengths and recognize your organizational challenges

Know what your strengths are and stick with them. To connect authentically with funders, maintain an awareness of trends, but do not bend to them. There is nothing more obvious to a funder than a proposal that includes a program or work-plan that was clearly designed specifically to match the available funding but does not actually portray the applicant’s authentic strengths or mission-aligned endeavors.

Be honest with yourself about your organizational challenges and liabilities. Is your grants program understaffed? Under-resourced? Do you have high-quality, evidence-based programs and evaluation measures in place to prove your effectiveness? Is your program sustainable? Answering these questions with honesty and clarity is critical to writing an application that speaks to funders.

Step 3: Focus on strategies that align with your priorities

Develop your internal capacity for strategies that work. First, plan and staff-up for the long-term. Understand that you should budget with the assumption that it will take 12-18 months to realize serious returns, in either funding or significant learning about what does or doesn’t work. Then, make sure you’re properly staffed to dedicate the time needed to conduct in-depth research and draft quality proposals. This could also mean outsourcing some of the work.

In your prospect research, choose quality over quantity. Learn to say “no” to external trends (what seems “hot” in funding, if it is not already what you do authentically) and internal pressures (boards, CEOs, etc.) Saying “no” is an art and can be incredibly difficult but is key to your success.

Seek opportunities to have conversations with internal stakeholders and decision-makers, and be prepared to justify the strategy you’ve developed. Explain that quality over quantity is going to result in fewer, but better and more sustainable outcomes.

Develop a strategy for your prospect research (i.e., coming up with keywords for your work, key fields you work in, peers in your field, etc.) and stay disciplined until you find your diamonds. Don’t waste your time with barely-aligned funders. There’s a fine balance between knowing when you have no shot and not leaving money on the table when there is a real chance. Learning to recognize this takes time and experience. Even then, you won’t always be right.

Once you have extensively researched well-aligned funders, invest in good cultivation to learn if you are well-aligned with their priorities. Write to them asking for clarification of funding priorities, expressing genuine interest in making the best of their time and your own. In these conversations, it is important to learn from what they have to say, as opposed to seeking validation for your programs.

If cultivation seems difficult, read up on how others get over their personal hurdles, and how organizations can best distribute fundraising responsibilities based on personalities. Keep a cultivation chart (an Excel sheet works great!) to track your progress with each funder, the stage you’re in with them, and historical notes so you can go back and remember what you spoke with them about.

How Will I Know if I’m on the Right Track?

Like the pinot noir grape, grants programs require cultivation and commitment. You will know that you’re on the right track when you start to have meaningful conversations and develop relationships with funders, knowing that this may take months or even a year. Most funders really want to help you—the reality is that they are just as busy as you are. So, you need to remain humble. Be grateful for their time and continue improving your conditions to put yourself in the best light for funding.

Follow these steps, and you can be very successful at fundraising through grants.

March 15, 2019

A few years ago, I was asking a winemaker about the process of winemaking. He was working at a relatively young winery in a developing wine region. He told me that it would take seven years before he would come to understand the outcome of his strategy and his gut feeling about what he had planted.

I keep this story in mind every time my clients and I begin feeling anxious about the results of a grant submission.

Having been on the other side of grantmaking, I know that it takes a significant amount of human resources to make funding decisions. It’s not uncommon to have to wait 6-8 months (or even up to a year) before hearing back about a funding decision. And, whether or not they ultimately fund your proposal, you want funders spending the time they need to make sure those precious dollars are going where they are needed most. Just like good winemaking, good grant writing takes time, patience, and perseverance. 

Why Grant Writing Feels Personal

I feel on a daily basis the justifiable stress and anxiety of all my nonprofit clients as they try to meet their revenue goals and get “in” with funders. It’s not uncommon to email funders and receive no response. Or, worse, to be emailing back and forth with funders and to suddenly be ghosted and never hear back from them again.

Not earning a response to a well-crafted and genuine note to a funder can feel like a personal rejection, or a rejection of the work you believe in. We all know what it feels like to put a ton of work into a complicated application, only to be declined with a very short and (often sweet) note that somehow, the awardees were more compelling or meritorious — but they regret that they can’t tell you why. (Always respectfully request feedback, anyway; read on to find out how.)

The more you apply, the more you lose. Sometimes it can feel like one (gleeful) step forward, just to then take 3-4 steps back.

