That is what this post will attempt to do. And I say “attempt” because there was so much that we learned, that we’re thinking it may become a book! For now, I’ll try to hit the highlights.

First, a quick chronology of the campaign from start to finish:

December 6: Blog post asking whether or not to embark on a campaign.
December 16: Decided to go for it.
December 29: Shut down the campaign.
December 30: Posted initial thoughts about what we had learned, knowing there were things that “just didn’t feel right,” that we needed to explore further (hence, today’s post!)

Learning #1: It’s all about Context
“What we learned” all depends on the context of the question. If the context is fundraising tactics, the answer becomes about the immediate task at hand – what worked and what didn’t work re: raising the money we set out to raise. For those tactical questions, the posts here and here pretty much cover it.

The problem we had with our campaign, though, was not tactical. It wasn’t even strategic. It was philosophical, rooted deep in our vision and values.

Mark Riffey’s comment from the December 6th post at my blog sums it up:

“If we are going to rebuild the charitable world, are we going to start doing so by funding it the same way that Friends of the Woolly Mammoth (et al) would do it? And if so, how is that congruent with the mandates/mindset of The Pollyanna Principles and Creating the Future?”

When put into that context, it becomes clear why we felt pulled between tactics and values. It also becomes clear what questions we, as a sector full of individuals and organizations, indeed need to be asking and answering.

What would it look like if resource systems were about sustaining thriving communities, rather than figuring out how to meet payroll?

Sustaining thriving communities would require cooperative systems – rooted in our interconnectedness, rather than rooted in competition (if for no other reason – and there are PLENTY of other reasons – than that cooperation lends itself far more easily to being self-sustaining than competition does). Those systems would be rooted in the abundant strengths and assets communities already have, rather than constantly having to infuse those systems with external resources (i.e. cash).

Sustaining thriving communities would require systems that aligned with core values, rather than requiring us to constantly choose between core values and economic survival.

That’s just some of what systems would look like if they were aimed at their highest potential – sustaining thriving communities.

Learning #2: It’s all about Current Systems
Current systems do not look at all like that. There is nothing strength-based / abundance-based / cooperative in any of our current resourcing systems. Rooted in scarcity, weakness and competition, those systems actually go directly counter to values that will lead to sustaining thriving communities.

Interestingly, though – and I’ve written about this extensively in articles at our website – current systems ALSO go directly counter to creating sustainable organizational resources.

No sustainable dollars + no sustainable communities
= Lose / Lose Scenario

The current system looks loosely like this:

1. Organizations need short term funds.
2. We use systems and approaches and tactics aimed at generating short term funds.  While we might call these approaches resource development systems – they are really fundraising systems.
3. Those fundraising systems are rooted in assumptions of scarcity. Even the very word – fundraising – suggests that we do not have what we need (which we assume to be money), so we must raise it. Our strength relies on people outside our programs to make us strong.  And that dependence upon others for our very survival embeds fear into every effort.
4. That said, though, the result of those fundraising systems is that they do indeed raise short term dollars.
5. However, there are also other results. Because current systems depend on support from outside the organization, we must constantly go out and find the dollars that will keep our efforts alive. Fundraising becomes an ongoing job, separate and apart from the actual work we are doing to build strong communities.
6. Because we need what others have, the system requires that we identify everyone associated with our work by the dollars we believe they can give us. We therefore value those with money more than we value those without money. Of course we say we value everyone, but in truth, we treat small donors like money trees – we only communicate with them when we send another ask letter.

   That said, however, we ALSO treat LARGE donors like money trees. We are just more attentive to those trees. We fertilize them and prune them. We pay homage to them, nurture them… until, of course, they stop bearing fruit, at which point we move on, finding new trees upon which to lavish our nurturing attentions in the hopes that they will be more productive.

7. All that said, it is important to repeat that money DOES come in from these ongoing efforts. Enough comes in to allow us to survive until the next fundraising letter or event. But with no long-term investment in our strengths and in each other – and the ongoing requirement that we compete rather than building strength together – the money only lasts so long.
8. And so we find ourselves back at Step 1: We need short term funds.

Learning #3: It’s all about Fear and Human Behavior
In late November of last year, Dimitri and I decided to stop the part-time consulting that was supporting both ourselves and this fledgling organization. If Creating the Future is to accomplish its mission, committing ourselves full time is the only way that will happen.

However, committing full time – and giving up the small amounts of consulting that were at least keeping the doors open – meant there was no longer any income at all. Yes, there was a business plan for generating revenues, and we are currently working 24/7 to implement that plan. But until that kicks in…

And so it was that a week after making the decision to dive into the deep end of the pool with no floaties, we realized, “Year-end is statistically when the very most money is donated to charity. If we did a year-end campaign, we could raise enough money to bridge the next few months.”

The rest of Learning #3 might as well say “See Learning #2.”

When we humans are scared, we don’t have the strength to buck trends and head out on a limb. We might know everything I have written here thus far – heck, I’ve been writing this stuff for years. And in that time, I’ve used that wisdom to help organizations accomplish amazing things.

But there is a big difference between being the dispassionate consultant and being organizational founders who are worried they won’t be able to pay their mortgages the next month.

Fearful about how we would make ends meet in the near term, Pollyanna Principle #6 led every one of our actions: “Individuals go where systems lead them.”

And all the systems – not some, not a majority, but virtually all the systems in this sector lead to “fundraising as it is done.” Case statements and asks and all the stuff that is so institutionalized that it is taught as “Best Practice” in some of the most notable universities in the world.

Even though we knew in our hearts that that was a path rife with scarcity – a path that went counter to everything we were working to achieve for this sector – the bottom line was the same bottom line it is for our clients.

We needed money. And the current systems was the only system around.

