Jeremy Hatch Promoted to Principal Consultant at Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc.

Indianapolis, IN -- Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. (RSC) is very pleased to announce the promotion of Jeremy Hatch to Principal Consultant. Since joining the firm in 2012, Mr. Hatch has played a pivotal role in helping clients nationwide achieve breakthrough fundraising results.

“Jeremy has been instrumental in helping clients achieve immediate and lasting fundraising growth,” Bob Swaney, RSC Founder and CEO, said. “Using RSC’s innovative tools and techniques,

Jeremy Hatch, CFRE

Jeremy has helped more than a dozen RSC clients meet and exceed aggressive fundraising goals, and we’re proud to recognize him as our Principal Consultant.”

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with RSC and managed by Hatch, created an extraordinary rebound season in 2014/15, surpassing all fundraising goals by 15% and adding hundreds of new and re-engaged donors to the patron base. 

“RSC’s engagement has been key to our turnaround, which is in progress,” said Roland Valliere, President & CEO of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. “We are ahead of where we expected to be and RSC has been instrumental to that success."

RSC client, the Blue Barn Theatre of Omaha, worked closely with Hatch to launch a $7 million comprehensive fundraising campaign, which included a $5 million new theatre venue scheduled to open this fall, while expanding the institution’s annual fund by 100%.  

Prior to joining RSC, Mr. Hatch served as the founding Development Director for the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Indiana, where he built one of the most robust sponsorship programs in the United States. In addition, he has worked on numerous capital and endowment campaigns, including Indiana University Art Museum’s $17 million effort that tripled the organization’s endowment and the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis's $30 million New Visions, Lasting Values campaign. Jeremy’s international work includes Ireland’s Galway Arts Festival, where he assisted in the growth of an expanded sponsorship program, creation of an annual fund, and the development of international partnerships for major project support.

Jeremy Hatch has taught fundraising coursework as Adjunct Faculty at Indiana University and recently completed a six-year board term with the Indianapolis Fringe Festival. He holds both the CFRE certification and the Certificate in Fundraising Management from the School of Philanthropy, along with a B. A. in Theatre and Drama and a Master of Arts Administration from Indiana University. 

In his new position, Jeremy will continue providing high-level counsel to RSC’s diverse and growing client base of annual, capital, planned giving, sponsorship, and endowment campaigns to help these organizations achieve superior fundraising success.  

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About RSC: Established in 2006, Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. (RSC) is a national provider of contributed revenue growth strategies, turnkey fundraising direct mail programs, and executive searches for arts and cultural institutions. The firm has offices in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri, serving clients across the country. RSC’s clients include the majority of top-tier U.S. Orchestras.

Glenda Russell named Chief Operating Officer at Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc.

Indianapolis, IN—Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. (RSC) announced today the appointment of Glenda Russell as Chief Operating Officer.

“Glenda is a critical addition to our leadership team as RSC continues its rapid expansion of working with non-profit partners.” Bob Swaney, RSC’s Founder and CEO, said. “Her achievements in organizational advancement and client 

Glenda Russell

development make her the perfect choice for our next stage of growth and client service.  As we expand our efforts helping non-profits achieve highly-productive fundraising programs, Glenda’s track record in developing effective business cultures is precisely what we need.”

Russell will help lead the development of RSC’s business structure and client services to advance the operational growth of the firm. “I have followed the remarkable achievements of RSC for several years,” said Russell. “The firm’s commitment to excellence, integrity and a client-first mentality is the primary driver of this success. RSC is positioned for growth and expansion and I look forward to playing a role in future successes. It’s an exciting opportunity and just the type of challenge I welcome.”

Russell most recently served as Regional Director for the Minneapolis-based firm, The Dolan Company, a provider of business information and professional services to legal, financial, and real estate markets, where she successfully developed vision, leadership, and accountability in markets across the United States. As Director of Development for The Dolan Company, Russell founded and designed and curriculum for the Dolan Leadership Institute. At the Indianapolis Business Journal Media Corporation, Russell was founder and publisher of Indiana Lawyer and co-founder of the Women in Law Conference.

Russell’s non-profit and civic involvement includes six years of service to the Indiana Pro Bono Commission, and service on numerous boards, including CHOICE, Stanley K. Lacy Leadership Alumni Association, Hoosier State Press Association, Outrun the Sun, and St. Francis Hospice.

Russell has been recognized by the Indianapolis Bar Foundation for outstanding devotion to community projects and as Journalist of the Year by Indiana Trial Lawyers Association. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Indianapolis Bar Association President’s Award, the YWCA Salute to Women on Achievement Professional Award, and the Indiana Commission for Women Torchbearer Award in Media and Communications.

