I read with interest, Seth Godin’s post this morning called “It doesn’t hurt to ask” which is about asking for something properly. And as fundraisers, we all know how important it is to ask for something properly.

Last night, Tara and I went out the The Keg – we just got a new one built here in our growing village of Waterdown… very exciting. Now The Keg is a bit of the ‘fast food of steaks’ but the thing I love about it, is that they are always consistent, or they have been in my experience. You can go to any Keg and the service is always great, food is always well prepared and tastes pretty darn good – and I can say that because I am so often disappointed with food and presentation at most restaurants, especially when you start to pay over $100 for dinner. Anyhow, this isn’t a post about branding. Back to the point.

I asked our great server – what’s the secret here? I know restaurants like the Keg get first dibs on the best beef and we at the grocery stores can choose from the second rate grade and cuts but what else? He told me about some aging they do and the grills – they have these massive grills blazing back in the kitchen. A thought crossed my mind – can I see the kitchen? And that’s what I asked him – “What would I have to do for a tour of the kitchen?” He said he didn’t know but he would talk to his GM. Within minutes his GM came to our table and asked if we would join him on a private tour of the kitchen. Well to say the least, I was not only surprised but excited – just ask Tara. I asked for something and surprise of surprises, I got it. Awesome!

One more – this week I’ve started working with a woman named Laura Roeder (who I hope will guest blog sometime in the near future). Laura runs a small company dedicated to “creating fame for your company using social media”. I decided to work with her because while I am doing a lot of work via social media, like this blog, I know that I could be doing it better – and as a bonus, transfer my learning to my clients – like you. Especially since social media is such a hot topic these days.

I spoke to Laura about my blog which focuses on charities communicating better with their donors, and some of the fun I’ve been having with twitter (@ideadesign_ca), facebook and linkedin (ideadesign) but I would like to see a little more traffic, a little more action, a little more dialogue with others. I’ve dug into a bit of a niché in that there are not many others who are blogging about communication and charities exclusively. Some of the big fish out there, The Agitator, Donor Power Blog touch on it once in a while but I feel I offer a unique perspective on the issue and more importantly, reminding charities that this isn’t rocket science.

Good fundraising and communication is about using common sense.

So Laura suggests I need to be where my people are. Where my audience is – I should get a coffee and hang out there. Well, I am trying that I think. She continues, don’t start at the bottom and work your way up – start at the top. Go to Tom at The Agitator, ask do to a guest post. Pitch him on the content of your article and ask him. Worse case scenerio, all he is going to say is “No”.

Of course. Of course!

Thinking back to working with Simon Geoghegan of Epiphany Coaches, we talked about that all the time. If you want something, ask for it. Will the answer always be yes? Of course not – but often it might be. We all have this fear, or I do, of being rejected. But, if you want something, ask for it.

This is a real long winded way of making a few points about you and your charity.

1. Be where your donors are. Hang out with them. Learn their language and be relevant to them.

2. If you want to fundraise, sooner or later you are going to have to ask for donations.

3. And when you do ask, ask in a way that is appropriate to your donors. Like Seth says, “If a prospect walks into your dealership and you walk up and say, “Please pay me $200,000 right now for this Porsche,” you might close the sale. But I doubt it.”

But the bottom line is, if you never ask, you will never get it. And that’s something we can all learn from.

“Don’t people just talk about how good their nap was? Or that they are eating ice cream?” My friend asked me… I held my tongue and sighed. Another colleague told me how in the past few weeks she had been contacted by countless (ok maybe a dozen) social media “experts” who breathlessly have told her, as a representative of a charity – she – and her charity – MUST! BE! TWITTERING! “Where have all of these ‘experts’ come from John?” She asked.

Sigh.

Seriously… what the hell is twitter? Who is on it? Should you or your charity be on it? Why all the mania over this ’social media’ thing – just slow down people… This boat’s not going anywhere…

Here’s my completely NON-EXPERT opinion on Twitter and social media. Do what you want with it.

It’s cool. For a number of reasons.

Cool reason #1:Within moments of twittering about something – I can watch- in real time that message spread. Last week I tweeted/twittered – whatever about how I plan on Adopting a Mom this week in honour of Mother’s Day for Rethink Breast Cancer. I also asked my ‘followers’ to RT (retweet) that message please! In the span of a few hours, I watched as my followers RT’ed my message also asking their followers to RT, which some did and so on and so on… They say most users have an average of 100 followers… My message to my community, RT to their communities, RT to their communites and so on and so on… in real time. Rapid fire spreading of information. Where else is this possible?

