Achieve’s Favorite Things 2012
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Category Archives: Innovation
MCON12: Building a Millennial Movement by Grant Garrison
In July, Achieve presented MCON12, sponsored by The Case Foundation, featuring inspiring speakers energizing leaders to engage Millennials at new levels. For the next few weeks we will be presenting short highlights of some of the best speakers and presentations from the day.
Grant Garrison, GOOD/Corps, speaks about building a Millennial movement at MCON 2012 virtual conference on how organizations can engage Millennials. Watch the video below to learn his approach to understanding the Millennial Movement.
Reflections on People, Morale & You
When I walked into Re:build conference last Friday I felt a bit out of the place. The room was full to the brim with boys in skinny jeans, plaid button down shirts and thick-rimmed glasses. Most of them were hunched over their laptops or typing on iPhones and iPads, either taking notes, tweeting or both. As much as I work (and love working) with developers, I tend to stick out like a sore thumb. In case you haven’t guessed it, I had entered a conference about building for the web.
Now you are surly wondering, what does any of this have to do with my nonprofit? Well, even though I am sure you get just as excited as I do over user experience, hover effects and coding with the Twitter Bootstrap, I will not bore you with those aspects of the conference. As your end-of-year campaigns get closer, it is important to take breathers and make sure you are also taking care of yourself during one of the busiest times of the year. I am going to share with you four tips that I found particularly inspiring.
#1 Hire people who look for problems and want to fix them.
More often than not, nonprofits have a limited number of people on staff and therefore hiring can be exciting, yet stressful at the same time. You are most likely looking for someone who can wear many different hats and is an expert in their field, but is also a good communicator, is able to assist person X with their responsibilities, and, and… But one trait that cannot be taught and is a good indicator that a person will thrive in your nonprofit is if they are a “fixer.” Hire people who are bothered by things that don’t work well and want to improve them. Once they possess that skill, many of the other things can be taught.
#2 Naps are a part of my business model
“Why don’t more offices have nap rooms?” This quote comes from Jason VanLue (@jasonvanlue), who is an excellent designer and provided some great advice. I mostly included this tip not because I think that every person should include naps in their workday, but rather to use it as an illustration that there are simple things you can do to improve both your productivity and sanity throughout the day. Whether it be a 5-minute nap to boost your energy level, a brisk walk outside or a quick yoga-stretching session, all of those things improve morale. Think about stepping away from your desk a few times throughout the day to refresh yourself, in whatever way works best for you. In the spirit of full-disclosure, since I live right around the corner from where the conference was held, I did swing by home for a quick powernap mid-conference. It certainly made for more enjoyable last sessions!
#3 You are happier at work if you have more personal relationships.
People make other people happy! This tip was from Willo O’Brien (@willwtoons), whose entire presentation was about how to take care of yourself in the workplace. It seems like such a simple thing to do, but it’s important to do things like company outings, grabbing drinks after work or spending a few minutes a day talking about what you did that weekend. You spend day-in and day-out with these people, so why not get to know them. Have some fun with it!
#4 Find the sweet spot of what you do: do what you love, what pays you well, and what comes easily to you.
Those who work in the nonprofit world typically do not have just one job responsibility – there are too many things to be done and too little resources for you not to take on roles that sometimes you either do not have experience in or perhaps do not enjoy as much as others. Every once and a while it is healthy to take a step back, look at all of the responsibilities that you have on your plate and think about those three questions: What do I love? What pays me well? What comes easily to me? Perhaps the answer will drive you to either re-organize the way the responsibilities are distributed in your nonprofit or think about moving into a new role.
I love learning about web design, connecting with others in the industry and hearing from the movers and shakers in my field, but when came to the end of the conference there was just one quote that really stuck with me. It was from Willo O’Brien and she said, “Life is too short and you are too amazing to not be happy.” I hope that you can take that to heart this week and maybe even implement one or two of these tips to improve both your workplace and yourself.
MCON12: Why Millennials Matter by Jean Case and Peter Panepento
In July, Achieve presented MCON12, sponsored by The Case Foundation, featuring inspiring speakers energizing leaders to engage Millennials at new levels. For the next few weeks we will be presenting short highlights of some of the best speakers and presentations from the day.
Jean Case, The Case Foundation and Peter Panepento, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, spoke on the reasons why Millennials matter and the need to encourage organizations to embrace this generation.
