Building and maintaining a culture of philanthropy is hard work. It is deep work that takes years to build and moments to destroy. But having a healthy culture of philanthropy makes work more fun and makes fundraising easier. It’s worth having a periodic check-up to assess how your institution is doing.

Answer these questions for your institution:

Board Support

• Does your board of directors (or board of trustees) support the organization as current year donors at 100% participation?
• Board support is a sign of stakeholder investment. It also shows that your closest advocates are current with their support. The level of the support doesn't matter so much as the consistency and recency of that support. PS - It's easier to ask for others to give if you are a current donor.

Staff Support

• Does your fundraising staff support the organization as current year donors at 100% participation?
• Does at least 50% of your organization’s overall staff (and faculty) support the organization as current year donors?
• Again, staff support is a measurement of stakeholder investment. Does your staff (especially your fundraising staff, believe in the mission enough to back it with their personal funds? The level doesn't mean as much as the participation.

Alumni support (or Grateful Patient support)

• This category assesses whether those served by your organization’s mission give back to the organization later. This is a sign of institutional effectiveness.
• What is your alumni (or similar) participation rate? You’ll know whether this is good for your organization or not. The level at which this metric is outstanding varies widely from institution to institution.

Fun Factor

• Does your organization frequently have concrete signs that fundraising is seen as an enjoyable community endeavor? (For example, an annual gala, a stewardship picnic, a “Dancing with the Deans” competition, etc.)
• List what you currently do to put the “fun” in fundraising.
• Write down three new ideas to improve your fun factor.

Communications

• How often do your constituents hear from the organization without a fundraising pitch?
• Do these communications include stories of impact?
• Are you communicating in different media? Email, print, video, etc?

Stewardship and Donor Relations

• Do you have meaningful giving societies?
• Do you have a person designated to assist donors with any “customer service” type issues? 
• How is your data management and data integrity? Nothing kills a philanthropic feeling like your name being wrong on an invitation.
• Stewardship is not just the purview of the staff member with "donor relations" in his or her title. It is an office-wide perspective of service and connection. From your front desk associates to student workers/interns to your accountants on staff to gift officers and especially advancement services and gift processing staff, improving donor relations should be everyone's primary objective.

Other questions to think about:

• Does your organization show the impact of giving clearly and broadly?
• For major donors, do you create unique reports and experiences that connect for them their gift to the impact in the world?
• Do you see expressions of gratitude at all levels of the organization? Where could your organization do better?
• Are the needs of the institution are clearly expressed for donors of all levels using different media?
• Does the institution set expectations for giving through specific asks, giving society thresholds and endowment minimums?
• Are fundraising goals embraced by both fundraising staff and program staff/faculty?

How did you feel about the assessment? Where are you doing well? Where should you improve? 

As always, comments and questions are welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,

Jessica

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these: 

• Goals versus projections
• What should a strategic plan contain?
• Planning for the Unexpected
• Conducting a Benchmarking Study
• My Exhaustive Event Planning Checklist

PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my  guide to Call Center Games for Free!​​

Don’t get me wrong. I am a fan and advocate of automated calling software. And I’ve been spoiled in my career, working for large state universities with the resources to either outsource the calling program or to have an in-house program with appropriate calling software.

In the past, I would cringe when a colleague would tell me they were running a manual/paper phonathon.

But there’s a reason why they say necessity is the mother of invention. I now work for a small independent seminary that is on a shoestring budget.

This summer, I did some analysis and determined that what the program really needed was a phonathon. I decided this for a few reasons:

1. The school had not had a calling program in at least 8 years and many donors had fallen off of giving in that time. We needed to reconnect with those donors in a more personal way than mail could do.
2. The school had been through some rough times, including a presidential transition and controversy. They needed the public relations aspect of phone calling.
3. The school needed some work in specifically the alumni relations area. See #2.
4. We were working on growing a recurring gift program and phone is one of the best ways to acquire new recurring monthly donors.
5. And, we had some “dirty” data and needed to clarify and correct demographic data while eliminating bad information.

These are compelling reasons. But, I knew we had not budgeted for a phonathon program. I had some extra resources (only $5,000) but I knew that would not be enough to outsource or purchase software. How could I get a phonathon program off the ground quickly, easily and cheaply?

