Hi Katherine, I have a question. I read your article online about asking for donations and how to ask.

I recently am unemployed, after earning $74,000 per year for several years. I have asked for help from a local church, asking for help with my rent, while I look for work. I did not receive a good response. If it were you asking for a donation, how do you think I should have stated my need for assistance?

I hope this does not seem like an awkward question, but I believe you are the expert.

Thank You,

Theresa

Dear Theresa,

Thanks for asking, it’s an interesting question. I think that you can’t just ask one church for help. You need to ask at many places. I would start with your local United Way. Explain your situation and ask about nonprofit agencies that might help you. There may be places that help with financial assistance, and help in finding a job, and some may help with utilities. If you’re in America, you may be able to call 211 for assistance. It’s like dialing 911, but just to get help when it’s not an emergency. It’s worth trying. I would recommend that you check www.guidestar.org for nonprofits in your area. You can search on your city name and see what’s there. It’s free: all you need to give them is an email and a password.

In asking, you could start by saying how you know them. For example, you could say, I’m a member of your church” or “I was told to call by (name of member).” Then you could briefly state your need, “I’m looking for rental assistance.” After that, you could ask who the right person would be to talk to. Once you get the right person on the phone, you would then go through the above steps again, as the receptionist might not have passed on what you said. Then, instead of asking directly for help, you might instead ask for an appointment to meet with them to explain your situation.

If they say yes, then you could ask for what you might bring, such as your rental agreement, your last pay stubs, or references. If they say no, you should ask if they know of any programs to help you. In fact, you should always ask for a referral to others. It doesn’t hurt and might help. You can also ask to leave your contact information with them in case they think of something later.

I suggest you keep a list of everyone you contact. If they’re helpful, I’d suggest writing an email. Thank them for their time and tell them specifically how you benefited. Be sure to keep them updated, especially when you get a job.

You should also brainstorm who might help you. Ask your friends and former colleagues to help. Make up a list. Ask if you can use their name. You might also contact your local newspaper and see if they’re writing any articles on the local recession and if they would be interested in interviewing you. That might bring you to the attention of someone who can offer you a job.

You might also read “What Color Is Your Parachute?” It’s one of the best-selling books of all time. It’s not just about finding a job, but about finding something that you’re passionate about. Your library is sure to have it.

If you do find a nonprofit that is helpful to you, ask if they need volunteer help. Also remember them when you’re employed again and can make a contribution. In that way, you can pay it forward. There are a lot of people who are in your position. Please feel free to write again. I wish you luck. Thanks again for asking.

Let’s pretend you have a job that pays $1,000,000 a year. You’ve been making this amount for several years, so presumably you already have the great house and car of your dreams. You expect to continue making this amount. Your debts have been paid off. So, what would you do with this kind of income?

Expect that, of the $1 million, about half will go to federal and state taxes plus retirement and savings. (The top tax rate is 35% and state tax rates can soar to 10%. And even though the wealthy get tax breaks, they still have to save money, too.) So how would you spend $500,000? Take a moment and really think about it.

Have you thought of everything? Did you count it up?

• Did you include private school for your children?
• A gardener for your house?
• How about a maid, housekeeper, personal assistant?
• Someone to do the shopping for you?
• A weekly massage?
• Twice-weekly meals at great restaurants?

How about charitable donations?

• Did you think of specific charities?
• Did you set aside a specific percentage?
• Are you giving big gifts to a few charities?
•  Or lots of smaller gifts to many charities?

Are you planning to be generous with your family? What about friends? Or will you find a way to help people start their own businesses?

Whatever your answers, they’re personal to you. So go ahead and think of everything.

Got it? OK, now look at how you spent the money, and how that compares to how actual wealthy people spend their money.

For example, did you feel resentful that, of $1,000,000, essentially half was unavailable to you because of taxes? You may believe in “tax the rich” but when you actually feel rich, you may resent it. It’s harder to do things to other people when you put yourself in their position.

When setting aside money for charity, did you set aside a specific percent? Was it ten percent? How does that compare to your belief about how rich people donate money? For example, if you set aside 10% but you have said things like, “If I won the lottery I’d give it all away” then you need to square away your beliefs with how you would actually behave. The same is true if you have said to others that rich people should support public schools but you immediately thought of putting your own children into a private school when you imagined having so much money.