It feels personal because the stakes are so high. You believe in your mission, and very likely, many people depend on you and your organization’s work; it’s hard to understand why someone else might not believe in it with the same enthusiasm that you have.

The (Semi-) Good News: You’re Not Alone

Grant writing is notoriously difficult. The national win rate (rate of success winning a grant applied for) is 17% A win rate of 30-40% on new funding (funders not familiar with your organization) and 50-60% on combined (existing programs and funders and new programs and funders) is considered   extraordinary.

Still, we understand the challenge. In addition to the odds seemingly being stacked against nonprofits when it comes to winning grants, one of the reasons so many nonprofit organizations struggle with their grant programs is because they lack the necessary resources. Research, cultivation (communicating with funders before applying), and writing proposals are all time-intensive and expensive processes. I’ve seen large organizations with multi-million-dollar budgets struggle to properly staff and efficiently manage the amount of time and coordination it takes among the development, program, and administrative staff to get a successful proposal out the door—even when the Elevate team adds writing and research capacity.

Just like wine-making, grant writing is experimental. You’re not going to be able to predict the success of your grants program until you have enough experience—and enough funder feedback to learn what will work for your organization. There’s a lot to fine tune – from your grant language, your programmatic strengths and weaknesses, what funders respond to, and beyond.

Just like some grapes grow and thrive best in certain climates or soil, your proposals and your programs will resonate with certain funders more than others. Further, just like in winemaking, your work is susceptible to external factors and trends beyond your control. Grapes are susceptible to the climate and wine production is usually responsive to market trends, just as grantmaking is susceptible to the economy and philanthropic trends.

Great. It’s Tough. What Now?

What exactly does all this mean for your organization?

Stay tuned for part 2 of this series, where we’ll break down exactly what it means to build up resilience in your grants program!

February 13, 2019

Program budgets are one of the most common attachment requests from funders, yet they are often one of the most confounding requests for even well-established nonprofit organizations.

However, having strong, fiscally-sound program budgets can not only improve your chances of winning a grant, but also support organizational budget planning and program management.

Below are our answers to four frequently asked questions, to help you begin to craft your own program budget:

1. Why are program budgets important to funders?

In short, funders want to know where their money is going. Organizational budgets often have lots of information rolled up into a handful of line items. And for multi-service organizations, in particular, it can be difficult to determine how much time and money any one program requires. A well-crafted program budget will complement your grant narrative, providing a more detailed picture of the inputs required to operate each program effectively and the need for the exact funding requested.

2. How do we create a program budget?

Creating program budgets should ideally be a collaborative process between your program, development, and finance teams, as each holds specific information needed to complete this task.

The program team should identify the inputs to the program: what staff members work on that particular program, what other contractors or vendors provide supports for this program, and what other direct costs are needed to execute the program (listed below).

The development team should identify the relevant revenue sources for the program: what current and prospective funding streams and/or particular funders support that program and determine what other financial resources are needed to match the program’s expenses.

The finance team should then take these inputs and calculate the exact revenue and expense for each program aligned to their internal accounting controls.

3. What do we include in a program budget?

Program budgets not only can but SHOULD include the salary and fringe benefits costs associated with the staff time relevant to this project. Other common direct expense line items that should be included in a program budget may include:

• Supplies
• Equipment
• Evaluation
• Client transportation
• Program staff transportation
• Recruitment and/or marketing
• Printing
• Curriculum
• Staff training and professional development
• Database fees
• Facilities costs or space rental fees
• Telecommunication costs

Note: if you are unsure of how to differentiate between Supplies and Equipment, the University of Arizona defines equipment as, “tangible personal property (including information technology systems) having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit.”

Don’t forget – you can and SHOULD include a 5-10% administrative cost to your program expenses! Administrative expenses help to cover the very necessary costs of running your organization—management and administrative salaries, annual audits, central office costs, etc. Once you have determined the direct costs to your program, add an additional 5-10% administrative expense to the budget total. However, be sure to check each funder’s guidelines to see if they have any specific restrictions on administrative costs.

4. How do we calculate how much to allocate to the program budget?

This will vary by organization and your exact accounting methods. However, two helpful rules of thumb are:

To calculate salary costs: you must determine which staff members support that program and what percent of each staff person’s time is dedicated to that program, then calculate this cost based on their full-time salary.

