Tag Archives: nonprofit fundraising

Send Your Board a Message: Commit or Quit

Posted on June 9, 2009 | 6 Comments

Photo by Angel M. Cuesta

Photo by Angel M. Cuesta

I do not have much patience for a nonprofit board of directors that listens to reports, reacts to decisions, and offers advice. On the other hand, I am inspired by a board that takes action, creates opportunities, and builds relationships. The latter is deeply engaged in the cause, the former likes the idea of it.

It is time that we hold board members’ feet to the fire and send them a clear message: commit or quit—“Either get involved in the life of the organization or go find another cause.” “Either talk to people about what we do or go crawl in a hole somewhere.” “Either…” oh, I could go on for days. Unfortunately, speaking this kind of truth to (nominated and voted-in) power typically leads to: 1) you getting fired or 2) your board members actually quitting. Though it would feel great to say these things, it is not productive.

I used to think that the difference between a board that just shows up (or does not show up) and a board that takes action is the individual people involved. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it is the way a board acts together. For instance, if you showed up at your first board meeting and 45-minutes was spent on giving staff advice on how to give-away tickets to the upcoming fundraising event, you might think that giving advice is your job instead of supporting a successful event. Or you show up and each committee chair refers to the executive director or other staff to give the report, you might think that your role is an honorary one or you are just there to make sure staff does not do anything illegal.

How a board works sends implicit messages about role and expectation. In order to change the message, we have to change how the board conducts its business.

• Crack Open the Board Meeting – Two-hours in a room pushing information at one another is no fun. How about getting committee reports done in 15 minutes and spending the rest of time discussing strategic ways the organization can affect change.

• Focus on Inquiry and Dialogue – There is no prize for the best advice. In order to collaborate together, board members need to stop stating their own ideas and start listening to one another and asking questions. Through deep discourse board members are able to learn about the organization and its cause. Ultimately, they learn how best to work with other board members and staff.

• Build Public Milestones – The goal to increase individual donations may inspire the executive director, but it will not inspire a community volunteer. Boards and staff leaders need to be engaged in a dialogue about the future destinations they wish to reach that will excite the public and advance their cause.

• Take Action with a Beginning, Middle, and End – Bring a sense of organizational journey to board members’ work. Tie committee work to milestones, use benchmarks to evaluate progress, and help them see the results they create.

Finally, I believe most board members are ready to commit. Board member dedication is driven by board culture, that is why it is so important to ask the truly lazy to leave. This is the strongest message you can send to a committed board member: “We value your commitment so much, that we are only willing to surround you with people who are as deeply engaged as you.” This is a message they want to hear.

Carlo Cuesta can be reached at carlo@creationincommon.com

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Posted in Board Engagement, collaboration

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Revitalize Your Nonprofit’s Identity on a Shoe String

Posted on May 31, 2009 | Leave a comment



red strings
Originally uploaded by fuzzonce

I am always looking for inexpensive ways to help organizations strengthen their power to engage the public. One of the best ways to do this is by reaffirming your organization’s brand identity rather than trying to create a new one from scratch. This type of overhaul relies more on creating internal clarity rather than spending a lot of money on a new logo, printed materials, and in rare cases a new name. Sometimes we think that we need a bigger billboard (and some organizations do need one), but most organizations who consider themselves a “best kept secret” can get very effective results by taking small yet very important actions that are cost effective.

Here are a few strategies to consider before investing large amounts of resources:

Identify Specific Goals – First off, wanting greater awareness about your work is not a viable goal for a nonprofit organization with limited resources. Your goals need to be very specific. For example: “My organization wants to …

Increase city government leaders’ understanding about our programming offerings;
-or-
Deepen major donors’ understanding about our long range goals;
-or-
Broaden our service reach among families in the Phillips Neighborhood.”

Unspecific goals like “wanting greater awareness” lead to unfocused choices regarding how to use your dollars and create results that are hard to track. On the other hand with specific goals, like those listed above, you are able to locate who your target audience is and track the progress you are making with that audience. More importantly, because your audience is more defined you are able to be creative with how you are going to reach them. A billboard will probably not be very effective with city government leaders, but one-on-one conversations with specific leaders in that group will be.

Get Specific about Your Message – If you have read some of my past articles, you know that I harp on this time and time again. If you want to reach your audience, you need to provide them with a message that is meaningful to them not just meaningful to you. A good message positions the unique value you deliver in terms of the beliefs that you and your audience hold in common.

Tag for Value – Your tag-line, second only to the organization’s name, is the widest key message that will be conveyed to your public. Most organizations choose a tag-line to further explain what the organization does. I think it’s more important to convey a message about the value you create for the community, so that people know what you deliver when you deliver it.

Identify New Colors – A new color palette for your identity system can go a long way to sharpening an identity system that has dulled over time. Often, colors become excessively used or begin to mean something that isn’t what you want to convey. Consider changing them if you feel that the look of your type face and any graphic element still conveys what your organization stands for.

Educate. Educate. Educate – Finally, we often find organizations wanting a new identity system because they want to shake up the organization as much internally as they want to have a big splash externally. The real issue here is to educate your board and staff about the organization’s current identity. Help them understand the unique value the organization is delivering to the community and the unique way you deliver that value. Also, help them develop their story about the organization, not just an elevator speech they can memorize, but a personal story about the impact the organization is having on the community.

The financial difference between needing a new identity system and refreshing an already existing one is huge. By considering these strategies, you can begin to think through what you really need and strategize how to use your resources more effectively.

If you are interested in Creation In Common helping you identify what you need to address with your organization’s identity, go here for more information on our free Nonprofit Branding Needs Assessment.

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Posted in Branding and Communications

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Three Steps for Successful Individual Donor Cultivation

Posted on May 26, 2009 | Leave a comment
Lead Educate Close

We often hear how hard it is to ask for money, but rarely does anyone tell us how hard it is to generate donor prospect leads or to educate those prospects. In fact, if you are successful at generating leads and educating them– closing becomes the easiest part. We have been using the above model as a simple way of explaining successful individual donor cultivation. Here is how it works:

Lead Generate — Your fundraising strategy needs to include ways to introduce your cause to different target audiences. Here, volume counts. You want to find opportunities that allow you to give a brief overview of your cause as well as give your audience the opportunity to opt-in and learn more about your organization’s work. Most importantly, these are opportunities to make a connection and that is done by meeting your audience where their in terms of their values and beliefs  as opposed to trying to push lots of information at them. The goal here is to make a connection, listen, and give them an opportunity to continue the relationship by opting in for an experience to educate them about the organization.

Educate — Once your prospect has opted-in you can begin to educate them about your organization. We have a few rules here. Again, don’t overwhelm. Use a story to illustrates the specific value your organization creates, rather than giving them a laundry list of programs and services. Also, make the case. Do this by telling your audience what you intend to accomplish in the future in terms of the community impact you wish to have. The goal here is to educate them, but also to learn about how your audience relates to your cause.

Close – By this point, you should know enough about your donor prospect(s), that you are ready to position the ask in terms of their interests and the impact that your organization expects to achieve. Here you are making the connection between the two. No matter what the reaction is (yes, no, maybe), it’s important to make sure that you have a follow-up plan. This allows the relationship to continue, and as long as the donor prospect or donor is willing to continue the relationship, you should always be creating opportunities to educate them.

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Posted in resource development

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