The Resource for Donor Relations Professionals www.adrp.net B ildi Building The Plan Th Pl How To Implement A S trong Donor Relations Program Presented by: Scott Fendley, ADRP Member and Principal y, p Improving Operations. Delivering Results.
Welcome • Welcome to the first of a series of webinars scheduled for presentation through ADRP scheduled for presentation through ADRP. • During 2010, this series will cover how to design, implement, measure and assess a strong design, implement, measure and assess a strong donor relations plan for your organization. • Thank you for attending this first session. y g
Today’s S y ession • Our session today will cover the basics on how to put together a comprehensive donor relations put together a comprehensive donor relations plan from “thin air”. • (If not “thin air”, then close to it… (If not thin air , then close to it… ) ) • I’ll try to answer how to go about it, who to invite to the party, and what needs to go into the plan. p y, g p • We’ll focus on the big picture at first, but drill into the details near the end of the Webinar.
S o Y ou Need A Plan? • Are your donors’ stewardship plans trapped in the heads of the gift officers? the heads of the gift officers? • Do your receipts kinda sorta go out the same week that the gifts came in? week that the gifts came in? • Are invitation lists to events on 21 different excel spreadsheets? p • Do reports on endowment performance and letters from endowment recipients go out ‘when they feel like it’?
The Complaint p “You only pay You only pay attention to me when you want money h t from me!”
How To Avoid “ The Complaint” p • Developing a clear, concise, comprehensive donor relations plan with buy in can avoid that donor relations plan with buy-in can avoid that. • The plan needs to cover all aspects of your development program. development program. • However, you can’t plan for ‘every’ contingency and exception. p • Keep that in mind as you move forward.
S o How Do Y ou Do It? • Gather what exists. • Form a committee. Form a committee • Write a plan. • Profit! Er • Profit! Er… Non Profit! Non Profit! • See, it’s easy!
Devil In The Details • How do you get an organization to make a fundamental change in policy to focus on donor fundamental change in policy to focus on donor relations? • It’s a process. (But everything in advancement is It s a process. (But everything in advancement is a process, isn’t it?) • Over the series of webinars, we’ll discuss all , aspects of getting a plan adopted and implemented, but today let’s concentrate on crafting it. f i i
Where To S tart • You must have ‘something’ right? • Use whatever you have as a baseline. Use whatever you have as a baseline • If you really have ‘nothing’ then document your current processes for donor recognition current processes for donor recognition, stewardship, receipting and donor relations. • Many institutions have lots of documents strewn y about their files with bits and pieces of these procedures and policies. Gather them up.
Where To S tart • So, after the looking at the baseline, you need assess your resources assess your resources. • What else is going on? How much time can you devote to this? (3-6 months is normal.) devote to this? (3 6 months is normal.) • Court allies in all areas and all levels of staff. • If management seems frosty to the idea of g y improving stewardship (believe it or not, this can happen), then you need to rally your allies to get it done.
Benchmark The Baseline • If you do have documents, then measure what current practices are versus what the documents current practices are versus what the documents say. • A fit- gap analysis will help in this task. A fit gap analysis will help in this task. • Provide this to your advocate to help in his/ her case in asking for resources and support. g pp • Know where you’re at—that way you know how far you need to go.
A Committee • Turn your allies into a committee. • Yikes, a committee! Yikes a committee! • But this is the best way to examine stewardship and donor relations from top to bottom and donor relations from top to bottom. • Hopefully, this can be sanctioned by management and given total freedom to explore g g p everything from the acknowledgement protocol, stewardship policies, events, and staffing.
What Does The Committee Do? • The committee should come ready to discuss, research and debate an organization-appropriate research and debate an organization appropriate donor relations program. • Use a cross-department team allows for multiple viewpoints and experiences that adds and i i d i h dd d enhances the discussions. • The focus needs to be on what donors want and • The focus needs to be on what donors want, and not just anecdotal information. • Listen, and document.
Committee Roles • The committee should have distinct roles. • One person should be the chair of the One person should be the chair of the committee, another the secretary. • The other members should be members of • The other members should be members of separate groups—or in charge of certain tasks. • Everyone needs to participate in the committee y p p to make it work.
The Committee’s Charge g • The committee should be charged with formulating the “official” donor relations plan. official donor relations plan. • This sets expectations, guidelines, and policies for stewardship and donor relations. • The plan should be vetted with individual departments h l h ld b d i h i di id l d and then approved by the appropriate executive. • This provides everyone a chance for buy-in, feedback, This provides everyone a chance for buy in, feedback, and provides a unified front. • You need to be sure that it’s not just one voice, one opinion, one idea. i i id
What Do Donors Want? • Part of the committee should be leading focus groups listening to feedback from the road and groups, listening to feedback from the road, and actions and behaviors by donors. • Do your donors want trinkets, plaques, walls, honor rolls, access, exclusivity, etc.? • How often should you mail to you donors? Are you thanking too much (too much mail), or too little (see th ki t h (t h il) t littl ( the complaint)? • Even long lasting donor relations programs need Even long lasting donor relations programs need this tune-up and check-in.
The Plan • The crafting overall donor relations plan will be the backbone of the committee’s work the backbone of the committee s work. • It will encompass all aspects of the donor relations and stewardship practices of your non- relations and stewardship practices of your non profit. • It needs to be thorough and specific. g p • The disparate pieces that were formerly all around the organization needs to be put together and unified.
What’s In A Plan? • Gift acknowledgement protocol. • Major donor stewardship activities and plan Major donor stewardship activities and plan development. • Planned giving and lifetime giving donor • Planned giving and lifetime giving donor relations. • Endowment reporting practices. p g p • Project and program-based stewardship. • Events.
Gift Acknowledgement Protocol g • A detailed acknowledgement plan is the backbone of every plan backbone of every plan. • It should list who gets thanked, who does the thanking, and who is in charge of making sure thanking, and who is in charge of making sure the thanking is done. • The goal is to ensure some acknowledgement g g goes out in a timely manner, and all acknowledgements are completed in a reasonable time frame. bl i f
Gift Acknowledgement g • Another part of the plan should decide which giving clubs are appropriate to establish giving clubs are appropriate to establish. • Decide what the criteria for each club is, and also what benefits, if any, they offer. what benefits, if any, they offer. • Keep all of the IRS rules in mind when designing these clubs and groups. g p
Gift Acknowledgement g • A good way to determine what you are doing is to create a flowchart and a matrix to create a flowchart and a matrix. • A flowchart of the process will allow you to examine the process and see if there are any examine the process and see if there are any bottlenecks. • A matrix can help to see if you are out of p y alignment on some donors in the acknowledgement process. (As in, one group of d donors gets 4 pieces of thank you – another gets i f h k h just 1. Is this right?)
Maj or Donor S j tewardship p • This part of the plan is the mechanics behind developing individual stewardship plans developing individual stewardship plans. • Talk about all of the elements of a plan for major donors. donors. • It may be best to come up with a form or template for these plans. p p • Someone on staff needs to be empowered in following up with these plans.
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