BIG’s Blog: Customized for You

It’s been a busy first half of the year! This week we are featuring a few of the "best-of-the-best blog posts” (as judged by reader’s reactions) that you might have missed. Enjoy!

BIG’s Blog: Customized for You (February 21, 2014)

There are few people alive today who are as consistently insightful in their analysis of the changing world around us (especially in the marketing realm) and as prolific in sharing their insights as Seth Godin.

Recently he wrote a blog entitled Done to us vs. things we do.

When I read the blog, I was stunned. His thoughts captured and encapsulated the emotional tug-of-war that many baby boomers face as they lead fundraising organizations today in a world that we personally enjoy but aren’t certain how to navigate professionally.

“Malaria, the atomic bomb, the McCarthy hearings, television’s ubiquity, the decay of the industrial base – these are mammoth changes, changes that came from all around us, changes we had to withstand.”

Seth is talking about changes that personally affected us. You and I could name other changes in our lives over the past 50 or 60 years that we had to endure. They were forced on us. For us in fundraising, we have recently had to endure changes that are ending the era of the printed word, and with it direct mail as well as the shrinking pool of supporters with a trusting nature of institutions. As Godin says, these are mammoth changes that we have to deal with whether we like them or not. They are forced on us. But then he switches gears and talks about us personally.

“Today, we’re personally faced with an entirely new kind of change – changes we can choose to make, the changes that are available to us as opposed to changes that are forced on us.”

From a personal perspective, we as customers are facing a widening world of choices. You don’t have one choice in a phone. You aren’t tied to one cable monopoly. We can shop online or at the mall. Walls are falling and choices are opening up. You have freedom and options.

“No one had to cajole you into living with the changes of the last fifty years, because here they were, like it or not. You had no choice. Today, most of the change – in media, in culture, in commerce – is there if you want it. You can choose to be a media company, a buyer, a seller. You can choose to go out on the long tail, choose to be weird, choose to enter the connection economy.”

Freedom and choice are becoming the watchwords of our new world. The consumer … and the donor … are now in charge, which has huge implications on how companies must treat their customers if they want to keep them. And for charities, which have long been organization-centered (read self-centered when it comes to being transparent and accountable), they, too, must become customer oriented. In other words, charities need to be what you would personally expect them to be.

“In many ways, this choice makes the change ever more difficult, doesn’t it? The future isn’t so much about absorbing or tolerating change, it’s about making change.”

That’s really it in a nutshell isn’t it? We all personally love the freedom and choice of our changing world because we can personally choose or not. It’s up to us. We have the choice.

But it also means that our organizations have to change to offer choices that are in line with the terms of the people who may want to connect with us … not just our terms.

   

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Remember the Titans (February 17, 2014)

It’s been a busy first half of the year! This week we are featuring a few of the "best-of-the-best blog posts” (as judged by reader’s reactions) that you might have missed. Enjoy!

BIG’s Blog: Remember the Titans (February 17, 2014)

Every man (or woman) is a master of his own life. Abraham Lincoln said it slightly differently: “Every man owns his own face.” With very few exceptions, we own our own life. And this means that those of us in leadership positions also own the fate of the organizations, groups, or teams that we lead.

Most of us will never have in our personal lives the freedom and the power we enjoy as leaders . . . and we are loath to give up that power. Mother Angelica, the cloistered nun who built EWTN Global Catholic Network, once asked an audience why it is that we suffer aches and pains as we grow older. Her audience gave no response, so she answered her own question. “It’s because we are so powerful, it’s God’s way of keeping us humble.”

We prize humbleness in our leaders, don’t we? Because we intuitively understand that power is corrupting. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you remember a national leader “admitting” they made a mistake in a policy or action that they took? Oh, yes, there has been a steady stream of apologies and admissions of personal failure for sexcapades, especially from those in the highest offices in the land . . . but admissions of failed decisions that affect the lives of hundreds of thousands or millions? Nary a peep.

Humbleness is also when we face something overwhelmingly difficult and see failure beginning to set in … and we seek help.

Our usual reaction is to tough it out, thinking it is temporary and “things will turn around.” But what if they don’t turn around?

Sometimes we are lucky and we get to see this internal drama played out in art. And in seeing it in someone else, it challenges us.

There is that great scene in Remember the Titans where, in the final game for the state high school football championship, assistant coach Bill Youst (played by Will Patton) is the defensive coordinator and is getting his butt kicked by the opponent’s offense. Coach Youst tries every trick in his book, but nothing is working and the other team keeps scoring. Head coach Herman Boone (played by Denzel Washington) is riding him to get his defense to stop them from scoring.

Coach Youst was supposed to be the head coach of the Titans, but the school board wanted a black coach to lead the first integrated high school football team in Virginia in 1971. Coach Youst stayed on as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator because of his commitment to the players.