Looking at the list, do you find that you already spend some of your current money in the way you would if you were rich? For example, you may not have the really great meal twice a week, but you may go to those kinds of restaurants on your birthday or anniversary. Those restaurants exist in real life because there are people who are going to them regularly, and thus they’re open for your big events. They probably couldn’t succeed in business just on people like you, but because they’re patronized by wealthy people, they’re available to you when you want them. The same is true of museums, the symphony and the theater: they’re there for you because others patronize and donate.

Finally, I suggest you look at how many individuals would benefit by the amount of money you made. You might end up partially or fully employing 75 people or more, as one wealthy man told me he does. You’re not the only client of that masseuse or personal trainer, but you help keep them employed. Then they go out and spend their money locally, putting it back into the economy to work. You’re not squirreling away your money, you’re redistributing it. Rich people can employ dozens of people, and believe me, those people depend on someone being there to hire them and help pay the bills. You don’t decide to start a business as a personal trainer, or decide to start a nonprofit, unless you believe that there are people who will decide to help pay your bills.

In fact, you might be better for the local economy as a rich person than as a middle-class or poor one. If you’re rich, you’re more likely to go to boutique stores and small, locally-owned restaurants. Chain stores like Target, Macy’s or Olive Garden are for the masses. When you shop at big-box stores, the money leaves the local economy, and employees only make minimal wages. When you’re wealthy and you shop at specialty stores, that money stays in the local economy, providing better-paying jobs, paying owners, and going to local charities. It’s something to think about the next time you’re buying pet food or deciding on a restaurant.

So how did you feel about this exercise? Did you enjoy having almost unlimited money to spend? Or did you find yourself resentful about paying a fair share of taxes? Did you like the idea of a maid, or did you feel resentful that you don’t have one in real life? Do you feel better about the donors who give money to your organization? Or do you wish they’d give more? And the next time you choose how to spend your money, will you see yourself as similar to a millionaire?

Please tell me how you felt about this exercise in the comments box below.

If you have questions about fundraising or how to educate your board member in fundraising, please contact me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

]]> http://www.werth-it.com/blog/581/a-million-dollars-a-year/feed 0 http://www.werth-it.com/blog/564/an-invoice-for-a-major-donor http://www.werth-it.com/blog/564/an-invoice-for-a-major-donor#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:58:02 +0000 Katherine Wertheim http://www.werth-it.com/blog/?p=564 Would you ever send an invoice to a major donor, asking for payment?

Would you only communicate with your major donors once a year?

Would you fail to tell your biggest donors what you do with their money?

Would you believe these things happens all the time?

Sometimes, when organizations get a major donor, it seems that they fail to think things through. So they’ll demand that the major donor is taken off the regular email list, saying, “We’ll send our major donors a special letter” or “We don’t want to bug our major donors with letters asking for little gifts.”

But what happens is that they forget to communicate with these major donors (who often give gifts of $1,000 or more). They get caught up in producing the spring letter or the fall appeal or the holiday mailing,which besides a request for money, tell all about the good works they’ve been doing, and neglect to write a special letter for the major donors. Somewhere an administrative assistant marks names in a database for those who don’t get those general mailings, and the major donors get that check mark, so they never hear of the good works. The special letters don’t get sent.

Then comes the end of the year, and someone says, “Hey, it’s time to collect those annual pledges.” But instead of putting in time and attention to write a dynamite letter to the biggest donors, those who have made significant, multi-year commitments, they send out a “pledge reminder” which has all the warmth of an invoice.

How can I be so sure that nonprofits do this? Because I have a couple of outstanding pledges, promises that I made. And I’ve gotten these kinds of letters.

For one organization, they communicated with me mid-year to let me know that they had changed their name and would be in touch. I got a one-page newsletter from them: there was nothing memorable in it. Then, at the end of the year, a short note reminding me of how much I had left on my pledge. It didn’t tell me what they had done with my previous gifts, or the strides made in the previous year. It had a little line under their logo about their previous name and that was about it. All the warmth of an invoice. If I didn’t remember the pledge, or if I didn’t notice the line about “formerly known as…” I wouldn’t have known I had ever promised this gift.

