All Things Annual Giving

Annual Giving Programs in a Small Office Environment

In the current economic climate, every day and every dollar count.  In smaller, community nonprofits, there are few resources available to hire a full development staff, and rarely even an experienced development director. 

But how then do maintain a thorough and adequate database, create the message, produce the materials, or touch the donors as often or in the way you need to be able to in order to attract the resources that will enable your success?

First of all, assess what you need in order to succeed.  The list of items itself will help you identify things you may be able to outsource that you hadn't previously considered.  Check online to see what resources you can gather that are available in the broader marketplace.  Then determine what resources may be available for free and what may be discounted if you ask. 

Then look at your existing staff.  How much ownership has your program staff taken for the actual existence of the positions they occupy?   Whoa!  These are tough words - and indeed they are.  But in a depressed economy, it's just wrong to think that anyone can hold a job without taking responsibility for its funding.  Those who do are soon referred to as "former employees".

While time management is important in a larger organizational structure, it is tantamount to survival in a smaller nonprofit.  Reassess your own schedule and think about places where you might devote more time to working through the prospects for more funding.

Finally, go to your board!  This is both the course of last resort - and the first.  The entire board needs to take ownership of fund development and bring the resources the organization needs to succeed.  Go to them for personal commitments and a division of responsibilities on the board that will account for meeting every dollar in your budget. 

Granted, most boards of small nonprofits will resist - and strongly - but if you are tactful, yet direct, reinforcing, yet transparent - they have little choice but to respond or turn over the reins to those who will. 

Brian Lacy & Associates has years of experience helping small nonprofits manage through the challenges of limited staff and other resources.  Contact Brian Lacy & Associates today to learn more about how we can help.

Tips for Screening Candidates for Annual Giving Positions

When you're looking for the right people to complete your annual giving team, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. It's an Employer's Market: at first, this may sound insensitive, but if you've ever been in a position when you didn't think you could find the ideal fit to meet your needs - that wasn't now. In 2009, you've got the pick of applicants.  Take your time, do multiple interviews, consider multiple options, be sure to cover your bases.

2. Fit the Person not the Position: Use whatever flexibility you have to hire the best people to bring onto your team, rather than trying to fit people into particular slots.  You'll get close to the slots anyway, job applicants usually know what they are applying for.  Plus, you never find exact matches.  That's one reason turnover tends to be so high in recent times. 

3. Effort Can Go Further than Talent: Every coach of every sport knows that a player with raw talent can be beaten by another player who is going all out to win.  This principle shows itself in the office constantly.  Truly you want everyone working for you to being giving 100% every day - find people who you trust to do that.

4. Developing Talent Takes Effort and Time: This is true of the talent that walks in the door before you get started, and it's true of the talent you build within your office too.  Using the sports analogy again, the championship team is often one that has practiced and improved its skill level so much that it can look quite effortless even as it executes perfect plays.  That is exactly what you should want on your own team.

For help recruiting the best talent for your annual giving team, contact Brian Lacy & Associates today.

Annual Fund Basics

by Brian Lacy

The best of annual fund development begins with the fundamentals. Database management, direct mail and online giving, phonathons, matching gift campaigns, effective donor segmentation - these are components for successful, year-to-year fundraising for any nonprofit organization, no matter how large or small. 

It is a process that parallels good blocking and tackling on a football team.  You know the fundamentals, you design the plays, and then you go out and execute.  Our goal is to teach, coach and help you through the execution of good annual fund development.

On the pages and posts contained within this blog, we're striving to provide the best set of information available on annual fund development found anywhere on the web.  But our services go much further than the basics you can find here.  For assistance with any of you annual fund needs, please email me today.  Or  go to my website: brianlacy.com to get familiar with all we have to offer.