Learning #4: It’s all about Changing the Systems
So was our fundraising campaign a failure? Hardly. In addition to all we learned, we raised $7,000 in 10 days with virtually no mailing list and our hearts clearly conflicted.

But wait, that’s not entirely true. Because raising that money was not really in addition to all we learned, but entirely because of all we learned. And that’s because $5,000 of that $7,000 came from a donor who appreciated our courage and willingness to shut down the campaign – and to do so transparently – based entirely upon the core values we wanted to uphold and model to the world.

Which brings us back to the comment Mark Riffey made when we first raised the question of whether or not to raise the money.

What would funding look like if it is NOT the way we’ve always done it? What would resourcing these efforts look like if their focus was sustaining thriving communities?

Learning #5: It’s all about Changing the Norms
As we ask those very different questions and come up with the answers, one thing is clear: Nothing will change until it all changes.

Until a strength-based, cooperative, interconnected, life-affirming approach is the norm for how we build and support community-building efforts, individuals who are living in fear of paying the bills will be pulled into the scarcity-and-fear-based system that currently IS the norm.

Individuals will indeed go where systems lead them.

If Creating the Future is to live up to its mission of guiding this sector to reach its potential, we must change the systems upon which we are sustaining our communities. And we are indeed dedicated to accomplishing just that.

And so, in the words of our friends and colleagues Trae Ashlie-Garen and Troy Alford, we are “beginning as we intend to continue.” Yes, that applies to our efforts to sustain our work, but it also applies so very much to our efforts to engage transparently in all that we do.

We are quite certain we would not have learned nearly this much this quickly, had we not been committed to sharing each step with you. That decision has “kept us honest.” It has kept us more mindful and aware, and working far less in reflexive auto-pilot mode (or as Dimitri calls it, Zombie Mode).

Engaging at every point also reminds us that we are not alone – that this is, indeed, a cooperative effort, built on trust and relationship. We do have significant strengths upon which to build. We have a community. We know this is part of what it will take to reconsider not just funding and resources, but everything.

And so to you, our co-conspirators on this adventure to change how social change is done – we bow in deepest and most humble gratitude. And we cannot wait to see what’s next.

Photo Info: Cups Completely Empty shot by me, at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO during our 2010 Midwest Tour.

Those few words encompass the most insidious assumption at the heart of competitive grant-making and competitive fundraising. The “reality” created by that assumption is the source of all the fear and the overwhelming sense of scarcity that undergird this work, everywhere around the world.

For years at this blog, I have shared evidence that this assumption is just that – an assumption. (Check posts here and here.)  And in The Pollyanna Principles, the case studies not only show the step-by-step of how funders can indeed fund everyone – they show how funding everyone dramatically improves the results of those funded projects, in the short term AND the long term!

A New Case Study
These days, Creating the Future finds itself in the middle of another case study, as we have been honored to be included in the launch of a new funding mechanism that is fully intended to fund everyone.

The effort is called Start Some Good.

Start Some Good is built on the assumption that resources are absolutely abundant. The effort’s founders – Tom Dawkins and Alex Budak – prove that each and every one of us (yes, that includes you) has two resources:

1) A powerful desire for the world to be healthy, peaceful, joyful for all of us.

2) A smidge of money to give (whether that smidge is $1 or $100 – smidge is in the eye of the beholder).

With those two assumptions at its core, Start Some Good is a “Crowdfunding Platform” – a central location where social change initiatives can post their information, and where people who want to “start some good” can find and invest in those initiatives.

Donors are encouraged to give to more than one effort – to spread their gifts around. Even if you only have $5, you might give it all to one effort, or you could give $1 apiece to five efforts. Those dollars add up (hence the term “Crowdfunding”) and voila – everyone can win.

Tapping into the assumptions of abundant resources and abundant passion, Tom and Alex began this initiative with their own blood, sweat and tears, just the way so many of us started our own efforts. And we have been honored that they included one of our projects in their launch.

Next week I’ll share a bit about the project we started there. For now, though, as a way of showing our immense gratitude to Tom and Alex for offering this site to the world, we are hoping you will pitch in to make Start Some Good be the best it can be – just as you have done with so many of the projects we have done here at Creating the Future.

Please take a moment and do the following:

1) Use this link to head to Start Some Good

2) Look around the site, to see the projects people have posted, and to get a sense of the site.

3) Please give a small amount to everything that is appealing to you, even if all you can afford is $1 or $2. And see how those small amounts are honored at the site, underscoring the spirit of abundance that says, “We all have gifts to share, and those gifts are all honored.”

4) Please then answer the following questions:
• What do you find interesting / exciting about Start Some Good?
• What has been your experience with similar programs?
• If you have a project you’d like to post at Start Some Good, what questions would you want answered before you would consider doing so?
• As a donor, what would you want to know before you would consider giving at this site?
• On the mechanical side, the site is still in the Beta version. As you move about the site and as you donate, are there things that could make the site more usable?

And lastly, if you have a project you would like Tom and Alex to consider, please submit it at the site. We very much want them to succeed, to prove that there are so many ways to build cooperation rather than competition.

We wish them both tremendous luck. Please help them by helping others to Start Some Good!

But we have stopped the fireworks, the tweeting, the videos, the letters.

We have declared victory, with just $1,000 in the bank from this campaign. No, that is nowhere close to our financial needs. But as we have said all along, our goal was not just the funds, but what we learned along the way.

And the overwhelming balance of what we have learned is telling us it is time to stop proactively pursuing this campaign.

We have learned much. Most of what we have learned might be called “failure” or “mistakes” to those who don’t call just about everything “experimenting and learning.”

It is still all very fresh for us, and I am sure we will have much else to share as we take more time to reflect, but here are the top things we have learned, that we hope are helpful for your work, too.

