Fundraisers Should Be Amazing

Why would anyone come back to your fundraising event?  I’ve found that executive directors can become too caught up in the plea for help and forget to think about growing their fundraisers each year.  Here are a few “keys to growth” that should be a part of all of your fundraising events:

1. Make it enjoyable – Anyone who takes a few hours out of their evening to learn about your non-profit had better find it enjoyable.  A boring speaker or a never-ending “hard sell” all night long is a great way to lose attendance the following year. What’s more, who would want to invite their friends to that again?
2. Food Better be Good – I understand why struggling non-profit organizations want to cut corners on food cost.  Hosting a dinner in the church fellowship hall and letting your volunteers serve spaghetti is a great way to raise money for the youth mission trip.  But if the food is bad, no one (except relatives) will want to come back next year.  However, when you get the hotel or country club ballroom donated and the food is exceptional, you will see growth.  And yes, I know that paying $25-$35 per head for food cuts into the bottom line.  But from my experience, you’ll see growth in attendance and giving over the years if you go the nicer route.  Besides, your wealthiest donors expect to eat well when they attend an event.  So make sure they do.
3. Build a Great Reputation – I think fundraisers should be one of the best experience an attendee has all year.  Which means you need some element that gets everyone talking about it.  Be known for the surprise guest, the celebrity appearance, the hilarious monologue, the great hands-on activity, the best parting gifts, the fun photo opp, etc.
4. Avoid Guilt – Guilt only motivates people to give one time.  They feel trapped and pressured to give, so they cut a check.  However, after a person gives from guilt, they run away.  They don’t want to be reminded of that feeling so they won’t return to your fundraiser or greet you on the street.  Instead of guilt, allow the power of the opportunity pave the way for longterm giving.  I’d rather have a donor who gives $35 per month for life than one who throws me $100 one time out of guilt.
5. Follow Up – Everyone wants to feel appreciated.  Take time to have someone call or connect in some way with everyone who attended your fundraiser.  Everyone should get a note / thank you and everyone should get at least a call.  Otherwise, the next time they hear from you, you’re asking them to do you another favor.  And that’s not cool.

Outcast BMX Is Riding High in 2012

What can you learn from a BMX team?  It turns out, you may learn a lot.  And even though you will not likely see one of these guys walk into your next Executive luncheon as the keynote speaker, this group of tattooed young men have seen 219% growth in the first five months of 2012 and I predict that with our team’s help, they will continue to experience triple digit growth on into 2013.

First off, why read an article like this?  What do you have in common with these guys?  I’d say a lot.  For one, they are one of our most interesting clients.  Outcast BMX Stunt Team is anything but typical, just like you.  My guess is that people don’t always “get what you do”.  Or you often feel that you’re forging ahead into unchartered waters.  The guys on this team feel the same way.  They do a great performance. They are talented guys.  But people don’t get why they’re good for a public school assembly or NBA halftime show.  They don’t get it UNTIL they see it.

Which leads me to a second point…. your non-profit is best seen and not heard.  Am I right?  In other words, how many times do you try and explain what you do to potential donors and feel that its not getting across.  How many emails and letters do you write that you’re simply not sure if they’re getting read.  But yet, I bet if you could just “show” people what you do, things would change.

So we shot a video for Outcast BMX.  Actually, we have shot a few using our own award-winning video production team.  Because we knew that seeing is believing for them.  Also, video is getting cheaper all the time.  Now, you don’t need to buy commercial slots on tv because the internet can get you more hits than airtime during a late night talk show.   And the internet is free!   But don’t think your video will go viral when you spent $300 to shoot it.  Great video goes viral, not poor ones.  Invest in the production, not in the distribution.

