BIG’s Blog: The Way to a Donor’s Heart (and Data) Is Trust

Natasha Smith, the Senior Editor of the online publication, Direct Marketing News, wrote a good article last week entitled: Trust: The Way to a Customer’s Heart (and Data). Obviously, you can see from my title that I totally ripped off her core idea … even though I am personalizing it to the fundraising world. Why did I jump all over her article? Because what pertains to customers of commercial enterprises pertains to nonprofits as well.

Her arguments about trust leading to brand loyalty for products we buy is spot on … if a bit obvious. But the real process that fundraisers need to pay attention to is connecting trust to sharing data.

People understand that there is a heck of a lot of data that organizations (commercial or nonprofit) can obtain for “marketing” purposes. And, just like the commercial world, if people trust the brand (commercially, Apple remains #1 in brand loyalty), they will allow their data to be shared. If they trust … they share.  This is only going to be more important moving into the online world.

And you think that just because you are a charity or even a faith-based ministry or mission that you don’t have to worry about gaining people’s trust?

Think again!

Open … Honest … Transparent … Accountable. These are the new bedrocks that make up Trust to younger generations (starting with the boomers) that are online.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: It's How We Learn About Stuff

You're no different than me. You're out at dinner with friends or family, and someone brings up a subject (anything, trivia, etc.). This has been happening forever. We used to just argue who was right and the whole process dissolved into shouting and laughter and then we moved on.

Not today.

Someone reaches into their pocket or purse and pulls out their smartphone and "Googles" it. (Yes, the noun Google has become a verb!) And, voila, we have an answer. Life is changed, behavior is changed, and we are all the "smarter" for it. WE GOT THE ANSWER.

We still dissolve into laughter, except for Uncle Morty who swore on his mother's grave he was right about the answer when, in fact, he was wrong. But he'll just order another drink and all will be fine.

So what does this have to do with fundraising?

Come on, do I have to paint you a picture?

First of all, the people you want and need to be talking to are online. And when I say they are online, I mean THEY ARE ONLINE. Just like you, their habits and ways of doing things have changed with the invention of the Internet and digital personal tools like smartphones, tablets, etc.

Second, everybody ... and I mean everybody ... carries within him or her a mental list of what is important to them. We say things like “Aunt Judy has a ‘heart’ for kids with mental disabilities,” because her son was born with Down syndrome. So, with the advent of the Internet, at any moment or on a whim we can look up Down syndrome or anything else, INSTANTLY! Do you know what a "keyword" is? Google will let you buy (for a period of time) any word or word couplet. Then when someone queries that word, your Website URL pops up. THEY CAN FIND YOU!

Third, have you heard of Kickstarter? It is a Website for raising funds and there are lots of sites just like it popping up. People go to these sites to invest money in startup efforts, like people raising money to start a business, or getting funding to make a movie or a record. But some nonprofits are using them to raise money for a project.  PEOPLE BY THE MILLIONS ARE GOING TO THESE SITES.

So what does this have to do with how you raise funds for your mission or ministry today?

Probably not a darn thing!

You’re still stuck in the mindset of lists, advertising, mail, making calls, and on and on … "It's how we have always done things!"

Meanwhile millions of people are on the Internet looking for you (they may not know they are looking for you), but because they have a "heart" for your mission or ministry, they are LOOKING FOR YOU ... AND YOU ARE MAKING IT SO HARD TO BE FOUND.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Your Story

Politicians ultimately only have one thing to sell to the voters and that is themselves . . . but the voters want to know what a politician stands for. Sometimes the issue and the politician’s position are straightforward and simple, but other times the issue is complex. The most successful politicians know how to connect with their constituents by simplifying the most complex issue into a story . . . a story of how the issue and the politician’s stand on it will affect the lives of their constituents. They tell stories, and in the end, it is the narrative (the story) the politician lays out that people actually vote for … under the guise of voting for the politician.

Not-for-profits in general and charities in particular need to act in the same way. A politician’s “issue” is the charity’s “mission or ministry.” The charity must tell their story about how they “do” mission or ministry and what it means to the person listening or reading their story. Their story either connects or doesn’t … when people hear it. People will support a charity if they connect to its story.

