Fundraising only gels if you sell well

By Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein
"The Fundraising Guru"

To increase your fundraising salesmanship, contact Stephen Goldstein through his Fundraisers Hotline using the address at the end of this article.


I know that people who work on behalf of nonprofits like to think of themselves as doing something for the common good. I know that because, whenever I hold workshops, the first question I ask participants is, “What is a nonprofit?” And invariably, their answers accentuate an altruistic angle. “It’s an organization that serves society,” they say, or one “that helps the needy,” or it’s “a group of individuals who hold events to raise money for worthy purposes.”


The last thing in the world that supporters of nonprofits like to think they are is salespeople; they consider themselves a cut above schnooks selling shoes or used cars. I know that because when I ask my second question—“What is fundraising?”—no one ever answers “sales.” Instead predictably, the answers have a mushy quality equal to the definition of a nonprofit. Fundraising is the “ability to raise capital for an entity,” “stewardship, relationship-building in order to raise funds for an agency,” “an effort to generate funds for a good cause.”


So, it’s time for a major reality check for everyone who works on behalf of nonprofits. From doctors and plumbers to entrepreneurs and artists, successful people know how to sell--well. Fundraising is “nonprofit sales,” pure and simple. If you don’t know how to sell, you’ll never be an effective fundraiser. And if your first reaction to the idea of “nonprofit fundraising as selling” is to hold your nose, you’re probably holding back whatever cause(s) you support. So, here are some basic tips to help you increase your effectiveness in fundraising sales:


1. Selling is the quintessential skill. It’s not about getting others to do something they don’t want to or to buy something they don’t need. At its best, selling is the highest form of communication: It’s about making the perfect match between what you have to offer and what someone else wants. It’s an art.


2. Rejection isn’t rejection. So what if someone says no to you. It’s not the end of your life nor should you punish them on your voodoo doll. Think of how many times you may have said no to someone without meaning any ill towards them—and move on to someone else.


3. Fundraising is not about “the ask,” but about “the listen.” Remember the lyric, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Consider your customers before you chew their ears off about your cause. Too many do-gooder fundraisers have a “prima facie, ipso facto attitude.” They think that all they have to do is blurt out the basics of their case and their prey will open their wallet. Ain’t so! Do your homework: Find out about people you approach. Take an interest in them. You’ll be amazed at how interested they’ll become in you.


4. Commit to selling 24/7. The best/most successful fundraisers even dream about raising money. Fundraising is a frame of mind, an all-consuming passion, not a 9-to-5 job. From a check-out line in Publix to a tuxedo-filled ballroom, fundraiser-salespeople know that there are six degrees of separation—or less--between them and the next contribution they receive.


5. Multiply your donors’ gifts. Donors who are treated well beget other donors. The most successful fundraiser-salespeople know that fundraising only gels if you sell well.


Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein is the author of 30 Days to Successful Fundraising. He is also the host of the broadcast radio program, “The Forum for Nonprofits,” which is also available 24/7 from anywhere in the world. To increase the "gelling" of your fundraising, contact him at http://www.fundraisershotline.com/. He'll answer you personally!

New Column Every Monday--"The Fundraising Guru"--September 10, 2007

Go Around the Fundraising Clock
by Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein

