Hi, I’m Alanna — Greenlights’ Services Coordinator. As part of our mission to strengthen the nonprofit sector, we get all kinds of questions here at Greenlights, from viewing our in-office salary surveys, to using your workshop vouchers. To answer your frequently asked questions, “Ask Alanna” has a regular spot on the Greenlights’ blog, and this month, I’m covering a few questions I receive regularly around member benefits.

Our organization has been a Greenlights’ member for three years and I know we get discounts on workshops. That’s worth the membership itself! But can you tell me more about the discounts available to Greenlights’ members?

Dear Greenlights’ Member,

Thank you for reaching out to start using more of your member benefits! You’re right — Greenlights’ members receive discounts on our workshops. You also get discounted member rates on local events like Board Summit and the Texas Nonprofit Summit. Besides that, members also receive special rates on Board Excellence and Financial Management toolkits, as well as special offers on nonprofit services like Directors & Officers liability insurance, consultation services, and much more from our Business Partners.

Come meet other Greenlights’ members at our happy hour on March 27, 2013. You can also contact our Development & Membership Manager if you have any specific questions on discounts or other member benefits.

See you at a workshop or event soon!
Alanna

My organization is interested in becoming a Greenlights’ member, but I have to convince our board that it’s worth budgeting for. Any member-exclusive opportunities that might help win them over?

There are tons of great member benefits listed on our website you can share with your board, but you may want to specifically point out a few of the following organizational member-only offers. Only Greenlights members can:

• Be featured at Board Summit with 50+ other local nonprofits looking for new board members. (The 2013 deadline is March 15 – apply now!)
• Join the 501(c)ommunity – an online collaboration, resource-sharing site for nonprofit professionals
• Apply for Greenlights’ capacity-building grants

Even better – bring or send your board to one of our happy hours (like the one on March 27) and they can hear about it directly from other Greenlights members!
Alanna

March is Membership Month at Greenlights – join or renew now for the opportunity to win one free registration to the 2013 Texas Nonprofit Summit! If you’re a current Greenlights’ member, what is your favorite member discount or exclusive offer that you’d encourage others to use to their full advantage?

We all know that networking is important  – it lets us build our colleague base, exchange ideas, make new contacts. We’re “supposed to” do it, especially in a community as tight-knit as nonprofits. But I’ve been to dozens of conferences and networking events (probably a dozen just during SXSW!), and these events can be incredibly valuable or a complete waste of time… it’s all up to you. And you don’t have to be an extrovert to be a great networker (but you do have to fake it)!

Here are some easy tips for your next event:

Keep moving.

Think speed dating. You want to talk to lots of people, see who’s interesting, who might have something in common. Conferences often inadvertently hinder networking by having you sit at the same seat or table all day long. Lunch time is a perfect time to keep moving. Pick up your salad and go sit at a table. Once you’re done, go get something else to eat and sit at a different table. Dessert, new table. Think about how and when you can change seats, stand somewhere else, or move around throughout the day.

Play matchmaker.

If you meet someone early in the day and they tell you some fact about themselves, and later you meet someone else who might be interested, introduce them! Being valuable from the get-go is a great way to boost your new relationship.

Be a conversation starter.

It doesn’t mean you need to start the conversation. Actually it’s quite the opposite. It may seem trivial, but when going to a networking event, I always try to wear something unique that others might comment on. It’s simple – dangling earrings, a shirt with a sports team or organization logo, a brooch or pin, alma mater ring – anything will do.  People are looking for a way to get the conversation started anyway, so why not throw them a bone. Similarly, keep an eye out for any conversation starters to help you initiate an introduction.

Get business cards and connect on LinkedIn (or 501community.org!).

Do it every time. You never know when you’ll want to connect again, so be sure to stay in touch directly after the event.

If you’re going through the effort of showing up, you might as well make the most of it. Don’t have time for networking events? Check out Greenlights’ 501(c)ommunity where nonprofit professionals are meeting online every day. You can network with nonprofit folks, volunteers, funders and board members without having to leave the house!

Penelope Burk's presentation at the Texas Nonprofit Summit on Donor-Centered Fundraising

One week later and I still feel the energy and enthusiasm that was pervasive at the Texas Nonprofit Summit. I am so thankful for the many experts who shared their wisdom with us during the sessions. Among them, we were fortunate to have Penelope Burk present information on the 2012 Cygnus Donor Survey and what the data suggests about the benefits of using a donor-centered approach to fundraising. I couldn’t possibly present all of the take-aways I got from her session in one blog post, but below are a few I found most thought provoking for how we approach donor retention.