Stories used to be passed by word of mouth around the fire.  Stories were then passed through the written word and, later, the printed word. Then came the technology of capturing sound, and finally film. Today our digital-based Internet world is “all the above,” and stories are carried through all kinds of channels.

But it still comes down to the story.

When people hear about your organization for the first time, what they really want to know is this: What is your story?

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: How Do You Scale Without Mail? (Part 2)

Do you really believe that you CANNOT replace direct mail revenue using the Internet?

Really?!?

Okay … okay … I can identify with some of you. I can get so stuck in my ways in some areas of my life that I don’t consider other options … “because I’ve always done it this way!”

The #1 Reason we cling to direct mail is that we don't see an online method of fundraising that generates significant dollars today … let alone one that is scalable.

Yet there are some fairly sophisticated fundraising organizations that are gaining email addresses from mail-generated donors and beginning email solicitation programs that are growing, but this is merely shifting the transaction mode from check to online. Still, it offers a glimpse into the growth of online.

So HOW do you grow online? Well, first you have to recognize that the Internet is a different thing. HOW we do something on the Internet today is different than HOW you used to do something.

Success on the Internet is DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

We used to go to the car dealer and pick from his stock on the lot and, though we tried to haggle price, the dealer knew the value of the car. Now we go online to check out exactly the make, model and color of the car we want and, since we’ve priced the car, we tell the dealer what we think it’s worth.

We used to buy all our books at Barnes & Noble or Borders. These book superstores had great selection and cheaper prices than the Mom & Pop bookstores. Now we go online to Amazon where we get even better prices, plus reader recommendations and e-books instantly.

We used to go to our local insurance agent for home, car, and life insurance. Now we go online to Geico or Progressive to get quotes in minutes, and our insurance is cheaper and our service is better because all customer service is instant and online.

We used to get our news from TV at 5 & 10, or from our local newspaper. Now we go online 24/7 to get instant news, sports, and weather.

We used to have to go to the doctor or call Ask-a-Nurse to find out what illness we had based upon our symptoms. Now we go online to WebMD or other healthcare or wellness sites to get informed medical information.

You know I could go on and on – but you get the point. Growth in all these sectors is online.

So, those sectors that now have online alternatives, or that have been completely transformed by the Internet are just flukes? And nobody could possibly figure out how to scale online support for nonprofit organizations?

Except that some nonprofit organizations have abandoned direct mail as their growth vehicle (American Cancer Society) and are moving online, while other new start-up nonprofits are starting up without mail (Charity: Water and The Missionary Benedictine Sisters) and are growing dramatically.  

Charity: Water launched in 2007, and by 2013 raised over $34 million dollars. The Missionary Benedictine Sisters have a long history, but never had a Development group until they launched their online program in March … keep an eye on them!

Growth is online.

Growth is online.

Growth is online.

Scalable means growth … and growth is online.

Are you ready to scale (grow) online?

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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How Do You Scale Without Mail? (Part 1)

The greatest innovation that helped nonprofit charitable organizations develop a consistent annual base of financial support (as well as a growing base of supporters) came on the scene about 80 years ago ... and that was direct mail.

Direct mail had the ability to scale. This means that once you have created the unique design and copy for a direct mail package that proved it could generate a profitable response rate, that package could be replicated over and over again. And the really good news was that the more packages you produced, the cost per package actually declined. In fact, direct mail was so productive that in the early years, the only problem was finding enough names to mail to.

Direct mail really began to grow in the 1960s when a number of enterprising individuals created a business around nonprofits sharing each other's list of donors. They were known as list brokers and managers. This list rental business combined the donor files of all nonprofits and made them available to all other nonprofits. Within a few years, the organizations mailing hundreds of letters before list brokers were now mailing thousands, and those that were mailing tens of thousands were now mailing hundreds of thousands, and those that were mailing hundreds of thousands were now mailing millions.

Almost without exception, the nonprofits that were the first to develop significant direct mail programs many years ago are the largest nonprofit organizations today.

But that is all about to change.

Direct mail, the engine of new donor acquisition and significant annual revenue for the last 80 years, is in decline.