For a second organization, I got an invoice by email. It had six sentences in it. Only one mentioned what the organization did. A final sentence thanked me for my support. The others listed the date I had made the pledge and the amount due. Honestly, it looked like an invoice. Sadly, this came from someone who knows me well, but it didn’t have a personal note in it. No warmth, no kindness, not even a sincere greeting. It looked exactly like a fill-in form that would be used for any vendor.

Will I pay these invoices? Yes. I made a promise. Will I renew my gift? No, probably not. Why would I? I don’t even know what these groups do with my donation. I don’t feel that they care. I don’t think anyone is paying attention. In fact, I’ll bet that the staff members I know won’t be there in another year or two. They’ll have gone somewhere else.

So that’s how you lose a major donor. An organization that had the best intentions — “don’t bug them with little appeals” — ends up writing something akin to an invoice and alienates the people who are most committed to the organization. Sad, isn’t it?

There’s a way to notice if you do this. Just create a binder with the mailings that are sent to major donors, and a second binder with other mailings. For each mailing, include the entire mailing (or the email), with the date sent, cost of sending, number of responses, average gift, and cost to raise a gift. It will help you see how your costs compare to your amounts raised. You should be doing this in any case. But by keeping two binders, you’ll be more aware of what your donors see from you, including the major donors. If, by the time of the pledge appeal, you haven’t been informing your major donors of what you do, take the time to write a lengthy letter to update them on all you’ve accomplished. Don’t just send that cold invoice asking for payment of their pledge. Treat them as your most important customer, not as a source of revenue.

Have you looked at the communications you send your major donors? Are you sending an invoice without realizing it?

If you wish to comment, I’d love to read whatever you have to say. Please press the “leave a response” link below.

If you have a question for my blog, please write me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

I’ve been fundraising professionally since the 1980′s. I’ve lost count of how many recessions have occurred that I’ve had to fund raise through. There was the Great Real Estate Crash of the late ’80′s, the Tech Bubble burst, and so many more. Through it all, I’ve helped nonprofit organizations raise millions of dollars. My clients made it through.

So, what’s the secret to raising money in a recession? First, it’s to understand that most people are not really impacted by the recession. Are you surprised by that? Don’t be. While the news is bad for some people, most people aren’t affected.

Look at it this way: Let’s say that the unemployment rate is 10%. Let’s say that there are another 10% that are under-employed — they’re not making as much money as they used to make. Let’s say, further, that another 10% are in terrible fear of losing their jobs because of the economy. That’s 30% of the population who are terribly affected by the recession. However, that means that 70% are not really affected. They have a job, it pays what they expect it to pay, and they’re not afraid of losing it.

In the meantime, while that 70% of the population is relatively safe and unaffected, they are seeing the news every day that other people are horribly affected by the recession. They’re hammered with it. Given all they see, they’re actually more moved to donate money. They see people having hard times and they’re influenced to give. While all the news about the recession is bad, actual giving is only down about 3-4%.

What I see in my fundraising consulting practice is that the organizations that were relatively well organized around fundraising before the recession are doing okay. They already knew how to get their message out, they had a base of supporters, and they had a well-run plan to reach those supporters. While some of their donors may be affected by a lower stock market or a bad economy, most are in pretty good shape. If those organizations keep running their systems, they’re fine.

However, other organizations are suffering during the recession. Perhaps they were too reliant on a few donors, or they relied too much on government funding. Or perhaps they didn’t have systems in place for reaching out to their donors: they haven’t been sending out enough communications, or they don’t meet with their higher-dollar donors regularly. Those organizations are having a hard time.

If an organization is doing good work, generally it can be saved. I find that there are a number of things that nonprofits need to do in order to thrive during the recession. They are:

1. Reach out to current donors and ask for money consistently
2. Add new donors through a system of outreach
3. Educate volunteer leaders in fundraising and add new volunteer leaders who will fund raise
4. Communicate your message more frequently and in more emotional, mission-focused ways

These four things can be done by any nonprofit. They’re not reliant on having a large budget or a huge staff. It doesn’t matter if times are tough. It only matters that you have systems for doing these things consistently.

