August 9, 2019

THIS POST IS PART OF A SERIES ABOUT GRANT WRITING
DO’S AND DON’TS, STRAIGHT FROM FUNDERS!
READ PART 1 HERE

When it comes to winning grants, getting down to the numbers and making the ask is where the rubber truly meets the road.

But there are plenty of mistakes that even the most experienced executive directors, development directors, and grant writers can make when it comes to asks and budgets—mistakes that can cost their organizations significant grant funds.

Below are four strategies for getting the numbers right and making a winning ask. These strategies are based on survey responses from dozens of funders around the country who were willing to share their insights and experiences as grantmakers.

1. Do Your Research

Avoid asking for an amount outside a funder’s giving range.
To determine an appropriate ask amount, learn as much as you can about the funder’s previous giving. Use all available resources: websites, nonprofit/professional networks, foundation staff presentations/panels, Google News Search, IRS Form 990s, etc.
Never ask for budget items that are not eligible.
Foundation’s typically include funding parameters on their website or application guidelines. Typically, direct program expenses are safe bets (exceptions for staff, rent, equipment). If considering requests for indirect costs, check if there are restrictions. For example, some funders explicitly state that they will only fund 10 to 15 percent of a project’s indirect expenses When in doubt (and if you’ve made every effort to find out for yourself) ask the funder directly.If your program requires a cost that is explicitly restricted (like scholarships for a college access program, or computers for a robotics team), consider briefly mentioning in the funding request or budget narrative that your budgeted expenses include this item and how your org funds it (e.g. “Because tuition costs prevent so many students from pursuing a degree, we raise 100% of scholarship funds through our annual luncheon and dedicated individual donors”). This demonstrates your commitment to this specific intervention/expense while simultaneously assuring the reviewer that their dollars won’t be spent here. (Make sure this aligns with your program budget/request column as well.)
Do not present an ask for 100% of project costs.
Funders are not monolithic, so this point will vary on a case-by-case basis. But generally, you should demonstrate the sustainability of your program to reassure funders that your program isn’t wholly dependent on their gift. Similarly, funders also want to see community buy-in (everyone wants to be on the winning team), and multiple funding commitments demonstrate a broad base of support.
As a general rule, requesting funders to support 10% of a project’s overall costs is a safe bet. If you plan to exceed 30-50%, proceed with caution. You might even consider reaching out to funder for guidance. Avoid asking for 100% unless you are confident that the funder is open to it—whether you heard that information directly from funder staff, through the “grapevine”, or by looking at recent grantees. (e.g. a $60K gift to purchase 3 vans seems like a possible 100% gift.)

2. Be Transparent & Consistent

Reviewers look at dozens or hundreds of proposals/budgets every application period, so it’s unlikely you will successfully pull a fast one.

Don’t disguise an operating ask as a project ask (i.e. staff member salary). Or, relatedly, stay away from trying to include something like computers in a “Supply” line item, just because the funder explicitly prohibits requests for “Equipment.”
Don’t include things in the budget that are not referenced in the narrative. At best, a reviewer may assume incompetence—at worst, deceitfulness. Neither will set your proposal up for success.

3. Be Realistic

Again, funders review tons of proposals. Even if they have never led a particular program (and many of them will have), they have a broad perspective of the resources required to successfully run a similar program.

Cost-per-participant is not the only tool a reviewer may use, but it is a basic way to compare proposed programs that may appear apples-to-oranges. Depending on their org values, some funders may wish to stretch their charitable dollars to support the greatest number of people, period. Others will understand that deeper/longer interventions require more intensive resources. Either approach has pros & cons.

Regardless of which route your program takes, take time to explain WHY your afterschool program costs $2,000/student vs. a peer program that costs $1,000/student (year-round vs. school-year only; meal vs. snacks; transportation provided vs. using school/metro bus system; highly-qualified staff/MSW/clinical staff/Special Education accreditation vs. volunteers; etc.)

With this in mind:

Don’t ask for a large amount if you serve a small number of people without providing context.
Relatedly, use caution when asking for the maximum of a foundation’s funding range. If you have explained your program well, reviewers will have a pretty good idea of what it costs. While it might be tempting, never inflate your budgets to get to the maximum amount.

4. Check Your Math

This might seem like an obvious tip, but details can get lost in a complicated proposal with a lot of authors or sources of input. Double-check your work using a calculator or spreadsheet—and don’t forget to update/confirm Excel formulas if you’re using them.

Your budget and budget narrative present another opportunity to justify the appropriate costs of your intervention.

