Fundraising Detective

How 'Relationship Fundraising' changed my life!

My initial fundraising career was only meant to last a year or so.  After that I was meant to get a ‘proper’ job in law, but then I read 'Relationship Fundraising' by Ken Burnett and it got me hooked on fundraising as a career.

I remember buying Relationship Fundraising from respected fundraiser Peter Maple via Howard Lake’s Fundraising website in about 2001. At the time i’d been a Community Fundraising Assistant for about six months and as much as i’d enjoyed helping out at various events and activities, it wasn’t really intellectually stimulating and I couldn’t really see a long-term future for me.

Then I read Ken’s book.

I remember devouring it in the course of a day and then going back through it with a fine toothcomb and making notes and jotting down ideas.  By the time I’d finished the book for a second time I had about 12 pages of notes.  I eagerly went and presented them to my bosses at the time and it says a lot about their attitude and leadership that they didn’t tell me where to go, but encouraged me to introduce a number of my ideas.

From that moment on I was a professional fundraiser. 

I re-vamped our thank you letters, took responsibility for the database, looked for ways to recognise and thank donors and worked hard to implement as much of the theory and ideas in the book as possible. 

The book made me proud to be a fundraiser and showed me what a fulfilling, stimulating and enjoyable career it could offer me.

I haven’t always got things right, but Relationship Fundraising and Ken’s other books have been a compass pointing me in the correct fundraising direction for the past 10 years.

It still amazes me when I meet fundraisers who’ve never read or even heard of Relationship Fundraising.  Personally I don’t know how you can do your job properly as a fundraiser without being aware of the principles it teaches.

I’ve recommended the book to hundreds of people and shared my copy with numerous colleagues over the years and it still remains my favourite fundraising book out of the hundreds I have read.

This post is my contribution to the May Non-Profit Blog Carnival.  This month it posed the question: What Book Has Changed Your (Professional) Life?

10 Great Quotes from Denny Hatch

Denny Hatch's regular e-newsletter is a favourite of mine.  Topical, insightful and full of sound advice they are one of the few e-mails that I always read.

Denny has taken the best of the quotes, takeaways, quips, advice and truisms featured in his e-newsletter and compiled them into a fantastic book split into 99 categories.

These shorty pithy segments contain some great ideas and thoughts and can be used to challenge your staff, in presentations, for training and a whole host of other things.

Here are 10 of my favourite nuggets from the first half of the book.  Quotes are from Denny unless stated:

Advertising

"Here's the secret of successful advertising: interrupting what's going on in the front of a prospect's brain with headline, graphics, copy and action that seize upon a lurking fear or desire and exploiting it."

Agencies

When an agency is pitching potential clients, it's usually the high-powered agency president that glad-hands the prospect and does the razzle dazzle presentation.  Once the account is landed, the work is turned over to underlings.

Before hiring an agency, get to know the worker bees that will be assigned to your account.

Branding

Before trashing a brand, add up the dollars spent on advertising, marketing and P.R. over the years to build a brand.  What will it cost to make its replacement a household name?

Copywriting

"The seven key copy drivers - the emotional hot buttons that make people act - are fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, salvation and flattery"
Bob Hacker, Axel Andersson

Customer Relationship Magic

"There is only one boss.  The customer(donor). And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending (donating) his money elsewhere."
Sam Walton

How to know customers

Once, every six months, have a brainstorming session to figure out innovative and inexpensive new ways to make your customers happier.

Direct mail letters

The tone of a good direct mail letter is as direct and personal as the writer's skill can make it.  Even though it may go to millions of people, it never orates to a crowd, but rather murmurs into a single ear.  It's a message from one letter writer to one letter reader.

Email

After dashing off an email, but before clicking on 'Send' you might reflect for a moment on the consequences of your message appearing on the front page of every newspaper in the world.

Headlines

"On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.  When you written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar."

Hiring

Always hire A's.  In the first place, they are more fun to work with.  Secondly, they push you into excellence.

Book Review: The Little Big Things by Tom Peters

Subtitled '163 Ways to Pursue Excellence' this book makes the argument that if you get the little things right then the big things will naturally follow.

