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.

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.

RSC Launches Fundraising Educational Video Series for Non-Profit Organizations

Scott Giffen, cfre

Indianapolis – Robert Swaney Consulting, Inc. (RSC) has released the video series, “RSC: Arts Fundraising / Engaging and Keeping Partners”, available to the public free of charge, and accessible via Youtube. Featuring RSC Senior Consultant (and certified fundraising executive) Scott Giffen, the series captures excerpts from a workshop generously sponsored by the Missouri Arts Council and presented to local arts leaders in Springfield, Missouri. Aimed to provide “best practices” related to non-profit fundraising, RSC’s seven-part video series focuses on various sub-topics ranging from the 'Components of the Right Ask', 'Ask Techniques' and 'Thanking Your Donors'.
 
“Scott did a terrific job with his presentation that reinforces some very basic but very important principles of fundraising,” states RSC Founder and CEO Robert Swaney, “and RSC is pleased to make these videos available to a global audience. RSC is committed to helping non-profit organizations improve their contributed revenue growth results and we therefore trust that this new video resource proves valuable to those organizations.”

“RSC: Arts Fundraising / Engaging and Keeping Partners” is available via Youtube.com and can be accessed by clicking here to begin the first video, or search “RSC Giffen” in the Youtube search bar.

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Established in 2006, Robert Swaney Consulting (RSC) is a national provider of contributed revenue growth strategies and hands-on interim management for arts and cultural institutions. The firm has offices in Indiana, Missouri and Georgia.

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The Fiscal Cliff Deal and Your Non-Profit: Moving Forward with Practical Advice and Action

contributing writing by RSC Senior Consultant Jeremy Hatch, cfre

Welcome to 2013! Less than a week into the New Year and already our world is changing with some mixed news from 

Your Donors Can Make It!

Congress. Over the past few months, many RSC clients (along with board members, volunteers and donors) have expressed concern and fear about changes to tax law in 2013.  Some donors have stated that they will likely not be able to give with the same fervor as they once did because of the impending changes. 

Before donor-paralysis sets in, let’s look at what we know so far, based on the agreement passed by Congress on January 1:

• Tax deductibility of charitable gifts: The agreement does not include (as feared by many) any “across the board” limit or cap on the deductibility of charitable gifts for 2013 but rather places a cap on itemized deductions for some families earning more than $300,000 per year, or some individuals earning more than $250,000 per year. It is a somewhat complex calculation but shouldn’t have a significant impact on the vast majority of our donors.  click here for an excellent sample scenario, provided by the League of American Orchestras. 

• IRA Charitable Rollover continues for 2013: In happier news for the non-profit community, this popular giving vehicle has been reinstated and allows donors who are 70 ½ or older the option to make charitable gifts directly from IRA accounts. The measure is retroactive to 2012 (giving donors the opportunity to make a 2012 gift via this vehicle if completed by January 31, 2013).

Most non-profit organizations are asking about what these changes mean.  How should you prepare, react and respond?  Is your current Annual Fund program affected?  What about planned gifts?

In response, RSC says, “Slow down, take a breath and initiate some practical steps that will encourage your donors to continue being generous:

• Step #1—Stay the course. There may be bigger changes ahead in future years with our tax code, but for 2013 the tax benefit is unchanged for the vast majority of your donors and prospects. It is vitally important to stick to your solicitation plan and calendar. The development committee needs to keep focused and your direct response plans should proceed without delay.

• Step #2—Communicate the facts to your board and volunteers: Let your key volunteers and solicitors (especially those who expressed concern last fall) know about these changes and coach them through talking about the issues with prospects and donors.   

• Step #3—Communicate with your donors: The IRA rollover has proven very popular in recent years as a giving vehicle. Strategize internally about prospects who might be a good fit for this opportunity (older donors with pending major gift pledge payments, etc.) and consider a custom communication in the coming weeks and months to market this opportunity.

• Step #4—Make it personal:  For a small percentage of our donors and prospects, this situation might be a disincentive to invest in your non-profit’s good work. This is all the more reason to cultivate donors personally via peer-to-peer activity. If one of your key donors has slightly less to give away in 2013, you had better realize they will make a meaningful investment where they feel best connected, most appreciated, and personally invested. Make sure it is to you.

• Step #5—Stay engaged with RSC:  Growing your fundraising capacity for arts and cultural organizations is our business, regardless of the external factors. We can offer strategies, counsel and practical advice. Together we can make 2013 your year to achieve Fundraising Growth Now!

RSC believes that one key to success is to continue communicating with your patrons in times of celebration, success, struggle or uncertainty.  Mailing information can be helpful, but personally reaching out and talking with your most vested stakeholders is paramount.  Always be ready to encourage them to continue their support and always direct them to their financial advisor to deal with specific situations.  If you haven’t reached out to your patrons regarding the tax changes, do it today.

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!