Donors are hard to retain: According to the information presented by Ms. Burk, the attrition rate from the first gift a person makes to the second ask has climbed from 50% in 2000 to 65% today.

Based on my experience doing strategic development plans for our clients, attrition rates are often overlooked while organizations focus instead on the total number of donors they have each year. Take a look at the development report you share with your Board. Does it have a goal and actual performance on annual donor retention? If your number of donors is climbing and your total dollars raised is increasing as well, it is easy to sit back and feel your development efforts are paying off. However, if you think about the total dollars lost when people who have given before choose not to do so again, you can see that donor retention becomes incredibly important.

Donors are still giving, just to someone else: In 2011, 82% of donors gave the same amount or more in total annual giving as they did the previous year.

If a donor stops giving to your organization, it’s highly likely that they did not stop giving altogether; they just switched their support to another organization. According to Cygnus’ report, 46% of donors said they stopped giving to a charity due to reasons connected to a “failure to communicate”; 41%: said it was due to over-solicitation. To increase retention, then, we must ensure that we are sending meaningful communications to our donors at key points during the year, not just flooding them with newsletters and emails. Take at look at your organization’s communications. Are they short, meaningful and well timed? If not, it might be time to revamp your donor communications strategy

Social-media and online fundraising are here to stay, but don’t throw your paper away yet! While 31% of donors below age 35 used social media in their philanthropy, only 12% of donors age 36-64 and 4% of donors over 65 did so.

A multi-channel approach to fundraising is a must these days. The inherent efficiency and massive reach of sending a group email or promoting your organization’s event through Facebook make them a compelling addition to a development plan. An organization that is not using these forms of communication is certainly missing a large number of prospective donors. However, I have seen instances where an organization places so much emphasis on online communications, that they neglect the traditional mail communications.  Based on the 2011 Donor Survey, 48% of respondents made at least one gift in response to a direct mail solicitation. Two out of three donors who responded to direct mail appeals gave by transacting their gifts through the mail, and 29% went online to the charity’s website in order to contribute, indicating direct mail campaigns are an important revenue sources as well as a “feeder” for online giving.

The importance of data, data, and more data. What makes Penelope Burk’s case for donor-centered fundraising so compelling to me is that it is based on her annual donor survey. Using hard data about donor behaviors and interests, she is able to guide fund development professionals in how we can respond to and capitalize on what is happening in the changing charitable-giving environment.

Armed with the national data that is available through the 2012 Cygnus Donor Survey, we can make a strong case for adopting donor-centered fundraising practices.  Effective development efforts are built not just on this data, though, but on data related to your own donors’ giving patterns.  Prospect and donor information needs to be collected routinely and carefully, managed effectively, analyzed on a regular basis, and utilized to ensure continuous improvement.  In short, data should drive decision-making, as well as communications and cultivation efforts.

There were so many other wise words I heard at the Texas Nonprofit Summit.  Those I will save for another day.  For now, I think I will go look at some data!

Among the many things the Nonprofit Excellence Award winners have in common is that they all drive social change for a better quality of life in our community. They’re partnering with others to achieve their missions, taking risks to try out new ideas, recruiting boards that propel their work further and making an impact that changes lives. And this year, we’re not just celebrating organizations, but also an inspiring individual leader who has helped their nonprofit achieve tremendous successes.

Our awards committee reviewed nearly 60 strong nominations in five different categories this year. In addition to a lovely trophy, winners also receive a $1,000 donation thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. After the committee’s tough deliberations, Greenlights is proud to congratulate our 2012 Nonprofit Excellence Award winners:

	Collaboration Award winner: Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) HAAM’s collaboration with a wide variety of community partners has leveraged nearly $14.3 million of in-kind services to Austin’s low-income, uninsured, and working musicians.
	Impact Award winner: Workers Defense Project(WDP) This year alone, WDP has impacted its members by recovering nearly $1 million in back wages for low-income workers, securing a paid rest break ordinance for Austin construction workers (the first of its kind in Texas), and forcing a federal investigation which resulted in measurable increase in construction safety inspections.
	Innovation & Learning Award winner: Camp Fire Balcones  To better align with their core values and to take a stand against childhood obesity, Camp Fire Balcones took the bold step of adopting an educational water conservation project tied to fundraising opportunities, called “Absolutely Incredible Kids,” and eliminated their decades-old annual candy sale fundraiser.
	Board Excellence Award winner: STRONG START Preparing to open a new facility is challenging for any organization, but what about adding on the concurrent challenge of a change in executive leadership? STRONG START’s Board of Directors rose to this challenge, managing this transition while opening a new facility which nearly tripled the capacity of preventative therapeutic services to prevent child abuse and neglect.
	Nonprofit Leader of the Year: Mr. Gerald L. Davis (“Jerry”), President & CEO, Goodwill Industries of Central Texas Jerry Davis has certainly expanded Goodwill’s capacity exponentially since joining the organization in 1998 – more than tripling their annual budget and increasing the number clients served from fewer than 5,000 to more than 14,000 annually. What’s also remarkable about Jerry is that his leadership style has defined and evolved the culture of Goodwill Industries of Central Texas.

