BIG’s Blog: Evolve or Die?

The “heart” of successful fundraising is still relationship.

When I talk to my 80-something mother about the “relationship” she has with the different organizations she supports, and I have essentially the same conversation about the “relationship” my 50-something wife has with the organizations she and I support, I quickly understand that each of their definitions of “relationship” is very different.

With my wife, relationship speaks to whom she knows, where they are working and what they are doing. Whereas with my mother, relationship speaks to the story or narrative she understands about the organization built up over decades.

My mother’s “know” is knowledge, the story, the narrative. No doubt the product of the mass communications paradigm we are quickly exiting.

My wife’s “know” is much more intimate and tied to the people and a particular mission and, yes, is driven by online communications.

We are quickly coming to a time when large monolithic nonprofit organizations like CARE, the Red Cross, and the American Cancer Society (and I chose these organizations because they are very large) are going to be under pressure to connect with new, younger generations of potential supporters in a much more intimate and personal way. And, to their credit, I am starting to see some signs of that move. For instance, following disasters, texting $10 has been very successful for the Red Cross, but the test will be how they follow up and develop these one-time donors into annual supporters … even without a disaster. That will take care and nurturing of the relationship.

It isn’t that my mother’s generation was easy and younger generations (beginning with the Baby Boomers) are hard. Rather, I think it’s more that younger generations are very different in what they look for and expect from the organizations they support today.

It isn’t harder vs. easier … they are just different.

Making a determination of “hard” versus “easy” is really more a reflection on what we know … our experience.

But this much is clear . . . going forward, relationship is going to be defined in a more intimate and personal way.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: How many Checks do you write?

I ran a mail-order company in the 1980s. We processed thousands (actually, tens of thousands) of checks. How many credit cards did we process a month? Maybe ten. Checks dominated!  

Do checks still dominate your personal life? I’m not talking about your workplace; I’m talking about YOUR LIFE.

How old are you? 40s? 50s? 60s? Seriously, how many checks are you writing a month compared to five years ago?

YOU are obviously living in 2014, yet your fundraising organization is stuck … yes, stuck … in a time warp of the 1980s if more than 20% of your revenue comes in through checks. Some would say I am being “awfully generous” when I say 20%.

So who writes checks today? You think I am only going to mention people in my Mother’s age group who are in their 70s, 80s and 90s. Yes, that is true, but I’m guessing you are getting checks today from people in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

And if they are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, then they are just like you, right? They have “to dig out their checkbook” to send you a donation.

It’s schizophrenic isn’t it? You don’t use that many checks, yet you expect the people that are just like you to dig out their checkbook to make a donation to YOUR organization? You have long-since stopped making checks the center of your financial transaction world and you KNOW many of the people who donate to you are just like you … and yet … the check remains THE mechanism of nonprofit transactions.

Why?

Maybe because your primary mechanism to communicate with them is mail. And what is in every mail package? Answer: a reply envelope. And what are reply envelopes for? Answer: to carry the check to you.

Doesn’t it make you wonder what would happen if your major transaction mechanism switched from offline checks to some online payment option? But how is THAT going to happen when your major communications vehicle still includes a reply envelope?

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: I Never Work on the Last Day of the Year

I never work on the last day of the year, or on any of the other 364 days either.

I grew up in a small rural community in Kansas. For those of you that have only known east coast megalopolis or the west coast LA basin, or the myriad large cities in our country, there is no way I can explain it to you. Life is just simpler and fairly black and white. You learn at an early age in this culture to get up every day and start working.

My first “real job” was baling hay at the age of 11. To be fair-skinned on a clear summer day with the temperature hovering around the century mark as you walk through what seemed like endless fields of wheat stubble or cut alfalfa, picking up and tossing 60 to 80-pound bales onto the bed of a slow-moving trailer was the lot of rookie balers at the age of 11. One of your buddies (everybody that you work with in a small town is your buddy; the term co-worker was a foreign concept) rode on the trailer picking up the bails you had thrown and stacked them six to eight-high, depending on how smooth the field was. The lucky stiff (usually the oldest kid on the baling team, or the farmer himself if it was a small farm) drove the tractor that pulled the trailer.