Cool reason #2: Building a community of people who share interests with you is nothing new – but Twitter let’s all of those people stay in touch with others easily and also quickly allows you to find others who share your interests.

Cool reason #3: It’s not Facebook (too social) and it’s not LinkedIn (too network-y) – it’s both! The people who are using it best find that common ground between “this is me personally and professionally”. People like to talk to people. That’s my way of saying – you can’t be “CHARITYX”… we deal with enough faceless entities in our lives.

Cool reason #4: It’s a new channel to reach a new audience. As I mentioned to a client the other week – it’s not enough anymore to only be on the web, or to only do direct mail… especially if you are a charity. You need to reach people in ways that are comfortable for them – and your donors are tweeting, they are facebooking, they are surfing, they are giving money over the phone, through the mail and face to face…

Twitter or social media is nothing to be afraid of. I think a reason so many get terrified of it is that it is “one more thing” they have to learn and do – and that’s true. But like any tool, once you learn how to use it – you see it’s usefulness and potential. The other thing you need to remember is, as I mentioned above, this is not the place to be CharityX. Be you.

Talk about real challenges. Talk about real things. Talk about the stuff that matters to your charity… But be real.

I think that social media belongs to the charities who are smaller and have the flexibility to move in time with their donors.But having said that – you can read below how War Child is using it effectively…

The days of creating a expensive website that sits there and does nothing – are over folks.

Before I go, I asked Lindsey Patten if I could republish part of her blog recently where she discussed social media with Dr. Samantha Nutt from War Child. Be sure to check out the rest of Lindsey’s great blog right here. Thanks Lindsey!

Twitter Case Study: War Child

There are many nonprofit organizations on Twitter and many are using Twitter in a variety of different ways. One of the best organizations I’ve seen use Twitter is War Child. War Child is a great organization that provides assistance to war stricken children all over the world.

Some sample tweets:

Each of the above connects with you in a different way. I’ve never donated to War Child but now I find myself intrigued. And that indicates a job well done. A connection has been made and that is ultimately what social media strives to do.

3. For those who perhaps did not follow your tweets, explain a bit more what your experience was like in Darfur and why you were there.
It is always a compelling experience to touch down in a war zone. The extent of the trauma and the suffering is staggering, but I am always astounded by people’s resilience and determination. You expect to meet people who have given up. Instead, you meet people who remind you every single day why we get up and do what we do at War Child.

4. Some of the Tweets seemed to indicate that you were very close to danger. How much of that was a concern for you?
Security is always a major concern in many of the countries in which we operate. You must be aware of the dangers and the risks. Sometimes that can be quite intimidating and almost paralyzing – you are always looking over your shoulder, always wondering what will be around the next corner – but it is better to have an acute awareness of the insecurity and take precautions than to be caught unaware. I was more concerned about my security on this particular assessment mission than I have been for a very long time. It reminded me of the experience of working in Somalia in the mid 90s. But security is a huge problem for Sudanese nationals as well. Anyone who is perceived to have either an income or access to valuables (e.g. a vehicle, a sat phone) is at risk.

5. What does War Child hope to gain from Twittering about events/trips like these?
It’s not so much what we can gain but what value this type of first hand reporting brings to our network of supporters. The feedback I received suggests that people found it engaging and an eye opener and the increase in people following the journey means it must have been having some kind of positive effect! I think the fact that I could talk to a woman who has seen her family killed in front of her and 30 seconds later post her story, gave the people following it a much more visceral and immediate experience than they would have had reading a news report, for example. There is also something to be said for posting what you are experiencing it as you experience it. It’s raw; unfiltered. Sometimes when you have a chance to think about it for a while you end up over-rationalizing or over-interpreting the experience and it loses some of its authenticity.
The success of this, in retrospect, was in its honesty and simplicity – there was neither the time, nor the space (at under 140 characters) to be lofty about any of it.

You may think your cause not as compelling as Darfur, but if you share your client stories in a interesting and engaging way, people will respond. Twitter is one way to do that. Remember that people give to people, not organizations or websites.

You know who Susan Boyle is right?

