By Mary Valloni
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The podcast currently has 307 episodes available.
If you have been following the Fundraising Freedom Podcast, when I first started it I actually called it the Mary Valloni Show. And if you've been following for a while, you know that I follow the steps that I teach in my book, Fundraising Freedom. Those steps follow the acronym FREEDOM because what I want for you, and what I want for me, is freedom. So, I have been spending the last several weeks and really the last several months thinking through what my vision is. What does it actually look like to focus your vision? 2020 has obviously caused us to have to take a step back and really look at everything. What is your vision for your life; the passion and purpose that you have for the work that you do? If you're anything like me, you've probably had some moments where you're like, ‘what am I doing? What is happening? Where do I even fit into all of this?’ I’ve spent a lot of time journaling and walking through my vision for this podcast, my vision for my business, and trying to really pull back the layers and remind myself why I do the work that I do.
In chapter one of Fundraising Freedom, I share with you that I really want to make sure that you have your mission, your vision, and your timeline in your budget. I also want to make sure that you know exactly why you're doing what you're doing. If you don't have a passion for the work that you're doing, people will see that. Usually, that means that your donations will run parallel to that. You may see that your donations declined because the people just don't follow this movement that you have created for your cause. At the top of every podcast episode, I talk about how I want to educate, encourage, and empower fundraisers to raise more funds and have more freedom. And I do believe that that is at the core of what I do. That is my mission. I want to teach you, I want to encourage you, and especially this year, I want to encourage you to keep going and to not give up. I want to empower you to know that it's possible to take that education and really step out into a new place in the work that you do so that you can speak on behalf of the people you serve. Those three core tenants are what I believe, and I spent several years really trying to nail down what that mission was. Of course, on the vision side, I've always wanted to end the lack and scarcity mindset. In the nonprofit sector, even the word nonprofit means not for profit. And so many people look at our nonprofits and say, ‘well, you can do this on less, you don't need that much.’ As nonprofit leaders, you are told that you maybe shouldn't make as much as you make or that you shouldn't be compensated well for the work that's being done and I just do not believe that I believe that you should be compensated well.
I also believe that your charity should have every dollar that it needs to actually end whatever problem you are trying to solve. I would say 100% of you are trying to raise dollars for your nonprofit because whatever you're trying to fix wasn't fixed by the for-profit sector. So not only do you have to do this on limited resources, you have to follow the government guidelines and you have to do it with very minimal income. I understand the challenges that you are faced with and I get that, and I feel your pain deep within my soul. I mean, I have been doing this for 20 years, and I know that you guys sacrifice, and you do this with very minimal rewards. I just think you guys are absolutely incredible; the heart that you have for the people you serve is just off the charts. I just want to tell you how much I appreciate the ability to share with you some of the things that I've learned in the nonprofit space. Of course, we know we can always do better and that there's always more that can be done. But the thing is that you guys are showing up every single day, doing the hard work that somebody else couldn't accomplish. For that, I just want to give you the biggest high five and virtual hug and to let you know that I'm really just so grateful that I get to really do life with you guys.
I’ve had to have some tough conversations with myself, and I'm sure you have been in this same boat, trying to figure out what are we going to do as we move into the new year. How are we going to stay focused on what we were actually called to do? For me, I’ve had such clarity in the last year that I was really called to help faith-based organizations. My heart is for people who are sharing the gospel and helping change lives. I've launched several programs over the last several years, mostly on one-on-one coaching and group coaching; helping people raise money in a group environment. The reason why I did those things was that that's what worked for me. So, I wanted to create an environment for you so that you knew that you weren't alone, which was my why statement. That was the why behind everything; I do not want you to be alone. I do not want you, for one second, to feel alone in the work that you're doing because you're not. You have so many people, me included, who care about you, who care about your work, and the fact that you are spending every day doing the hard stuff that nobody else is willing to do.
I've launched some programs, one of which is called Fundraising Freedom Academy. Several of you joined in and saw really, really great results. I mean, hundreds of thousands of dollars, which was just absolutely incredible. And to me, I was really humbled by the fact that those students of mine trusted me every couple of weeks, as we transitioned some of the things that we were doing, and you believed that what I was teaching was effective. Almost three years ago, I launched a program called Fully Funded Academy with my friend Mike Kim. I had actually been following Mike on his Brand You podcast for a couple of years as I was trying to build out my own personal brand, Mary Valloni Consulting. When I actually got a chance to meet him, we sat down and decided that we were going to open up a program called Fully Funded Academy, I was so excited because I had such a passion for missionaries, but it was really more of a passion project. When we launched that program, it was just absolutely incredible. We have hundreds of students now and that program has grown exponentially over the last few months. And I know that the writing is on the wall, that I have to put more of my focus on those students of mine.
If you joined in on my webinar this week, you know that I have opened up a new program called Fully Funded Orgs. Fully Funded Orgs is all about raising funds for your organization. It’s a modification of my former program, Fundraising Freedom Academy. But this is really just streamlining and getting back to focusing my vision on helping those faith-based organizations and individuals. I really cannot tell you how thrilled I am about all the people who have already joined. We've already had people reaching out and sharing that they are so excited about this program and want to share with their organizations and the people that they knew about this resource. This is a program that runs for a year and is specifically focused on raising those big dollars - six figures, even seven figures for your organization. But the really great thing is, is that I have this whole team of coaches who are helping me, I have people who are experts in the space of administrative support, website support, and large-scale major gift donations. I know that I can only do so much on my own – I know a lot about fundraising, but we're always better together and I want to follow what I teach in step 3 of Fundraising Freedom, which is to enlist your team. I want to bring people around my students and make sure that they are taken care of and that they have the resources they need to continue to grow year after year after year. I'm officially starting my first session on January 6th.
I do want to share with you that because of these big things that are happening through Fully Funded Orgs and Fully Funded Academy, as well as my one-on-one coaching, I have decided to make some shifts for 2021. One of those big shifts is that I will be putting this podcast on hiatus. I don't want to say that I won't ever do another episode on this show. But I do want to share with you that because I'm shifting my attention over into those programs that I'm doing, I have another podcast. If you have not already listened, we have two seasons of the Fully Funded Podcasts that are live. You can immediately go there and check out those episodes. I love podcasting and I love helping people raise money so I’m not going anywhere. I will continue to share resources, educate, encourage, and empower nonprofit leaders until I am in the grave. Because I believe in you, I want to help you however I can. But I want to make sure that I'm also available and really there for my students. I have this really crazy radical empathy for these ministry leaders and for these faith-based nonprofit leaders. You are welcome to jump over there, download, and subscribe to that podcast. Every episode that we do is also on YouTube so you can watch these interviews and actually see me have conversations with some of these really great leaders in the nonprofit and ministry space.
Fully Funded Academy is an introductory level of raising support. My partner Mike Kim, who is a marketing expert, has written support letters and templates for emails or for blog posts. I mean, the resources are crazy good. Mike is the best in the industry - he's a former copywriter who teaches copywriting and is so good at what he does. It's only $49 a month and that is full price, it’s never going to go up on you. I invite you to join us over there, I do calls twice a month. And then Fully Funded Orgs is also two calls a month. So, for anybody who joins in on Fully Funded Orgs, they actually get four weeks every single month, with resources available to them from my team and me at Fully Funded Academy. We not only do the teaching with the coaching, but we also have a community on Facebook. You can post questions or whatever is going on in your fundraising world, and those people are there for you. They're just absolutely incredible people and so that is something that I just want to make sure that you know is available.