Written by leadership legend Tom Peters, it's a must read for anyone who leads a team, is interested in customer (or donor) service and wants to get things done.

As the subtitle suggests the book is divided into 163 short, snappy chapters and is split into sections with names like 'Excellence', 'Opportunity', 'Attitude' and 'Customers'.

Although the book contains nothing profound it does offer lot's of great ideas, anecdotes and easy to action things that could make a difference for your organisation.

I think the book is best read in short bursts, such as on the bus/train on the way home, as Tom's excitable, energetic, urgent style can almost leave you feeling tired after a while!

As a word of warning: if you don't like liberal use of bold, CAPITAL LETTERS, !!!!!!!!, repetition, repetition, repetition, then this book probably isn't for you. 

However, I like it, as I think it reflects Tom's personality and sense of urgency over how important he sees the things he is talking about.

One of the main themes of the book (and something I believe in) is the concept of the leader as servant to their team.  Your direct reports are your primary customers - you make them happy and by default you will make your donors and external customers happy. 

Tom preaches about this a number of times in the book, along with empowering your team, managing by walking around and seeing more in others than they see in themselves.  All critically important things in my view.

'In Search of Excellence' was the first business book I ever read - my dad gave me a copy from his days working at Price Waterhouse - and I guess that the ideas Tom talks about have greatly influenced me over the years. 

Put simply, I'm a big believer in Tom and his ideas and I think this book is almost a manual on how to be a successful leader and fundraiser.

UK Amazon Link below:                  Get it in the U.S.A here.

Book Review: Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

Public speaking is often listed as one of people's worst fears, but Scott Berkun's new book is packed full of advice that would help even the most nervous of public speakers overcome their anxiety.

Quite simply this is the best book on public speaking I have ever read.

Written in a friendly, confident and funny way the book combines practical advice, anecdotes and photographs that cover every aspect of speaking in public. From preparation and planning to setting up the room and dealing with hecklers the book covers everything you need to know on planning and delivering presentations.

Whenever I read a book I mark interesting pages/passages and by the time I'd finished this book the book was full of turned pages that I will go back to!

One of my favourite chapters goes through preparing a fictional talk on cheese. It is great to follow Scott's thinking of how he approaches a talk, plans what he is going to say and how to come up with a winning title.

I think the key lesson is one that I've learnt the hard way (I'll save the story of my first ever public talk for another time) - the only way you'll give an interesting and well received talk is to prepare, plan and practice, practice, practice. That may not sound like rocket science, but it is amazing how many presenters don't do this. 

The book also contains a great section on research and recommended further reading and I've already downloaded a number of articles from Scott's blog.

I appreciate that this seems a bit of a gushing review. I usually like to include some constructive criticism, but the only thing I can think of is that it would have been good for them to include colour photos rather than black and white.

Whether you are seasoned presenter or have to do a presentation for the first time then I'm confident that this book contains something for everyone.

Book Review: We - The Ideal Customer Relationship by Steve Yastrow

In the latest Mal Warwick newsletter, Adrian Sargeant writes an in-depth article called 'Building Donor Loyalty', which emphasises the problem fundraisers have in retaining donors and offers some reasons why we aren't better at it.

Steve Yastrow's book offers ideas and tactics to help overcome this problem.  It makes an articulate and powerful case to treat customers (in our case donors) better and, in turn, improve business.

Through a series of case studies, anecdotes and research Yastrow provides a framework for moving from transaction based interactions with customers to creating memorable encounters that help build sustainable relationships.

The 'We' in the title is a plea to see your relationship with your donors in a different light:

"A We relationship is substantially different from an Us & Them relationship. A We customer sees the relationship as collaborative and mutual; he thinks "We" when thinking about himself and your company. This customer sees your company as unique and, therefore, not interchangeable with the competition.  And you see the needs of each We customer as distinct from the needs of all customers. You go beyond using each other to accomplish things and actually see your relationship as one in which you do things together."

I particularly like Yastrow's emphasis on creating memorable encounters.  It is a theme I have taken up in my own organisation.  Every time you have an interaction with a donor then you need to ensure that interaction enhances the relationship (or at worst doesn't make it worse).  This simple but powerful statement is a good starting point for all your donor care and marketing efforts.

