Can we all agree that your direct mail fundraising appeal’s best days are in the past? Last fall I co-presented at a national nonprofit conference with the Executive Director of Development of a large organization that raises 80%+ of their donations through direct mail and mails millions of appeals annually. Those were his words in the presentation . . .“our best direct mail days are in the past,” . . . not mine.
Now we are hearing the horror stories of donation fall-off and missing budgets from this past Christmas’ appeals.
Now we are reading other industry experts like Chuck Longfield from Blackbaud giving a presentation at the Direct Marketing Association’s Washington Conference last week highlighting disturbing multi-year trends in rising acquisition costs and rising lapse donor rates for direct mail appeals.
Take a breath.
Do you think…
…maybe what is happening is something new?
…maybe we haven’t exactly seen this before?
… maybe these generational and communications shifts are real?
Your fundraising strategy worked for years. So, why is it suddenly failing?
Or, has it really been going down little-by-little, and because you are a good direct marketer you used every tool and trick (not to mention luck… think large bequests) to make budget? But now… there are no more rabbits in the hat.
Hmmmm…
We just had a Webinar last week that was the biggest we have ever had by 3X and afterwards people were calling and emailing to talk. . . and I am behind in getting information out and that is a first for me…ever.
All we talk about in our Webinars is the way things really are and the need for fundraising organizations to develop a new strategy (and we help you) that reflects the way the world is today…not 15 years ago.
Is leadership finally becoming open to the possibility that maybe there is a way forward that is a different strategy… and actually appeals to Baby Boomers?
We have another free Webinar coming up, so drop me a note if you want an invitation.
Or, maybe better … invite your leadership.
-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
BROWNE INNOVATION GROUP
Friday, February 15, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
BIG’s Blog: The Generation Gap
If you stop mailing your appeals to my mother, you will stop receiving her donations.
If you don’t transform the way you communicate the mission of your organization and focus online, you will NEVER reach my wife (a Baby Boomer) or my daughters (Millennials).
If you try to reach my mother online . . . you will fail.
If you try to reach my wife and daughters through your direct mail appeals . . . you are throwing your money away.
You have to be close to my age (almost 60) to remember this, but back in the 1960s there was a saying: “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” What it spoke to was the generational divide in the changing worldview and attitudes between the younger generation of the Baby Boomers and their parents’ generation (WWII and Depression era cohorts). It was actually called the Generation Gap.
To those of you Baby Boomers who are now in fundraising leadership and whose donor files are now 70%+ WWII and Depression era generations, when these two cohorts only represent at most 12% of the population, where exactly are the Boomers (25% of the population) in your donor files? And if you’re a faith-based organization, the percentage of your donor files over 68 years is probably much higher.
I’ve worked with Protestant religious broadcasting organizations whose donor files were pushing 85% WWII and Depression generations.
I’ve worked with Catholic organizations whose donor files are pushing 85% WWII and Depression generations.
Same issue . . . just different pews.
Both faith-based groups are facing the EXACT same problem with the Generation Gap.
To be successful at bringing in continuing donations from the WWII and Depression era donors, you must send them mail and you must communicate with them in the faith language they were formed in. It is their worldview, and it is very different from the Baby Boomer and younger generations’ language and worldview.
Keep mailing and communicating with my mother as you have for the last 50+ years and the checks will keep coming . . . but my mother is not your future
Create a completely different online experience and approach for my wife and daughters or you have no future.
-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
If you don’t transform the way you communicate the mission of your organization and focus online, you will NEVER reach my wife (a Baby Boomer) or my daughters (Millennials).
If you try to reach my mother online . . . you will fail.
If you try to reach my wife and daughters through your direct mail appeals . . . you are throwing your money away.
You have to be close to my age (almost 60) to remember this, but back in the 1960s there was a saying: “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” What it spoke to was the generational divide in the changing worldview and attitudes between the younger generation of the Baby Boomers and their parents’ generation (WWII and Depression era cohorts). It was actually called the Generation Gap.
To those of you Baby Boomers who are now in fundraising leadership and whose donor files are now 70%+ WWII and Depression era generations, when these two cohorts only represent at most 12% of the population, where exactly are the Boomers (25% of the population) in your donor files? And if you’re a faith-based organization, the percentage of your donor files over 68 years is probably much higher.