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About RSC: Established in 2006, Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. (RSC) is a national provider of contributed revenue growth strategies, turnkey fundraising direct mail programs, and executive searches for arts and cultural institutions. The firm has offices in Indiana, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri, serving clients across the country. RSC’s client list includes more than two-thirds of the Group I U.S. Orchestras.

Keep Direct Mail In Your Fundraising Repertoire

I’ve never heard social media so neatly summarized as it is in the TV spot for Walmart’s Family Mobile plan. A teenage girl excitedly tells her father, “We can pin, post, tweet, snap, tag, check, and share!” Think, for a minute, about how a “family mobile plan” would have been described in the early 80s: We can call each other on our cordless landline phone and send letters through the United States Postal Service!  It sounds like a sentence from the Stone Age, doesn’t it?

Comparatively, the number of shiny new digital marketing tools at our disposal

is growing by leaps and bounds. Let’s face it, direct mail doesn’t carry the same panache as a clever Tweet, low-cost email, or “like” button. The idea of printing and mailing an Annual Fund letter belongs in #ThrowbackThursday for some folks. Many have even suggested that direct mail solicitation is “dead.” The low-cost lure of social media and the desire to stay on trend is understandably tempting. So why should you use a medium that some consider way past its prime?

The answer is simple: Direct mail remains one of the most high-leverage/high-yield fundraising opportunities available.

While social media should be an integral part of your overall marketing plan, direct mail should remain the centerpiece of your fundraising repertoire, or you’re putting your Annual Fund program at risk.  No other medium can convey the personal warmth and amplify the mission of your organization as effectively as a well-written letter. A comprehensive direct mail program is mission-critical to a fundraising campaign’s success. Are you practicing all of the direct mail fundamentals? Read this partial checklist and find out:

• Is your institution positioned as an effectively-run organization that’s enriching and supporting the community?
• Do you have a mission-based message?
• Is your segmentation strategy well-planned and executed?
• Are you testing against a control letter?
• Is the Ask stated early in the letter with confidence and passion?
• Are you sending enough letters through the course of the campaign, at the right time, to the right people?
• Is the letter well-formatted, with generous margins, a readable serif font, and sufficient length?
• Are you completing a post-campaign analysis with observations and recommendations for the next fiscal year?
• Is your direct mail program well-integrated with all of your communication platforms? 

I can hear your protests: What about the cost of direct mail solicitations? The declining response rates? The work involved in implementing the program?  And, those mounting “do not mail” requests?  

RSC says, “Keep doing the hard work to get the best results.” RSC manages entire direct mail programs for non-profit institutions, and our experience is that results are actually improving, as are the gross and net revenues for our clients.  

In contrast to the “read it now, forget about two seconds later” climate of electronic media, a well-executed direct mail program offers a more measured, paced, and longer-living solicitation that often prompts gift responses weeks, and sometimes months, after it’s been received.

As our culture continues to embrace and evolve in social media, direct mail may eventually take on a different role or level of significance. But for now, it remains among the highest-producing and cost-effective fundraising method available, and should be the anchor for your Annual Fund program.   The “pin, post, tweet, snap, tag, check, and share” tactics have a place in today’s NFP solicitation program, too – just not one of prominence.

RSC can help you create an integrated, multi-channel fundraising plan. If you’d like to learn more about the success we’ve had helping non-profit organizations build successful direct mail programs, just click here and we will be happy to follow-up. 

Holy Mega-Goal! Chief Development Officers and the Superhero Environment

The welcome email lands in your inbox: A new Chief Development Officer (CDO) is starting at your non-profit. When this fine fledgling bursts though the lobby, she’s donning a mask and cape. She is, after all, a Development Superhero who excels at everything: asking, planning, rallying the board, grant writing, and donor retention – she’s exactly who we need to save our non-profit.

With the expectations placed on today’s fundraising professional, is it any wonder a CDO position has an 18-24 month average tenure at most institutions?

We Don't Need Another (Super) Hero!

“We’ll hire a really good fundraiser and then our organization can move on to other things” is not a good strategy. If your fundraising program rests on one person’s shoulders, then the risk is high, the goals will be in jeopardy, and burnout is nearly inevitable.

Skilled development professionals can be good leaders and solid fundraisers, but they cannot single-handedly save your world.  In response, RSC says, “Change your expectations and thereby change your results.”

So, if not a superhero, what type of CDO do you hire? There are two distinct types: 1) the bold and assertive major gift officer always asking for money, and 2) the “never leave the office” tactician who effectively coaches others to raise money.  Who is right for you?