I was thinking, as I watched the video of her, as the crowd stood and cheered… as Simon rested his face with the biggest over the moon grin I’ve seen in some time… I sat and wondered… What if Susan Boyle was a charity? And a few things crossed my mind.

Charities, in my opinion, could be like Susan Boyle.

Out comes this relatively frumpy woman, aged, grey, saying she wants to be like Elaine Page…  rrriigghhhtttt. Then there is your organization, mailing some prospective donor… looking and talking the same as everyone else… but wanting to raise the kinds of funds that only WWF can think about… rrriigghhhtttt…

And your prospect thinks, “Who are these guys anyhow? What a joke…” And then they open your envelope, listen to your radio ad, click into your site, read through the whole email, and they are absolutely, jaw droppingly, over the moon with the experience. It’s like one they have never, ever, EVER had with a charity.

What did you do?

You were like no charity they had heard from before… you had touched them in a way that – moved them – deeply. You shook them to the very core and made them want to stand and cheer! Before you even ask for anything, they have pen at hand quivering over the surface of a personal cheque – just tell them how much.

Out of the question? I’m sure you think I’m completely off my rocker. A charity can never be this.

A charity can never pull a “Susan Boyle”.

Can they not?

Maybe we need to stop thinking about what our donors expect us to be (ie: kill thinking like – ‘oh our donors won’t like this’…)

Maybe we need to be inspired by those who are being helped because of our hard work.

Maybe we need to stand up on our chairs and sing our message in such a moving way that people (no – not everyone) must take notice.

Maybe we need to get back to inspiring donors to the dreams and hopes that are possible because they care…

Maybe we need to be something they never would have expected from a charity in a million years.

This Susan Boyle youtube video has almost 45 million views. This is a 8+ minute video. About 1/2 of the people I know posted it on their facebook pages, or maybe blogged about her already.

Susan Boyle was something we never expected she would have been in a million years and then… she opened her mouth and we all rested our heads in our hands and let the tears fall down our face.

We were moved to the core.

What if Susan Boyle was a charity? I wonder how much her “PSA” would have raised?

At the risk of making myself more popular/unpopular today I thought I would talk about the outdated and ridiculous process of the Request For Proposal (RFP).

I get it.

Charities need to make sure they are spending their hard raised donations in a fiscally responsible way and therefore must seek out the best possible supplier (price and experience) for every facet of a project.

So really, what could be more responsible than sitting down to write one with a bunch of people who know believe that a RFP should be very long, as wordy and non-specific as possible and sent to everyone you can think of – and  – don’t forget to post it at every possible online portal that comes to mind.

You also want to ask for loads of samples, digital and real, some suggestions for new and innovative ideas (please provide mock-ups and detailed explanation please) and most importantly – do not – I repeat – do not put anything under budget except for: TBD.

Make sure it’s clear you want a digital copy of the proposal via email, cd or dvd, hand delivered in a manila envelope with at least – at least!!! – 10 hard copies so every important person in the office can have one. Or two.

Finally, after everyone in the organization has had a crack at your finely tuned manifesto and you’ve spent more man hours than you care to remember putting it together, the happy day arrives and you can now mail it, fax it, email it and spread your RFP all around. (RT please!!!)

And now you wait…

Within hours, the proposals start to flood in like some great rising tide.

YAY!

Look at all of these suppliers who want to help us! Wow! Look at how thick this one is! My gosh, look at the stock this one used – oooooooooo…

The hours, turn to days, turn to weeks (maybe you shouldn’t have put an end date so far into the future) and finally the drop dead day arrives and you can now disregard any more submissions. Whew.

You go into the board room where the office manager has been stacking all of the RFP’s that have come in envelopes, boxes, hand delivered, big, small, perfect bound, spiral bound with business cards, bios, head shots and glossy paper up the waazoo.

Now you need to get a committee to go through all of these – one by one.

This one’s no good, they only sent 9 copies – in the bin…

This one has no title page, which we asked for – in the bin…

This one has 2 staff – and we want them to be at least as big as us – in the bin…

Ah -they used paperclips – in the bin…

Hour after hour, sorting, reading a whole bunch of stuff that isn’t even close to what you are looking for – but at least it’s obvious you are important – look at all of the proposals you got!

Wow – look at how fiscally responsible we are!

I probably made my point a long time ago didn’t I?

It seems to me, the only reason that a small firm like Idea Design should respond to RFP’s, is because it reminds us about the good work we are doing for great clients.

