Jason Dick

Sounds Like A Squirrel

Aug 25th

Posted by Jason Dick in Faith or Fundraising

A little boy is in Sunday school at church and his teacher asks him a question, “What lives in a tree, eats nuts, and has a bushy tail?” The little boy thinks for a moment and says, “I know the answer is Jesus, but it sounds like a squirrel.”

Who Jesus is and the message He brings is central to the work of most Christian organizations. Whether it is through traditional evangelism or by seeking to model an organization after Christ the Gospel message guides a Christian nonprofit’s vision. But the point of the story above illustrates the greater popular opinion of many Christian organizations. Nonprofits are often valued based on the work the organization does even more than their written missions statement. Like this little boy, many of us have heard the message about evangelism so many times that we jump to conclusions too early. My wish is that more Christian organizations would do good work in this world in response to what Jesus has done for us and let our evangelism come from the actions serving the people of the world.

Beyond Christian ministries, there is a message in this for all of us. We need to be careful not to become too cliché with our message to donors or we lose our ability to be effective. A couple of great examples are our slogans or mission statements. Too often our mission statement or slogan actually doesn’t say anything. In effort to clarify our messages I hope we do not oversimplify the problems.

Our donors and communities need to understand the complexity of the issues with which we work. Poverty, global health, education–they all require a significant on-going investment to make a difference. Our culture provides too many sound bite messages that do not tell us anything. The biggest obstacle many of the problems our organizations face is providing a clear course of action for our donors to respond to.

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Endowments… A Reflection in a Mirror?

Aug 23rd

Posted by Jason Dick in Campaigns & Solicitations

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While working on a proposal for a significant merit-based endowment, a co-worker made an insightful comment. He said donors who set up endowments picture themselves as the individual receiving it. We can’t quite make this a rule of thumb, but it does give us a glimpse into the mind of the donor. If you’re creating a merit-based endowment, think about the specific values that made your donor successful. What path did he take to success? What obstacles did she have to overcome? Did he have a unique set of skills, training, or talents that made him successful?

Building a merit-based endowment allows donors an opportunity to highlight a trait in another person or program that they value a great deal. Maybe that trait is hard work, and they want to create a scholarship for students who are doing a double major. Maybe the trait is excellence, and they want to create a scholarship for 4.0 GPA students. This kind of endowment allows a donor to carry on a legacy that was started at the organization, in the community, or in connection with a special issue. If they have given to your organization for a long time what is it that they believe in the very most or have encouraged you to change the very most? If they are community-driven, think about their reputation and what they have done to sustain or encourage that reputation.

This is an interesting exercise to think about when building a merit-based endowment. When an endowment fits with donors’ personal core values and supports what they believe in, it can strengthen their interest and generosity in giving.

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Featured Fundraiser: Sandy Clark

Aug 18th

Posted by Jason Dick in Featured Fundraiser

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This month’s Featured Fundraiser is Sandy Clark. Feel free to leave a comment with questions or let me know if you’d like more information about her organization. If you know of a fundraising professional that I should feature here, I’d love to hear your nomination just send me an email. – Jason

What kind of fundraising do you do and who do you do it for?

I am the Director of Development Communications and Annual Fund for the Rural Development Institute (RDI). We work to secure land rights for the extreme poor in developing countries. Check out our new and improved website at: www.rdiland.org

What keeps you going? Why do you keep working in development?

After a successful career in policy and program management I took a step away – including a one year sabbatical to travel around the world. As a result of this self-reflection I decided to become very intentional and look for an organization that matched my passion for international development with evidence based research and programming. My work at RDI allows me to introduce powerful people in our community and across the world to a powerful idea- that land can and does make a huge difference in transforming lives and societies. There is so much joy in introducing people to this truth and in seeing the steady expansion of RDI thanks to so many committed people in the community who want to support change around the world.

What tips/advice do you have to other fundraisers in your field?

