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Your Non-Profit Board is key to your success…in these remarkable times and always. I know that you care about engaging them in a way that makes this a win for all!

In my several board fundraising workshops over the past few months – virtually and in-person – it’s clear that HOW to do this isn’t clear.  In my experiences with boards in both the US and Canada, I’m delighted to feel the passion, compassion and sincerity these board members bring. I also feel their relief when they get clarity on just how to be helpful in a way that works FOR THEM and you.  And, I’m really, really proud of the development professionals, Executive Directors and CEO’s who are determined to partner with them in a way that produces great results.

What makes one board fundraising workshop a success and another a waste of time and money?

I know those are pretty strong words. But I believe that how the following questions are answered, along with the skills and beliefs of the consultant you retain to lead this, makes a big difference in how your board, and your fundraising results, will benefit from the experience and the investment.

1. What outcomes do you want from a board engagement?

Successful experiences focus on changing mindsets on the board – how they think about money and wealth. Time-wasters are promoting yet another new tactic for “getting the board to ask for money.”  Yes, the board needs tangible steps, but only AFTER you have spent time on mindset – and often this gets ‘eye-rolling’ and “just tell me what to do.”  But without this piece first, you’re wasting your time and money.

2. Does 100% of the board currently give?

Successful experiences take into account how the board was originally engaged. The conversations that happened around board giving THEN are important. You can’t just make new rules. What did the board “sign up” to do? The goal is baby-steps to secure a gift that is significant and meaningful for them where they are now and bring them along to the mindset of “you reap what you sow”. Time-wasters still use the old, “give it, get it or get off” bullying that never worked and alienates your board members.

3. What is the relationship of the ED/CEO and staff with the Board?

Successful experiences start with a Board productively engaged with leadership and staff where fundraising (and fundraising staff) are part of every Board meeting. What you focus on you grow. When leadership has a lack of comfort with fundraising and insecurities in their relationship with the board this manifests by taking fundraising off the table. FIRST, good counsel will help you deal with the governance piece. If you don’t have this foundation to build on, you’re wasting your time and money. This same lack of trust generally is keeping the development professional out of board meetings and away from direct contact with the board.

4. How do people talk about raising money?

Successful experiences (and consultants) use respectful, inclusive words. Time wasters are still using phrases like, “get them to open their wallets,” and “don’t leave money on the table” demeaning the spirit of true generosity. Fundraising training that is based on securing support from a true mission fit and engagement relationship process will get the long-term and short-term results you want. I still say our incessant use of the word “solicitation” really hurts the profession. It’s got so many negatives associated with it.

5. Is there staff to back up what the Board is asked to do?

Successful experiences (and consultants) provide clear next steps along with a timeline that works with the current staff structure. This looks SO different in an ED-only shop and at a major hospital or university.  SO different. Better fundraising can happen ANYWHERE with the proper combination of timeline and tasks. Time wasters use the same, tired “fundraising best practices” and nothing changes. 

6. What sort of reporting happens with the Board?

Successful experiences are built upon the board receiving dashboards that make the connections and engagement needed to lead to the best giving outcomes clear. Time Wasters focus all on numbers giving the board no way to see the whole picture and how their help supports it. Focus on the people, not the numbers and you will grow the numbers.

7. How much time is the board willing to commit to a training session?

Successful experiences take time – 3-4 hours. And implementing what you create takes time, too. There is no magic pill. If a board is not engaged enough to come together for one 3-4 hour session, good counsel will help you address that first!

8. Do you have clear fundraising priorities?

Successful experiences bring clear fundraising objectives to the meeting – or a plan to put them into place.  If they don’t have them, good counsel works with you on that FIRST.  The importance of this is summed up here, “A confused donor doesn’t give. A confused fundraiser doesn’t ask and a confused board member or volunteer doesn’t help.”  Marcy Heim

In my board engagement workshops, each session generates an individual action plan for every board member. I begin with leadership and the development team long before the board training and we set next steps together after the session happens that fit into the current workload of the staff.  Of course DURING the session itself, the board is brought into my Cycle of Successful Relationships as an overview. The feedback from the boards and staff is always so positive! There is nothing more exciting than excited board members!