Use the following formula to calculate staff costs:
(% of staff time spent on program) x (staff salary + benefits)

For example:
(0.4) X ($52,500+ $7,500) = $24,000 allocated to the program budget.

You can use a similar formula when calculating direct costs shared across multiple programs.

To determine direct costs that are shared by multiple programs across the organization: try your best to determine what share of the costs goes to each program and allocate accordingly. If, for example, you use a database to store information for all three of your programs, the total annual cost of your database fees should be divided by three across each program budget.

Proactively creating budgets for each of your programs not only avoids stress during the grant submission process, but can actually support organizational budgeting, strategy, and growth.

January 10, 2019

Translating your organization’s work into a comprehensive yet concise proposal is no easy task.

To make things easier, we have compiled a list of recommendations based on our staff’s interactions and surveys conducted with Foundation staff.  In this post, we share an insider’s scoop on tips and tricks to follow at every stage of the writing process from planning to proofreading.

Here are five strategies—straight from the nation’s leading funders—on how to write a grant proposal that stands out from the rest.

MAP IT OUT

• Outline your responses. Preparation is the most important stage in grant writing. It puts you on the right track for a strong draft—and saves a LOT of time in the long-run. Before drafting, use a few bullet points to identify the topics you want to cover in each section.
• Answer the question they’re asking—not the one you want them to ask. It’s simple enough, but funders frequently come across applications that do not answer the stipulated question, or attempt to use an answer that was tailored for a slightly different question. For example, a response to, “Describe the community need addressed by your program.” should only include the rationale behind your program—not the activities that are part of your program.
• Answer ALL parts of a question. It’s not uncommon to find multiple questions nested within a single section. For example, “Describe the outcomes that will be measured for each of the goals outlined above and whether evaluations will be internal or external.” is posed as a single question—but really requires you to discuss both outcomes and evaluation methodology. Pay close attention to these sections in your outline to avoid overlooking nested questions in your draft.

DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS

• Write a unique answer for each section. Take advantage of the space you’re given to include as many details about your organization or project as possible. Using the same content to answer multiple questions signals to funders that you either didn’t understand the questions, or that your programs are not well-developed.   
• Never use an old application. Write a fresh proposal when applying for renewed funding or when applying for a grant that you were previously denied. Funders want to see the growth and evolution of your organization. 

…BUT DON’T TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE EITHER

• Organize your thoughts: Each section of a response should serve a clear purpose. For example, if the first half of a paragraph is dedicated to describing the national scope of an issue, all information related to this topic should be included in that section—not scattered throughout the proposal.
• Condense your language: Funders don’t like reading unnecessarily long proposals. Keep your writing concise by replacing long phrases with one or two powerful words. For example:
  • To measure the effectiveness of our program… à To evaluate our program…
  • Students who are considering enrollment can… à Prospective students can…

KEEP IT SIMPLE

• Don’t overuse jargon. If you’re a nonprofit in the health sector and you’re writing to a small family foundation, phrases like “social determinants of health,” and “patient-centered outcomes” will likely fly over the funder’s head. Opt for simpler language. Or, simply limit your use of jargon and be sure to clearly define each term before introducing another.
• Don’t overuse abbreviations/acronyms. Let’s say you are writing a grant for the hypothetical nonprofit Future Markets for Tomorrow (FMFT). The sentence “Partnering with the ACLU advances FMFT’s BAA program.” can be confusing—especially if the full-form of each acronym was introduced several pages earlier. The sentence is more reader-friendly when re-written as, “Partnering with the ACLU advances our budget analysis and advocacy initiatives.”
• Never use the word funder. Grantmakers prefer to be referred to as partners, collaborators, allies, supporters, or investors. Referring to grantmakers as “funders” creates the impression that you see them as a piggy bank rather than a thought partner. 

REMEMBER THE LITTLE THINGS

• Remember to delete all copy placeholders (i. “XXX”). Limit your use of copy placeholders to one or two types. (I generally use either square brackets or XXX in all my placeholders.) This allows me to easily use the Ctrl+F search feature when I’m reviewing the final draft to find any stray placeholders.
• Never submit a proposal with another funder’s name in the copy. If you’re adapting language from one proposal to use in other funding applications, carefully proofread each application to ensure that you’re writing to the right organization. Using the same search tool can be helpful here to confirm that the old funder’s name is no longer in the application.
• Never write to the wrong person. Check the funder’s website or IRS Form 990 to verify that you have the correct name and title of the person you’re writing to.
• Clearly label your attachments. Funders prefer attachments to be labeled with both your organization’s name and the file type. (Example: United Way 2018 Audit).