In fact, the only ones who continue to sing the siren song that direct mail will never die (Direct Mail Is Alive and Well) are those printers, list brokers, and direct marketing agencies and their in-the-tank, sold out Direct Marketing Association with its Executive Director who rakes in a $700,000 a year salary by spouting misinformation about the decline of direct mail even as costs escalate and response rates decline. They are fighting tooth and nail to keep the fundraising sector from believing that their historic engine of growth is declining.

But then if direct mail is dying, what takes the place of direct mail?

Actually, you already know the answer.

The answer is, of course, the Internet.

The only question is "How does the Internet replace dollars generated today by direct mail?"

We'll cover that next time in Part Two of: How Do You Scale Without Mail?

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike
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Has the Worm Turned???

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: Is it the Best of Times … or?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”

No, we’re not going to rehash Dickens,’ A Tale of Two Cities, but the title pretty much sums up how fundraising leaders are feeling today.

How do I know? This is the time of year when all the proposals we have sent out for our summer term e-learning program get read, sifted through, and people start calling and emailing. Plus we are still getting proposal requests. So, sorry if we have been hard to get ahold of … busy time.

But this gives me a lot of good-quality phone time with fundraising leaders.  

Okay, so where does “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” fit in?

There is not a single Development leader I talk to who doesn’t understand that “online” is their future. But most believe NOBODY has figured out how to generate significant dollars online. Oh, online donations are up year-over-year, but that’s just the transaction mode. We send them mail appeals, but instead of sending us a check, they go online and donate at the Website. It’s just more convenient to donate online.

But back to “best of times, worst of times.” You’ve probably already figured out where I am going with this.

It is the “best of times” because our average dollar gifts are up and because we are setting yearly bequests records. You are setting yearly bequest records aren’t you???

But our “worst of times” come from the fact that our donor files are growing older and shrinking. Outside of a handful of organizations that are fairly sophisticated with their mail analytics and can actually continue acquisition mailings, the vast numbers of direct mail fundraising programs that continue acquisition mailings are getting older and older first-time donors.

And as Bill Jacobs of Analytical Ones points out, “when you take the lifetime out of lifetime value … well, you get the picture.”

Simply put, you need a new fundraising business model that is, first, built for the Web and, second, designed for younger generational cohorts, beginning with the baby boomers.

The Internet is a “new thing.”

Sometimes we lose sight of that fact.

There has NEVER been anything like the Internet.

Yet we always look at something new through the eyes of what we already know. And, by the way, everybody does this. Case in point: roll back 110 years to the year 1904. There was this smelly, noisy contraption rumbling down streets and country roads.

What did people call it? Exactly, they called it the “horseless carriage.” Only later as more and more of these contraptions showed up did they start calling it the automobile.

I was talking to a Development Director this morning who reminded me of the definition of insanity. You know, “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome …” He told me straight-out that he had to change the way he was doing fundraising to connect with younger generations. So why did that Development Director move? He said, “I’ve always believed that what you don’t know won’t hurt you, but I’ve come to understand that isn’t the case with the Internet and I’m counting on your program to get me there.”

It will.

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: The Joke You Don’t Get

We have all had the experience of hearing a joke and not getting it. Why don't we get it? Almost always it has something to do with not knowing some new hot name in the culture (yeah, I don't know who all those people are in People magazine either). Being a baby boomer almost assures you that somewhere during the last 20+ years we found out what is really important . . . and paying attention to people who are only “famous for being famous” doesn't meet that criteria. So, little by little, we slowly relinquished the cultural happenings to the younger generations.

We developed our trusted circles in our work life as well as our personal lives. We became, if not totally comfortable, then at least content with our lives and, anyway, we were busy with our lives’ work.

We got to the point that we didn't need the new car every three years, the new hairstyle, or even the latest fashions. In fact, we developed our own look and stuck with it. And we found we enjoyed friends and family more.

But then we started to notice that our friends were talking more about their new gadgets than they did cultural mainstays like music, movies, or even their health. Suddenly, we needed to get a cell phone that did more than just make and receive calls.

"Really, I can get the Internet on my phone?"