I simply cannot share with you how much I appreciate you and how I appreciate the ability to do this podcast. I started this podcast in January of 2017 and nearly every single week, I have been on the microphone sharing some crazy ideas that I have about fundraising. I have loved every second of it and as I said, podcasting, in general, is something that I will continue to do. As we roll into the holiday months, I want to wish you guys a Merry Christmas. I wish you crazy abundance in your year-end support raising and that you use those letters to speak boldly. That you invite people to just come be a part of the work that you're doing, and you do it with such confidence and being so empowered to step out and share the message of your cause. Thank you again, and I hope you all have an incredible holiday season here and I will see you over on the Fully Funded Podcast. Let's go change the world one volunteer and $1 at a time.
Resources:
Mike Kim
Brand You podcast
Fully Funded podcast
Fully Funded podcast on YouTube
Fully Funded Orgs
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fully Funded Academy
Today we're talking about how to create a personal or an organizational budget that actually works for you coming into 2021. I know that budgeting is something that some people love, and other people hate - there's a love-hate relationship with the budget. And for many of you, you've probably already gone through the budgeting process. Usually, that happens in the fall time as you're preparing for the next year. But you may be in a season where things are changing every single day. We never know what tomorrow is going to bring. Today's conversation is probably not going to be this brand new information that you've never heard of before. But I think that what we can do today is we can actually talk through making your budget work for you.
As I work with organizations, what I find is that so many of them do not have a fundraising number that they're actually working towards. Many times, they get into this cycle where they just want more. However, it’s important that you actually have a clear number, an actual fundraising goal that you're working towards. I don't want you to randomly pick a number, that is not a great way to budget, it's not a great way to fundraise or to invite other people to be a part of your work. Here are some tips I want to share.
If you look back and reflect on 2019 and consider how much you raised as well as the work you did, you’re probably going to pick up about 50% of that normal behavior, and 50% of 2020, after March, where we had to modify everything. So 2021, you're probably still going to have online events, you're probably still going to have the social distancing, and possibly doing a lot of things on Zoom, and working through major gifts, shifting that fundraising around so that you can modify your behavior to fit the season that we're in. As we move into 2021, I want you to look at where your money went.
I work on my budget every single week. I know that some people don't look at their budget very often, but I am a stickler for the budget because the budget tells you where your money is going, and it tells you where it went. As you put numbers on a sheet of paper when you budget, you're just randomly putting numbers down on a sheet of paper, right? Because you're just trying to get a good 10,000-foot view of what your budget looks like. So, as you're putting those numbers down on paper, the best way to budget is to look at where did we spend the money last year. Now you may be a first-year raising these funds or bringing in these dollars and so you may not have past years to look at so the best you can do is really just take a good guess at what it's going to take. When you start assessing and you look at where the dollars went, where did we end up spending money? Maybe we didn't spend in certain categories like travel conferences or training because, in 2020, some of those things just didn't happen. So for 2021, we're going to modify that and start to add a little bit of that back probably for the second half of 2021. Hopefully, after we do get some sort of vaccine in the process, that'll allow us then to start looking at, well, maybe we can do some events in the fall of next year, but maybe not huge ones, just small things that you can start to engage people back into face-to-face communication with your organization and with your cause.
Number two, look at what your priorities are, what is most important, and in the previous posts, I've talked a lot about going back to your vision of what is it that we're trying to do as an organization, what's the ultimate end result. Now if you are a fundraiser, you're not responsible for the mission side of the organization, you obviously are just given a number from the mission side, and they're telling you “Hey, this is how much it's gonna cost for us to do the work we're doing on the mission side, here's your number.” Now, that is actually an easier position to be in. That's the position I was in for many, many years, where I just was told, “Hey, go raise a quarter of a million dollars, go raise a half a million dollars, that's what your task is.” And I never had to really come up with my number, so to speak, but I was able to create those stretch goals and, and really work with my committee to come up with a goal that we wanted to do as a team. Set your priorities, what are you spending those dollars on so that you know exactly how much money you need to raise.
The budget is what allows you to feel comfortable about making the ask when you know where those dollars are going to go. You can answer your donor’s questions, you can answer your prospective donors’ questions because you know exactly how that money is going to be spent. If you are in a position where you're, if I say to you, “hey, I want to give you $10,000 to your cause.” And your immediate reaction isn't we're going to do ABCD with that money. If you are like, I don't know what we would do with that money, you have a problem. And the reason why you're not seeing those gifts come into your cause is that you don't have a plan. People who have money will smell that out, they will know that you are not prepared and you're not ready to receive their gift, which means they're not going to give it. So make sure that your budget is really clearly aligned so that you know when you're having that conversation with somebody your mind shifts over during the conversation to those line items.
The next thing is I want to make sure that you have clear categories. If you're raising funds in different buckets such as from individuals, companies, or organizations like churches or clubs, you want to start to look at those categories of income first. Then we want to look at each category of income, what expenses are we going to have that correlate to that category of income. What is it costing us to raise these dollars? This is your fundraising budget. If you are someone who is responsible for the mission side and the fundraising side, you need to budget to make sure that your mission is really clear on the expenses that it's going to take for that that what you're going to do on the program side. And you're going to need to know your expenses on the fundraising side so that you are really clear on those percentages. And just as a reminder, if you are the program, remember this - if you are a one-man show or a two-man show, and your program is you doing the work, you sitting down, you training you helping that individual, you are the program. So anytime that you are the one who's putting out the results, that tangible stuff that's happening, like your organization wouldn't happen without you, you are the program. So your salary, everything that falls under those line items, that's part of the program.
Next, we want to total all the categories. How much are we raising in revenue? How much are we spending on our expenses? These two numbers should be equal, we want a zero-based budget so that we know where every single dollar goes. Now, if you do raise above and beyond, and you’ve fulfilled every dollar on this budget, the next dollars that you bring in, they're going to go to A, B, and C, and maybe those are projects, maybe those are categories that if you can fulfill your base budget, these are the things that you’d love to do. You can share that with your donors. You can share that with prospective donors so that they know you’ve got a vision that far exceeds your basic budget.
Number six, after you've got your categories taken care of, then obviously, we take action. Now we do with the budget says, we follow the plan, we stay at or under each of those line items. Now, here's one thing that I want you to understand is that you created this thing. So it's yours, you put the numbers on the sheet of paper, nobody is going to come after you and say “oh, my gosh, John, you spent $1 too much in that category. And not enough over here.” While number six is to take action and to stay out at or under those line items, number seven is you can make edits, you can change things. If you end up spending more in one area and you're spending less than another, it's your budget, you can make those changes. So whether you're doing this for your personal budget, or whether you're doing this for your organization or mission ministry, you can make those edits as needed.
As you're going through each of these steps that I shared with you, making sure that you really assess where you're at, make sure you know where your priorities are, you get through and you set those realistic goals, create the categories, total the categories, take action, and then make edits as needed. Those are the seven things that I wanted to share with you as you're building out your budget. And as you're thinking through your budget and your line items, how can we be the most efficient? How can we be the most effective at raising funds, and really, when it comes down to it, if you know your numbers, you will be trusted more.
Resources mentioned:
https://mint.intuit.com/
https://www.everydollar.com/
Stewardship Application
Questions about Stewardship?
7 Fundraising Secrets Every Ministry or Nonprofit Should Know to Thrive in 2021
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
Today, we are jumping into the topic of thankfulness. As we gear up for our Thanksgiving holiday this week, I wanted to be sure that we talked about how we can thank our donors. So, we're going to talk about the top 20 ways to thank your donors in 2020.