1) We were not ready to do a full-blown campaign. And your organization might not be either.
Creating the Future is at the very beginning of building itself as an organization. One of the many pieces we do not yet have in place is fundraising infrastructure, including what is known in fundraising as the “case for support” – the compelling message that will get someone to give.

The reason for that is simple. We believe we first need to build and implement our programs – build the “doing” before we figure out how to talk about the doing. We know from experience that finding how to talk about the work and its results is easy once you’re in the trenches doing it every day.

Some of those programs are already in place, and the results they are getting is overwhelming. Our consultant graduates are creating change faster and more dramatically than even they imagined possible. The conversation across the sector is already seeing a shift – one of our major goals and efforts.  But the bulk of our programs are still in the development stage, and getting that actual work done has been and continues to be our primary focus.

That said, though,  the pressure is strong to get a message and “brand” immediately. The pressure is strong that “you have nothing to lose by giving it your best shot and asking people to support that.”

Our gut told us that was not the case. Our gut told us we needed to wait – that we weren’t ready to brand until we had a far better handle on what it was we were branding. But we succumbed to the popular wisdom (no, we are not immune to that!).

And the truth? We weren’t ready. And if your campaign is flagging, the truth might just be that you aren’t ready either.

2) Listen for what people are NOT saying
When Dimitri and I did the initial sleuthing to build the Diaper Bank long ago, we did what we are doing now with Creating the Future, only on a smaller scale – we asked a lot of really smart people for their ideas.

And while everyone loved the diaper drives we had done as our own philanthropic effort, when we talked about building a permanent organization, people asked, “Can’t the Food Bank do it? The Salvation Army? The Crisis Nursery? Do we really need another organization? Can’t you join forces with someone else?”

Each time, we would argue our case – why the mission of the Diaper Bank didn’t fit with any of those groups, why we needed to be a separate organization. Each time we would win that argument, with the other person nodding in agreement that yes, clearly we were right.

But we weren’t right, at least not entirely.

Eventually we uttered the words that have become a watchword for our work: “If we’ve asked all these smart people for their thoughts, do we really think we are smarter than every last one of them? If so, why ask them?”

The result was the collaborative infrastructure the Diaper Bank has become known for – the infrastructure I describe in detail in The Pollyanna Principles and in every workshop I’ve taught since we devised that model.

The way we found our way to that model was not to argue, and was not to answer the question that was being asked. The way we found the path was to listen to the question that was NOT being asked – to hear what people were NOT saying, but what was at the core of their questions.

In that particular case, the core of their questions was this: “Yes, there are places where you will not duplicate, but there are also places where you will. Can’t you find a way to do this effectively AND efficiently?”

And the answer was not only a resounding yes, but a model that built all sorts of unexpected benefits into the very core of the Diaper Bank’s infrastructure.

This is a long way of saying that we have asked everyone we know for their wisdom and ideas as we headed into this campaign. Many many many people have responded. And while each of those responses was slightly different from the others, we found ourselves in the same place as we were with the Diaper Bank – feeling like every comment was a challenge to what we thought we needed to do.

As we did with the Diaper Bank, we finally sat down and listened hard to what people were NOT saying. And the answer? That we weren’t ready. Sigh…

I share this for two reasons. First, we are smiling that 10 years ago when we built the Diaper Bank, it took us 6 months to get to that point; this time it took us 1 week. Clearly we are learning!

But there is also a learning here that is bigger than just our effort at Creating the Future. And that is to trust the wisdom in the room.

Doing social change work, it is so easy to become wed to doing things a certain way, or pushing through an agenda or a program. The drumbeat of opinion is reaching a crescendo about something we are too ego-driven or too scared to hear. (My favorite story is the foundation board member who, in all seriousness, put forth this question: “Ask the community? What if we ask them and they’re wrong?”)

All of us have seen organizations that exist in a never-ending tailspin, failing to change course even as everyone is screaming from the sidelines that they are about to sail right off the edge of the earth. In the end, it is extremely rare that the whole world is wrong and we are right.

3) The thing about advice
This one is mostly for those who have been to our consultant workshops or immersion courses. And that is that as the recipients of a huge pile of advice this past week, we have learned even more than we knew before about what it feels like to receive advice.

In our classes, we all role play what it looks and feels like when someone is being given advice. Participants watch as the recipient of that advice becomes more and more defensive.

Try this: the next time someone asks for your advice, and you are giving it to them, see what their response is. It is very very VERY likely it will be some form of defensiveness – the million reasons they can’t do what you suggested.

And so here is our latest observation about giving advice, especially for consultants, but really for anyone: People who ask for advice deep down really want one of 2 things.

1) They want you to help them find the answer inside themselves, the answer they already have, deep down in their own brilliance, or

2) They want you to just do whatever it is for them.

What they DON’T want, or at least are probably not ready for, is the true definition of advice – someone else’s opinion or ideas about what they should do. None of us like receiving that, and this past week has reinforced for me (as a teacher of consultants) the strength of taking approaches that help clients find their own brilliance rather than sharing ours.

4) People need something concrete to respond to. And that may mean diving into the deep end with no floaties…
When we asked for feedback about whether or not we should do a year-end appeal, some folks said, “Yes, absolutely – go for it!” And while none of the feedback adamantly said, “No, don’t do it,” some folks were reticent.

The more we dove into the nuts and bolts of the campaign, though, the more those reticent responders found their voice. Their own thinking found form as they saw in concrete terms what had only before been a theoretical question.

And sometimes that’s just how it is. That is why those who gave their opinions and advice didn’t all have the same answer, even though they were all concerned about the same thing. They sensed something, but didn’t have something concrete to consider.

