April, where did you go?

Was it really nearly a month ago that I was flying to Vancouver with my colleagues for the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Annual Conference? The cool temperatures of Vancouver have been long forgotten now as the reality of the pending Texas summer is upon us. I’d really like to go back, so today I am going to close my eyes, turn up the A/C, and pretend I’m back in Vancouver. Rather than go on about the beauty and charm of the city or where to find THE best Ukrainian food in Vancouver, I thought I’d reminisce about my favorite session of the conference.

The description for “Does Your Board Know how to Evaluate Fundraising Effectiveness?” referenced effective management dashboards – that’s all it took to win me over. Each month I prepare a colorful, pie-charted dashboard to report to our board of directors on the current state of our fundraising program and how our board members have been helping us meet our goals. I’ve retooled and revamped it several times, not because I didn’t think it was useful information, but because I always wonder, “Is the best, most useful information for our board?”

Session presenter, Peter Drury, definitely proved that there is indeed more useful (or at the very least- additional) information that should be shared with your board to help them evaluate your organization’s fundraising success. He referenced the “dysfunctional dance” that we can unknowingly create with our board if we only focus on the present fundraising outputs and not regularly envision the future outcomes and impact we want to achieve for our organization.

The coveted take-away Peter left us with was “The ‘Beyond Cash’ Fundraising Management Dashboard.”  For the lucky ones in the room, we received the card stock, color copied, two-sided hand-out of beauty to take home with us. Fortunately for those not in the room he has made the tool available online.

The core of his message is simple– when it comes to fundraising success there is more to measure than just cash in the door.

The ‘Beyond Cash’ indicators he shares are things that most of us already track in some form or fashion (retention rate, median gift size, number of new donors, multi-year pledges), but how many of us are keeping track of our:

• Engagement Index: What percentage of your donors are making that first gift as a result of learning about you through another volunteer or donor?
• Non-Ask Ratio: What’s your organization’s ratio of solicitation contacts to “non-ask” contacts like stewardship visits or communications sharing the impact of their gift.
• Brand Strength Rating: How many of us are biannually asking our board and staff to rate their confidence in our brand?

Put all of these together, and this dashboard certainly is a great goal setting tool, reporting and evaluation document, and conversation starter to share with your board of directors. What do you think? How are you currently communicating your fundraising success to your board?

Even when it comes to fun, the Greenlights staff has a bit of a competitive streak. Whether it’s the chance at a $5 Torchy’s gift card or merely bragging rights, we give it our all when it comes to a good challenge.

So, it was no surprise to me that our “Tech Tip Showdown” during our staff meeting yesterday came down to a three-way tie. Everyone was tasked with showing the group a tech tip (in Outlook, Windows, etc.) that they use and thought the rest of the staff might not know. After each tip was presented, points were given according to the number of people who didn’t know the tip.

Here’s some of the top contenders. Many of them were new to me, what about you?

1.  Tara Levy’s tip: To help you locate an important email in Outlook that may no longer match the subject line (ex: the subject line says “Hi” or “Quick update” but after a few back-and-forths, the content now describes a project plan), click on the subject line in the open email and just type in a new, more meaningful title (ex: “Project Plan for New Site”).
2. Taylor’s tip: If you have lots of windows and documents open at once, you can press Alt+Tab to see screen shots of all your open windows. Keep holding down Alt while you Tab through each of your pages, and stop when you get to what you want to work on.
3. Alanna’s tip: If you send emails that often contain the same content, you can use Quick Parts in Microsoft Outlook to easily save and access this text for future use. After typing email text into a new message, highlight the text you want to save and go to “Insert” and then “Save Selection to Quick Parts Gallery.” You can then give a title to the text and create a subcategory to organize your email “parts” into different groups. To access this text later in a new email, click “Insert” and then “Quick Parts” and you should see your saved text in the drop down. Click on it and you’re ready to personalize and send!
4. My tip: If you use the Outlook calendar and want to check your availability (or even someone who shares their calendar with you) on non-sequential days, go to the first date you want to check and hit the Ctrl button. Keep holding the Ctrl button and click on the other days you want to see. Outlook will then display only those dates side-by-side. As someone who arranges a lot of meetings, this is super helpful!
5. Monica’s tip: And finally, have you ever wondered what your boss would look like as Mick Jagger? Well, wonder no more. If you need to capture an image on your computer but need it in a format you can edit, use the Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool captures a screen shot of anything on your desktop, like a picture or a section of webpage.  You can snip a window, a section of the screen, or draw a freehand outline with your mouse. Then you can make notes, save, or e-mail the image using buttons in the Snipping Tool window.
   