I’ve worked with Protestant religious broadcasting organizations whose donor files were pushing 85% WWII and Depression generations.
I’ve worked with Catholic organizations whose donor files are pushing 85% WWII and Depression generations.
Same issue . . . just different pews.
Both faith-based groups are facing the EXACT same problem with the Generation Gap.
To be successful at bringing in continuing donations from the WWII and Depression era donors, you must send them mail and you must communicate with them in the faith language they were formed in. It is their worldview, and it is very different from the Baby Boomer and younger generations’ language and worldview.
Keep mailing and communicating with my mother as you have for the last 50+ years and the checks will keep coming . . . but my mother is not your future
Create a completely different online experience and approach for my wife and daughters or you have no future.
-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
Friday, February 8, 2013
BIG’s Blog: All We Need Are Good Managers
There is a whole school of thought in organizational psychology that says leaders are either “transformational” or “transactional.” An example of each is Steve Jobs of Apple as a transformational leader and his replacement CEO, Tim Cook, a transactional leader.
A lot of people I know firmly believe that to affect a significant shift in the direction of an organization you need a transformational leader. I disagree. There is no question that Steve Jobs was a transformational leader, but that also gives short shrift to his capacities for invention. More than anything else, Steve Jobs “created” products. But it was Tim Cook, as one of his key lieutenants who worked behind the scenes, to make certain the products were right and delivered on time.
Making the transformation in how you raise the resources your organization needs is a shift in strategy and direction. Making that happen does not take a transformational leader, but a nuts-and-bolts leader who knows how to execute. Our firm and others can provide the strategy, but what we can never do is make it happen in YOUR ORGANIZATION. That takes internal leadership.
By far…by far…our most successful clients who are transforming their Development organizations are …in their words… “strategy-challenged.” But they are phenomenal managers.
Here is the good news. You don’t have to be a transformational leader to transform your Development organization and start growing again. You can find good programs or consultants who can be your change agent...but you need to be a good process manager. You can learn successful strategy but YOU have to lead the change. And that’s the day-to-day work you are already doing…only different.
A Steve Jobs only comes along every hundred years or so. Thank goodness that what we really need in the fundraising world are Tim Cooks.
-Mike
P.S. Saturday Delivery for the USPS is gone effective the first of August. Just another shoe dropping for the Post Office, and now all your response projections will be off, although that is a small thing compared to the overall decline in response rates over the past five years. Are you ready yet to contemplate transforming your fundraising to become LESS dependent on direct mail?
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
A lot of people I know firmly believe that to affect a significant shift in the direction of an organization you need a transformational leader. I disagree. There is no question that Steve Jobs was a transformational leader, but that also gives short shrift to his capacities for invention. More than anything else, Steve Jobs “created” products. But it was Tim Cook, as one of his key lieutenants who worked behind the scenes, to make certain the products were right and delivered on time.
Making the transformation in how you raise the resources your organization needs is a shift in strategy and direction. Making that happen does not take a transformational leader, but a nuts-and-bolts leader who knows how to execute. Our firm and others can provide the strategy, but what we can never do is make it happen in YOUR ORGANIZATION. That takes internal leadership.
By far…by far…our most successful clients who are transforming their Development organizations are …in their words… “strategy-challenged.” But they are phenomenal managers.
Here is the good news. You don’t have to be a transformational leader to transform your Development organization and start growing again. You can find good programs or consultants who can be your change agent...but you need to be a good process manager. You can learn successful strategy but YOU have to lead the change. And that’s the day-to-day work you are already doing…only different.
A Steve Jobs only comes along every hundred years or so. Thank goodness that what we really need in the fundraising world are Tim Cooks.
-Mike
P.S. Saturday Delivery for the USPS is gone effective the first of August. Just another shoe dropping for the Post Office, and now all your response projections will be off, although that is a small thing compared to the overall decline in response rates over the past five years. Are you ready yet to contemplate transforming your fundraising to become LESS dependent on direct mail?