But the work in the field was just a warm up … no pun intended … for the real work of putting up the bales in the barn. You remember the movies when you were a kid where the train robbers always pulled their bandanas up across the lower half of their face so as to be unrecognizable? Well, all cowboys and farm hands really wear bandanas to this day, and it’s not for robbing trains. You need bandanas pulled up over your nose and mouth when you are unloading the hay bails in the barn so you don’t get choked up with dust. Hay dust is thick in an enclosed barn with not a breath of air moving, and if you thought the temperature was hot in the field, you can only imagine how stifling it gets when the temperature in the barn approaches 115, with no air moving. Dust cakes to the sweat on your face, arms, and down your neck onto your back where it starts to itch like crazy. A real rookie can be spotted by wearing a short sleeve shirt to do this work; you only make that mistake once.

But I was fortunate. My farm-hand experiences taught me at an early age what real work was all about, and from that point on, I have never wanted to have anything to do with it. Lesson learned!

That is why for the next 50+ years I have always … with very few exceptions … done only what I wanted to do even though most people would say I was a hard worker. I would say I did what I enjoyed doing. Big difference!

So then, work is a state of mind. Of course it is how we earn the money that we need to pay our bills, but “work” is a choice. You can either wake up five days a week (or more) and have to force yourself out of bed in the morning or you can choose to do what you love to do.

Right now there are hundreds of people (probably thousands) who work in nonprofit fundraising and hate their jobs, whether the problems are a toxic work environment due to inept or no management, or co-workers constantly sowing discord or lack of direction by leadership or the board of directors. Either way, it leads to plummeting morale and dissatisfaction in the fundraising workplace.

I wouldn’t say it is endemic across the whole of the fundraising world since we work with fundraising organizations that are the exact polar opposite, but I would say it is prevalent in way too many fundraising organizations.

Why?

My sense is that the dividing line between highly-functional and successful fundraising groups and their opposite numbers comes down to leadership. But more than merely leadership, it is about leading with a vision of first, “what you want to accomplish” and then second, “laying out a plan (a roadmap) of how to get there” and finally, “sticking to the plan and measuring your progress along the way to your goal.”

If it cannot be measured, then it should not be done!

This is what separates the successful from what I refer to as the “functioning dysfunctional.”

Apparently the New Year is a time for many fundraising organizations to rearrange staff, add new staff, or create a new organization chart to better accomplish their fundraising goals. Insofar as it is driven by a real vision and plan … then great! But if it is just another attempt at “doing something” to right a failing plan, then it will be like a Jell-O mold. You know what a Jell-O mold is, don’t you? You mix Jell-O and pour it into a mold, refrigerate and what comes out is molded Jell-O. When you hit a Jell-O mold it shakes, just like some organizations announcing some kind of change or shakeup. But because the change or shakeup really isn’t driven by a vision or a plan, pretty soon – just like a Jell-O mold that has been whacked – it reverts back to exactly as it was before the shakeup. Nothing will have changed, except lost time.

No caring leader ever wants to intentionally be a part of that!

Here is a radical thought to start your new year. If you are the leader of an organization that has tried but failed to right the ship and your fundraising organization isn’t moving forward and, frankly, you really don’t look forward to going into work each morning, maybe rather than foist yet another slap to the Jell-O mold … announce your resignation.

Yes, resign! It really isn’t that novel; I’ve done it several times in my career. Quit wasting your life “working” at something that has obviously become unfulfilling to you. You’re clearly smart and talented, but for whatever reason right now your talents are not matching up to what is needed in your organization.

Life’s natural order is birth and death. Death is life’s way of regenerating itself. In your case I’m not talking about physical death, but rather emotional death. There is a reason why people say “my job feels like a ‘dead’ end.”

If you need to wait on a new successor or quickly groom someone from inside the organization to take your place, then announce you are leaving and get on with it!

Your best days are ahead of you!

But please, don’t hang on thinking YOU are irreplaceable. Listen, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable people.  

Quit “working” … go do something you love and are passionate about.

Not only make it a New Year, make it a Happy New Year!

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Drip, Drip, Drip into 2014!

What if they threw a party and no one came? Does it strike anyone else as odd that the Postal Regulatory Commission’s award on Christmas Eve of a 4.3% “exigency” increase to the Postal Service, now being decried as the end of direct mail, is really the most expected non-event in the history of the Postal Service as well as many circles (though not all) within the nonprofit fundraising community?

I mean, come on! Up to now everyone and their dog could have an opinion on the future of direct mail; or more particularly for fundraisers, the viability of direct mail as a long-term, cost-effective fundraising tactic. Now the “big boys” have stepped up to the microphone and have weighed in . . . and, by the way, they are the only voices that count.