Some of the case studies and examples in the books are a little cheesy and lack the detail I would like to see, but overall I'd recommend the book for anyone who is in a customer facing role and looking for a framework to build their retention round.

Book Review: Superfreakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

At first glance you might ask what a book on economics has to do with fundraising.

However, as well as being a fascinating and sometimes controversial read, there are a number of useful lessons for fundraisers in Superfreaknomics.

Like the first book, the authors use economic and data analysis to challenge conventional thinking on a wide range of subjects.

Of particular interest will be the chapter on altruism, which looks at lab and real world studies on altruism.  Sadly (for charities) they conclude that people may not be quite as altruistic as we are led to believe.

The other key lesson is not to rely too much on hunches and to try and back up your thinking and reasoning with clear data analysis.  Don't make the mistake many people do and manipulate your data to fit your theories.

I see and hear this often when people undertake new plans without any clear plan on how they are going to measure results and collect data, which often gives people an easy out if things don't go as well as they hope.

The book will help you understand the importance of data and it's interpretation and help avoid these traps.

It is an insanely addictive and thoroughly entertaining book.  It really makes a dry subject like economics interesting.  It deliberately takes a controversial view on topics like global warming, prostitution and suicide bombers and has attracted criticism for over simplifying arguments and ignoring alternative views. 

However, although the authors may occasionally go for the cheap laugh and make slightly tenuous/tongue in cheek conclusions I don't think the book is any the worse for it.

Overall I'd highly recommend Superfreakonomics.  If only my economics classes at uni had been half as interesting, then I might not have dropped it after a year!

Seth Godin's latest book: Linchpin: Are you indispensable?

Seth Godin's latest book Linchpin is out at the end of the month and in return for a donation to the Acumen Fund (great idea Seth) I've got hold of a 60 page summary of it.

I'm a huge fan of Seth and books like Permission Marketing and Tribes have completely changed my thoughts on how good fundraising should be done. I strongly believe any fundraiser would be inspired to do their job better after reading these books.

However, Linchpin appears to be a different sort of book. 

It is more personal and raw.

It is a call to arms and a plea to the individual to rage war on mediocrity.

As Seth says:

"Stop settling for what’s good enough and start creating art that matters. Stop asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people."

Therefore from a fundraising point of view it might not offer as much in the way of new ideas or insight as his other books. There doesn't appear to be much talk about what's wrong with marketing and ideas for fixing it, rather it is a manifesto and a passionate call for people to be remarkable in themselves.

To begin with the book talks about why individuals need to take more responsibility for their work and how the current economic climate is:

"An opportunity to actually enjoy what you do, to make a difference to your colleagues and your customers, and to unlock the genius you’ve been hiding all these years."

Seth talks about the importance of emotional labor and making connections both at work and in your personal life.

He then goes on to talk about becoming a linchpin and being indispensable.  His argument is as follows:

"You have no right to that job or that career. After years of being taught that you have to be an average worker for an average organization, that society would support you for sticking it out, you discover that the rules have changed.

The only way to succeed is to be remarkable, to be talked about. But when it comes to a person, what do we talk about? People are not products with features, benefits, and viral marketing campaigns; they are individuals. If we’re going to talk about them, we’re going to discuss what they do, not who they are.

You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people.

The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about."

The rest of the book talks about how to achieve this.

I think the book will be particularly useful if you are frustrated at work, want to get more done or need inspiring to achieve great things in 2010. It will challenge your thinking on what it means to be an employee and how you can create 'art' in any form.

It doesn't appear to be a 'how to' book, but I'm looking forward to reading the full version and have got it on pre-order.

Finally, you can read what other people think about the book at Seth's Squidoo lens.

How to Write Great Fundraising Case Studies

Great case studies that show the difference your charity makes to your beneficaries are absolutely key to successful fundraising.  They connect the donor with the cause and resonate on an emotional and intellectual level.

However, too many case studies end up being boring, stifle the story and use too much jargon.