You really only need 3 things to have a phonathon:

• Callers
• Phones
• Prospects

CALLERS
I figured out my maximize number of callers and caller hours that I could afford to pay based on a competitive hourly rate for the location (Berkeley, CA). Then I set about recruitment. Here are some of the graphics I used to recruit students callers.

I used my 3 favorite interview questions for student callers. You can read about those here. I hired 4 students and 1 graduate who wanted to volunteer her time as a service to the school.

EQUIPMENT
Now I needed equipment. At first, I was thinking through how much long distance would cost and whose offices we could use in the evenings. Then I went back to drawing board: Why was thinking landlines when I preach all the time that cell phones are the future of phonathon?

I decided to go mobile. I ordered simple, Samsung flip phones which had a headphone jack so we could utilize headsets. I bought these Voistek noise cancelling headphones that would work with the phones and free the caller to move anywhere in the room. I bought some of the headsets with only one ear pad and some with two. The callers overwhelming preferred the double headset. The headsets, while very affordable ($29) also had good sound quality. Here are the links for the phones and headsets I selected.

(Yes, these are affiliate links. I've actually used these products and I'm sure they'll help you start a pop-up phonathon. If you purchase, I get a small percentage to keep the choice content coming here on Real Deal Fundraising. Fair trade, huh?)

These phones are already configured to work with a Verizon go-phone plan, which was far cheaper than long distance fees. They are also used phones so they are super-cheap – less than $17 each. My phonathon campaign was scheduled to be one month long so we paid for one month of prepaid phone access: $50 for each phone. Bonus: when you go to the Verizon store to sign up for your multiple prepaid, burner phone plans, you feel like a bad guy from a Law and Order SVU episode!

Total for each phone “station”: $96

Total to equip my five callers: $480

OVERALL SHOESTRING BUDGET
I also spent $100 on 4, $25 gift certificates to use as weekly incentives for performance.

Overall my budget looked like this:

• Equipment: $480
• Motivation: $100
• Food for Callers: $500
• Caller Wages: $3,920 (which would provide 245 calling hour at $16 per hour)

And remember that one of my callers was committed to calling as a volunteer. And the equipment itself is a one-time expense. We plan to use the phones and headsets again soon. More savings and value!

PROSPECTS
As for data, I pulled the prospects via queries in Raiser’s Edge and then used that spreadsheet to create calling sheets via a mail merge. We went through a couple of iterations to get the information in the most intuitive place for the callers but ultimately it worked well.

Overall, the program raised over $15,000 which was a great return on investment and we added over 25 new recurring gift donors as well.

If your institution doesn’t have a huge budget but needs the personalized contact that a phonathon program provides, you can create a “pop-up” phonathon program on a shoestring budget that is efficient and effective.

Do you outsource, use automated software or have a manual phonathon? Or do you need to start a pop-up phonathon for your institution? Comments and questions are, as always, welcomed and encouraged!

Cheers, 

Jessica Cloud  

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these: 

• Is phonathon really dead? 
• Launching a phonathon program (Interview with Markus Jones)
• How to Use Economic Impact Data to Get Incentives for Student Callers

PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my  guide to Call Center Games for Free!

Video is more and more a huge part of the storytelling process for fundraisers. It's a great way to communicate the impact of philanthropy in the world. But, most fundraisers aren't video professionals. Once you have your video done, what are the best practices to get your constituents to watch it? I asked my friend and colleague, Ndlela Nkobi, that question. Here are his 5 best tips for getting your message seen! Enjoy! -- Jessica Cloud, CFRE

Congratulations on finishing your organization’s video! After weeks (sometimes months) of planning, shooting, and editing, you have finally uploaded your film to YouTube. Now what?  How do you make sure that your video gets the views it deserves and has its intended impact? Though there are no guaranteed ways of making your video go viral, here are some steps to make sure the people who need to see the video actually see it, watch it and take action.
 
1. Reinforce Your Call to Action

Videos are generally created to get people to take some action (sign a petition, donating, joining a mailing list . . .) and your call to action in your video is where you ask your audience to take that action.   Make sure you reinforce that call to action whenever you get a chance (your website, YouTube, your platforms).  The ultimate success of your video will be based on how many people take you up on your call to action.