As you know, this is such an unusual year. In the seventh step of my Fundraising Freedom process, Make Your Difference, it’s all about thanking people and getting people engaged in the work that's being done so that they keep coming back year after year. In that chapter of my book, I discuss the five love languages. Many of you are familiar with Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages, but if you're not, those five love languages are words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. Those five areas are really the areas that we're looking for as we're thanking our donors and inviting them to continue to give year after year.
A study that came out from Merci Chocolates shows the fact that we actually say “thank you” over 2000 times in the course of a year. This means that most of us are saying thank you at least five times a day. But the deal is, that based on their study, over half of the people said that they were insincere when they actually said those things to us. So, when you say thank you nearly five times a day, up to three of those times that you said thank you actually didn't mean much of anything. Sometimes we say thank you, but we don't always get it across. I would love for the study to be able to actually address how many times a nonprofit or ministry leader actually said thank you because I would say that we are probably in the 10s of thousands, if not more because we're always saying thank you to our volunteers and donors. That's where I want to kind of shake those things out for our conversation today. How can we make saying thank you a little bit more sincere so that our donors really do feel like they mean something to them?
In that final chapter of my book, I specifically tell a story where a lady had donated something to an auction that we were we were doing, and she saw that I showed an interest in a ring that she had donated. I made a comment about potentially bidding on that item at the auction. Of course, I worked for the organization and was obviously not able to bid on it. She came back a few days later and gave me another ring that looked just like the other one. And she was very kind to do that. As an organization, we aren't allowed to receive gifts like that and so I actually took the item and donated it back to the organization. But later on, I saw her at an event where we had a booth set up. She approached me and was really upset with me because I hadn't sent her a handwritten thank you specifically for that item that she had given to me. Now she had received a thank you in the past, we had thanked her for her donation of the ring, she just was locked into the fact that I personally did not send her a handwritten thank you showing my appreciation. And at that moment, she gave me a what for; she got on my case, as I was trapped behind a booth space. She told me that she was going to make this a teachable moment for me. But in return, she actually made me feel really hurt because a volunteer of mine had invited this lady in and so I was more concerned about another volunteer’s feelings around this situation and that I had upset this potential donor who was a friend of hers. I immediately left the space and went and called my volunteer that I really did have a relationship with, and I told her I was so sorry that this had happened. And of course, it was a teachable moment. I'm still sharing it today and it’s a moment that I really reflect on quite a bit. But the thing is that it comes back to how people like to be shown appreciation, how they like to be thanked. As I talk about the five love languages, it's really apparent that some people really like and really need those words of affirmation, they really need that gift of some tangible item that's in their hands to show that you cared. When I tell people about how to thank donors, I always reflect back on this, but then I also just highlight the fact that those five love languages are important for us to do across the board. I will say some people do not want recognition, that would really upset some people. This is where you, as the leader of your organization, have to pay attention to your donors, you can't just cookie-cutter, throw them all in a box and say, “Hey, one size fits all,” because that is not how this works.
Here are the 20 go-to great ways to thank your donors in 2020. I'm not going to say do every single one of these but look through some of these that maybe you're missing or haven't incorporated in the past and create a thank you plan. The first one is a handwritten thank you. This is a very standard go to thank you that you can do either from the executive director or the leader of the organization, or a volunteer. When I say handwritten, it could even be something that doesn’t have physical handwriting, but it’s personalized with information that is specific to your donor.
Number two give them the opportunity to share a testimonial. I love asking donors to share why they're a part of the work that's being done. When you give somebody the opportunity to share, it feels really special, they feel like they were chosen. So that's a really great one to do. Number three send a personalized gift. This would be something that really means something to them, maybe it's something that you thought about because you saw something somewhere, and it made you think about them. So that personalized gift that was sent just for them, not everybody else. Number four send a general gift like cookies, a gift certificate to a restaurant, for those of you who don't have any restrictions on alcohol, you might be able to send them a bottle of wine. These are items that are unique but also go out of your way to say we appreciate you and at the end of the year. Great time for you to deliver that. Number five, a social media post saying something nice about them. Maybe they're selling something this holiday season, they're pushing something, or you just want to promote that individual for what they've done for your cause. So that's a great way for you to be able to recognize that donor through social media. Number six, a personal thank you video. Now I've talked about this before with Bonjoro or loom. There are lots of different video platforms out there, most of you guys have a smartphone that you could just snap a video on your phone and send it to them by text or send it to them by video, but a personal thank you video that tells somebody that you care. They hear your voice, they see your face, they hear their name, those are all key things as a part of that video.
Number seven a public thank you. Now we are in a global pandemic so a public thank you would normally happen at an event in front of a group of people. This public thank you is going to most likely be something that you send out through an email or send out through your social media. But you can still do a public thank you, you can say thank you to our sponsors, thank you to this one individual who went above and beyond. Even if you want to keep their name anonymous, when they see it, they're going to know it's them. Know that you can modify this public thank you in a way that really recognizes their gift and recognizes how it felt to you when they gave to your cause. Number eight, a year-end letter sharing where the money went. This is your financial review of 2020. What have you done in the last year with their money? That letter is such a great way for you to communicate, thank you for giving your gift because these are all the things that we were able to do and in the last year because of it. To be clear, this is not your year-end appeal or your support letter at the end of the year. This is the Financial Review letter that says thank you for doing what you did. Here's what we did with it. Number nine is just an immediate confirmation that their donation was received. Now, this can easily be overlooked. I get that you're busy. You're trying to end out the year, you're probably trying to reach out to as many people as possible. But come back around and give them immediate confirmation. I know some organizations don't give this information to you right away. But if whenever you find out that a donation was given and received by your organization, be sure to reach out to that person and give them a verbal thank you or an email thank you acknowledging the fact that you received it, and that you appreciate it. Number 10, a video call. This is different than the video thank you. This is an actual “let's schedule a time to talk on zoom” or whatever your preferred video method is. Typically, we would have maybe scheduled those face-to-face meetings, but instead, host those video calls just to touch base with them.
Number 11, assign giving levels and recognize them when they hit a certain level. If you have different levels, whether that's monthly giving, or whether that's annual giving, once they hit a certain level, you can start to recognize people differently. Maybe that's gold, silver, bronze, or diamond, platinum, etc. Whatever you start coming up with these naming levels. And once they collectively have given to a certain amount, you can recognize them with that level. So, let's just say somebody gives you a monthly donation, then they give you an annual gift. And with those two combined together, and then let's add a third one in, maybe they attended a virtual event of some sort that you've posted, made a donation there. And now collectively, their gift has put them over the top on a certain giving level, you can then reach out to them and say we just want to recognize you and let you know that you just hit our gold level as a donor. And we're just so grateful that you have given at this level. Number 12 give them an award to display. Now back to this number 11. With the different levels, this is what I typically would do is once they hit a certain given level, then we give them an award. Now every organization is different when it comes to what is a major gift contribution. For me in the past those giving levels, typically once they hit the $10,000 mark, was a big level for us. And so, we recognize those cash contributions at $10,000. With a special award. Let's talk about a media outlet or somebody who donated a product or service to the organization. Once they hit $25,000 of income support, they got a special award. So, you can do this at whatever level is most comfortable for you guys. Number 13, a video tour. Now a lot of you probably have done these, if you have a physical location that is worth having somebody walkthrough, you might actually have some sort of on-site tour, you may still have that. And that's fantastic. But for those of you who don't have the ability to physically have people come to your space, you may actually do a video tour. And it's an invitation to come to this on-site visit and maybe you are taking your phone or your computer or actual physical camera around your facility and giving them a tour, showing them how their donation made a difference showing where the needs are.