Never submit a budget that doesn’t match the proposal (a reviewer may think it was a mistake or will have questions about cost allocations).
Similarly, don’t submit a budget that doesn’t balance for a program. Don’t leave room for assumptions—if your program operates at a loss that’s made up with General Operating dollars, show those General Operating funds in the revenue portion of the budget.

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.

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.

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:

Goal: Organization ABC aims to raise $50,000 by December 31, 2018 to help provide an education for 2,000 children in Cambodia’s most hard-to-reach communities in 2019.

$100 will buy an all-terrain bicycle that will help a Cambodian child attend their nearest school that is 10 miles away

$250 will pay for a full-year of middle school tuition for a Cambodian child to continue their education

$500 will provide 100 Cambodian children with school uniforms and supplies they need to be successful in school

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.

September 12, 2018

As nonprofit organizations rely on financial donations as their primary source of funding, so too must they rely on their Chief Executive Officers (CEO) to be their primary fundraiser.

For a nonprofit organization to reach its full fundraising potential, its CEO must understand the role of fundraising and be a true partner to the development team in the fundraising process.

As development professionals it can be difficult to know how to effectively engage your CEO in your fundraising activities and goals. In this blog post, I’ve shared 7 strategies for doing just that and provided an example of how this has worked for me in the past.

What is the CEO’s role in fundraising?

I like to think of CEOs as Networkers in Chief. Usually, they have reached the position of CEO after years spent at various management levels in their industries, and they are almost always very connected in their field. In addition to being Chief Executive Officer, the CEO is also chief strategic thinker, thought leader of the company and advocate for the organizational vision of a better world. The CEO manages, inspires and excites the board, staff, and donors about the mission and the work of the nonprofit. Community leaders, business leaders, and stakeholders will look to the CEO to set the tone for the organization. Because of the role the CEO plays, he/she will have access to the highest level of leadership in the community which is critical for spreading the organization’s message and building relationships that can lead to significant financial support.

The Development Director/CEO Relationship

It is the job of the development professional to not only explain to the CEO as to why he/she needs to be a fundraising partner but to help him/her understand how powerful a role he/she can play. Development professionals need to work to understand their CEO’s strengths so that they can leverage those strengths in the fundraising process. They also need to work with the CEO closely to understand his/her working style and limitations.

Strategies for Leveraging your Networker in Chief:

I lean on seven tools when encouraging CEOs to be more engaged in the fundraising process:

Create a strategic fundraising plan. Provide the CEO with a simple, thoughtful, strategic fundraising plan and review it with him/her so they understand the goals and deliverables
2. Hold strategy sessions. Set time aside to speak to the CEO about the fundraising process and explain what his/her role is.
Set calendar appointments to review contacts. Set up scheduled meetings with the CEO to review his/her network of colleagues and friends. This is the beginning of a major gift donor prospect list.
Share success stories. Share stories of other nonprofit CEO’s achieving fundraising success.
Have coaching sessions. Make sure the CEO is comfortable asking donors for money and knows how to do it properly. Do role-playing exercises. Help the CEO feel good about his/her role in the ask.
Utilize the CEO’s strengths. If the CEO is a great writer, ask him/her to partner with you in writing a targeted appeal letter or white paper. If he/she is better at speaking publicly have him/her shoot an appeal video to use for social media posts.
Lead. Don’t be afraid to tell the CEO to get back on track and hold him/her accountable to a promise. CEOs want development staff to hold them accountable. It is usually the development professional who is uncomfortable playing this role, but that must be overcome to achieve success. A CEO is waiting for you to lead them!

Case Study

I had a recent experience working with an Association in which the CEO had access to many high net worth colleagues and friends who I wanted to cultivate as donor prospects. However, the CEO was very reluctant to reach out to his friend base and ask for money because he felt as if it was a form of begging.

I knew that to get the CEO to open his contact list and start to cultivate his network that we’d have to come up with a specific strategic vision. So, I worked with other executive staff members to identify one important programmatic area in which they wanted to raise money for, and we set up a plan to achieve our fundraising goals. I then set a meeting with our CEO to review our fundraising plan with the specific target. He started feeling more comfortable with the idea of asking his network of colleagues and friends for money for a specific agenda item rather than money for general organizational support.

After getting to know this CEO’s style and comfort zone, I suggested I reach out to his contacts using his name as an introduction in my email. He was supportive of this as it took the burden of solicitation away from him and helped me to form relationships of my own with his network. Once my CEO saw donations from his network of friends and colleagues coming in he felt much more relaxed and confident about fundraising in general.

April 11, 2018

When asking donors to give their money, volunteers or staff to give their time, and even constituents to participate in your programs – it is particularly important to know why they should volunteer, give, and engage with your organization as opposed to another similar nonprofit.