And do you know what?  YOU’LL be more excited too! 

Invest in JOY®

It’s Easter Bunny time! While we all are getting older, it’s a choice to get “old.” Eat some peeps, color an egg and sing, Here comes Peter Cottontail at the top of your lungs! Can’t wait!

And while Easter brings flowers and hatching eggs, in these remarkable times many wonder, “What if I die?” and are creating or updating their wills in droves.  For many of your donor “family” including you in their will is a way to bring dignity, meaning and purpose to a life well lived. It is an opportunity to continue to support you as they have during their lifetime, or to support you as they always wanted to, but were unable to in their lifetime. Here’s a sample page to add to your website to help them with a basic bequest. (HERE)

Because you asked for help with this, I hosted a webinar with Tony Martignetti, an attorney that has been starting and growing planned giving programs for small and medium-sized non-profits since 1997. If you weren’t able to attend, contact me and we’ll get you a recording. (marcy@marcyheim.com)

Here are my 15 biggest takeaways from Debunking Planned Giving Myths:

1. By definition, planned gifts are “planned” as part of your retirement or family estate planning.

2. The ideal planned giving donor loves your mission, is 55 or older, and has given to you at any level for a long time. (doesn’t have to be big gifts)

3. 100% of your Board should be expected to put your mission in their will, even if they take it out when they go off the Board.

4. Only 4% of folks who make a bequest change their minds.

5. Most don’t want to share that you are in their will so don’t push it. For every one person who tells you, 7 or 8 more won’t.

6. Donors need 3 things from you – your legal name, your address and your tax ID. Put together a simple side bar and use it everywhere.

7. Even in the largest planned giving programs in hospitals and universities 75% of planned gifts are simple bequests. Keep it simple! You can have a very respectable program only promoting gifts by will.

8. Everybody needs a will, people understand what they are for, and there is no cost to make that gift during their lifetime.

9. To ask for donors to consider a bequest, you need to have been around at least 5 years so donors believe you have staying power.

10. To begin seeking will gifts you need to have a decent number of donors who are 55+ and give year after year after year – even very small amounts. Golf outing donors, gala attendees, theater night patrons don’t count – they give to get something in return.  

11. The average bequest is $35,000. That’s a pretty nice number.

12. Start promoting will gifts on your website. (click here for a sample page) Provide a paragraph about the value and impact a long-term gift will have on your mission. Feature a bequest donor quote, share will wording, tell them to take the sample wording to their lawyer, and share a contact NAME. I think a real person with a name and picture is so much better than info@plannedgiving – who is that? This is part of a sincere relationship with you. How do you get to know “info” better – why even bother trying?  Be real for them.

13. Embed planned giving into your organization – mention it at events, add sidebars in newsletters, mailings, annual reports, and even a line in your signature block.

14. Create a club – best names include something about your organization – say you were founded in 1848 – The 1848 Society. Refrain from asking a donor for proof of the will gift – just put ‘em in the club!

15. Stay in touch – at least annually do something that just says, Thank you, for all of your bequest donors. Care about them, they have treated you like family.

Things are opening up!  I booked my band today for a July show! Wohoo! If you haven’t seen me sing, go here .

Thinking small, isn’t easy or hard. It’s just a habit. A habit with consequences. 

Same for thinking big. So make it a habit to think BIG! And enjoy some peeps!  Hoppy Easter!

Invest in JOY®

Have you ever screwed up?

Have you ever failed? Of course you have. And it can be terrifying. Will you be forgiven? Will you lose your job? Can this be fixed?

As you head into March and the start of year two of these remarkable times, you need to be growing major giving relationships, hosting events and interacting with colleagues and family still differently.  We tend to cling to “we’ve always done it this way” because it’s safe. It’s the devil you know. What if the new approach doesn’t work? What if you make a mistake? What if something really bombs?  And, it will probably be more work to re-think it to boot!

Let’s create a mindset that shifts you from fearing failure to loving failure. I’m not suggesting you get flip about failure. Rather consider using these four steps adapted from a session I did recently with my coach, Marisa Murgatroyd, that she called Learning to Luv the Flub.