As his defense is getting beaten, coach Youst’s first response to coach Boone is, “you just focus on your offense.” But soon coach Youst has to admit to himself that he is out of ideas . . .  and with the game on the line, is it going to be about him or the team?

Head coach Boone had been a defensive coordinator in his previous job, but he respected coach Youst enough to let him make the calls … win or lose.  

In the end, coach Youst admits he is out of ideas and asks head coach Boone to run the defense. Coach Boone, to his surprise, switches roles and hands the offense to coach Youst. The switch works and they win the game.

I know … I know … Hollywood ending, right? But what is the turning point? When coach Youst admits he is out of ideas or when he humbles himself for the sake of the team?  

What has worked in fundraising for decades is shifting under your feet, even as you read this. This is big … very big. And no one person has all the right answers, especially as a 40, 50 or 60-something fundraising immigrant into the brave new digital online world.

But what you do have is the power to shift your future by seeking out help.

Remember the Titans … or, better yet, remember coach Youst!

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: You can never go back

It’s been a busy first half of the year! This week we are featuring a few of the "best-of-the-best blog posts” (as judged by reader’s reactions) that you might have missed. Enjoy!

BIG’s Blog: You can never go back (February 14th, 2014)

I take way too many arrows in my back about my position on direct mail because too many people A) don’t read my words, and B) don’t listen to what I actually say in my Webinars and speeches.

My position on direct mail is that direct mail … done correctly … is a fantastic vehicle to generate new donors and annual revenue.

I love the predictable, beautiful mathematics of direct marketing. You test . . . if all looks good, you up your quantity and test again . . . and if the numbers validate, you roll out. I have been a direct marketing professional for almost 40 years! And, yes, I still consult occasionally with nonprofit fundraisers in direct mail techniques.

That is my real position. Keep using it as long as it is working for you.

But …

The best days of direct mail are in the past. Some would say “way in the past.” For nonprofit fundraisers who use direct mail, the best I can surmise is that the last good year for all fundraising organizations was 2005. Since then some have still been able to make it work while other programs are failing fast.

With each passing year, the symptoms of decline become more obvious and acute.

The truth is, as much as I love direct mail marketing, you can never go back. Time marches on, and though I would love to turn back the clock to when direct mail fundraising was simple and profitable, its best days are in the past.

But just when you are ready to join the “club of the disrupted industries” like the music business (which has seen album sales tank for the tenth straight year), new voices are popping up, talking about how the Internet and digital technology can create a new music business model. New people are coming onto the music scene, and despite the talk of doom and gloom, they see the prospects for massive growth.

As I list some of the new ideas that are now being touted in the music business, I will connect the ideas from it to the fundraising industry where, by the way, I see massive growth.

1) Holistic, multifaceted online music services that tie together many of the individual music-related elements today (social, streaming, downloads, concert tickets etc.). I know most of you have heard of Spotify and Pandora for streaming music, but have you heard of Kickstarter or GiveMob for fundraising? These are the new acquisition tools of the online world. Coupled with other elements and technologies, they help you reach people faster.

2) Direct artist-to-fan and fan-to-fan engagement. When you send your direct mail to prospects or donors, is that a person-to-person connection? It used to be state-of-the-art 20 years ago, but now the Internet has changed the definition of connection. And as far as fan-to-fan connection in the music world, why do you think fans want to connect to each other? Could it be they share a passionate common bond with the artist and their music? How about your passionate supporters who share a common bond with the people and the mission of your organization? The tools exist to let your passionate supporters talk to each other. Why wouldn’t you do that?

3) The rise of music festivals fueled by social media. Just imagine what you could be doing with technology-driven engagement in offline (real life) and online connection. Music festivals are where fans come together to hear music. How about creating a live and virtual conference to re-ignite your supporters?

4) Younger players in the music ecosystem inherently understand that a multipronged, community-based business model of fan expansion and direct ongoing engagement is the new normal. Young and new start-up nonprofit charities are already all over this (this is part of our online e-learning Courses), and unless you don’t want a future, you had better be figuring out what they already know and are succeeding at. New start-up charities don’t have an arms-length relationship with their supporters and neither should you.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Your Direction

Orson Welles, the famous movie actor and director once said, “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”

I would alter that only slightly for fundraisers. “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on when you alter your fundraising direction.”

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: When Times Get Confusing

Bob Lefsetz writes, “When times get confusing, it's easy to revert to the habits that got you here. More often than not, that's precisely the wrong approach. The very thing that got you here is the thing that everyone who's here is doing, and if that's what it took to get to the next level, no one would be stuck.”

Fifty years from now, smartphones will look quaint. Today’s bandwidth speeds will be laughed at just like we laugh at floppy disks from 20 years ago. The revolution in online fundraising we embraced (or fought) will be in the rearview mirror.