It’s important for the Board to determine what type of CDO best fits the organization, then leverage her strengths and build a team around her.  Once hired by a Board, the CDO is a key fundraising leader in the organization; she is hired to produce a team, while communicating and motivating others along the way.  If attempting all of these roles of fundraising and leading on her own, she’ll become a superhero for a short time, then flame out fast.

The CDO can strike a balance between leadership and super-heroism. Here’s how:

1. Know why you were hired and play to your strengths;
2. Build a team whose culture embraces the institution’s mission and complements you;
3. Develop the “fundraiser” in each team member; and
4. Be a leader who communicates fully and regularly

If you are the CDO, it doesn’t matter if you’re the major gift type or a tactician, or whether you have a staff of 12 or a staff of two. It’s your job to determine which camp you fall in, identify strengths and weaknesses–and above all–fill in the gaps. The CEO, board chair, and CDO must all be in alignment.

Communication and leadership, however, are also the responsibilities of the CEO and the Board. Here are five steps they can take to help ensure success:

1. Share relationships: introduce the CDO to community influencers and decision makers;
2. Value your CDO’s  experience: listen carefully and treat this person as a peer;
3. Err on the side of asking: the privilege of asking belongs to the team, not just the CDO;
4. Avoid procrastination: when the CDO asks you to do something, do it right away; and
5. Share the responsibility: spread accountability throughout the organization

The good news is that it’s never too late to apply these principles within your organization.  Let’s save the superheroes for the big screen.

RSC can help build your fundraising program and your fundraising team. If you would like to learn more about how RSC successfully helps arts and cultural organizations reach their fundraising goals, call us at 317.300.4443 or visit our website.

Performing Arts –– Why is Marketing More Important than Fundraising?

Working with performing arts clients, I frequently observe a competitive tension between the marketing and development departments. Instead of an esprit de corps, I see yin and yang. If these two departments can’t play in the sandbox together, it will eventually show up at the board level–and even more disastrously, at the donor and patron level.

So what’s causing the rift? It’s largely due to the finite resources available in these

organizations, coupled with the sizeable growth goals each department is tasked to achieve. The problem with this “us versus them” attitude is that it hurts the organization, deeply, and it’s absolutely avoidable.

Many institutions choose the wrong course. To avoid the pain, they place marketing as the alpha and development second in command, sacrificing contributed revenue opportunities and strategies for a perceived increase in ticket sales. This eventually chokes off both efforts. But how can the relationship be synergistic when the goals for each department are so aggressive?

Step one: understand and accept the balance between the two departments and create a productive environment that helps both thrive.

The ticket buyer is not the primary customer; the other department is the primary customer. You’re both in the “acquire, retain, upgrade” business, right? The development office should keep in mind the large majority of donors are also ticket buyers, and should therefore greatly respect the marketing process.

Step two: acknowledge that marketing’s success is also development’s success.

Marketing has to be focused in the proper area – namely, subscriber growth.  If the marketing department successfully creates a pathway for patrons – from single ticket buyer, to a multi-ticket buyer, to a subscriber, then they are creating patrons. Patrons, who are not only good for frequent concert attendance, but also good for making philanthropic contributions. Once converted to a donor, we know that the value of a patron increases, as does their lifetime value. 

Step three: acknowledge that development’s success is also marketing’s success.

So, when do we convert a subscriber into a donor? While conventional wisdom says three years, RSC rejects that premise; we find it most effective to convert them almost immediately. Since a new subscriber has not fully defined their role, it becomes paramount to get an entry-level gift right away. This allows your organization to tell its story from the very beginning of the patron relationship and to reinforce it over time. By starting early, you’re able to share your mission and worth, and turn what would otherwise be purely an ‘entertainment option’ into a highly-valued, prized organization, worthy of support. 

If marketing and development want a harmonious relationship, they must look at each other as their single largest customer. Then, together, they can accomplish their larger mission: serving their community.

RSC can help integrate your organization’s development and marketing planning strategies to build a successful fundraising program. If you would like to learn more about how RSC successfully helps arts and cultural organizations reach their fundraising goals, call us at 317.300.4443 or visit our website.

Every Annual Fund Dollar – One Face but Two Names

I’ve helped dozens of performing arts organizations with annual fund campaigns. Sometimes my services are called upon when the goal’s already been established, and that makes me rightfully nervous. My first question is: how did you establish the goal? Sometimes I hear this methodology: we’ve figured out the gap and that’s our annual fund goal. Or, “last year we raised 6% over the prior year, so we’re aiming for 9% this year.” And

then there’s my favorite, “the CEO set the goal” goal.

Setting goals through arithmetic alone is a bad idea. Here’s the annual fund creed you need to post in big letters across the development department: One Face but Two Names.