Their verdict (it is now official) is that mail volume will continue to decline and to manage that decline without going deeper into the red, rates must rise, and quickly!  The definition of the peculiar word “exigent” is in line with Merriam Webster's interpretation of “needing to be dealt with immediately.”

Make no mistake about what just happened, it is about managing the decline with as little red ink as possible. What part of “death spiral” don’t you understand?

Please see this as an extremely clear signal for what it is. I know some of you – up to now – still believe that direct mail is your present and your future (“we are up over last year. . .”) but please, please see this for what it is.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

And this is my final blog post mentioning anything related to postal rates, responses, costs, demise etc., etc. I personally am closing a chapter on direct mail. As many of you know, I have been a direct mail marketer for over 30 years! Actually, I closed my personal direct mail chapter five years ago, but up until now my “mentions” were to get you to the same point.

Now it’s over. The PRC’s ruling coming on the heels of the Canadian Postal Service announcement that it will stop home delivery and raise rates substantially ought to be all that you need to . . . as I said in a previous blog post . . . “change your mind.”

You don’t have to “read tea leaves;” this is in plain English. If you can’t see it now . . . there is nothing more I, or anyone else, can do for you.

So are you ready to move on and start building your plan to start growing your revenues significantly again in 2014?

Okay, so now we set about “getting serious” about VIABLE alternatives to direct mail.

But what do we really need to replace?

Direct mail is “relatively easy” to do, there was a time many years ago when it was new to us. Direct mail is also able to reach and build a “national constituency” from wherever your organization happens to be located.

Let’s start with those two criteria.

Relatively Easy: Have you ever learned something new? Skiing (snow or water)? Typing (now called keyboarding)? Driving a car? Would you say that you were an expert at the end of the first day? The second day? The first week? The first month? How about the first year? Even if it took you several years to become “expert” or “competent,” it didn’t mean you couldn’t . . . ski, type, or drive . . . when you started, you just became more competent over time.

National Constituency: Your message needs to cost-effectively reach thousands, even millions of people to find the individuals that share your passion for your ministry or mission. While the Postal Service provided a superb delivery mechanism, there was a cost to it. So you need a new mechanism through which you can share your message that is national (even international) in scope. Hmmmm, I wonder where we could find that?

So, where are we?

1. We need to “learn” a new way to communicate our message. It will help you that you understand direct mail. But, it will be new. But you CAN learn something new and though you won’t be an expert the first day, week, or month, you WILL have started the journey. Can you master something new? Yes!

2. We need a cost-effective mechanism that can allow us to share our message far and wide. And we don’t want to just depend on the written word. We want to share our message via the spoken word and even video. We think the Internet could be that mechanism. Are there limitations on media on the Internet? Not if they are digital. Can we learn and master the Internet? Yes?

Okay, we’ve started . . .

Have a wonderful New Year’s celebration . . . 2014 is the beginning of a “new” fundraising chapter for your organization.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: Drip, Drip, Drip

You are all probably off today. The good thing about having Christmas fall on a Wednesday is that the Development office operates with only a skeleton staff Thursday and Friday of Christmas week with most of you off enjoying friends and family.

Most of us are relaxing in the glow of our Christmas 2013 memories and trying not to do too much as we kick back in anticipation of going full tilt into 2014.

So what is the story with the title of this blog post . . . Drip, Drip Drip? Glad you asked. Although I am very bad as a prognosticator, I am going out on a limb to say that I believe the vast majority of fundraisers who use direct mail to a significant degree in their fundraising WILL FINALLY ACT IN 2014 on what they have known in their gut for a long time, about direct mail’s future.

I have noticed a decided up-tick in senior fundraisers’ conversations with me in person, by phone, or by email actually telling me their direct mail appeals are declining in profitability. We don’t talk about if direct mail will cease to be effective, we talk about when direct mail will cease to be effective. THAT is a major sea change in mindset from even last year at this time. This doesn’t mean that they will stop using direct mail tomorrow, but that they admit direct mail will have a sunset.

Look, every organization is different. I get that. But at some point the facts just pile up and the clarity emerges as the consensus opinion.  Let’s face it, this is a huge issue to fundraisers as it drives how they acquire new donors and accounts for anywhere from 20% to 80% of some organizations’ net annual revenue.

Talk about something that will keep you up at night!