Therefore, you must know the other organizations in your space, and clearly understand and communicate how you are performing different activities, or performing similar activities in different ways.

One of your most important roles as a nonprofit leader is to see the broader context and communicate it both internally and externally. Here is an example: Elevate once worked with a charter school who was seeking to raise national funding for its work. When we were brainstorming why the funders should support their work, a school leader explained with enthusiasm about all the learning that was happening in their classroom every single day.

But students learning could not be their differentiating factor, we explained: that is why the local school district funds their work in the first place. That is the bare minimum; it is what they have in common with (most) other schools, not what makes them different or better amid a crowded field.

So how can your organization set itself apart from others doing similar work in your field?

Your Unique Approach

Your unique approach is something you have probably thought about. A lot. But your position is also something that is dynamic, and shifting as the ecosystem around it does and as you learn more about what works and what does not. When building new programs or approaching new stakeholders, it will be critical that your organizational strategy is in step with the broader context of what’s happening around you.

Differentiation must be your strategy!

Not only does this benefit the most people and prevent duplication of efforts, but it improves your sustainability by ensuring donors and grantmakers do not believe there is a good substitute for your work, and stay loyal to you!

How might your organization or program be different? Factors to consider:

Geography

Are you the only service provider in a certain region? Do you have a nation-wide reach compared to organizations with just a local footprint? Elevate works with many different Jewish social service agencies – but the one in Seattle is not competing with the one in Philadelphia or Miami.

Size or Reach

Are you the largest service provider of a particular demographic – like middle school students? Or do you reach all the senior centers in a certain county?

Theory of Change

Does your theory of change (which we will discuss more at length!) distinguish your work? One of Elevate’s former clients developed their own inquiry-based method of teacher professional development. Do you have a similar method for change that you’ve refined over time?

Program Design

Do you use best practices in delivering your programs, or a promising new model that makes your program different in exciting ways? Are there features of your programs that others do not offer?

Impact

Does your program have a track record that is proven and deep? Does the change because of your program highlight a more effective program?

Stakeholder Engagement

Does your organization bring unique stakeholder perspectives to the table or ‘uncommon bedfellows’ to work on a common issue. For example, a former Elevate client was committed to bringing evangelical Christians into the progressive movement by highlighting common areas of interest – like care for creation and peace. Another brings military leaders to advice on progressive foreign policy issues.

Comprehensive or Linked Services

Do you offer a broader array of services than others or a more holistic or comprehensive experience for participants? Are you a one-stop-shop for a variety of needs?

Partnerships

Do you have long-standing or particularly deep partnerships that make your program more effective or legitimate in the community?

Broader Contribution to the Field

Are you helping to organize other actors in your space? Do you provide some other mechanism for thought leadership? Do others look to you to galvanize a collective response? For example, one of Elevate’s clients is the national leader in the creative aging space and presents at conferences on their work.

Funding Mix

Do you have earned revenue or government support, when it is not common in your space? Do you have support from the most prominent foundations or donors, who have invested in your interventions and programs?

Leadership and Authenticity

Is your Board of Directors, leadership, or staff led by former or current program participants? Does it have people who have first-hand experience with your issue? For example, an Elevate client is the only national organization against torture led by torture survivors.

Momentum or Growth

Has your organization been the fastest growing, or entered new schools, regions, or cities in the past year?

Timeliness or Relevance

Are there external factors that make your issue particularly pressing? A change in conversation or a world event that makes your work particularly distinctive? For example, Elevate works with a client who is the leading organization working on climate change from a Catholic perspective, and the Pope’s landmark Encyclical letter, Laudato Si’ in 2014, about the care for our common home helped to differentiate their work from other climate organizations at that time.

Agenda Setting

Are you addressing an issue that others have not tackled before? For example, Elevate worked with a client raising awareness and developing responses to street harassment, which was largely an untapped issue area.

Download Elevate’s free Differentiation worksheets!

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This Matters the most for Nonprofits

Because there are always limited resources, it is important that you legitimately do not spend your time and money duplicating efforts that are already working elsewhere. This is more important in the social and nonprofit sector than in the business and for-profit space. If individual investors want to try to compete with an existing enterprise, it is the investors who lose if it does not work out.

However, if your nonprofit wants to duplicate efforts that are already being done, the opportunity cost of other interventions that could be benefiting society in some other way are a public loss, not just a private one.

As an added bonus: clear and meaningful differentiation is essential to a strong fundraising program, and will ensure you raise more funding than if you are competing with similar organizations.

Getting the Numbers Right in Your Grants

THIS POST IS PART OF A SERIES ABOUT GRANT WRITING DO’S AND DON’TS, STRAIGHT FROM FUNDERS! READ PART 1 HERE