The ENGAGE Podcast

Community foundations are doing critical work to create change at the local level. They play a convening role in the community and engage community members in philanthropy to address pressing local issues. 

In this interview recorded live at bbcon 2018, Javier Alberto Soto, president & CEO of The Miami Foundation, talks about the important work the Foundation is doing to improve the quality of life in the Greater Miami area through philanthropy, community investment, and civic leadership. Listen to the episode to hear what Javier has to say about the role community foundations can play in advancing civic engagement, why community foundations can be effective conveners, and the role of technology in enabling mission delivery.

• Why and how The Miami Foundation embraced the concept of new power
• How the Foundation launched and has grown Give Miami Day to be one of the largest giving days in the country
• The difference between independence and neutrality when it comes to community foundations
• How digital technology has helped The Miami Foundation accomplish its goals
• How organizations can measure when they are being effective and moving the needle

"I think we've demonstrated the deep generosity that exists in Miami through new power."

"We have the ability - because we're seen as an independent actor whose only agenda is to improve the community - to really empower people at a grassroots level."

"Miamians are from so many different places - it's such a diverse area - but when you get at those stories, particularly "how did you get here?" it's amazing how similar they are across geography."

"We've invested significantly from day one in all of our communications tools, but with a deep emphasis on our technology first to support our fund holders." 

"At the core of everything we've been doing is injecting new power, or civic engagement."

"I think all of us in the community foundation world are grappling with how we define impact beyond asset size."

#GivingTuesday is approaching rapidly. What should your organization be doing to get ready? What should you be planning for the day of #GivingTuesday, and do you have plans for the day after? This episode explores these questions and more. 

In today’s supersized three-part episode of The sgENGAGE Podcast, you’ll hear from several different guests who will help you have a successful #GivingTuesday. In the first segment, Mel Rancour and Jackie Zimmerman from Blackbaud University discuss the things that organizations should be doing before, during, and after #GivingTuesday. In the second segment, you’ll hear from Erica Burroughs, Director of Annual Giving and Family Engagement at High Point University, about how they engage supporters and how #GivingTuesday works together with other fundraising events. Finally, in segment three, you’ll hear from Andy Schroeder, Director of Development at Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, about how a funny video helped his organization earn three times their donation goal, and how they plan to build on that success for this year’s #GivingTuesday. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

Segment 1 [00:01:49] - Mel Rancour and Jackie Zimmerman, Blackbaud University w/ host Steve MacLaughlin: 

• What organizations can do right now to launch a Giving Tuesday campaign this year
• What organizations can do to prepare for Giving Tuesday all year long, and how they can leverage what they are already doing
• Ideas and resources for organizations to make the day of Giving Tuesday go more smoothly
• What organizations should do after Giving Tuesday to continue engaging supporters and new prospective donors

Segment 2 [00:20:04] - Erica Burroughs, High Point University w/ host Sally Ehrenfried: 

• How High Point University prepares for Giving Tuesday
• How their approach to engage supporters on Giving Tuesday differs from their spring university giving day
• How campus-wide fundraising events work together for positive outcomes
• Erica’s advice for organizations that want to participate in Giving Tuesday

Segment 3 [00:37:20] - Andy Schroeder, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary w/ host Sally Ehrenfried: 

• Why Giving Tuesday is important to fundraising campaigns
• How Sisters of Charity BVM came up with the video that helped them smash their fundraising goal for buying new chairs, and how they marketed it to engage so many supporters
• How Sisters of Charity BVM plans to build on last year’s Giving Tuesday success
• Andy’s advice for other organizations for a successful Giving Tuesday, even if they have basic organizational fundraising needs (like new chairs!) 

Resources: 

Proven #GivingTuesday Strategies for Higher Ed Institutions

Creating a #GivingTuesday Strategy that is 'Just Right'

Six Free Webinars for #GivingTuesday Success

Blackbaud University's Organizational Best Practices curriculum

The Ultimate #GivingTuesday Toolkit

Connect with: Mel Rancour, Jackie Zimmerman, Erica Burroughs and Andy Schroeder

Quotes: 

“Flexibility is going to be important. Because sometimes everything goes as planned and then you can have a little party, celebrate – but in my experience that almost never happens.” –Jackie Zimmerman 

“It’s never too late. You can put together a campaign, you can implement software, in a time frame that you just frankly wouldn’t believe.” – Erica Burroughs 

“One of the things that I think organizations do well is ask for money. The thing that they don’t always do as well is tell people how the money was used and be able to show the impact in some way, shape, or form.” – Andy Schroeder

New power. What does it mean? Who is using it? How is new power changing the world, and how can it be used for fundraising and social good? Today’s episode will explore those questions and more with Jeremy Heimans, co-author with Henry Timms of the book New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You. 

