Like waking up after a night of crazy partying, I asked myself this morning, did that all just really happen?

and I’m pretty sure it did.

Three days, one conference.

The AFP congress held in Toronto wrapped yesterday just a few minutes after two pm with a lovely lunch and awards show and then it was time to come home and decompress and reflect on the things I learned.

Firstly, if you were a delegate there (or for any conference for that matter) please DO NOT head back to your office and file away all the crap you collected. Sit down, with a notebook or open up word and write down the FIVE most important things you learned then forward it to your coworkers and colleagues. Go through all of those business cards you collected and throw out all the ones where you don’t recall meeting the person. Take what’s left and make a few notes about your conversation(s) you had and think about emailing them early next week just to keep in touch.

Now what I just wrote there is not “networking“. That is called relationship building. And that sort of relationship building will serve you wonderfully through the years of your career.

So once you are done those things, go through all the brochures, trinkets, etc and vet it down to the items that had the most effect on your or you know you will need in the near future.

Now what?

Remember that session we were in, where the speaker said that little nugget of info, and we collectively had that epiphany – that moment where we go “OMG, if we do this one thing – what a difference it would make”… ok – get out your whiteboard that hangs by your desk and in big letters write “2010 Actions”. Below that write down one, or two, of those epiphany’s you had and leave them there. And as you plan for your next year, DO THEM. Not maybe, or we’ll see… DO THEM.

It’s too easy to come back to a million emails, an overflowing list of things to do but do these things and you will be grateful you did.

So what are five things I learned that I want to share with you?
1. USP: Unique Selling Proposition. We live in a country with almost 160,000 charities and not for profits. What is your USP? It’s not your mission, it’s not about your board. It’s about your voice and your story. Your donors support your cause, not your charity. USP. Think about it and record it and then celebrate it in everything you do.
2. Always, always, always… ALWAYS concentrate on the needs, the wants – the SATISFACTION of YOUR donors. This is called donor centered fundraising.
3. Google Insights for Search. This is data that google collects about the surfing trends of web users. You can use it to find a lot about… well, anything actually. Here’s one I did to look at the difference of traffic in 4 cancer charities this past month across Canada. Funny how the traffic on Prostate Cancer is the largest… I wonder what they were up to? Hmmm…
4. Communications: Don’t talk about your “house”, talk about what the “house” does. Don’t talk about all the great work you are doing, your donors DON’T CARE. Talk about the great work they are doing with you, because of their support.
5. Asking for donations. Present the problem, discuss the solution and make the solicitation. Three lines or in thirty pages. PSS. Problem, solution, solicitation.

I had a great time at congress having lots of memorable and meaningful conversations with people who love and are challenged by what we do. So here are quickly some of the best.
-Being rubbed affectionately by Sean Triner during his presentation on data and the Joy of Donors.
-Getting goosebumps and shivers listening to Dr. Ron Archer speak about the work we do and in particular where he said that often you must have a break “down”, in order to have a break “through”.
-Meeting the enthusiastic, lovely and next years chair of Congress, Tania Little and having a short conversation that left a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
-Sharing a bottle of wine and quiet conversation with Kimberley MacKenzie and my wife Tara, at the close of day one, way after we should have gone to sleep.
-Hearing how the CEO of an agency on the other side of the world had heard about this new “agency” in Canada called Agents of Good who were shaking up the sector.
-Getting hugged by Mike Johnston (our relationship has been upgraded I am happy to see).

As I think about this, there were so many small moments that really made me proud to be who I am, work in the sector I do and so happy to be surrounded by the positive and brilliant people I know.
So how about you – how was your congress and what was the #1 memory or learning that you took away from it?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 10:24 am and is filed under Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.