First, is be focused and patient. Relationships, the really great ones, take time. RDI has been working in this field for over forty years and it is just now that we are picking up momentum. My second tip is to take risks. I am a huge believer in jumping in with both feet and trying out creative ideas. I usually have a couple going in my head at all times. It keeps the energy flowing and excites others to join your cause. Finally, I believe in knowing your subject area. I spend time learning what we are doing and staying informed on current projects and trends in the field. You can’t sell it if you don’t passionately believe it.

What is the most frustrating or difficult thing about fund development?

That is simple–providing the level of personalized attention that each donor and staff member deserves.

You recently changed jobs from a large local social service agency to a small international organization. What has been the major difference?

The primary difference has been in the size of our development department. I went from a 14 member team to a 4 member team. With that I have increased the need to multi-task. I am now the event manager, annual fund manager, writer and researcher – to name a few. What I have also found in this change is a closer link to program staff. In my previous organization our development team was a bit removed from program and it was hard to connect with their day to day activities. Departments and programs were in different buildings and many times different cities. At RDI we are all together and we have regular learning sessions where the entire staff is invited to hear a trip report or recent research from program staff. One day I will be learning about deforestation in Kenya and the next day I will hear about micro-plots in India. The learning opportunities are fascinating and provide me with tremendous stories that I can share with donors.

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Mobile Giving Research and Opinion

Aug 16th

Posted by Jason Dick in Social Entrepreneurship

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You’ve been provided some facts and general information about mobile giving. I’ve learned a lot through this process and want to hear your thoughts and experiences in the mobile giving space. Below are a few different theories and philosophies regarding some of the benefits and specifics of mobile giving.

Instantly Viral
Cell phones and smart phones are all over the world and have saturated America. People carry their mobile phones with them almost all of the time. As nonprofits try and find creative ways to reach out to their constituencies, text messaging is a great way to get a personal message out. Providing donors with instant information about the needs of your organization improves the urgency of your message. As we’ve seen through fundraising with Haiti, the mobile platform has an incredible ability to respond to an urgent need in a short period of time.

Emerging Industry
Katya from the Nonprofit Marketing Blog wrote about mobile giving in a recent post.

“Most of us don’t have optimized websites or email outreach. Nail the basics. Then think mobile.”

In the mind of many nonprofits, mobile giving is an emerging industry. The technology has been around for several years and through Haiti it has increased in popularity. If you are struggling to communicate with your donors through traditional channels, get those mastered first. Make sure your organization has an effective website before running a mobile campaign. One of the great values in mobile giving is the ability to point people to your website through an embedded link.

Scalability
Mobile giving is successful when you can effectively communicate with a large group of donors and when you have access to media channels. If you have a really small donor pool you may not be able to raise enough of a reach to justify the associated costs. Talk with the mobile giving business you’re considering working with and get a feel from them if they feel like your nonprofit is right for a mobile campaign.

Capturing Donor Information
In addition to donations, date, and time of the gift, and in many cases the cell phone number. However you can only text to this number you are not allowed to call it. Acknowledging this group of donors happens through follow up texts. Through follow-up texts and embedded links in your text message you can ask donors to fill out information such as an email or mailing address on your website.

I’d like to hear back from you one what your experience with mobile giving was like. If you were successful or unsuccessful, please leave a comment and tell us about it. I’d also like to hear from those of you that have not yet used mobile giving. What is preventing you from trying it out? What concerns do you have?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Here are a few research studies on the adoption of mobile giving in the nonprofit community.

Convio, Edge Research, and Sea Change Strategies: Mobile Trends and Adoption
Kaptivate Research Group: Nonprofit Adoption of Mobile Giving

What questions do you have about mobile giving? There will be a handful of experts regularly reading your comments that can help clarify and explain mobile giving beyond the information I’ve provided. Please leave a comment below with your thoughts about mobile giving. If your nonprofit has used mobile giving let us know who you worked with and what that experience was like.

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Text to Give Pricing & Costs

Aug 11th

Posted by Jason Dick in Social Entrepreneurship

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When considering which provider to use, it can be difficult to find their pricing information so I’ve aggregated it here. There are more variables beyond cost since different businesses offer different options in reporting and wrap around services. Some of the providers require an application process for nonprofits for charitable or logistic reasons. Below I’ve provided a price chart for each business. Monthly fee packages govern the number of outgoing messages, simultaneous campaigns, and wrap around services you can run.