Hopefully your direct mail program is still throwing off revenue. That is a good thing. Once you have changed your mind about direct mail . . . it changes everything regarding how you think about your fundraising strategy. When you finally change your mind and say out loud to yourself or others, that direct mail is not the future, you have subtly shifted from dependence to viewing it as a tactical piece of your fundraising program. And a piece of a program is a very different perspective than viewing it as the linchpin of all your efforts in fundraising.

So now you have moved from DEPENDENCE to OPENNESS in trying things you might have heretofore not considered. All because you “changed your mind.”

THAT is a great mindset to be in going into a new year!

Oh, and Drip, Drip, Drip?

In 2014, “Drip, Drip, Drip” will become our mantra and metaphor for how you need to learn to communicate with a whole new market (new generations) of potential donors.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: I Rejoice at Your Success

As we wind down to the end of the year, most of us have our office, friend, and family Christmas parties that are a great time to reconnect . . . but also remind us to reach out and connect with other friends and colleagues we have missed throughout the year. Sometimes we are intentional and other times we are reminded by a note, a Christmas card, or in my case, our blog. Yes, I get more emails from blog readers at this time of the year. Maybe they have been meaning to write and then they read one of my blogs and, bam, they act.

Apparently my recent post, "The Tyranny of the Now," was one of those blogs that reminded them to act. That blog encapsulates many of the of themes that fundraisers are struggling with and that I have tried to cover all year. In this recent blog I also mentioned the reality of the long-term decline of direct mail appeals and I even noted the recent announcement by the Canadian Postal Service. The number of emails from blog readers has hit new records, but then our subscriber list has grown as well. In fact, this news about the Canadian Postal Service was so big that some readers sent me notes even before I mentioned it in my blog, which, of course, means it was really big news.

Some of the notes were from regular readers of my blogs telling me that their mail responses were up from last year . . . as if I do not REJOICE in their success. But as JP Morgan, the old Wall Street baron, once said when asked about the market, "the market sir, will fluctuate." Over and over I emphasize again and again that many organizations still have time (due to their still-profitable direct mail) to begin building their future fundraising model, which will be 100% online. Fundraisers need to look at the long-term trend lines of their direct mail programs. Take the time now to begin your new model while you have positive cash flow. I'll bet the senior managers from Kodak would like a "do over" of their decision years ago to dismiss digital photography because they "owned" film. Whether they actually believed film would never go away, or just didn't want to rock the boat, we'll probably never really know for sure. But we can learn from their mistake.

Many fundraising groups across different nonprofit sectors are reporting strength in giving this year versus the last few years, but it is still uneven. Unfortunately, in the faith-based sector where I primarily work, results are heavily tilted to the flat to decline . . . yet again . . . and we all know the reasons.

So, as the radio talk show hosts of the 1950s used to say, "keep those cards and letters (and emails) coming.”

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com

BIG’s Blog: The Tyranny of the Now

We are all guilty of this. In fact virtually everyone at every level (with a few amazing exceptions) from the President of the United States to you and me are guilty of failing to prioritize . . . and failing to prioritize makes it appear that we are incapable of making decisions.

Is this really a problem? Well, ultimately, making decisions is what people in leadership do. You know . . . “the buck stops here” . . . “I’m the decider.”

Fundraising organizations are even more prone to this than many other industry sectors. Why? Generally the major culprits are being understaffed and overbooked. Sound familiar?

The other day I read, “The greatest danger is letting the URGENT crowd out the IMPORTANT.” Let’s face it; there is always a tension between the urgent and the important.

As this year draws to a close, many regular readers of this blog and even occasional readers are seeing in the fundraising industry extremely ominous signs that are getting all the more urgent. USPS postal rates are going up even as response rates to direct mail appeals are mostly flat to declining, even for faith-based organizations. Just last week the Canadian Postal Service announced that they will discontinue home delivery and raise rates substantially. Can the U.S. Postal Service be far behind?

We are quickly reaching a point of inflection, or, as the author Malcolm Gladwell calls it . . . the tipping point. The decline accelerates as the old modes pass.

Yet you’ve known for a long time that things need to change.  Whether that means plugging into a learning program like ours or hiring a consultant, it is important to create a new plan that will navigate you into the future. But the day-to-day urgent always squeezes out the time for the important next step. As things are quickly changing, however, it is not about “tweaking” your current fundraising business model, or “doing your job better,” or “working harder.” No, there is a major shift that is going on and its implications are becoming urgent.

You’re not alone.

There is still time, but you have to move this important issue to the urgent list.

Then act . . . now.

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com