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
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
BIG’s Blog: Eating Your Future
There are two upstart groups in the world of charitable nonprofit fundraising today that are growing their fundraising and could eat your future. The first group is the newcomer nonprofits and their fundraising organizations that literally are starting from scratch but are tech savvy and hungry. The second group is the older, established organizations who have either had a “wake up call” or an “epiphany” in finally figuring out that what they are doing isn’t working anymore.
Those two groups represent probably less than 5% of all nonprofit charitable organizations.
What about the other 95%?
Well, let’s talk about the 95% by contrasting them with the 5%, and let’s start with a long-established and very large organization that had a major wake up call; the American Red Cross.
In 2005 the American Red Cross was wholly unprepared for reacting to a major national disaster in the Internet age. The Red Cross fundraising organization was caught flat-footed in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. America opened its wallet but the Red Cross could not keep up. Many people couldn’t donate online, they didn’t receipt donors, and months afterwards they could not account for the funds or show where the funds went. Transparency was a disaster.
But what was the reaction of Red Cross leadership? Fix it!
By the time of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the recent flooding in the northeast in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy this past October, Red Cross systems, online capabilities, communications and reporting transparency were superlative.
The other group, the newcomers, are also making huge headway. They have no legacy methods of fundraising or built-in constituencies both inside and outside the fundraising organizations, so they go with what they can afford and that means online. Apparently nobody told them they can’t grow revenue year-over-year, and most have been rapidly growing revenue because they are online competing for donors with other young start-up nonprofits.
So what about the 95%?
Well, I can only hope that you experience a “wake up call” or “epiphany” because if you don’t, the picture isn’t pretty. And the medium size charitable organizations that have been overly dependent on direct mail appeals will get hit the hardest. The big guys like the American Red Cross will just get better and better and the new startup fundraising groups who are young, hungry and tech savvy will just keep growing.
So what should you do?
Seth Godin, the marketing and organizational thinker, has a suggestion: “If you are serious about building a new sort of asset, or experiencing the cutting edge of technology, or rebuilding the way you grow, the first way to demonstrate that seriousness is to put your heavy hitters in charge of it, while refusing to pay attention at all to the people or the metrics of the old thing. Easier to say than to do, but consider how the upstarts that are eating your future are allocating their time and their talent.”
And we should add a third group for you to worry about. That group would be fundraising organizations - just like yours - that are already moving to transform their fundraising.
-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
Those two groups represent probably less than 5% of all nonprofit charitable organizations.
What about the other 95%?
Well, let’s talk about the 95% by contrasting them with the 5%, and let’s start with a long-established and very large organization that had a major wake up call; the American Red Cross.
In 2005 the American Red Cross was wholly unprepared for reacting to a major national disaster in the Internet age. The Red Cross fundraising organization was caught flat-footed in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. America opened its wallet but the Red Cross could not keep up. Many people couldn’t donate online, they didn’t receipt donors, and months afterwards they could not account for the funds or show where the funds went. Transparency was a disaster.
But what was the reaction of Red Cross leadership? Fix it!
By the time of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the recent flooding in the northeast in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy this past October, Red Cross systems, online capabilities, communications and reporting transparency were superlative.
The other group, the newcomers, are also making huge headway. They have no legacy methods of fundraising or built-in constituencies both inside and outside the fundraising organizations, so they go with what they can afford and that means online. Apparently nobody told them they can’t grow revenue year-over-year, and most have been rapidly growing revenue because they are online competing for donors with other young start-up nonprofits.
So what about the 95%?
Well, I can only hope that you experience a “wake up call” or “epiphany” because if you don’t, the picture isn’t pretty. And the medium size charitable organizations that have been overly dependent on direct mail appeals will get hit the hardest. The big guys like the American Red Cross will just get better and better and the new startup fundraising groups who are young, hungry and tech savvy will just keep growing.
So what should you do?
Seth Godin, the marketing and organizational thinker, has a suggestion: “If you are serious about building a new sort of asset, or experiencing the cutting edge of technology, or rebuilding the way you grow, the first way to demonstrate that seriousness is to put your heavy hitters in charge of it, while refusing to pay attention at all to the people or the metrics of the old thing. Easier to say than to do, but consider how the upstarts that are eating your future are allocating their time and their talent.”
And we should add a third group for you to worry about. That group would be fundraising organizations - just like yours - that are already moving to transform their fundraising.