These times are forcing us to experiment!  There will be mess-ups but these mistakes are what get you to the good stuff. New ways of connecting and being that only times like these force us to take a chance on. In my coaching sessions I’m encouraging folks not to cancel – rather to recreate! Experiment!  

As a biochemist by training, I spent HOURS in labs – hours.  We’d set up the experiment and have at it. OFTEN it didn’t turn out like we had predicted so we’d tweak one, maybe two things and go at it again.   When you look at your life and your work like a scientist, you’re no longer taking things personally. Instead you’re experimenting and collecting feedback on what works and what doesn’t… until you discover what REALLY works.

So now click here for this as a worksheet to walk you through the steps to conduct a simple flub experiment.

Step 1 – Identify a flub.

Whatever it was, in your mind you see it as a fail.

• Maybe you didn’t get out thank you letters timely
• Maybe you totally messed up with your kids
• Perhaps you tanked facilitating a zoom event
• Maybe you pushed too hard on a donor and fear you offended her
• Maybe you failed to get 5 donor “visits” set up for the coming week…again

And maybe it’s weighed on your mind, or even kept you from doing other things because you’ve thought “Well, if I can’t do THIS, how can I possibly do THAT!?”

Step 2 – Identify 2-3 things you learned or took away from the Flub you identified above.

Failure is just a part of life and it’s happens to ALL of us. Every single one of us.

By shifting your attention from what’s NOT working to what IS working, from where you messed up to what you can learn, you’ll start to Luv the Flub and Fail Forward.

Did you learn…

• When I get the letters out, I am lifted up! It’s really never too late to say thank you and action now will be welcomed.
• I care so much for my family and most of the time our relationship is great! I need some sort of STOP mechanism before I react.
• This new virtual stuff is here to stay and I am engaging and warm even on the zoom.
• When I let the money-pushers in my organization influence how I work with a donor instead of being authentic and following the donor’s timeline it doesn’t turn out well. I need to be my donor-centric self!
• I have certainly set up appointments in the past that have led to nice major gifts for my organization. I can do this.  

Step 3 – Based on the Flub you chose in Step 1, identify 2-3 things that you’d do differently next time. 

While it’s great to focus on what is good around the mistake, you don’t want to repeat it. So what will you do next time to prevent it?

Before there is a next time I will…

• Create a way to get the info I need to write the letter. 
• Next time I will take a deep breath before I react to my kids. It will delay the harsh words.
• Learn how to make it work by blocking an hour to do zoom tutorials.
• Make a call to say I fear I overstepped and my real goal is to have you happy and delighted with your giving – that with a sincere apology.
• Explore what is happening in my thinking as I approach setting up visits with a mentor, coach or colleague. Am I pre-determining my results?

Are you starting to see how much wisdom there is in failure? Can you see how important it is to identify both your Worked Wells (Step 2) & Do Differentlys (Step 3)?

Because — remember — it’s not about making the mistake, it’s embracing what you can learn from that mistake.

Step 4 – Tell this whole experience to someone else.  This actually gives you victory over it. 

So often we go into hiding when we fail.

We feel embarrassed or ashamed and that causes us to hesitate or withdraw even more, which makes us even more afraid of making mistakes. When you share your mistakes and failures, you realize they’re not as bad as you made them out to be. You talk through how it will be different next time and you give others the chance to help you grow and invest in your success and to feel a kinship with you in the laboratory of life!

But here’s the thing. You can’t just roll your eyes and say, “Yeah, Yeah, Marcy – I know all this – look for the good, reframe the bad.”  All work we do with our minds must be intentional and from a place of being present – not a half-hearted review. If your research is sloppy your results will continue to be failure-prone.  The fears and insecurities will resurface and cause you to miss-step again.

For you, I want joy, excitement and energy as you do your part to grow a better world.  Learning to Luv the Flub is key to embracing ALL the experiences on your journey!

Invest in JOY®

Have you ever said, “Better late than never?”