Number 15, invite local businesses in your community or across the country, depending on where you're located, that give discounts to your donors. Specifically, some businesses that are partners with you that say, ‘hey, if one of your donors comes to our place, we're going to give them 10% off, or we're going to give them 25% off because of their donations and their contribution to the work that you're doing.’ That's a great way for you to be able to engage local businesses, highlight those businesses that are a partner of yours, and then also give recognition and give something a discount when they're buying gifts for the holiday season. Number 15 reach out on their special day. Maybe it's their birthday. Maybe it's their anniversary. Maybe even it's the anniversary that they started giving to your cause. And just pay attention to those special dates and recognize them. Number 16 spotlight a donor on your website. Your website is your own space, you own your website. You have the ability to use that as an advertising platform so take this real estate that you have on your website and spotlight your donors. Number 17 create a personal experience. This is something that you don't necessarily have to have that personal experience together, you can have that personal experience where they get to go somewhere, get to experience something that matters to your cause, and gives them that unique experience that they couldn't have gotten anywhere else. It might be a guided tour; it might be a peek behind the scenes. Number 18 send a welcome kit or a package that really gives them that appreciation that you're welcoming them into the organization. You might have a certain level of gift that somebody is giving where you mail them a special kit just has some swag in it so that they can start to promote the work that you do. And people can say, ‘where'd you get that shirt from?’ I can say ‘oh, well, I'm a new donor to the organization. And they sent me this great kit with all this stuff in it.’
Number 19 is a really, really easy thing for you to do, which is just sending a picture. This might be a text, this might be on Facebook Messenger, it could be an email, but sending a picture, not with a ton of text, but just the picture that describes what it is that you're doing or a change that happened in somebody's life because of them. So, if when I get a picture of somebody who's like, hey, this kid just got access to resources that he never would have gotten access to, and it's because of you. And that's all that needs to be sent. Number 20 is very similar to sending the picture. The final way that you can thank somebody is to share a short story of life transformation. Stories are ridiculously powerful. You guys know that when you can see a face when you can hear a voice when you start to really create that, like, this is why books are still a thing. This is why people continue to read and when they continue to read fiction or nonfiction is because storytelling is powerful. It's why we watch movies, it's why we watch TV, it's because we want to be immersed in an experience and that story. So, use these stories to just invite people into the fold and walk through the experience that your people experience when they come through the life transformation that your cause is all about.
Those are my 20 ways to thank people and to show them the crazy incredible impact that they're making in your cause in 2020. I just want to leave you with a few things to think about. As you continue on, I want to make sure that as you talk to your donors, and as you thank them, one of the things that we really struggle with is often when we thank donors, we have a tendency to also ask, so I want you to hold back. And really, take a moment to say this is really just our chance to say thank you. We're not asking for anything in return, we’re just saying thank you. Hold and refrain yourself from making another ask on top of the thank you so we're just flat out or focusing on the thank you not on another ask. We also want to focus on the donor, not their money. We want to focus on what a difference they made. Who are they? Why are they important to your cause, not their money, right? Money is the least exciting thing about any of us. The last thing we want to think about is actually talking about their money. We want to talk about them and what a difference they have made.
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
My guest today is Sarah, Olivieri. Sarah is the founder and the heart behind the company Pivot Ground. She's a nonprofit business strategist, an author, and a former executive director. I think she's going to bring just a huge wealth of information to you on how to pivot during this season.
Tell us a little bit more about you and the work that you do.
Well, I come from a nonprofit background and I've worn so many hats from secretly fixing the toilet after everybody left so nobody knew and that didn't become my job officially, to Program Director, conference coordinator, graphic designer, teacher, you name it, I probably did it at some point. I've been executive director and founder. I was once the first executive director of a foundation. And then I actually shifted over into marketing and I built a marketing agency for nonprofits. That led me right back into the heart of what makes nonprofits tick - how they're organized and how they bring their people together so they can really make the biggest impact possible.
Tell us about your “impact method” and how affected the lives of the nonprofit leaders you work with.
The impact method is really based on three things that I think every nonprofit needs, and every for-profit to be successful, which is a process of improvement. That's how we deal and adapt to change in an ongoing way. And also, how we root out the issues that are getting in our way in a proactive manner. So many nonprofits are stuck in reactive mode and they're running to put out fires all the time. When you dig out your own issues proactively and address them, you don't have to be in that firefighting mode all the time. Then, your issues become opportunities instead of challenges. The second thing is an actionable strategy. Strategic planning is one teeny piece of making your organization run properly. It's actually making that plan actionable, where a lot of work comes in. And the third thing is, I call it your modus operandi. It's how your organization is structured, what glues everybody together. What is the core belief that your organization holds? What are your values or guiding principles? How is your team organized? What are your systems and processes? How is everybody collaborating and coordinating to work together, and there are some traditional ways of doing this that actually aren't that effective. And yet, they're very prevalent. There are other ways to organize your people that are much more enjoyable and much more effective.
Based on your own personal experience, what do you think is working in the organizations that you see?
The ones who are doing it really well who are following the things that they should be doing, and letting go of the things that aren't really making a difference. This can be hard because sometimes the things that don't make a difference for our nonprofit are still really impactful. But the organizations who are doing it well, right now, in the middle of the pandemic, they're raising more money than ever before. They're hiring people not firing people, they are growing, they're expanding their impact their reach, and their base of supporters. So all of this is really possible right now. And they're also they're not overwhelmed. They're not burnt out, they're taking time to address the pandemic, one of the things we do in the impact method is every month, we assess how much time we are spending on each area of our organization on routine things. And we're monitoring our total capacity as human beings.
What advice would you give to someone who's just getting started or someone who's trying to raise more funds, trying to get to that next stage of their organization?
Well, staying focused is one thing that I'd really recommend. A lot of people ask me, well, Sarah, if I'm the only one, how do I get out of being overwhelmed? How do I stay focused, and the first step is to take things off your plate and throw them in the fireproof garbage can that I am now virtually handing you because their fires will burn themselves out. That is the best way to get some more time and focus back in your day is to just stop doing some things, eliminate them. And that works even if you don't have anybody to delegate to. After that, do get somebody to delegate to or at least get a machine as a stopgap to delegate to some get some automation tools in place. You can't do it alone. That's probably my second tip; you have to plan to get another person on board whose job it is to do the work as soon as possible. So, for most startups, this means probably you are the executive director, and you need to hire an assistant as soon as humanly possible. They don't have to be full time, but 10 hours a week, it'll be huge, what you can do you full time and an assistant 10 hours will be incredible. My third piece of advice is, think of your startup, just like a for-profit startup would be you're going to go through a planning phase and a funding phase, and then a planning/doing phase and then a funding phase. You're not going to be both fundraising and doing at the same time until you're really big enough to do those two activities, because you're really starting two businesses at once. When you start a nonprofit, you've got your impact business, and you've got your fundraising business. And so related to that, the biggest mistake I see new nonprofits make is they get a little money in, and then they just start their programs as though they're going to keep going. And sure enough, before too long, they've run out of money, they have to cut back on their programs, and then they don't have any capacity left to fundraise.