-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
Monday, February 4, 2013
BIG’s Blog: Mailbag: Transition vs. Transformation
“To my way of thinking, Mike, what you’re dealing with here is a dramatic change in perspective, which is non-negotiable. By way of example, Jesus told the traditionalists that you can’t patch an old garment with a new (not yet shrunken) piece of cloth, because when it shrinks it will make the torn garment worse. Also, you can’t put new wine into old wine skins . . . for a similar reason, i.e., the old skins won’t stretch. In essence, Jesus is saying you have to see things from a fresh perspective: The old rational categories no longer apply. The Church ran into a similar problem with the advent of Vatican II. The problem is ongoing. But here’s the point. When you see this as a change in perspective--(much like The Covey “window-of-belief”)-- you don’t have to throw away the old garment, pour out the old wine or try to change your sense of identity and purpose; you just have to change your point of view to suit reality.” - Rev. Vincent T. Freeh, MSC
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
Friday, February 1, 2013
BIG’s Blog: If You’re Going to Retire this Decade – Part Two
80%+ of fundraising leaders are Baby Boomers - born 1946 to 1964. It is not an exaggeration to say that the vast majority of those individuals will retire in the next ten years; most this decade.
What will their legacy be?
Ahhhhh...that's the question.
In my last blog (If you're going to retire this decade - part one) I wrote about the WISDOM that Development Directors have, but I made a very real distinction between Wisdom and Knowledge. New knowledge is constantly coming at us, and we either keep up or we fall behind. No leader can afford to fall behind, not least because ultimately THAT is what you get paid for.
Today, virtually every Development Director I speak to is privately worried that they don't really understand the online tools that are proliferating...Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and on and on. I estimate that 90%+ don't really use these tools (just having a Facebook page or Twitter account doesn't count), although I do urge them to start using the tools as familiarity breeds acceptance (you were thinking "contempt" weren't you). For leaders, that is REALLY NOT THE POINT.
What is the point? The point is understanding what these tools can do for your organization when they are orchestrated into a cohesive and comprehensive plan.
But back to your legacy.
The playing field of fundraising has changed. For my 86-year-old mother, keep doing what you are doing in how you communicate and talk about your organization to her. And yes, I am talking about using direct mail. But my mother is not your future. My 50-something wife is your future...my forty-something brother is your future...my 30-something tech guy is your future and my 20-something daughters are your future. Unless you reach them...you are dead.
It doesn't matter how compelling your mission or ministry, if you don't connect to the Boomers, Gen X or the Millennials...YOU HAVE NO FUTURE.
Okay Boomers...you are the current leaders of your fundraising organizations. What is your legacy going to be?
It is the ethos of our generation (I'm a Boomer too) that we change the world for the better. Of course now that we are in our late 40s, 50s, and 60s, we understand how to translate "change the world" into change our little "piece" of the world. And "our little piece of the world" is that before we leave the stage...retire...we bring our fundraising organization into the digital age.
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
What will their legacy be?
Ahhhhh...that's the question.
In my last blog (If you're going to retire this decade - part one) I wrote about the WISDOM that Development Directors have, but I made a very real distinction between Wisdom and Knowledge. New knowledge is constantly coming at us, and we either keep up or we fall behind. No leader can afford to fall behind, not least because ultimately THAT is what you get paid for.
Today, virtually every Development Director I speak to is privately worried that they don't really understand the online tools that are proliferating...Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and on and on. I estimate that 90%+ don't really use these tools (just having a Facebook page or Twitter account doesn't count), although I do urge them to start using the tools as familiarity breeds acceptance (you were thinking "contempt" weren't you). For leaders, that is REALLY NOT THE POINT.
What is the point? The point is understanding what these tools can do for your organization when they are orchestrated into a cohesive and comprehensive plan.
But back to your legacy.
The playing field of fundraising has changed. For my 86-year-old mother, keep doing what you are doing in how you communicate and talk about your organization to her. And yes, I am talking about using direct mail. But my mother is not your future. My 50-something wife is your future...my forty-something brother is your future...my 30-something tech guy is your future and my 20-something daughters are your future. Unless you reach them...you are dead.
It doesn't matter how compelling your mission or ministry, if you don't connect to the Boomers, Gen X or the Millennials...YOU HAVE NO FUTURE.