Once we had sent a mailing or two, and created the video, they began to have something to think about.

Which means sometimes you just have to go for it. It means making mistakes – and yes, the F word – failing. And then it means finding so much learning in “failing” that it’s not failure at all, but, as Edison said, finding what doesn’t work so we can figure out what does.

5) This kind of fundraising is not us.
This one may just be the biggest object lesson of all for us.

In our classes on building and sustaining strong programs, we teach an asset-based approach to building resources. When asked if that means tossing out traditional fundraising, our reply is always that it depends on the nature and culture of the organization.

This is an especially difficult issue for capacity building organizations. We haven’t yet found a capacity building organization that doesn’t struggle to find a business model that makes sustainable sense.

Most nonprofit resource centers are grant-dependent, which of course goes directly counter to what they teach in their fundraising classes, but so be it. Many are membership organizations, a model we want to steer clear of, for a variety of values-based reasons having to do with exclusivity vs. inclusivity.

But if there is one thing all capacity building organizations have in common it is that it is hard to make the case for those organizations to individual donors. Most individual donors want to directly help people in need, or directly support the arts, or etc. It is hard to make the case for support of an organization whose mission is to help other organizations do that on-the-ground work.

And as we noted above, that’s no different for us.

Yes, Creating the Future is a different kind of capacity building organization. Yes, our mission is to change how capacity building is done overall, so that dramatic community change is no longer the exception but the norm of what we all expect.

But still, that’s not an easy case to make to individual donors. Which yes, brings us back to Learning #1, but also reinforces why we had never thought this type of fundraising would be the best way for this organization to support itself.

What will the business model be? We are still in the process of determining that. For now, we are becoming more and more clear about what it will NOT be, though, and this effort has helped us do that.

6) Finally, thank you.

Thank you to all of you who are learning with us, and to all who have donated to our short-lived year-end campaign.(And yes, we are still taking donations if you are so inclined. We still have to find ways to support this organization’s initial work, and your dollars will absolutely help do that!)

Since building the Diaper Bank years ago, we have often said that there is nothing more humbling for a consultant than to step out of that role, and to be instead the one doing the work of running an organization. It is one thing to be the “expert on the outside,” and quite another to be the ones upon whom payroll and paying the rent depends.  Suddenly, even the smartest consultant finds him/herself in the middle of the chaos that is the day-to-day of starting an organization.  Theory becomes reality, and as every ED will tell you, sometimes it is simply not pretty.  This is our 3rd start-up, and while we’ve learned a lot, there are still some lessons that repeat themselves each time.

And so we feel doubly blessed to have a community of people around us who care so passionately that we are all collectively on the brink of making something powerful happen – that they are willing to share their wisdom and experience so freely.

A very happy new year to each and every one of you. We cannot wait to get moving on building amazing programs that will help you make your community the most healthy, vibrant amazing place to live.

Our commitment has been to share our strategy, our targets, our goals and our progress. And while I blogged our goals and budget last week, we are learning that doing a campaign with just a week’s notice leaves little time for blogging our strategy. (It also means that strategy is changing as we go!)

So I promise to blog details in January.

Here, then, are 5 tidbits we have learned so far, both about doing a last minute appeal, and about doing so with the transparency we have been attempting to model.

1) Create a Strategy. Then Focus.
It’s easy to get lost in the million ideas folks have for fundraising. Which are the ideas that will get the results?

Using a decision-making matrix (like this one from our site) made it easier to consider ideas against objective criteria.

For us, a key criteria was whether a strategy could have lasting value beyond just this last-minute appeal. Will the video work as a general introduction piece, beyond this campaign? Will the email note be something we might point to as a summary of where we are headed, perhaps in January or February?  In our minds, if it is between equal ideas, and one could be leveraged beyond this one-week campaign, that is a factor we want to help guide our choice.

Your criteria may be very different. Regardless, using objective criteria will help you make a wise choice.

2) It’s about the donor, not you
Brilliant fundraiser Pam Grow has been advising us on some of the finer points of doing an appeal like this. For every draft I send Pam, she has crossed out only one thing consistently – anything that focuses on us rather than the donor. I thought I was pretty good at that, until Pam made me see how a simple twist of phrase turned things from us to YOU!

Another brilliant fundraiser, Renata Rafferty, has mentioned in the past that there is a difference between saying, “Hildy’s books will be available for sale at the workshop” vs. available for purchase.

And in a recent blog post, John Haydon suggested, “Instead of saying Join our email list, say Don’t miss out. Email lists are boring, but missing out is painful.”

The advice we received from small business marketing consultant Mark Riffey made it clear: picture the individual to whom you are sending the piece. No, not a group – not “donors.” Picture a person. Is it a $50 donor or a $1,000 donor? Is it a schoolteacher who relies on your organization’s work, or a juvenile court officer who knows the impact of your work at the other end? The more you can picture the individual to whom you are writing, the more that person will feel the letter is just for them.

3) Working Transparently Requires Thick Skin
This is something we are learning as we go.  The more transparently you engage conversation about your work, the more people will give you advice. As with all advice, some of it will be right on, while some will be completely wrong for your needs.

Yes,  TidBit#1 applies here – use a matrix to weigh all those options against objective criteria to know which to choose.  But the more important aspect is what to do when you have invited the world to offer their opinion!?  Because you will find that everyone will  indeed have an opinion about what you’re doing or what you have done.

We learned early on that we had a choice – to see each offer as a gift, a blessing – or to see each offer as an attack on our obvious brilliance.  Taking the former approach is certainly not always easy, especially when you are tired and stressed and 100% emotionally attached to the idea they are suggesting is less-than-worthy.