I help nonprofits raise more money. I wrote up my methods in a simple 32-page manual, Fast Fundraising. It’s available for $19.95 at https://fundraising.myshopify.com. I hope you’ll take a look at it if you need to raise more money right now.

If you would like to reach me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, you may contact me at katherine@werth-it.com.

]]> http://www.werth-it.com/blog/549/the-recession/feed 0 http://www.werth-it.com/blog/544/whats-your-vision http://www.werth-it.com/blog/544/whats-your-vision#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:18:51 +0000 Katherine Wertheim http://www.werth-it.com/blog/?p=544 I received an interesting question from a woman in Camarillo, CA who wants to switch from being employed to self-employment. She asked me “What’s your vision?” Here’s my answer:

“As for my vision, I realized a long time ago that I am not a social worker, I am not a lawyer, and I am not creatively talented. My one talent is money: I understand how to use it, how to invest it, how people think about money psychologically. I can use that talent to raise money so that people who are social workers, and lawyers, and creatively talented, can put those talents to work to make the world a better place. My talent helps them. I feel blessed to participate in their good works.

My vision for my clients is that they graduate, that I help them learn enough about fundraising so that they can continue without me. If I had one word for myself, it would be “informative.” I provide information. I use my experience to guide others. I use my intelligence to think of solutions to their problems. I accept that they are the experts in their subject field: once I sign on to a nonprofit, I don’t make suggestions on their work except in how it affect fundraising and public relations.

I am continually learning. I go to conferences, I volunteer, I stretch my skills. My clients depend on me to solve their problems and give them answers. I must continually keep up with technology so that I know how to help them.

In my work, I am committed to fundraising in a way that’s legal, moral and ethical. I subscribe to the ethical standards of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. I strive always to be truthful. For example, I don’t say, “I’m sorry I’m late, traffic was bad.” I will say, “I”m sorry I’m late, I should have left more time.” (And then, of course, I work hard to not be late!)

I also believe that the world is an abundant place. This allows me to share my knowledge and resources, because I know that there will still be plenty of work for me no matter how much knowledge I give away.”

That’s my answer on my vision. What’s your vision? Feel free to use the comments field to comment on this blog posting.

Generally, I write about fundraising and board development for nonprofit organizations. If you have a question for me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, please write me at katherine@werth-it.com.

This organization found about 400 people nationwide who were willing to receive a letter once a month and forward it to their local paper. This was in the days of actual physical letters: if anything, it will be easier to do this with email.

For each of the 400 people, they were assigned a local media outlet and a week. So they might have the local newspaper on the fourth week of the month. They would receive a letter that week and would agree to forward it to the local outlet. It was already written on nice paper with their return address and phone number, already addressed and with an accompanying envelope.

From the point of view of the organization, they would write one letter a week and produce 100 copies of it, each personalized with someone’s name and addressed to the local newspaper. This can be done with an Excel spreadsheet merged into a Microsoft Word program. There would be one field for the newspaper’s name, another field for the signer’s name, and so forth.

The organization had everything color-coded, too, so that the first week’s letters went out on blue paper, the second week on gray, etc. You could even do this with a different type font each week.

None of the letters were specific to anything in the news, so they weren’t time sensitive. They just talked about misconceptions and corrected them.

From the point of view of the local editors, they would get letters from local people that were well-written and relevant. I doubt many of them tracked them, but they might have noticed that Harry always wrote the first week of the month on blue paper, while Dan always wrote the second week of the month on gray paper. I’m sure that if you see enough of this kind of writing, you recognize what’s going on, but perhaps not. As long as the letters are signed by local people who can be contacted and who will vouch for them, that’s enough.

So how would a local organization use this system? Personally, I’d create a small committee of people to decide what kind of issues to talk about, to find people who will agree to send out the letters from their email accounts once a month, and to generate the letters. If you already have a PR committee, this could be a task for them. If you don’t, you might be able to use volunteers. Perhaps some home-bound volunteers could help, or you could even recruit school-aged youth who need to do community service.

The topics of the letters would be based on the needs of each organization. Perhaps you might talk about the importance of support from the community, or the need for your work, or to praise your volunteers who make things happen. You might combat a negative image, as the above organization did, or use these letters to promote discussion of your work or the underlying issues around it. It’s up to you.