Rachel Hutchinson is your host for today’s episode, which was recorded live from bbcon, the leading tech gathering for social good. Listen in to learn what new power is, how it differs from old power, what’s different about fundraising in a new power world, and how your organization can begin to embrace new power. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

• The definition of new power
• How new power differs from old power, and how they can work together
• Examples of new power and how it works, from #GivingTuesday to healthcare
• What’s different about fundraising in a new power world
• How organizations are making the shift from old power to new power
• What people can do next to embrace new power 

Resources:

Article: Understanding “New Power”

Book: New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You

Quotes by Jeremy: 

“One really easy way to think of that difference between old and new power is the difference between power as currency – that’s old power, the kind of power you hoard up – and power as a current.” 

“All the evidence is that if you can empower patients to organize around their own challenges, you can get far better health outcomes than by kind of imposing solutions to them from the top down.” 

“It's absolutely true that the most effective players today are the ones who actually know how to blend old and new power.”

“You've got to be able to find a way of not just appealing to elites but appealing to everybody.”

Follow Blackbaud on Twitter or Facebook next week for exciting news about the evolution of the Raise & Engage Podcast!

For many organizations, if you are not in a capital campaign then you are likely planning for the next one. But is the capital campaign as we know it working, or is broken? Today's guest is an expert in university fundraising, and has done extensive research into what's working and what's not when it comes to capital campaigns and fundraising strategies.

Andy Reeher is the founder Reeher, the industry leading provider of fundraising performance management software for higher education that is now a part of Blackbaud. Learn what Andy's research has uncovered about the evolution of capital campaigns, from being used mainly by large universities to now being run by smaller colleges and universities as well as how the age and total gift concentrations of the top 100 donors has changed over the last forty years. Andy discusses how campaigns have moved from being a concept that got donors excited to a framework that boards use to fund the fundraising organization for seven years, and why universities need to make a change and move from seven year plans to rolling needs-based approaches.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• How the average age of the top 100 donors has evolved over the past 40 years, and how that has affected fundraising
• Are operating model campaigns sustainable?
• Staffing levels for engagement of constituents and strategic relationship building hasn't really changed over the years and hasn't kept up with technology
• How the model of seven year fundraising strategies is at odds with lifetime value
• What fundraisers can learn from the evolution of software development
• How organizations can benefit from rolling needs reviews
• What it means to look at donor development from a life stage standpoint
• How to figure out what potential donors want, and how to then build symbiotic relationships with donors.
• The future of capital campaigns

Resources: 

Capital Campaigns are Broken: What Happened and How to Fix Them 

5 Capital Campaign Myths Debunked 

"Capital campaigns have gone from a concept that motivated donors to a concept that motivated the staff."

"Even if we don't have any information about a constituent, we can make some basic assumptions about the types of things that might engage them [based on their life stage]."

Some organizations call it monthly giving, while others refer to it as regular giving, recurring giving, or sustainer giving. No matter which name it goes by, one thing is clear – donors who participate in regular giving programs are an important source of donations for nonprofits. Today’s guest understands that importance and how organizations can harness the power of monthly giving. 

Erica Waasdorp is an author, presenter, and the president of A Direct Solution, a company that helps nonprofits develop and manage monthly giving campaigns, among other things. Listen to the episode to hear what Erica has to say about why US-based nonprofits have been slower to switch to monthly giving, how organizations can get started building a monthly giving program, and what happens when annual or one-time donors make the switch to monthly donations. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

• Why it’s important for organizations to build recurring or monthly giving programs
• Why charities in the US have been slower to adopt monthly giving
• Different ways that donors can make recurring donations
• How Erica would recommend an organization go about building a monthly giving program
• How to prepare to scale a monthly giving program
• Converting existing annual or one-time donors to monthly donors
• What organizations can do to revitalize a recurring giving program that’s stalled 

Resources: 

Erica Waasdorp

A Direct Solution

“If you can move a donor from giving $25 or $40 dollars a year to giving $5 or $10 a month, then you’re not only generating more money, but you’re also keeping them much, much longer.” 