But wouldn’t you rather hear it from your friends than…

4) Walking the Talk
I’ve received a ton of sample emails in response to my request for effective email appeals. Sadly, though, most are from folks sharing why they do NOT like the appeal. Donors feeling unimportant. The cause feeling desperate. A huge range of reasons (which yes, I’ll share next month as I debrief) for why donors are not responding.  I’ll bet all those organizations are scratching their heads, conjecturing about why their appeal is failing (brings us back to #3 and the value of learning stuff before the fact…).

And then it happened – I got my own appeal letter, and found my own reason to feel, “Ugh!”

It was from an organization I very much admire. I was about to click through to give, when this line caught my eye as they spoke of how frugal they are:

Most of us are volunteers, and the people on our staff don’t get paid anywhere near what they deserve.

My heart sank.  This is a group working on sustainability for our planet, including economic equity!

The need to have core values infuse every part of an organization’s work – especially as that work extends into fundraising – became clear once again.  I really love the work this group is doing, but instead of a gift, they got a letter from me, explaining why I just couldn’t conscience giving (they had pretty much said if they had more money, they would hire more staff at those sub-par wages…). I also told them I was sending them a free copy of The Pollyanna Principles, to help them see a path that better integrated their walk with their talk. And I offered to help them through the thinking.  After all, I know their intentions are good, and I do want to help.

This happens so often.  My most egregious example is always the alcohol treatment facility who advertised their annual Academy Awards event by promoting “Beer, Wine & Local Libations” as the first attraction – even before watching the ceremony on the big screen!

And that’s when I realized that a big part of the reason people disliked the samples they sent me was because of that mismatch of values. And it was another reminder to me that thinking “values are just touchy feely – they are not practical” is seriously misguided.

5) Trust Your Gut
Last week, we spent 4 sleepless days creating our video (below), after which we sent a professionally crafted  fundraising email to a select group – donors who had given to our Name Change campaign and attendees of some of our workshops.

It wasn’t until the rush of the holidays were over and we regained some semblance of normal around the office that we began thinking, “This just doesn’t feel like us.”

So we sent a note to our whole newsletter list. It started like this:

We were going to send out a year-end newsletter this week. Instead, we thought we’d do something few people do anymore – treat you like a real person. Not a number, not a subscriber, not a donor.

A person. A friend.

And so this letter is personal, or at least as personal as it can be. No hype, just a note from our hearts.

Interestingly, the response to this mailing was better than the first. We have no idea if that is because the first arrived the week before Christmas, and this week people are more able to relax and read and think.

But regardless, the thing we know for sure is we feel a deeper sense of integrity about this mailing.  As Pam Grow told me in an approving note, “It is quintessentially YOU – very real.”  High praise from the master!

6) One Last Thing
Ok, we said 5 tips, but here is #6. Be kind to yourself.

We have learned most of these tips after the fact – after messing up in some small way (or maybe some large way we just haven’t learned about yet!). If you are moving to do something fast, to capitalize on an opportunity (regardless of what that opportunity may be), know that you can only do what you can do.

The most important part is that we learn from it. And that we share what we learn with others, to prove that working transparently is the only way to raise the bar for ALL of us.

We hope you enjoy the video. And we hope you will help us with a donation.

Note:  The video was intended to be seen on YouTube, where the arrow pointed to links and other info in the text below the video. To see what we included in that info, click through to YouTube.

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/12/28/5-last-minute-fundraising-tips/feed/ 0 http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/12/22/fully-transparent-fundraising-the-plan-and-the-budget/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/12/22/fully-transparent-fundraising-the-plan-and-the-budget/#comments Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:19:20 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=3898 Fundraising – the place where everyone feels they have to hide, work competitively, and whatever they do, NOT to share what they learn (lest they lose their competitive advantage!).

Well I guess we will just see if that is the case!

As we announced last week, we will be doing our year-end fundraising appeal entirely openly – sharing with you our strategy, our budget, our goals, our target audiences – everything!

So let’s start at the beginning of a fundraising plan. Why are we doing this fundraising effort?  What are we raising money FOR and what are we hoping that will accomplish?  And of course, how much do we need?

This post will cover all that. If we are going to share everything, including our plans and our thinking – and if we are going to invite your thinking to add to ours – it seems the only logical place to start.

The Plan
We spent a good deal of last summer re-looking at the Global Impact Plan for Creating the Future. We summarized that plan in a video you’ll find at the bottom of this post.

From that planning process, we developed the mission we want to accomplish in the first 5-10 years of this organization’s work.

5-10 Year Mission:
Change  the norm for systems in the Community Benefit Sector (governance, planning, funding, etc.), so those systems all aim at our collective potential to create a healthy, vibrant world.

The video at the end of this post shares both how we arrived at that goal, and the broad stroke of the programs we will be developing to accomplish that mission.

Budgeting
If we are to accomplish sector-wide systems change in 5-10 years, it is clear Dimitri and I can no longer support Creating the Future’s work by doing small consulting gigs.  Having seen start-ups come and go, we know that would be the sure path to Creating the Future always being a tiny off-shoot of our consulting work – which is not going to accomplish anything!  I blogged the details about that here, excitedly sharing our decision to leave consulting behind, to focus 100% on ensuring this organization achieves its full potential.

It is also clear, as the video notes, that we need to ramp up quickly – find a huge infusion of cash to hire staff, develop programs, and build the tech infrastructure to support it all. Social change efforts are escalating so rapidly, and we would love to see those efforts be as effective as possible.

All that said, until we can find that large infusion of start-up funding, we need to continue building the organization – both infrastructure (tax exemption, board, etc.) and programs.

It is that interim funding this budget (and this fundraising effort!) is intended to support.

The budget you see before you is for the next three months. Dimitri and I will be donating much of our time, as well as our company sharing expenses on the office operations. The following therefore describes what Creating the Future needs to keep the doors open and at least pay the mortgages on our respective homes!