November 26, 2018

THIS POST IS PART OF A SERIES.
YOU CAN READ PART 1 HERE AND PART 2 HERE.

As Giving Tuesday has become known as the global day of giving, it also needs to be viewed as the launch of an organization’s year-end fundraising campaign.

In my work as a development consultant, I caution organizations to not put all their eggs into one basket when it comes to Giving Tuesday. What I mean by this is that Giving Tuesday can be disappointing if an organization uses it as a one-day event to reach its fundraising goal.

Rather, your organization’s Giving Tuesday campaign should act as more of a kickoff than a standalone strategy, and work in conjunction with your end-of-year campaign. Using Giving Tuesday as a soft launch allows your organization to be strategic in its approach to raising funds to meet your end-of-year goals. By using the buzz and excitement around this special day to garner the first donations for your year-end campaign, you can build the social proof your campaign page needs to spur others to donate through the end of the year.

GIVING TUESDAY: PART OF A BIGGER STRATEGY

As you finalize your Giving Tuesday campaign, here are some Do’s and Don’ts to help you establish its role in your larger end-of-year fundraising strategy:

GIVING TUESDAY DON’TS

• Don’t think of Giving Tuesday as short term gain. Think of it instead as a long-term investment into a full end of the year fundraising campaign.
• Don’t view Giving Tuesday as being only about fundraising. It doesn’t have to be.  In fact, you don’t have to ask for money at all on Giving Tuesday. I suggest rather using it as a day to raise awareness of your organization and its mission. Highlight how money raised from supporters will increase the social impact of the organization.
• Don’t set a goal specific to Giving Tuesday, but rather an end of the year campaign goal.
• Don’t use Giving Tuesday as the benchmark for judging how your campaign will perform.  It’s only one tool in your campaign toolbox.

GIVING TUESDAY DO’S

• Do use Giving Tuesday as a way to enhance your relationships with your donors, prospects, corporate partners and sponsors.
• Do use Giving Tuesday as one (and only one) of your strategies to reach your end of year campaign goal. It’s a great way to launch and test new messaging about your organization’s mission and programs.
• Do use Giving Tuesday as an opportunity to tell the story of your organization and your mission. STORYTELLING is key on Giving Tuesday, and it is a perfect time to share compelling and interesting information about your organization.
• Do accompany your Giving Tuesday launch with a well thought out social media and mobile strategy. Share a variety of types of social posts including video (if possible), storytelling, interesting snippets of data about your programs, compelling metrics, and historical facts about your organization.  With every posting, be sure to include a prominent ‘Donate’ button.
• Do follow up after Giving Tuesday with your end of year campaign, in which you will ask for support throughout the duration of it.

Laura Tucker has more than 15 years of nonprofit fundraising experience with an expertise in donor cultivation and major gift development. Laura is a highly creative results-driven development strategist with entrepreneurial passion, drive and vision. Laura has many years of professional experience generating revenue and increasing support bases for expanding national nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Her experience includes executive and volunteer leadership roles particularly in the sciences and public safety sectors. Laura is very comfortable working with and re-organizing leadership Boards, gaining corporate philanthropic support and planning and executing consumer driven promotional fundraisers. Given Laura’s background in public relations, she can effectively articulate the mission of the organization she is representing.

October 31, 2018

THIS POST IS PART 2 OF A SERIES.
YOU CAN READ PART 1 HERE AND PART 3 HERE.

There are many different strategies that nonprofits use to increase their giving.

Whether your organization decides to set up an online profile on a giving platform or use traditional appeal letters to reach potential donors, a tried and tested way to increase donations is the use of tiered donation lists or suggested donation options to make a compelling ask.

With Giving Tuesday around the corner, we are taking a closer look at both how and why you should consider using a tiered donation list in your donation appeals.

Why set donations tiers?

Tiered donation lists and suggested donations are based on the social influence effect, which coerces an individual’s decision-making based on social norms or social information provided to them. In a study on the Impact of Social Influence on the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods, researchers Jen Shang and Rachel Croson found that suggesting donation levels increased average contributions by 12% for all donors by telling donors what is an ‘appropriate’ level to give. Furthermore, these increased donation levels were sustained with higher donor renewal rates in subsequent years!

