Tasking Your Development Committee Without Pain or Panic

contributing writing by RSC Senior Consultant Jeremy Hatch, cfre

Your season is launched, your direct mail campaign is underway, sponsorship is at a post recession high and renewals are coming along. What’s next?

 

It’s time to task your development committee for year-end fundraising success.

Before we get ahead of ourselves and send our highly-valued board-level volunteers out into the community to promote our good work, let’s pause for a moment to help your organization avoid a lot of pain and panic by first examining a short list of what a Development Committee is not (or shouldn’t be) and what it is (or should be).

Your Development Committee...

IS NOT:

A group that meets monthly, forevermore, to throw around names, eat the bagels, and talk about things that have no immediate effect —“We can approach Mr. Smith after the divorce finalizes and once the leveraged buy-out is approved. In 2018.”  Too little.  Too late.

IS:

Focused on specific prospects for this year with the urgency of a fixed deadline (year-end, before Thanksgiving, in time for the school series) and aimed at prospects with whom volunteers personally know and can ask for support.

IS NOT:

Responsible for direct mail solicitation copy. Give ten earnest volunteers the opportunity to edit your solicitation letter and you will have yourself ten rounds of edits and a month long delay getting our the renewals...and still no peer-to-peer follow-up calls.

IS:

Coached by staff to articulate in a personal way the mission of your organization. Not everyone is a natural salesperson but all volunteers can open doors and facilitate relationships -- which is a highly-valued and irreplaceable asset.

IS NOT:

A reactive group evaluating and / or criticizing the Development staff’s efforts and plans, after the fact.

IS:

In partnership with staff to make specific financial asks to prospects. This is a challenge for volunteers everywhere. Too often our volunteers want to send an email or plan to chat up their prospects in a casual setting.  The "partnership" approach is well-planned, more thoughtful, more focused and more personal.

As a successful board-level volunteer who is focused on fundraising results, you need to:

• Be Prepared:  Know your prospect (don't just "take a name") and then study what you can about   him / her.  What this giving history?  What's this year's target?  Does s/he give to other places?  Does s/he make gifts through a family foundation?  Is there a special affinity for giving, such as education and outreach?  Let the staff help you by preparing you with as much background information as they have available and then prepare for your call.

• Be Comfortable and Confident:  You are representing a dynamic organization worthy of investment.  Your organization is likely a great "sell".

• Be Yourself:  Tell the organization’s story in your own words. Make the prospect comfortable. Tell a funny story about your first opera experience or the time you tried to lead the audience in wild applause between movements Mahler's Symphony No. 3.  You don't have to be an expert in the arts field, you just have to be yourself -- one person talking to another about why supporting a community treasure is important.

• Be Engaging:  Don’t make the meeting about the written proposal or pledge card. Instead, engage in a personal conversation about an organization that is important to you.  Ask good questions and listen carefully to what the prospect is saying.  Why don't we simply send a direct mail piece?  Because we want you to have a real conversation.

• Be Specific: in your request for the gift and with any related points and / or follow-ups.

• Be Purposeful:  It is most important that a volunteer approach this work as seriously as you would your own business.  The meeting can have lighthearted moments, but always remember that securing contributed revenue is most often the lifeblood of the organization you are representing.  Your success is therefore vital to the organization.

Asking for money is serious business -- but it shouldn't incite panic or induce pain.  If your organization believes in the power of peer-to-peer, relationship-based, leadership fundraising, but struggles with fully engaging your volunteers, click here to contact RSC for information about how we can support your important work.  We would be happy to help you – and your volunteers – achieve Fundraising Growth Now!

When Money Problems Persist – Treat the Cause, Not the Symptom

Every arts and cultural organization has the number.  The number needed for their organization to be fiscally healthy. The numerical panacea that would make the institution financially “whole”.  Even if inconspicuous, the number is there – on the balance sheet, in the strategic plan, or in the bucket named “unidentified fundraising” that the organization carries around year after year.

Trim Some More Fat?

When money issues are ongoing, we logically conclude that money is the problem.  If we just had a little more.  Sold more tickets.  Had a bigger endowment.  Secured more corporate sponsors.  Had one “big gala event”.

Or, we cut back to “save” money.  Fewer performances.  Scaled-back productions.  Fewer touring exhibits.  Postponed building repairs. Feed the dolphins only on odd days. 

Most arts and cultural organizations have wrestled with the “cash issue” enough to psychologically understand that money is ultimately a symptom, not the cause itself.  So, why do so many organizations continue to address the symptom as the cause?  Maybe because addressing “money” still feels like the most accurate, measurable, controllable and explainable way to fix problems.

But if money were the ailment, then arts organizations would have found the cure a long time ago.  The need for / value of cultural organizations has increased in communities.  Patrons continue to be generous with their support and in most cases, attendance.  Organizational cost-cutting is so deep it is often worn as a badge of honor both locally and nationally.

Growing the endowment, selling more tickets, increasing admissions and making responsible budget choices are all good things in the right context – and they should all be pursued as part of a carefully-crafted organizational plan.  But too often it’s not actually part of a plan; it’s instead a “reaction” to a deteriorating organizational situation.  The momentum is wrong.  The situation keeps sliding.  The illness isn’t really addressed.

So how does an organization break the cycle?  Don’t treat the symptom (money), treat the cause (likely something structural).   Getting to the root cause isn’t as difficult as you might think.  Simply “ask the right questions”. 

1. Keep Asking “Why” until you get to the real cause.  Not in a writhing-on-the-floor, Nancy Kerrigan way, but in a genuinely curious way that gets to the root problem.  Then you know what issues truly need addressed that will lead to a “cure”. 
2. Revive at the Core. If your organization has drifted from its mission, taken on too much or tried to serve too many masters, it’s time to get back to basics.  Remember why your organization exists, who it serves, and why it’s important and unique.
3. Look Ahead.  Develop (or clean up) your strategic plan to address the future and your organization’s role in it.  For example, talk to the Mayor’s office to better align your mission with the community.
4. Get Back to Business Basics. If you have identified the problems, revived your organization and created a compelling future, now you can address the operational business practices to keep your organization on track and with momentum in your favor.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Change.  Change is often difficult and painful (which again is why it’s easier to address the need for more money than it is to address change!).  But if taking all the other steps above points to making positive changes that will make a difference to increase the value of your organization, then make ‘em.

As part of RSC’s focus on contributed revenue growth, we pay special attention to overall organizational development.  We’ve seen some terrific examples of organizations that are bold in their approach to tackling the root issues and becoming stronger, more vibrant organizations in the process.  They become more value-driven and community-driven, which adds to their organizational health.  When those things happen, momentum changes for the better and the money can flow more easily.