Operating Expenses
• Office Expenses $2,000/month  (rent, phones, utilities, web-related – hosting, domains, virus protection, etc.)
• Salaries $6,000/month (includes employer side of taxes – Dimitri and Hildy)

1 month total: $8,000 / month
3 months: $24,000

In addition to our operating expenses, we are also seeking funds for one of the biggest investments we need to make – registering in all 50 US states, so we can actively solicit funds! (One of many Catch-22′s of building an organization…)

The attorney who is donating 100% of her services to obtain our IRS tax exemption has offered to also handle all 50 state solicitation registrations, at what amounts to her out-of-pocket cost for her staff to do this labor intensive work (plus the considerable state filing fees…)

That one-time start-up investment will be approximately $10,000. Everyone warned us it would be expensive and time consuming, and we feel blessed that Ellis is helping us do it right – and that we don’t have to do this incredibly time-consuming work ourselves, leaving us to focus on the real work of building Creating the Future’s programs!

The resulting budget for the next few months looks like this:

Operating – 3 months: $24,000

50 State Solicitation Registration (one-time start-up expense): $10,000

Total to be raised: $34,000

What’s Next
As promised, from here we will be blogging our strategy and our progress. We’ll be sharing our emails and snail mail letters as samples – and we’ll talk about the strategy behind those mailings.  And in the end, we’ll see if such transparency can work.

Thanks for being part of this adventure, everyone! We are hopeful that our doing this campaign with 100% transparency helps others see that it is possible to share openly about the things we normally keep behind closed doors.

As always, your thoughts and ideas are not merely welcome, but desired and encouraged. As is your donation!

Click to play

In a post early last week, I asked whether or not we should do a year-end fundraising appeal.

We received many responses to that post (sadly, most of those responses were off-line – what is it about some questions that leads to the responses coming off the blog?).  Some, like the comments by Alexandra Peters and Mark Riffey here, gave us great stuff to consider as we made the decision. Virtually all the other responses encouraged us to go for it.

And so, figuring we had nothing to lose, we decided to do a combined social media / email / snail mail appeal, and see what happens.

Getting Started
When Dimitri and I founded and ran Tucson’s Diaper Bank, our direct mail campaigns were highly successful, and so we weren’t worried about that aspect of the campaign. And since then, we’ve proven we could raise money through social media, as we did to purchase the domain names for Creating the Future earlier this year.

But email fundraising? The fundraising Dimitri and I did for the Diaper Bank was 10 years ago, before most organizations even had email (forget actually using it for fundraising!).

And so I thought (silly me) that I would find samples of great email appeals, adapt our considerable experience from our Diaper Bank days, and be up and running.

How to Write An Effective Email Appeal
My first step was obviously to ask for samples of effective email appeal letters. I defined effective as “an appeal that met or exceeded the fundraising goal for that appeal.”

I asked on Twitter and Facebook. I asked on Listservs where consultants gather. I asked individuals who had been professional fundraisers for a very long time.

In response, I received zero samples of effective appeal letters. People suggested websites where I could learn how to do an appeal. They forwarded appeals they had thought interesting (but most them not interesting enough for that person to have donated).

After a while, the tone of my tweeting and Facebook notes changed. Here is what I posted this morning:

For 3 days I’ve been seeking samples of successful email appeal letters, with virtually no response. Can it be that email is less effective at raising money than we’ve been led to think?

The response to that post was interesting. Marketing and communications consultant Clover Frederick noted the following:

I don’t have any samples handy but certainly, the trend has been that email appeals are good for small donations of specific amounts (often related to something in particular.) For instance, one of my organizations requested donations of $15 – each would provide a safe taxi ride home on St. Patrick’s day. Somehow, people don’t mind getting out their credit card for that rather than for big end-of-year donations.

And Marcia White, Director of Community Development Philanthropy at Nebraska Community Foundation posted this:

Funnily enough, research shows that hard copy letters are more effective at driving online donations.

Once Again Being the Guinea Pig
It has been our mission this year to transparently share our work with you all. We are doing this for a variety of reasons, the most important in our minds being a matter of walking our own talk, putting The Pollyanna Principles into practice.

If we are all truly interconnected and interdependent, and if being the change we want to see really does mean walking the talk of our values (two of the Pollyanna Principles) – and if keeping those principles front of mind as we do our work increases the likelihood of that work effecting change - then engaging with authenticity and transparency about our work seems the only logical course to take.

There are two additional reasons we have chosen to do our work by engaging transparently.

1. We want to prove it is not only possible to work in this way, but that it is more effective (and more fun!).
2. By engaging discussion about our work in this way, we all get to learn together.

So that’s our plan – to share every step of this campaign, to share openly what works and what doesn’t.

In the next few days I will share our dollar goal. I’ll share our approach – who we are targeting in the mailings, our reasoning, and the content of those emails. We’ll be asking for your ideas about those emails (unless, due to our tight timing, they will have already gone out, and then we’ll ask you to armchair quarterback what you would have done…).

Then together, we can all see what works and what doesn’t. We can cheer or groan together, and most importantly, we can learn together.

So if you have samples of successful email fundraising letters to share – emails that have met or exceeded your dollar goals – please share those with me. (My email is Hildy_at_CreatingTheFuture.org – please make the subject line “Sample Email Appeal” so I don’t confuse it with all the spam I get at this time of year.)

And please, make a donation right here now. Let’s start this campaign off with a bang!

I can’t wait to see how it all goes, and what we all learn – together!

And so, given that it’s the end of the year, it seems only logical to do a year-end appeal. Which means asking for your wisdom on a) whether it’s a good idea to do that appeal, and b) what to emphasize if we do.