Tiered donation lists take suggested donations a step further by providing context and impact for each donation level. This allows potential donors to understand how their money is making a difference. In their study on what they coined as the “identified intervention effect,” researchers found that highlighting details about the charity’s impact significantly increased a donor’s generosity.

By combining details about a nonprofit’s impact with suggested donation levels, tiered donation lists use a multiplier effect to increase the generosity and giving probability of potential donors.

Making Impact Goals: The SMART Approach

When creating fundraising or impact goals for your organization, a good way to make sure you are providing a compelling fundraising appeal is to use the SMART Approach. This approach was originally conceived for project management by George Doran in a 1981 article titled, There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives.

To put simply, your impact should be:

• Specific – Where is the impact taking place? Who is benefitting? What is the impact? How will the impact improve a beneficiary’s standard of living?
• Measurable – Number of people impacted? Number of units of aid provided?
• Attainable – Can the impact/fundraising target be achieved within the specified time frame?
• Relevant – Is the impact something donors can connect with?
• Time-Based – What timeline will create a sense of urgency while also being realistic?

One way to structure your appeal is to list your SMART fundraising goal, followed by SMART tiered donation options that relate to your fundraising goal. For example:

There are a variety of ways to structure your tiered donation lists. The benefit of using different measurable impacts, as in the example above, is that it allows for donors to get a better idea of the different activities an organization is doing to make an impact.

Notice that in the example above, each donation option speaks to something that every person can identify with in pursuing an education – paying school tuition, having school uniform/supplies, and transportation to go to school. It is very important that the impacts you choose to highlight are relatable to your target audience. Additionally, setting a timeline is crucial to convince donors as to why donating now is necessary. In some cases, organizations provide matching donation incentives for donors to donate within a specific time frame. For #GivingTuesday, you should decide if you want to combine your giving campaign with the end of year holiday giving period.

Some organizations choose to use a specific measured impact goal and have all the options refer to the specific impact metric. The World Bicycle Relief is a great example of this where they use donation tiers to show that $150 would be the cost for one bicycle and countdown to their goal of providing 1,400 bicycles. The more specific your impact goal is, the easier it is to make a clear call to action for your potential donors.

For some ideas of other ways you could be structuring your donation tiers, check out CauseVox’s summary of the top five donation tier structures.

How to Set Donation Amounts

Now that you have some ideas of how to convey the impact in donation tiers, you’re probably thinking about what donation tiers work best to inspire giving. The short answer to this is that it depends.

While you can use the impact targets you feature to guide the amounts you choose for each tier, a more scientific approach would be to look at your past giving and giving within your sector to make your tiers. According to Nonprofit Source, the average online gift amount for #GivingTuesday in 2017 exceeded $134. Additionally, Blackbaud analyzed $1.9 billion in online gifts in 2016 from more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations in the United States to create a median gift amount for each sector. These figures can be combined with your organization’s past giving to come up with a good benchmark and giving tiers.

Use Anchoring to Your Advantage

To take things a step further, you could try adding a default option to your tiered donation list to leverage a marketing technique called anchoring. This technique relies on the brain’s tendency to heavily rely on the first piece of information (such as price) offered when making decisions. In the case of donations, it will cause people to tend to give closer to the anchored value than they otherwise might have.

Marketing researchers Indranil Goswami and Oleg Urminsky suggest that fundraisers might be overly apprehensive about using defaults in their donation campaigns. In their 2016 study, they found that setting donation defaults increased donation revenue in two ways: (1) by setting a lower default, it increased the number of smaller donors that gave to an organization; and (2) by setting higher defaults, it increased the average giving of each donor but reduced the total number of donors who gave.

The anchoring strategy you choose should be dependent on your priorities. If you want to enlarge your pool of donors to help increase your organization’s visibility and donor engagement, then going for a lower anchor or default may serve you better but may come at the expense of a reduced average giving amount across donors. A higher anchor may increase your average giving amongst current donors, but make it harder for you to attract newer donors.

Regardless of the approach you choose, keep in mind that this is an iterative process that requires experimentation to find the best strategy for your organization. Coming up with the best list takes practice, so try showing these lists to current donors and volunteers to get feedback as you find what works for you.

This is the second of three posts in our Giving Tuesday blog series. Check back next soon for our final post.