So here’s a third point, Outcast BMX, like you, finally realized how to grow their social media presence.  For social media, our staff simply directs what the guys can already do themselves.  However, the key is having the team members consistently update their Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Emails, etc with relevant content that keeps their followers involved.  In the last year, their Facebook ”likes” have more than doubled…. and while small, they’ve followed Seth Godin‘s rule of Tribes which is to focus on the quality of followers and not the quantity.  Outcast is connecting with the right people who in turn are inviting their friends to connect as well.  This should be very similar to your social media strategy.  Instead of having 500 Facebook followers, you need to develop strategies to grow that to 2,000, 3,000, or 10,000 of the right people.  The people who are passionate about you and your cause.

And the fourth point, everyone knows how to ride a bike, right?  We’ve all done it.  But can all of us perform a backflip on a bike?  Of course not.  But because we have that common framework to start with (that we’ve all ridden a bike before), we are suddenly engaged and that much more amazed when we see Outcast BMX flip upside down or do some sort of 720 Tailwhip that defies the laws of gravity.  So what is the common bridge that you have that relates to all of the potential donors out there?  Is it your story?  Is it your experience?  Is it the cause you invest in?  How do you show it?  How do you share it? How do people see it?  Do you serve a brown, nasty glass of water at your fundraising dinner before sharing about how you can drill new wells to provide clean water to people?  What is your “bridge”?

It may be time to hire someone like us to help you take what you already have and show it and share it.  Our gift is to package what you’re already doing in a way that is more exciting and more compelling than what you have now and guide the consistent steps that will grow you and your organization faster than it is growing now.  We’re doing that with Outcast BMX.  And guess what, you’re not that much different.

Mom With Emerson

Our company has been busier than ever. Which is why I’ve been neglecting to update this blog. But that’s the irony. I consult with organizations to constantly remind them of the value of blogging, tweeting, and other social media. I tell them that it’s not something you do when you’re desperate but something you do all the time.  Its just a few minutes out of each day but the dividends it will pay are well worth it.

So why have I neglected it?  See if these excuses sound familiar to you.  #1, my wife and I have a baby (Emerson Grace).  It seems that every waking moment that I’m not at work, I want to spend with her.  She’s learning to walk these days and I do not want to miss a second of it.  #2, I’ve been traveling a lot.  I’ve been promoting a lot of events lately in Charlotte, Destin, and Waterloo and that’s pulled me away from social media. And #3, work has been great.  We’ve consulted and created the new SmashMagic.com along with promo materials.  We’ve developed a new action sports campaign for ReachYourCity.com.  We’ve consulted and developed new videos for Reach Your City, Team WordPlay, and Take Back Your Schools.  And we just assisted in running an outreach event with Will Graham and The Billy Graham Association of Canada.  But busy is no excuse.

Sure, being busy is a sign of growth and success.  And sometimes, the last thing you think about when times are good is marketing.  But being satisfied with the status quo is never a sign of a good leader.  I’m settling for where things are today without the passion and the foresight to want to grow or improve our company. If the last few years have taught me anything, its that you can’t be sure of tomorrow.  So continue to build.  Continue to grow.  Continue to push forward.  And by all means, continue to write these blogs.

I hope you hear more from me this month.

Does a Trophy Make You the Best?

I think about the competition of sports because unlike most industries, sports has the ability to narrow down the field to a few of the best.   You can’t really do that outside of sports most of the time.  Who is the smartest scientist?  Who is the best non-profit leader?  Who is the most talented guitarist?  Certainly you can argue these points.  But its because of head to head competition that sports most effectively measures “who is the best in the world”.

But even then, you can only measure position to position and even then, the same person that was MVP this Sunday may not be MVP next Sunday.  And the MVP in 2009 was not the MVP in 2010.  So the idea of reaching the top and now you’re the best in the world at something is a myth.  You’re always climbing.

Sure, you can get really precise when you look at individual sports that go head to head.  A tennis player or golfer is a very good measure of who is the best because its just you on the course versus the best in the world.  But you can’t win every round and you can’t win every match.  You’re only MVP for a while.  And even when you win the tournament and you’re the best on that day, did you actually score the best round in history?  Or were you just good enough to beat the competition that day?