So here's what I tell people. Create your initial first plan, get your vision on paper, maybe you reach out to one or two major donors who are going to give you enough money to turn your plan into an actual let's call it an alpha experiment, or a beta test. You're going to flesh out everything that your program should look like initially, maybe there are two versions, you're going to test simultaneously, and then stop and fundraise for however much that plan costs. Make sure your plan includes the cost of evaluation. And then here's the really hard part for you heart-driven people, do not start your plan, until you have raised enough money to execute the entire experiment. Then, once you execute that entire experiment of a plan, you're going to plan to stop your first version of your plan. And then you're going to ask, are we doing more of this? Or are we do we have to experiment again, and then depending on which thing you're going to do, you're going to go and fundraise for that all along, keeping in mind that at some point, you're also fundraising for your ability to fundraise more, because you have to always be growing that side of your business as well.
What your thoughts are on what is fundraising freedom? What does that mean to you when you hear that?
I love that question. It kind of has two meanings to me. One is that your fundraising gives you the freedom to make the impact that you really want to make to run experiments. I think, unfortunately, the nonprofit culture we're locked into is we don't take risks, and it's a world of best practices. That couldn't be further from what we need to be doing. Most nonprofits, I say they have a mission impossible. They're trying to solve the world's most complex never solved before problems. That means you have to innovate, and you innovate by taking risks and running experiments. There is no best practice for solving the unsolved other than maybe the scientific method. And so we really need to change that culture. I think freedom and fundraising partly mean that your fundraising is empowering you to be an innovator as a nonprofit. Then the other thing I think of is that, that you find joy in fundraising, that fundraising doesn't feel like this side chore, but that it feels like you're building a tribe of supporters, you could call them investors, people who are trying to achieve the same mission that you're trying to achieve, but you're doing it through your programs, and they're doing it with their money, and you're excited to talk to them and think of them as partners.
Any parting advice from you for these organizations and individuals to really tackle this season and moving forward?
My standard advice is that good advice is easy to find, especially if you pay for it, because a lot of the best advice and doesn't cost very much. But people who give good advice are usually committed to seeing results, and they at least want you to have some skin in the game. But the hard part is not finding good advice. The hard part is following it. And so I encourage you to be brave when things are tough. Resist the urge to just throw it all up in the air and go by your gut. Keep following that good advice just and return to it. It's kind of like meditation, you're not going to be 100% focused or following the advice all the time, but just keep coming back to it. It's never too late to try following good advice again.
Connect with Sarah:
Pivot Ground
Sarah’s Micro-Trainings
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
Today we're talking about the number one reason fundraisers fail. Contrary to popular belief, it's not because we didn't work hard enough. The number one reason fundraisers fail is from internal conflict. As you know, right now we are dealing with a pandemic, more than likely about to be hit with some economic challenges because a lot of people are without jobs at this point. And so there's still a lot of uncertainty in the environment that we're in.
For those of you who are familiar with a SWOT analysis, this may be something that you need to sit down and do so that you're aware of what's going on. A SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It's really just sitting down with a sheet of paper and writing out your strengths, where your weaknesses are, what opportunities you have, and what threats are out there. Once you do this, you can start to see what's actually going on behind the scenes.
Sometimes, I think that we forget that our volunteers, our donors, and the people who are in our inner circle all have to work. Collectively, they all have to work together for the common good of your cause. And if you have any conflict that's going on, you're going to have to address that before you send your volunteers out to share the great reasons why people should give to your cause. If you cannot address conflict you're going to have a really tough time raising funds. Let's talk through that.
Conflict typically comes up because you've had a disagreement or a power struggle. You've got people who have money, you have people who have influence, and they're used to being in charge. Then you put them in a room together and you try and get them to work as a team and sometimes, the power struggle ensues. Also, a lot of people you recruit may have an ego and so pride and/or jealousy creeps in. Or, maybe when you're dealing with conflict with staff you've got people who think that they should be compensated more, and they're not, or you don't have the funds to increase their finances. Whatever the reason, there are two main reasons that conflict can arise - communication and emotions.
When you think about communication, you may think that you're doing a fairly good job sharing with your people. But if you are lacking that communication, if you are giving either poor information, no information, lack of information, misinformation, or even say you give really good information but for some reason, the other side is not receiving it, you're going to still deal with conflict. To really get through, you just need to be clear, concise, accurate, and timely. You've heard the story so many times from people where you visually start to create colors and create locations as someone is telling you a story. You created this elaborate picture inside of your mind to fill in the gaps of this story that's being told. If we don't give a clear story and don't give someone all of the information that they need, they will fill in the gaps. If a volunteer feels left out, they feel like their voices aren't being heard, or a staff member feels like they're disposable, they're going to start to find alternative places to go and they're going to leave and quit. And that is the last thing we want to see is our volunteers drop off, the people that we love and care about our staff members, we don't want to see any of them leave during this time, because of uncertainty or lack of communication.
Number two is emotion. Emotions can sometimes take over. And then all of a sudden you find that your people are angry. So then they rise up verbalize that. If you put somebody in a position where they don't have the information that they need and communication is not great. They're not going to put themselves out there because they don't want to be put in a position that they could possibly feel shame. Fear is obviously huge. Many of us deal with fear. Those people who really process things in their heads deal a lot with fear. Emotions also come up because of past hurts, trust issues, etc.
Now that we know that emotions and communication are important to overcome the idea of conflict, one thing that we need to do is we have to have some sort of plan in place to address conflict. You probably have gone through some conflict management stuff in the past. But the main thing here is just conflict resolution. When conflict arises, what do we need to do to actually come together and create a solution to the problem? Now, there are some things that you can do, such as set rules as an organization where if there is an emotion that comes up in text messages and emails, to immediately pick up the phone. You need to hear that person's voice and you need to know that it wasn't coming across as being upset, or whatever that is, and you need to be able to address it right at that moment so you can talk through the situation and figure out what we're dealing with.
One last thing I want to leave you with is if you are having an issue with a staff member, donor, or other volunteers, do not vent to your volunteers or another third party. What happens is they will take up that conflict and pick sides. So then, when you've resolved the issue on your side, the volunteer still may dislike the person which can lead to an even bigger conflict. So just don't do it.
I hope today's conversation has been helpful for you, wherever you're at. I hope that you don't have any conflict in your organization. But I'm going to bet that if you have at least one volunteer, if you have one, one staff person, that you're going to deal with conflict at some point. I hope this helps you navigate through that and know that you're not alone. Conflict is normal. And sometimes you're dealing with issues that happened years and maybe even decades ago that have never been addressed. I want to see your year-end fundraising being so successful, I want people to look at you and say, that's an organization I want to align with. That's an organization that has integrity, and they have, you know, they're honest, they forgive each other, they love each other. And they want to, they want to really create an impact in the world, I want to be a part of that. So you can see where when this conflict is addressed, you are going to be so much more attractive to your donor base, and more people are going to want to be a part of it.
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
We are talking about how to build a new relationship with money today. In the last couple of episodes, I have been really practical in my messaging. But today, I wanted to take a little bit of a different turn on our conversation and talk specifically about money itself. Now for those of you who have read my book, Fundraising Freedom, I talk specifically about our relationship with money (on page 103) and that is what I want to dive into. Some of us have had really good experiences with money, some of us not so much. And so I'm just going to share a few stories and ideas that you can think about and figure out whether or not some of this stuff might be holding you back.