Transparency and Engagement
Asking these questions goes far deeper than just learning from the immense wisdom among our readers.  It is about engaging discussion about the thing we all seem to fear most: money.

Given our vow to transparently engage the world in Creating the Future’s decisions, it feels like there is no more important place to prove that is possible than with our fundraising efforts. Fundraising is where most organizations feel they must close ranks, keeping stuff under wraps, being as competitive as possible.

As we develop our programs and consider fundraising to support those programs, we find ourselves repeatedly asking, “What if that is simply not true? What if openly engaging in fundraising decisions actually builds a stronger organization – not just raising more money, but providing critical information we might not otherwise have (or might only find out the hard way…)?”

And so this post will be a first step in that endeavor. As we focus on fundraising throughout 2011, we will be back to ask deeper questions about both our plans for finding start-up funding and our plan for ongoing operating funds.

Helping Us Figure Out Just This Campaign
For now, we have 2 questions we hope you will help us figure out.

1. This seems obvious to us, but that makes us wonder if there is something we’re missing: Is there any reason NOT to do a Year-End appeal?
2. Stemming from that first question, If we do the appeal, what should we emphasize in that appeal?

We know what we feel was valuable this year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is what others feel was valuable. And what better group to ask than those who participated in the work we did this year!?

We have already asked the brilliant minds who have graduated from our immersion courses. Here is just some of what they told us:

• The Immersion Course was so life changing, several people took it twice – and found even more value the 2nd time!
• Supportive community of peers, coaching each other and thinking things through together.
• #NPCons chat – a surprise to one individual who marveled at the impact of that chat!
• Watching Clients Create Change – and FAST!
• Dimitri and my modeling what is possible – at the blog, among our graduate community, and just by doing the work of Creating the Future!

Now it’s your turn.

• As you look over the list of what we accomplished for the sector this year, what parts of that work made the biggest difference for you? And what was that difference?

• What parts of the work we are doing is the most exciting to you?  What parts do you think we should celebrate?

• What should we emphasize as we head out to raise funds?

And is there any reason at all not to do a year-end appeal? What do you think?

Photo Info: Choose Your Mood (Chinese masks at Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City)

An organization Dimitri and I love is about to die.

Everyone says it is a casualty of the economy. We know that is not true.

Even when times were good, the ABC Group was struggling. And so five years ago, when we were teaching an earlier version of our “Building Engaged Support for Your Mission” workshop – the one we did in Phoenix just last week – the ABC Group sent three people – a board member, the ED, and their Development Director – to see if perhaps this was an approach that could sustain them.

The premise of that workshop hasn’t changed in all the years since the ABC Group attended.

Money is not the most effective aspect of building strength. The most effective aspects are those that simultaneously build community strength while building organizational strength.

At the workshop five years ago, the ABC Group’s ED and board member were both enthusiastic about seeing the entire spectrum of “building support” through a different lens. However both were deferring to the development director – a woman with years of experience and a great fundraising reputation.

And sadly the development director found the whole day useless.

Not that she said that. But she sat apart throughout the whole day, sporting a bored “I don’t need this – I already know my job” look. At one point she shared with us that this was all well and good, but that their organization was different.

Several times in the years between that workshop and today, the ED called us in desperation. Each time we offered to assist for free, to help the group move away from traditional fundraising, and to implement what we had taught at the workshop. Each time those offers languished as the group chose to keep doing what they already knew.

Last month I received a mass email from the group. It said they needed $50,000 to keep their doors open just for that month. Their funding was gone. Most of their staff was gone.

This is one of our favorite organizations in the world, with a unique mission we love. And it is about to die.

******

Last year, we were doing a workshop on governance, when a woman from the XYZ Organization approached us. “I never properly thanked you,” she said.

“I was at a workshop you did in Phoenix 5 years ago. We had just opened our doors, and I knew I had a lot to learn.

I came home and followed every single thing you suggested. Today our budget is $2 million and we are growing strong, even in this economy.”

Yes, you guessed it; the woman from XYZ was at the same workshop the ABC Group attended and ignored.

******

Last week, I taught that same workshop in Phoenix. While we have certainly added rich layers to the workshop over the years, our core philosophical premise has not changed.

This time, though, I had the image of those two groups in my mind. And so I asked the group the following question:

What will it take for you to do something different
than the way you’ve always done it?

And will you?

Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki is often quoted as saying, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

The minute we think, “I already know that,” learning and possibility stop.

So how can we find the kind of Beginner’s Mind that led the XYZ Organization to its long-term success? One of the easiest routes to Beginner’s Mind is to leave behind your search for answers, and to begin asking new questions.

For years, organizations have been asking the same question:

“How can we raise the money we need?”

Asking that same question over and over, it is no surprise the answer changes only to the extent that it patches a new trick or tool onto the same old assumptions.

So then what might different questions look like, as we seek Beginner’s Mind in our quest for building engaged support for the work we are doing? Let’s start with these (and then let’s add to this list!):

• What brings strength to any endeavor? Which endeavors endure for dozens and hundreds of years vs. those that fall by the wayside? What is it those successful endeavors have in common?

• How can we ensure our programs will build a strong community?

• Do we see community members as individuals who can gather together to create their own support systems, or do we see them as clients we must help, who cannot otherwise help themselves (and certainly cannot help “us”)?

• What would it look like if our programs were built by and sustained by the community that will benefit from those programs?

• What if there were no such thing as programs? Is there a different way to get the end results we want to see in our communities?

Yes, these are the kinds of questions that shake up everything. That is what Beginner’s Mind is all about! By starting back at the beginning-before-the-beginning, we may just catch a glimpse of a more effective path.