8 Trends That Will Shape Fundraising
By Derrick Feldmann (Originally posted on Philantopic – a blog of opinion and commentary from PHILANTHROPY news digest.)
When I was working in development for a nonprofit, I was expected to provide my executive director with annual fundraising goals for my department — goals that were based on donor history, prior-year results, and the likelihood that a certain number of prospects would give for the first time.
In addition to our baseline goal, we always established a stretch goal or modeled a best-case scenario for our efforts. Early in my career we never seemed to hit the stretch goal, in part because I didn’t know our donors that well and because we based our predictions on what the organization needed, rather than on our donors’ willingness to give.
Over time I realized that to make our stretch goal, we had to alter our approach. And so, in addition to market research and data mining, we came up with three questions to help guide our efforts.
- What is causing donors to engage with us now?
- Which fundraising approaches are still relevant and why?
- What forces will influence donor behavior in the future?
In my opinion, these three questions should be the starting point for anyone trying to determine the long-term impact of their fundraising efforts (not to mention the future of fundraising itself). Recently I had a chance to sit down and revisit the questions, and I came up with the following eight trends that I believe will shape the fundraising industry and the relationship between donors and nonprofit organizations in the future.
Technology Trifecta
Increasingly, nonprofits will look at communications and fundraising through the lens of the what I call the “technology trifecta”: Web, mobile, and social media. And as they do, they will test concepts across all three channels to determine the right mix for their own constituencies. Mobile will continue to gain traction as technology and mobile marketing techniques improve. Social media will open the door to better donor communication and stewardship. And the Web will be the go-to place for transparency and donor-interaction tools. Testing and experimentation across all three channels will be key to implementation. Organizations also will need to manage expectations and develop effective donor delivery methods that don’t simply ape other organizations’ tactics. The fundraising “shop” that doesn’t align its marketing efforts with all three channels will have a hard time maintaining its position in the nonprofit marketplace.
Communication Control
Donors will have the ability to control how they receive communications from your organization based on personal preference and interests. Improvements in communications technology also will make it easier for nonprofits to connect with donors who seek specific information about the impact of a gift and/or an organization’s health. In addition, organizations will allocate communication and marketing resources according to donor preference, rather than making assumptions about what donors want based on their content consumption.
Smaller Gifts, More Often
Donors will provide smaller gifts but will give several times over the course of the year. Organizations that provide small, impulsive gifting opportunities will be better positioned to strengthen their relationships with donors. In addition, donors will continue to drive smaller gifts toward projects where tangible results can be demonstrated.
Improved Transaction Times
Organizations will reduce the time between the giving decision and the actual transaction. One-click giving and other impulse-gifting technologies will gain in popularity. Giving will become a quick-and-easy experience that meets individuals’ impulsive need to serve the greater good.
Donors Will Rate Fundraising Appeals
Thanks to the growing popularity of consumer feedback platforms such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, we will see new platforms emerge that allow donors to rate their fund-solicitation experiences and share those ratings and experiences with their friends.
Donor Loyalty Will Reign
Organizations will focus on donor loyalty rather than the size of the gift. Hard to believe, I know, but organizations will spend less time worrying about the transactional donor and will focus more time and energy on the loyal donor who attends activities/events, reads their marketing and communications materials, engages with them on social media platforms, and regularly volunteers. This kind of loyalty also will drive ongoing peer engagement and support from donor networks and force organizations to develop loyalty stewardship programs.
Crowdfunding by Donor Networks
We will see more donor networks comprised of individuals who come together around specific causes, engage in volunteerism, and/or willingly promote the activities of the causes and organizations they support. Increasingly, fundraising staff will have the capability to track these networks as well as other peer groups and use that information to leverage their resources.
Visual Impact Reporting
Organizations will move from annual reports to real-time reporting of their impact in the community. Fundraisers will become more adept at using digital communications technologies and creative design to inform donors about the impact achieved by their dollars. For their part, donors will demand such reporting.
Of course, all these predictions are just that: predictions. And even if some (or all) gain traction over the next few years, they might not affect every organization. Still, I believe that at some point all nonprofit organizations will need to incorporate many of the practices outlined above or face the prospect of falling behind, in both their fundraising and impact. The future of fundraising is about donors wanting easy and accessible opportunities to support, learn, and serve. It’s up to you to get your organization ready for that future.