Clients who understand and appreciate why we charge what we do and thank us for being aware of the bottom line and keeping their projects on budget. Clients who love our creative and what we are bringing strategically to the table. And not one, has ever come as a result of us responding to a RFP.

This process, passed to our sector from the commercial world needs to end. It’s generally wasteful and pointless.

There are a lot of great printers, designers, writers, consultants and firms out there, all of whom can take you beyond where you sit today. All of whom can make how you fundraise – better.

And all you need to do to find them is – a little bit of homework. That’s it.

Ask around to some of your colleagues, look online at CharityVillage or AFP, google… do some homework.

Even devise a short list of 2 or 3 you believe would be a good match. Call them or email them. This is the job, this is what you need them to do, this is what you want to spend. ‘Can you do it?’ ‘Can I see some stuff like this you have done?’ ‘Oh – we should meet quickly for coffee to make sure there is a nice personal fit too – why not?’

Easy. But you need to do your homework.

Sorry.

I really want you to think about this. It’s time to put an end to this madness.

RIP RFP.

url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odVQ_IJvR_A

I caught this ad this past weekend that was sent out as part of an article from Professional Fundraiser. I’ve watched it about half a dozen times now. And I’m not sure how I feel about it. I think the tie in at the end of women to month gift amount is good. I would have liked to see a bigger url or phone number but what of the actual content? What do you think?

This week I asked Mark Haak to write about some work we’ve been doing. We have been putting charities like yours – back in the drivers seat of their website. In the spirit of keeping things simple and straightforward, we have been working with charities like yours to show them how easy it is to regain control of their websites and more importantly, keep it current and relevant to your donor and their needs.

Technology has made it possible to get a site built to your specific needs and then allows you to update things when you need to, as you need to. No more waiting for your “webmaster”.

The best part of all, is that it likely costs less than you think.

Enjoy Mark’s post.

Take control of your non profit’s website and fire your webmaster!

OK, maybe that’s taking it a bit far for some organizations, but there is truth in that statement.

Technology has changed and its time you took notice. Why should a non profit care about technology? Because it will give you the power to easily communicate to your donors and build a community around your cause – every charity knows the benefits of that.

Gone are the days of asking your IT guy to make updates to your site content. Gone are the delays, extra charges and excuses. Most organizations don’t make updates to their site because it costs too much or takes too long. What if you (yes, you) could do it all yourself?

By using an “open source” content management system (CMS) you can update you own content. What does that mean? In plain English – there is web software readily available that allows you to easily edit content, add pages, photos and more to your site. You can review and approve content before publishing it live. You can have different staff logins for different sections of your site (ie. one person updates news, another updates events, your Toronto chapter has their own section to update etc). All this with no software to purchase or download on your PC. No licenses to worry about. No big development fees. No complicated training or learning curve. None.

I can hear you now, “Really?”

Yes! If you can fill out a basic form on a web page – you can add content to your site. If you can format some simple copy in Microsoft Word – you can format copy for your website. This includes uploading photos, adding downloadable PDF files and, wait for it, even video. You have control. Anytime, anywhere (well, anywhere you have an internet connection and a computer). You can even add new pages to your site, allow your staff to add events to an event calendar, upload photo galleries from you latest event, approve content before publishing it live and let viewers subscribe to newsletters you email to them (which is also easy to make your own branded e-Newsletters, more on that some other time).

But wait, what about the cost? The investment in the infrastructure. The training. The hosting. The support fees. You’ll be surprised how affordable the technology is today. We’re not talking tens of thousands. We’re not even talking ten thousand. And these open source systems run on common web servers or many of our clients are hosted for as little as $15/mo including more space and bandwidth than you will probably need. Training is usually a short session to get the basics and you’re updating your site in no time.

All of your content, your “data” is stored in a database so its fully searchable, editable and reusable. Google will love you. And this way future updates to your site design don’t require recreating content. We simply redesign your site templates and you’ll have a completely new site look with the same content management abilities and great content.

And don’t get me started on the things we can tell you about your users on your site. How they are finding you. What content they are viewing. Where they are coming from.

That’s just the beginning. The opportunities are endless. We can add blogs, tie in with online donation systems or build event and campaign microsites with the same easy to update features.

It’s real. It works. And it’s incredible.

So, what are you waiting for?