I think I wrote this to say… avoid people who claim to be the best.  They are lying or leaning on past history.  Instead, focus on the people who say they strive to be the best.  They’re simply more trustworthy.

This article was inspired by Seth Godin‘s blog today: Selftruth (and the best violinist in the world).

It was tight... but I made it work.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Nashville called Portland Brew.  It’s a great little coffeeshop.  In fact, this whole city is full of great little coffee shops (see my article on Crema).  I’m only here because I could not find anywhere to park at another of my favorites, The Frothy Monkey (what a name, right?).

Which brings to a light a major issue with non-profits & small businesses these days.  Parking.  It’s hard enough running a coffeeshop with the tiny margins you make on each patron.  You need a lot of business to walk through those doors every day or you’ll never make it.  So when you build your business in a location where parking is a problem, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

This can happen with your non-profit organization as well.  It may not be parking.  But what is preventing your patrons from walking in your door and giving you a donation?  What are the unseen issues in the system that may cost you some major bucks to fix, but in the long run, will help you raise the money to meet the need you support.  It may be a bad website (by the way, I tried to go to PortlandBrewCoffee.com to link to it for this article and guess what… it was down.  Yikes.  Major parking problem!). It may be a poorly written mission or purpose statement.  It may be a lack of accessibility to your leadership.  What is it?

I was speaking to a wealthy relative of mine who shared his own concern with giving to an organization called Young Life.  He’s a big supporter.  I don’t know what that means, but I get the feeling that he’s the type of donor that you’d block off an entire day to go golfing with.  But he told me that something needed to be done with the Young Life website.  He said it was too difficult for him to go on and make a donation.  And he realized that if he was frustrated with trying to make a very sizable donation, how many others have tried and given up.  I told him that we should build them a new website that connects to a smartphone app with a one-touch donation button built in.  He agreed… but that’s another article for another time.

This is a parking problem.  It can be fixed but you’ve got to make an investment.  If it costs you $3,000 to fix it and the end result is a net increase in online giving of 5%, what would that mean to your organization?  Could you recoup that in three years?

Sit down and think for just ten minutes today about the parking problems at your organization.  What are they?  How can you fix them?  What would happen if you fixed them?  ….Now go and do it.

But what about bricks and mortar companies?  Like Jason’s Deli or Nashville’s McDougal’s Chicken (which I love but they need me to build them a new website).  They give you free ice cream at the end of each meal.   Is it free?  Well of course not.  It was built into the cost of your meal.  But its a perk that you love.

Which is why it can be so frustrating when you encounter an organization the nickels and dimes you along the way.  It’s not that other companies in the past have not successfully billed you for everything they could, but the new culture does not allow it.  High end hotel chains are a frustration when they charge $25 for parking, $10 for wi-fi in the room, and you feel you have to tip 10 people just to get into your car to go out for lunch.  I know these hotel chains cater to a wealthy client who expect to spend more, but in today’s culture, it’s the wrong pricing model.  Which is why Hampton Inn is gaining so much ground.

Southwest Airlines has turned the actions of their competition into one of their most successful marketing campaigns.  Southwest doesn’t charge for your bags, your change fees, etc and they’re making sure you know that their competition does.  It’s a pricing model that works and it’s building their market share and their customer loyalty.

Years ago, when Starbuck’s used to charge for their wi-fi, I told my wife Josie that they had made a crucial mistake.  It was not so much their action that made it a bad decision. It was how their competition responded.  Other coffee shops, Panera, and even fast food places like McDonald’s chose to give away wi-fi for free.  Suddenly, free wi-fi was the norm.  And Starbucks found themselves stuck in the wrong pricing model.  It was like a Mexican restaurant charging for chips and salsa.  It’s so outside the norm, it would most likely doom the average restaurant to fail.