   Matt Kouri as Mick Jagger

• Open Snipping Tool by clicking the Start button in Windows. In the search box, type Snipping Tool, and then, in the list of results, click Snipping Tool.
• Click the arrow next to the “New” button, select one of the options from the list, and then select the area of your screen that you want to use.
• After you capture a snip, you can share, makes notes or save it to your computer.

Alanna’s tip was the tie-breaking winner based on how useful it would be for the group. She only got a certificate (suitable for framing, of course), but I’m pretty sure she was beaming with pride.

Whether you’re a fundraiser or not, perhaps you too have lived out this same New Year scenario:

• January 3rd: “Wow, I am so energized and ready to take on the year! This will be the best year yet for our organization. ”
• January 10^th: “This year is off to a busy, but good start. I have a great work plan in place and I’m going to follow it.”
• January 17^th: “Ok, there’s just too much to do already. Is it only mid-January? I have to raise what now this year? No time to lose people – GO, GO, GO!!!”

Please tell me I’m not the only one to go through this? There’s so much renewal around the beginning of a new year. Good or bad, you can shed everything from the previous twelve months and start anew. It’s a great feeling, right? So, how exactly do we often end up back in that place of stress at the beginning of this fresh start? A clean slate is great, but that also means new goals, new projects and new uncertainties to bear. And as fundraisers, we’re also bombarded with varying New Year’s fundraising predictions. Will things stabilize or will there be new challenges to face?

Don’t hit the panic button just yet…. Take a vow to stay the course by:

1. Following the Plan: My annual development plan is like a close friend. I know it well and it gives me comfort on challenging days. Do you share the same love for your plan? If not, why? What helps you stay organized and focused? Even if your plan has a few roadblocks and detours along the way, we have to have our map handy. Check out Greenlights’ Online Resource Library if you need some inspiration.

2. Utilizing our Strongest Allies: Even in the smallest organizations, you are not alone in your fundraising efforts. Make sure you are engaging your board of directors in your fundraising plans. Now is the time to get their fundraising commitments in place. How can they help you achieve your goals? Take a look at Greenlights’ Board Fundraising Commitment Form in our Resource Library if you need some ideas.

3. Investing in Ourselves: Professional development goals can fall by the wayside when our calendar is already weighed down by competing priorities. We need to make the commitment to invest in our knowledge and abilities. It can be something as small carving out a half hour to scan fundraising news (I like to visit Alltop since they provide headlines and links to various fundraising blogs and news sites). Or, there are a variety of training opportunities and conferences to keep us refreshed and energized. (If your nonprofit is a Greenlights member, you may even have a voucher for a free workshop. Check with my colleague, Kate Smallwood).

I don’t know about you, but I feel better already. We can do this! Do you have other proven strategies for staying the course? Please do share, we’re all in this together!

November 30^th is not only the last day of the month. It’s also the last day to apply for one of three capacity service grants. If your organization is ready to take an in-depth look at your board’s strength, your fundraising capacity or your nonprofit’s strategic course, then a 501 Council Grant may be the opportunity for you.

Grant recipients will not receive a check, but rather an opportunity to receive Greenlights consulting services (valued at $3,000 or more) in one of three areas: Board Excellence, Fundraising / Resource Development or Strategy & Planning.

