So, what did you expect?

I'm probably one of the few people in the U.S. who doesn't watch The Saprano's. Whatever. Get over it and move on!

But I did find it interesting that news of the finale (before and after) was all over the front pages of most newspapers and news web sites! America....get a life! Hello! It's a TV show!

Okay, so you were one of the die-hard fans of the show. I respect that. Question for you... were you disappointed in the last show... the much talked about finale? It seems that almost everyone who watches the show was disappointed. Your expectations were high, weren't they? You expected Tony to get whacked, right?

I remember working closely with my CEO and our Development Director in cultivating one of my clients (read: donor-investor) for a large gift.... at least, that's what we expected. We seriously expected this client to present us with a sizeable....the largest-gift-in-our-history kind of gift. When she presented us with a gift much less than we expected, we were disappointed, to say the least.

I wonder if the gift she presented was so much lower because her expectations of us were so much higher.... and we didn't deliver (read: we disappointed her)!

So, Tony didn't get whacked. We didn't get the gift we thought we were getting. Life is full of unrealized expectations and resulting disappointment.

I ask you... when you are planning your events, projects, meetings, and "asks" for money, are you thinking about your client's expectations? Or are you just planning with the hope of being successful? I think most of us (our organization included) plan with an expected outcome for us, but we're not thinking about what the client is expecting.

Maybe you should use these questions in your planning... we're starting to:

Ask yourself….
What client expectations are we setting for our projects? (events; trainings; fund raising letters, etc.)

Are we thinking about what expectations we’re setting with the clients in mind, or do they just happen by accident?

How much more intentional do we need to be in thinking about client expectations?

What if we think about client expectations intentionally; and what if we set them intentionally just a bit lower than what we expect to deliver?

Better yet, what if we think about client expectations in line with what we expect to deliver, then worked our butts off to exceed them…with a plan of how to accomplish that by asking the question, “Now that we’ve got everything in place for this event/project, how can we exceed our clients' expectations?”

Do you think you should have this short list of questions at every planning meeting for every project?

Write your own music!

One of my favorite marketing authors and guru is Seth Godin. On his blog recently, he sticks his big fat marketing nose right into our business! Essentially, he questions why so many organizations (maybe yours, too) don’t think to push their products past the limit? You can read it here.

I believe this especially applies to non-profits.

One area of non-profits that really, really needs to change is the way they approach fundraising. Here’s proof from Seth’s perspective; “If all you've got is another variation of the same fundraising tool that's worked so well for you, it's hard to get a meeting with me (again).”

When it comes to raising money, it seems to me that most charities do the same thing, the same way, at the same time, using the same methods… they just plain don’t think like a donor, and don’t think like a marketer or sales professional… or better yet, a composer.

A composer takes a blank sheet of paper and writes down the music he hears in his head. No preconceptions, just an honest presentation of what makes his heart sing.

In your job as fundraiser, what makes your heart sing? What do you think will make your donors heart sing?

Why is it that I constantly receive “ask” letters that look like they all came from the same fundraising factory? They have some kind of “hook” (at least they think it’s a hook) on the outside; an emotional plea on the inside; and often a photo or drawing on the much-too-long letter telling me why I need to send money.

Now, I’m sure the experts in direct mail will tell me that I keep getting those mailings because they work… and I’m sure they have numbers to prove it. I can’t argue with measured success, I suppose; but I’m a donor of many organizations, and I can tell you that those mailings do not work on me.

However, it’s not just mailings that I think needs help. It’s almost every marketing effort that almost every charity makes that needs to change.

What if?

That’s how we all need to start every day of every week… asking ourselves, “What if?”

What if, instead of mailing your usual spring appeal, back-to-school appeal, and Christmas appeal, you mailed twenty-five laser targeted appeals, based on what the donors want instead of what you want?

What if you did a co-branding effort with three of the best restaurants in town? What if your new partnership with these restaurants were based on give-and-take instead of just taking? And what if, instead of mailing your typical appeal letter asking for money, you mailed hand-written “Thank You” notes, and included free dessert coupons from those restaurants? What if the coupon said that the restaurants will donate $10.00 to your charity for every dessert that’s ordered?

What if you intentionally tried to break the rules of fundraising?

What if you offered a money-back guarantee? If the donor wasn’t happy in how you used her money, she can ask for a refund. Of course, that would require (1) that you actually reported to the donor just how her money was being used; and (2) that you are delivering 100% on your promise to carry out your cause every day of every week.

I wonder how many of your donors would ask for a refund today?

What if?

What if you took the risk of breaking the rules? What if your fundraising efforts lived on the edge instead of the safe, warm, womb of mediocrity?

Seth Godin encourages us to do just that, but he also warns us about the edges, “An edge needs to be sharp and abrupt and distinct in order to generate the light it needs to thrive.”

Will your fundraising efforts thrive… or simply survive?

Pretend you're a new venture start-up!

When I first jumped into the world of non-profit's, I quickly realized that the one I'm part of (and I'm guessing most others) are still working from the framework of a "charity" model. Not that it's a bad thing being a charity. It's just that too often charities are still operating on the premise of the old "tin cup" mentality... looking for handouts. Too many of them are not taking advantage of the myriad benefits from the "corporate world". Then there are others that are implementing the business concepts of the corporate world, but have forgotten that they are still a charity, too.

I think the best thing any charity can do is to pretend they're a new venture start-up! Asking questions like, "What is our ultimate vision for success? How can we bootstrap this venture? Who are the most passionate, creative, intelligent people we can recruit for our team now? How do we start, and what do we do next? How can we best market this cause and organization? How do we make evangelists out of our donors?"

It's this type of thinking that will take you out of the Board Room and into the lab... where the real work gets done! But it's not only early-stage thinking that will help a non-profit be better at the "business of the business". It's getting rid of some of the "that's-the-way-we've-always-done-it" practices and habits, and bringing in new thinking and actions.

Merging the concepts of the non-profit world and the corporate world is not easy, but when done right, it can result in a bridge to greater success.

Someone captured what I think is the right blend of both business models when they coined the phrase "not-always-for-profit". Although any given non-profit may not have revenue streams that are for the purpose of generating a profit, all charities can profit from implementing certain business practices as if they were a for-profit.

That's what this blog will attempt to do.... assist non-profit's in making greater gains by changing the way they think and operate. The gains will hopefully be felt in areas such as donations, public support, brand awareness, marketing, and of course, that dreaded "S" word.... SALES; a word that many people working at non-profits abhor, but truthfully, they cannot deny!

We'll do this by offering thoughts, ideas, tools, and a public forum to argue. This won't just be me on a soap-box. I will invite other experts, such as two of my favorite authors Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin; and I invite YOU to be a dynamic part of this, as well.

So, here we go! Please send me your comments anytime.