It’s a phrase that’s been around forever. How you say it determines how it impacts you.  Let’s look at an example. I’m continuing to send out my holiday letters and probably will into February. I could look at it as an obligation – people sent me cards so I better send them back. It’s “better late than never” I say feeling a bit defeated. But there are REASONS (excuses) I am late! Since November 24, I spent 20 days (unheard of for me) with my kids in Austin and Boulder and those trips have thrown off more timelines than my holiday letters to be sure! So each letter could begin with my explanation (hear “not my fault”) for why they are late lest I be judged.

OR I could smile and say, “Better late than never!” and feel the joy of connecting with these folks I care about, believing that they will be happy to hear from me whenever my letter arrives. Bonus, I can actually read their letters first and respond with a handwritten note because, guess what, “It’s better late than never!” (hear “hurrah for me!”)

What do I want you to get from this?

The words you use as you go about anything, and the emotion you attach to the words determines what that experience is for you. And especially now when every day we are reminded of what we can’t do like we used to. What we CAN do is different from place to place across the country, and it changes day to day.

Let me ask you a simple question? Do you want to be more successful and happy in 2021?  Or has a piece of you sort of dropped off – entertaining questions of “what’s the point anyway?”

Since the beginning of time our world has changed. We no longer use horse and buggy.

ESPECIALLY now how you talk about what you are doing impacts your energy and joy in life. I’m harping on this just a bit because I’m hearing stuff like this….

• This pandemic is horrible. It’s not fair..I had all these plans.
• My donor didn’t return my call. I was humiliated.
• When my boss said, “Men do this better.” I was enraged. I could hardly stay at work.
• Our weekly staff meeting is painful, really painful on zoom – what a waste.
• This is just SO FRUSTRATING!
• It’s so much harder to do major gift work now.
• I am zoomed out.

Ok…now partner this with the research that tells us messages without emotion are barely retained. In our work, we purposefully create stories to help our donors FEEL the impact of their giving, take in the drastic needs they are filling and the transformation they are accomplishing.

The point – You need to manage your stories. Yes, the ones you tell to insight energy around giving with your donors AND ALSO the ones you tell yourself and others about your work now day by day.

In my seminars I often use this exercise to reframe how we talk about our experiences. I’d like you to tune into your own conversations and listen for how you talk about what’s happening in your life now. Click here and then write and practice some phrases that build a story for you that supports you every day in having a good day, with opportunities to do go and enjoy your life. The words you attach to your day-to-day experience become your experience. Another day frustrated, fearful, hesitant? Or another day optimistic, bold and taking action!

We don’t know how this will all play out long-term, but just as always in our lives, we can still find the joy in our journey!

Delighted to be on your journey with you…..

Invest in JOY®

Whew! December 2020! You are in that crazy, exhilarating year-end time. Please don’t forget that I appreciate you! And, what you do to give your donors the chance to invest in your mission! We talk about major gifts transforming our organizations…think about it. Really your donors are transformed by giving to you! What noble work!

Ok now, remember, more than 30% of individual gifts are made during December many on the final 3 days of the year!  Last year, $92,898,000,000 was given by individual donors in DECEMBER. Yep – that’s right now and that’s a big number. And YOUR donors are in this December group!

What is the 80/20 Rule and could it actually make 80% of your work this month disappear?

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto was born in Italy in 1848. Legend has it he observed a lot. He thought about wealth and discovered that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by just 20% of the population. He investigated different industries and found that 80% of production typically came from just 20% of the companies. The generalization became 80% of results will come from just 20% of the action.

For you this means that 80% of your year-end gifts will come from 20% of your donors. So here’s the deal – spend most of your time this month asking, “Who are the donors who have the most ability to give and have the deepest beliefs in what we do?” Then ask them, “May I help you accomplish giving plans you may have for us prior to the end of this year?”

Simple to get this conversation started.

It means you have to give up doing 80% of what isn’t giving you results, and, if you’re like me, you love doing some of those things too! But, truly, about 20% of my shoes end up on my feet most (is it 80%?) of the time. Click here for a worksheet of 80/20 examples and start making some 80-20 changes!  

What if, by simply changing one belief your whole world could change? Instead of trying to do the impossible, an 80/20 approach is to truly understand which donors are most important to see right now. And I kinda suspect you already know who they are.

Wishing you a bright, beautiful and 20% focused December!

Invest in JOY!