But before sitting down to work on your application, your nonprofit should think about these key questions:

1. Most consulting projects involve 20-30 total hours of work by the nonprofit awardees’ staff. Can your organization make this commitment in 2012?
2. Even if your organization doesn’t apply for the Board Excellence grant, the support and buy-in from your board is crucial in this process. Will your Board of Directors supportive of this application and time commitment?
3. It’s important that applicants go into this process with reasonable and clear expectations about the outcome.  What outcomes does your organization expect to achieve from this grant and how will you measure the effectiveness?

You can fill out the application online, but be sure to write your answers in a separate document to save for your files. The application doesn’t allow you to save your work and return to it later. And be sure to upload the requested attachments. If you have any trouble uploading these you can email them directly to us.

And remember, grant applicants must be Greenlights members to apply. So, if your nonprofit has been thinking about becoming a member, this is a great reason to join.

These grants are made possible by the generosity of Greenlights’ 501 Council, a group of people who strengthen our local nonprofit sector through collaborative giving for greater impact. Annual membership dues are pooled into a capacity fund and distributed through capacity service grants, enabling nonprofits to benefit from Greenlights’ consulting services.

So, what are you waiting for? Apply today! If you have any questions, you can email me or my colleague, Kate Smallwood.

The countdown is over.  Greenlights’ big 10^th anniversary celebration has now come and gone. But even at almost a week out, I think we’re still basking in the afterglow of a wonderful evening. Greenlights’ 10^th anniversary was truly a cause for celebration!

Libby Malone and Deborah Edward

On October 12^th, at the UT Alumni Center, Greenlights took the opportunity to pay tribute to several of its founders, tell some stories about Greenlights’ impact in the community, and raise funds for our new Research and Innovation Fund.

Since fun is one of Greenlights’ core values, we decided to kick off our event with a humorous, tongue- and- cheek glimpse into a day in the life of Greenlights. If you haven’t seen Matt Kouri channel his inner Michael Scott from NBC’s The Office, then now is your chance! Our team had a blast making this video and the talented Sean Cunningham did a fantastic job bringing it all together.

In the video, Matt likens our founders to super heroes and that is truly what they are. It was amazing to have Libby Malone, Greg Kozmetsky (unfortunately Cindy Kozmetsky was unable to join us), Lynn Meredith and Dr. Deborah Edward all in the same room and hear their reflections on their involvement with Greenlights.  Each played such a crucial role in Greenlights’ founding, but also in our continued success.

It was also great to see so many past Greenlights’ board members – the event definitely had the feeling of a family reunion.  To name just a few- there was Dave Wenger, the Director of Communications for the McCombs School, who served on the board and was responsible for helping the then “Austin Nonprofit Resource Network” find the name “Greenlights for Nonprofit Success.” Founding board member, MariBen Ramsey was there and gave a hilarious introduction to honoree, Lynn Meredith (bet you wouldn’t have guessed that they first met in the ladies room!). And early board member and current Greenlights Community Leadership Council chair, Toya Haley, introduced Greg Kozmestky and talked about her current Greenlights’ involvement.

To top off the evening our talented auctioneer, Gayle Stallings with FUNAuctions, led the charge to help us raise funds for our new Research and Innovation Fund. In the past several years, Greenlights has increasingly assumed the role of identifying, researching and leading on issues that are affecting (or will soon affect) the nonprofit sector. With several topics already slated, we set a goal of raising $100,000 over the next year to expand our capacity to conduct broad nonprofit research, build out new services, and deliver those services to the nonprofit community.

I am happy to report that by the end of the evening of our 10^th Anniversary Event, we had already met more than half of our goal. Through two gifts given before the event, sponsorships, four fabulous live auction packages and the Fund-A-Need, we raised more than $60,000 so far! It was amazing to see the outpouring of generosity in the room.

A big thanks to our founders, supporters and friends who joined us last week. What a memorable evening we will not soon forget.  Check out more photos from the event here.