Hello, my name is Todd Baker, todd.baker@grizzard.com and you must be interested in nonprofit fundraising online. This blog book is a step-by-step process that will help you in your quest.
What you are about to read is unique because it gives you an understanding of the nonprofit fundraising online experience from the charity and constituent perspective simultaneously. Good marketers know what works but great ones understand why things work.
You will not find any quotes from 14th Century philosophers, poets or playwrights. Nor will you have to read ramblings on about the industrial age, Civil War History and/or the next big wave in direct marketing and advertising.
This blog book is not going to provide a chronological order of how the Internet began or enamored speak about how quickly people are signing on board. There are no fancy-schmancy metaphors relating the Internet with anything that comes out of a spider. Nope, none of that, just straight to the point advice to help you quickly master the online world. Frankly, we don’t have much time to get our collective nonprofit houses in order as it relates to the Internet. For it is my belief, the Internet will become centric to all of your marketing.
For one simple reason, you can never stop someone from going to your organization’s Web site. If you produce a lousy radio advertisement the good news is that most people you are wanting to reach didn’t hear it or if they did, won’t recall it weeks later. However, you get one shot with your Web site and it only takes seconds to make an impression . . . good or bad.
It is my hope you can implement these steps tomorrow so that people who are searching for meaning in life may find your wonderful organization and become fulfilled thus our world will be better for it.
Your legacy doesn’t guarantee you a place in the future.
Your best year, how long ago was it? The new “up” is not flat. Up is and will always be up - growing the organization. Don’t accept less. If you have surrounded yourself with small thinkers, run for your life.
You want more revenue? Think Big. “Testing blue envelopes against red ones” is not big thinking. Eliminating homelessness in five years is thinking big. Stopping diabetes, curing cancer, saving disaster victims, empowering a village through training and education - all of these endeavors are big visions that people are inspired to join.
Stop trying to think of the next gimmick that will fetch the most money. Stop tricking your donors into reading your information. Your donors are smarter than you, they know why they give you money and you lack full understanding of their motivation. You over communicate hoping to strike accord. Try listening intently.
Stop focusing most of your attention on tactics that will move you an inch in one direction or the other. Stop implementing everything you see and hear at a conference without understanding how it fits in your overall strategy . . . if you have a strategy.
In times like these and really in ALL times, program people must lead and marketers need to follow. Get back the passion. Be driven by saving lives rather than making money. People have money but you fail to inspire. People line up to purchase a ten dollar DVD they’ve already seen multiple times. These people seek real meaning. Your vision can ignite a flame of true purpose in their lives. However, you are churning out the same message and plans from years past.
Time will make any plan yesterday’s thinking.
Maintaining the status quo will be your last will and testament, for death is at your door knocking.
Refocus. Help those people right in front of you. Tell everyone you see your new story. Be bold. Know that one compassion-driven moment can change everything.
Audrey and Eldad Hagar started rescuing dogs from the streets of Southern California and videotaping their efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen their videos on YouTube and now television.
Their efforts have touched so many lives; they created Hope for Paws, www.hopeforpaws.org. Eldad holds a tiny hand-held video camera while he rescues dogs. Intensity is captured. You are there. Without a production truck, expensive lighting, or a camera crew, their brave acts of kindness still inspire. They are brave because they are not afraid to do what they know is right. Saving the life right in front of them, nothing more, and nothing less is today’s most important. One seemingly small compassion-driven act can inspire all of us.
Audrey and Eldad have accomplished what many charities only dream of and they did it largely on their own. Hope for Paws is driven by their vision and not by slick marketing tactics. In fact, a slick marketing expert may have said, “there are already more than 35 private and public animal shelters/offices throughout Southern California, so don’t waste your time competing for attention and donations.” Good marketing is only good when it works. Take good marketing over a self-proclaimed smart marketer.
Follow your heart. If your vision is big, it is hard to be ignored. Good marketing is critical to growing. However, for your donor’s sake please don’t pick up the phone to call them until you have something inspiring to share. Don’t lead with, “We need more money.” Claiming, “Contributions are down” whether true or not, is not a good lead either. Remember, your donors fell in love with a vision. They have moved on and so have the rest of us. Begin with the new big vision. Watch their hearts open and embrace you greater than ever before.
Now is the best time, when others claim it is the worst of times, to launch a movement greater than your organization can do on its own. When everyone is cutting back, you are spending more time thinking about your community’s issues and problems. What will it take to finally solve the problem? Discover it. Win the prize.
Give people a legitimate role to play. Ensure people’s involvement matters. Share in the success. Share in the struggles. Go and do together.
People desperately need a life of meaning. Therefore, we must help them invest in something greater than watching the movie Turner and Hooch for the third time.
We are in a highly competitive marketplace where innovation seems to be the norm rather than an anomaly.
Our world is changing fast and it’s having dramatic effects on philanthropy. With advances in technology; where there’s more computing power in handheld wireless devices today than what it took to launch the first Space Shuttle. In addition, we are experiencing a greater awareness of the environment where most everyone is taking some responsibility to do their part for a greener society and the volatility of energy cost is driving new innovation for the viability of alternative fuel.
Furthermore, today’s economy is truly a global one. We now realize greater financial inter-dependence; what happens in the U.S. markets is felt throughout the world and unfortunately we find ourselves in a state of uncertainty rather than one of stability. The rising cost of healthcare is at twice the rate of inflation and accounts for $1 in every $6 spent, along with continual threat of new governmental regulations on the nonprofit sector are taking their toll on a charity’s ability to keep pace in the understanding of how these factors are influencing donor behavior and giving.
Organizations that will thrive in the fast-changing fundraising world are those that can . . .
• Leverage their brand through integrated multi-channel fundraising for maximum impact, • Seize the opportunities of rapid change, such as in technology and in donor motivation to offer relevant relationships driven by the donor. • Harness the power of donor behavior to inspire life-long giving, • Execute strategies that align these factors so as to build donor loyalty over time.
Today's donors are looking for meaning and purpose in life. They desire signifficance and fulfillment for their lives and want to accomplish great things. Donors will make a statement about what they believe in and value most, from wearing a yellow wrist band to attaching a pink ribbon to their clothing. They also want to belong to something bigger than themselves . . . to join others who think and live the same way they do. Finally, donors validate their purpose in life through the actual number of lives saved, changed and/or transformed by your organization and them.
Now is the time for leadership, to be the best organization you can be, for most donors will associate themselves with nothing but the top charities . . . those nonprofits who are leading the way in their chariable catagory. During uncertain times, people wait to for someone to step up and set the pace.
Grizzard, Vice President / Senior Strategist
For more than 25 years, Baker has helped some of the top charities in North America, assisting them in the development of Mission-Driven Marketing™ strategies. He is the author of the popular blog book, OrgMarketing.com, which is required reading for UCLA’s Digital Fundraising Course, which Baker teaches as part of the university’s Certification Program in Fundraising. He is also the author of the free e-book, “Nonprofit Websites,” the first of its kind, which has been downloaded by tens of thousands of charities in more than 50 countries. He writes the Fundraiser Confidential series for Fundraising Success Magazine and he is also known for the Baker’s Dozen fundraising series for the Nonprofit Times. Baker is also a contributing author to one of the best selling nonprofit Internet books of all time, Nonprofit Internet Strategies and is also the author of Champions of Philanthropy. He is a former member of the Association Fundraising Professionals Board of Directors for Washington State. Baker spent more than 13 years with World Vision, one of the largest privately funded international relief and development organizations in the USA.