First of all, I'll just share a little bit about my upbringing. I'm the youngest of seven and we all have names starting with the letter M. If you have read my book, I talk about my older brothers and sisters who were in college, who were really a catalyst into my fundraising because I just enjoyed spending time with them. Having such a large family, I was never really alone. And that was really incredible. I never thought much about the things that we had, because I valued time so much. I had a lot of hand-me-downs, pretty much everything was secondhand stuff, and we always had food on the table. There were really no complaints. But we did not live, what I would consider, an American wealthy lifestyle. When I was in the second grade we moved across the state of North Dakota and that's really where so much of my life changed. We lived in this really great house when we were in Dickinson; the whole family was there. Then all of a sudden, the kids all started going off to college and so we then picked up and moved to the same college town that all my older brothers and sisters were in. Now instead of living in a house, my mom and dad decided that they were going to rent a two-bedroom apartment. We instantly went from having this nice big house to then living in this small apartment complex where I was sharing a bunk bed with my sister. And as much as I love my sister, that was probably the worst thing for our relationship. The four of us were on top of each other but more importantly, I saw how my friends lived. They had these nice big houses with pools - all the stuff that I so wanted. It felt like this poverty versus abundance way of life. I wanted to be around people who were living an abundant lifestyle.
My dad, although he is the catalyst to what I do today, was the most charitable person but he was also an extremely frugal man. I mean, if he could fix the car, he would keep that car for as long as possible until the wheels were falling off. We drove the worst clunkers you could ever find and he was always just so proud of the fact that he could turn something that might have been worthless to somebody else into a usable thing. It's such a quality that I appreciated about him. But at the same time, I just remember as a kid spending so much time just begging him to move into a house. I would look through the newspaper to see what houses were for sale because that's how people sold houses back in the day. They built these beautiful townhomes a block away from our apartment and I wanted to live there so badly because they were so much better than this apartment.
By the time I graduated from high school and I was figuring out what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life, it was so important for me that money never stopped me. I would get the scholarships, I worked the job at Sears, I would sell the most. I just never wanted to feel without or never wanted to feel that lack and scarcity again, which drives me so much. When it comes to fundraising, I don't want any charity to feel that lack and scarcity. I don't want you to feel like you can't keep your doors open or do the work that you've been called to do. I want you to be able to see that when it comes to your own personal finances, and the finances of your organization, there are all of these preconceived notions, all these things about your childhood that come up in your fundraising efforts. Because if you are afraid of asking for money, if you feel a little bit shy around asking for money, I bet you can correlate that back to something in your history, your background, and your childhood. I want to reframe your mindset around fundraising and reframe your mindset around money. I want you to start looking at money in a completely new light.
As you're thinking through the year and support that you're raising, or you’re looking at your budget for 2021, I just want you to start thinking about how you can create a happier experience for your donors. Are you creating an environment of lack and scarcity, where people aren't necessarily attracted to your cause and attracted to you because you reek of desperation? If there's always a feeling of anxiety and lack and that feeling of deprivation; nobody wants to give to that. People want to feel like their dollars are actually making an impact. So if you're in the current place where everything feels very scarcity-minded, I want you to start thinking about the upcoming year and how you can start making some shifts so that you're ready to receive donations. Think about when people give to your charity, and when you give to charity, think about the joy, think about the happiness that comes when you get to give to that cause. I think that sometimes we forget that when we ask somebody to give to our cause, there is joy, there's really great excitement and happiness for them to be able to give to our cause. But we have to create that environment so that they really do feel happy about every single donation that they give to your cause that they never once question, are they doing what they say that they're going to do? Are they actually appreciative of our partnership? It all comes back to the fact that there's such joy being in partnership together; that the relationship that you have together is really changing lives and it's making a huge difference.
The big takeaway for you today is that I want you to spend a little bit of time in reflection. Maybe bust out a journal or a sheet of paper and just jot down some of your money history. Think a little bit about how you can have a new relationship with money around happiness and around gratitude. See if you can kick that into your day-to-day life in a new way as you wrap up the year-end.
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
Today, we're going digging into the year-end appeal and I'm sharing the three things you need to include in your letter. This is very specific for 2020. As you know, this year has been very unusual so that means that your year-end appeal needs a new and fresh update. Did you know that a quarter of all nonprofits will bring in nearly half of their income off of this one letter? For some organizations, this letter is huge, it is a really, really big deal that this is done well because it brings in and it generates a lot of income for the organization. For others, roughly 40%, bring in less than 10% of their money off of this year on appeal. This just means you have to know your cause.
One of the first things that I want to share with you is that you have got to customize your 2020 letter, this year’s letter has got to look different. The majority of nonprofits are going to put together this letter in October because they want to get it in the mail in November or December. I want to make sure that you are really clear about what your communication strategy is with people over the course of these next three months. Don't just send out the letter cold where these people haven't heard from you in years. That's a really bad idea. And it's going to fall flat. No matter how great your letter is, if somebody hasn't heard from you in a long, long time, they're not really engaged. So, you may be wondering if you should send your letter by email or snail mail. Either one is fine. Hear me out; either one is fine but direct mail is better. Direct mail costs more so I understand why you'd say it's just not cost-effective to do that right now. The number two option is to do an email campaign that includes your year-end appeal at the end. Regardless of whether you drop this in the mail or you actually send it out by email, note that you want to make sure that you have those touches at least 1-3 times before they receive your appeal at the end of the year. 31% of all donations come in, in the month of December, and 12% of those donations will come in in the last three days. So with your year-end appeal, just make sure that you create that urgency, and you also are paying attention to the calendar, because that is going to make a huge difference.
Because we're in 2020 and in a global pandemic, nobody knew that, right? You have to make sure that you address the elephant in the room. You need to include that in our year-end appeal; what have you been doing during the pandemic? What has happened to your organization? Just share some details about how your organization has changed. Maybe some things that you have modified, maybe you were doing that fundraiser, and you had to change it or you did those camps or, these outreach activities and instead of doing them face to face, you moved them virtually.
Number two, how has your work actually made a difference? In normal times, we would have just said, “Well, here's how we make a difference.” But in 2020, you have to be very specific about how your mission is still very relevant. Your mission and the way you executed your mission, very well may have changed.
Finally, the third thing is that I want you to share what benefits your donors may have in 2020. For those of you who have followed the Cares Act, you know that there are benefits for your donors that allow them to deduct more from their taxes with their donation to your cause. They actually will make money back meaning that they will be able to give more money to your organization without it costing them. The new incentive for the Cares Act is actually two separate incentives, one for individuals and one for corporations. For individuals, they can elect to deduct their donations, up to 100% of their 2020 Adjusted Gross Income. For corporations, they also have the ability to increase those deductions, from 10% to 25%, of their taxable income in 2020. That's a huge difference and a huge incentive for your donors to give in 2020.
I hope this is helpful for you as you start to just make plans for this year-end appeal. As you're continuing to move forward, just remember that it's important that we do communicate and that you clearly articulate what it is that your cause is doing and how your donors can make a difference to the work. It's not about you being so awesome and you doing such great things. It's about the fact that you guys all get to do this together. And the fact that you get to do it in the first place is pretty fantastic.
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
Today, we're talking about how to end 2020 strong. And we're really going to be talking about your 90-day plan. These last 90 days are going to end the year strong and allow you to really come into these final last months with some clarity, focus, and really give you some practical steps on how to actually achieve the goal that you're looking at.
As many of you know, December is the largest giving month of the year; more than 30% of all the donations for the year are going to come in December. You don't want to miss out on that opportunity. And you don't want to miss out on actually achieving the goal that you have for your budget and for your organization. Let's start off by going through the FREEDOM steps. I know some of you are familiar with my freedom process but for those of you who are brand new to this, I will give you a brief overview of the Fundraising Freedom steps. This seven-step process works no matter what the size of your cause is, no matter what the size of your budget.