How will they remember you? As the person who had the foresight to start the shift before it was too late, or as the last Director of Development?

The Internet is changing how you do your life, and will do the same to fundraising.

Drip, Drip, Drip.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Summer Reading

Can we all agree that when the Independence Day (aka The 4th of July) Holiday falls on a Friday, it is the perfect summer holiday "extended" weekend? My office building was emptied out by noon on Thursday, and the only folks around on Thursday morning were the rookies and me. So, Thursday to Monday, that's not a holiday, that's a vacation. And this on top of most of you taking off some additional vacation time over the next couple of months.

So with all this newfound time on your hands, how about some professional (yet enjoyable) summer reading?

Journalists and political types were the first to publish their "what I'm reading" list as a kind of badge of honor ... "Look at the highbrow books on my reading list!" And their lists were so long you wondered if they really read all those books or just published all the titles they thought would make them look so darned learned.

I used to think it was only a Democratic thing, since most Democrats have a fixation on highbrow literary patter and ideas, even though they have trouble crafting their ideas into laws that actually work in the real world (Obamacare et al). But now Republicans have joined in as well with their reading lists. So, although the Congress and the White House are collectively getting little or nothing done of any consequence in Washington, at least we know they are passing reading lists across the aisle.

So, in keeping with this time-honored (though dubious) tradition … I want to throw out a short list of books for you to think about acquiring and reading this summer. Of course, my recommendation is that you get them in e-book form. I still buy print books, but only after I have read the e-book version. The print books I buy tend to be the ones I consider really worthy or classics. And I extensively mark them up, as well as tabbing hundreds of pages with Post-It notes.

Here are my three recommended books to read this summer of 2014, as well as my reasons why you should take the time to read them.

The three are: The New Rules for the New Economy (New Rules) by Kevin Kelly, With Charity for All, by Ken Stern and Difference by Bernadette Jiwa.

Order is important.

My suggestion is that you read them in the order I have listed below.

New Rules was written back in 1997. In technology terms that seems like ancient history, but Kelly gets so much right back in the 90’s about our world today, it is almost spooky. In fact, if you tried to connect a common thread between all the tech titans or legends of the last 15 years, with names like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and even Mark Zuckerberg, the common thread is they all (and many lesser tech leaders as well) read this one book. Kevin Kelly and his book are honored in Silicon Valley and tech circles worldwide for the prescient insights and predictions that predate the actual arrival of the groundbreaking technological gadgets that we all take for granted today. But this is no history book. Rather, it is a primer to you and me today about how the Internet really works and, just as importantly, how it evolves. Why it is important? Because your fundraising future is online, and the sooner you understand why the Internet is different, the sooner you start changing and growing revenue again.

Ken Stern, who wrote With Charity for All, was a highly successful Executive Director of a large nonprofit organization. Vast and largely unexamined, the world of American charities accounts for fully 10 percent of economic activity in this country, yet operates with little accountability, no real barriers to entry, and a stunning lack of evidence of effectiveness. In With Charity for All, Ken Stern reveals a problem hidden in plain sight and prescribes a whole new way for Americans to make a difference. The thrust of his book is an argument to re-think and reorganize how nonprofits are run, and the need for increased transparency and accountability in delivering results. Why is it important? Because it isn’t just fundraising that is in need of a major shift. The core way that nonprofits are thought about and operate needs to be examined.

Finally, Bernadette Jiwa’s book, Difference, is a very easy-to-read primer on the importance of story and the ongoing narrative of your organization in the Internet age. Although written for companies, it is easy to transpose from the corporate world to the nonprofit world … “Marketing (fundraising) is not a department, it’s the story of how you create difference for your customers (supporters).”

Good reading and …

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: What is your Cell Phone … Really?

Last week the Supreme Court ruled that police must get a search warrant from a judge before being able to search for any information on a person’s cell phone. It wasn’t even close at 9 to 0.

Today’s cell and smart phones aren’t just telephones; they carry virtually all the information about us. They are as sacred to us as our homes and are an extension of the private “us.” Now the Supremes have said our privacy is guaranteed.

Then we hear that Amazon will soon offer its own line of smartphones. Why would Amazon want to sell its own phone … other than currently missing out on a market opportunity where almost two billion devices are sold worldwide while we spend (collectively) over $1.5 trillion on wireless services? Er, that’s enough to get Jeff Bezo’s attention, isn't it?

But when it comes to Amazon and Bezos, my guess is it is equally an extension of their primary strategy of driving more retail purchases through online access points, of which the cell phone is rapidly moving into first place. But more than just today’s purchases, if Amazon offers its own device, what do you think the default will be between search results when you’re searching for something online? Or, even if they aren’t that blatant, they at least know what you’re looking for. The police have to get a warrant to search your phone, but you and Amazon are buddies … joined at the “online and virtual” hip.  