Successful fundraising is cyclical. Your current effort starts where your last one ended. Think of the hands of a clock. Your fundraising cycle should go through four stages and 12 steps, beginning and ending at 12.
Phase 1--Research
Step 1 (12:00-1:00): Review analyses of all your organization’s previous fundraising efforts. Were the dollars raised worth the time, energy, and money you spent? If you’re starting something new, try to find out the effort-result ratio of a project similar to yours.
Step 2 (1:00-2:00): Research what products and programs the people you serve or want to serve need for the foreseeable future. Ask potential donors to what extent they would support them. Avoid preconceived notions and yesterday’s truisms. Look for fresh answers to the question, What will “sell” in the short-run and long-run?
Step 3 (2:00-3:00): If you have a project in place, be merciless in light of what you learn in Steps 1 and 2. Consider modifying or scrapping existing efforts or proposing new ones. Don’t change just to change, but don’t be stuck in the past.
Phase 2-Strategy
Step 4 (3:00-4:00): Based upon your Phase 1 Research, compare the kind of program you want to pursue with funders’ priorities. Do they agree? Are you willing to make any modifications? How flexible are you willing to be—or can you be?
Step 5 (4:00-5:00): Develop your program proposal.
Step 6 (5:00-6:00): Identify the people who you think can help you reach potential funders. Determine those who are most willing to support your efforts and get them to commit to how they will assist you. Draft your proposal materials. Get accurate contact information for possible donors—street and e-mail addresses, phone and fax numbers. Plan your public relations strategy—the media outlets you will use to create awareness of your efforts.
Phase 3—Implementation
Step 7 (6:00-7:00): Share the draft of your proposal with key supporters and reconfirm how they will help you.
Step 8 (7:00-8:00): Produce your proposal. Make it appropriate to the scope of your project—as brief as one page or as elaborate as a printed brochure.
Step 9 (8:00-9:00): Let it roll! Get your proposal to funders. Schedule person-to-person solicitations with potential major donors. Release publicity about your effort, updating it as contributions are made.
Phase 4—Evaluation
Step 10 (9:00-10:00): Collect data. For example, find out why prospects didn’t contribute or give as much as they could have. Did those who promised to introduce you to potential donors really open doors?
Step 11 (10:00-11:00): Analyze your data. What you have learned to improve each of the 12 steps of your fundraising cycle in the future?
Sept 12: Write a concise analysis of your latest fundraising cycle, even if only you and a few others will see it. You will benefit from looking at how well you’ve done in black-and-white. Your fundraising cycle is complete only when you have “closed the circle.” Then, you can apply what you’ve learned at the start of your next Phase 1, Step 1 (12 to 1 o’clock).
Follow the 12 steps of the fundraising clock. Hit the jackpot.
Send your comments and questions to Stephen Goldstein at trendsman@aol.com. He is the author of 30 Days to Successful Fundraising and the host and executive producer of "Fundraising Success," a weekly one-hour program broadcast by WXEL/National Public Radio and available on the Internet from anywhere in the world at any time at http://www.wxelpodcasts.org/.

New Column Every Monday--"The Fundraising Guru"--August 20, 2007

Podcast “Fundraising Success”
http://www.wxelpodcasts.org/
Indispensable Nonprofit Resource

By Stephen L. Goldstein, consultant and author of 30 Days to Successful Fundraising

Attention anyone and everyone who has anything to do with nonprofits: WXEL/National Public Radio has extended launched a podcast of its highly acclaimed, weekly, one-hour program, “Fundraising Success.”

The public service for the nonprofit community is now available at http://www.wxelpodcasts.org/ at any time, from anywhere, to anyone with Internet access or its equivalent.

First, the premise of “Fundraising Success:” There are a gazillion shows and columns regurgitated advice on how for-profit businesses can succeed, but nothing—zip, zero—for nonprofits. So, the program brings together experts in communications, grant-writing, capital campaigns, PR, and other areas of interest. It’s literally the consultant team that no one nonprofit could ever afford, but which all of them need.

So, second, what’s a podcast? In the words of WXEL’s president and general manager, Jerry Carr, “It’s anytime audio—radio taken to a whole new dimension. Podcasting allows us to break the traditional barriers between stations and listeners. We’ve always had to try to second-guess our audience to determine exactly when they’d want to listen to which programming. In the case of ‘Fundraising Success,’ we now have a unique opportunity to serve its unique listenership when it’s most convenient for them to hear the program.”

“Fundraising Success” covers the proverbial waterfront. It airs weekly segments from The Chronicle of Philanthropy. In a recent interview, The Chronicle’s Peter Panepento discussed “Donor Advised Funds--Where the Money Really Is!" Another recent program opens with Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing, revealing the formulas nonprofits can follow to get the word out about them—for free.

In a weekly series spotlighting fundraising in Cyberspace, Gary Grobman, co-author of Fundraising Online: Using the Internet to Raise Serious Money for Your Nonprofit, sheds light on everything from creating an Internet fundraising strategy to researching grants online. Ellen Schulman’s recent segment on her “Board Members’ Credo” is must-listening for everyone associated with a nonprofit.