Business Name	Sign-up Fee	Monthly Fee	Transaction Fee
mGive	$500	$400 to $1,500	$0.35 plus 3.5%
Mobile Cause	$350	$100 to $250	$0.50
CauseCast	Uses Mobile Cause Platform
Give by Cell	$0 Waive	$49	$0.48
g8wave	$350	$350	$0 to $0.35
iLoop Mobile	$1,000	$500

g8wave is a leader in the planning and deployment of integrated mobile strategies. For the past decade we have worked with brands, agencies and non-profits to build successful, long term strategic mobile plans.

Give by Cell – As one of the few Authorized Service Providers for the Mobile Giving Foundation, we help charities expand their fundraising efforts and reach new audiences with mobile technology. Features like real-time reporting and donor messaging help develop robust mobile giving campaigns.

Connect2Give is currently running a special summer pilot program. During the months of July, August and September you can take a “test drive” for a low cost and without a long term contract.

Other Associated Service Providers who I did not receive any giving information from: Mobile Commons, MPower, Give on the Go

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How Does Mobile Giving Work?

Aug 9th

Posted by Jason Dick in Social Entrepreneurship

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Mobile giving is like the wild west of online fundraising. Nonprofits are still trying to understand much of what is being done in mobile giving. Some nonprofits are moving west and striking it rich, while others are having a hard time finding a place to start.

What is mobile giving? Basically a nonprofit provides its donors an option to give via text messaging by texting a specified keyword to a specified five or six digit number. When this keyword is sent, the cell phone companies send the designated gift amount to the nonprofit through the Mobile Giving Foundation or mGive Foundation.

The industry is run by two organizations, Mobile Giving Foundation and mGive. Mobile Giving Foundation pioneered mobile giving, delivering the platform to various nonprofits through Application Service Providers (ASPs). When they first began, one of these ASP’s was mGive which eventually broke out on its own. Both of these organizations have brokered a relationship with the majority of cell phone providers enabling text-to-give campaigns. If your nonprofit is considering doing a mobile campaign, you will contract with one of these organizations or their partners.

Nonprofits receive 100% of every donation ranging from $5 up to $30 depending on the designated amount. Additional information and acknowledgements are sent to each donor through outgoing text messages. Many of the providers have additional services that allow you to integrate other features to your campaigns such as website widgets or online giving.

The various ASP’s and mGive charge the nonprofits certain fees to use the platform. There are initial sign-up fees, a monthly campaign fee, and transaction fees for each gift. Nonprofits receive their donations in the form of a check 30 to 90 days after they receive a gift.

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Tips on Building Good Proposals

Aug 4th

Posted by Jason Dick in Campaigns & Solicitations

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Most significant six-figure asks include a proposal of some kind. Proposals can also take the tension out of a conversation by redirecting attention to a picture or statistic that connects with your conversation. You don’t have to have every question answered in your proposal, and it doesn’t always need to be four-color and on glossy paper. Here are a few useful tips I’ve found for building good proposals.

Try to put yourself in the mind of the donor and think through the proposal from his or her perspective.
Keep it short. You don’t have to write a long proposal. One page is often a good length for a proposal or report. If you need to, don’t go more than two pages. You may have other support materials and packet materials that are longer, but your basic idea should be concise enough to fit in two pages.
Including a story or picture can add a lot. Pictures can say a lot more than words, and stories can reveal an attitude or philosophy often better than facts and figures.
Include measurable outcomes. If their funding will do something specific, illustrate what that specific something is.
Recognition details. If you have a special plan to recognize a donor’s gift, explain what you are going to do.
Include statistics about your organization and the people you serve. Support your stories and your vision for the donor’s gift with some statistics.

What do you always include in your proposals to major donors? Any tips or tricks you use to create a good proposal or in integrating a proposal into a solicitation?