So what does this have to do with a non-profit?  They don’t sell anything, do they?  Actually, they do.  Non-profits have to figure out what their pitch is going to be that convinces a would-be donor into giving to the organization.  Compassion International has packaged this well.  For just $39 per month, you can feed and educate a child for their life.  What you get in exchange is a picture, bio, and quarterly letters from your child. Not to mention, a personal connection to a life that you’re saving.  It’s powerful.  And it’s worth the purchase!

So how do you create a successful pricing model for your organization?   How do you get your audience excited about what you do?  How do you avoid asking them for their donation for things that they may consider “unneeded” or “unworthy” of their gift?  This is the non-profit equivalent of nickel & diming your donor.  Stay tuned for that information in a future article.

Some of the best types of advertising draws on fear. For example, take magician Curt Anderson. Here’s a guy that gets tied up in a strait jacket, raised 70 feet in the air while upside down, and has to escape. See video here.  Or entertainer Dan Meyer who swallows red hot swords on The History Channel (see this video here).  These two entertainers defy death, defy heights, and so on.  They use these stunts and the fears we all have to draw the viewer in.  It actually makes people want to come and see their shows!

Clever non-profit marketing  can do the same thing.  Instead of celebrating the benefits of giving to your organization, you can highlight the fears.  Take for example, the Nissan Leaf commercial showing what life might be like if everything ran on gas.  It’s dirty, grungy, and nasty.  You can see the pollution in the air.  It’s really disgusting as they highlight things like the water cooler being used to hold gasoline or the dentist tool which would go in your mouth. It’s disgusting and truly exaggerates every possible item we could make run on gas.  But it hits you right where you need to be hit. Its a great motivator and my bet is it’s going to work to convince people to pay the extra $10,000 for an electric vehicle.

So what is the fear involved with your cause?  What if you didn’t do what you do?  What if no one did?  Are you feeding children in the third world?  Are you providing legal protection for those that can’t afford it?  Are you trying to support the Arts?  What is the fear you can target that would impact current and new donors that would motivate them to give?  Can you capture this idea on video?  Can you capture it in pictures?  In your graphic design?  Can you make it motivating?  Convincing?

Aldi Rocks

Hiring a designer, photographer, or me as your consultant almost always comes down to cost. At least in today’s slow economy. In the past, company leaders could hire me over the phone with no paperwork. However, today, budgets are tight, and almost everyone has to get approval before they can invest in a new cost (even if I’m going to make them more money). I get this. And since I focus on non-profit organizations who have the least money of all, I’ve done my best to keep our costs the lowest they can be without sacrificing quality and effectiveness.

I’m inspired by other companies that cut costs but maintain good quality. One of my favorite companies who does this is Aldi. If you do not have an Aldi Grocery Store, I pray you get one. This is shopping for the cheapest of the cheap. This group cuts cost so much that you have to put a quarter in just to get your shopping cart (don’t worry, you get it back when you return the cart). This prevents carts from getting stolen and it saves the company the cost of sending an employee into the parking lot twice a day to bring the carts to the store. They also charge for their shopping bags. Either you buy one of theirs or just bring your own. It’s another small way they keep costs down.

For a marketing company like mine, we do a lot of special things to keep costs down. One thing we do is work from home. In fact, none of our designers or video directors have an office. Why pay $800 per month for an office when you can do all of your editing from home? It does not hurt quality and our designers love it. We also cut expenses using an old Wal-Mart method: we negotiate a “best rate” for all of our designers that is a good 20-50% below their market rate. This makes us cheaper than most which saves our clients money. You’d be surprised but our designers love this because we take care of contracts, invoicing, and other project management duties that are a distraction for most “creative types”. Not to mention, they are guaranteed good work that challenges them and supports a worthy organization.

From a quality perspective, volume drives our costs down. Whereas an in-demand freelancer raises his prices as they get busier, we actually lower them as we are able to reach economies of scale. Also, since we take the weight of bookkeeping, contracting, and project management off of our creative people, they end up being more focused on a clients project which reduces the billable hours and improves quality.