Over at Fundraising Success magazine there is a great article on how to write outstanding profiles.

They highlight five steps to writing an excellent profile:

1. Schedule the interview
2. Gather your facts
3. Get your questions together
4. Find the "nut", i.e. the heart of the story
5. Write the profile

The article goes into detail about each point and is worth a read or passing the link on to your communications team.

If you want to know more about crafting great case studies (and fundraising messages in general) then I would recommend the following two books:

Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath

Robin Hood Marketing by Katya Andersen

They both contain some great tips and ideas on creating memorable stories and messages.

Book Review: Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

First a disclaimer:  I’m a big fan of Hugh and his work. I have been reading his blog for well over five years and used his cartoons in a number of presentations and even printed some of them off to display in my tiny office back when I was working in Darlington.  

I love Hugh’s dark sense of humour and refusal to take bull and it is fair to say I was always going to love this book!

It is primarily a book that is aimed at artists and creatives, but I still got a lot from it.  It won’t help you directly fundraise, but it will bring a smile to your face and get you thinking about creativity in your organisation.

Here are five of my favourite quotes from the book:

• "The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships.  That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

• You don’t get anywhere without hard work
  

• Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

• Merit can be bought. Passion can’t. The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.

•  Whether you’re writing to an audience of one, five thousand, a million, ten million, there’s really only one way to truly connect.  One way that actually works:  Write from the heart."

It isn’t the longest book ever written (it shouldn’t take much more than an hour to read) but it is entertaining throughout.  It has a great combination of acerbic and witty cartoons, with pithy, entertaining anecdotes and insightful thoughts that together make it a must read. 

Be warned however, if you are easily offended or if you don’t like the cartoon at the top of this post then it probably isn’t for you.  However, I personally can’t wait for the next book:  Evil Plans.

You can find out more about Hugh at his blog or follow him on Twitter.

ChangeThis Manifesto: Cracking the Genetic Code

The latest ChangeThis Manifesto is by Anne McCrossan and is called "Cracking the Genetic Code: A New Way Forward For Corporations".  I believe it is highly relevant for nonprofit organisations.

I've been fortunate to meet and chat with Anne at a couple of events in London and via Seth Godin's Triiibes site. I've found her to be friendly, interesting and, most of all, extremely knowledgeable so I was genuinely looking forward to reading her manifesto.

The basic premise is that businesses, brands and communities need to become more 'visceral' (relying on instinct) and 'flow'. Doing this will “generate momentum and growth through active engagement, learning and development.” To my mind, this is something that is particularly relevant for non-profits.

Throughout the manifesto you can see the influence of writers of such as Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell (to name a few), but Anne elaborates on their writings and presents a compelling case for change and a new approach to business.

Do take the time to download, read and share the entire manifesto, but in the meantime here are some of the key points and insights for non-profits:

• Old business models based on hierarchy and central control are broke – beware the crazed non-profit zombie, who shuns the chance to engage, alienates supporters by not creating a chance to connect and fails to create memorable connections with donors. Perhaps this is why so many donors forget who they've given to?

• When a person first comes into contact with you the first thing you get is their attention. This attention shouldn't be undervalued. If you abuse it, you lose that person, if you value and nurture it, you get trust and love.

• I loved this quote about employees:

  “The best evangelists (for your nonprofit) are prized ambassadors, agents of value and, ideally, employees. And if they're not employees, why aren't they? They're the key to future growth and production.”

• Just having integrity isn't enough by itself. You need what Anne calls 'blatant integrity', that is integrity that goes beyond just holding up to scrutiny, but which can eliminate objections before they emerge. You can do this by embracing opposition and using it as an opportunity to demonstrate leadership.

• Emotional intelligence (Anne calls it 'being conducive') is a crucial aspect of leadership. What are you doing in your organisation to encourage it?

• Passion is key. Passion gets you through the tough times. If you're not passionate about your non-profit (at least some of the time), do everyone a favour and leave!

To finish off I'll leave you with a quote that particularly resonated with me as a fundraiser:

“Instead of having a name over the factory door, create a body of people that stand for something. People will forget what you said and they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel and what you inspired them to do.”