Why can’t you do it all yourself?

“Many hands make light work.” Remember that saying?

(Credited to John Heywood – I thought it was my mother.)

When did it change to, “You can connect from almost anywhere now so you can do it ALL yourself.”

WRONG!

As Major Gift Officers, Executive Directors, Directors of Development, VP’s of Development and others in management and service in this honorable and noble profession of advancement, we do a great deal of the ‘heavy lifting’ in our organizations and institutions. We are continuously juggling meeting our metrics with being “donor focused” and, at the same time following scores of rules about how it is all to be implemented. (Classify each contact with one of 10 ‘moves’ steps… deduct your glass of wine from the receipt prior to submitting expenses… and on and on)

So hear me loud and clear. YOU CAN’T DO IT ALL YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU WILL LOSE ….YOUR JOY.

And when you lose your joy, your passion for your mission dims.

And when your passion for your mission dims, well, it’s all just harder… and a lot less fun and you won’t have the same success.

Let me share a story about my most significant and successful years raising major gifts. Her name was Jenny Dascoli. Nope, she was not a tremendous major donor who provided zillions for the UW. Jenny was my administrative assistant. And not only mine, but I shared her with Jodi, my partner in raising major gifts for the College. Jenny transformed my world… and me. My office went from clutter to structure, my deadlines from missed to early, my reputation from ‘always late’ to ‘generally early’ and my dollars-raised soared. Same was true for Jodi. And we laughed… a lot. And our donors could feel our joy.

I didn’t have to come in early or stay late to double-check that everything I needed for my donor calls or trip was in the folder. I didn’t have to worry that the handouts were copied out of order or missing pages. I knew that if the invite for the ‘big event’ was to go to the printer while I was away – it would, without typos. I could hand over a dictation tape or handwritten notes and she gladly entered the contacts into the system, created my letters or email follow-ups and made sure my next actions were noted…with time to prep for them. Life was really, really good and I raised lots of money.

So I am puzzled when these days development officers are often expected to enter all their own contacts, generate the letters and get the next steps set. Many consider it the necessary evil of the job. Some managers have fairly severe consequences for not getting data in within 24 hours.

I don’t see this as a technology literacy issue… but rather a time, productivity and joy issue. After a long day making calls… we come back to the hotel to do the data entry? Really? That’s when we should be walking, or heaven forbid – resting. Or… after a donor visit we should be creatively thinking about the next step and getting moving on them.

Now I am a firm believer in metrics – as a tool to be certain we are serving enough prospective givers effectively by creating and implementing relationship action plans. And… I still say, “If it isn’t recorded, it didn’t happen.” However, as I coach all types of organizations/institutions to help them enhance major giving performance and reduce staff turnover, they believe adding a development officer is what they need. Instead, I often recommend administrative help over a development position, or another development position. And I am seeing a trend in high-achieving shops of all sizes where today’s version of the good old-fashioned secretary can do more for the success and satisfaction of your development professionals than anything else. An outstanding administrative assistant is one that can….

• establish systems
• create habits
• anticipate needs
• see patterns
• live for managing details
• drive timelines
• input with accuracy and flair
• make decisions
• stay off personal Facebook, personal banking, personal email…
• resist drama and gossip
• cover your back
• let you rant once in awhile without running to HR
• and ‘gets’ that, while we love our donor conversations, it is hard work.

Each team member, CEO on down, needs to consider what they are brilliant at, competent at, and what they struggle with. Old School leadership would say, ‘work on strengthening your weaknesses.’

Today’s successful leaders know they must make the most of their teams’ unique gifts and provide ways to off-load the rest.

– even those things they might be competent at, but distracts them from the relationship-building work that dictates major gift success. How do you want your development staff spending their time? In meaningful contacts with donors. How do you want your ED spending whatever piece of their time they can dedicate to fundraising? In meaningful contacts with donors. While we all will have pieces of our work that is less exciting for us then other pieces, we choose how we spend each 24 hours and, as much as possible, we must spend our time where we are brilliant. For successful major gift officers this is having “meaningful contacts” with prospective major givers…not sitting at a computer or typing into some device…and usually doing this after hours, compromising our personal relationships.

Let me share a few true stories.

• Joe tells of the 2 folks he hired to help him with the infrastructure of his small shop. They do 90% of the behind the scenes work. Joe is out constantly and turns over hand-write notes after each call on a form designed just for him. He’s incredibly successful. He calls his assistants his ‘peace’.
• When Susan hired a part-time administrative person and off-loaded the tasks that slowed her down the most, she found she had the time to better plan her trips. She saw better prospects, connected with more prospective givers on each trip and was better prepared for the conversations rather than “winging it.” Within 6 months the change was reflected in gifts coming in… more than compensating for the additional staff member.
• When Jim has update meetings with his major gift officers since an additional office team member was hired only 3 months ago, he noticed that there was time to talk about the successes his team had… then get into any struggles they were having in their relationship-building where they might need his help. Prior to this it seemed they were so reactive that the talks tended to begin with, “What problems do I need to know about?” His team is happier.
• Alex, a VP, saw stewardship activities soar when they added an administrative position to the mix. She did much of the call entry, created correspondence from notes they outlined, and followed through on the ideas they had to “Invoke the grateful recipient” as I call this phase. Instead of many good intentions, these gratitude and impact actions were happening! Do I have to tell you what THAT did to the bottom line?
• When an ED working long days week after week, hired an administrative person and got volunteers to serve as receptionist instead of trying to combine the two positions together, both areas improved and she found she could actually get some donor calls into the mix – and she enjoyed them! It’s just a start, but major gift work before this was zero.

Agree with me on this, but can’t get someone to help now? Here are some tips for making it better.

1. If you’re shop insists you enter your own contacts and this isn’t your bag, consider getting a voice recognition product (even if you pay for it yourself!) and talking them into the system. It you are a writer… can you find a part-time volunteer (who signs a confidentiality agreement) to come in and enter for $10/hour. Or, find a device you can write on that puts them in. Again, even if you have to buy it yourself. Invest in your JOY.
2. Set aside time as part of making appointments to go to a private place and make your report. Don’t let them pile up to the end of the day and try to do the follow up when you are exhausted. If you are a supervisor, allow team members to block out time for follow up like a firm meeting with themselves. And, fundraisers….honor that time and don’t get distracted with email and Facebook.
3. When you have lots of information to enter, make the first two to three sentences a summary and include the next action. Then use the subsequent paragraphs to expand on the details. It will save you time down the road preparing for the next visit.
4. If you really don’t like doing this piece…Set a timer. Tell yourself you’ll do this for 30 minutes only…then switch to something else. Make it a game to see how many you can enter before the buzzer goes off!
5. Express to supervisors the timeline something will take including the time you spend doing the administrative stuff. Then price out your cost/hour and what it would cost for a data -entry person per hour. Should your organization be paying you for this level work instead of someone who would be at a lower salary level? Do some cost analysis.

Why can’t you do it all yourself?

Because our honorable and noble profession needs you to be passionate and inspired about your mission… and this means you need to be focused on what you are brilliant at – creating major gift relationships. 

And creating these relationships cannot come at the cost of your personal relationships because you’re working 24/7 to keep up.

Invest in whatever it takes to support you.

Invest in Joy!