Step number one, focus your vision. How much do you want to raise between now and the end of the year? What is it that you can do in order to raise these dollars? Maybe it's sending out a year-end letter, or engaging people in some holiday fundraiser. You’re going to start researching and trying to figure out what do you want to do in order to raise those dollars. And the research phase, which is step two, is really just you looking at what options are out there as well as what people are doing to raise funds. Step three is to enlist your team. Now you’re going to look at who you need to bring to the table to make this happen. You may have a board, you may have an advisory group, or you may have some people who are already invested in helping you fundraise. But if you don't, you may decide that you're going to bring together three to five new people or just a couple of people together so that you can start having this conversation. Then, you and your team are going to brainstorm how you plan to meet your goal. Enlisting your team is simply bringing people together for a common purpose. This is with anything that you do. If you can find a couple of people who are all focused on the same thing, you're much more likely to actually achieve your goals.
Step 4 is to enhance your brand. What kind of materials are you going to need to wrap up this year? Are you going to post some information on your website? Create some additional flyers or pieces of communication to give to people? Are you going to gather people together? If so, you need to send out invitations about the fundraiser you’re doing. It doesn't have to be overly complicated. I think that that's where sometimes we get locked in our head that it has to be super elaborate. Now, don't get me wrong, if you're trying to raise a significant amount of money, the more you're trying to raise, the more elaborate your materials need to be because we need to make sure that people know that you are a valid organization. Once you have your materials, your name, or branding for this year’s activity, you jump into the next step which is to deploy your team. This is where you let them loose and you want them to help you spread the word and get people plugged in. In step six is where you actually ask for money. And I call that organize your ask. I have to remind people through the fundraising freedom process that you are not asking for money in step one. This is why so many organizations and so many individuals really struggle with their fundraising; they run through their entire list and they go after the people who are friends and family and those who are in your inner circle, and you only have so many of those people.
Finally, step seven is all about making your difference. So now it's December 31, you've raised your funds and now you actually go put those dollars to use, and make a crazy, incredible difference in the world. And then you go back and you tell your donors about it so that they can continue to give again.
Now, this 90-day plan, as you can see is obviously something that you can stretch over six months, nine months, a year. The one thing about having a condensed amount of time, looking at these last three months, I would say there is no more critical timeframe in the calendar year than these three months. But I also want you to be thinking about 2021. Now 2020 has turned into a major cluster, right? This is not what any of us has had anticipated but studies have shown that people are still going to give and about 15% are going to give more here in the next three months than they gave previously. A lot of people pushed pause on their giving because they wanted to see what was going to happen during this pandemic so there's a lot of money that's sitting out there more than ever before. People are still going to make that gift; they're still going to want to give a certain percentage of their income to a charity. Know that there is so much money sitting out there, waiting for you. All you have to do is ask for it.
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
Today we're talking about the seven questions to ask yourself before that next big meeting. If you've been following the podcast for a while, you've been following the seven steps that I teach in my book, Fundraising Freedom. On all the lessons that I've taught over these last 173 episodes, I hope that you've gotten to a place where you realize that the secret to the sauce is your volunteer team. But I want to remind you that when you recruit and build a team around you, the natural response is that they are going to be fired up. And they're going to want to introduce you to new people. I know a lot of people talk about referrals and asking somebody to introduce them to somebody else. And there are lots of different approaches to getting the meeting. But I am a huge fan of empowering your volunteer team to open up doors and really be the face and the advocate for the work that you do.
Today's conversation is going to help you through that. It's really going to give you some tools so that you know when you walk into that meeting, whether that meeting is on video, a phone call, or you are actually meeting face to face that you feel 100% confident and secure, and what it is that you're going to share with them. The first question that we're going to talk about is who is in the meeting? This is not a tough question here. But you have to know who's going to be at the meeting. There have been times where I think that it's going to be one person, then somebody else shows up. But if you can identify who are the key players will be in the meeting, that will help you so much. Now you can really assess the room, how these people are going to interact with each other, and you can determine who should be in the meeting with you. Now, sometimes a volunteer is going to set up that meeting for you. So, in an ideal situation, you're going to have your key volunteer with you. We really want to ask the question of who will be in the room, their exact title, how to pronounce their name, and their key ability to make decisions.
Number two, what is the purpose of the meeting? Nobody wants to waste anybody's time; you don't want your time to be wasted and you don't want to waste someone else’s. So, let's get right to the point of why we are meeting in the first place. Maybe it’s just an introduction. Maybe the purpose of the meeting is just a “get to know you meeting.” And it's not about asking for money, it's about just getting to know them and seeing if this is a good fit. Maybe the meeting is an opportunity for them to volunteer with your organization or with your cause.
Number three, what's your agenda for the meeting? How is this going to go? Are they going to introduce themselves? Am I going to introduce myself? Is my volunteer going to introduce me? Now, I'm not saying that you physically have to write out an agenda or that you have to hand them an agenda. And the reason why I had that agenda laid out was that my volunteer told me to. I didn't just come into this meeting, super, super organized with that agenda, my volunteer told me that it was how to win over our director. This is how you're going to get him to say yes, you're going to wow him from the moment you walk in. And that's exactly what we did. And he absolutely said yes.
Question number four is, what is the most ideal outcome? After everything is said and done, what do you want out of this meeting? What's the intent? It could be just I want to get to know them, I want to see how we could actually work together how we could partner together to make a difference. That very well may be the absolute goal of this meeting but think about the desired outcome. If it's a financial commitment, think through what it is that you're going to actually be asking and know exactly what it is that you want.
Number five, what obstacles could stand in the way? I want you to really think through this because it’s something that you could actually take care of before it becomes an issue or becomes something that rears its ugly head later on. What could possibly stop you from moving forward with this relationship during this meeting? Now, for those of you who are working with organizations or companies that have a lot of employees, you know that there's a lot of voices that are ringing in the leadership's head, what is their favorite charity of choice? What are they trying to accomplish as an organization or as a company? You better believe that the obstacle is going to be all those other voices, all those other people who are going to be asking questions about why or why didn’t we decide to give our money here? Why did we decide to get plugged in here? So I want you to be thinking about what can you do to show that you align with their values, that you align with their goals, whether that's marketing or promotion, or whatever they're trying to do to get their message out that you are a perfect fit.
Number six, how can you best serve them? Now, this goes back to what their plan is. What are their goals? How can you help move their mission forward? I see that all the time with our charities that we have the ability to take their mission to an entirely new level. If you work with people who are in a different country, if you have access to community members that maybe they would never have access to, that is huge, because now you're saying ‘hey, I can get you access in there. I can show the community what a huge difference you're making.’ And now you're this great testimonial of what wonderful people they are and what a huge difference that they're making in the world. So remind yourself of those things that you can do to actually bring something to the table. This is where you want it to be a win-win, right? We don't want a relationship where they're giving us a handout and we're begging all the time. That's where this question comes into play is what is in it for them? Why would they say yes? How can you serve them to make sure that they feel like they came out ahead? I try this with every single organization and individual that I work with, I really want them to feel like they won here in this relationship that they got more out of it than they put in. So if that means that it says something about their identity, if it says something about their organization, they get that good credibility that comes with it. You can't pay for that. That is something that people money just cannot buy. And so you have something to offer them that they would never be able to get anywhere else.