So what questions can YOU think of? What questions shake up your thinking? What questions seek to find what builds strength, period?

As you will see in the video, if we seek what builds strength in one place, we may be surprised the extent to which the very same things build strength into everything we do.

So please, share your questions. Let’s open our minds and create possibility for building support for our work in all new ways. Let’s find our Beginner’s Mind.

To learn more about different ways to think about “traditional fundraising” vs. building engaged strength, this article provides a good comparison.

To those viewing this post in an email reader, the video that follows can be found at this link. Or just click through to the blog and watch it there!

Yesterday’s chat was about finding great clients. At the end of the chat, as folks shared their Key Learnings, I was struck by how applicable those observations would be to any relationship – not just finding great consulting clients.

Here is what folks shared there:

• Great clients start with our own mindset and approach.
• Clients as partners.
• Relationships with clients are relationships. Date the ones with potential!
• If we are authentic in sharing who we are and what we have to offer, great clients will find us
• You can “attract” great clients, but you also still have to go where they are. We will still meet and talk about vision/values.

The discussion considered the fact that “great” clients are really only great because there is a fit between our own strengths, our own passion, our own values and goals as consultants.

So what might happen if we substituted the word “donor” for client in all those observations above?  Does the same hold true?

• Great donors start with the organization’s own mindset and approach (Yes!)
• Donors as partners (Yes!)
• Relationships with donors are relationships. Date the ones with potential (Oh yes!)
• If we are authentic in sharing who we are and what we have to offer, great donors will find us (Yes again)
• You can “attract” great donors, but you also still have to go where they are. We will still meet and talk about vision/values. (Yup.)

Try it with the word employees. Or board members.

I cannot help but smile that when it comes to relationships that matter, the truth is the truth is the truth.  Has this been your experience with donors / clients / employees as well?

]]> http://hildygottlieb.com/2010/04/28/finding-great-clients-or-donors-or/feed/ 0 http://hildygottlieb.com/2009/05/17/what-everyone-should-know-about-membership-campaigns/ http://hildygottlieb.com/2009/05/17/what-everyone-should-know-about-membership-campaigns/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 03:00:04 +0000 Hildy http://hildygottlieb.com/?p=815 Oh no, here it comes. When times are tough for Community Benefit Organizations, a single article like this one (originally from the Wall Street Journal, then quoted at the Chronicle of Philanthropy) can be enough to send boards and EDs scurrying to get ahead of the latest new fundraising fad.

Membership is by no means a new fad. It is one that is used by many high profile organizations – museums, Nonprofit Resource Centers, public broadcast stations. And it can indeed provide a fairly reliable stream of money.

However, before the study quoted in the WSJ gets your board all fired up to institute a membership program, there are words of caution you may want to heed.

Caution#1:
Membership dues are paid annually.

Result: While non-member donors are accustomed to giving throughout the year, members are used to being asked / giving once a year – period.

Caution #2:
Memberships tend to be inexpensive.

Result: Not only do funds from members only come in once a year, their giving levels barely graze the bottom wrung of a typical annual appeal.

Caution#3:
Almost by definition, membership is transactional.

Members provide financial support in exchange for a tangible set of benefits – free admission, a monthly arts calendar, discounts on classes, a Pavarotti DVD set.

Result: While members certainly feel supportive of the cause, members can also be heard saying, “I’m considering not renewing my membership this year. I rarely use it…” Their thoughts about their membership are not first and foremost as a donor who is supporting a cause, but as the user of a product or service. The transactional nature of the relationship is further reinforced by ongoing payment-due renewal notices, that are worded to focus on what members will no longer receive if they allow that membership to lapse.

Caution #4:
“Transactions” require more work for the organization than straight donations.

Result: In addition to standard fundraising costs, membership entails expenses for all the “stuff” the member receives.

Caution #5:
Net proceeds are all that count.

Result: Once you factor in the cost beyond the actual member perks – the staff time to secure and manage those items, as well as the ongoing “renewal” notices – might more money be raised if the staff were doing something other than ordering mugs or creating “member events?”

As we summarize the revenue side of the membership equation, we see the following:

Membership is once-a-year, low-dollar revenue from purchasers who, while supportive of the cause, expect to receive “stuff” in exchange for their donation. Membership is transactional rather than engaging, and those transactions require more staff time than other donation programs.

In addition to these financial cautions, there is one additional caution that relates not to revenues, but to the very mission of the organization.

Caution #6:
Membership is defined by exclusivity. Either one is a member or not.

Result: Effecting community change requires a culture of INclusivity. It requires as many hands on deck as possible. It requires that an organization provide service to anyone who needs it, regardless of (and often specifically in contrast to) their ability to pay for that service.

How does it impact a museum’s mission to “provide education and foster appreciation in the community” if they provide discounts only to those who can afford membership? Does the mission de facto become “to provide education and foster appreciation only among those who can afford it?”

The same question holds true for a Nonprofit Resource Center whose for-pay workshops are open to anyone, while free workshops are offered only as a perk for its members. Does that Nonprofit Resource Center’s mission de facto become “to serve our members,” rather than “to serve the community?”

The Answer
When we ask, “What are the pros and cons of a membership campaign?” we are considering one approach in a vacuum. And while the pros of that one approach may outweigh the cons, that still doesn’t make it the best choice among a whole realm of options.

So what’s the answer? The answer requires that we consider the range of options for raising money to support your cause, and choose your fundraising strategy by weighing each of those tactics not only against objective criteria, but against each other.

• How much might each approach raise?
• How much work will it take?
• Will those donors become real friends?
• Etc.

Add up and compare your answers and see which comes out on top.

Is it membership? I didn’t think so.

Are you making your decisions in a vacuum? This easy-to-use tool will help you make more effective decisions!