Recently, Stephen Wertheimer, senior vice president of Brakeley Briscoe and Michael Rose, president of Carolinas HealthCare Foundation, revealed "The Formula for a Capital Campaign Mega-Success." In addition, Bob Ottenhoff, president & CEO of www.Guidestar.org, talked about its continuum of free services available to nonprofits, including access to nonprofits' IRS Form 990.

Providing a rare glimpse of how a foundation actually works, Jerome Lyle Rappaport (founder) and Phyllis Rappaport (chair) of the Rappaport Foundation discussed fundraising success from funders’ perspectives. Kevin Lane, “The PR Guru,” stressed the importance of “putting the profit into nonprofits.”

During Listeners’ Forum segments, I answer questions that have been emailed to me at trendsman@aol.com, or, sometimes, find an expert around the country to do so. One recent Q &A answered, “How can I identify large donors for whom there is so much competition?”

If you’re getting the feeling that “Fundraising Success” brings together resources you won’t find anywhere else, you’re right. It is a unique nationwide forum, through which leaders in their fields share their expertise—and nonprofits are helped to succeed.

Send your questions and comments to Stephen L. Goldstein at trendsman@aol.com.#

"The Fundraising Guru"

Nonprofits can do their best marketing—for free
By Stephen L. Goldstein--consultant, author, and host of "Fundraising Success," a weekly radio program, streamed on the Internet and podcast from WXEL/National Public Radio

I want to spread the word about a book about spreading the word. It busts nonprofits’ “we can’t afford to do the marketing/PR/publicity that we need to do” mantra—the self-defeating, poverty-perpetuating, too-often-believed rhetoric that keeps them stuck in a rut of their own making. In 184 jam-packed pages, it proves that using your smarts always trumps spending your bucks. It’s sine qua non reading for nonprofits that really want to succeed.
Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz is literally God’s gift to nonprofits. It even shows you how to create “a practical word of mouth marketing plan.” Subtitled “How Smart Companies Get People Talking,” its wisdom is directly applicable to the plight of every “community focused” organization. In Sernovitz’s words: “Word of mouth marketing works for . . . causes, ideas, charities, and organizations—anything that you want people to talk about.” Blissfully, it’s the non-money way to raise money.
Sernovitz defines word of mouth marketing as “everything you can do to get people talking”—with a marketing objective. In other words, it’s not just talk; it’s as “actionable, trackable, and plannable as any other form of marketing, just no-cost or low-cost.”
Obviously enhanced by morphs of the Internet—blogs, web sites, streaming audio and video—word of mouth marketing is predicated upon a concept as old as the proverbial hills: stellar customer service and products that make people want to tell everyone they know about you. As Sernovitz puts it, “Nothing beats coming up with a product so interesting that people just can’t help talking about it.”
Besides its cost-effectiveness, Sernovitz also points out that word of mouth marketing is “made for” nonprofits because they rely so heavily upon groups of supporters committed to their missions.
There are four rules of word of mouth marketing and three reasons people talk about you. For example, Reason #2 about why people talk is especially fascinating. It turns out that people really want to talk—to look smart, to help others, to feel important, to express themselves. In other words, all nonprofits have a built-in salesforce, if they are committed to giving it a reason to be energized and “sell.”
You’ll get the inside dope on the Five Ts of word of mouth marketing--the keys to getting it going, keeping it running, and assessing it. The #1 T is Talkers. You need to find people who will talk about you. Sernovitz tells you how to identify the seven most common types and how to put them to work for you. (They may not be who you think they are. For example, in his afterword to the book, Guy Kawasaki points out that your most powerful word of mouth advocates may be new to your organization. They may be the most excited about it, as opposed to those who know and are used to you!)
Number 2 is Topics. You have to know the art of giving people a reason to talk. Number 5, Tracking, shows you how to measure and understand what people are really saying about you.
Sernovitz invites you to check out the website that goes with the book: http://www.wordofmouthbook.com/. It’s full of ideas, examples, and resources to help you master word of mouth. The site and the book are must-reads. Take my word for it.

E-mail your questions and comments to Stephen Goldstein at trendsman@aol.com. He’s the author of 30 Days to Successful Fundraising and hosts “Fundraising Success,” a weekly, one-hour broadcast and Internet radio/podcast from WXEL/National Public Radio, hearable at any time from anywhere in the world at http://www.wxel.podcasts.org/.