One caveat: since people may hit “forward” on an email rather than creating a new one, I suggest that you create an innocuous email address for these letters. I’d rather have an editor see “Werthwhile@aol.com” as the originator rather than “Press.@.Organization.org.”

If you’ve been struggling to get press attention, or if you find that you’re a “best kept secret” in your community, a coordinated campaign of Letters to the Editor might provide a big assist in getting the word out about your work.

I’d appreciate your comments: what do you think?

If you have questions on fundraising or on providing training to your board of directors in fundraising, please contact me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

If you need help with fundraising or with helping your board learn to fundraise, please contact me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

I use a professional appointment scheduler to schedule appointments for my nonprofit clients with their donors. Now, admittedly, they could do this themselves. Or, frankly, I could do this. Let me share with you actual numbers for appointments, and then you can decide whether it’s worth paying a professional.

My professional appointments scheduler will take a list of 40 people and get appointments with at least 33% of them. Frankly, she often gets above 40%, and recently more than 50% of people said yes to her! Wow. I can’t touch those numbers. I can get about 25% of people to say yes to me.

In a list of 40 people, the difference between 25% and 33% is the difference between ten appointments and 12. Not a big deal, you think? It’s only two people. However, when I visit people, I target those who can give $1,000 or more. So the difference between ten appointments and twelve is another $2,000. It’s worth using someone else for $2,000.

Now, compare these results with people who don’t usually set appointments with donors. I had one client who balked at paying a professional appointment scheduler, saying, “For $600, we can do this ourselves.” From their list, they only got five appointments! Again, if each appointment is worth $1,000, at least, they lost at least $7,000 to save $600.

Another reason it’s important to use a professional appointment scheduler is that you need to be going out on appointments, not setting them up. If it costs you $15 to pay someone to talk to one donor, but you can use that time to spend with donors who can give you $1,000 or more, it’s better to make $1,000 than to save $15.

Do you agree? Let me know by responding in the comments section.

If you have questions about fundraising or training your board of directors in how to fundraise, please write me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

]]> http://www.werth-it.com/blog/513/using-a-professional-appointment-scheduler/feed 0 http://www.werth-it.com/blog/510/your-hand-is-green http://www.werth-it.com/blog/510/your-hand-is-green#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:04:28 +0000 Katherine Wertheim http://www.werth-it.com/blog/?p=510 Let’s say I were to say to you, “Your hand is green.” What would you do?

I imagine you would mildly say, “No, it isn’t.” Or you might inquire why I think your hand is green. You might brush it off as an odd statement.

However, if I said your hand is green, you wouldn’t get angry with me about it. You wouldn’t spend 20 minutes denying it. You wouldn’t demand an apology. It wouldn’t be worth your time. It wouldn’t be true and that would be it.

I’m reminded of that whenever I come across someone who is angry. Some of them are really filled with denial. Something happened and they’re outraged and they deny the whole thing. When they’re yelling, I think to myself, “They wouldn’t be so filled with rage if it wasn’t true.” You’re not that angry if someone says your hand is green because it clearly isn’t green.

So I look at some of the politicians on the national stage who are filled with anger at something someone said. I think, “All that anger means there’s some truth in it.”

The next time you see someone filled with anger, rage and denial, think about whether there’s some truth to it.

Normally I blog about fundraising and board development. If you have questions about fundraising or about having your board of directors learn about fundraising, please write me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.

Let’s take physically first. The least likely way for someone to donate is in response to an ad in a magazine. I’m not close to them, I don’t even know their name. Next, in order, they’re more likely to give if I write them a letter and address them by name. I’m closer. I’m yet closer if I call. Still closer is if they’re at a large event, then a smaller, more intimate event. They are most likely to donate, however, if I’m right next to them, perhaps having tea with them.

Emotionally, they’re less likely to donate if they don’t know me and I don’t know them. The likelihood of their donating increases as we both know each other. They’re most likely to donate if they feel that we know each other well and have built up trust.

As the song says, “They long to be/close to you.” And if you know that song, I’ll bet you’re humming it in your head right now.

If you have questions about fundraising or about teaching your board of directors to fundraise, please contact me, Katherine Wertheim, CFRE, at katherine@werth-it.com.