“There is definitely that potential to try to upgrade monthly donors and try to get them to the next level.” 

“I recommend you join your own program. You’d be amazed at how few people actually do that. You would want to join your own program because how else can you promote it to other people?”

One way to define the word "brand" is to think of it as a promise. Branding is a way of letting the world know what an organization stands for. It's easy to think of branding as a commercial tool, but it's important for nonprofits as well.

Today's guest is Sarah Durham, CEO of Big Duck, a communications and marketing agency that has helped hundreds of nonprofits improve their branding, campaigns, and fundraising efforts. Sarah is an expert on the ways that branding can apply to nonprofit organizations and how branding affects communications with donors, activists, and others. Listen to the episode to hear what Sarah has to say about developing a consistent brand and voice, aligning branding and organizations strategy, and embracing branding in a digital world.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• How nonprofits should think about the meaning of the word "brand"
• The importance of finding a consistent voice for an organization
• How developing a consistent brand simplifies communications for an organization
• Whether consistent branding conflicts with the idea of understanding and appealing to different types of donors
• How to align brand with organizational strategy
• How major events that lead to a rebrand offer an opportunity to readjust priorities or shift focus
• How to embrace brand in a digital world

Resources: 

Sara Durham 

Big Duck 

"There are a lot of aspects of brand development, whether you like that word or not, that are not only really useful for nonprofit advancing of the mission, but are also particularly useful for fundraisers."

"The opportunity for you as a nonprofit is to really think about how you want your organization's voice to be shaped, and to speak with one clear and consistent voice at all points of contact."

"The brand strategy is an expression of that organizational strategy."

How well do you really know your donors? Do you know what differences exist between your donors that live in different parts of the world? Do you know what cultural characteristics influence how much your donors give and how they choose to give? 

Today’s guest is Mark Phillips, the Managing Director of Bluefrog Fundraising. His work involves doing deep dives into the motivations of donors to better help charities understand their donors wants and needs. He does this by conducting extensive interviews with donors in different parts of the world. Listen to the episode to hear about how these conversations can inform and improve charity organizations. You’ll hear about how Mark got started with this kind of research, which countries he’s conducting interview in, and how charities have changed their behavior thanks to Mark’s research. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

• How Mark got started on the path of trying to understand donors on a deeper level
• How the research interviews Mark does differ from ordinary research and surveys
• Which countries Mark is doing research in
• Cultural characteristics about giving in different countries
• Moments during Mark’s research where he’s learned something surprising
• How charities have changed their behavior based on Mark’s research 

Resources: 

Mark Phillips

Queer Ideas

Bluefrog Fundraising

“One of the very lucky things in my career was I worked for people who had a focus on what donors needed and what donors wanted.”

“Some organizations, their most valuable donors they are not giving because they’re receiving postal appeals that are not appropriate to the way they want to support the organization. And that is not a rare occurrence.”

“Because donors weren’t seeing their money making a difference, people were assuming that these organizations were incompetent.”

Most people are aware of the differences between public charities and private foundations. However, donor advised funds, or DAFs, are often not understood as well. Donor advised funds have been around for many years, but they have changed and evolved significantly over the years, and many nonprofit organizations and fundraisers could benefit from a greater understanding of how donor advised funds work and what their pros and cons are. 