Remember a couple of years ago when you had friends bragging that they didn’t … and wouldn’t … own a cell or smartphone? They all have one today, don’t they? And now the Supremes have extended your First Amendment rights to your smartphone.

So are you getting what all the fuss is about with cell phones?

For my regular readers, and especially those who have been through our program, this is just another validation of the mainstreaming of our world shifting online. Keep your fundraising focus online … and keep moving.

For the rest of my readers, including some long-term readers who still are mightily resisting moving their fundraising focus online, this is yet another “drip” of information that says you seriously need to rethink holding on so tightly to the past.

Clayton Christensen is a professor we talk a lot about in our online program. He wrote the book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. In his book he points out that, in regards to disruptive innovation, the fundamental things people do in their lives change relatively slowly. But, as he makes clear, we do change because our basic needs and desires don’t change until some inventor or innovator comes up with a better way to help us do what we were already doing (or wanted to get done).

In other words, the new innovation proves that it makes our life better, easier, or both.

That’s why your Luddite friends have smartphones today, even though just yesterday they said they never would.

Here is what you really need to understand about the importance of cell phones to your future as a fundraiser:

Right now, people (millions of them) want to know who your organization is and what you do to help people … and how they can help. And many of these people will donate to your Cause, Mission, or Ministry.

And when people want to know about your organization and want to support you … your job is to make certain both of those things can happen.

Today and into the future, the cell phone will be the major contact device (along with computers and tablets to a lesser extent) connecting your organization and your supporters.

Your job is to make that happen.

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 “Big Change” in Fundraising

If your number one focus when you approach somebody about your organization is only on raising money, like it has been for the past 60 years, then going forward your strategy will fail.  This means that your organization, starved for revenue, fades to irrelevance.

I can almost hear it now; "What planet does this guy live on?"

Okay, let's start at the beginning ... literally. The whole “big change” in fundraising revolves around the “chicken or the egg” question, the idea of “what comes first?”

We all know that there has been a major change in attitude towards charitable giving by baby boomers and younger generations. If you've somehow missed this memo, you may be in the fundraising business, but you're not in the game. And that last point of "not in the game" describes way too many professional fundraising leaders today.

In fact, in introspective moments, several leaders of charities have shared with me that they are wondering if their fundraising efforts, and, hence, their organizations, are dead and they just don't know it yet.

What are they talking about? Unlike the commercial world where even if a company has built up a great brand over the years, if things change and sales start drying up, they feel it immediately. Not so in the fundraising world. All the work you've brilliantly done for decades with the Depression and WWII generations is paying off today in large gifts and bequests. But these riches today hide the fact that your future ... your donor file ... is growing older and shrinking. Take away bequests and ... you get the picture.

So what is the major generational attitude towards philanthropy that has changed with the boomers and younger generations compared to the WWII and Depression era cohorts?

Beginning with the boomers, institutional trust is gone. Boomers do not trust institutions and your organization (by any definition) is an institution.

Yet boomers do give … after you build their trust.

How do you build trust?

First, you build trust by not focusing on the transaction first. If you want to be successful, you don’t send a letter to a boomer and ask for money, especially if they have never heard of you before. Rather, you offer them information about the work of your organization. Information is Good but Selling is Bad. Nobody ever … ever … wants to be sold. And whether you try to pretend that sending an appeal letter isn’t selling … if you are asking for money up front … you are selling.

Second is the recognition that, beginning with the boomers, they don’t give gifts. And by gifts I mean “no strings attached.” You give a gift to your nephew at a birthday party. There are no circumstances under which you are going to take that gift back. That is what I mean by “no strings attached.”

But for boomers and younger generations, when making a donation to charities … there are always strings attached. Boomers don’t give gifts (even if they call them gifts); boomers invest in charities … and an investment is a very different animal than a “no strings attached” gift. Investments are made with certain expectations, the top two of which are Accountability and Transparency.

So, can you do all the above through a direct mail appeal program or even events?

Not even close.

When you have a mailing program, you start with some significant costs like printing, postage, etc. Let’s face it; you have to ask for a donation upfront to re-coup your upfront costs. But then, you’re back to starting with a transaction … which is selling. When you hold an event, everyone knows that you are going to ask for a donation … a transaction. The question people answer before they ever show up is, are they going to donate or not? If they choose to give, they show up, if they don't, they stay home. For those that show up, you have a chance to share what you are really about … and that’s a good thing. But those who didn’t show up never got your information.

The big change in fundraising is that you must build trust up front. Building trust leads to developing a relationship. A relationship can progress to friendship. And then … and only then … can you ask a friend to support your Cause/Mission/Ministry.

So the answer to the chicken or egg question is this: Trust comes first.

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