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Thinking Critically, Thinking Differently

Aug 2nd

Posted by Jason Dick in Campaigns & Solicitations

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A while ago I had a number of high-dollar amount solicitations all within a few weeks of each other. I was struck by a number of thoughtful questions that our volunteer solicitation teams had about the proposal and the solicitation plan. Many of their questions helped us to take a step back and rethink some of our initial presuppositions and ideas. This conversation re-enforced the value of thinking critically.

Going into a solicitation, we do not need to have every single question answered, but we should be able to defend why we are asking donors for funding. Many of our volunteers’ questions included educating them about the mechanics of the organization and the industry. Some of the terms we used were different than the terms they used, and it helped to talk from both perspectives. We changed our terms to reflect language that the donor would better understand.

As nonprofit professionals, we have unique and sometimes different perspectives because we are inside the organization. We often know what the actual obstacles are to making a difference, not just the perceived obstacles. The above conversation gave me and my co-workers a chance to discuss ideas and strategies we had not yet thought about. We also had a chance to explain why the areas of proposed funding were important to ongoing success which changed volunteers’ perspectives on the needs of the organization.

The plan and proposals we developed benefited because of this give and take conversation. This was a great experience for the organization and for the volunteers involved. Our organizations should do this more often. Do you have a story of a conversation that provided you with perspective on your organization?

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Small to Middle Donors and Obama

Jul 28th

Posted by Jason Dick in All Donors Major Donors

1 comment

I received some great comments and encouragement from, Major Gifts or Middle Giving, a couple months ago. I’m searching for answers to what this program might look like. What needs to happen is a technique where you can cultivate a fan-base in a way that is personal to them. Or, we need to find a way to cultivate middle giving donors in a low-cost, time-efficient way.

In Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg (you can read an earlier interview with him), they talk about a technique employed during Obama’s presidential campaign showing a new kind of value in asking for small gifts.

“If Obama had asked for $100 million in the weeks leading up to the election, he probably wouldn’t have gotten it. Instead he told people to donate whatever they could – a few bucks even – and then he was able to return to them over and over. In other words small is the new big.”

This started my mind thinking about all of the opportunities that social media can provide for us. Often nonprofits send off regular annual mailings that sometimes fund a direct need and other times fund an ongoing annual need. These letters often ask the donor to stretch their giving beyond what they have done in the past to upgrade their giving. I believe we do this because it can cost a lot of money to send a mail-out multiple times a year. But social media is free. What if we sent an email out to our donor-base regarding specific needs? Instead of asking for $100 from one donor, we would ask him to be a part of a group of people raising $100,000. We could also provide an opt-out box and let him know we will connect with him in a week’s time if we do not reach our goal. We could also encourage donors to fund specific needs as they develop. If they are funding in smaller specific amounts, maybe they would make more small gifts adding up to a higher overall total.

I don’t see this as a comprehensive donor strategy as I really believe in the power of monthly giving. I’m just throwing out one idea that popped into my head as I was considering this. What other ideas do you have, has this sparked any thinking for you?

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Do You Talk or Do You Listen?

Jul 26th

Posted by Jason Dick in Campaigns & Solicitations

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I have met a lot of extroverted fundraisers; they are people who like to talk and be listened to and can often speak eloquently and persuasively about the causes of their organization. However, I’ve always enjoyed listening more than talking. I have found that many donors want to talk about themselves, why they do or do not give, and what they do.

One of the most valuable lessons that I’ve learned is that a person feels a lot more of an affinity with your organization if it feels like they have been able to share about themselves. This has left me with a question inside. Which is a more valuable trait for a development officer to have– to be able to speak with charisma and eloquence. or to ask good questions and be a good listener? We obviously cannot have one without the other. In fact, a good relationship is built on give and take, on two way conversation. It is important to be able to make your case and persuasively tell your organization’s story. But, it is equally as valuable to be able to understand what a donor’s interests truly are and how the organization links to them.

How do you go into a donor visit? Do you go in with questions or with answers and a presentation? I imagine that you probably do both depending on what stage of the solicitation process you are in. I know quite a few outgoing development professionals but not nearly as many introverted ones. What kind of development professional are you? Any introverts out there that share my story?

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