2. Have a Great Thumbnail

Pick an engaging still image to give your audience a quick snapshot of your video. That thumbnail is also the image that is generally automatically used when the video is shared on social media and on platforms like WordPress.  Consider creating a custom thumbnail that could also includes words that would further draw the viewer in.

3. Pay Attention to your YouTube Descriptions, Titles, Tags

The title, description and tags you use on YouTube will not only help people find your video when they search for related content but they should also draw people in to watch the video. Not everyone is going to see the video on your website so give your viewer all the information they need to take the next step in your video description.

4. Place Video on Your Website

Placing your video on your website gives you much more control over how the video is presented to viewers with things like the call to action, video placement and supporting text/images/graphics. 

5. Promote the Video on Your Platforms

Once the video is ready on YouTube and on your website, share it widely on your various platforms (Facebook, Twitter, mailing lists, . . . )  Your platforms will be one of the main ways that the people in your community find out about your video.   Don’t be afraid to repost content (especially on social media) to make sure as many people see your post as possible. 

Bonus action: Check Your Analytics

Here is another area where you get to define what success looks like for your video (or campaign). Whether you are looking at Google Analytics or YouTube analytics (ideally you are doing both) this is where you get to see how successful you were with things like page views, videos views and how long people are looking at your video. It is also important to look at engagement (likes, shares, comments  . . .)  Analytics and engagement are matrices you use to help you plan for the next videos you are working on producing. 

About the author: Ndlela Nkobi is a filmmaker and online video content creator based in New York City and Johannesburg. He works with small businesses, nonprofits, consultants and artists to connect with their clients through the use of video. You can see his work at ndlela.tv. 

Ndlela Nkobi has worked for Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (Columbia University) and Third Sector New England (Boston, MA).  He has worked with Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (Columbia University), New York City Department of Education, Nonprofit Consultants Network (Boston, MA) and Starr King School for the Ministry (Berkeley, CA).

Hi readers, I hope you enjoyed this guest post. Do you have additional tips for how to get the most reach on promotional videos? Comments and questions are, as always, welcomed and encouraged!

Cheers, 

Jessica Cloud  

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these: 

• Create Memorable Web Addresses
• All about Giving Days (Interview with Jake Strang)
• Canva for Graphic Design

PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my  guide to Call Center Games for Free!

I've named this column "Thoughts for Thursday" and mostly it gives me a weekly space to bring up whatever topics I want to discuss. But, this week, I asked myself, "What's really on my mind?" I have a few things that have been buzzing around my brain lately. 

But, I'd also like to hear from you.

What are you struggling with? What solutions are you lacking right now? What trends are you baffled by? What ideas are you really digging right now? Please comment and let me know. 

Here are some of the bees in my bonnet: 
​

• Phonathons are a recruitment ground for fundraising professionals
  

Assuming the push to dismantle college phonathons continues and gain traction, where will young people get introduced to the profession of fundraising? Where will the new fundraising professionals learn to ask? Formal programs to study fundraising as an academic discipline are still nascent. Are we willing to drop telefunds and lose this important space of introduction and early training into our industry?

• Communications, too much or too little

I've always been a fundraiser. I've picked up some public relations experience along the way but it has never been my area of focus. I'm struggling with what to do when donors tells you that your institution should improve communicate, when I truly feel like your organization is communicating well, with a solid plan of regular and meaningful stories and data. Other donors might say the communication is too much. And the organization has limitations in terms of staff and capacity. It's a puzzling place to be. All I can conclude is that we must keep doing what we are doing and continue to innovate and experiment too.

• The Importance of Strong Alumni Relations
  

Also, I've been thinking A LOT about alumni relations. I've been lucky to have worked for most of my career in "big shops" in higher education where there was always a dedicated alumni relations staff. I have never until now fully appreciated the work they did and how much their work helped me do my job. I just wrote a strategic plan for the Graduate Association for the seminary I work for and my hope is that we will be able to repair broken relationships, reignite passionate supporters in service to the school and re-engage those that have grown distant. I'm excited that our volunteer leadership is committed to re-building this organization which will mobilize graduates  to help the school recruit students and raise much-needed funds.

Again, what's really on your mind? Watched any good TED Talks about philanthropy and fundraising lately? Read any inspirational articles? What's the question you wish you had an answer to right now?