Okay Boomers...you are the current leaders of your fundraising organizations. What is your legacy going to be?
It is the ethos of our generation (I'm a Boomer too) that we change the world for the better. Of course now that we are in our late 40s, 50s, and 60s, we understand how to translate "change the world" into change our little "piece" of the world. And "our little piece of the world" is that before we leave the stage...retire...we bring our fundraising organization into the digital age.
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
BIG’s Blog: If You’re Going to Retire this Decade – Part One
Running the show...being "on" 24/7/365...that is what the job of the CEO is about. It's also what being the Development Director is about. The pressure of orchestrating your fundraising organization to hit your annual goal takes knowledge, experience and ... wisdom.
Remember back in the late 90s and early 00s? When “Idiot" venture capitalists were throwing millions of dollars at dot.com start-up companies (can you say sock puppet?) started and run by twenty-somethings? What happened? Right, most of them bombed out and were either acquired by "real" companies - because some of their core ideas were actually brilliant - or they went bankrupt.
Hello...twenty-somethings have enthusiasm and energy. Some rare individuals may actually have a really brilliant insight or idea that can be commercialized into a company... but no twenty-something has WISDOM. Wisdom is what you have a Development Director for.
The Captain of the airplane doesn't fly the plane; that's the job of the first officer - the second in command. So what is the Captain’s job? To plot the course and BE THERE if there is a problem. WISDOM !
Wisdom, however, is also about being discerning of change. If conditions change and turbulence blows up, it is the Captain that takes the controls. The Captain may never have seen the exact conditions she is now flying through, but she has the wisdom and experience to do what is necessary to alter course and bring the plane to a safe landing.
So if the Captain’s main job isn't to fly the plane day-to-day, then what’s her day-to-day job? Answer: constant learning. No one person...one pilot...can have first-hand experience with every single iteration of possible situations faced in flight. It's all about training and high-level learning.
And in those situations where the entire foundation of the industry changes for air-flight...think the shift from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft...all the senior pilots go back to school.
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Remember back in the late 90s and early 00s? When “Idiot" venture capitalists were throwing millions of dollars at dot.com start-up companies (can you say sock puppet?) started and run by twenty-somethings? What happened? Right, most of them bombed out and were either acquired by "real" companies - because some of their core ideas were actually brilliant - or they went bankrupt.
Hello...twenty-somethings have enthusiasm and energy. Some rare individuals may actually have a really brilliant insight or idea that can be commercialized into a company... but no twenty-something has WISDOM. Wisdom is what you have a Development Director for.
The Captain of the airplane doesn't fly the plane; that's the job of the first officer - the second in command. So what is the Captain’s job? To plot the course and BE THERE if there is a problem. WISDOM !
Wisdom, however, is also about being discerning of change. If conditions change and turbulence blows up, it is the Captain that takes the controls. The Captain may never have seen the exact conditions she is now flying through, but she has the wisdom and experience to do what is necessary to alter course and bring the plane to a safe landing.
So if the Captain’s main job isn't to fly the plane day-to-day, then what’s her day-to-day job? Answer: constant learning. No one person...one pilot...can have first-hand experience with every single iteration of possible situations faced in flight. It's all about training and high-level learning.
And in those situations where the entire foundation of the industry changes for air-flight...think the shift from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft...all the senior pilots go back to school.
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Monday, January 28, 2013
BIG’s Blog: Keeping A Theme Going
I can write about, speak about, and talk one-on-one with charitable fundraising leadership all day long, but in the end they have to own the problem and act.
For over thirty years I have run or partnered with other entrepreneurs to build innovative and successful organizations. Then, eight years ago, I switched into a “consulting” mode to share my experience and make an impact in the nonprofit fundraising sector.
After testing the concept, as of the first of the year, Browne Innovation Group has moved from the traditional model of consulting in-person and on-site (which is probably too expensive for most nonprofit organizations) to a low-cost model of e-learning and virtual coaching which has been incredibly well-received.
Why?
There are two major reasons. First, literally the entire charitable fundraising sector’s current model is failing; especially those who are heavily dependent on direct mail. Trust me, it isn’t just your organization that is struggling. Second, outside of our methodology, which actually gives you a plan to transform your fundraising organization, all the rest of the industry is just offering their products or services – great products and services they are too - but still, mere tactics. Where do you go to get a comprehensive and unified plan and strategy to pull it all together?