Today’s guest is Brian Mittendorf, the chair of the accounting department at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. Brian joins the episode to help explain how donor advised funds work, what controversies surround the practice of using donor advised funds, and where this segment of charitable giving is headed in the future. Listen to the episode to hear what Brian has to say about why donors choose to use DAFs, what a commercial DAF is, and how the new tax laws affect donor advised funds. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

• The basics of donor advised funds
• What made DAFs popular
• How donor advised fund sponsor organizations’ work
• Why donors choose donor advised funds
• Where commercial DAFs got started and how they work
• The type of control DAF donors have over what happens to the funds they donate
• What happens to the money donated to a DAF and how it’s disbursed
• Questions over whether donor advised funds need more regulation
• Controversies around donor advised funds
• How the new tax law has incentivized giving through donor advised funds
• How DAFs handle non-cash donations, like stock
• The future of donor advised funds and how regulations, or a lack of regulations, will affect that future 

Resources: 

Brian Mittendorf

Brian on Twitter

“Most individuals probably don’t have the resources to set up an entire private foundation, but if you think of them as the resources as a bunch of individuals being pooled together, then it’s going to be worthwhile.” 

“There’s not one person who’s really rich, but if we pool together a lot of different people with the same mission in mind, we can achieve a lot. Kind of what a private foundation could have.” 

“If I want to talk about a broad controversy, it’s that donor advised funds are typically used as vehicles that are really convenient for donors, and people who are concerned with them are concerned that they’re focusing more on donors than they are on the mission.”

Men and women both give to charity, but they tend to give differently. In order to engage with donors more effectively, it’s important to understand how gender affects giving. The role that women play in philanthropy is not as well understood as it could be; however, new research is changing that. 

Today’s guests help explain and contextualize the latest research into women’s philanthropy. Andrea Pactor of the Women's Philanthropy Institute and Kathleen Loehr of Kathleen Loehr & Associates join the podcast today to discuss women and philanthropic giving. Listen to the episode to hear what they have to say about the importance of understanding women’s philanthropy, the goals of the Women's Philanthropy Institute, and some of the differences between men’s and women’s motivations for giving. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

• How the Women’s Philanthropy Institute got started, and what they’re doing now
• Why the type of research the Women’s Philanthropy Institute is doing is so important
• Research findings about gender and giving
• How to better engage women in discussions about giving
• The differences between men’s and women’s motivations for giving
• The differences between the types of charities that men and women prefer to support
• How retirement affects women’s philanthropy 

Resources: 

Research that grows women’s philanthropy

How Women & Men Give Around Retirement

Andrea Pactor

Kathleen Loehr

“The Women’s Philanthropy Institute is the only organization in the world in a research and academic institution that focuses solely on this topic of the role of gender in philanthropy.” – Andrea Pactor

“We now have some substantive data points that look at this intergenerational transmission of generosity – it probably won’t come as a too much of a surprise that moms are a critical piece of all of that.” – Andrea Pactor

“Part of the research that is really clear is that women are often giving more than men and they’re very influential in the household giving, and we miss that when we go and do meetings, if you will, with just the male in the household.” – Kathleen Loehr

It’s easy to see building websites and designing forms as an onerous cost for an organization, especially when there are any number of social media channels that are free to use. But it’s important to ask if those free options are serving the purpose that your organization needs them to serve, and to remember that forms and websites built specifically to help your donors find and support your organization may have a cost, but they also have a value. 

Today’s episode was recorded at the Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School, held in Dublin, Ireland. Tune in to hear an interview with Beate Sørum, an international public speaker and a fundraising consultant based in Norway who brings some unique perspectives on form design and UX optimization. Listen to the interview to hear what Beate has to say about why forms are a good investment, how to engage with your donors through follow-up questions, and how social media is affecting fundraising efforts now. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode: 

• Some of the areas Beate has done testing into and insights that she’s found along the way
• How Norway has sidestepped the issue of copying what others are doing because of their lack of off-the-shelf solutions
• Why Beate sees forms as an investment rather than a cost
• How follow-up questions can be a good way to continue engaging with your donors
• Untraditional ways of designing forms
• How to better understand why people give and where giving comes from
• Why forms end up offering too much choice
• How social media is playing into fundraising right now
• How to develop content in a way that’s most likely to achieve the goals of the organization
• How to determine what’s working on social media when you have so many measurements to choose from
• How organizations can get started with more effective testing and use of digital channels 

Resources: 

The Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School 2018

Beate Sørum

About Beate Sørum

“My task is kind of to get people to stop looking at websites and forms as a cost and start seeing it as an investment.”

“Not everyone is going to fill out all your follow-up questions, but that’s OK. You’d rather actually have them as a donor than know everything about them.”

“A form is just a piece of code. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to put it within the emotional story that you’re telling.”