Put another way, you’ve got to look at the ratio of prospects to donors when setting the

How many prospects do you have?

annual fund goal. Simply determine how many donors you’ll need to achieve your goal, then multiply that number by two – think of it as one face but two names. If the goal is $2M, for example, you’ll need $4M worth of prospects. These can be renewals, upgrades, or new donors. It sounds easy and pragmatic, but organizations often stray from this critical metric when they can’t balance the budget – and end up basing the goal on what they need instead what can realistically be achieved.

• Start the planning process at the beginning of the fiscal year. Thoughtful planning, not active desperation, is the reconciliation to the arithmetic problem. Putting your organization through the rigors of a sound process allows you to adjust your strategy and establish budgets and goals based on what the planning process says, not what the institution needs. 
• Engage volunteers to help supply new prospects. After rating your prospects, categorizing them in the right giving club, factoring in donor attrition, and identifying which ones you can upgrade (just don’t count them twice), can help you determine early on whether you need more names. Then, enlist the help of well-trained volunteers; they’re a valuable resource for helping you find more potential contributors.
• Adjust your strategy as appropriate. Maybe it’s a bigger challenge grant, modifying your timing, or changing your message. Just make sure your strategies are always aligned to achieving your goals, and you’ll be well on your way to executing a fiscally responsible annual fund campaign.

If you would like to engage RSC to learn how to evaluate and set up a successful Annual Fund to meet your fundraising goals, call us today at 317.300.4443 or visit our website.

The Conundrum: Annual Fund or Endowment? Which is More Important?

It’s not a trick question.

RSC regularly receives calls from prospective performing arts clients who are interested in pursuing an endowment campaign. With the long-term cash flow needs, who can blame them?  However, too often the desire for an endowment campaign is based on other revenue areas failing – or at least not keeping pace with the institution’s needs – and are not exactly the ideal environment to launch a successful major gift effort.  So, in most cases, our answer is the same -- don’t launch an endowment campaign if ticket sales and annual giving are trending in the wrong direction. Why do we so often make this suggestion?  It’s simple...

Endowment campaigns don’t define an organization – rather, they are a reflection of that organization.

The number of subscribers / members and annual donors are two key indicators to judge the health of an arts organization.  If they are both trending upward, the stage is being set for major gift advancement.

But what if the patronage is in decline – isn’t that when an arts organization needs a major gifts campaign the most? Of course, but there’s little leverage to cast vision, or inspire and draw major donors near.  Once your campaign becomes primarily ‘needs’ based, inspired leverage is lost.

So, broadening the base, while not necessarily more important, certainly takes first priority.  But growing the base isn’t easy and you have a limited pool from which to draw.

Arts institutions don’t have the same luxury as, say, higher education in terms of number of available prospects. Depending on size, a college can access thousands of ready-made prospects, adding to the base year after year.  Eventually, this group expands to perhaps hundreds of thousands of alumni from across the country (or world) with affinity for that institution. Conversely, most arts organizations have a very narrow demographic that represents a miniscule segment of the metro area. Due to their scarcity, these donors are expected to give to annual, membership and endowment campaigns, make planned gifts, attend special events, purchase tickets, and so forth. 

Endowment campaigns start off with the largest donors who give substantial gifts, which dictate the overall amount you can expect to raise. The remainder of the campaign is made up of many smaller gifts but keep in mind with large or small donors, these are the same people who also support your Annual Fund.

If you are asking for a hefty gift in the endowment campaign but that person’s Annul Fund gift is also essential, you need a thoughtful, approach to the ask. Again, because of volume, colleges and universities can run endowment and annual campaigns exclusive of each other without needing the same level of coordination. So the object for an arts organization is to broaden and stabilize the Annual Campaign as much as possible and then carefully integrate and balance a major gifts campaign.

So really, broadening your annual donor base and increasing gift frequency becomes the bedrock for all giving initiatives.

Look at it this way -- setting up the proper Annual Fund is like the daily physical training necessary to participate in a full marathon. This daily work has incremental benefits that are essential to complete the marathon. The endowment campaign is the big race and the Annual Fund is the conditioning that is necessary to run that race.

The first step to winning the race is to assess your current Annual Fund. Are the trends up or are they down? If down, it’s imperative to generate a three-year plan to reverse that trend. After you have three years of successful growth in the broad base, board, sponsorships and other corporate giving, you are well poised for endowment activity.

The second step is to commit to building lasting, quality relationships. There is no shortcut for the investment of time and energy needed to tell your story repeatedly, and to, over time, bring others into it.

If you would like to engage RSC to learn how to evaluate and set up a successful Annual Fund to meet your fundraising goals, call us today at 317.300.4443 or visit our website.