The reactions…
Either you are excited that someone is actually saying what you know in your gut is right and has a plan to fix it, or this kind of straight talk sounds at best, scary, and at worse, off the moon.
We have clients who felt both ways when they first heard our message.
Come on…it is not you or your organization. The fundraising field has shifted. There was a time that what you are doing (your methodology) was successful.
Success stops when you do.
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
For over thirty years I have run or partnered with other entrepreneurs to build innovative and successful organizations. Then, eight years ago, I switched into a “consulting” mode to share my experience and make an impact in the nonprofit fundraising sector.
After testing the concept, as of the first of the year, Browne Innovation Group has moved from the traditional model of consulting in-person and on-site (which is probably too expensive for most nonprofit organizations) to a low-cost model of e-learning and virtual coaching which has been incredibly well-received.
Why?
There are two major reasons. First, literally the entire charitable fundraising sector’s current model is failing; especially those who are heavily dependent on direct mail. Trust me, it isn’t just your organization that is struggling. Second, outside of our methodology, which actually gives you a plan to transform your fundraising organization, all the rest of the industry is just offering their products or services – great products and services they are too - but still, mere tactics. Where do you go to get a comprehensive and unified plan and strategy to pull it all together?
The reactions…
Either you are excited that someone is actually saying what you know in your gut is right and has a plan to fix it, or this kind of straight talk sounds at best, scary, and at worse, off the moon.
We have clients who felt both ways when they first heard our message.
Come on…it is not you or your organization. The fundraising field has shifted. There was a time that what you are doing (your methodology) was successful.
Success stops when you do.
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Friday, January 25, 2013
BIG’s Blog: Solomon
I read a blog a couple of weeks ago by Seth Godin that contained a very profound statement: “not enough people believe they are capable of productive initiative.”
Is that true?
His name was Solomon. My wife and her friend found him abandoned in a rural hospital in Haiti. Solomon was around nine months old and had hydrocephalus. Solomon just lay in his crib and cried because he was always in pain. My wife’s friend Jennet is an ER doctor from Miami who arranged to get a shunt flown in from Miami and the local doctor agreed to perform the operation. The operation was successful but Solomon was very weak. My wife located a children’s home for him but infection set in and Solomon died a week later.
Even now, Solomon’s story is hard to think about because of the pain he suffered in his short life. But my wife and Jennet cared and they undertook an initiative to get Solomon the care he needed and into a better life. How could they not do it?
Where are those that will initiate change in the fundraising industry, even in their own fundraising organizations?
The change that is roiling the fundraising industry began with the Internet…not with the last recession. But the Internet’s disruptive effects are a double-edged sword. On one side, it is killing your current fundraising model. While on the other side it holds the promise of transforming your organization’s ability to raise the needed revenue it needs to fund your missions long into the future. But it’s a different fundraising model and different involves initiative.
Only the charitable sector raises funds to invest in “doing good” with no expectation of a monetary return. To find little Solomons abandoned in hospitals and to try…to take the initiative…to give them a better life.
Isn’t that worth taking the initiative?
Move!
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Is that true?
His name was Solomon. My wife and her friend found him abandoned in a rural hospital in Haiti. Solomon was around nine months old and had hydrocephalus. Solomon just lay in his crib and cried because he was always in pain. My wife’s friend Jennet is an ER doctor from Miami who arranged to get a shunt flown in from Miami and the local doctor agreed to perform the operation. The operation was successful but Solomon was very weak. My wife located a children’s home for him but infection set in and Solomon died a week later.
Even now, Solomon’s story is hard to think about because of the pain he suffered in his short life. But my wife and Jennet cared and they undertook an initiative to get Solomon the care he needed and into a better life. How could they not do it?
Where are those that will initiate change in the fundraising industry, even in their own fundraising organizations?
The change that is roiling the fundraising industry began with the Internet…not with the last recession. But the Internet’s disruptive effects are a double-edged sword. On one side, it is killing your current fundraising model. While on the other side it holds the promise of transforming your organization’s ability to raise the needed revenue it needs to fund your missions long into the future. But it’s a different fundraising model and different involves initiative.