And then one of your friends or family got an Apple iPhone, and then another …  and suddenly you noticed they were talking more about their phones than practically anything else.

So you had to get one. Of course, it didn't come with a manual, so you found either a friend or colleague to show you the basics of how your first smartphone worked and then … wonder of wonders …  how to use these new apps.

And then, either because of a friend or some member of your family, you got a Facebook page and maybe even Twitter or Pinterest.

You still don't know or care who those people are in People magazine, but by golly you get excited when you can introduce a friend to a new app or to show them a new feature from the last OS update.

And somewhere along the line you bought a tablet, probably an iPad. And you find you are reading books on your iPad as well as that BIG blog you signed up for. Maybe your morning routine has changed. It used to be the Today Show … now you check Facebook, email, the weather, and the news on your phone or tablet in the morning while drinking your first cup of coffee before going to work.

Then, maybe one morning on your drive into work, it begins to dawn on you that your reading habits as well as other habits in your life have really changed over the last few years. And these new ways are waaaay more convenient . . . and it’s all because of these new gadgets.

So, what has changed in your job in fundraising?

How have these new gadgets changed fundraising?

How many other people’s new electronic gadgets are changing their lives?

This is no joke.

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: Dramatically Growing Donation Revenue

By now, most of my blog readers have attended one or more of my speaking events or Webinars. These are always educational and…if I say so myself…fairly compelling in the argument that our current methodologies of raising donations are beginning to fail and fundraising needs a new business model.

How many of you have the personality predisposition to blame yourself when things go wrong? Like we have total control…right?

What is happening today in fundraising is NOT YOUR FAULT!

It’s unfortunate, but it is not your fault that you happen to be living through the time where the Internet and digital disruption are effectively impacting EVERY industry sector…including fundraising.

There is one story I ALWAYS tell in all my speaking events and Webinars. Why? Because, first of all, fundraisers can relate to it and, second, it encapsulates the CONTRAST of what is REALLY HAPPENING today.

I contrast the stories of two retail merchandise companies: the catalog merchant Lands’ End and the online merchant Zappos.com.

Everybody has heard of the catalog merchant Land’s End. Founded in Dodgeville, Wisconsin in 1963, it grew and expanded until, by 2002, when Sears bought it, the company was doing slightly over one billion dollars in sales. Impressive…right? From zero in sales in 1963 to…39 years later, they were doing slightly over one billion dollars in sales by 2002.

Except that…

Zappos.com was founded in the year 2000 by three guys who never produced a single catalog; all they did was put up an e-commerce Website.

And yet…a mere 8 years later, they were doing one billion dollars in sales!

That’s right…Zappos hit one billion dollars in sales FIVE TIMES FASTER (5X) than Lands’ End.

How is that even possible?

How did they do it? The answer is: THE INTERNET!

Every year of its storied history of growth, Lands’ End mailed more and more catalogs. . .and every year sales grew. Assuming about the same percent of response to their catalogs each year, the more catalogs they mailed, the more their sales grew, year after year.

Many nonprofit fundraising organizations have similar stories about growing donations through growing their direct mail program.

Yet Zappos NEVER mailed a single catalog. Zappos merely plugged into the Internet.

And what is the Internet?

THE WORLD!

Today you are struggling to grow revenue for your organization. The traditional tried-and-true fundraising methodologies aren’t working like they used to.

Why?

Because the Internet has taken over.

Two examples; one personal, one business oriented.

Personal: How many letters do you write today versus how many emails do you send?

Business Oriented: When was the last time the U.S. Postal Service turned a profit?

The Internet offers what catalogs and mail can never offer … the ability to “Scale Exponentially.” This is the answer to how Zappos can hit one billion in sales FIVE TIMES FASTER than Lands’ End.

And, of course, you don’t know how to shift your fundraising organization to a 100% online fundraising model THAT WORKS!

THAT is exactly what we teach you and your team in our 18-week online program (which, by the way, begins in July.)

If you can do this on your own without outside help, then that is great…you just need to “get-er-done” and start growing again.

If you’re interested in learning more about our program, drop me a note. I’ll personally send you a proposal for our online learning program and share with you the names of the 40+ fundraising groups that have already taken our program.

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