Now let's think about how you are going to actually follow up with them. When we talk about enhancing your brand, I really want to make sure that you have that case document. I encourage missionaries and those who are raising less than $100,000, that a one-pager is more than sufficient for these conversations. But if you are trying to raise money for a large-scale organization, and you're trying to fund a really large project, you need that case document, I often call it a presentation piece or your menu, lots of different names for it. But in the fundraising space, we call it a case document. It reminds them of and confirms everything that I already said during this meeting. And so now this is the follow up that I'm going to have, ‘hey, I'm going to email you this document.’ Make sure to include a timeframe as well. What's our next step? Are we going to be meeting again? Are they going to be meeting with their committee? Are they going to be getting together and deciding on what they're going to do in the next week or two? I just want to make sure that that's really clear during the meeting. That way, you know exactly how you're going to end the meeting.
The primary thing here is to be prepared. Oftentimes, I tell people the butterflies and anxiety and all that stuff comes because you're not prepared. When you do the research, when you come in confident about what it is that you're going to share, you're going to come across so much better, and people are going to recognize that there's something different about you. You can imagine how many people walk into these offices or have these conversations with people of power and they are extremely nervous. However, if you come in totally counter to what everybody else is doing and you’re confident in what you’re doing, you will be surprised how that translates and how that turns into dollars into volunteers into partners.
I just want to continue to encourage you to stand firm on what you believe and what your cause is all about and present yourself truly as an expert in your space. Utilize that volunteer who is working with you to be an advocate and to really be that testimonial for your organization. And then speak with confidence because you know that this person is already funding and supporting you, and why wouldn't everybody else want to do the same?
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
I want to share with you today some common things that successful people do.
Number one, they don't allow fear to cripple them. Now think about people who are public speakers, they do not let the fear of public speaking stop them from accomplishing or stepping foot on stage. They don't allow fear to cripple them. And they allow that fear to be that emotion. They just make that little flip of the switch and now all of a sudden, it's like, ‘okay, I'm not afraid of this. This is fun. This is exciting. It's something that I'm, I can actually do.’
Number two, they don't let others influence their decisions. When you set a goal, whether that is a fundraising goal, recruiting volunteers, or whatever it is, successful people don't let other others influence their decisions. They make up their mind and they move toward it. They don't actually care all that much about making everybody happy. And I know for our people pleasers out there that is so difficult because you want to make everybody happy. But if you're going to actually get to the end result and get to that goal, you have to stay focused on what it is that you want and not allow others to influence your decision or influence that end goal.
Number three, they don't give up when times are tough. They keep pressing on, and they're disciplined about it. When they move forward, they do whatever it takes; they stay focused.
Number four, they see the lesson when things don't go as planned. And that is hard when things don't go your way, right? But the thing is, there's always a lesson when you're moving towards an end goal. I can remember so many times when I was raising funds and thought it was just a waste of my time. It was a waste of my energy. But now that I'm several years out from that moment, it's easy now to see lessons I learned. I get why I had to go through it. In so many areas of your life, you look back and realize you learned so many great lessons from those hardships, the pain you felt was visceral, it's deep. But successful people are focused on making sure that they see the lesson as they move forward.
Number five, they care about the journey. They wake up thinking about how they’ve come such a long way. And I don't know how many times you feel that where you're down on yourself because you think you should be further than you are. But when you can actually start to see the pieces coming together and you're taking the steps towards it, you actually really enjoy the journey. You enjoy the process that you're going through. I do want to encourage you in that because it's really easy to get to the end goal and then think to yourself, ‘well, that was a lot of work and I don't ever want to do that again.’ Because you didn't really enjoy the process that you went through, and it was painful. And maybe you were begging people for money, and you're asking for something that you felt like they didn't want to give to you. And so it didn't feel good. And fundraising should feel good. I just want to remind you of that, that when you ask somebody to be a part of the work that you're doing, it should be a win-win for both sides. I've said this before that I love, love, love fundraising, but that's just because I really love people. And I hope that you can see that too in the work that you're doing.
Number six is they believe in themselves. In the process, they never lose belief. Belief is huge for me. I have spent many episodes talking about believing not only in yourself but believing in the work that you're doing and having a belief that it's actually possible. If you don't believe that you can actually accomplish the goal, you're obviously going to give up, you're not going to continue forward. But when you believe that the end result is absolutely doable and that you can definitely get there, then this belief thing will just continue to press you forward and push you towards the end goal. I want to make sure that you're staying the course throughout this entire process. That's why successful people accomplish their goals, they don't give up on them, they believe in themselves and in the process.
Number seven, they surround themselves with positive people. I have worked with boards and advisory groups and volunteer groups, where the people that were on the team weren't so positive. They came in with the devil's advocate kind of message. While I don't have a problem with people who push back on the ideas and things that are brought up as this can make for a better organization, the negative people who just want to show up and don’t think they’ll ever achieve the goal can absolutely kill a fundraiser. If you have those people in your group, you have got to figure out a way to get them out of there. I'm not a huge advocate of firing people, but if they need to go. What I encourage is to find a new place for them to serve that's going to allow them to really use their gifts and skills.
Number eight, they pivot and adjust. As you know, we are in a crazy season and you have had to pivot. You've had to adjust the way that you're doing things. You can't get that huge group of people in one room together right now and you've had to move online, do things virtually change the way that you're raising funds. If you weren't doing that before, being able to pivot and adjust is what will actually get you to the end result.
Number nine, they don't need a guaranteed path to success. This follows right along with being able to pivot and adjust. Now I give you a seven-step process to fundraising freedom, and I believe in it, I believe that it's a plan that works over and over and over again. But the thing is, is that when people give up on their goal, or they bail on it, it's usually because they feel like they don't have a guarantee that it will be successful. I can't tell you how many people do not follow through with the things that I encourage them to do because they're not 110% sure that all this effort will be worth it. The people who are successful, they don't need a guaranteed path to success. The fact that there isn't a guarantee actually makes people enjoy the process even more because it's fun.
Number 10 on my list is successful people would rather work towards long term rewards than short term rewards. We live in an instant gratification world, we want it and we want it now. But fundraising and achieving those goals come because you are willing to put your head down, go to work, and do the process so that you can actually accomplishing that goal. When it comes to fundraising, so many people want to do those short-term fundraising events, which obviously we can't do right now. And I'm so grateful for because those fundraisers are the ones that burn your staff out. They're the ones that burn you out. If you have to do those fundraisers every single weekend or multiple times in a month, it is just so overwhelming. And we're looking at the short term with that. If you start looking at the long term, you're going to start looking at signature fundraising events. And that's what I often teach on and that's my signature program, Fundraising Freedom Academy. That program is all about creating your signature fundraiser. I'm not talking about the large group gathering. In years past, that is absolutely what was happening, maybe that gala, maybe it was a golf tournament or something significant like that. Now, it doesn't mean that we're not going to do other fundraisers along the way that maybe lead into that big fundraiser, but it allows for us to keep our sights on one signature fundraiser and one goal.
I hope that you pulled a few nuggets of information from this and if you are looking to raise funds through a signature fundraiser, please check out Fundraising Freedom Academy. I have a free training on there that goes further in-depth on this topic that we're talking about today. And it's just a short training video that you guys can download and start listening to today and start implementing these ideas into your fundraising efforts so that you can accomplish your goal. These next few months, we are gearing up for the year and the largest giving season of the year. I hope you guys know that December, over 30% of all donations are coming in the month of December. So these next few months as you're gearing up for the end of the year, do not go on autopilot. I'm going to encourage you to step up your game, use these next couple of months to really engage new people into the work that you're doing, and start inviting people to support your work.
Connect with Mary:
Mary Valloni
Fundraising Freedom Academy
Fully Funded Academy
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