Only the charitable sector raises funds to invest in “doing good” with no expectation of a monetary return. To find little Solomons abandoned in hospitals and to try…to take the initiative…to give them a better life.
Isn’t that worth taking the initiative?
Move!
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, or you know someone that might be interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program, Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
BIG’s Blog: Transformation
Well, my last blog, “Transitionalist or Transformationalist,” brought some polite and some strong criticisms. The polite ones merely stated they weren’t certain which camp they were in. One person also said the names were too long, so from now on it’s “Transition or Transformation.”
The strong criticisms were people cancelling their blog subscription. It’s not coincidence; it’s happened after I have made equally strong statements in the past. But I keep getting new subscriptions daily, so…
Why do I believe this is not a transition?
First, I firmly believe (after talking to many fundraising leaders) that they do not understand the magnitude of the change the analogue-to-digital shift is having across society and how quickly it is happening. Second, most fundraising groups are not facing up to the fact that the Depression and WWII generations, who have supported their organizations for years, are declining rapidly and the younger generations – beginning with the Boomers – take a very different approach to giving. And third, although most fundraisers acknowledge the rise of competition for the donor dollar, all they see are eroding margins and have no strategy to reverse it.
Finally, I can find no examples of organizations or industries that faced similarly significant technological change and “transitioned” their way to prosperity.
Was there a half-horse / half-automobile as we shifted from horse-based transportation to the automobile?
Was there a half-candle / half-electric light as we shifted from fire light to electric light?
Maybe you can think of a technology transition that created a link between two fundamentally different technologies. I am stumped and cannot.
Don’t confuse cross-over periods with transition. A cross-over period is the time when the old technology is declining while the new technology is rising to replace it…but they are both in use.
In today’s fundraising, direct mail communications and its methodologies will decline while Internet-based forms of communications will create the basis for a whole new way to communicate and engage nonprofit supporters. This is a cross-over.
When we have fully shifted our fundraising, it will not look the same. It won’t be practiced the same. It will be more in-sync with the expectations of younger generations and it will ultimately be more successful than the old methodologies.
One will decline and one will rise. We are living in the cross-over period, but make no mistake, this is transformation.
Bob Dylan said it best, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program: Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar, but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
The strong criticisms were people cancelling their blog subscription. It’s not coincidence; it’s happened after I have made equally strong statements in the past. But I keep getting new subscriptions daily, so…
Why do I believe this is not a transition?
First, I firmly believe (after talking to many fundraising leaders) that they do not understand the magnitude of the change the analogue-to-digital shift is having across society and how quickly it is happening. Second, most fundraising groups are not facing up to the fact that the Depression and WWII generations, who have supported their organizations for years, are declining rapidly and the younger generations – beginning with the Boomers – take a very different approach to giving. And third, although most fundraisers acknowledge the rise of competition for the donor dollar, all they see are eroding margins and have no strategy to reverse it.
Finally, I can find no examples of organizations or industries that faced similarly significant technological change and “transitioned” their way to prosperity.
Was there a half-horse / half-automobile as we shifted from horse-based transportation to the automobile?
Was there a half-candle / half-electric light as we shifted from fire light to electric light?
Maybe you can think of a technology transition that created a link between two fundamentally different technologies. I am stumped and cannot.
Don’t confuse cross-over periods with transition. A cross-over period is the time when the old technology is declining while the new technology is rising to replace it…but they are both in use.
In today’s fundraising, direct mail communications and its methodologies will decline while Internet-based forms of communications will create the basis for a whole new way to communicate and engage nonprofit supporters. This is a cross-over.
When we have fully shifted our fundraising, it will not look the same. It won’t be practiced the same. It will be more in-sync with the expectations of younger generations and it will ultimately be more successful than the old methodologies.
One will decline and one will rise. We are living in the cross-over period, but make no mistake, this is transformation.
Bob Dylan said it best, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”
-Mike
P.S. If you’re interested, we will be holding a Webinar that introduces our new e-Learning program: Acquiring the Next Generation of Supporters. There is no cost for the Webinar, but seats are limited, so if you’re interested in learning more, email me your name and I will personally see you get on the list.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)