There are many smaller ways we keep costs low but for the most part, we produced measurable returns on our projects. And when the income for our clients exceeds their costs, they keep coming back.

Be careful what you say...

There’s nothing like writing a controversial blog to anger and upset my clientele.  I think next week I’ll tackle Pro Life versus Pro Choice or maybe feminism.  But for now… at least this week… Occupy Wall Street is the big news.  Are you for it or against it?  Are you a Tea Party advocate that hates big government or an Occupy supporter who is fed up with corrupt businesses. Or are you in favor of both?  You know, all of us, whether we are the Executive Director of a small non-profit or the President of a large company, have an opinion on these matters.  But let this article be a warning to you that you don’t always have to share what you think.

I was on staff at a church in Birmingham, AL that was led by a wonderful man named Frank Barker.  One of the most genuine men I’ve ever known.  And he was always a big Auburn University fan. So much so that he would often tell a joke from the pulpit the Sunday after the Tigers met their arch rivals, Alabama, in the Iron Bowl game which many around the country revere as the biggest in-state rivalry in the country.  This game created lots of tension between Alabama and Auburn fans.  So to be funny and relieve a bit of tension, Dr. Barker would tell a joke that next Sunday.  Sometimes it was at the expense of the Auburn fans and sometimes it was to poke fun at Alabama.  However, he realized over time that not everyone could take a joke (can you relate?).  In fact, some members of his church decided to leave over this seemingly frivolous issue.  So whether he liked it or not, Dr. Barker had to decide if it was more important to poke fun at the rivalry or would it serve the greater mission of Briarwood to simply let it go.  So what did he do?  You guessed it.  He decided to let it go.  Today, Briarwood is a large and influential church in the city of Birmingham and beyond and it is filled with people that love Alabama, love Auburn, or hate them both.

As the leader of your company, you have to determine what issues are detrimental to your mission and what are important enough to go to battle for.  In some cases, your mission may align well with those that support Occupy Wall Street and therefore, it is worth coming out in support of this cause.  In other cases, you may have a clientele that is split down the middle and it becomes best for the sake of your greater mission simply to keep quiet.  However, the choice is yours.  Your decision to voice your opinion will have consequences and you may see these as either positive or negative.  Just don’t be ignorant of the problems your statements can cause.  We have enough unemployed people in America today, don’t say something stupid that adds to that number.

Oops, I forgot about the bananas again!

When people think of marketing, most do not think of it in terms of non-profits.  Marketing has become a negative term synonymous with manipulation.  Not only that, but marketing does not look great as a budget line item.  And it’s a terrible appeal to new donors: “Can you give more so we can do more ‘marketing’?”  Because of these and other reasons, people that run non-profit organizations that are trying to champion a great cause are very weary of “marketing”.

However, this typically separates the large and highly funded organizations from the small and discouraged non-profits.  American Red Cross, United Way, and others spend millions on marketing their products.  They understand the value of putting their cause in front of more and more people and to do so in the best possible way.  Their television campaigns, radio ads, event sponsorships, and other campaigns keep them in front of their donors and help them find new ones.  They know that the worst thing that could happen is if their organization did not constantly remind people of who they are and what they’re about.

There’s an old saying that says “out of sight, out of mind”.  It essentially means that you don’t think about something if you don’t see it.  That’s why the food you bought last week in the back of the fridge went bad.  It’s why you forget to call a friend for way too long.  And it’s why you got a late notice when your utility bill got stuck under your piles of paperwork.  It’s not that you don’t care about these things.  But if you’re not reminded about them, you’ll forget.

Marketing brings your non-profit organization to the surface. It reminds people of your mission, your goals, and your need.  So what if you told them once.  That was last quarter.  And your donors have probably forgotten by now.  Tell them again and again.  And do it well.  Otherwise, your mission might become “out of sight”.