In conjunction with the Texas Nonprofit Summit, the Nonprofit Excellence Award winners, along with OneStar Foundation’s Governor’s Volunteer Award winners, will be celebrated at the Texas Nonprofit Awards from 5:00-6:30 PM, on Thursday, September 20, at the AT&T Conference Center . The evening will be emceed by Texas Senator Kirk Watson, and special entertainment will be provided by the Youth Choir of the world-renowned, five-time Grammy nominated choir, Conspirare! We hope to see you there to join us in congratulating all the deserving winners!

In April, I had the opportunity to attend the Association of Fundraising Professionals‘ 49th International Conference on Fundraising in beautiful Vancouver with three of Greenlights’ fundraising fantastics (or read “fanatics” – they’re both, after all). We had a blast!

Now, if you’re like me, you get really excited at the prospect of cutting-edge, demystifying professional development on the topic of fundraising (no, really, I’m serious)… BUT because your rose-colored-glasses approach to trainings has left you uninspired or feeling like you’re from another (fundraising) planet a time or two before, you might approach conferences with an air of cautious optimism – with hopes that maybe, just maybe, you’ll stumble upon a little nugget of practicality that’s worth bringing back home. (Are you with me?) Well, in this case, we stumbled on lots of them! Take-aways included a new fundraising dashboard, an ah ha! about organizations vs. movements and a re-discovering of the linkage between the “why” of our work and our fundraising success.

One of my favorite nuggets of practicality came in the form of a jewel of of a session given by Roberta Healey, longtime fundraising strategist and AFP’s immediate past chair, about changing board fundraising culture from one of resistance to one of integration. The premise of her session was this: Philanthropy is central to an organization’s mission – and positive board culture is central to establishing a successful climate for philanthropy. Healey says, “Successfully integrating philanthropy as a revenue stream into your business plan means integrating philanthropy into the ongoing roles of the board and staff. It is not enough to delegate fundraising to the development committee and development director.”

When thinking about how to move a board that is disinterested and unengaged in an organization’s fundraising strategy (or, in the toughest cases, how to change the behavior of a board that is down-right dismissive of this responsibility), to one that is willingly and effectively contributing to the organizations philanthropic under-footing, Healey says to change the conversation by bringing clarity of responsibilities and expectations, and by giving light to what’s possible within a successful culture of philanthropy (and what’s a stake without it). She offered these worksheets as a way for staff to start the conversation with boards:

Stage three is ideal, of course, but Healey explains that organizations should never let an individual on the board who isn’t comfortable with at least stage two. But what about the organizations who haven’t been playing by these rules, and have invited folks on the board who are more in line with stage one (or, perhaps, aren’t event there quite yet)? Healey’s answer? Let them self-assess:

Healey explains that when the majority of a board can check all the boxes above, an organization is well on its way to operating within a positive culture for successful philanthropy. When the majority of a board cannot check all the boxes above, a board development plan needs to be implemented to to change board culture through increased education and expectations to foster clarity of purpose, instill confidence with the fundraising role and encourage follow through.

We all know that change takes time, and while some of Healey’s prescriptives seem bold, even insurmountable, she acknowledged that all of this takes significant time, effort and – above all – requires a true partnership between development staff and board leadership. She explained that as an organization moves its board from a culture of resistance to one of integration, it will work through a series of phases, gradually taking on additional skills and accountabilities:

Phase 1:  Willingness to discuss development.
Phase 2:  Willingness to give personally – every year.
Phase 3:  Willingness to give generously relative to personal circumstances (rather than according to a minimum requirement) – every year.
Phase 4:  Willingness to see the link between fulfilling the mission and fundraising.
Phase 5:  Willingness to ask and cultivate others passively (notes on letters, calls).
Phase 6:  Willingness to ask and cultivate others actively, personally (face-to-face).

I found Healey’s session to be challenging, certainly, but I was inspired by her gusto-meets-get-down-to-business approach to a reality professional fundraisers face. Have you remedied a board’s culture of resistance to fundraising? Tell us how!